Keep Your Eyes Looking Up

Rover Amateur science communicator aspiring to become a professional my posts • my additions disclaimers

[roversrovers]

Mars Rover Playlists

Wake-up playlists for the NASA Mars Rovers.

You can find all the Mars rover playlists and related links that I've talked about in detail before in this handy overview now!

Enjoy!

[spacewonder19]

Moon's Near & Far Sides from Artemis Ⅱ ©

[philcollinsenjoyer]

saying this in a soft tone but i dislike this presentation of artemis 2 in the least political way possible as a wholesome and uncomplicated win for humanity as a whole like it's not american propagandism of the highest and most vulgar degree

[voicelessv]

"For me, the most ironic token of [the first human moon landing] is the plaque signed by President Richard M. Nixon that Apollo 11 took to the moon. It reads: "We came in peace for all Mankind." As the United States was dropping 7 ½ megatons of conventional explosives on small nations in Southeast Asia, we congratulated ourselves on our humanity. We would harm no one on a lifeless rock."

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

[nasajpl]

We know that we cannot take the current President's statements at face value. But in light of Trump's recent speech where he claimed that he's "saved" NASA and always supported them (which isn't true), I wanted to elaborate on some of this.

He's slashed the budget, forced removal of DEI history and contributions at NASA, and caused many NASA workers' unemployment. I have worked closely with people in these spheres and know that the budget cuts have deeply jeopardized the future space missions, space exploration, and space science.

My close friends and colleagues, especially those relying on DEI programs, have had such a difficult time during this administration, and we still are. This program found some success with Artemis II and beyond in spite of the current administration's lack of support and lack of funding.

You can read more details here.

[cardassiangoodreads]

This is all the more reason you guys have to stop circulating shit about Artemis II being “US army propaganda.” Along with that it just isn’t, all those arguments are various forms of associating this with Trump “but leftishly.” In fact I don’t think he should get credit for a program from an agency he’s done everything he can to kneecap at every turn. You don’t have to give it to him!

[roversrovers]

This is such a naive view of this that denies and ignores not only the complex history of NASA as an institution but also the recent history of Trump's involvement as president.

Artemis II is propaganda and pretending that the mission exists completely removed from military interest or Donald Trump's presidency is naive at best and a bold-faced lie at worst. Artemis II was to a significant degree a result of Donald Trump wanting people to go to the moon again, not for science, but for business and propaganda specifically during his presidency. (source) (source) (source)

Donald Trump has been slashing NASA's budget, yes, but specifically the science and education budget (and DEI programs) and he has been funding the Artemis program. He actively pushes for human presence in space and wants to push for more commercial space-travel, as opposed to the government-funded, science-motivated space travel we usually associate with NASA missions. (source) (source)

Donald Trump is in many ways responsible for Artemis II and in his eyes, he is saving NASA, specifically from being controlled by the leftist cabal or whatever he's thinking by cutting the science and education budget for it and instead pushing for the same thing Kennedy pushed for with Apollo, a "a planetary-scale boast", "Manifest Destiny incarnate, bursting with promise and American masculinity, their legacy rising like the phallic rockets that launched them". Only this time the goal is to beat China to the moon.

Artemis is an incredible program with many opportunities for amazing science to be done and we will learn new things thanks to scientists, astronauts, engineers and everyone working on it and it's fine and good to be excited about that. But trying to remove Trump's involvement and goals and painting it as a wholesome and peaceful mission that came into this world completely apolitically, birthed from scientists holding hands and singing Kumbaya is simply wrong and dangerously so. You are falling for the propaganda.

[steadynightruins]

Interview with Rise the zero-gravity indicator plushie

[cupidcosmos]

Spot the difference (HARD)

[elbiotipo]

Just got off a whole day on a bus to check the world's most beautiful pictures of the Moon and Trump threatening genocide upon a whole civilization

[elbiotipo]

oh carlitos we're really in it now

[nemfrog]

The sun, the moon and the stars. Out-of-doors. v. 2. 1932.

[hgedits]

The Artemis II crew naming two previously undiscovered lunar craters (one after Commander Reid Wiseman's late wife).

[synnthamonsugar]

The pilot -> astronaut pipeline makes complete sense but is also funny to me. There's a secret second sky and if you get good enough at doing sky you can do space.

[roversrovers]

Kennedy didn't care about rocks. He didnt send brave souls to the Moon for science. The goal was to beat the Russians to the Moon, to defeat the great bogeyman of mid-century America and score a win for republican democracy over communism. . . . Apollo was a planetary-scale boast, a giant risk with high reward, a daring gamble for a youthful nation. It was propaganda at its finest. Its astronauts were upstanding white Protestant men who had traditional families and wore casual pants and drank whiskey from highball glasses. They were red-blooded American heroes who cooked homemade pizzas and played baseball with their kids, then put on spacesuits and did the impossible. They were Manifest Destiny incarnate, bursting with promise and American masculinity, their legacy rising like the phallic rockets that launched them. . . . Humans have touched the Moon—Americans have touched it— but that is not enough for China, or India, or even the United States in the twenty-first century C.E. The leaders of these countries each want their particular brands of boots to mar its surface, and their own particular twenty-first-century names engraved on plaques to be mounted forever in its dust. We have to identify the real reasons why we'd like to revisit the Moon, and what we would do once we got there. Will we go back because it's still hard? Because we have something to prove, some faceless enemy nation to impress? Because we would like some rocks in the name of science? Because we would like to make money? Or because of something grander, something more ineffable?

— Rebecca Boyle, "Our Moon: A Human History" (Emphasis mine)

We're going back to the moon– let's remember why we went there in the first place, and ask why we're going back now.

[the-wolf-and-moon]

Hickson 44, The Lion's Galaxies

[spacewonder19]

Cygnus A ©

[gemini-enthusiast]

Space was represented in the opening ceremony for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan! Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti took part in the ceremony, demonstrating to future generations what is possible through the spirit of unity that both the games and the International Space Station represent.

(Photo from CNN)

Cristoforetti was the first Italian female astronaut and broke the endurance record for longest single spaceflight by a woman. Flying aboard Soyuz TMA-15M and Crew-4 for long-duration ISS missions, she also served as the commander of the ISS on Expedition 68. In 2015 while on Expedition 42, in true Italian spirit, she brewed the first cup of espresso in space.

[theinoculatedcupcake]

Accidentally started a NASA / sci-fi group at work. We all wore NASA sweatshirts into the office yesterday and talked about Artemis II, Cassini-Huygens, and Mars.

Honestly, it's one of the only good things of being stuck back in the office full-time

Anyway, here’s some photos from my trip to Kennedy Space Center back in 2019.

[wickedlovelyperfectlyimperf-blog]

This is a picture from the Curiosity Rover on Mars showing Earth from the Perspective of Mars. You are literally looking at your home from the Perspective of another planet. Epic times indeed

[blindtrip-blog]

group photo everyone

[cerulean-tmp]

everyone

[trencly]

hey i look really good in this one

[roversrovers]

This is a computer-generated image. Scientist Louise Riofrio has taken credit for making it to illustrate a theoretical view from Mars on a specific day.

Here is a REAL photo the Curiosity rover took of Earth:

(x)

[ohvoyager]

Painting by Jon Lomberg for Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot (1994)

The position of the Earth and Sun (and many of the stars in our night sky) as seen from a vantage point outside the Milky Way