The seven minutes of terror
were over. Mission Control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena finally had the news: Curiosity had landed as gently as a
feather on the surface of Mars, every step of the complex landing
process proceeding with unparalleled perfection. Even the weather conditions on the red planet were ideal for the landing. It was a spectacular accomplishment.
This was a huge victory for NASA and JPL, but much of the enthusiasm
got lost in the much greater excitement over the Olympics and negativity
of the multiple mass murders of recent weeks. A few weeks ago, a panorama of Mars
exploded onto the internet, filling the public with awe over the alien
yet strangely familiar landscape. President Obama’s lauding of the great
accomplishment of this mission was not met with the rapt attention of
the American public the way our great space explorations of the past
were. The urge to explore is still out there – in all of us – but why is
it that Curiosity’s landing was so overshadowed by everything else in
the news?
Read more at The Inclusive.
No comments:
Post a Comment