Spacewalks, Moving Rocks, Expeditions
It is a good time for space news, it seems: China has successfully launched Shenzhou 7, sending three taikonauts into space; NASA is hoping that the Phoenix Mars Lander will be able to use its robotic arm to turn over a rock; and Opportunity, one of NASA’s Mars Rovers, is soon to begin a two your journey to a crater more than twenty times larger than the crater that has been its home for the past two years (that crater is called ‘Victoria; I’m not sure what this new, bigger crater is called). I find all of this very exciting: people going into space, experiencing things — doing things — most of us never will; a robot made by humans interacting with the environment of an alien world far, far from our own world; and a robotic rover preparing to embark on an epic 12km journey across an utterly unknown landscape towards a place more impressive, perhaps, than any place previously seen by either robots or humans.
I watched the launch of Shenzhou 7, and coverage leading up to the launch, on CCTV4. The photo below is of a technician in mission control (or perhaps launch control?) talking to the taikonauts who at the time were strapped into their seats at the top of the Long March 2F launch vehicle that at around 9.00pm that night would push them and thier spacecraft into orbit.
The next image is a crop of a photograph showing some of the terrain surrounding the Phoenix Lander (it can’t move, but is able to study the ground around its landing site). The rock the lander will attempt to move has been named “Headless”. More information here.
Finally, an image of the crater towards which Opportunity, a robotic rover, will soon be travelling. Scientists expect the journey to take around two years.
I am sparked with with genuine sense of wonder (or sensawunda) by news of this new mission of exploration. It is a big deal (there are quite a few things that I think are a “big deal”, right now) that this small, man-made device will be trundling its way across the surface of an alien world, heading towards something nobody has ever seen before. Good luck, Opportunity — I’ll be following your progress intently.