Curiosity.

[dancinglights]

As you probably know, last night a team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (an academically-associated NASA contractor much like my own employer) successfully landed an SUV-sized rover on the surface of Mars through a series of re-entry technologies strung together into a Rube Goldberg-like monstrosity few could bring themselves to believe would work

Comments

[heron61]

It was the trickiest-sounding landing that I've heard of and I was impressed and pleased that it all worked perfectly. Yet more proof that both humans and robots can be truly awesome. YAY!

[mayamaia]

*smiles*

[historychick49]

So I have to say, when I first heard how Curiosity was going to land, I thought it was a joke. Then I found out it wasn't a joke, it was real, and my jaw dropped a lot.

I'm really, really happy everything worked and Curiosity's on Mars now!

[dancinglights]

Me too, and a NASA mission of my employer's is roundabout equally absurd. So, um, I'm really glad that one worked!

[hyuga]

I have to say, I think NASA's social media efforts have been pretty successful in the last couple years in driving excitement about space exploration. It can't be the only reason, but I'm sure it's helped. And they've been very successful in enlisting Tyson and other high-profile science geeks into participating in the social media stuff. Hats off them them. Now if only we can convince congress to double (triple? quintuple?) NASA's budget we'll really be on to something.

[dancinglights]

Seriously. Every time Congress as lobbied by various DoD interests (the same commercial ones that build NASA's spacecraft, of course, and apply that same new technology as they see profitable to the military-industrial complex, again, of course) tries to chop the budget even further, a lot of public goodwill is spent yelling back to undo it. I don't think we're anywhere near a net positive in today's and the near future's political and economic climate, but at least we just won a lot of that support, and outreach is getting a lot better at figuring out how to do so.

[thewronghands]

I thought of you when I saw the footage of all the happy people at JPL, you and bokunenjin.

[dancinglights]

Somehow I still managed to be surprised enough about my life to scream "HEY WAIT I KNOW PEOPLE IN THAT ROOM" at annoy-the-neighbors AM. I'm so happy for them, and just a bit more hopeful that in a few years a Rube Goldberg machine I've done any work for will go up, and do its thing as flawlessly.