Mars Rover Landing - Science Fiction meets Reality

As I write this, NASAs Curiosity rover is hurtling through space as it has been for the past eight months, but that all changes tonight. With any luck (scratch that with a staggering amount of luck), that Mini Cooper-sized envoy will survive its tricky seven minute atmospheric entry, after which it will roam the Martian surface conducting a slew of science experiments for nearly two years.

Its all arguably important stuff what Curiosity finds could be instrumental to understanding the origins of the planet, not to mention that it could help pave the way for a manned mission but I have to wonder how many people living in this age of distraction actually give a damn.

NASA, to its credit, has been doing what it can to drum up interest in the mission. Theres (curiously enough) a Twitter account for the rover, which can be seen chatting it up with Neil deGrasse Tyson and providing status updates in the first person. Oh, and the organization will be streaming the nights events, offering up a glimpse inside the human drama of mission control.

On some level though, I cant blame those who dont care. NASAs recent history with Mars has been a spotty one after a string of successful fly-bys and probe landings in the early-to-mid 70s, NASA returned to the red planet with the Pathfinder mission in 1997 (I was in third grade at the time, and utterly, utterly enthralled by the whole thing), but such incidents seem to be the exceptions. According to Reuters, 26 out of 40 Mars missions have either gone awry or gone up in (perhaps not always metaphorical) smoke not terribly heartening odds, especially since Curiositys landing is going to be one of the trickiest yet.

Failure, sad to say, is most definitely an option.

Thats to say nothing of the fact that theres just so much stuff going on right now. The Olympics. The mess in Syria. Tropical storms. Even decidedly niche events like the Apple v. Samsung trial weigh heavily on some peoples minds. And, you know, some people are only concerned with whats going to be on television tonight. Theres nothing wrong with that either.

Theres also a slight sexiness problem. Now, putting a man on the moon that was something that really brought people together. If youll forgive me for sentimentalizing a moment I (nor many of you) werent a part of, that day in July 1969 pushed us all forward, if only just a little bit. Perhaps naturally, landing a car-sized robot on the surface of another planet just doesnt seem as weighty or substantial, despite the sheer complexity of whats involved and what it could lead to. We didnt put our footprints on Mars. We havent put lives on the line. Not yet, anyway.

So, yes, there are plenty of reasons why people cant be bothered to care about rover wheeling its way around a planet thats roughly 35 million miles away. But if you find yourself feeling a twinge of curiosity about that relatively tiny machine born of lofty ambitions, heres why you should care about what happens tonight.

First off, humanity is reaching out to plop (fine, another) something of its own creation onto another world. Just think about that for a minute. Louis C.K. has a great bit (that many of you have probably already seen, so indulge me) about how a guy he sat next to on a plane was moaning about flaky in-flight WiFi while he was encased in a streamlined metal tube powering its way through the friggin sky at 600 miles per hour. The point is, theres a tendency for people to get wrapped up in the earth-bound, and its always nice for a change of pace.

Whats more, with Curiosity, NASAs not just reaching toward the heavens its planning to learn as much as it can from them. You have to admit, theres something more than a little wonderful about that. Theres untold value in what we can learn from Curiosity, though the information the rover is able to glean may not be immediately useful. Whats the point in learning about Mars past? To expand upon the corpus of human knowledge! To understand our crazy, hectic, beautiful universe even a fraction of a percent better.

Even so, those findings could have a practical impact on future Mars missions, both those envisioned by NASA and those in the growing commercial space movement. Will this ridiculous landing scheme work? If it does, you can bet someone will try it again some day. Of course, not every company in that field needs the coaxing. SpaceX founder Elon Musk seems to look at Mars much in the same way its a goal to be met because its there, waiting for us to set foot on it.

Thats always been a goal of SpaceX, Musk recently told the L.A. Times. Were hoping to develop the technology to do that in probably 12 to 15 years.

And thats just one facet of his ambitions for mankinds space-faring future. Musk said back in March that one of his companys ambitions was to establish a long-term colony on the red planet. His declaration smacks of hubris all SpaceX can do now is dock with the International Space Station but its exactly that sort of thinking that helps push through the myriad roadblocks that such a project would almost definitely encounter.

In the end, Curiosity could be the harbinger of big, big things to come. On the other hand, it could crash and burn on the Martian surface, signaling the abject loss of $2.5 billion. Either way, tell me thats not something worth caring about.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2012/08/05/the-case-for-curiosity-why-you-should-stay-up-and-watch-the-mars-rover-landing/