A year ago last Monday, an ungainly little robot spacecraft named Spirit boinged down onto the rocky surface of Mars. Three weeks later, Spirit was joined by Opportunity, and the pair began separate exploratory sojourns designed to last about 90 days. Twelve months later, amazingly, they are still going.
Last year was not a good one for Earth. Looking back on it now with the perspective afforded by a week or so of life in 2005, it appears like one long diorama of unmitigated disappointment and disaster, from the ballooning misadventure in Iraq to the horror of last month's killer tsunami.
It's just as well that NASA's two little rovers with the hopeful nicknames were far, far away on Mars, getting on with life oblivious to the bleakness on their home planet. They reminded us that good things do happen -- and that sometimes they even work out better than they were supposed to.