Manned spaceflight might have more sex appeal, but it’s very hard to argue with the fact that NASA’s most exciting work involves robots. Despite what 200,000 people think, a manned mission to Mars isn’t likely to be happening any time soon, yet NASA has been learning an awful lot about the red planet thanks to a series of cybernetic explorers that started with the little rovers that could, Spirit and Opportunity. A year ago, they were joined by a larger, more capable robot, Curiosity.
Curiosity’s exploration has all been happening in the public eye. Millions watched as Curiosity landed on the Martian surface last August 6 (even if the resulting video led a commercial news organization to overstep the mark on copyright enforcement). After touching down on Mars and taking in the view, Curiosity set off from Bradbury Landing, got its instruments online, and almost instantly started discovering evidence of a significantly wetter Mars in the planet’s past. Once NASA knew that Curiosity’s scoop worked, it was able to start performing chemistry tests on Martian soil samples, finding lots of basalt, suggesting a possible volcanic history of the area.
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