Spirit of space exploration returns

By Nevada Appeal editorial board

Since the space shuttle Columbia disaster almost one year ago, the space program has been under scrutiny like never before. Many question the expense, effort and risk associated with space exploration. But America must always reach for the stars.

The landing this week of the Mars rover is reason enough to applaud and encourage success at NASA. Appropriately named Spirit, the rover has lifted morale at the space agency and revived a nation's fascination with new frontiers.

After a flawless landing, the rover has transmitted to Earth the sharpest pictures ever taken of the surface of Mars. President Bush credited the NASA team for "their hard work and ingenuity and for reaffirming the great spirit of American exploration."

Missions to Mars have been less than successful in the past, sometimes blowing up or crashing on the surface before they could do the bulk of their work. It's been seven years since Pathfinder landed on the red planet.

Spirit, along with another rover named Opportunity set to land on the opposite side of Mars on Jan. 24, have cost $820 million - a significant sum, to be sure, but hardly breathtaking in relation to other items in the federal budget.

The pictures so far are exciting and attention-getting for the public; the greatest scientific value from the mission, of course, is yet to come. That's when the scientists will get excited.

And who knows what we may learn from Spirit and Opportunity? How far will they be able to push the limits of human knowledge? What discoveries are there to be made?

Such possibilities drove our forebears to discover a continent, colonize it and push west to settle unchartered and hazardous lands. (It's worth noting that Mars looks like nothing so much as the Black Rock Desert at sunset.)

The risks undertaken by Spirit and Opportunity, both unmanned craft, are miniscule compared with the human losses of the Columbia. Thanks to technology, we can go where no man yet dares - and still revel in the adventure of it all.