1 00:00:00,033 --> 00:00:01,368 This is a 2 00:00:01,368 --> 00:00:02,702 checkerboard of a story. 3 00:00:03,303 --> 00:00:04,838 We've got to do a better job 4 00:00:04,838 --> 00:00:06,339 of selling ourselves. 5 00:00:06,339 --> 00:00:07,107 We've got 6 00:00:07,107 --> 00:00:08,708 a lot more competition now. 7 00:00:08,708 --> 00:00:09,676 There was no one 8 00:00:09,676 --> 00:00:10,710 in their right mind 9 00:00:10,710 --> 00:00:11,778 that would bid 10 00:00:11,778 --> 00:00:12,846 a laser altimeter. 11 00:00:12,846 --> 00:00:14,447 We had to convince the management 12 00:00:14,447 --> 00:00:16,483 that this was not a crazy idea. 13 00:00:16,483 --> 00:00:17,317 How were we going 14 00:00:17,317 --> 00:00:18,685 to find the surface of Mars? 15 00:00:18,685 --> 00:00:19,853 How we're going to track it? 16 00:00:19,853 --> 00:00:22,088 We were defining the rules as we went. 17 00:00:22,555 --> 00:00:23,990 As they said in the letter to me, 18 00:00:23,990 --> 00:00:25,558 If you don't make it on time 19 00:00:25,558 --> 00:00:26,426 and in budget, 20 00:00:26,426 --> 00:00:28,128 we will fly a brick instead. 21 00:00:28,128 --> 00:00:29,829 We're not going to hold this mission up. 22 00:00:29,996 --> 00:00:32,732 Communications with the Mars Observer spacecraft 23 00:00:32,732 --> 00:00:33,533 were lost. 24 00:00:33,533 --> 00:00:34,701 It never crossed my mind 25 00:00:34,701 --> 00:00:36,236 that spacecraft would let us down. 26 00:00:36,236 --> 00:00:38,505 Can you get your team back together in time? 27 00:00:38,505 --> 00:00:40,340 We were only given three years 28 00:00:40,340 --> 00:00:41,207 to rebuild it. 29 00:00:41,708 --> 00:00:43,243 This is the first profile of a crater 30 00:00:43,243 --> 00:00:44,411 we've ever seen on a planet. 31 00:00:44,411 --> 00:00:45,545 We were in demand 32 00:00:45,545 --> 00:00:47,881 to provide a laser altimeter to 33 00:00:47,881 --> 00:00:48,681 another mission. 34 00:00:48,681 --> 00:00:50,450 What is this mystery we're seeing? 35 00:00:50,450 --> 00:00:52,252 We started in the worst possible orbit. 36 00:00:52,252 --> 00:00:53,720 All of the easy missions are done, 37 00:00:53,720 --> 00:00:54,487 as they say. 38 00:00:54,487 --> 00:00:56,022 I had sleepless nights 39 00:00:56,022 --> 00:00:57,290 thinking that I wasn't 40 00:00:57,290 --> 00:00:58,825 going to be able to make this work. 41 00:01:00,593 --> 00:01:01,594 And this came out of 42 00:01:01,594 --> 00:01:02,495 "it can't be done" 43 00:01:02,495 --> 00:01:03,463 in the mid eighties 44 00:01:03,463 --> 00:01:05,265 to a tool that we now accept 45 00:01:05,265 --> 00:01:06,366 as the standard. 46 00:01:06,366 --> 00:01:09,302 It wasn't a destination or a place 47 00:01:09,302 --> 00:01:10,603 that we were, 48 00:01:10,603 --> 00:01:12,038 as much as a place 49 00:01:12,038 --> 00:01:13,807 that we would become. 50 00:01:13,807 --> 00:01:16,776 [music]