by Nancy Thomas

Ok, so, they landed on Mars. Now, right off the bat you gotta give them props for using their scientific brains for something other than creating yet another tiny new gadget. However, the Rover really isn't much better. Some day I might have a use for a pocket-sized waffle maker. A Mars Rover? Not likely.

They've spent 400 million dollars to send a glorified golf cart to a other planet. 400 million. I can easily think of 20 better things to spend that kind of money on. Even better, they think it's remarkable and they continue to brag about it's features — the movable arm, the ability to drill into small rocks, two way communication with earth, and moving away from its base. It's that last feature that I'd really like to comment on. Now, maybe it's just me, but I don't find it all that impressive that they can send something into space that's capable of landing and not just sitting on the surface like a useless tool. I mean, really anyone could fire whatever useless block of matter into space and consider it a stroke of genius. So, the thing moves, and they've been so excited to tell everyone it can move, now, hold your breath, up to ten metres a day. At this rate, they could explore so much of the planet! That is right until it bumps into a rock or piece of plastic debris and gets stuck. The Rover has been on Mars now for 18 days. Now, I don't know if you've seen any recent pictures this thing has sent back (by the way, it takes an entire day to send about three photos) but, looking back at its lander it's only about one metre from home base. And they're excited to be "exploring" the planet? They're exploring about ten feet of it! They've analyzed a rock, some soil and taken pictures of the lander. Wow, Mars is impressive! Isn't it exactly what we all thought it would be — red dirt?! Those pictures could have been taken right here on PEI for Pete's sake!

When this thing dies (which may already be the case), or rolls into a 2" impression it can't get out of, what do they do with it? They abandon it. In typical American style: they went, they conquered and they left their crap all over the place. Mission Accomplished.