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Spirit anticlimax
Jan. 4th, 2004 06:13 pmAfter all the anticipation of the latest Mars lander, I was strangely disappointed with its first images home.
In a word, Mars is...boring. Flat, featureless and full of small, uninterestingly shaped rocks.
Upon reflection, I really shouldn't be surprised. Everyone has said Spirit was landing in what appears to be a dry lake bed within Gustev Crater. And if you think about dry lake beds here on Earth they tend to be: flat, featureless, full of small, uninterestingly shaped rocks and, frankly, topographically boring.
I'll make a bet that once Opportunity is down in a few weeks, we'll be hard pressed to tell pictures by one rover from pictures by the other...even though they're half a planet apart.
Hopefully the science will be intriguing at least.
I'll be much more excited when we can land in bumpy terrain.
Speaking of astronomical let-downs, we just buzzed a comet and scooped up some primordial dust. Unfortunately, it won't be delivered to Earth for analysis until 2006.
I do it to myself, I know I do. Science is slow, space is vast and I'm way too impatient for novelty.
...speaking of overblown expectations: I still haven't given up on Beagle2. Can we see another massive let-down in the near future?
In a word, Mars is...boring. Flat, featureless and full of small, uninterestingly shaped rocks.
Upon reflection, I really shouldn't be surprised. Everyone has said Spirit was landing in what appears to be a dry lake bed within Gustev Crater. And if you think about dry lake beds here on Earth they tend to be: flat, featureless, full of small, uninterestingly shaped rocks and, frankly, topographically boring.
I'll make a bet that once Opportunity is down in a few weeks, we'll be hard pressed to tell pictures by one rover from pictures by the other...even though they're half a planet apart.
Hopefully the science will be intriguing at least.
I'll be much more excited when we can land in bumpy terrain.
Speaking of astronomical let-downs, we just buzzed a comet and scooped up some primordial dust. Unfortunately, it won't be delivered to Earth for analysis until 2006.
I do it to myself, I know I do. Science is slow, space is vast and I'm way too impatient for novelty.
...speaking of overblown expectations: I still haven't given up on Beagle2. Can we see another massive let-down in the near future?
