Space-O-Lanterns: 7 Minutes of Terror/Dragon Edition

By Nancy Atkinson - October 30, 2012 at 2:01 PM UTC | Site News
pumpkin-will.jpg

Need some inspiration for carving your Halloween pumpkin? Look no further. Last year we featured some

amazing feats of Halloween pumpkin carving

, and this year the field is just as impressive. And what could be scarier than seven minutes of terror and Dragons? This year many carvers went with a Mars Science Laboratory theme, as did

Will Gater

, who brandished his carving knife in this outstanding re-creation of Curiosity being lowered by the Skycrane.

See more, below:

Liz Warren (

@spasmunkey

) carved an eery view of Curiosity on Mars.

Curiosity lasering a rock "for science!" said carver and planetary scientist Dr. Sarah Horst (

@PlanetDr

)

Someone at Johnson Space Center (

@NASA-Johnson

) is pretty handy with a pumpkin carving knife and deftly paid tribute to SpaceX's recent success with the Dragon capsule visiting the International Space Station and safely returning cargo and experiments.

And here's a timelapse video of a pumpkin artist creating a tribute to the recent Red Bull Stratos jump from the stratosphere:

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com