For those unaware, Perseverance and Curiosity are both armed, like the good patriotic American rovers they are - equipped with lasers which have a definite scientific function, but which also (let’s be honest) serve to dissuade any Martian critters they come across from getting too close…
Let’s hope Sheriff Percy doesn’t need to use it.
Original image with caption (MastCam, sol 1495)
What about that one rock on the left which has a side that looks like polished metal?
Yes, quite a few of those have been spotted up and down this hillside. Rocks of this type are currently under active investigation by the science team.
this is what’s wrong with humanity. find new non-terrestial life in its own home and what’s the first fucking thought?
“shoot it down because laser so pretty!”
Yes. Fine. But also if it decides to attack we can’t offer a real time defense due to signal travel time. The probe must be ready to defend itself without our timely response. We have to trust it to act before we even know anything happened.
We knew the risks when we planned the mission. We knew that an attacker might represent the whole of a particular species and that preemptive retaliation in the name of defense might represent genocide. It’s a risk we had to take. Maybe there is a small risk of interplanetary war as its civilisation takes our defense as a hostile act but look around you. Couldn’t things get a little better if we had one enemy to be united against? One major threat to get us back on track?
