Since Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon, technology has lead to the replacement of astronauts with robots. Though Curiosity's recent Mars landing has inspired many, NASA says they hope to one day send a human to stand on Mars just as Armstrong stood on the moon.?
NASA scientists comment on the newest image of the tracks left by their Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars. An image of wheel prints on Mars may one day become as iconic as boot prints on the moon, says one NASA scientist.
AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes
EnlargeNeil Armstrong inspired millions with his moonwalk. Can a feisty robotic rover exploring Mars?do the same for another generation? With manned missions beyond the International Space Station on hold, the spotlight has turned on machines.
Skip to next paragraph' +
google_ads[0].line2 + '
' +
google_ads[0].line3 + '
Subscribe Today to the Monitor
The Mars rover Curiosity rolled forward about 15 feet, and is scheduled to start its first big trip -- to a point about 1,300 feet away -- in the next few days.While it did not rise to Armstrong's "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," interest was so high in the rover Curiosity's "seven minutes of terror" approach to the red planet earlier this month that NASA's website crashed. The rover last week beamed home photographs of its first wheel tracks on the Martian soil since its daredevil landing
"There's something exciting about reaching another place in the solar system. If you think about the kind of interest the landing of Curiosity had, you get a sense of that," said Smithsonian Institution space curator Roger Launius. It wasn't on the same level as Armstrong's feat, "but it was pretty darn exciting," he said.
When Armstrong, and then fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin, stepped on the moon on July 29, 1969, an estimated 600 million people watched and listened. "Virtually the entire world took that memorable journey with us," recalled Aldrin after Armstrong's death on Saturday.
Early in the Space Age, the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts were the public face of NASA's space endeavor while the unmanned lunar missions that paved the way were in the shadows. The public craved adventure and the manned missions delivered. Aiming for the moon was new and exciting ? not to mention dangerous ? and the U.S. was locked in a Cold War space race with the Soviets.
Next, the space shuttle ferried a new crop of astronauts to low-Earth orbit, but after three decades of service, it became routine. And the Cold War thawed with the Russians and Americans cooperating on the Russian space station Mir and the International Space Station.
With the space shuttle fleet retired, the space station is all that's left. Its crew of six for the most part quietly goes about doing its job about 250 miles (400 kilometers) above the Earth. President Barack Obama nixed plans for returning astronauts to the moon in favor of landing on an asteroid and eventually?Mars.
These days, space exploration is carried out by robotic spacecraft ? commanded by human handlers on Earth. Advances in technology have allowed unmanned spacecraft to go farther and peer deeper, with craft circling Mercury, Saturn, and asteroid Vesta, and others headed for Jupiter and dwarf planet Pluto. The twin Voyager craft are still going strong at the fringes of the solar system 35 years after their launch in 1977.
American University space policy analyst Howard McCurdy said today's generation of explorers was raised on technology and tends to get more jazzed about delivering a car-size rover to?Mars.
"Robotic exploration has taken more of a center stage," he said. "It gets more publicity now than the International Space Station."
When the first?Mars?rover Sojourner landed in 1997, science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke rephrased Armstrong's famous line and said the event was "one small step for the rover."
Three other rovers have followed including Curiosity, which landed Aug. 5 by executing an intricate routine that ended with it being lowered by cables to the surface. Curiosity's acrobatics proved so popular that some 1.1 million people now follow it on Twitter (the tweets are being written by the public affairs office at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the $2.5-billion mission.)
Curiosity chief scientist John Grotzinger said Monday the wheel prints on?Mars?may turn out to be an iconic image just like those first boot prints on the lunar surface.
"Instead of a human, it's a robot pretty much doing the same thing," he said.
Henry Lambright, a professor of public policy and space scholar at Syracuse University, said while Curiosity is inspiring, the world still needs to send humans beyond low-Earth orbit.
"It can't inspire to the degree that Apollo did because a robot can't inspire the way a man can," Lambright said.
On Monday, NASA played a recording from Administrator Charles Bolden that had been sent up to the rover on?Mars?and relayed back to Earth. In it, he thanked scientists and engineers for their achievement.
David Lavery of NASA headquarters said the hope is that someone will be inspired by Bolden's message and become the first human to stand on?Mars.
"Like the great Neil Armstrong, they'll be able to speak aloud ? the first person at that point, of the next giant leap in human exploration," he said.
Follow Alicia Chang's coverage at http://www.twitter.com/SciWriAlicia
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/wnmHZkB_Rm0/Will-Curiosity-inspire-like-Armstrong-video
the express zappos hacked jane fonda morgan freeman jon huntsman bit coin huntsman
This provides the customers plenty of choices to select from and large amount of information to rely on once the ultimate decision is created. The insurance plan plays an essential role if this involves obtaining the desirable returns. You will find many home exercise space fitness equipment available for sale to remain in shape. At this time around, the insurance provider may explain how you can ensure newspaper articles on health care issues coverage. Grill instead of fry meals where possible. Only method of getting enzymes is to consume the food raw and unooked when you can prepare food on the certain temperature, the enzymes are cooked from it. As new medical reform health will further enhance the urban and rural primary health service system because the next important issues work, supervision from the Secretary of state for Health medical info on the Director from the Consolidated Senior High School as detailed a ? healthcare reform around the county hospital? s functional orientation.? Rural Health insurance and the county hospital like a most significant task of creating and equipment standards is a subject of deep concern towards core health insurance the participants, the forum within the Secretary of state for Planning and Finance Director Liu Kui- based install special equipment around the county hospital construction standards for interpretation , then the Secretary of state for Health insurance Wang, deputy director of record information have shown towards the audience visitors of China? s blueprint for that health and medical information. It may be downloaded at . Obtain telephone numbers for insurance companies articles in your town and call to obtain quotes. Complete and current information in the clinician about diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. It takes place that lots of women don? t buy any policy of medical health insurance before they? re pregnant. Since the natural balance from the intestinal flora might be disrupted or destroyed by the act of antibiotic medications. To make certain you? re healthy, you must have lots of sleep for any on minimum seven to eight hrs each day. It? s a welcome relief to uncover that you could now get the affordable and simply taken healthy liquid formula. Raw juices and shakes drunk before eating anything are made available to blood stream within fifteen minutes. It? s a terrible idea to care become refused health care whenever you frantically require health it because there? s insufficient money staying with you to pay newspaper for the price in advance. Beware! There cant be considered a generalization in regards to a newspaper articles on health care issues product which can be appropriate everyone. Due to this fact, exactly the same individuals who need medical health insurance probably the most are the type who frequently finish up pushing to create their monthly obligations following a sudden rise in their insurance costs. 2) Drink the baking soda and water solution in the beginning of cold or flu signs and symptoms, like a runny nose or sneezing, core to assist get rid of the infections. A sizable company that provides an EPO could have a large network of doctors near its primary office and less for everyone the outlying areas.