“Touchdown confirmed,” said engineer Allen Chen. “We’re safe on Mars.”
“The wheels of Curiosity have begun to blaze the trail for human footprints on Mars,” said NASA chief Charles Bolden.
The Rover might very well unearth secrets that man has wanted to know for centuries. Here is our chance to discover that we are not alone.
Talk about unbridaled enthusiasm! Go Team Curiosity.
From The Sun Chronicle:
Over the next several days, Curiosity is expected to send back the first color pictures. After several weeks of health checkups, the six-wheel rover could take its first short drive and flex its robotic arm.
The landing site near Mars’ equator was picked because there are signs of past water everywhere, meeting one of the requirements for life as we know it. Inside Gale Crater is a 3-mile-high mountain, and images from space show the base appears rich in minerals that formed in the presence of water.
Previous trips to Mars have uncovered ice near the Martian north pole and evidence that water once flowed when the planet was wetter and toastier unlike today’s harsh, frigid desert environment.
Curiosity’s goal: to scour for basic ingredients essential for life including carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, sulfur and oxygen. It’s not equipped to search for living or fossil microorganisms. To get a definitive answer, a future mission needs to fly Martian rocks and soil back to Earth to be examined by powerful laboratories.
Curiosity, may the force be with you!
Personally, I’m ambiguous about wanting to find out if we’re alone. Opens up too many complications. But, if we are…..that’s just sad.
GO TEAM Curiosity!
mathematically the probability of us not being alone is very strong. Its difficult to ponder though with all the images of little green men running around.
Google images “People of Walmart”
I think that the aliens are already here. 🙂
No evidence of life on Mars doesn’t mean it doesn’t or didn’t exist on one of the other trillions and trillions (sounds like our national debt doesn’t it) planets that exist in the universe, but if they do find evidence, then that proves it does exist else ware. That is the point to all this.
I guess you have to start somewhere.
I, for one, welcome our new Martian overlords.
Soon, there will be reality TV shows….the Martian Kardashians. The rover will televise it and NASA will charge high rates. THAT’s how we’ll fund NASA.