发表于2024-11-30
To Utopia and Back: The Search for Life in the Solar System 2024 pdf epub mobi 电子书
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Preface<br >l he exploration of the planet Mars in the 1960s and 1970s, cul-<br >minating in the landings of two instrumented Viking spacecraft in<br >1976, ended a long dream c~f Western civilization. Since these ex-<br >plorations obtained a negative answer to their most interesting<br >question, that of Martian life, they are doubtless regarded by many<br >as a failure. In actuality, however, they were a dazzling success. A<br >series of six beautifully designed and operated space missions<br >transformed Mars in the course of a decade from a mysterious<br >planet<br >~laces<br >with a long, romantic history into one of the most familiar<br >in the solar system. To an academic scientist caught up in<br >nvestigations, the entire Martian enterprise was and remains<br >as extraordinary as any first exploration of a new world must seem.<br >The range of scientific interests it engaged, the sophistication of its<br >instruments, the size and complexity (and effectiveness) of its or-<br >ganization, the sense of excitement and historic importance it in-<br >spired in partidpants and audience--a~ tb, ese g ~ve t~e exp ,oration<br >o[ Mars a singular place in the history of our time.<br > Failure to find life at either of the Viking landing sites, together<br > with persuasive evidence that other Martian locales are no more<br > hospitable than the two sampled, argues strongly that terrestrial<br > life is alone in the solar system, a conclusion of more than passing<br > interest. For many who had followed the course of Martian explo-<br > rations, starting with the flyby of Mariner 4 in 1965, the final out-<br >ny others<br >ic, it was a<br > The idea of an inhabited Mars occupies a special place in our<br >culture, and this idea had powerfully influenced the pace and style<br >0fthe Martian explorations. It explains, to begin with, the remark-<br ><br >
To Utopia and Back: The Search for Life in the Solar System 2024 pdf epub mobi 电子书