MnAstro Forums

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of Curiosity landing on Mars!

With all their daring-do and cutting edge technology, the robots are only the evidence of the real story of JPL. Oh sure, the robots get all the attention, and the mission patches, and the Twitter accounts... But the real wonder comes when you look at the people behind these technological marvels. The robots are simply the avatars for the spirit of exploration imbued within each and every individual that laid a hand on these things.

https://youtu.be/zervvVw2dnU

"Touchdown confirmed. We are safe on Mars!"

Not "It."

Not "Curiosity."

Not "The lander."

Not "The Mars Science Laboratory."

"We!"

Wow! It's been ten years already? I was at my computer, watching it. It's amazing how much better the experience was than when watching the Spirit rover landing. So much more bandwidth!

I was watching live too.

I was fascinated, I can't even imagine the tension in the room until the response "Touchdown confirmed!" was heard.

I felt that same tension on the landing of the Perseverance rover landing, even though this was not a new thing.

Pretty cool.