Mars Misconceptions...

Where can you see the Great Wall from?

Have you ever found a discrepency between popular "knowledge" and reality? I have heard, for instance, many times, that the Great Wall of China is one of the man-made objects that are visible from space. I can see how this makes sense to people, as it is thousands of miles long. Upon further, critical thinking, you might want to think about how a wall that is three to twenty feet wide can be seen from space, or even from a significant altitude!

Examples like this exist about Mars and about travel to Mars. Many of these are perpetuated to skew public opinion. Space exploration is a political issue. Politicians and statesmen on both sides of space exploration over-simplify and use hyperbole. Let's consider a common fallacy: "Curiosity (fill in the blank with any mission) is a $2.5 billion dollar mission - that is a ton of money to waste on space exploration if it crashes!" Let's think about where the $2.5 billion dollars was invested.

If Curiosity was packed with $2.5 billion in cash, perhaps spewing it along the Martian surface like a series of unspendable souvineers, then the proposed statement would be accurate. But the $2.5 billion for Curiosity is the amount of money paid out in resources and salaries to the people who worked on the project. If Curiosity is successful (in 3 hours as I type this) then that $2.5 billion is in the accounts of people and company and used to fuel purchasing, savings and other goals of these industrious people and organizations. If Curiosity is not successful, the result is the same. The $70,000 paid to an electrical engineer on this project is still in their account, no matter what happens! So "$2.5 billion is on the line" is not an accurate financial statement. Space exploration is a risk that we may have invested tax or other dollars and will gain limited knowledge, but is not a bet like you would make at the horse races!

Another misconception is that Curiosity has been sent to Mars to search for life. Certainly, if it found a neighborhood of Martians strolling, or a set of Martain dinosaur bones, scientists would not ignore that finding! But this mission, and recent predecessors, have been focused on geology and chemistry, and not as much the search for life as the Viking landers of the mid 1970s.

The last misconception is that of a concept: "failure". Today, media and our society tend to value the dramatic and fantastical. Science is rarely so in the short term. In fact, we can seperate the landing (happening in about 90 min) from the more important scientific findings from creating the technology to make this happen, to the pure scientific knowledge gained from the work that a successful landing would spawn over the coming years. Even an unsuccessful landing is an experience to learn significant findings.

Ultimately, the human spirit makes us reach beyond our grasp. It is difficult to maintain persepctive as we stretch and dream, as we hope and aspire. While we do this, it is important to understand what is truly, objectively happening, so that our future judgments are sound, and our paths to scientific knowledge clear. As we find out soon if the lander has safely landed and is able to begin its true mission, the biggest fact one can appreciate is that this has been a successful effort, no matter what the outcome.

What is the biggest science or knowledge misconception that you have been made aware of? I would love to to be able to add to this list!! For a blog of things that you might not be aware of about astronomy, visit "Bad Astronomy" at the Discover Magazine website.