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SCAN PAGE TO SEE
INSIGHT MARS LANDING.
An artist’s concept
of the Mars Science
Laboratory spacecraft
approaching Mars.
Ask Attorney
Ken Gross
for openers
N
ASA spent nearly the last
seven months guiding its
InSight Mars lander through
301,223,981 miles of space at 12,300
mph, then, at the precise planned
moment, stuck the landing on Nov. 26
on the surface of the
red planet. (After 47
years of driving, I still
can’t parallel park.)
Meanwhile, several
states in our union had
two years to prepare for
Alan Muskovitz the midterm elections
Contributing Writer
and still couldn’t tab-
ulate an accurate vote
total on Election Day.
I was riveted last week watching
the live feed from the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL) in California as mis-
sion managers counted down what
they called “seven minutes of terror,”
the time it took for InSight to survive
the trauma of its descent through the
Martian atmosphere. Not to be con-
fused with the seven minutes of terror I
go through during my annual prostate
exam. Speaking of which ...
Insight will be the first lander to
probe deep below the surface of Mars,
drilling as much as 12 feet down.
NASA says it “will be taking the planet’s
vital signs, its pulse and temperature ...
the first mission to give Mars a thor-
ough checkup since the planet formed
4.5 billion years ago.” Unfortunately,
NASA/JPL-CALTECH
What Planet Ar e You From?
even after 4.5 billion years, Mars still
hasn’t met its deductible.
I’d hate to be the one paying for col-
lision insurance for Mars missions over
the last 40 years; 40 percent of those
missions by the world’s space agencies
failed to fulfill the intended goal of
successfully orbiting or landing on the
planet.
Proudly, InSight was the U.S.’ eighth
Mars landing, and we remain the only
space program to successfully do so.
NASA is also proud of the fact that
none of its other seven spacecrafts on
Mars, one as far back as 1976, has yet to
receive a parking ticket.
I’m fascinated by all things space.
And I think if not for my striking
intellectual and physical limitations,
I would’ve made a great astronaut.
Although I’ve always lived in fear that
because of my husky physique I would
suffer the embarrassment of being the
first astronaut in space not to experi-
ence weightlessness.
Some predict we’ll land a human on
Mars by 2040. One of my sources tells
me that an astronaut from Michigan
will likely be chosen because he or she
would be the most experienced at driv-
ing over a surface covered in craters.
Sadly, I’m skeptical about whether we
really deserve to land on another planet
until we figure out how to take care of
the one we already inhabit. I’m not just
talking environmentally; I’m talking
behaviorally. Based on current societal
norms, is it really too unrealistic to
think one day we’ll be watching epi-
sodes of The Real Housewives of Mars?
I’m looking forward to the months
ahead as NASA’s InSight uncovers the
heretofore mysteries of Mars. And it
can’t happen fast enough because I
think researchers are running out of
ideas on Earth.
According to a Nov. 19 story by
Helen Regan on CNN’s website, “a
team of scientists claims to have unrav-
eled one of the animal kingdom’s more
peculiar mysteries: why wombat poop
is cubed-shaped.” I. Kid. You. Not.
Shouldn’t we first try to answer the age-
old question — Do bears poop in the
woods?
Anyway, I’m choosing to stay
focused on Mars and keep dreaming
that maybe one day my Visa Flex Card
Miles will allow me to travel there.
Perhaps with Tesla’s Elon Musk, creator
of the SpaceX program, who said last
week there’s a 70 percent chance he’ll
move to Mars. And when I get there,
I’ll finally be able to answer the ques-
tion my family is always asking me:
“Just what planet are you from?”
Mars. I am from Mars. ■
Silence, she says, is safe. How long
does she think she will be free to write
about and what will she be free to
write with that attitude?
Silence will be the death of us!
Silence is our enemy. Jews, more than
most, know the importance of speak-
ing out loudly against anyone giving a
voice to anti-any religion or anti-any
race.
We will only exist as long as we
make certain our voices are heard, and
we will only be safe if we shout out the
rights of all minorities. Silence never
was, is not now and never will be the
solution to anti-Semitism!
Response from
a Messianic Jew
Alan Muskovitz is a writer, voice-over/acting
talent, speaker, emcee and an occasional
guest host on the Mitch Albom Show on WJR
AM 760. Visit his website at laughwithbigal.
com and “Like” Al on Facebook.
letters
Silence Is Not
the Solution
In response to “There’s Nothing New
About This Wave Of Anti-Semitism”
(Nov. 22, page 8), I must say how
deeply it both disturbed and outraged
me.
The writer tells how horrible it was
for her when she personally expe-
rienced anti-Semitism as a child,
and how her grandmother warned
“it” could happen here. The “it”
being understood, of course, as the
Holocaust.
The author is identified as a “free-
lance” writer who now believes the
answer to anti-Semitism is silence.
— Barbara Miller
West Bloomfield
Responding to the political rally
in which a Messianic Jewish leader
(identified as a “rabbi”) was asked to
pray for the victims of the Tree of Life
massacre, Rabbi Jason Miller recalled
the Judaism course he took from me
at Michigan State University over 20
years ago (Nov. 8, page 20).
While I understand his confusion
upon learning I was a Messianic Jew,
he acknowledges that my personal
convictions had no deleterious effect
on the quality of the course. Hence,
his feeling of being “duped” had no
rational basis, as, I presume, he him-
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continued on page 12
jn
December 6 • 2018
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