So both of NASA’s rovers on Mars have found evidence of water. In one case, the evidence seems to point to water "rushing" over the surface at some point in the planet’s past. H.G. Wells must be smiling someplace.
At first this seemed to be another NASA fumble. The first probe to land on Mars abruptly stopped working shortly after leaving its lander, and a critical software failure was to blame. The failures of recent years were called to mind, and you could just see the reporters asking about the rover’s fate smirking through their questions. Most of them didn’t seem to believe that there was much chance of repair, certainly not from such a group of ‘incompetents’. Turns out all of them were wrong, and after what must have been gut-wrenching work from millions of miles away, the software fix was implemented successfully, and since then both of the rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have been working essentially flawlessly.
And now they have found evidence, it seems, of water, something absolutely required for any kind of life WE know of. That’s not to imply that life definitely existed on the red planet, but if it doesn’t get your imagination working overtime a bit, then you don’t have enough imagination. In galactic distances, going to Mars is just about like walking the five feet from the couch to grab your television remote, and yet here we seem to have discovered at least the possibility that this neighbor may have harbored life. Or, on some level, may even still do so. Consider that for a moment, if you will. Suddenly the prospect of a galaxy filled with life, teeming with life, doesn’t seem nearly so farfetched. It’s like looking out over a vast expanse of beach and saying, "Someplace, somewhere out there, lies a buried treasure. We have but to find it," and then just as you’re gearing up to search for months to do just that, you trip over a gold doubloon and realize that the treasure could well be all around you.
All this at a cost of $800 million? What’s that, about four bucks a person in America? Criminy, if all I have to do is spend the cost of a Grand Slam at Denny’s to have THIS sort of news, sign me up for one a week. One a day, even.
