1961 Magazine Fall 2016 | Page 81

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY It’s a tough process. It’s a long waiting game. You do the best you can to try to forget about it because rumors are going around and you’re told they’re not going to select the class, they’re going to cancel it, it’s going to be a super small class. You just try to ignore these things and people always ask you, ‘Have you heard anything? Have you heard anything?’ It’s like no, no I haven’t heard anything. And then you get the phone call that you’re going down. You know you’re in the final cut because they’re only bringing 80 people or 50 people down, whatever it is, to the interview and then you’re in a week long medical exam, psychological testing, I mean it’s everything. It’s really an honor for me to have got that close twice to go through the process and you get the best physical in the world compliments of Uncle Sam and I found out there’s nothing wrong with me. Then when you go through the medical stuff, psychological, interview, you’re left with a pool of people. One year it was 20, they picked 13. What do you do? They can’t pick everyone. At that point everyone could have been an Astronaut. It’s kind-of a secret. They don’t really say how they pick people. It depends on the make-up of the selection board. It changes cycle to cycle. And then the next time I applied, I didn’t get nothing. I didn’t even get references checked. What happened? It’s just they were looking for different things. The next cycle I applied, I was a finalist again. You just never know. I’ve applied for this cycle now but I’m older now so I think that my chances of getting in are like zero, but I figure why not try it? The worse they can happen is they say no. Well, they’ve already told me no before it’s not going to hurt my feelings. So I’m going to just keep trying! MISSION CONTROL: What was it like before NASA had the Rovers? DR. JIM RICE: Before we had these Rover Missions, Spirit and Opportunity, there was a debate amongst the scientist – do we really need a Rover, because they’re more expensive and harder to operate. Can we just get a lander and grab whatever we see out there? That’s not even a debate anymore! You want a Rover because Rovers extend your area of operations and maximize your science dollars. There’s a mission that’s going to launch in 2018 and it’s a lander, but what they are going to do is drill down about 2 meters and put a seismometer to try to measure Marsquakes. So there’s a reason for having that lander there, but Rovers are the way to go. MISSION CONTROL: How far has opportunity driven so far? DR. JIM RICE: About 26 ½ miles, more than a marathon. Those Rovers were certified to drive less than 2000 feet, less than a half a mile actually. It’s really cool, because where we are now in a place called Marathon Valley – that name wasn’t accidental! We figured by the time we get to that valley we would have covered the distance of a marathon on earth. When we crossed over into this valley our odometer clicked over the distance of a marathon, hence the name of the valley. 81 1961 Magazine Fall 2016