pA:10, v10.33 — The World Around Us

The World Around Us

Mountain Views News Saturday, August 13, 2016

MVNews this week: Page A:10

THE WORLD AROUND US

Mountain Views-News Saturday, August 13, 2016

CURIOSITY ROVER CELEBRATES FOUR YEARS ON MARS

As NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) celebrates
four years on the Red Planet, University of Leicester
planetary scientist Professor John Bridges recounts
the mission’s success and explains what is next for
the one-ton nuclear-powered science robot.

The Curiosity rover (with MSL aboard) hit the
dusty Martian surface on August 6, 2012, and began
its mission of finding evidence about whether ancient
Mars offered environmental conditions conducive to
microbial life.

By March 2013, NASA reported that MSL had
achieved its primary objective after scientists found
evidence of oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, sulfur,
phosphorous and carbon—all essential chemical
elements for supporting living organisms.

Now the mission, which was scheduled to end this
year, has recently been given a two-year extension.

Bridges said, “It’s been a great four years—from
the excitement of landing we have now had 1,421
Martian days of operations and driven 13.6 km. We
have learned an enormous amount about Mars.”

“The old idea of Mars as a simple basaltic planet
that experienced a few catastrophic floods has been
disproved. We have encountered ancient lakes and a
silica-rich crust.

“Our laser—ChemCam—has made over 350,000
shots on Mars and we are busily interpreting the
data.”

Bridges added that the Mars Science Lab’s
plutonium power source can keep it going for years
to come. “For the next few years,” he says, we will
gradually climb further up Mount Sharp; at the
moment we are in foothills called Murray Buttes.”

As part of the fourth-year celebration, NASA has
released a smartphone game, which lets users control
their own MSL across the rugged terrain of Mars
searching for water.

On their mobile devices, players drive a rover
through rough Martian terrain, challenging
themselves to navigate and balance the rover
while earning points along the way. The game
also illustrates how NASA’s next Mars rover, in
development for launch in 2020, will use radar to
search for underground water.

“We’re excited about a new way for people on the
go to engage with Curiosity’s current adventures on
Mars and future exploration by NASA’s Mars 2020
rover too,” says Michelle Viotti, manager of Mars
public engagement initiatives at JPL. “Using social
networks, the user can share the fun with friends.
The interest that is shared through gameplay also
helps us open a door to deeper literacy in science,
technology, engineering and mathematics.” JPL
collaborated with GAMEE, a network for game-
players, for development of the game, called Mars
Rover.

For more information about how the Mars Rover
game relates to exploration by NASA’s Mars rovers,
visit: mars.nasa.gov/gamee-rover

Meanwhile, on Mars, the real rover has driven
to position for drilling into a rock target called
“Marimba,” to acquire rock powder for onboard
laboratory analysis. The rover has begun a multi-
month ascent of a mudstone geological unit as it
heads toward higher and progressively younger
geological evidence on Mount Sharp.

During the rover’s first Earth year on Mars, the
mission accomplished its main goal when it found
and examined an ancient habitable environment.
No signs of life have yet been found, but researchers
determined that a freshwater lake at the Yellowknife
Bay site billions of years ago offered the chemical
ingredients and energy favorable for supporting
microbial life. Stay tuned!

Here at home, we have good views of Mars in our
southern sky, along with four other bright planets.
Venus, now appearing as the “evening star,” is just
above the southwest horizon after sunset. To the
upper left of Venus, look for Mercury, Jupiter, orange
Mars, and golden Saturn (in that order).

You can contact Bob Eklund at: b.eklund@
MtnViewsNews.com.

OUT TO PASTOR

A Weekly Religion Column by Rev. James Snyder

PINCHING PENNIES IN A NICKEL
ECONOMY

An incident happened this past week that
created for me a certain pause to think about
things.

I don’t often think about too many things.
After all, with only one little gray cell, it is
hard to think about things in the plural. “One-
thought-at-a-time,” is my life motto. Experience
has taught me that too many thoughts at any
given time, usually leads to trouble with the
Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage.

I was going to pick up a few items at Publix
when it happened. I parked in the parking
lot as normal, got out of the car and started
towards the store. Halfway to the store is when
it happened.

Even now as I think about it, I’m a little
excited. Believe me; it takes quite a bit to get me
excited these days.

Walking towards the entrance to the store, I
saw on the ground a penny, which caused me to
stop in my tracks.

I do not bend over for anything unless it is
important these days. My problem is that if I
bend over I will have difficulty in unbending. It
has to be something rather important for me to
bend down, let alone pick it up.

However, there it was in all of its glory.

I do remember one of my favorite quotes from
Benjamin Franklin, “A penny saved is a penny
earned.” He was a wise old man and should
know about these things.

I would like to amend that quote by saying, “A
penny found is a penny earned.” After all, you
cannot leave a penny there on the ground all by
itself.

Some people would complain that a penny
is not worth that much. But a penny is worth
one cent. And one cent has value, at least in my
pocket.

The formula goes something like this: 100
pennies equals one dollar. 100 dollars equals a
whole heap of money.

As I bent down to pick up this orphaned penny,
I thought of all the other orphaned pennies that
I have collected throughout my life. I make it a
practice to adopt all of these orphaned pennies
and keep them safely on my dresser.

The penny that I picked up was a little
corroded and dirty, but it had the same value as
a bright shiny clean penny. Outside appearances
do not fool me. In fact, I will take all the dirty
pennies you have.

I don’t know if it was my upbringing that
caused me to be rather cautious with money. Or,
if not having a lot of money throughout life has
done the same thing. What I do know is, I am
very careful when it comes to money.

Don’t get me wrong. Money is not my god.
Some people make a god out of money, which I
think is rather silly. Money cannot create a God,
but it is interesting that God can create money?

As a young boy, my father taught me this one
thing, “Son, if you can’t afford something you
don’t need it.” I think he was right about 95%
of the time. Then there are those times when I
really needed something and could not afford it.

I have tried to save money. I own a small piggy
bank that I put extra cash into it as I find it. I try
to hide it from my wife, which is never a good
thing. If you have been married as long as I
have, you will conclude that there is actually no
way to hide anything from your wife.

I was trying to save up a little cash for special
things that I will leave unsaid at this point.
Whenever I got a new coin, I would put it in this
little piggy bank I had hidden in my closet.

I almost reached my goal when something
happened. I went to get some money out of the
little piggy bank only to find it empty. Now what
do I do? Do I let somebody in the house know
that I’ve had a secret stash in my closet? Do I
now come out of the closet?

I figured the best protocol would be to say
nothing and therefore not get into any trouble.
Well, you know how that goes.

That evening as we were watching a little
TV my wife happened to say, “I hope you don’t
mind, but I took some of the money out of your
piggy bank in the closet to buy some items.”

Don’t mind? Even if I did mind, I really can’t
say anything. All I could say was, “That’s okay, I
was just saving it for a rainy day.”

“That’s what I thought,” my wife said most
thoughtfully, “yesterday was a rainy day.”

At least my money was used for somebody’s
good purpose. The thought that danced around
in my head was, how long did she know I had
that piggy bank in the closet?

So, the penny that I found in the parking lot
this week has found a nice residence in my piggy
bank, that is, until it rains.

The apostle Paul said it best, “For the love of
money is the root of all evil: which while some
coveted after, they have erred from the faith,
and pierced themselves through with many
sorrows” (1 Timothy 6:10).

Money certainly has its place, but not in the
first place where God belongs.

Dr. James L. Snyder is pastor of the Family of
God Fellowship Ocala, FL where he lives with the
Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage. Call him at
1-866-552-2543 or e-mail jamessnyder2@att.net.
His web site is www.jamessnyderministries.com.

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