Our lower school students were fascinated this week when they viewed a clip that demonstrated the launch and landing of the Mars Rover, Spirit. This engineering feat is inspirational to children who are interested in science.

The Mighty Mars Rovers: The Incredible Adventures of Spirit and Opportunity by Elizabeth Rusch (Houghton Mifflin, 2012) tells the story of one scientist who was inspired by the Apollo mission to the moon when he was thirteen-years-old. Steven Squyres went on to study geology and planetary science. His dream was to learn more about Mars. When Steve was a professor of astronomy at Cornell, he organized a team of scientists and engineers and proposed a project to NASA. His idea was to have a special robot to photograph Mars.

In 2000, NASA and his team of 170 scientists began their Mars project with hundreds of engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Their dreams became a reality when the two Mars Rovers landed and began to send information to earth.

Cars on Mars: Roving the Red Planet by Alexandra Siy (Charlesbridge, 2009) also relates this amazing achievement.

One child’s dream can become a reality!