Ann's Blog On Spacecraft To Mars

Ann's Blog #7:

"Spacecraft brings Mars into focus" (cnn.com, October 19, 2006)

The gap between the unknown and the known of the universe continues to get smaller and smaller. In August of 2005 a highly advanced spacecraft was sent to capture images of the planet Mars. It wasn't until September of 2006 that the spacecraft was able to get into position to orbit Mars and send images back to Earth. The images are showing signs of possible water and ice. This would mean that oxygen could be extracted from the H2O and a manned exploration could be possible. There are things like valleys that could have been carved by water, clay deposits that that hold standing water and streams. The camera also detected melting frost and layers of ice and dirt. Within the layers of ice, the oldest layer resembles the newest which indicates that the amount of dust in the Marsian atmosphere is dependent on the movements of the planets. There is reason to believe that there has been major climate changes within the last 100,000 years. Scientists are now working to pick apart the data that their spacecraft has been sending them. They hope to find out things like how much water vapor is getting through Mars' atmosphere.

Space exploration is always an interesting subject. Somehow I'm not always able to keep up to date on the events. I had no idea that that over a year ago there was a spacecraft sent to investigate Mars. I know that budget is always an issue, so I guess I just assumed that we couldn't afford to explore and investigate space. Reading the article on cnn.com confused me slightly, so I decided to look further into it. I was able to find an article on msnbc.com that was easier for me to understand. After reading it I better understood the mission of the exploration. They're looking around the area of the Victoria Crater and are currently 50 meters away. They hope to look into the surface of Mars to find water or ice and to examine the crater. They can then decipher things like the amount of time that there has been an environment that contained water. In the end they will take 3D pictures that they can decode to find the answers. I think that it is great that we are following our curiosity and exploring the unknown of the universe. There are many things that can be learned by studying things outside of our atmosphere. To me, its exciting to think about possibly having people up on other planets. First spacecrafts, then humans; step by step! When I really stop and think about it I begin to wonder what difference it makes if we know what the rest of the universe is like, but then the nature and strength of my curiosity pushes my doubts away. The only other issue that I have is that America is currently involved in a costly war. I'm not quite sure where The United States Of America is finding the money to put into such expensive experiments. Apparently the leaders of our nation find it appropriate to spend some money on space exploration. In my opinion, if the money is there, there is no reason as to why we shouldn't explore our solar system.

News Article From:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/10/17/mars.picture.reut/index.html
Additional Information From:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14945044/