For almost 70 years, NASA has been tracing human history in the cosmos: from man’s landing on the Moon to sending the Juno probe towards Jupiter, through the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope which accelerates science and much more, the steps forward accomplished in the space sector are immense.
There is one particular NASA moment, though, that some of us would hate to see lost to the annals of history: that moment, 20 years ago when the Spirit rover (may it rest in peace) carved an undeniably phallic shape onto the surface of Mars.
As described in a 2013 NBC report, Spirit designed his iconic Martian phallus in 2004, shortly after landing on the dusty Red Planet along with its sister rover Opportunity. And, fascinatingly, Spirit wasn’t the only rover to carve a phallic figure onto the surface of our planetary neighbor; the tracks are actually the result of a standard turning maneuver by the rover, and both Opportunity and the next-generation rover Curiosity, which landed in 2012, were known to make similar marks with their wheels.
Of course, the legacy of Spirit, its sister ship, and the rovers that followed is much greater than an image from 20 years ago. These probes have captured an incredible amount of data that has helped humanity better understand Earth’s amazing cosmic neighbor, a feat that could facilitate future human missions to Mars.
Article source: futurism.com
