Space Kids

Space Kids

Posted: November 15, 2012

Jaime Waydo (Mobility Lead, MSL): All I've ever wanted to do since I was in eighth grade is send something to Mars.

Steve Lee (Control Systems Manager, MSL): My passion for space was ignited when Apollo 11 landed on the moon on my seventh birthday. Uh, when I was growing up I never went through the 'what do you want to be when you grow up.' I always knew it was space, space, space.

Rob Manning (Chief Engineer, MSL): I was growing up during the time of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo era. The future was coming true before my very eyes.

Ashwin Vasavada (Deputy Project Scientist, MSL): I think I've known that I wanted to be a planetary scientist since I was about nine or ten years old.

Daniel Limonadi (Surface Sampling Lead, MSL): I've been a space geek since probably I was four or eight years old or something like that.

Brandon Metz (Robotic Systems Engineer, MSL): I think it was just one Popular Science magazine where there was like this beautiful fold out of just kind of like our place in the solar system and as an eight year old child and even now you're like, 'I just don't get it..'

Jamie Waydo (Mobility Lead, MSL): Going to Mars is like the new frontier. You know, we don't have Lewis and Clark exploration kind of events here on Earth as much anymore, and so we get to do that.

Rob Manning (Chief Engineer, MSL): When the first possibility of landing a little rover and bouncing it in airbags around the surface of Mars came up I was… oh… so excited about the idea.

Jaime Waydo (Mobility Lead, MSL): To get to send things to Mars, it's everything I've dreamed of since eighth grade.

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Video short produced by

Allison Eck

Original Footage

© WGBH Educational Foundation

IMAGES

(main image: Jaime Waydo)

© WGBH Educational Foundation

(Jaime Waydo childhood photo)

Courtesy Jaime Waydo

(Steve Lee childhood photo)

Courtesy Steve Lee

("Historic 'Handshake'")

Courtesy NASA

(Apollo 11 landing image)

Courtesy NASA

(Nebula image)

Courtesy NASA

(Brandon Metz childhood photo)

Courtesy Brandon Metz

("Approaching Mars")

Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech

("Painting Lewis and Clark on the Lower Columbia")

© wikimedia commons/AlexPlank

("Liftoff! Curiosity Bound for Mars")

Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech

(MSL poster image)

© WGBH Educational Foundation

("Portrait of APSX on Mars")

Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech

("Curiosity and Descent Stage")

Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech