Blogtrek

Mission Accomplished

No, not Iraq. Mars. Today, NASA scientists announced that they have obtained results from the two rovers going over the surface of Mars and drilling into rocks. They have found definite indications that at one time the area that Opportunity had landed into was soaked in water - probably underwater in a sea or lake. The objective of the two rovers was to find evidence that Mars has or had water on it. Today they have met their objective. Mission Accomplished.

The big question is, however, was there ever life on Mars? The rovers did not find this and were not expected to. But with water on Mars, conditions suitable for life may have once existed. Maybe we won't find out until humans are on Mars. However, the chances look good. That may not be so good. If there is or was life on Mars, then that suggests that there is life all over the place in the cosmos. However, we have not detected any signal from an extraterrestrial civilization. Putting these two facts together with the Greenbank equation suggests that advanced civilizations are short-lived. That would not be good news for us, that our civilization may last only a hundred or more years or so. But it was good that they at least found water on Mars. The money put on this program was well spent. Keep going, NASA.