The Event Horizon

1. Editorial: On Life and Death and Embarrassing Moments

It may seem a bit strange for me talk about life and death. But the death I'm talking about is the death of an instrument that has served its purpose well while the life I'm thinking of is the probable life that may appear on a dead world. As for the embarrassing moments, well you'll find out at the end.

Okay, enough of beating around the bush. On March 10, 1998 at 1.21PM, Pacific Standard Time, the Mars Pathfinder was officially declared dead by NASA officials. You can read the NASA Transcript of the last attempt to contact the Pathfinder to find out the 'final moments' of the Pathfinder Mission.

The Pathfinder Mission was widely considered a very successful one. It should be: it was a mission that was designed to last only a month, with a rover that was supposed to last only a week. Instead, to everybody's delight, the Mars Pathfinder worked for nearly three months before communication with it was lost. And the results returned by the Pathfinder showed a Mars that was definitely wetter and warmer in its past, raising prospects for life (even without the probable evidence contained in a piece of the Martian rock).

I can remember the thrill I felt when the mission first landed on Mars on July 4 last year and began working almost immediately. A cushion that didn't fully deflate was the only initial major hitch. Then, the 'deluge' began as NASA's web (and its mirror) sites were flooded with downloads for the latest pictures and results. At that time, I virtually started my day by going to see what were the latest pictures and results returned.

With its 'death', another chapter in the exploration of Mars has closed but it is not yet over. The Mars Global Surveyor is slowly settling into orbit and there are future Mars missions planned. Things are looking up for the 'case for Mars'. And the Mars Pathfinder surely joins the Voyager missions are being more successful than originally planned.

The life I'm thinking does not exist yet, but it could in the future. Recently, the Lunar Prospector found that millions of gallons of water exist at the Moon's poles, sheltered in craters that do not feel the light (and heat) of day. After all the speculation in various books (like Allen Steele's ``Lunar Descent'') on whether water could exist on the moon, the question has now been settled. Until the evidence is examined more closely to see whether the water exists in a usable form, the idea of having lunar colonies still looks remote, but it is now a lot less remote than in the past.

Things are looking bright for the moon and it is very probable that in the near to medium term future, life in the form of lunar colonies may well be found on the moon.

This month, we also had a solar eclipse which was probably one of the most closely observed, not just from the ground but also from space. One of these days, I have to catch one live but until then, it is good enough to see it via images and in real video. More information on the eclipse can be found at the Exploratorium site.

Unfortunately, the past month has also turned out to be a rather embarrassing month for one science fiction author and for the son of another. Arthur C. Clarke has been accused of being a paedophile by a British newspaper, a charge that Clarke vigorously denies.

A more serious charge was recently bought against David Asimov, the son of Isaac Asimov. He was found by the police with various child pornographic tapes at his home, as reported in a ZDNet news item recently.

With that, I close off a month that is full of highs and, unfortunately, downs too.

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