As I write this there are several robotic explorers on and orbiting around Mars, and another is approaching quickly (the Phoenix lander). Rarely do these missions make the news, even though (from most perspectives, anyway) they are far more important to mankind than, say, Britney's latest calamity or over-exposure. At right is a recent photo of an alluvial fan on Mars, taken by one of these explorers: the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and more specifically, the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) imager it has onboard. You can click on this photo to enlarge it, or you can get the full resolution version (of this or any other of the tens of thousands of HiRISE images) from the HiRISE instrument site.
Quietly, every day, these robots (and the teams of scientists, engineers, and technicians who control and use them) are doing first-class science work. Our remarkable technology and their efforts are steadily advancing mankind's knowledge of the universe. I'm reasonably certain that the progress of these explorers will have more impact on our future than 90% (or more!) of the pap and crap that fills the front pages of our newspapers, or that leads on the news “shows” – and yet it is very seldom that the heroes of this work get any recognition at all...
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