Culture: Life On Mars?

The world looks on Mars. The NASA Mars-rover "Curiosity", which is now exploring the Red Planet, finds a lot of attention because it enlarges our knowledge about the universe, at least about our neighbors in the solar system (facebook). The recent Mars mission also is a triumph for science & technology. Those scientists and engineers, who are involved in the Mars project, suddenly became "pop stars of the modern times", writes the German news side "Der Spiegel" (spiegel.de).

The Mars-rover`s name "Curiosity" is a perfect choice. Curiosity is the engine of progress, the fundament of human culture and wealth. The "natural inquisitive behavior" (wikipedia) induced the early hominids to climb down from the trees and to explore the world around them. Curiosity encouraged humans to invent the wheel, to start the fire, to discover foreign continents. Curiosity is the fundament of all sciences and therefore of medicine, physics, biology, chemistry and all the knowledge our live is based on.

The things "Curiosity" will discover on Mars could help us to understand more about how planets, including our world, evolved, and how life developed. The life news transmission from the Red Planed also shows the state of the art in information technology and helps to improve it.

The mars mission could rekindle the public interest in science & technology. Maybe the reports from Mars could encourage more people to study sciences including technology, physics, mathematic, biology and more. The mars program is another important step for mankind - even there is no life on Mars.