As I watched the news Monday morning, I saw the report of the helicopter flying around on Mars. Those folks at NASA were ecstatic. The control room cheered, as they had just flown an aircraft on another planet for the first time in history.
Of course, the first thing I wondered was how they did it, how they were able to send the signals, start the flight, control the helicopter, and then land it.
The actual trip of the spacecraft Perseverance to Mars took seven months by the convention of space travel. So now, how were they sending signals? I took a guess and said radio signals, most likely line-of-sight. And I was mostly correct. NASA uses an incredibly massive network of UHF radio signals to communicate with all the equipment on Mars. The time of travel for those wavelengths is anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes.
All of this is pretty amazing when you consider that the first air flight on Earth was just 120 years ago, those good Wright Brothers. When we consider that our ancestors have been here on this planet for about six million years, watching birds in the sky, wondering how it is they fly. And we just figured this out 120 years ago? Now, in a giant leap, we are flying on other planets. That’s some quick thinking right there.
Along another line was the automobile, which wasn’t much ahead of the airplane. It was on this date, April 20, 1887, when the world saw its first automobile race.
First of all, it was dubbed “the world’s first motor race.” But there was only one vehicle competing, and when you look at the facts, it wasn’t really even a car. But, the record books show that a fellow named Georges Bouton was the winner.
The “car” was truly a steam-powered quadricycle. And the entire event was merely a “test” organized by a local newspaper in Paris, France. That “test” was to see if Bouton’s car (machine), which had claimed speeds of 37 mph, could make the 18-mile distance between Neuilly Bridge in Paris and the Bois de Boulogne.
It did, and he did, hence, the victory. But my point is, the invention of the car was not that long ago either.
And now, we are sending signals to Mars in as fast as five minutes to run a mini-helicopter above that dusty planet.
We as humans know about signals, don’t we? We are constantly sending out signals all throughout our days. It is how we communicate with others. Mostly, these come in four different varieties: verbal, non-verbal, visual, and written.
Most of the time, things are pretty straightforward between humans. We walk to the counter and say, “Miss, I’d like to have the Big Mac, with the Biggie Fries, and the Super-Duper Chocolate Shake.” And she says, “That will be $9.68.” And the communication is complete.
But. Depending on who we are and who we interact with, these forms of communication can be quite complicated. “Esther, do you think these jeans make my butt look big?” Well, now, our communications become complicated back to our friend in the jeans. Do we tell her that everything makes her butt look big because it is big? Or do we say, no, you look fabulous in those denims, rhinestones and all?
Or how about the person who cuts you off in traffic, then throws on their left turn signal, forcing you to wait behind them until they are clear to turn? Do we give them the evil eye as they glance back in their rearview mirror? Or do we send another non-verbal communication, such as a finger display?
Sometimes, and more seriously, communicating with those we care about can be very complicated. To the point of regret, if we are not careful.
You would think that if they can fly a helicopter on Mars, we’d have things figured out here on Earth. Oh, but that is far from the case. We’ve been here six million years, and we haven’t learned all that much yet.
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“A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.”
― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
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“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
― George Bernard Shaw
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“So the whole war is because we can’t talk to each other.”
― Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game
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The signals from here to Mars to me and you
