Mars Rover Curiosity: An Inside Account from Curiosity's Chief Engineer

(Norsk)
Right! The last space-related post, at least for a while, is about the book Mars Rover Curiosity: An Inside Account from Curiosity's Chief Engineer, written by Rob Manning and William L. Simon, where Rob Manning is the Chief Engineer from the book title.

Picture borrowed from Amazon.com

This book gives the reader fascinating insights into what is, in essence, amazing engineering. The fact that they have created a remotely controlled vehicle, launched it into space, landed it on another planet and now have it roaming around doing science is incredible. Kudos to all the people that have worked on Curiosity and those that still work on it.

Manning gives us an in-depth tour through the project, From the beginning until the present (or at least the present when the book was written). He highlights many of the problems they struggled with, and recounts how they overcame them, everything from developing a brand new landing system, scratch that, not just a new landing system but a whole new landing concept, to the difficulties in getting the rock sampling system right. The latter involved both the drilling system as well as the sample delivery system, where the sample is brought from the drill and into the rover's sample processing gear (another engineering marvel). As a matter of fact, Destin of Smarter Every Day even did an episode about the Curiosity drill:

If you like technical stuff, like me, this book is absolutely brilliant! If you are more interested in management stuff, the book also covers some of that, so it is still good. Grab it from you local library if that is your wont, or from places like Amazon / Audible if that is more to your fancy, and have an interesting read, I sure did!

As mentioned, this is the last space-related post in a while, my next project will involve me filming a few snippets, both with a camera and screen-capture, as I plan and design a part that a buddy of mine is going to 3D-print for me and that I am going to put to practical use in my home afterwards. Stay tuned!

What is the curious connection between Motörhead and Matt Damon?

(Norsk)

Maybe this is a bit of a stretch, but I felt like doing an homage to the man, Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister, who died this past 28th of December. The stretchy bit is the connection to Matt Damon, but bear with me. In the Motörhead song Orgasmatron, Lemmy sings the following:

If you did not catch it in the lyric video, the lyrics are below too:

"I am the one, Orgasmatron, the outstretched grasping hand

My image is of agony, my servants rape the land

Obsequious and arrogant, clandestine and vain

Two thousand years of misery, of torture in my name

Hypocrisy made paramount, paranoia the law

My name is called religion, sadistic, sacred whore.

I twist the truth, I rule the world, my crown is called deceit

I am the emperor of lies, you grovel at my feet

I rob you and I slaughter you, your downfall is my gain

And still you play the sycophant and revel in you pain

And all my promises are lies, all my love is hate

I am the politician, and I decide your fate

I march before a martyred world, an army for the fight

I speak of great heroic days, of victory and might

I hold a banner drenched in blood, I urge you to be brave

I lead you to your destiny, I lead you to your grave

Your bones will build my palaces, your eyes will stud my crown

For I am MARS, the god of war, and I will cut you down."

Yup, Lemmy is Mars, the god of war. And what was the title of one of Matt Damon's newest movies?

Ah, yes, The Martian, where he is a stranded astronaut on Mars, the planet named after Mars, the god of war. And next week I will write a bit about the movie starring Matt Damon, and the book by Andy Weir that it is based on.

Oh, and by the way, why is the connection between Motörhead and Matt Damon curious?

Because NASA has a certain rover on a certain red planet that is named Curiosity! And in a about two weeks time I intend to write a bit about the cute rover too. In other words, I will continue my space-oriented posts for a few weeks more, I started off with SpaceX and Elon Musk, I'll continue with The Martian and the Curiosity rover.