One reason I love my job

Today at lunch they celebrated the 4th anniversary of the Mars Exploration Rover Mission by showing the film Roving Mars in the von Karmen auditorium. Before it started one of the software engineers who worked on the automatic navigation software gave a short update on the mission. Originally the optimistic view was 90 days on the surface, they are now at over 1400 days and they are both still going. In the beginning it would take them all day to get move codes back, now he gets an update on his mobile phone with pictures, maps and everything.

Anyway it was a good movie, especially when they show the press conference of the first images back from the rovers and it is being held in the very room I am sitting in. That was a real 'aha' moment for me. It isn't glamorous and I am the tiniest part of a small spoke in the wheel, but I am still a part of it.