Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Mars Rovers

It doesn't seem like five years since the Mars Rovers touched down and started sending back photographs of the Red Planet. Not bad for devices that had an expected service life of a few months. But it's been touch and go for them recently with dust storms blanketing Mars and restricting the amount of sun light reaching the Rovers' solar panels. So touch and go that it seemed there would not be enough energy generated to keep minimum systems functioning. I first heard about this the day before yesterdady when listening to a month-old podcast of Dr Karl on JJJ. He seemed quite moved by the Rovers' plight which had already been a concern for some time. So, this morning when I read that the dust storm was over and the Rovers are okay (even if old and dirty), I breathed a sigh of relief on his (and their) behalf. At the same time, I couldn't help remembering a cartoon I'd seen of the tiny Rovers traversing the Martian landscape taking photos of the distant dust - which turned out to be a group of aliens holding up photographs of desolate landscapes in front of the very small Rovers - thereby preventing them from capturing images of the very lively, teeming metropolis behind them. Or the other enduring image from back then, of a desolate plain with a single feature way off in the distance ... gigantic yellow runes ... also know as the McDonalds golden arches!

No comments: