If you listen to us regularly you know we keep pretty close tabs on outer space – in particular, the Mars Curiosity Rover.
I just love that little guy, roaming around on the Red Planet, taking magical selfies and doing science.
Not so long ago we did an episode about how NASA scientists helped the rover solve a problem with one of its projects by kind of whacking itself with its robotic arm.
They did this remotely, of course.
So far we haven’t sent any humans to Mars, so the rover’s instructions come from our planet.
And some of those instructions are being sent in from the scientists’ homes.
Yes, like people in lots of other industries who have the means to do so, the Curiosity scientists are working away from their office – in their case, the office is at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in southern California.
There are hundreds of scientists involved in Curiosity, so they’re having lots and lots of online chat channels, video conferences and phone calls to figure out where Curiosity is, where it needs to go next and how to get it there.
That’s has got to be one of the weirdest feelings a person can have while working: you’re at home, sitting on your couch, maybe your cat is there, and you’re working on directions for a craft that’s over 100 million miles away.
When we think fine art, cardboard isn’t the medium that usually leaps to mind.
But that’s what artist Greg Olijnyk uses to make his remarkable sculptures.
I particularly like his cardboard robot sculptures, complete with moving limbs, lights and more.
There are also ships, telescopes, motor scooters, the list goes on and on.
I’ll never look at the stuff my online orders come in the same way.
NASA’s Curiosity Keeps Rolling As Team Operates Rover From Home (NASA)
Greg Olijnyk Makes Incredibly Detailed Sculptures out of Cardboard (Cool Material)
Photo: members of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover mission team photographed themselves on March 20, 2020, the first day the entire mission team worked remotely from home. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
