Wednesday, January 7, 2004
Science is advanced, spirit renewed
Editorial
On the Mars of our cinematic imagination, little green men with antennas and hostile intentions often inhabited the planet.
We
know reality is much different, of course. There are no green men on
Mars. But with Saturday night's landing of the robot Spirit, we are at
last on the verge of finding out what the Red Planet is really like -
whether it once sustained life, whether humans might inhabit it in the
future and clues to the universe's history. Spirit is now beaming back
never-before-seen images of the barren, dusty landscape of Mars. Soon
it will begin searching for signs of previous life there, as will its
twin, Opportunity, set to land Jan. 28.
Less
than a year after the Columbia space shuttle tragedy, NASA and American
space exploration have achieved a huge success. Ohioans share in that
success. The Enquirer today reports that a Mason technology
company, Ohio State University researchers and others all participated
in the Spirit mission.
Spirit, launched seven months ago, traveled nearly 50 million miles and
landed within six miles of the center of a massive crater that
researchers consider a scientific "sweet spot."
Spirit's precision landing is all the more incredible because several
previous Mars ventures have failed, including the apparent loss last
month of Britain's Beagle 2.
Space exploration is inherently risky. It has cost hundreds of millions
of dollars and is littered with catastrophic endings and lost lives.
But at the root of it is mankind's unending quest for more knowledge,
the inspiration for all progress since the beginning of time.
With
Spirit's success, NASA has reinforced the worthiness of past risks and
failures, science is advanced, and the American spirit renewed.
