The Millers' Oak Park Baby: mission to mars

jude at nasa goddard, md

the millers are on a mission to mars.

we are all experts on the mars rover after watching way too many Youtube videos with jude. my four-year-old future astronaut is obsessed with curiosity's trip to the red planet. the more i learn the more proud i am of american engineering and the amazing ability to land a car sized robot on a planet at least 50 million kilometers away.

but it was an earthly adventure to the museum of science and industry which sparked jude's obsession. msi has an earlier mars rover visitors can drive with a joystick. but key for jude is the 10 minute video showing it landing on mars. greg took him solo one day and let jude spend 45 minutes watching the show over and over. the rover obsession expanded to all things space.

satellite with robot arm

every block of wood or tinker toy becomes a space shuttle with booster rockets that blast away or a rover.

imagine his excitement when i told him an actual rover was landing on mars this month. that led to a trip to msi to see the life size model of curiosity. http://www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/life-in-space/

the boys with curiosity's twin at Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago

Its just gotten crazy. we now follow the rover on twitter @marscuriosity. For awhile jude asked every morning to watch mars rover videos on youtube.

grandma nancy knew about jude's space obsession. she took us to nasa goddard during our recent maryland mom and boys trip.

NASA Goddard

they have several delta rockets. and where else can you picnic by rockets that have made trips to space?

harry enjoying space toys at nasa goddard

nasa just announced a dinosaur track from a nodosaur hidden near the sidewalk at goddard. really-- they couldn't let us sneak a peek when we were there?