1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:01,334 This is a 2 00:00:01,334 --> 00:00:02,669 checkerboard of a story. 3 00:00:03,269 --> 00:00:04,804 We've got to do a better job 4 00:00:04,804 --> 00:00:06,306 of selling ourselves. 5 00:00:06,306 --> 00:00:07,073 We've got 6 00:00:07,073 --> 00:00:08,675 a lot more competition now. 7 00:00:08,675 --> 00:00:09,642 There was no one 8 00:00:09,642 --> 00:00:10,677 in their right mind 9 00:00:10,677 --> 00:00:11,745 that would bid 10 00:00:11,745 --> 00:00:12,812 a laser altimeter. 11 00:00:12,812 --> 00:00:14,414 We had to convince the management 12 00:00:14,414 --> 00:00:16,449 that this was not a crazy idea. 13 00:00:16,449 --> 00:00:17,283 How were we going 14 00:00:17,283 --> 00:00:18,651 to find the surface of Mars? 15 00:00:18,651 --> 00:00:19,819 How we're going to track it? 16 00:00:19,819 --> 00:00:22,055 We were defining the rules as we went. 17 00:00:22,522 --> 00:00:23,957 As they said in the letter to me, 18 00:00:23,957 --> 00:00:25,525 If you don't make it on time 19 00:00:25,525 --> 00:00:26,393 and in budget, 20 00:00:26,393 --> 00:00:28,094 we will fly a brick instead. 21 00:00:28,094 --> 00:00:29,796 We're not going to hold this mission up. 22 00:00:29,963 --> 00:00:32,699 Communications with the Mars Observer spacecraft 23 00:00:32,699 --> 00:00:33,500 were lost. 24 00:00:33,500 --> 00:00:34,667 It never crossed my mind 25 00:00:34,667 --> 00:00:36,202 that spacecraft would let us down. 26 00:00:36,202 --> 00:00:38,471 Can you get your team back together in time? 27 00:00:38,471 --> 00:00:40,306 We were only given three years 28 00:00:40,306 --> 00:00:41,174 to rebuild it. 29 00:00:41,674 --> 00:00:43,209 This is the first profile of a crater 30 00:00:43,209 --> 00:00:44,377 we've ever seen on a planet. 31 00:00:44,377 --> 00:00:45,512 We were in demand 32 00:00:45,512 --> 00:00:47,847 to provide a laser altimeter to 33 00:00:47,847 --> 00:00:48,648 another mission. 34 00:00:48,648 --> 00:00:50,417 What is this mystery we're seeing? 35 00:00:50,417 --> 00:00:52,218 We started in the worst possible orbit. 36 00:00:52,218 --> 00:00:53,686 All of the easy missions are done, 37 00:00:53,686 --> 00:00:54,454 as they say. 38 00:00:54,454 --> 00:00:55,989 I had sleepless nights 39 00:00:55,989 --> 00:00:57,257 thinking that I wasn't 40 00:00:57,257 --> 00:00:58,792 going to be able to make this work. 41 00:01:00,560 --> 00:01:01,561 And this came out of 42 00:01:01,561 --> 00:01:02,462 "it can't be done" 43 00:01:02,462 --> 00:01:03,430 in the mid eighties 44 00:01:03,430 --> 00:01:05,231 to a tool that we now accept 45 00:01:05,231 --> 00:01:06,332 as the standard. 46 00:01:06,332 --> 00:01:09,269 It wasn't a destination or a place 47 00:01:09,269 --> 00:01:10,570 that we were, 48 00:01:10,570 --> 00:01:12,005 as much as a place 49 00:01:12,005 --> 00:01:13,773 that we would become. 50 00:01:13,773 --> 00:01:16,743 [music]