Exploring Mars

In the midst of all the various messes on Earth, it's nice to have some good news to talk about, even if it took place over a hundred million kilometers away. I'm referring, of course, to the successful landing of the Mars Science Laboratory's Curiosity rover on Mars. This is not the first rover to land on Mars: there was the relatively tiny Sojourner rover, which landed in 1997 as part of the Pathfinder mission, and then the twin Spirit and Opportunity rovers, which landed separately in January 2004. These missions were all very successful, with Spirit and Opportunity in particular far surpassing expectations. Though their primary mission was only scheduled to last 90 sols (a Martian day, which is 24 hour and 39.5 minutes long), Spirit remained in operation for 6 Earth years, and Opportunity is still functioning today, making it the longest-lasting Mars surface mission. There are several orbiters in operation around Mars, including Mars Odyssey, which has been circling Mars since late 2001, making it the longest serving spacecraft ever at Mars. But Curiosity is far larger than any previous rover, it can move much faster (Opportunity has traveled less than 35 km in 8 years; Curiosity is expected to cover more than half that in 2 years), and it has far more capabilities. While it won't be able to definitively answer the question of whether was once (or even still is) life on Mars, it will get us much closer to an answer, and it will lay the groundwork for future human expeditions to Mars.

One of the MSL mission's most impressive feats, however, is the one it has already accomplished, namely landing on Mars using several different stages and a complex series of maneuvers. While most engineers agreed the principles behind the landing process were sound and were the best possible method for landing a rover as heavy as this one, due to the complexity of the process there was a lot that could have gone wrong (after all, quite a few previous Mars missions have failed at the landing stage, and none of them were doing anything so complicated). But everything seems to have gone perfectly, and the most risky part of the mission is now over. After a few weeks of checks, the rover should be ready to go and start doing some science, as well as sending back some cool pictures. For an animated overview of the whole mission, including the very cool (and very sci-fi) landing procedure, check out this video.

The total cost of this mission is about US$2.5 billion. While that may sound like a lot of money, if the mission accomplishes most of its goals, it will be a real bargain. After all, some recent Hollywood films have cost more than 10% of that, and this is a real spacecraft landing on a real planet millions of kilometers from Earth, and doing real science, not to mention spurring advances in technology and engineering that will continue to be useful in the future. Or to look at it another way, the tax breaks that the oil industry enjoys each year (about US$4 billion) are greater than the entire cost of this mission, and the entire annual NASA budget is less than 2% of the US defense budget. Considering all the long-term benefits, both tangible and intangible, that missions like MSL can bring to humanity, we would be better off spending more on them and less on advanced weapon systems we don't need, or on facilitating the extraction of more climate change causing non-renewable energy resources. If nothing else, missions like Curiosity will inspire many young people to study science and engineering, something we can certainly use a lot more than stealth bombers or carbon emissions.