The little robot Mars Curiosity Rover loves to Tweet! Bless

[E.CaimanSands]

If you have a Twitter account have a look at this!

http://twitter.com/#!/MarsCuriosity

Let's wish the little guy a safe journey.

[Dustin Adams]

I would follow that little guy anywhere.


Well, not to Mars.

[soulmirror]

Yeah, they're cute ... until they refuse to open the pod bay door!

"Open the pod bay door, Mars Curiousity!"
"I'm sorry, I can't do that, Dave."

[kyle]

I'm not sure "little" is the right adjective to use. When I was working at JPL we used to tease that MSL would be "the first SUV on Mars."

[E.CaimanSands]

I'm not sure "little" is the right adjective to use. When I was working at JPL we used to tease that MSL would be "the first SUV on Mars."

Lol, I've no idea how big it is actually, I haven't really heard too much about it. I meant to watch the Sky at Night (BBC TV astonomy show) a day or two ago which was about it but forgot, meh. I forgot Autumnwatch tonight too. I watch so little TV these days that on the rare occasion there's something on I want to watch I forget. Or maybe it's just that my brain is like macaroni...

Maybe I'll have a look on iPlayer.

[Serrain]

Aw, adorable!

[Patty]

It's about the size of a minibus. I saw a model when we went to JPL. I understand they usually build a couple of these vehicles, and send the best one.

In that vein, NASA does Tweetups, which are 24-hour geekfests of space geeks and others lucky enough to draw one of the 50 places. They'll be having their first tweetup in Australia for the launch of Curiosity at the Tidbinbilla Space Centre (near Canberra), which will be the first Earth-based facilty to talk to Curiosity after it separates from the last of the rocket stages after launch.

Guess what? I'm going.

*boingboingboingboingboing*

[Martin L. Shoemaker]

When I was working at JPL...

You just made the list of People Martin Envies.

[Martin L. Shoemaker]

Guess what? I'm going.

*boingboingboingboingboing*

You also just made the list of People Martin Envies.

Honest, it's a short list. I've never seen it grow so fast in a single night.

[E.CaimanSands]

I finally caught up with BBC Sky at Night and yep, it looks like a golf cart, or maybe an old moon rover.

But, get this, it is due to zap Martian rocks to smithereens with a high powered laser! How cool is that?

[kyle]

Guess what? I'm going.

*boingboingboingboingboing*

You also just made the list of People Martin Envies.

Honest, it's a short list. I've never seen it grow so fast in a single night.

It's a job, like any other. I found the pros of working there outweighed the cons, but I still almost wound up a party to a lawsuit against them. The only reason I didn't is because I was technically a Caltech employee on contract to JPL, not a JPL employee, and our supervisor decided to run interference on behalf of her employees. I'm not sure I'd ever apply to go back, as much as I loved the work.

[Martin L. Shoemaker]

It's a job, like any other.

Maybe. But my "other" has generally involved insurance transactions, package tracking, and stock tracking. I don't get to drool over cool toys.

Although I was very proud when I worked on a system for analyzing diabetic test strips. My brother's diabetic, and my niece and nephew may inherit it from him. So that was kinda cool.

But what you're saying reminds me of my computer graphics instructor 25 years or so ago. He did imaging support for the Voyager missions, which sounds way cool; but he quit after he got fed up with a time management expert timing his bathroom breaks with a stopwatch.

[Patty]

It's a job, like any other.

Maybe. But my "other" has generally involved insurance transactions, package tracking, and stock tracking. I don't get to drool over cool toys.

As someone who spent a decent amount of time doing really weird things while being paid for it, I definitely have to agree with this. Regardless of all the things that caused me to leave my job, it was a cool experience, and a lot of my fiction would have been a heck of a lot poorer if I hadn't worked there.

[kyle]

See, I just don't see the "cool" job as any less important (or any less an opportunity to grow as a person) than the various other jobs I've had, which included sticking videotapes (remember those?) in boxes to mail to customers, serving ice cream, keeping a computer lab running, and delivering newspapers. There were things I hated about all of them, and things to relish in even the most menial...

[Martin L. Shoemaker]

See, I just don't see the "cool" job as any less important (or any less an opportunity to grow as a person) than the various other jobs I've had, which included sticking videotapes (remember those?) in boxes to mail to customers, serving ice cream, keeping a computer lab running, and delivering newspapers. There were things I hated about all of them, and things to relish in even the most menial...

True. But I am a space hardware geek. I honestly can't ever see myself in the astronauts; but the engineers who make and manage the hardware, I can see myself in them. So they -- you included -- are my heroes. I will go out of my way by a day or more if it means I get to spend a day at a space museum.

Apollo era hardware is my all-time favorite (though I love the newer stuff, too). I look at that stuff, and I think: They sent people to THE FREAKIN' MOON in that, and the entire NASA system had less computing power than my cell phone! I make pilgrimages to see that stuff. Every time, I come away with a refreshed perspective: My job is not that tough. I can do this. It has gotten me through some tough work challenges. I have seen roughly half the Apollo capsules; and my life dream is to see the rest. (And then since one of them is in London, I might as well see the Cutty Sark while I'm there.)

So it's not about the importance of the job. I agree: there is dignity and worth in any job done well to serve a customer or someone needy; and all jobs are still jobs when you get down to the basics. Sometimes they suck, and sometimes they're good.

It's just my utter fanboy geeky envy that any day you wanted, you could go look at the hardware on your lunch hour and drool over it. Maybe it would get old, but I don't think it would for me. If I lived in Huntsville or Merritt Island, I would be at the museums weekly, maybe more. I would probably do all of my writing there.

[Martin L. Shoemaker]

Let me add a personal example that might shed light on my fanboy envy.

For two years, I worked for a company that built diagnostic test tools for Harley-Davidson motorcycles. My code (and that of the rest of the team, of course) guided the techs through diagnostics and such. We even reflashed the computer modules on the bikes. It was an interesting technical challenge, with a lot of highs and a few lows.

For some programmers, this was the ultimate in cool. They got to spend time out in the garage working with the bikes. Sometimes they could even finagle their way into a test ride. They found every excuse they could to take their code out into the garage to test -- especially when new model bikes were in there six months before the public would see them.

Me, I have no interest in motorcycles. Zero. I spent most of my life avoiding work on internal combustion engines. They're messy and smelly and noisy and they give me a headache. I did everything in my power to avoid going out in the garage. In two years of work, I think my garage visits could be counted on two hands.

The coding was fun. The job was mostly fun. And it was important: if we did our job poorly, a bike's front brakes could lock at 60 m.p.h. So I took it seriously.

But for some programmers, it also had a cool factor that it utterly lacked for me.

[LTom]

Guess what? I'm going.

*boingboingboingboingboing*

I don't think I've ever seen you so bouncy. :) Sounds like it's going to be a really neat experience!

[Patty]

@Kyle, I also agree with you about job experiences. I've worked in a fruit & veggie shop, in a large restaurant kitchen washing up, as courier. My best non-professional job was in a large printing plant (I learned a lot about the process of making books there), and also working in a large university library. All those were life experiences I've used to some extent in my fiction.

@Martin: BIKES!!!! I don't ride, but I love bikes. I love engines and rockets, and other things That Make Stuff Move. I haven't really indulged that part of me, because--well--it's expensive and I grew up in a greenie family so there was never the opportunity. I swear in my second life I'll be an aircraft mechanic.

[Patty]

Well, Curiosity is underway, and last weekend was amazing!

Just in case people are interested...

Under the category 'Science' on my author site, I am posting some reports and background information on subjects we heard about at the Tweetup.

You can find them here: http://pattyjansen.com/?cat=30