Curiosity’s Landing Through the Eyes of One of Her 3,000 Builders

We all have seminal moments that mark our lives; some just are way more cool than others. Mark Rober designs spacecraft at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and is just one of over 3,000 people who helped design, build, tweak, launch, navigate and land the Curiosity Rover on Mars. “I spent 7 years working NASA’s Curiosity Rover,” Rober said via Twitter. “I made this video to try to capture what it felt like to see her land.”

Seven years of his life came down to seven minutes of terror… or in Mark’s case, seven minutes of shivering.

Congrats, Mark, and to all your thousands of compatriots. Thanks for sharing the journey with the rest of us.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004, and has published over 6,000 articles on space exploration, astronomy, science and technology. She is the author of two books: "Eight Years to the Moon: the History of the Apollo Missions," (2019) which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible; and "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" (2016) tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond. Follow Nancy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Nancy_A and and Instagram at and https://www.instagram.com/nancyatkinson_ut/

Recent Posts

Astronomers are on the Hunt for Dyson Spheres

There's something poetic about humanity's attempt to detect other civilizations somewhere in the Milky Way's…

18 hours ago

We Need to Consider Conservation Efforts on Mars

Astrobiology is the field of science that studies the origins, evolution, distribution, and future of…

20 hours ago

Roman Space Telescope Will Be Hunting For Primordial Black Holes

When astrophysicists observe the cosmos, they see different types of black holes. They range from…

2 days ago

What Deadly Venus Can Tell Us About Life on Other Worlds

Even though Venus and Earth are so-called sister planets, they're as different as heaven and…

2 days ago

A Nebula that Extends its Hand into Space

The Gum Nebula is an emission nebula almost 1400 light-years away. It's home to an…

3 days ago

41,000 Years Ago Earth’s Shield Went Down

Earth is naked without its protective barrier. The planet's magnetic shield surrounds Earth and shelters…

3 days ago