Shepard vs adam steltzner biography

In the days and hours leading up to the landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars, Adam Steltzner, a key figure behind that globally anticipated event, was often seen on TV explaining the physics of gently depositing a one-ton robot traveling at 13,200 miles per hour onto the planet’s rock-strewn surface.

Curiosity was a $2.5 billion mission involving hundreds of scientists and engineers, but Steltzner became its public face, and much was made of his swashbuckling personal style, from the pomaded hair to the big belt buckles and snazzy cowboy boots—the fashion sense of the rock star he once aspired to be and a far cry, from a central casting point of view, from what folks had come to think of as standard NASA engineer regalia.

Then came the moment of truth.

An intricate sequence of maneuvers conceived and choreographed by Steltzner’s team reduced the speed of the descending rover until it could be safely lowered to the ground