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Journal of the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York October 2012
By Evan Schneider
MARS - NASA has embarked on its most ambitious journey, crossing the surface of Mars in search of microbial organisms, the stepping stone to life as we know it here on Earth. Scanning Gale Crater for organic compounds could one day lead to this historic discover y. It is "really a rover on steroids," said Colleen Hartman, assistant associate administrator for science at NASA. "It's an order of magnitude more capable than anything we have ever launched to any planet in the solar system." The "Red Planet," as it has been affectionately called, is a 2025 target for human exploration. Astronaut and astrophysicist John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, recently specified a potential 2033 manned mission to Mars, calling it "...a good year to launch to Mars just because of orbital mechanics." But there's more... Sending astronauts to the surface means developing protection against radiation, so Curiosity is also tasked with intricate measurements to gauge what scientists will need to engineer into environmental suits and human habitats. And let's not forget the weather. Although we won't be bringing umbrellas, the rover's weather station will measure temperature, wind and humidity. In all, Curiosity carries with it 10 science instruments with a total mass 15 times as large as the science payloads on Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Some tools, like the laser fired instrument used to determine rocks' elemental composition at a distance, are the first of its kind on Mars. No mission would be complete without the prerequisite robotic arm, complete with drill and scoop, to gather soil, sample powdered rock interiors, and deliver them to the rover's analytical laboratory instruments. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has identified clay and sulfite minerals in the lower layers of Gale Crater, indicating a wet past. Curiosity will confirm these assumptions firsthand. Getting started was a slow, calculated process. After traveling 352 million miles over an eight and a half month period, NASA engineers took a deep breath and started putting Curiosit y through its paces one at a time. Like an athlete stretching before a big race, equipment was turned on and exercised before moving forward across the terrain. And then it was time to go exploring. But "baby steps" was still the mandate. A first trip of 52 feet was ordered, and the rover carefully moved awa y from Bradbury Landing, named in honor of science fiction author Ray Bradbury. "This drive really begins our journey toward the first major driving destination, Glenelg, and it's nice to see some Martian soil on our wheels," said mission manager Arthur Amador of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). "The drive went beautifully, just as our rover planners designed it." Glenelg is a location where three t ypes of terrain intersect. Curiosity's science team chose it as a likely place t o find a first rock target for drilling and analysis. Several days later, it was time to deploy the robotic arm in the first of 6-10 consecutive da ys of planned activities to test the 7-foot arm and the tools it manipulates.
Mars Rover Curiosity- continued on Page 2

EYEPIECE

Volume 61 Number 10 ISSN 0146-7662

Mars Rover Curiosity Journeys On


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Mars Rover Curiosity - continued from Page 1

October 2012

The arm was put through a range of motions, placing it at important 'teach points' established during Earth testing, such as the positions for putting sample material into the inlet ports for analytical instrument. These activities are important to get a better understanding for how the arm functions after the long cruise to Mars and in the different temperature and gravity of Mars, compared to earlier testing on Earth.

M ars Reconnaissance Or biter watches over C uriosity , pinpointing its locations and target r esear ch areas
Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

Despite billions of dollars and years of planning, operating the rover in an alien environment is still a challenging experience. "We're still learning how to use the rover. It's such a complex machine -- the learning curve is steep," said JPL's Joy Crisp, deputy project scientist for the MSL Project, which built and operates Curiosity. The rover performs differently when operating in the Martian atmosphere and gravity. Every da y is a new adventure. Each day, NASA releases updates on Curiosity's progress as it periodically moves down the 1,300 ft. path towards Glenelg, the natural intersection of three kinds of terrain, ideal for its investigative work. NASA feels that this area presents the rover with ample targets - terrain suitable for drilling, small craters that may represent older or harder surfaces, and an area similar to Bradbury Landing. After its scientific study of Glenelg, Curiosity will travel to the base of Mount Sharp.

Late NASA Press Release: Rover Finds Old Streambed on Martian Surface Sept 27 - PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Curiosity rove

r mission has found evidence of a stream that once ran vigorousl y across the area on Mars where the rover is driving. There is earlier evidence for the presence of water on Mars, but this evidence - images of rocks containing ancient streambed gravels - is the first of its kind. Scientists are studying the images of stones cemented 2

into a layer of conglomerate rock. The sizes and shapes of stones offer clues to the speed and distance of a long-ago stream's flow. "From the size of gravels it carried, we can interpret the water was moving about 3 feet per second, with a depth somewhere bet ween ankle and hip deep," said Curiosity science coinvestigator William Dietrich of the University of California, Berkeley. "Plenty of papers have been written about channels on Mars with many different hypotheses about the flows in them. This is the first time we're actually seeing water transported gravel on Mars. This is a transition from speculation about the size of streambed material to direct observation of it." The finding site lies between the north rim of Gale Crater and the base of Mount Sharp, a mountain inside the crater. Earlier imaging of the region from Mars orbit allows for additional interpretation of the gravel-bearing conglomerate. The imagery shows an alluvial fan of material washed down from the rim, streaked by many apparent channels, sitting uphill of the new finds. The rounded shape of some stones in the conglomerate indicates long-distance transport from above the rim, where a channel named Peace Vallis feeds into the alluvial fan. The abundance of channels in the fan between the rim and conglomerate suggests flows continued or repeated over a long time, not just once or for a few years. The discover y comes from examining two outcrops, called "Hottah" and "Link" with Curiosity's mast telephoto camera. Those observations followed up on earlier hints from another outcrop, which was exposed by thruster exhaust as Curiosity touched down on the Martian surface. "Hottah looks like someone jack-hammered up a slab of city sidewalk, but it's really a tilted block of an ancient streambed," said Mars Science Laboratory project scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. The gravels in conglomerates at both outcrops range in size from a grain of sand to a golf ball. Some are angular, but many are rounded. "The shapes tell you they were transported and the sizes tell you they couldn't be transported by wind. They were transported by water flow," said Curiosity science co-investigator Rebecca Williams of Tucson's Planetary Science Institute. The science team may use Curiosity to learn the elemental composition of the material, which holds the conglomerate together, revealing more characteristics of the wet environment that formed these deposits. The stones in the conglomerate provide a sampling from above the crater rim, so the team may also learn about the broader regional geology. The slope of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater remains the rover's main destination. Clay and sulfate minerals detected there from orbit can be good preservers of carbon -based organic chemicals that are potential ingredients for life. "A long-flowing stream can be a habitable environment," said Grotzinger. "It is not our top choice as an environment for preservation of organics, though. We're still going to Mount Sharp, but this is insurance that we have already found our first potentially habitable environment."


EYEPIECE

October 2012

WHAT'S UP IN THE SKY
AAA Observer's September Guide By Richard Rosenberg

Astronomical Fact of the Month

October's Evening Planets : There's very little excitement
this month. Mercury is in the evening sky early in the month, but is visible only with binoculars or telescopes. The same applies to Saturn. The only naked-eye planet is Mars, who's speedy movement keeps it from falling into the Sun.

October' s Evening Stars : The Summer Triangle (Cygnus,

Lyra and Aquila) are still brilliant. To the south are Scorpius and Sagittarius. Autumn constellations entering the scene i nclude Pegasus, Andromeda and Perseus to the north, and fainter Capricornus and Aquarius.

October's Morning Planets : Jupiter rises about 10 PM on

October 1st and 8 PM on Halloween. It's in Taurus. Venus is still prominent, rising three-and-a-half hours before the Sun on the first of the month and 3 hours at its end. On the third it will be less than one degree from the bright star (Regulus). Venus moves from Leo into Virgo on October 23. well up in the east. These center around Orion, the Great Hunter, and include Taurus the Bull, Auriga the Charioteer, Gemini the Twins, Canis Major the Large Dog and Canis Minor the Small Dog.

October's Morning Stars: The great constellations are now

Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity has led astronomers to now use gravitational lensing to look for dark matter and the imprint of dark energy, two of the greatest modern scientific mysteries. Dark energy, which acts in opposition to gravity, is the dominant force in the universe. "We can't see dark energy directly by any means, but we're looking for how it has sculpted the matter distribution of the universe over the past few billion years, since it's been the dominant factor, and also how it has affected the rate at which the universe is expanding," explained Dr. Evalyn Gates, Director of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and author of "Einstein's Telescope" (W.W. Norton & Co., 2009, $25.95) Gravitational lensing is currently the only method astronomers have for tracing out the web of dark matter that pervades the universe, and determining how dark energy has impacted the evolution of this web. Like dark energy, dark matter is invisible. It accounts for most of the matter in the universe, but exactly what it is remains unknown. Scientists only know that dark matter differs significantly from normal matter that dominates everyda y life.
Nebula of the Month: Pencil (NGC2736)

October's "Skylights"
October 3 October 4 October 5 October 6 October 8 October 12 October 14 October 15 October 16 October 18 October 20 October 21 October 25 October 29 Venus less than 1 degree south of star Regulus Jupiter is stationary (beginning retrograde m o t i o n ) Jupiter is 5.7 degrees east of the Moon Mercury is 3 degrees f rom Saturn in the twilight sky. Binoculars or telescopes required Draconid meteors peek Last Quarter Moon at 3:33 a.m. (EDT) Venus is 6.5 degrees north of the Moon. The crescent Moon is v ery low 45 minutes bef ore sunrise New Moon at 8:03 a.m. (EDT) The crescent Moon is low in the west shortly af ter sunset Mars is 4.8 degrees southwest of the Moon Mars is 3.1 degrees north of Antares Orionid meteors peak First Quarter Moon at 11:32 p.m. (EDT) Saturn is in conjunction with the Sun, entering the morning sky Full Moon at 3:49 p.m. (EDT)

In Chile's high Atacama Desert, the European Southern Observator y's La Silla Observatory trains its Wide Field Imager on a distant nebula, 11,000 light -years away in the southern constellation Vela. The Pencil Nebula comes into view, its flowing hair -like filaments travelling through the interstellar medium at 403,000 mph. The nebula contains the remains of a centuries old colossal supernova explosi on that blasted gas and dust out in many directions.
The Vela supernova remnant is an expanding shell of gas that originated from the supernova explosion. Initially the shock wa ve was moving at millions of kilometers per hour, but as it expanded through space it plowed through the gas bet ween the stars, which has slowed it considerabl y and created strangely shaped folds of nebulosPhoto Credit: ESO ity. The Pencil Nebula is the brightest part of this huge shell. The nebula's luminous appearance comes f rom dense gas regions that have been struck by the supernov a shock wav e. As the shock wav e trav els through space, it rams into the interstellar material. At first, the gas was heated to millions of degrees, but it then subsequently cooled down and is st ill giving off the f aint glow that was captured in this extraordinary new image. 3

For additional information visit: www.aaa.org/month1210


EYEPIECE

October 2012

WHY WE EXPLORE

Spotlight on NASA Missions: Our Human Desire to Explore By Amy Wagner

"To reach for new heights and reveal the unknown, so that what we do and learn will benefit all humankind." The NASA Vision

The Year of the Solar System Comes to an End

October 2010 through August 2012 marked a period of an unprecedented flurry of launches, flybys, and orbital insertions which NASA dubs "The Year of the Solar System" (YSS) ­ a Martian year (23 months), that is. "History will remember the period...as a golden age of planetary exploration," says Jim Green, Director of Planetary Sci ence at NASA headquarters, "There hasn't been anything quite like it in the history of the Space Age." During YSS, Deep Impact/EPOXI and Stardust NExT studied the comets Hartley 2 and Tempel 1; the shoebox -size O/OREOS ("Organism/ORganic Exposure to Orbital Stresses") launched to perform experiments on the durabilit y of life in space, the experimental solar sail, NanoSail D, launched and created the first "solar sail flares," while MESSENGER began its orbit around Mercury. The second half of 2011 saw more activity than entire decades of the Space Age with Dawn's orbit around asteroid Vesta, spacecraft Juno beginning its journey to Jupiter, the launch of two GRAIL spacecraft to map the gravitational field of the Moon, and the launch of NASA's roving, nuclear-powered Mars Science Lab Curiosit y. In 2012, the Mars rover Opportunity completed an epic long distance run across the planet's surface, Dawn fired up its engines to depart Vesta for the dwarf planet Ceres, and New Horizons continued on its way to study Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, the birthplace of comets. YSS concluded in August with the challenging and successful landing of Curiosity on Mars, dubbed the "Seven Minutes of Terror." "So the end," says Green, "is just the beginning. These missions will keep us busy long after YSS is history." The NASA website "E yes on the Solar System" provides an engaging, interactive 3D tour of all the scientific spacecraft currently operating throughout our solar system - http:// eyes.nasa.gov/.
Solar Exploration at 50
This year is a milestone year for space exploration - more specifi cally, for NASA's missions in planetary science and its efforts to expand its presence across the solar syst em. Since the 1960s, NASA has broadened its reach with increasingl y sophisticated missions launched to a host of nearby planets, moons, comets and asteroids. This summer, NASA celebrated the 50th anniversary of its first successful planetary mission. Launched on August 27, 1962, Mariner 2 was sent on a flight to Venus (a month earlier, a range safet y officer blew up Mariner 1 five minutes into its flight when the spacecraft's rocket went off-course during launch). Mariner missions were designed to be the first U.S. spacecraft to visit other planets, specificall y Venus and Mars. Mariner 2 measured for the first time the solar wind ­ a constant stream of charged particles flowing outward from the Sun ­ and its infrared and microwave radiometers revealed that Venus has cool clouds and an extremely hot surface. Mariner 4

NA SA render ing of M ariner 2

2's signal was tracked until January 3, 1963, and the spacecraft remains in orbit today around the Sun. NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD) seeks to understand the origins, evolution, and destiny of the universe, and to understand the nature of the strange phenomena that shape it. SMD sponsors scientific research and develops/ deploys satellites and probes in collaboration with its international partners to answer fundamental questions. Of primary interest to the SMD Planetary Science Di vision is: "How do planets and life originate?" By focusing on the small bodies and objects in our inner and outer solar syst em, PSD is engaged in one of the oldest scientific pursuits of discover y. The stunning work of NASA's Planetary Science missions are revealing answers to questions about the origins of planets and minor bodies, the evolution of the solar system into its current diverse state, the evolution of life on Earth, and the possibility of life evol ving elsewhere in the solar system. Planetary exploration missions are conducted by some of the most sophisticated robots ever built, allowing scientists to extend their observations to the farthest reaches of the solar system and into remote and hostile environments.

Discovery at 15 ­ Dawn of the Asteroid Age
As a complement to its larger "flagship" planetary science missions, NASA created the Discover y Program in 1992. Its main objective - t o enhance our understanding of the solar system by exploring planets, their moons, and small bodies such as comets and asteroids. Discovery's goal is to launch many, smaller, cost-capped missions that use fewer resources and require shorter devel opment times. The program was a breakthrough in the wa y NASA explores space. For the first time, scientists and engineers were asked to design highly focused planetary science investigations that would deepen our knowledge about our solar system. Discover y was also among the first NASA programs to require education and outreach
Why We Explore - continued on Page 14


EYEPIECE

October 2012

"The 4% Universe" Reveals a Great Mystery of Science By Edward Fox

We may not be part of the Occupy Wall Street's "1%," but we and everything else in the observable universe are part of the "4%"­ you, me, every star, every planet ­ everything. The other 96% is unknown to us all ­ in fact, a mystery. Richard Panek tells the story of how scientists came to this conclusion and their hunt for this unknown in his book, The 4% Universe ­ Dark Matter, Dark Energy and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $26.00). A recipient of the Guggenheim fellowship in science writing, Panek tells the back-story of how scientists reached their conclusion after discovering that the universe is expanding and galaxies are spinning at unexplained rates. He sets the historic stage and presents the various interrelated stories of the key participants and the competing teams of scientists. There are stories of bitter rivalries ­ the physicists versus the astronomers ­ in the quest to solve this mystery. Panek describes team interrelationships ­ the collaborations and backbiting, in the quest for the answers, and glory that will fall to the winners ­ the coveted Noble Prize. The individuals and their personalities are the backbone of this story. Family circumstances and backgrounds provide a rich tapestry for understanding how they all became to be a part of this intense competition. Noted American astronomer Vera Rubin's childhood interest in astronomy was her start. The story takes the reader through her education, marriage and growing family, all while carrying out her life's work studying galaxies and their motion. Rubin's professional progression, including her published work and the reactions of her peers, provide an insight into how hard it is to lead the field in an uncharted area of science. When Rubin and her colleagues found that the rotational profiles of galaxies they studied could only be explained if the galaxies were surrounded by a massive halo of invisible matter, the discover y of dark matter could not be far behind. Her personal difficulties during pregnancy had Rubin routinel y squeezing through a tight passagewa y to get to her less than glamorous workspace. But motivation was ever prevalent, as witnessed by her tradition of mounting a picture of the Andromeda Galaxy, the subject of her early work on the galaxy's rotation, on her various office ceilings. The core of this story is about two competing teams trying to determine whether the universe would continue to expand for-

ever, or if the expansion would stop and the universe collapse upon itself in a Big Crunch. Supernova Cosmology Project and the High-z Team ("z" being astronomical shorthand for redshift) searched for supernovae in distant galaxies and used them to calibrate their distances. Both groups found that not only was the universe continuing to expand, but also that the expansion is accelerating. This expansion required a force ­ dark energy, as it is now known. Panek tells this very technical story in vivid descriptive detail. He does not have to rely on formulae, diagrams or pictures. It is a story that the lay person can understand. Unlike most myster y stories of fi ction or non -fiction, this story is not wrapped up in its final chapter, explaining everything in a neat package. According to Panek, "The astronomers who set out to write the final chapter in the history of the universe had to content themselves instead with a more modest conclusion: To be continued." I, for one, am looking forward to Panek's sequel in this mystery stor y of the universe! Eyepiece Staff - October Issue Editor Evan B. Schneider Writing Staff: Richard Brounstein, Joseph Fedrick, Ed Fox, Stan Honda, Amy Wagner Special Sections: Marcelo Cabrera, Joshua Erich, Edward Fox, Bernie Kleinman, Richard Rosenberg

AAA Members - Eyepiece Staff Openings
Interested in joining our growing team of AAA Eyepiece staff members? Enjoy researching, writing and editing? If so, we would like to hear from you. The world of astronomy is vast and amazing. Every day new discoveries bring scientists and astronomers closer to understanding the origins and composition of our universe. NASA/JPL, the European Space Agency, the Japanese Space Agency, ground -based telescope arrays around the world and in space, all of these entities and others challenge our minds. We need you to report their ground-breaking work to our members.

Come be a part of something out of this world... Evan B. Schneider, Editor Email me at: editor@aaa.org

Kleegor's Universe
By Joshua M. Eric h, www.pixelatedparchm ent.com

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EYEPIECE

October 2012

A Message from AAA President Marcelo Cabrera
Hello Members: It's going to get cold soon, so take advantage of our many AAA observing sessions around NYC. We have one more trip to North-South Lake scheduled for this month. Take advantage of the superb dark skies relatively close to the city. October brings us to the annual AAA Urban Starfest, our most popular stargazing event. Scopes and activity tables will be set up in Central Park's Sheep Meadow on Saturday, October 20 (rain date Sunday, October 21). Organized in conjunction with the NYC Urban Park Rangers, this year's honored guests include David Eicher (editor in chief) and Richard Talcott (senior editor) from Astronomy magazine, and Tele Vue founder and chief optical designer, Al Nagler. Joining the event as well will be Michael Peoples from Adorama Camera, a longtime friend and supporter of AAA. There will be free gifts, raffles, and special prizes (make sure you participate early and stay for the drawings). Don't miss David Eicher's special talk about the objects in the sky. It promises to be enlightening. For more details, visit the AAA website at www.aaa.org/starfest. Get ready for the start of our lecture series at the AMNH. We kick off on October 19 with Michael Paul from Penn State on "The Google Lunar X PRIZE: The Launch of Private Exploration of the Solar System." This season's schedule is available at www.aaa.org/lectures1213. Clear Skies!

Sincerely, Contacting AAA
Membership: members@aaa.org Eyepiece: editor@aaa.org General Club Matters and Observing: president@aaa.org

Marcelo Cabrera President, AAA

Telephone: 212-535-2922

Website: www.aaa.org

NASA to Teachers: Come Fly With Me Teachers from six NASA Explorer Sc

hools (NES) have been selected to receive the 2012 School Recognition Award for their contributions to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. The winners included the team from Mountview Road School, Morris Plains, N.J, which was featured in a November, 2011 Eyepiece article. In April, 2013, three teachers from each school will travel to NASA's Johnson Space Center. There they will have the opportunity to fl y aboard a reduced gravity aircraft and conduct experiments designed by their students. The experiments will examine the acceleration and inertia of objects, how fluids with different vi scosi ties behave in microg r a v i t y, and how the absence of gravity affects mass and
NA SA's two- engine tur bofan air craft C-9B ascends

Floating in zero gravity in the test ar ea

weight. "Congratulations to the NES teachers selected for this innovative NASA experience. The reduced gravity flights allow teachers to conduct scientific investigations in a microgravity environment, similar to how experiments are conducted on the ISS," said Cecelia Fletcher, acting program manager for primary and secondary education at NASA headquarters. "This experiential learning opportunity helps to spread the excitement of STEM education throughout the NASA Explorer School network." NASA reviewed many applications before selecting six schools for their exemplary classroom practices and innovative uses of NES resources to engage a broad school population. The schools were chosen from more than 470 registered participants in NES, the classroom -based gatewa y for students in grades 4-12 that focuses on stimulating STEM education using agency content and themes.

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EYEPIECE

October 2012

WHAT IF???

Robot Scientists
By Richard Brounstein

As I write this, I'm still so very proud of NASA days or light-weeks away. Even the speed of light becomes inconvenient for communication over distance. When we fifor their successful landing of the Mars Curiosity rover, exnally send a probe to another solar system, that probe will be ploring Gale Crater as you read this column. I don't know years out of communication without changing the physi cs of what rover will be our next visitor to Mars, but eventually we signal travel (worm hole, anyone?). Currently, there is no wa y hope to send human scientists to the Red Planet. We have to. for NASA to control such a mission, so their probes need to For all its advancements, Curiosity is still just a programmable get smart. robot with lots of tools - in a wa y, not much different than those employed in manufacturing plants. The equipment folWhat elements of reason must be instilled in a future lows carefull y planned instructions. The real "curiosity" and probe? It will need to follow the same logic as human explordecision making happens here on Earth, by humans. The misers. It needs to look at the big picture and decide what is most sion team tells it to look at the surrounding landscape. The y interesting to analyze. Then it needs to perform the analysis, direct it to a location and send commands to use a laser, drill, gather the results and provide a comprehensive report for misshovel, or whatever tools are needed to collect information and sion scientists, however long it takes to communicate. samples. When tests are run, earthbound scientists analyze the Consider a probe fl ying through a remote solar sysresults and decide its next steps. tem. It will need to set an efficient trajector y to perform a This may work well for probes on Mars, but someda y fl yby of each planet. It will know of most of the planets beour electronic ambassadors need to get smarter. They must fore it gets there, thanks to the extra-solar planet research bedecide how to run their own missions without micromanageing performed by powerful telescopes on Earth and in space, ment. Eventually, let's send a "Commander Data" (from Star but it will certainly discover several more planets and moons Trek: TNG) on exploration missions, and not a well -tooled that we can't see. The probe will need to calculate how to factor y worker. navigate to each new body and analyze them. We want the probe to determine Transporting humans to Mars if it is just some interesting rock like won't happen for many years, given the Earth's moon or if there might be liquid enormous problems that must be solved water on or under its surface. We want before positioning assets on the surface. it to be smart enough to modify its traBut putting astrogeol ogists on the planet jector y to do several fl ybys of that most could potentially accomplish in weeks interesting world(s) and acquire detailed what the combined efforts of Viking, photographs and other analyses with its Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity and cameras and detectors. When this probe Phoenix have taken years to achieve. "phones home," it is sending to Earth Yes, in just a few weeks. the most useful results, just as if we sent So let's go there. They'll need an astronaut scientist on this journey. some mobile ground transportation, Rob nau R2 f s ort ­ is h next an geol ogical instruments, and a laboratory ous oobott,2d­ veloor dhhrough ta e pace genergtrioemdexter- While interstellar robotic exploration r e pe t S Act A e ent by may still be many years off, artificial (oh, also lots of coffee or full acclimaNASA and GM intelligence is much closer to reality. tion to the Martian Sol). Clearly, havWhile we are sending probes to within light-minutes of Earth, ing a human mind personally exploring a planet is far superior now is the time to make our probes smarter while we can still to remotely controlled equipment. monitor the quality of their work. Future probes to Mars or But will putting humans on an alien world always be other local worlds should not only go farther with better tools,