An Amazing Interview About The Little Mars Helicopter That Could

Keith’s note: You’ll never hear about this from NASA – but WBUR’s “OnPoint” program just covered the amazing saga of the Mars Ingenuity helicopter [Listen here]. I’ve listened to lots of space coverage – for a very long time – as a young boy and not so young adult. I have to say, “on Point” host Meghna Chakrabarti did a truly masterful interview with the Ingenuity team. Not only did she do her homework in advance, but she took the time to tease out the special little things from the team that made this little project a big success. More below.

Somehow, in an hour show, she managed to touch on every relevant topic perfectly from use of commercial off-the-shelf products; what inspired the Ingenuity team to take on the seeming insane task of creating a helicopter that would fly on its own in an atmosphere 1% of Earth’s; how the blatant DIY aspect of how Ingenuity was built should be inspiring kids to go to an electronics store and buy all the parts that the Ingenuity team bought; how such creative departures from the norm can produce unexpected lessons learned that can be applied in obvious and not so obvious future projects. If I was not already intrigued by the whole exploring Mars thing and the droids that we use, I certainly would be after hearing this show – its that good. There is also a certain “you can do this too” vibe running in the background of this entire interview – something that teachers, and parents, and students are bound to poci up on. Science journalism simply does not get any better than this.

One would think that NASA would want to make sure that this interview – with NASA JPL employees – about their NASA-funded jobs – would get full and fair visibility. Sometimes (ahem) people outside of the mind-numbing NASA Public Affairs echo chamber can actually tell a vastly better story about NASA’s own amazing successes far better than NASA can. Alas, NASA does not know how – or care to now how – to point out little gems like this story and give them some visibility since NASA did not have full control over it. And its all about controlling NASA’s narrative and talking points, isn’t it? Sad.

Oh yes: there is something relevant to every NASA directorate in this story – science, robotics, aeronautics, advanced technology, composite materials, new processors, DIY, commercial space, preparing for human exploration – but the inherent and endemic stove piping and sand box protection you see at NASA prevents one team from lauding the success of another. But that is another sad story.

That said I have to admit that I was getting a Deja vu, Faster-Better-Cheaper vibe – and the feeling that its time has now arrived.