Jules Jones

Today is, of course, the anniversary of the first human landing on the Moon. My parents tell me they put me in front of the tv to watch it, although I have no memory of this. The first spacecraft landing I can remember was on the same day seven years later. Viking 1 touched down on the surface of Mars forty years ago today. I can still remember very clearly my excitement watching a popular science show on tv explaining beforehand how the various instruments and experiments would work, and my sense of wonder at seeing the first images.

Forty years on I'm following the current Mars lander's twitter account. Curiosity's a chatty little robot, or at least the humans behind the account are. Time and technology march on. But still I remember the awe with which I watched that slow scan build up into a panorama of the Martian landscape.