All hail Steve Squyres, Master of the Red Planet!
Seriously, folks, now that NASA has touched down its second lander in two weeks (and regained contact with the first - Spirit, which for a day or two seemed to be destined to join the ranks of all the other past failed missions to Mars) and the Europeans are sending back amazing color photo after amazing color photo from its Mars Express satellite, it feels almost as if we'll be doing donuts on the surface of our interplanetary next-door neighbor in our Ford Explorers and hiking the slopes of Olympus Mons within the next year or so.
Unfortunately this will almost certainly not be the case anytime soon. President-Select George "I Don't Listen To Polls" Bush's laughably bad timetable to return to the Moon and then strike out for the Red Planet - while at the same time gutting any other existing NASA project with scientific merit - made only two weeks ago, has mysteriously disappeared from the administration's talking points, like six out of ten Martian probes, when half of America sniggered at the idea of giving another blank check to the aerospace industry (the other half still believes the world is flat, but maybe that's because they all live in the Midwest). Dubya's vision of cosmic Manifest Destiny failed even to make it into last week's State of the Union Address, edging out the burning issues of steroid use in professional athletes and the looming menace of gay marriage, which according to the GOP is a threat to the very fabric of space-time itself.
As I've said before, I think this is a shame. We can and should be sending manned missions to Mars, because the future of mankind is clearly Out There; and if America doesn't lead the way in this second Age of Exploration- on account of cheapness, ignorance, or an unhealthy combination of both - other nations most assuredly will.
In the meantime, however, let's celebrate the past month of Martian discoveries and enjoy all the pretty pictures (not to mention the useful scientific data!).
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