Life on Mars part II, or a conspiracy of one
by Simon Handby in At home on 02.06.08
No, I’m not talking about DCI Gene Hunt or a reclining yeti, but Nasa’s own Phoenix Mars Lander, which has staked out a patch of dusty Martian topsoil to call its own.
Getting anything out of the earth’s gravity and up into space is challenging enough, particularly if it weighs one-third of a tonne and costs $325 million, but landing a fragile robot safely on an alien world is another thing altogether.
And thus it’s perhaps tempting, as with all interplanetary feats, to wonder if it wouldn’t just be easier to fake it. Perhaps I’ve just got an overactive imagination, but that ice underneath the lander? That’s plastic sheeting that is.
At least, I’m pretty sure that’s what they use to stop the floor getting scratched by all the red sand they’ve put in the vast but isolated TV studio complex. Or have I just seen Capricorn One too many times?
And even if you could convince me that there’s a littlest, loneliest robot sat on the surface of planet Mars, I’d find it hard to believe that it’s truly alone. Encouraged in part by a lifelong love for Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles, I’m readily prepared to believe in a Martian race.
So, that impression made on the Martian soil by the robotic arm scoop? Yeah, right. It’s a footprint.
From a yeti.
IMAGES courtesy of Nasa
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