Matt W Cook

I’ve been looking over the amazing photos that the Curiosity Rover has been sending back from Mars.  This photo is my favourite so far.  Go look at it.

As I looked at this photo, zooming in to check out the rocks and gravel covering the ground, it suddenly hit me that we’re on our way.  The solar system is not nearly as big as it used to be.  Human creativity, curiosity and ingenuity are all so great that we will never be satisfied with these photos.  As amazing and wonderful the rovers are, they are not good enough.  It’s great that we can analyze the molecular structures of rocks on another world, but we won’t be satisfied until we hear the crunching of Martian gravel beneath our feet.

We’re going to go to Mars someday.

The first man to walk on the moon is dead.  That’s significant in so many ways.  We have been able to leave this planet and walk on other worlds so long that the first one to do it is no longer with us.  We’re not really new to this anymore.  Now it’s no longer a race to perform the miracle of setting foot on another world, it’s just the work and wait until we finally do it.  We’re going to do it.  No question.  And that’s very exciting to me.  I only hope I’m still alive when we finally get there.

What a wonderful universe we live in.  I’m so thankful that we are a curious species.