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.

"No Science Without Them" Stylussketched on tablet with #SketchbookApp #ArtAdventCalendar

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.

If 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

We 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 )

Yes and.....

Interviewer: Can you explain this gap in your resume? Mars Rover Ops Team: Sorry - the rover was in runout due to an unexpected outage at the DSN antenna.

This is the time used by MSL and M2020 ( i.e. NRB_799975504EDR_F1152616NCAM00551M_ / FLF_1497_0799847065_176ECM_N0730000FHAZ00219_01_295J01 ) Time to party like it's 8 o'sclk

Just don't look at the back - that's where I hid all the aliens.

Number 3. And still SO much more to do.

Mars on the cover of the new issue of Science Featuring a photograph taken by the Curiosity rover at the Ubajara drill site. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS www.science.org/toc/science/... 🧪🔭 #Mars

Curiosity be all "I can see my house from here"

Quote post with a picture you took in a National Park. Ubehebe Crater, Death Valley National Park, taken on Sunday morning during the amazing Death Valley Dark Sky Festival.

The tapestry of our colorful planet from 250 miles above is beautiful because of its diversity.

Of course Earth is my favorite planet. It's home. But Mars is where my imagination lives. I've dedicated the last 8 years of my career to its exploration. I refuse to let billionaires ruin the home of my imagination and defile the frontier of the human experience.

Love it when Curiosity sends back images of wispy clouds in the martian sky... Sol 4423 image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S Atkinson

Kevin is good people - I'm very sad I didn't get to spend more time working with him on Curiosity.

Feeling tremendous guilt that I can’t contribute to every single Go Fund Me myself, as if I alone were meant to be the public safety net.

On that red dot are a couple of robots we use to explore another world and push back the frontier of the human experience…..but we’re gonna have to put that on pause for a little while why we help each other catch our breath down here. The robots will be OK - but we are not.

Elena is a peer of mine on Curiosity. We were on shift together on Monday. I am so glad her family is safe…. And I’m heartbroken for what’s happened to them.

@transmartian.bsky.social The movies for dust lifting don't stop just because we're not on shift. I'd guess it's lifting dust 200-300m high.

@ryaneversley.bsky.social I'm not on twitter, they're not on BSky....but four new round things ARE on my car.

The very first time I ever did any sort of computer animation was with Bryce 3D about 25 years ago and unknowingly it set me on a path to the career I have today. Ever since - I've wanted to visit the place that gave it its name. Today ...I did. It didn't disappoint.

Closing out the year with a bit of a road trip.....Zion National Park is awfully pretty and AWFULLY busy....has to head off the beaten path to avoid the crowds but it was worth it.

Twilight Cloud Season is here....WE ARE SO BACK.

Future science target names may* include 'Altadena Ale House' 'JPLs West Parking Lot' 'Suspicious looking dumpster behind LA Fitness' and 'Someone left a bike locked up by the East Gate'. ( * definitely not )

Silver/Amber alert notifications sharing their pertinent information via a Xitter account is a very very very poor choice. It was never a great idea to rely on a social network for it....now it's a public safety risk.

Just in time for this Mars year's twilight cloud season, here's a new paper led by Mark Lemmon about cloud iridescence we've seen at Gale. If you read none of it, at least admire the pretty pictures. #planetaryscience agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

A #planetaryscience amuse bouche before Thanksgiving: I have a new paper about how Mars seems to lack a quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO). I go more into why, but lack of QBO may stem from the absence of a stratosphere on Mars or disruptions in the Hadley cell. authors.elsevier.com/a/1k9kj4L-Ym...

The last 10 days have been the hardest in my 14+ years on lab. Trying to recover from what was done to our team last week is a challenge we'll never complete. The immediate MSL team I am fortunate enough to call my colleagues continues to be phenomenal in every possible way one could dream of.

I'm sorry for putting space stuff into this semi-popular travel podcast.