I love space. Not personal space (though I enjoy that, too, from time to time) but outer space, interstellar space, the sparkle-filled, infinite near-void that surrounds the little rock we call home. I’ve always been a fan of sci-fi that discussed space travel, nonfiction that detailedspace exploration, and day-dreaming about what’s out there that we can’t even begin to comprehend or guess at.
Several years ago, there was talk of real, true space travel (at least in low Earth orbit) for the everyperson, coming soon to a space port near you. This intensified my interest greatly, and I’ve been keeping track of these programs – my favorite is SpaceX – ever since. Then there were Pathfinder, Spirit, and Opportunity. Rovers on Mars, collecting data that we’d never seen before.
So imagine my delight while watching NASA/JPL’s “7 Minutes of Terror” video outlining the landing of Curiosity (aka Mars Science Laboratory). Now, about twelve hours after the fact, I am writing about the successful deployment of Curiosity on Mars’ surface – even having used all the craziness depicted in the video linked above. A space crane? between that and my iPad, I really feel like we’re closing in on Star Trek territory.
I am a happy and excited geek!