Saturday, January 03, 2004

We got it...

That's the Spirit! Mars Rover Lands Safely on Mars Spirit has landed on Mars and is sending signals back to Earth. Hopes are that the first images will come in within the next few hours. NOVA will broadcast Mars Dead or Alive Sunday night at 8pm. UPDATE Sunday 7a.m.: Spirit's First Images of the Red Planet Be on the lookout for a bit of ill-logic as you hear reports on this mission. In 1997, when the Pathfinder landed, I heard a NASA scientist exclaim that if "we can find life or the evidence of life then it means that life is not a miracle." (emphasis added) Statements like that are flat-out wrong. Even if life was to have originated (been created) on Mars, that does not mandate that it was not a miracle event. One must ascertain the probabilities involved before showing that the events are common. For instance, if the chance of life originating on Earth, by chance, is one in 10^10,000 (just to throw out a number), does finding life on Mars drop those chances down to common event status? Hardly. It simply means that you now have two miracles to deal with.

No comments: