Welcome back, My Dear Readers, to the very first 'The Mars Report' since my return to The Other Shoe. This was always one of my favorite articles to write, and share. Enjoy!
By coincidence, fate, destiny or just sheer luck I have returned to The Other Shoe and ‘The Mars Report’ just in time to share with you some very important news. The curiosity team (The Mars science laboratory project at JPL) has won the National Air and Space Museum lifetime achievement award for the landing of the Curiosity rover.
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“The team in charge of successfully landing NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., received the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's highest group honor at a dinner in Washington on Wednesday night, April 24. The 2013 Trophy for Current Achievement honors outstanding achievements in the fields of aerospace science and technology. “
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This is a huge honor for Joseph Sutter and the team at NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory project. Now many of you will have never heard of Joseph Sutter, unless you are an aviation nut there would be no reason to know this man until now. However, while Sutter was working with Boeing, he led the project that (in record time) revolutionized air travel. The project was designing the world’s first wide-body “jumbo jet”, the Boeing 747 ‘Super Jumbo’. The Boeing 747 superliner was the very first aircraft of its type, and changed the airline industry. Mr. Sutter is now known as “The Father of the 747” and now the leader of the team that landed Curiosity safely on Mars.
Below is a short video (animation not real life) of that incredible landing on Mars.
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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFTbiKSZRiw]
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Since this project lifted off from the launch pad in Florida I was convinced Curiosity would be winner. Now the National Air and Space Museum has validated my feelings. IMHO This is what is missing in modern America, a larger interest in science and space. Most of you, My Dear Readers, grew up around the same time as I. We grew up to; Red Stone, Gemini, and the culmination of a generation’s efforts the Apollo project. Our generation looked at the stars in the sky with hope. Hope for our country beating the U.S.S.R. at putting a man on the moon (they had beat us in the beginning with Sputnik). Some how, now, our nation is satisfied with only venturing into space via IMAX and ‘Real 3D’ while sitting comfortably in a movie theater.
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What is the single biggest problem with that approach to human space exploration? You cannot ride that theater seat into space, if a huge rock flying through space suddenly crashes into Earth. Sixty-Five million years ago the Dinosaurs were wiped from the face of the Earth by a rock flying through space and crashing into Earth.
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I do not know about you, My Dear Reader, but I do not want the human race to be the brunt of some intergalactic joke that equates twenty-first century man to the dinosaur. How ironic would it be if mankind suffered the same fate as the dinosaurs? I am not laughing.
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Thanks for dropping by, My Dear Readers. Have a great weekend and Enjoy!
Check back later this weekend for more content… and maybe a surprise!
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