Ornoth

First off, happy Perihelion, everyone! Today is the Earth’s annual closest approach to the Sun.

I just thought it might be worth summarizing some of the amazing space exploration going on this month. First, we had the seemingly ill-fated European Beagle mission to Mars; unfortuntely the vehicle hasn’t been heard from since its Xmas day landing. Still, the Mars Express orbiter is in position and may yet find the missing hound.

Then there was Friday’s big news: NASA’s Stardust explorer passed through the tail of comet Wild-2, successfully snapping some amazing pictures of the comet nucleus and capturing samples of cometary debris that it will return to Earth two years from now.

Also Friday evening was Dr. Zuber’s talk on the exploration of Mars at the Museum of Science.

Yesterday, of course, was NASA’s Spirit rover’s successful landing in Mars’ Gusev Crater. I was thrilled to be able to watch mission control and the followup news conferences via NASA TV on the Web. I can’t wait to see the hi-res color images that should begin appearing late tonight, and then watch as the scientists drive the rover away from the landing pod and off into the Martian landscape.

And less than three weeks from now, it starts all over again, with Opportunity, Spirit’s twin, landing on the opposite side of the planet, heralding at least three months of round-the-clock exploration of Mars, hopefully giving us a much clearer understanding of this mysterious planet.

It truly is a watershed year for interplanetary exploration, and it sure must be exciting for today’s kids to see.