Mars Is Hard: A Chat With Jim Adams

In less than 24 hours we’ll know whether the Mars Curiosity Rover, the next in NASA’s line of vehicles designed to probe one of Earth’s closest planetary neighbors, plummeted to the Martian surface as it’s been programmed to, or not. Jim Adams is biting his nails. The SUV-sized Curiosity launched eight months ago, and Adams, NASA’s deputy chief technologist, likely hasn’t slept much since.

Not only does the guy oversee technology transfer across the agency. All that insane tech you see packed onto rockets and rovers at launch time? Yeah, it’s Adams’ job to acquire the appropriate patents to eventually take those things public, as it were, and then to make sure the public knows it’s got access. But there’s also his role finding mission-focused cost-cutting measures within the agency. This has him operating as a sort of tech evangelist – Adams knows that rather than brute force a solution using old, antiquated methods, NASA-like problems are better solved with fresh solutions that employ new tools, even in times of flat budgets. Why? Because NASA-like problems only ever increase in difficulty. “As we go deeper into space with more and more stuff,” he admits, “the problems just keep getting that much harder.”

Take landing the Curiosity rover, the crown jewel of the Mars Science Laboratory. It’s a feat that Adams would probably be one of the first to say isn’t not completely insane, but that if all goes to plan will only nod to the ingenious engineering work of NASA’s research squads. This is his baby, in a way, after all. For the last five years, up until this past March, he served as NASA’s executive director of planetary science. The gig had him heading up all missions to destinations within our solar system. He’s been able to watch Curiosity and the MSL take shape unlike anyone else has been able to.

I had the chance to speak with Adams on Friday, just days prior to Curiosity’s scheduled touch down on Monday at around 1:30 EST. He offered a quick sense of the vibe right now at NASA, from Kennedy Space Center to the Jet Propulsion Lab in southern California; geeked over some of Curiosity’s wackier specs, and generally gave a dizzying peek inside the life and times of a space program that’s very much not dead.

Motherboard: Hey, Jim.

Hey, Brian.

How are you doing?

I’m doing alright. I just landed at Kennedy Space Center. Setting up shop, here.

Oh wow.

Read the rest over at Motherboard.