Web edition: August 3, 2012 Though nearly empty Thursday
afternoon, mission control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
will be packed with more than 100 people when the Mars rover
Curiosity is set to touch down this Sunday, August 5. But for
now, the control room is quiet, illuminated by a dim, soothing
blue light. Data and images flash across the enormous screens
hanging at the front of the room, which also serves as the nerve
center for the Deep Space Network, an array of telescopes tasked
with tracking the spacecrafts JPL sends zooming around the solar
system. One of the displays tells the team which of these 24
spacecraft are currently phoning home and where on Earth the
call is received. At this moment, the Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter is talking to a telescope near Madrid. The Dawn
spacecraft, in orbit around the asteroid Vesta, is listening as
an antenna in Canberra, Australia, relays instructions. And
Juno, on the way to Jupiter, is phoning in to Goldstone, Calif.
“There’s a minimum of five engineers