Say hello howdoyado to Curiosity, mankind's latest robotic explorer to Mars. And robots are likely the only explorers we'll send to Mars, or anywhere else, for many, many years. If ever. Manned missions of exploration are mostly vanity projects, and expensive ones at that. Robots will be able to do everything we can far more safely and cheaply and in vastly greater numbers.
If people are to go to space, it should be to colonize, not explore. Otherwise, it's a waste of time. Send legions of robots first to pave the way, and then in time, send fleets of people to different destinations and make our stab at the immortality of the human species. Until then, robots will have to make due.
Oreo understands.
Mount Sharp. Very tall. Curiosity will be ascending it over the next years, sampling the geology along the way. The mountain is built of geologic layers and thus Curiosity will get a sample of many millions of years of Martian history as it climbs.
So, in sum: Space robots are cool. Earth robots are scary!
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