UPDATE 8/13/12: Booksaver, M Burnard, S Nantus, Cathy P and N Luiken were the five official winners (as per the random number generator) but I’m going to send Alison and Shawn a few space-related items as well! Thanks to everyone for the comments and the memories…and best wishes to the intrepid Mars Rovers!
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In honor of the NASA/JPL Mars Rover Curiosity’s amazing success this week, landing flawlessly on Mars, sending photos back and just generally being wonderful, I’m doing a giveaway – 5 randomly selected commenters will receive a set of the Mission Patch, Pin, Sticker And a NASA “meatball” pin plus the JPL logo pin.
To enter just leave a comment below regarding space exploration – where do you think we should go next, should we do human crew or robots, what question intrigues you most about the solar system, what’s your favorite memory of the NASA space program…anything space-related! I’ll select five winners at random after midnight EST Friday the 10th (so I will need your e mail to contact you for an address).
The items are from the JPL Store, not NASA….
I do have a day job so don’t worry if your comment doesn’t appear right away – I’ll moderate comments as often as I can, none will get lost. Thanks for sharing the wonder and the excitement this week…
I’ll give you one fun, kind of different memory to start the post off – when my family went to the Huntsville Space & Rocket Center when
I was a kid, “Miss Baker,” still lived there. She was one of the first two rhesus monkeys to successfully return to Earth after traveling in space. She flew in 1959 but lived to be 27 and when we saw her, she was quite lively and had a male companion to keep her company in the enclosure…I remember being very impressed by her! She had a LOT of attitude!
But as we all know, I’m VERY fond of Mars Rovers nowadays LOL!
So what’s on your mind about space exploration?
When I was young I wanted to grow up and work for NASA. Needless to say, that didn’t happen. I’ve always been fascinated by space exploration. I don’t think we should do manned exploration yet, I think it’s too soon for that. I think we should explore them all. I’d be very curious to know if any of them could sustain life. My grandson would love the pin and patch, he loves anything scientific. He has Aspergers and when he checks out library books it’s always something scientific. My step-father worked for the company that used to make the batteries that NASA used and he had a bunch of pins from former missions but sadly they lost their home in a house fire and he lost them all. I would really love to be entered for your pin/patch giveaway.
Linda
seriousreader at live dot com
I wanted to go to Space Camp pretty badly when I was a kid — though I never was able to attend. (I’m pretty sure it was down to my mom being nervous about me flying somewhere alone…) I remember visiting Cape Canaveral with my grandparents, once. In fact, they bought me a space shuttle necklace that I still have to this day — and that I wore Sunday while I watched the MSL landing. Which, wow. I am astounded at the ingenuity and skill of the whole JPL team. What an incredible thing to have accomplished!
I’m waiting on pins and needles for Curiosity to find evidence of former life on Mars. That’ll be some amazing science. I’d really like to see another chemical lab like Curiosity head to Europa. There was a mock up online somewhere talking about how to set a probe down on the ice, drill through (with heat), then switch to a submersible mode to search for heat vents and therefore life in the seas under the ice crust. But I can’t even tell you why this matters – except think of all the science you could subsequently use in stories…
I remember the moon landing – I was only a few years old and my grandfather held me on his lap and said “This is something important for you to know”. I didn’t understand it then but years later I knew he realized that the world had changed so much and it would be up to me and my generation to carry on.
I’m all for a manned mission to Mars. Skip over the moon and keep going, darn it!
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Europa, definitely (after the Curiosity Rover finds whatever it’s going to find [hopefully molecular fossils!]). Europa could possibly have supported life — so we should send a rover out that-a-way.
Oh, my astrobiologist-minded daughter would love this!
We watched the Curiosity landing together as a family. It brought to mind the images of those early space flights, when NASA was new and going to the moon was a feat known only in science fiction. When families gather around their B&W televisions to witness the amazing things we can do when we put our minds to it. I hope we’re headed there again.
And as much as I understand the cost effectiveness of unmanned exploration, I think we need to find a way for more manned flights. Imagine the wonder seen through the eyes of a human as they step foot onto Mars or wherever!
I’d love to see a manned flight to Mars.
Thanks for joining in the discussion, sharing the excitement and talking space science & exploration with me this week!
Where can I get that stuff? My son Wyatt is 3 yes old and wants to be an astronaut. His goal is to go to space and have a planet with trains all over it. I hope one day his dream comes true.