Google Earth (ha ha) gives a great perspective on the area around the landing site. Numerous photos from the HiRISE instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have wonderful detail. Using the "incline" feature on the Google Earth 3D viewer produces a very lifelike perspective.
The outpouring of enthusiasm for this UNMANNED, ROBOTIC mission is very encouraging. It says that missions to other planets don't need to have astronauts to provide inspiration.
Also a comment on nationalism: there has been an outpouring of American pride in this accomplishment. The pride is justified, although some of the expressions have been unseemly. American policy makers should try to evolve to a more global approach to space exploration. By involving many nations in projects like Curiosity, the exploration of space can become a unifying rather than a dividing enterprise.
As has been said before in this blog: we are going to need triumphs of space exploration in this century, to maintain our hope for the future. This is especially true in this century of resource exhaustion and population explosion. It will be all to easy to become dispirited by the challenges, by the losses. Let us build a world space program, to help everyone feel included in the successes and in the failures as well.
UPDATE: a friend has unearthed a letter from a NASA exec in the 1960s, explaining the benefits of space exploration to a nun working with starving children. That letter is far more eloquent than I have been. I recommend it highly. It was provided to the website by space historian Roger Launius.
