This is Major Tom to Ground Control
I'm stepping through the door.
And I'm floating in a most peculiar way,
And the stars look very different today...
...Here am I floating 'round my tin can
Far above the moon.
Planet Earth is blue
And there's nothing I can do.
- "Space Oddity"
David Bowie
You might have missed it, inasmuch as in this Administration the Chief Executive's "discovery" of the fact that wearing a face covering substantially reduces the likelihood of you expelling disease (including but not limited to COVID-19) on others when you sneeze, cough, or simply talk to them was announced with the fanfare of "The Earth is a not square like a pizza box but, instead, a circle like a pizza! Well, most pizza. Not Sicilian."
But I digress.
The men and women of NASA continue to do extraordinary things, as they have always done. This week, NASA posted on its YouTube channel (the slogan of which is not "One small step for man. One giant leap in views and subscribers" but perhaps should be) a video simply entitled "Mars in 4K".
To call it "breathtaking" is to engage in the basest form of understatement but much like gravity, the limits of my vocabulary hold me down.
Grab yourself a cup of coffee or other beverage of your choice, click "play" on the video, turn the volume up so you can listen to the narration, and enjoy the show. Remind yourself every now and again that you are looking at images of a planet that is 140 million miles from Earth, made possible because really smart people figured out (a) how to build the Rovers that took these videos; (b) how to get them to Mars; and (c) how to get them to record these images and broadcast them home to Earth for evaluation and study.
Intelligence matters. Spoiler alert: It always has.
Do not feel compelled to accept my word on this point.
Ask Major Tom...
-AK
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