As a kid, I was fascinated by what seemingly existed just above my reach in the night sky. Glow in the dark planetary stickers were attached to my roof, meaning that the last thing I would see – and subsequently think about – before falling asleep, was a shiny, paper replacement for our solar system.
Perhaps it had something to do with my dad being a science teacher, or a side effect of watching Space Jam too many times, but the unknown abyss stretching into eternity has always been a source of great wonderment for me.
So despite having become much more cynical and diluted in my relative old age – and no longer having an artificially illuminated galaxy situated above my bed – I watched in sheer amazement as the Curiosity Rover landed on Mars in the very early hours of Monday morning US time.
A moment that is, in every sense of the word, historic.
‘Space’ has seemingly developed something of a ‘been there, done that’ perception in society, which is somewhat understandable in a way.
After all, it’s been 43 years since ‘one small step‘ was taken on the surface of the moon, and ever since the NASA space program has faded away, resembling little more than a shell of what it once was.
It’s much more fascinating to spend two hours in a movie theatre absorbing the latest Hollywood blockbuster about predictably dangerous life from another planet, rather than think of what might actually exist beyond our atmosphere.
Which, to some extent, is an understandable persuasion to have.
For the most part, space exploration is a rather dull pursuit. In our instant-gratification society, the work required and sheer distances involved mean that furthering our reach is not a quick process.
Take the Curiosity Rover for example. Its creation was a process that began in 2004, required another four years for software implementation to be completed, before finally launching on November 26 of last year.
But, now that is has touched down on the surface of the Red Planet, the rover has a strict set of guidelines that govern its purpose on Mars.
Curiosity is to determine whether Mars had the required characteristics to have ever supported life. It is also to study the climate, examine the geology, and ultimately, lay the foundation for a future human trip to Mars.
Clearly, the first and fourth objectives are certain to get the most attention, purely based on their headline-inducing nature.
But rather than getting swept up in the potential possibilities and knowledge this accomplishment can provide, it’s worth taking a step back and considering the magnitude of what has just occurred.
American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, recently summed up the importance of the feat in far more flowing prose than I could ever hope to obtain.
‘The day we stop exploring is the day we commit ourselves to live in a stagnant world, devoid of curiosity, empty of dreams.’
And really, that’s what the Curiosity Rover provides to the world. Sure, it’s a scientific fact-finding mission, albeit an exorbitantly expensive one at that, but it allows us to collectively dream.
Rather than looking up at a series of glow in the dark stars on the ceiling, and believing them to be unobtainable, the next generation can look up at the real, burning thing in the dark sky, and know that anything is possible.
Liam Quinn is a second-year Bachelor of Journalism student at La Trobe University, who is currently on exchange at Michigan State University. When he’s not waking up early to watch historic events, he’s covering the US elections for upstart. You can follow him on Twitter: @liamquinn23
