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Opportunity Rover Finds Strong Evidence Meridiani Planum Was Wet

NASA, Mar 02, 2004
Commentary by Stephen Downes

For the last two years, I have very proudly had a link on my home page saying my name will go to Mars. Who cares if it's the "Space Kids" site? Anyhow, I was a bit disappointed when I signed up, because I was so far down the list my name would not be on the first Mars Rover, "Spirit", but on the second, "Opportunity". Little did I know that Opportunity would be the one to bounce right into a crater and hence become the spacecraft that discovered evidence of liquid water on Mars. And my name - my name! - is sitting there, etched on a tiny CD-ROM, just a few yards away from where that discovery took place.

CRLFAnd you know - I have watched most of this mission, including this afternoon's announcement, live on NASA TV. It gave me an incredible sense of being there, of being a part of this. I am part of history, even if I am only one of the millions of people saying to the scientists at NASA that this is something that matters to me.

CRLFNow I think that there is no reason, no reason, why we couldn't learn from NASA here. I think that all of the amazing things that our researchers are doing should be broadcast and made available on the web. What a learning opportunity! We academics and researchers need to teach ourselves to teach as we work, and to make this available to the people of the world. There's a lot more than just knowledge at stake. There is the excitement of discovery, and it does happen, every day, in labs around the world.

Something to think about. And for now, congratulations to NASA, and thanks.

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