I have been a nerd for a long time. I grew up exposed to science fiction-watched the Apollo moon landing, had a real astronaut visit our 6th grade class (everyone wanted to know how astronauts went to the bathroom in the suit)
So of course it was just part of existance that space travel was part of our present and would certainly be part of our future.
Then there was the jelly doughnut. Actually it started with a link to Martian blucberries. From there I learned about the jelly doughnut-a rock broken and dislodged by one of the rovers, which then rolled downhill and magically appeared in the next image.
The photo in the above link does not show the tread of the rover as clearly as the one I saw the other day, but you can still see the rover track, along what looks like my attempt at paving my back stoop.
Ethically, should we be landing on Mars and tromping and drilling and digging and leaving bits of man made stuff strewn all over?
Do we do it just because we can? Are we looking to colonize Mars when we can't nurture our own beautiful Gaia? Is it greed-to get there first, a strategic position for protection, a stepping stone towards longer space travel? A planet to retreat to if ours suffers catastrophic failure?
I know between Nov and January I was thinking of a large group of people who would be welcome to go there IMO.
If there is advanced life out there, I wonder if they might be concerned about humans and their expansion desires. One look at humankind's resume would surely put us on a watch list, at the very least.
Poor Mars.
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