Perseverance

“.... Continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failures, or

opposition. Persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving

success.”

I am going to divert here from my norm, and totally geek out. People rarely see or hear this side of me because there are so few of those around me that actually have that penchant for science, quantum physics and all things deep space! And I can make this story so easily all about me, god knows, perseverance? I ask for it every single day. But this is bigger than any one being and so I will give it the space and matter it deserves. So please allow me to bring you on this journey, out into our vast solar system, where I am honored to be your captain and pilot. Masks are required.

As a true science nerd, I subscribe to NASA, love, love, love Michio Kaku, a theoretical physicist, love watching and have attended a workshop of Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist, love listening to Chris Hadfield, a veteran astronaut who does phenomenal videos on turning fear into motivation, being blind in space and life advice to his 20 year old self - https://youtu.be/P6A7kLf-cfw & https://youtu.be/6W0lX-zwFa0, please watch - and a long time ago, I volunteered to monitor data coming back from space for SETI. When I traveled to Maui and Puerto Rico, I went to see their Observatories and one cold winter night in New Jersey, I observed the rings of Saturn and other breathtaking celestial sites at an “open to the public” observatory night at Rutgers with ”A”. It was beyond words. When I went down to Florida for the first time, although Disney was the premier destination, I went to the Kennedy Space center first, and was lucky enough to see the space shuttle on the launch pad, preparations for its launch date under way and the public access closed. Another year I was in Disney when they stopped everyone in the park and over the PA system, turned their attention to the place in the sky for a pending shuttle take off. I had already chosen a good spot and was looking and waiting. I have been blessed to witness three successful shuttle lift-offs real time.

Early in 2020, NASA held a contest to name the land rover that they created for this current mission to Mars. I, alas, did not become aware of it until the deadline was a few days away and missed it. Damn! However, as you can see by the photo, I did make the deadline to purchase a ticket to include my name, along with 11 million other earthlings including my sister and brother, on 3 silicon chips that will be carried on the rover as it lands and then travels across the terrain of Mars. That will be the extent of me personally, or in name, being on any other planet in my lifetime.

Out of all the entries submitted for the naming contest, they chose Perseverance; Percy for short, and it couldn’t be more fitting, not only for the land rover itself but for this mission. Although there have been four other rovers sent to Mars over the years; Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity, with only Curiosity remaining operational, this will answer, among other things, the forever burning question of, “Was there ever ancient life on Mars?

And for those of us who cannot conceive that we are the lone species in all of this vast universe and who have also watched “Battlestar Galactica” where clues and theories abound, the search to answer this is significant and scary and exciting and quite a long, long, long, time coming.

Once launched, it will take up to seven months for the ship to reach Mars and the rover to land on the surface. Percy took to space on July 30th, 2020 at 11:50 UTC time. Just to help you out a bit, UTC time or World Clock Time was the old GMT or Greenwich Mean Time until they changed the name to Universal Time Coordinated, but all you need to know is that whatever the UTC time is, the USA is five hours behind. On Thursday, February 18th, Perseverance will touch down on Mars at approximately 3:55PM EST (Eastern Standard Time) and I will be eagerly watching along with millions who follow the stars and also the beings competing to reach them.

I remember when I was young, my father worked for Grumman Aerospace as a draftsman. I really didn’t know at the time what Grumman was or understood exactly what a draftsman did until I was a few years older, but I remember July 20, 1969 as if I was teleported right back to the spot I occupied when the first manned Apollo mission landed on the moon. We were all in the living room, the entire family, (which was rare as my mother worked nights, my father had a second job and my older sister was never home), watching our small, black and white television. We were rapt with attention and my father, genuinely excited, was making comments or pointing things out to us at this unbelievable and very surreal feat. I was only eleven, and don’t think I actually grasped the true enormity of that moment, but I could feel it. And as we all watched history being made, there was the lunar module sitting on the moon and Neil Armstrong emerging from within, in a big white suit, big white boots and helmet to become the very first human being to walk on the moon, (that we saw), followed by his colleague, Buzz Aldrin while our third astronaut, Command module pilot Michael Collins flew the Columbia alone in lunar orbit while they were on the Moon’s surface. Armstrong and Aldrin spent 21 hours and 36 minutes on the surface of the moon at a site they named Tranquility Base before lifting off to rejoin Columbia in lunar orbit.

When you think about how many people all over the country, the world, of their study, design, hours and testing it takes to have any of these missions be a success. How many years of unmanned flights and then manned flights before they could land, the attention to detail of multiple layers of rockets and the material required not to disintegrate, their suits, what they are going to use to collect samples, tools, the camera for transmission to capture the moments, the sanitization to ensure that there is no contamination to the planet we are visiting nor back to earth from her, the exact time of departing from the mother ship to the surface and then back to return, the speed and fuel needed for entry and re-entry, weightlessness, G-Force, food, water, waste, impact to the physical and mental human, all of the contingencies in case something goes wrong and it goes on and on. It is just mind boggling. I would later think, in my limited knowledge, of all of the things that could have gone wrong here: The lunar module allowed the astronauts to leave Columbia - their ticket home - to land on the moon and then bring them back from the moon to the ship. If anything had gone wrong, they possibly would have never made it to the surface of the moon, but worse, they may never have made it back to the ship and back home to earth. But they did and I am beyond proud to say, it is because, among a great many others, my father was one that worked on the Lunar Module for Apollo 11.

Hanging in my office, under my certificate from Entenmann’s School of Baking, (six week course required for all employees and not that big of a deal), is the Apollo Achievement Award from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, (NASA), presented to my father, Frank B., (an extremely big deal), and the inscription reads:

“In appreciation of dedicated service to the nation as a member of the team which has advanced the nation’s capabilities in aeronautics and space and demonstrated them in many outstanding accomplishments culminating in Apollo 11’s successful achievement of man’s first landing on the moon, July 20, 1969.”

In our everyday lives, especially at this time, we face insurmountable odds, challenges that push us to breaking, anger and hatred around us that we can’t even fathom and events that are so surreal, we don’t even know how to wrap our heads around them. Yet, we find a way to persevere. And in that push forward, in our decision to continue no matter what, we come out to another side, a new frontier, that gently taps us on the shoulder so that we can look back and see how far we have truly come. Perseverance.

So, after reading this for editing purposes, Ingrid just shared with me that she had no idea why, a few months ago, I insisted she download an app, much less an app called Star Tracker, so that she could follow all of the celestial bodies and the conjunction with me. “But now,” she tells me, “it all makes sense”. Ah hah!

“Ladies and Gentlemen, this concludes our flight for today. I would like to thank you for choosing me as your carrier and wish you a safe and exciting journey on your way forward. Please make sure to collect all of your personal belongings and watch your step getting off the ship………..”