Knowledge is power. We want more and more of it. It’s no surprise, then, that we see the Solar System as a well full of knowledge we’ve never encountered before. So, we send spacecrafts out into the Solar System, looking for information. We want pictures, data, surprises, and (now) sound. We’re obsessed.
But we too often forget to give credit where credit is due. We wouldn’t be near as deep in our understanding of the Solar System if it were not for spacecrafts.
In the Solar System, spacecrafts face many challenges and have been tweaked so as to cross incredible distances, overcome the forces of gravity that try to suck them back down to Earth, and reap heaps of data about our spatial neighbors.
The “special forces” versions of spacecraft, so to speak, are landers and probes. These machines kick in the doors of obstacles on other planets and face excruciating conditions head-on. Perhaps the most famous examples of such machines are the Martian rovers, like Curiosity.
NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover at Namib Dune (360 view)
According to our text (“The Cosmic Perspective”), Curiosity landed on Mars in August of 2012 and underwent an intense operation that allowed it to gently rest on the planet’s surface. The landing required a parachute, which served to slow the spacecraft down as it flew through the Martian atmosphere (about 350 km/hr). Rockets attached to the spacecraft then guided it toward the surface, where a “sky crane” placed the rover on the surface of Mars.
It is difficult to discern just how far the rover has trekked, since the Martian terrain is very loose in some areas and rovers could sometimes simply dig ruts in the ground as their “distance” travelled increases. However, this machine has overcome an atmosphere and climate that no human could penetrate without protection, and it has spent nearly three years on the red planet – time we humans would much rather spend interpreting data.
In essence, spacecrafts in the Solar System – whether they probe planets for organic compositions or take pictures of icy rings from a distance – are a major contributor to the information we have. Without them, our current knowledge of the Solar System (the knowledge we obsess over) might not be near as in depth as it is today. These mechanical heroes may not be what we’re looking for in the Solar System, but we certainly wouldn’t see much without them.
