Secondone
In September 1997, as the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft reached Mars, a problem during launch caused its solar panels to experience excessive vibration. This required NASA engineers a year to carefully guide it into its correct orbit. Now, the Surveyor has finally achieved its designated path and begun its two-year mission of meticulously mapping the entire planet of Mars inch by inch.
During that year-long wait, the Surveyor occasionally sent back images, providing some reassurance. One instance was when the spacecraft’s trajectory brought it as close as 100 miles to Mars, resulting in stunning pictures.
“It’s a bonus for us,” says Dr. Arden Albee, 72, of Caltech and head of this effort.
Some images reveal unexpected details, such as clear lateral lines on the walls of Valles Marineris, a 2400-mile long canyon near the Martian equator. Black and white stripes, each between 50 to 500 feet wide, extend down into depths of up to five miles.
Dr. Alfred McEwen of Arizona University believes this is evidence of ancient lava flows on Mars.
Such early volcanic activity could have made Mars a warmer planet with a denser atmosphere. Today, Mars is extremely cold and its atmosphere is thin, making it difficult for water to exist. However, the Mariner 9 and Viking spacecrafts in the 1970s already captured images of deep channels, dried riverbeds, and floodplains on Mars, indicating that water once flowed there. This suggests a warmer, denser atmosphere existed in the past.
Volcanoes would have released enough steam and other gases to create an atmosphere. If carbon dioxide had been emitted, it could have created a greenhouse effect, preserving the atmosphere.
Today, carbon dioxide is the most abundant gas in Mars’ thin atmosphere. But Surveyor scientists haven’t found evidence that volcanoes emitted carbon dioxide.
“Mars is an amazing, natural laboratory for studying how climates evolve on planets and how atmospheres form and dissipate,” says Dr. Zuber.
These discoveries provide further evidence of past water on Mars. The soil erosion patterns observed suggest continuous flow from rivers rather than rainfall alone.
Other findings from the Surveyor are also significant. It has measured the magnetic field strength of Mars, indicating frozen lava flows in its depths.
The gravitational pull is stronger in some areas and weaker in others, suggesting uneven distribution of deep-frozen lava.
Beyond that, NASA is working on a plan to terraform Mars for human colonization, without involving other countries. These efforts and interests drive innovation and inspire new discoveries in science and technology, diverting American attention from mundane matters and encouraging them to excel in their work and research.
I believe that India needs a common goal to unite all its people. As soon as you start talking about going to Mars, there are countless people in India who ask, “Why go to Mars when people here are pulling rickshaws and struggling to eat?”
As long as those who question like this have been in power, poverty continues to ravage India. When America set foot on the moon, there were many people in America living in poverty, and New York and other major cities were filled with beggars, homeless people, and drug addicts. Even today, many cities are still like that, although they have decreased significantly over these 40 years.
40 years ago, no one questioned America like that. It was only when they broke the boundaries of science and technology that their vision became broader.
Basic principles such as the welfare of the people and progress beyond religious, racial, and linguistic prejudices come to the fore. The tendency to tolerate the corruption of a caste politician just because he is ‘their’ politician is changing.
When India exploded an atomic bomb, the shock experienced by Congress, leaders like Lalu Prasad and Mulayam, and leftist communist parties was as if they thought India should not advance in any technology. It seems that these party leaders realized that an educated and united people are dangerous to them.
Small note: 30 percent of the people working at NASA are Indians.