One of the 3000 creators of Curiosity Mars Rover, who spent seven years working on it, put together a video about that night. “Touchdown confirmed, we’re safe on Mars.”
Butterflies and Wheels
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It’s great to see the faces behind this mission. With the moon landings there were always the astronauts to give a human dimension. With robotic missions the humans are back on earth but their hearts and minds are extended to the distance they have flung their creations. It’s wonderful to go along for the ride.
NASA is to be commended for putting us in the loop, and not without some risk. If Curiosity had failed (which is a fate many missions to Mars have suffered) the repercussions would have been much greater, I think, with this “over the shoulder” audience participation. But we also would have witnessed and shared the anguish and disappointment of real human beings.
I’m hoping they find some solid evidence for past (or better still current) life on Mars. It’s time we had a sample size of greater than “one” of planets on which life has arisen.
The guy in that video did better than me. I spent the first seven years of my working life as an itinerant fruit picker. I had a lot of fun, but achieved SFA. Good luck to him.
I teared up watching this video. One day, I hope to be one of the engineers on a design team like that one.
Just…beautiful.
Wasn’t it?
Think of all the students now buckling down to their math homework (the way I never did, jerk that I was) because inspired by this. Think of all the dreams they can have. “I could help to put something on another planet.”
I can identify with this to a small extent. I have worked as a subcontractor (or maybe a sub-subcontractor, the technology and science always interested me more than the business relationships) on several robotic missions.
And you are right about this being an inspiration to future scientists and engineers. I was five when the Apollo mission landed the first people on the moon. Watching that on TV made such a -huge- impression on me that I eventually did manage to get involved in space research.
I am proud to have played a part, however small, in the camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that helped pick the best landing site for Curiosity. This stuff is just so cool.