Lego space kit...Mars Curiosity rover

"Mars fans vote to immortalise Curiosity rover in Lego"

by

Lisa Grossman

June 18th, 2013

New Scientist

NASA's Mars Curiosity rover may already have discovered the first definitive evidence that the Red Planet was once suited to life – but only now has the interplanetary monster truck gained the space fan's ultimate credential: immortalisation in Lego.

It's the latest in a long line of Lego space kits, but this one is special because it was demanded by thousands and designed by an engineer who worked on the real Curiosity.

"I combined this first-hand experience with my Lego hobby to create a Lego model that was as faithful to the actual rover as possible in terms of accuracy, details and mechanical function," says designer Stephen Pakbaz, a mechanical engineer who worked on Curiosity at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The model has a working suspension system, an articulated arm and a poseable mast for recreating your favourite events in Curiosity's ongoing mission.

The Curiosity toy is the fifth design to be approved for release via Lego's Cuusoo programme, which lets enthusiasts submit their own designs to the Danish-based toy company for others to vote on. Any model winning 10,000 votes is considered for release. A Lego version of the Japanese Hayabusa asteroid sampler also started life on Cuusoo and went on sale last year.

Pakbaz has also released plans for a Lego version of the Sky Crane daringly employed by NASA to lower Curiosity to the surface of Mars.

Toy Mars rovers have a storied history, going back to Mattel's Pathfinder lander and Sojourner rover models, released in 1996. In 2001, the toy company produced a "Return to Mars" set which included the Mars Polar Lander, the Mars Climate Orbiter and the Deep Space Two probes – all of which failed.

"It went from the 'Return to Mars Set' to the 'Mars Crash Set,'" says Robert Pearlman of CollectSpace.com, a resource for space history enthusiasts. "It taught Mattel a lesson about trying to release something before there was a success." The company waited until after Curiosity safely landed on 6 August last year before releasing a toy.

Lego, on the other hand, took a risk on the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission, composed of the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity, and released 858-piece building block sets in advance of the rovers' landings in 2004. Those models are now popular collectors' items. "You're lucky if you can find one in a box for less than a few hundred dollars," says Pearlman.

Even those who work every day on the real Curiosity are excited to pick up the new toy. "I think it's fantastic that Lego is taking on a Curiosity design," says John Grotzinger of Caltech, the rover's principal scientist. "I enjoyed putting the MER model together with my older daughter and now I'll get to do the same with my younger daughter."

Do you need a drivers license to move the rover Curiosity?

Remember this?...

Howard Wolowitz [The Big Bang Theory] gets the Mars Rover stuck and hides the evidence that he was responsible. Because of being stuck where it was, the rover discovers evidence of life on Mars, but Howard can't admit that it was him who placed the rover there.

Frank Hartman

"Pitman native makes his mark behind the wheel of Mars rover 'Curiosity'"

by

Michelle Caffrey

August 25th, 2012

Washington Township Times

Frank Hartman has gone from Pitman to Mars, albeit with quite a few stops in-between. Hartman, a Gloucester County native who was raised in Pitman and currently lives in California, is one of the drivers of the “Curiosity” Mars rover, which touched down in a crater on the Red Planet on Aug. 5.

Hartman and his fellow drivers are currently testing out the car-sized rover’s equipment and maneuvering abilities before starting it’s scientific tests and long-term treks to Martian mountains. For the next two years, they’ll control the rover from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles, Calif., quite a ways away from Holly Ave. and the Broadway Theatre in Hartman’s hometown.

And his parents, who still live in Pitman. Hartman said they were excited to hear their son discuss his virtual journey to Mars on a recent broadcast of WHYY’s Newsworks on NPR.

“I’ve gotten a lot of radio interview requests from all over the country now, but I tend to direct them to my fellow rover drivers,” said Hartman, with a genuine humility. “The nice thing about the NPR story for me was that my mom and her friends heard it.”

While Hartman also helped drive the previous Mars rovers Opportunity and Spirit, he said that Curiosity seems to be piquing the public’s, well, curiosity, more than ever.

“It’s not entirely new for my parents, but this one seems to be getting a lot more attention,” Hartman said.

He chalks that rover fervor up to the simple fact that in this 24-hour news cycle, immersed in social media, people talk. And now, they’re talking about Mars.

“There’s so many more ways for people to connect and share their excitement,” Hartman said. “There’s a lot of real interest in new media this time around. A lot of young people are super fired up.”

One of his favorite embodiments of that excitement is a YouTube video parodying the Mars rover and its mission.

“These guys took the time to put this together ... and they got their facts right,” Hartman said, adding that the guys who created it actually got a chance to visit the JPL facility on Thursday.

“It goes both ways. There’s a real community out there. That kind of helps people get fired up,” he said.

Getting Hartman fired up for the job, however, seems to be pretty easy.

“I love it. I really do. It’s really exciting for me,” he said.

He particularly enjoys being able to use his undergraduate degree everyday, especially since it’s in a field one might not expect — sculpture.

He got his art degree from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, after leaving Drexel’s electrical engineering program. While he also obtained his master’s in engineering from Stanford while in California, it was his artistic rendering, computer graphic and video editing work that got his foot in the door at JPL designing 3-D landscapes of Mars.

He takes what the rover sees, and uses that to give the team a virtual look at a planet tens of millions of miles away.

“It’s pretty amazing looking,” Hartman said. “The landscape spreading out in all directions, and we’re going to drive into that.”

It’s the perfect job for Hartman, an avid hiker and natural adventurer.

“I like to drive, I like to hike and explore. I really enjoy coming into work and learning what’s going to be next.”

There’s a thrill too in knowing that his daily tasks, his every day, is history in the making.

Even the act of drilling a hole into a rock, which they have yet to do with Curiosity but have with previous rover expeditions.

“You kind of realize, that little hole will be there a really long time. You’re kind of making your mark on another planet. I’ll take my daughter out, and point her out Mars. It’s pretty amazing, looking at it with naked eyes. On that little speck, there’s an even tinier little speck that’s our rover, that we sent up there,” Hartman said.

It’s a mark that Hartman never imagined he could make, especially when he was just a kid in Pitman, marveling over Neil Armstrong’s eternal footsteps on the moon.

“One of my first memories was the moon landing in 1969. And I remember seeing images from Mars sent back in ‘76. It’s something I put away in my life that I was able to rediscover and come back to. In that regard, I’m living a dream,” Hartman said, adding that he’s proud his job description, in a way, can be boiled down to one word — exploring.

“Exploration is really what it’s about. Maybe this is the first step to sending humans up. That’s a good thing for our country to be doing. I’d be more than happy to have my name associated with some of the great explorers of the past. Everybody with me on the team is very conscious of that — the heritage of exploring.”

And while Hartman is loving his life in California and his explorations on Mars via Curiosity, there are a few things he misses about life in South Jersey.

“Every time I come back, it’s pizza, cheesesteaks, scrapple, pork roll,” Hartman said, laughing. “And of course, my mom and dad. I’m always happy to take my daughter back over there, stay in Pitman, go fishing in the lake and show my daughter where I grew up.”

Now we know where NASA's bucks are being spent...a parody of "Curiosity"

"'We're NASA and We Know It': Hilarious Music Video Spoofs Mars Rover Team"

by

Denise Chow

August 16th, 2012

SPACE.com

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on the Red Planet are so renowned they are now the subject of a hilarious spoof video that is making viral waves.

The video, called "We're NASA and We Know It," is a play on LMFAO's hit song "Sexy and I Know It," but parodies the events surrounding the Curiosity rover's touchdown on Mars on the night of Aug. 5 (PDT; Aug. 6 EDT).

The video also pokes fun at some familiar faces at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), including white-haired Mars scientist Pete Theisinger and flight director Bobak Ferdowsi, whose stars-and-stripes Mohawk in Mission Control on landing night helped rocket him to Internet stardom and garnered him the nickname "Mohawk guy."

"We're NASA and We Know It," pays impeccable tribute to many of the night's most memorable moments, including the sky blue polo shirts worn by members of the Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) team, the jar of peanuts that were passed around Mission Control for good luck, and, of course, Ferdowsi's Mohawk.