Keeping up the Spirit in 2008

Happy 2008! While we have been celebrating the new year on Earth, Nasa's Spirit Rover is about to commemorate its fourth year exploring the Martian landscape.

Along with Opportunity, Spirit has survived intense cold and extreme dust storms while sending an amazing 210,000 photos back to Earth. The two rovers were planned for 90 day missions, but they continue to perform scientific analysis of the red planet far past their planned expiration dates.

While we applaud the good fortune and terrific engineering that allow these machines to perform so magnificently, it prompts us to question the value of manned exploration of space. As robotic devices continue to advance in abilities (right little Rhoomba?), will they be able to replace humans as explorers? Sending men into space is very dangerous and expensive. But is robot exploration as compelling and romantic as human examination of the unknown? Can robots provide the feeling along with the facts? The answer, I suppose, is that a combination of human and robotic exploration will be the best comprehensive way to explore our universe.

Visit: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html