By Prajwal Niraula
Staff Writer ’15
“The Earth is the cradle of humankind, but one cannot live in the cradle forever.” These famous words of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky mustberesoundingintheminds of scientists who have launched Curiosity to planet Mars on November 26. If everything goes as planned, the Mars rover Curiosity would land on the Gale Crater of the Mars on 5th August, 2012 after travelling eight and a half month and 550 million kilometers in space. A new era of space exploration is ushering.
The BYU Mars Rover --Photo From byu.edu
Why Mars? It is the nearest celestial object after the moon, and has been holding our imagination since long. Its red surface pigmentation makes it one of the unique objects in the sky. The coloration has earned the planet its name after Roman’s God of War. The eventual development of science further deepened our curiosity about Mars, especially about the possibility for extraterrestrial life. Besides, Mars also has some of the most interesting features, which includes Olympus Mons, the tallest mountain of the solar system with a height of 22 kilometers.
When Curiosity lands, it will be the biggest and the most sophisticated rover to ever reach the Martian Surface. Weighing 900 kilograms, this six wheeler rover is equipped with ten scientific instruments. The primary aim of Curiosity is to find form of life, if any, that might have evolved in Mars. It will also add to our knowledge about climate and geography of Mars which will pave the path for further human exploration.
Curiosity is an automated laboratory. It can vaporize Martian rocks with its laser anddetecttheelementspresent in the rocks by analyzing the spectroscopy. The Gale Crater, the landing spot on Mars, is known to have rocks that have not been investigated previously and is also likely to contain organic substances which are known to support the microbial life on the Earth. The rover, powered by nuclear energy, will continue its search for such organic molecules for 98 weeks.
Mars Exploration is a subject of pride for the United States, being the only nation to successfully land spacecrafts on Mars. Other nations have failed, including a recent Russian mission to Phobos, one of the two moons of Mars. In words of Dr. Hartman, Assistant Associate Administrator of NASA, Mars has become “Bermuda Triangle of Solar System.” With the landing of Curiosity, a new chapter of history in space exploration is likely to begin.
The heart of every space exploration is to make the path for future human colonization. However, human colonization in space is not likely anytime soon given the current state of technological advancements. Our missions to Mars are still one way missions, far away from being two-way required for human exploration, let alone being economically viable for human colonization. With a few major technological breakthroughs this picture might change.
The current mission to Mars is undeniably taking us closer towards the realization of the dream of colonizing the space. No one can say for sure what the future holds. There are many surprises in her veil. One of them could be Mars teeming with humans.
