Remembering Space Exploration Past & Celebrating The Future (January 28, 2006)

[ChrisReid]

Today is also the anniversary of the unfortunate Challenger accident in 1986. Along with the Apollo 1 disaster on January 27, 1967 and Columbia tragedy on February 1, 2003, it's a somber time of year for the NASA space program. They have created a Remembrance Site to recognize these events. On the bright side, many revolutionary things are currently unfolding as well. This month alone, the Stardust capsule returned cometary debris to Earth, the first mission to Pluto was launched and the Spirit & Opportunity rovers celebrated two years of exploring Mars. Additional craft are now on the way to Mercury, Venus and Mars. New opportunities to research the Moon, Asteroid Belt, Europa and Saturn may also present themselves very soon. Death supplied this article that discusses these missions and more. As science fiction fans, we all appreciated the sacrifices made to get us this far and remain especially excited about things to come.

Before the end of the next decade, NASA astronauts will again explore the surface of the moon. And this time, we're going to stay, building outposts and paving the way for eventual journeys to Mars and beyond. There are echoes of the iconic images of the past, but it won't be your grandfather's moon shot. Image [above]: NASA's new crew exploration vehicle in lunar orbit - artist's concept.

This morning LOAF went to the Texas History Museum to see the new Roving Mars IMAX movie. He brought back a few neat pictures to share with everyone.

​

It's the story of Spirit and Opportunity, from their initial development (with lots of cool footage of the rovers being put together and tested!) to their mission so far.

Most impressively, however, it was a fitting tribute to the engineers rather than some sort of attempt to classify the mission in historic or nationalistic terms. Instead of bringing in a second tier Hollywood celebrity the movie was narrated by Dr. Squyres, the genuinely excited mission lead everyone took note of during the televised landings.

--
Original update published on January 28, 2006

 

[Jumper]

Sweet!

I wish there was somewhere around here showing it...

I spent this past summer at JPL working on the Sample Acquisition/Sample Processing and Handling system for the next Mars rover, Mars Science Laboratory.

Almost everyone I worked with had contributed to MER in one way or another. My supervisor was lead mechanincal for both rovers rolloff from the lander.

They went from a Mars program rocked by the loss of Polar Lander and Climate Observer in 1999, started large scale work on MER in late 2000, and launched them in 2003. It was a very stressful timeline and a lot of people got really burned out.

Thankfully, MSL has from 2005-2009 before they have to launch, and they are only building one rover this time, so it should be a bit less stressful. I can't wait for that launch; the parts I worked on will be sent to Mars in their final form!

I hope that someday we can bring Spirit and Opportunity home and put them in the Smithsonian where they belong.

 

[eddieb]

Jumper, if you come back to JPL, let me know, you can drop by my office. A MER rover is already at the smithsonian, at least it was last time I visited.

 

[Unregistered]

What section do you work in?

I was in Section 355, they stuck me in the basement of 125 with the designers. Half and full scale plots of MSL parts all over the place. It was pretty cool

Looking for a CEV-related job this summer, but if that doesn't work out I might be back at JPL. It was an amazing place to work. The full scale Voyager engineering model in Von Karmen always gave me chills...I've been following the Voyager missions since I was maybe 10. I was so nervous my first day.... Working at one of the places I've been reading about since I was a kid.

California was a lot different from New England, too.