Doug Ellison
Dad, Husband, Mars Rover Crew Chief. Opinions and views expressed are my own. Not a NASA account. Contains strong language. He/Him
- Kudos to our project scientist who helps advocate for these every ~year when I think the view might work and we've got a little bit of energy and time spare in a plan. Doing the science on the day to day is important. Taking a moment now and again to do something just for art is important as well.
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- On Monday I braced for this most recent round of JPL layoffs by looking around my office for what I cared about most to take it home in case I never got to return. I grabbed just one thing - the beautiful bowl by @amyraehill.bsky.social inspired by the false color postcard I took with Curiosity.
- Reposted by Doug EllisonIf you, like me, are the parent of a neuro-atypical child dreading this autism press conference, please remember: These are the people hurting our kids. Not us. They are the ones stigmatizing and pathologizing them. They are the ones peddling untested science. And we should be very, very angry.
- Winter is giving way to Spring in Gale Crater. The atmosphere is waking up from its chilly quiescent slumber.
- Ruin a book by adding Tom Clancy's to the title Tom Clancy's Roving Mars
- Reposted by Doug EllisonWe are outraged and deeply distressed that armed federal agents came onto our campus—making arrests on the very ground where, in 1942, Japanese American families were forced to board buses bound for concentration camps. It was a deliberate act of provocation and intimidation.
- Last times I was in DC was for a Good Night Oppy thing. Walked past a charity run on my way to NASM to visit a dusty old friend, and then a spectacular array of kites being flown on the mall walking to the film festival later in the day. Post your last photo of DC to show what a hell-hole it is.
- Don’t threaten me with a good time.
- The engineering side of our mission rarely gets told....but we're pushing to turn every heckin' joule of that RTG into pure distilled awesomeness. Thanks to @abbyfrae.bsky.social for the postcard idea. I had a LOT of fun sequencing and then processing it :) www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/marking...
- Someone claiming to be a scientist but proposing something as objectively idiotic as sending Juno to an interstellar object is not a scientist. Any high school kid could google how impossible and stupid the idea is. Stop treating Loeb like a scientist. He’s a lazy attention seeking crank.
- Are we fast? No. Are we consistent? Also no. Do we have alt.barney.dinosaur.die.die.die on the rear wing? You’re god damn right.
- This....so much this. I don't want AI search summaries that just lie to me. I don't want co-pilot looking at my machine or Gemini reading my docs. Get the hell out of here with your content stealing, lie regurgitating torment nexus BS.
- At lunch in a small cafe in the Cotswolds in 2016, I waited until after we left before telling my wife that she had been sat back to back with someone at the next table who I was briefly at school with about 24 years earlier. It was Zara Tindall - the late Queen's granddaughter
- In the dining room of Minchinhampton Golf Club in the late 1990s, 3 time Formula One World Champion Sir Jackie Stewart asked me where the bathrooms were.
- Playing Cards Against Humanity on the floor of @planetarykeri.bsky.social's apartment with @jerilryan.bsky.social . You think you're good at Cards Against Humanity.....I PROMISE you.....Jeri is better. Much..MUCH better.
- Hosting a tour at JPL for Damon Lindelof - I went to hit play on a 3D movie about Earth Science "The production values aren't quite as good as Lost, but at least the plot makes sense" I warned him. He laughed.....put on his 3D glasses....and muttered "That's fair". He enjoyed the movie.
- In a line for a visa at the US Embassy in London in early 2010 I was behind then BBC News Royal Correspondent Nicholas Witchell. In front of us was Jeremy Irons. "They don't make you go through this for every movie do they?" I said. "every....single.....time" he replied.
- At the 50th Anniversary party for 'The Sky at Night' at Sir Patrick's house I turned to the person behind me to joke that the line for dinner was going slowly and that maybe we joined the wrong end of the wrong line. It was Terry Pratchett. "Wouldn't that make this the right place?" he replied.
- My first time visiting Mojave Air and Space Port - I parked my rental car quite badly outside the Voyager Restaurant. Aviation legend Dick Rutan was walking to his car and said "You parking that thing or abandoning it?"
- "And I'm getting really sick of guys named Todd....."
- Start Wars ( sry @markhamillofficial.bsky.social )