Coming back from Hawaii I had a one hour change in LA to get my next flight to Dules. Mind gang, I’m NOT going to tell you again that I sat near a nice girl and this sort of things.
When I get to the gate I kinda recognize somebody, then somebody else… they both were among a group of 7-8 people. I knew the first one surname’s Adam but can’t remember his first name at this time (I know he’s Steltzner by now). The second one looked a bit like Tom Rivellini the (Landing Systems Engineer)… If you’ve watched Spirit and Oppy landing, I’m sure you’ll have recognized them both. So, I went to see him:
- Are you Tom Revillini?
- No, I’m not, but I work with him!
Bingo, there was a part of the Mer EDL team!!!
- Do you know Tom?
- Well (didn’t want to tell him that I did indeed but that HE didn’t know me), not really I just recognize you because I went to Pasadena for Spirit landing with the Planetary Society, and you look like Tom. (I’d notice that already that Tom’s got a kinda sosie)
- Oh yes, I see.
- So, How everything’s going? (I was such in awe that I didn’t find a better question)
- Well, we’re working on the next one.
- ….(he sew through my eyes that I was not sure of which next one he was talking about)
- That’s MSL.
Then he turn down and said to Adam that I’ve mistaken him with Tom Rivellini and said:
- Is Tom on the same flight?
- I think so.
He was not.
At this time I had a wild thought! If Rob Manning would show I’ll say : hey MarsEngineer, I’m Climber! He didn’t show either. But they were all on MY flight. A whole EDL brunch of guys that already landed 2 rovers on Mars and were working on MSL! And nobody around knew about it! I thought of this situation for a while. You can be seated near somebody you’d really like to meet, even your personal hero, and don’t know about it.For Exemple, Neil Armstrong, Doug Jellison,
We rushed in the plane; I sat down hopping one of them will sit next to me.
I was not THAT lucky.
So, all passengers felt asleep as soon as the plane took off since it was 6 am. I took the chance later on to get to Adam and asked him if he wouldn’t mind talking with me about Mars I had a "few" questions actually . It was just bad timing, the seat belt sign went on, and then it was time to land, so I missed my chance. (sorry about that guys, I can’t tell you of anything news except that the team was off to Washington).
Anyway, I learnt ONE single thing that none of you know : they are only EDL people and they don’t even know about what type of spacecraft they land! Guess why? Because Adam was reading a magazine called: 4-Wheels.

You can't finish a story like that off without telling how the descent and landing was!

Andy

What you SHOULD have done is sneak up behind Adam Steltzner and said "I just heard the pilot say we're coming in Skycrane fashion...nervous?"

Doug

Good one AndyG too

Any good sugestions others ?

Always carry a digital photo camera is my device !!!!!!

Actually you should have said:

Excuse me gentleman, I own a ranch on Mars and I'd like to talk to you about all this burnt and broken equipment someone has been leaving all over it.

Hmmm... ...will the poor EDL guys be happy or sad to be getting stalked on the WWW?

'Had that Saddam Hussein in the back of me cab once...'


Bob Shaw

...or...

"Come on, you can tell me, I won't tell anyone else, I promise... that really WAS a fossil that rover ground to bits wasn't it? And that Face, I mean, that has to be real, right? 'cos I heard this guy on the radio late one night, real scientist, saying it was built by aliens, the same ones maybe who built a huge wall right around one of Saturn's moons -

Hey, where you going, something wrong with your seat..?"