io is the hot one

My parents bought a telescope when we lived in Nevada, and we star gazed all the time. Desert sky is incredible. Seeing a starry night like that makes you feel unattached to the earth. Like you could fall right through. I ate it up. I spent many nights camping outside, and falling asleep looking at a falling through sky.

I continued my fascination for a while, complete with watching Space Camp a dozen times, and a short foray into Sci-Fi books, which never really stuck. I took a couple courses in college, but the classes always left me thirsty, literally. We would have these long lectures about desolate, water-less planets, and I would get parched. I particularly remember discussing Europa, a moon of Jupiter, that is a solid block of ice. Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink. After that I brought water bottles to class.

So it will come as no shock that I am enamored of the Mars rover, Opportunity. One of my college roommates was an engineer and, after graduation, headed off to NASA to work on robotics. She was wacky, crazy smart. To see what this rover is capable of is astounding. To see Mars is unbelievable. The fact that they can upload software to this robot is so amazing. Sitting here, knowing they can communicate to Mars with such expediency - wow. I think of this rover falling through space with no north or south, and being our eyes on a piece of surface as solid as the one we live on. I know I am gushing, but wow.