The Stars of Mars

摘要

As the martian rover paid cour-tesy calls up and down Ares Vallis last week, she showed the exemplary manners expected of any ambassador. Before reaching out with her Alpha Proton X-Ray Spectrometer for a 10-hour handshake with "Barnacle Bill," the rover first rolled toward this blue-gray stone at a stately half inch per second. Tipping a bit as she went over a small rock, she recovered gracefully, backed up about 12 inches and stuck her spectrometer onto Bill. She collected data on what he was made of.