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Let's Go Exploring!

by Robert Gounley

On April 10, 2004, I had the pleasure of giving a tour of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It was a pleasant day for guests and host alike. The weather was pleasant; flowers were blossoming, and even our resident deer herd came out to be photographed.

Folks were advised to wear comfortable shoes. There was something special to see at the far end of the campus. It was a new building with art deco contours, but architecture wasn't the attraction. On a second floor gallery, visitors look down on a large room covered with red rocks and gravel. Amid the debris sit two Mars Exploration Rovers-replicas of Spirit and Opportunity.

This is where engineers and scientists test-drive the rovers. Mars is too far away to press an accelerator and count on hitting the brakes before a large rock ends the road trip. The rovers depend on careful programming to follow a safe path while making corrections for obstacles bypassed and wheels which occasionally slip.

Bob Gounley answers questions at the Spacecraft Prep Building.

Operators have made great strides in teaching these robotic field geologists to do what a standing army of scientists want. That requires lots and lots of testing. For a rover, only a road test will do. In this room, engineers and scientists learn what their equipment is capable of.

Things were stationary on Earth and on Mars. Today, programmers were busy loading new software onto the Mars rovers. There were no new maneuvers to be tried; testers could enjoy a well-earned Saturday at home. In their testing chamber, the two Earth rovers looked like half-forgotten toys in a giant sandbox.

The Mars Exploration Rover team receives much praise for their accomplishments. Through the World Wide Web, we can join them as wide-eyed tourists on the ultimate road trip. These are exciting times.

Still, something humbled me this day. While my guests eagerly snapped pictures of the simulated Martian landscape, I thought about distance. To get to this building, we walked about 600 meters from our tour's starting point-less than half a mile. That's the distance Spirit had so far traveled on Mars; Opportunity even less. At our leisurely stroll with stops to look at the sights, my group traversed the Lab in about an hour. That distance took Spirit three months.

Admittedly, the rovers have much more to study under far more difficult conditions. However, consider that the entire surface of Mars measures roughly the same area as all Earth's continents. After several thousand years, Mankind has yet to climb every mountain or probe every cave on Earth. The exploration of Mars has only just begun. Our day's sojourn makes clear the scale of all that remains to be discovered.

I'm reminded of the final installment of one of my favorite comic strips, Calvin and Hobbes. It ended with Calvin saying, "It's a magical world, Hobbes, ol' buddy. Let's go exploring!" as the two sledded down a snow-covered hill.

Let's follow.