Head of Vatican Observatory welcomes Curiosity’s Mars landing
August 07, 2012: The Mars science rover Curiosity landed on the Martian surface Monday
morning to begin a two-year mission seeking evidence the Red Planet once hosted ingredients
for life. Mission controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California
received signals relayed by a Martian orbiter confirming that the rover had survived
a make-or-break descent and landing attempt to touch down as planned inside a vast
impact crater.
The Curiosity rover is the first fully-fledged mobile science
laboratory to be landed on the surface of the planet Mars. Curiosity is designed to
hunt for soil-based signatures of life and send back data to prepare for a future
human mission. The head of the Vatican Observatory, Jesuit Father José Gabriel Funes
told Vatican Radio that he welcomes the achievement. “I think everybody should be
happy with the success of this mission,” he said, adding, “we now have to wait for
results, to see if we can learn more about Mars and the possibility of organic elements
on the surface of Mars.”
Asked whether Catholics and believers in general have
anything to fear - whether from the search for extraterrestrial life in particular
or from scientific exploration generally, Father Funes responded, “No, of course not
– we are not afraid of science, we are not afraid of new results, new discoveries.”
The Director of the Vatican Observatory went on to explain that the Church is deeply
committed to scientific research. “That’s the reason why the [Holy See] has an observatory,”
he said. “Whatever the truth might be, we are open to new results, once they are confirmed
by the scientific community.”