yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

He Builds Space Robots for a Living | Best Job Ever


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

Everything you see on a spacecraft is usually designed and built by a mechanical engineer, and I get to do that. My fundamental job is to design and build hardware that goes out and explores our universe. I build things that have gone to the surface of Mars, build things that look back at Earth, things that have gone under the ocean, built things that have gone into deep space.

You get to call your family and say, "You know that thing that just went up there in space and is now on its way to Mars? Well, yeah, I built that!"

Main engine start, zero, and lift-off of the Atlas V with Curiosity, seeking clues to the planetary puzzle about life on Mars. It's an amazing feeling to have hardware that you've touched and you've played with, and you got to manipulate in some way on the surface of another planet. Touchdown confirmed.

So, do I have a favorite rover? I mean, it's hard not to love the first child, and so our first child is really the Sojourner rover, which really started our exploration of Mars with robotic vehicles.

If you don't have that first thing, you know, if it wasn't Kennedy saying that we're going to go to the Moon, not because it's easy, but because it's hard, "We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other thing, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."

It's the same type of thing: we're not going to go do roving exploration on the surface of Mars because it's easy, but we know it's hard.

People that would say, "Hey, look, we're doing all this exploration in space. Why aren't we doing a lot more exploration of Earth?" I actually agree fundamentally with you. I think exploration is the thing that we should talk about, not if we're exploring Earth or Mars or Venus or Jupiter or Saturn or whatever it is.

I think it's exploration—it's asking the questions that need answers, and it's that striving for intellectual knowledge and growth. It's just amazing to think about what's out there.

Anywhere on Earth that we find liquid water, we find life. If there were also methane around, the microbes here on Earth could have survived on Mars.

More Articles

View All
These are the questions you should be asking at a late-stage startup.
When a company goes public or when a company is acquired for a lot of money, the market is looking at how much revenue that company is making and is that revenue growing. I would say that, you know, for example, if I’m at a company right now that’s making…
15 BEST MONEY ADVICE | ALUX Edition
You are watching the Sunday motivational video: The 15 Best Pieces of Money Advice. Welcome to a luxe calm, the place where future billionaires come to get inspired. Halloway, lack sirs, and welcome back to this special Sunday motivational video. We’ve be…
Darren's Great Big Camera - Smarter Every Day 21
Today on Smarter Every Day, you’re gonna learn about big rockets and big cameras. Is it going now? Woah! [Rushing air] Woohoo! Yeah! Oh! Hey, it’s me, Destin. I’m at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center with my new friend Darren, who’s got a great big camer…
LC natural response derivation 1
In this video, we’re going to begin the derivation of the LC natural response, the response of an inductor capacitor circuit. This is a difficult derivation, but it really pays off in the end. There’s a real fun surprise at the end, and that is this is wh…
How I Meditate
I do Transcendental Meditation, um, and when I and there are different that’s a mantra-based vegetation. So anyway, here’s how it works. There are met different Mantra based presentations, but the process is a real simple process. There’s a, um, it’s call…
Inside Kevin O'Leary's Crypto Portfolio | Cointelegraph
There’s a lot of interest in the UAE because it’s a very pro-business jurisdiction. They’re very interested in innovation, not just in crypto but in all fields. For example, they have the most advanced DNA sequencing lab in the world. I was able to visit …