Dr. Don's Person of the Year

It's that time again where Time puts out it's "person of the year" issue and we're bombarded by many other year end lists and best of's as well. Rather than fight the trend, I've decided to list my own person of the year though, as you can see from the photo, it's not a person. My "persons" of the year are the twin Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity.

A lot of people don't care much about space or its exploration but it is something that has always been important to me. I've followed this Mars expedition pretty closely and what thee two little machines have accomplished is pretty miraculous, and that's not a term I use loosely. Originally these two rovers were supposed to last 90 days. Mars is a harsh environment with bitterly cold evenings and powerful dust storms. It not the kind of environment you'd expect mechanical devices to withstand very well. And NASA didn't. Hence the reason the mission was expected to last 90 days.

However, a funny thing happened to these two robots. Four years later and they are still running. They've survived a monster dust storm that blanketed a good portion of the planet. Poor little Spirit has a broken wheel it's been dragging along for a year now. Some of their exploratory tools are worn out or damaged and their solar panels are now only working at less than 50% capacity. Still, these stubborn little machines march on.

Together, they've only covered about 12 total miles but they've exceeded the wildest expectations of mission specialists. With the Martian winter approaching, they've had to scrambe to a safe place to hide out and conserve energy. This is not as easy as it sounds. One of the rovers was stuck and only freed itself after some very precise efforts from folks on Earth. The challenge now is getting them both to safety in time.

The Plain Dealer today had a terrific article on the rovers in its A section. Everyone should read it. There's no doubt I'm anthropomorphizing but these two machines represent the spirit we like to believe all humans possess. They were sent on a suicide mission to a place that is incomprehensibly hostile and yet, with the help of their human handlers, they have demonstrated remarkable survivability. They continue to plug along, doing everything we ask of them, sacrificing their parts, but honestly providing inspiration to those of us paying attention.

Their mission has now been formally extended and in the end will cost approximately 1 billion dollars. That's a lot of money, no doubt, and this is where many people who don't care about space find their bone to pick. They proclaim that such money could be better spent on Earth. Maybe. I'm not so sure. This entire mission is costing less than one week of the war in Iraq. We've collected data about our nearest planet that we'll be analyzing for a long time and we've learned about adaping our own technology to the conditions. This is vitally important if we ever hope to explore other planets in person.

More importantly though, these little machines provide hope. They truly represent the best of what humans can accomplish. The data from the mission will be freely shared with scientists all over the world. People who think that exploring space is a waste have no appreciation for what a monumental achievement this mission has been. We marvel at human creations like the Taj Mahal or the Sistine Chapel but do we appreciate how absolutely amazing it was to send two golf cart-sized machines to another planet, have them land safely, and then actually power up and receive commands? Do we grasp the unbelieveble skill of the people who guide these machines with radio signals from billions of miles away? I think these little rovers do offer us hope, especially at this time of year when people are looking for it. Maybe the 1 billion dollar price tag is too much. Maybe NASA should have spent a few of those dollars on publicity for these two amazing machines. If people knew more about them, they'd be as inspired as I am.