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Successful Landing of Mars Science Laboratory
13 years ago
Okay, so for those who, somehow, don't know, back in November, NASA launched the Mars Science Laboratory called 'Curiosity'. This is the single largest rover every to be deployed on the martian surface, and is the first to utilize a skycrane landing system. That, was ten months ago, and this morning, at 12:30, Curiosity successfully landed in Gale Crater on Mars. I was watching as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory ran their Entry-Deceleration-Landing (EDL) final checks, all the way up to when the first images were transmitted from Curiosity's bow and aft cameras. Now, I'm going to take this moment to celebrate and break my semi-professional presence.
...YES! YES YES YES!!!!!!!!!
...eh-hem...anyway. The landing of Curiosity signals more than just being able to determine if life every existed on Mars (something I personally believe it very well did in the ancient past). With the success of the entire landing system, the door has been opened to possibly land larger object on either Mars or the moon. Through this method, objects like habitation modules or atmospheric generators could be landed, bringing humans one step closer to extraterrestrial colonization.
Long thought to be simply science fiction, being a good plot idea to video games, movies, and books, colonizing other planets is a very plausible happening. Science fiction has always been one of the greatest motivations to creation. Cell phones first began as fictitious communication devices. Landing people on the moon. Human travel into space. All of this was once thought to be impossible. Who's to say humans can't colonize Mars? It'll be hard, there's no doubt about that, but within the next decade, we could have the next Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin taking the first steps onto the red planet.
...YES! YES YES YES!!!!!!!!!
...eh-hem...anyway. The landing of Curiosity signals more than just being able to determine if life every existed on Mars (something I personally believe it very well did in the ancient past). With the success of the entire landing system, the door has been opened to possibly land larger object on either Mars or the moon. Through this method, objects like habitation modules or atmospheric generators could be landed, bringing humans one step closer to extraterrestrial colonization.
Long thought to be simply science fiction, being a good plot idea to video games, movies, and books, colonizing other planets is a very plausible happening. Science fiction has always been one of the greatest motivations to creation. Cell phones first began as fictitious communication devices. Landing people on the moon. Human travel into space. All of this was once thought to be impossible. Who's to say humans can't colonize Mars? It'll be hard, there's no doubt about that, but within the next decade, we could have the next Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin taking the first steps onto the red planet.
