I seen this on Breakfast this morning and it made me laugh seeing these proper smart people getting all geeky and excited; one turns to high-five a fella as that fella moves in for a man hug, then they stop, try to quickly switch and end up clunking limbs and heads. Repeat throughout the room.
Boss though, love this shit; imagine that being your job. I can’t wait to see the images from this for years to come.
Also, I must point out, there seemed to be the names of the scientists on the backs of the monitors and unless I am imagining it, a certain person in there was called Fuk U. Love scientists humour.
Stop making shit up, you are imagining... His name is Fuk Li, not U, the Director for Mars Exploration at JPL...
By the way, there were a lot of people on the NASA TV that were there for their 15 min of glory, but haven't done much for the mission. And there were some missing, such as Joy Crisp, another project scientist, who has made more important contributions than Grotzinger, IMHO. And in the deep corner of the room quietly sat the Mission Assurance manager, who spent tons of money fixing things. And Pete Teisinger, the MSL Manager, is the last of the Mohicans after Tom Gavin was forced into retirement... for a third time...
The landing was a great success, no doubt. But we are now about to see if the popularization of the event helped JPL and NASA in any way. rumour has it that around 350 people from the EDL (entry descent and landing) are awaiting pink slips... NASA has been screwing JPL big time for decades, but especially hard in the last 4 years, and let's see how the dust will settle with this one. If you ask me, fuck NASA; JPL should stand as a separate institution at get it's own funding from Congress. And that's not a unique opinion at JPL...