Reaction to Curiosity's Mars landing

[mbcdefg]

The Curiosity rover landed on Mars around 1:30 a.m. Eastern today. I had a long day yesterday and I was really tired, so I just couldn't force myself to stay up and watch it. I covered a small aspect of this for the publication I work for, so I was interested in how it turned out.

Here's the video of the folks at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena celebrating its safe landing. Very cool to see their overwhelming joy at all of their hard work finally paying off:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZlo0wHx9bk

SFW, except for someone screaming out, "Holy shit!" around 2:03 ;D

[noodleoo]

I think that is awesome. What a great accomplishment!

They showed part of this on our local Fox News this morning and then all the lame anchors discussed how they thought they were overreacting and how weird it was that they were so happy about it. They joked about the nerds celebrating and said "when was the last time you actually hugged someone at work because of a work accomplishment?" in a snide way. It just made me sad. They have no problem with people crying when they win an Oscar or an Olympic gold medal, but a technological/intellectual achievement such as landing on Mars is not a big enough deal?

[vanillacourage]

My cousin is a NASA scientist on the project - you can see her several times in the video. We are very proud of her.

[casmgn]

Aug 6, 2012 13:44:05 GMT -5 vanillacourage said:

My cousin is a NASA scientist on the project - you can see her several times in the video. We are very proud of her.

That is awesome! I would be so annoying at the next family get-together, asking her to describe the event in painstaking detail.

[315bride]

My reaction: nerds rule!

[mbcdefg]

Aug 6, 2012 13:36:33 GMT -5 noodleoo said:

I think that is awesome. What a great accomplishment!

They showed part of this on our local Fox News this morning and then all the lame anchors discussed how they thought they were overreacting and how weird it was that they were so happy about it. They joked about the nerds celebrating and said "when was the last time you actually hugged someone at work because of a work accomplishment?" in a snide way. It just made me sad. They have no problem with people crying when they win an Oscar or an Olympic gold medal, but a technological/intellectual achievement such as landing on Mars is not a big enough deal?

Ugh. Fuck them. Attitudes like this is why society is getting dumber. We ought to see more cool stuff like this on the news, instead of garbage like Day 45 of Snooki's Baby Bump Watch.

ETA: Plus, do they have any idea how frigging complex that landing was?!?!? It involved so many difficult elements that had to function in exactly the right way, in exactly the right order, or else a $2 billion spacecraft would go crashing into the ground and ruin years' worth of hard work. And they're making fun of it? Assholes.

Aug 6, 2012 13:44:05 GMT -5 vanillacourage said:

My cousin is a NASA scientist on the project - you can see her several times in the video. We are very proud of her.

That's awesome - kudos to her!

[315bride]

Aug 6, 2012 13:36:33 GMT -5 noodleoo said:

I think that is awesome. What a great accomplishment!

They showed part of this on our local Fox News this morning and then all the lame anchors discussed how they thought they were overreacting and how weird it was that they were so happy about it. They joked about the nerds celebrating and said "when was the last time you actually hugged someone at work because of a work accomplishment?" in a snide way. It just made me sad. They have no problem with people crying when they win an Oscar or an Olympic gold medal, but a technological/intellectual achievement such as landing on Mars is not a big enough deal?

Amen.

[Myrrhine]

Aug 6, 2012 13:44:05 GMT -5 vanillacourage said:

My cousin is a NASA scientist on the project - you can see her several times in the video. We are very proud of her.

Wow, that is awesome!