Seasons of Mars
Wind, dunes and dry ice

October 5 2014

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter circles the red planet since 2006. The little spacecraft sends high-res pictures of Mars’ surface ever since. Check this picture of frosted dunes in winter to experience the full resolution.

I enjoy this intergalactic outlook a lot although I want to use it to get across a critical point of view on space exploration. I found two videos (see below) that made me rethink the subject. They cleverly express (but only in German) that the ‘galactic imperative’ we are sold is merely a distraction from far more pressing areas of interest. The new frontiers we ought to conquer lay inside. Instead we drop a piece of machinery on a distant planet and mistake this presentation of analytic thinking and technical finesse for the expansion of our horizon. As long as we conceive the cosmos only in its physical dimension all these mega-projects will bring nothing but more diversion. We won’t find our purpose on Mars if we can’t feel at home on our loving mother Earth.

The video mentioned above from Umkreis Institut:
“Die Besiedelung des Weltraums als Ablenkung”