Through no fault of the space program, I dozed off. When I awoke, it was 12:40, less than ten minutes after the landing. Two images. No dialog. No data. Big office party. Who cares? Unless you like peeking through a window at other people partying, there was nothing to see here.
What was missing you ask? Speaking as a tekkie, how about information? What about a recap of the landing? Did it land near the target? Did we gain information on the way down? If we don't know, when will we? When will those landing videos be available? What else is MSL doing right now?
After a well-orchestrated choreography of news in the weeks leading up to the landing, NASA totally blew it after the landing. It's as if they really didn't know what to do in the unlikely event of success.
And what was with that control room anyway? The transmitter was turned off, so there was no control taking place whatsoever. I thought they were monitoring status, the signals coming back, but I was obviously wrong, since the party took over after the landing. Nobody was working. It was just a big show.
How about the eating of the peanuts? Superstitious nonsense. These people are showing just how easily they get dragged back to the dark ages and away from scientific enlightenment. If billions of dollars in your own pockets doesn't stop your ancient habits, don't expect to influence the rest of society in any positive way. The peanut tradition dates back before Apollo, when Ranger 7 became the first successful probe to take pictures of the moon on its meteoric way down to the surface. Someone was eating peanuts that time, so it became a precaution from that day forward. One would have expected NASA to fight such backward beliefs. But then you have NASA's James Hansen and his questionable crusade on global warming, also known as Climategate.
The next morning, I looked for more information using multiple search engines and settings. Nothing, except word of a press conference at 2:30 in the morning which had already passed hours ago and another at 9AM PT. Nothing found about the 2:30 conference. Nothing leaked before the 9AM conference. Nothing on NASA's website. C'mon NASA, these are not legal proceedings. After the 9AM conference, I searched again. No transcripts. No summaries except about how big the party was, how momentous the landing was and how they ate peanuts. I also read that the President and the space station sent congratulations. Proclamations about history being made. Yeah, yeah, I was wasting my time.
Space exploration costs a lot of money when other government agencies are being asked for belt-tightening. Are we getting our money's worth? A little more feedback to your eager audience, instead of self-absorbed partying at the peak moment of geek attention might have helped your case, at least with your most enthusiastic followers.
