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 The Lost Dawnby Stuart Atkinson Page 4 of 4 We won't truly know Mars until one of us has stood on it and
looked around, and then looked *back*, and seen Earth shining in
the sky, reduced to a welding-arc blue spark by the great gulf
of interplanetary space. Then, and only then, will Mars become
real. Until we can put a person on Mars - until we can put a
heart on Mars - it will remain a place without a soul.
I am sure we will reach Mars eventually, and like all of you I will rejoice on that day, shed more than a few tears. But it saddens me that we'll never have the chance to see another such amazing dawn. Colonists who stand beside Viking 1 on the 50th anniversary, in 2026, will see nothing out of the ordinary at sunrise, and at sunset hours later Earth will shine alone in the west, without any blazing companions. Even on the 100th anniversary of Viking's landing, martian settlers will witness only a double comjunction at dawn, as Venus and Earth climb into the brightening sky together, as far apart as Castor and Pollux. No, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and no human eyes will see it. We should all feel saddened, perhaps even ashamed, at that. But we haven't lost Mars completely. There are still some dreamers, some visionaries who hear the Red Planet calling, and who will not rest until someone sees *a* dawn from its boulder-littered plains. I'm one of them, and so, on the day of the anniversary, I'll pull on my jacket, find a quiet corner of a quiet field, and look up at Mars shining in *my* dawn sky, and offer my thanks to the probe that gave us back Mars, 25 years ago. (c) Stuart Atkinson (STUARTATK@aol.com) 2001 Copyright© 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 Stuart Atkinson, sffworld.com. All rights reserved. No part of this may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the author. |
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