I find it amazing that we have a piece of equipment still going strong on a remote hostile place for 14 years. It is still finding new information.
And at the same time over here we move fast and break things, we have regime changes. People chasing the latest fads or quarterly gains. Min/maxing.
I find some solace in that somewhere we are still able to make these long running missions. I hope we develop such long term vision also for the more near problems of our world. (Both in time and space.)
There are 2 active and several inactive rovers, not just Curiosity. Also, yes, space is awesome, but a lot of progress happened there because regimes clashed with each other and tried to outdo each other. In the process, they moved fast and broke things in space as well.
Also, what makes you think the world doesn't have any long-term vision? It's easier to plan (not execute, obviously) on shooting a rover onto Mars (relatively) than it is to plan what a country is going to do in a year.
And at the same time over here we move fast and break things, we have regime changes. People chasing the latest fads or quarterly gains. Min/maxing.
I find some solace in that somewhere we are still able to make these long running missions. I hope we develop such long term vision also for the more near problems of our world. (Both in time and space.)