Space - our favourite frontier
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Exploring space is an expensive business, but robots are cheaper (and more expendable) than sending astronauts. European scientists understandably want to build on their success with the Mars Express mission - currently orbiting our planetary neighbour successfully - to land a robotic rover on the surface of the Red Planet. At £350m, it is expensive. But, in theory, this instrument could help to answer one of the most intriguing questions to haunt humanity (and, for that matter, Hollywood): are we alone?
Exploring space is an expensive business, but robots are cheaper (and more expendable) than sending astronauts. European scientists understandably want to build on their success with the Mars Express mission - currently orbiting our planetary neighbour successfully - to land a robotic rover on the surface of the Red Planet. At £350m, it is expensive. But, in theory, this instrument could help to answer one of the most intriguing questions to haunt humanity (and, for that matter, Hollywood): are we alone?
Over the past 10 years we have seen accumulating evidence suggesting that simple life forms may have evolved on Mars at some point in the past four billion years. Britain's ill-fated Beagle-2 space probe had the necessary instruments to answer that question, but it was, famously, lost on its descent to Mars in 2003. Now the Aurora rover, due to land in 2013, could provide us with tantalising proof of extra-terrestrial life. If it did, then £350m might seem cheap at the price.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments