Mars is cool, stop whining about money and religion

I just watched this clip on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission (MER) and my mind was sufficiently blown. How cool are we, how ingenious, that we can design a series of small robots to not only travel a distance of 55 million kilometers (that's seven long months of loneliness) but to also successfully hit an inconceivably small target and survive?



I guess I must be alone in that though. You know, the doe-eyed wonder at our ability to create? Yea apparently I'm the only one who's not jaded because just about every comment under this clip was either about the 'ridiculous' cost or how this video somehow affronts their religious views (you gotta love people like that, or where would The Daily Show be?).

I don't care how much it costs, this stuff is cool. For all those complaining about how our government is wasting money on something completely useless, stop for two seconds and think about all the useless stuff you bought in the past week. Stuffing your face with Doritos isn't solving world hunger and all that music you purchased on iTunes isn't curbing anthropogenic climate change. Until you start spending money more judiciously I suggest you sit down. So go right ahead, cast the first stone.

We do these things because that's what makes us human. We do it because we can. And you know what, we'll probably come up with a way to turn a profit on space exploration (or exploitation) sometime anyway. Baby steps guys.

And to all those who felt their religious views were somehow threatened by this video, how indescribably sensitive can you be? And how does that thought process work?

space exploration = science = thinking differently = blasphemy ???

We went to Mars. We didn't blow a hole through heaven, I promise. This huge fear of scientific thinking in religious communities is just silly. The two are not mutually exclusive. Just calm down and give everyone a hug or something.