I know, I apparently spelled March wrong and it isn’t even March yet. This is the last Friday in February, what gives? In fact, this post is not incorrectly titled nor does it discuss college sportsball. I want to discuss the planet Mars! I am crazy about it right now.
First, you have to understand I have grown up passionate about space and space flight. As a kid, I sent off to NASA for their promotional material for the space shuttle and was SO excited when that large manila envelope arrived, stuffed full of glossy photos, diagrams, and fact sheets. I poured over the contents of that package for months. Eventually, I mailed NASA again for more info and loved that package as well. Like many young kids, I wanted to grow up to be an astronaut. I was still considering it when I was heading to college and wondered if I might be a payload scientist someday. While my body stayed on earth, my heart continued to fly in space.
For the past month, we have been listening to The Martian audiobook during lunch and some breakfasts. Once we completed the book, we watched The Martian film. This was all in anticipation for this past week to watch the live landing of the Mars Perseverance Rover. I rode the emotions of mission control as they tracked the landing on Mars. I was elated by the first images. Then I went crazy with the release of the videos showing the full descent. Seriously, stop reading this blog for a few minutes and go watch this video. It is amazing! The engineering, the computer programming, and the planning all created by a group of amazing scientists and engineers leading up to that automated landing after a 300 million mile journey. Someday, we will send a human being on this amazing journey as well (and we plan for them to have a much better experience than Mark Watney). I am eagerly awaiting what’s next, more info on the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter.
And then while I was riding high on the real world news from Mars, my wife and I truly fell into madness as we watched the film, Mars Attacks! to end our week of Mars celebrations.
Are you a space geek like me? If so, how did you celebrate Mars Madness?