Mars Curiosity rover's landing: A video by one of her 3,000+ creators at NASA JPL

What a beautiful video by Mark Rober, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory: "I was able to work on NASA JPL's Curiosity Mars Rover for 7 years. This video is an attempt to capture what it felt like to have 7 years of your life vindicated in the 7 minute landing. Honestly one of the coolest moments of my life so far.

(Via Adam Steltner)

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

MORE: curiosity • exploration • jpl • Mars • MSL • NASA • Science • Space

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Grahamers2002

I teared up.
- franko
  
  me too, for different reasons, at different parts. great little slice-of-life video.
- ocker3
  
  I love science! And I love that we’re still doing things like this, still pouring our hearts and souls, still shedding blood, sweat and tears, to do something more and go somewhere amazing. “Jesus Christ in a Chicken-Basket” indeed.
- phuzz
  
  And me.
http://twitter.com/strugglngwriter strugglngwriter

This is great. Well edited too.

The reference to his mother’s battle with ALS got me, like it always does.
Mitchell Glaser

Could he be any cuter? I don’t think so.
- Jonathan Roberts
  
  At about the 3 minute mark, he’s shaking like crazy. You can tell that it’s even more important to him than seven years of his life.
  - Jonathan Roberts
    
    He was probably nervous about that part in the video “seven minutes of terror” when the engineer says the sky crane will lower the rover from 20m above the surface using a 21ft tether.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISmWAyQxqqs (4:13)
vonbobo

Nice video.

I have been meaning to ask though… why has so much attention been paid to Curiosity? What is causing so much media coverage?
Is it because the US doesn’t have a full time space vehicle right now?
JPL pushing more general public news?
Olympic fever?
- franko
  
  i think it’s partly because NASA and science funding in general is so bleak right now, partly because the method of landing was new and risky, and partly because WOO FUCKING SCIENCE LAB ROBOT ON MARS, WOOOOO!
- anansi133
  
  The Apollo LEM weighed about 15 tons when it landed on the moon. Curiosity weighs about one ton. Compared to sojourner and spirit/opportunity, this was a very heavy landing.
  
  Humans are now much closer to setting foot on mars, technology-wise.
- ocker3
  
  I at least wanted something to be passionate about that wasn’t tainted by so many horrible corporate and government practices like the Olympics has become.
John Oehler

My wife is is a scientist on the Mars Science Team at JPL. We watched the landing from the same place this fellow was. And he portrays the drama very well. I think we all teared up when they announced, “We’re safe.”

My wife then reported for work an hour and a half later (midnight, Pasadena time) — with a few hundred other scientists.
Palomino

Teamwork is beautiful.
Culturedropout

Awesome video, dude! I got tears in my eyes when I watched the landing live, and it happened again just now. Amazing work by everyone involved.
Nicky G

this what it all about, yo
http://twitter.com/fossilfuels Funk Daddy

I know I can and do use my imagination and stuff, and posterity is not the goal of the mission, but on the next rover can we get a camera that rover can drop, remote trigger, then retrieve?

I mean, if Curiousity were to want a Facebook page, how’s it gonna duckface? Plus I want a shot of it in action for reals cause it would be so cool! This is not to suggest that what has occurred is not cool enough, because it totally is.
TheMudshark

Super Mario wallpaper at 1:00.
anansi133

seeing the parachute deploy from orbit just isn’t good enough, eh? Next year was always better.