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NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell
A photo taken by the Spirit rover in 2004 shows the U.S. flag on a cable shield that was fashioned out of aluminum from New York's World Trade Center.
Ten years after the 9/11 terror attacks, pieces of the World Trade Center serve as a shining red-white-and-blue tributes on the Red Planet.
The two aluminum shields were fashioned out of metal salvaged from the fallen towers and dispatched to Mars on NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rovers in 2003. The shields are emblazoned with a U.S. flag and designed to protect cables on the rovers' rock abrasion tools, or RATs.
The tributes were made possible by rover science team member Stephen Gorevan, the founder and chairman of Honeybee Robotics. Gorevan's company — which has its offices in Lower Manhattan, less than a mile from Ground Zero — built the grinding tools for NASA's use.
"It's gratifying knowing that a piece of the World Trade Center is up there on Mars," Gorevan said in a NASA news release issued today. "That shield on Mars, to me, contrasts the destructive nature of the attackers with the ingenuity and hopeful attitude of Americans."
Gorevan was riding his bike to work when the first plane hit on Sept. 11, 2001.
"Mostly, what comes back to me even today is the sound of the engines before the first plane struck the tower," he recalled. "Just before crashing into the tower, I could hear the engines being revved up as if those behind the controls wanted to ensure the maximum destruction. I stopped and stared for a few minutes and realized I felt totally helpless, and I left the scene and went to my office nearby, where my colleagues told me a second plane had struck. We watched the rest of the sad events of that day from the roof of our facility."
Steve Kondos, an engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who was working closely with the Honeybee team, suggested including something on the Mars rovers as a 9/11 memorial. (The Spirit rover also carried a memorial plaque dedicated to the victims of the Columbia tragedy.) Gorevan checked with his contacts, and on Dec. 1, 2001, Honeybee received a parcel from the New York mayor's office, containing a twisted plate of aluminum and a note: "Here is debris from Tower 1 and Tower 2."
Honeybee engineer Tom Myrick hand-delivered the metal to a machine shop in Texas that was working on other RAT components, and the scrap was turned into the credit card-sized shields. Myrick added the flags to the shields and had them installed on the rovers for launch.
No one on the rover team on at Honeybee spoke publicly about the 9/11 connection until months after the rovers landed on Mars in 2004. "It was intended to be a quiet tribute," The New York Times quoted Gorevan as saying in November 2004. "Enough time has passed. We want the families to know."
Now the 9/11 connection is a well-established part of the lore surrounding the Mars rovers. Spirit froze in place last year in Gusev Crater during the Martian winter, but Opportunity is still going strong at Endeavour Crater, and researchers are planning to use the flag-festooned RAT on some intriguing rocks next month.
"One day, both rovers will be silent," NASA said in the news release. "In the cold, dry environments where they have worked on Mars, the onboard memorials to the victims of the Sept. 11 attack could remain in good condition for millions of years."
Will the descendants of the World Trade Center victims have an opportunity someday to visit those memorials on Mars? What do you think? Feel free to add your comments and your tributes below.
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A wonderful tribute and a great dream that someday these memorials will be in a museum on Mars.
Opportunity of a lifetime allowed me to work on the Mars Rover project at Cornell University (2001). It was an honor to place this material on-board. Our landing team watched the devastation together.
Bravo! I LOVE THIS COUNTRY!!!!!!!!! That is the most awesome memorial ever made!!! Thank you a thousand times to those responsible. U are to be admired!
Wouldn't it have been better if the United States -- apparently with the most powerful military since the Roman Empire -- scrambled just ONE fighter jet to protect the towers?
Your TSA happily molests grandmothers and children to protect airplanes, you'd figure the government would have considered 4 hijacked planes just a tad bit more dangerous than diaper wearing citizens. But I guess if the twin towers didn't go down, you wouldn't have had the "most awesome memorial ever made!!!"
Show your TSA just how much you "LOVE THIS COUNTRY!!!!!!!!!!" by allowing them to touch your private parts and snap photos of your weewee. Oh wait, you have no choice. I guess it's a good thing you love them, huh?
ImoenOfTelengard,
I guess you weren't aware that the Government didn't know it was an attack until after the 2nd airliner hit. How could they scramble a fighter, when they didn't know? I realize that 10 years later, everyone thinks the US knows everything, but sadly, that is not the case on this one.
Salaam Imoen,
Peace be upon you in the name of the Prophet. Your taunt is inappropriate and shows that you are not a follower of the true faith. You, like the hijackers, shame Allah and Mohammed, his prophet.
You and your ignorance have cast a shadow over Islam and it's true believers. You have caused more pain and suffering to the followers of the true faith than any damage you perceive you have done to the non-believers. Your tactics have failed, your strategy has backfired.
Look at the harm you have caused in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands of the faithful have paid the price for your false beliefs and actions.
It is time to stop, to change your ways, before more innocents are sacrificed to your sacrilege.
Salaam
Imoen,
Fist of all, air defense should have been scrambled right away after the very first tower was hit, but that's just my opinion.
Second, your TSA does NOT "happily molest" people to protect airplanes. They are doing what they have to in order to protect people and property from terrorist, domestic and foreign. I'm not happy about the way in which they screen passengers but something needs to be done. Would you do away with searches and body scans? How would you protect people against terrorist hijackings??
We are talking about public transportation and keeping it safe for everyone. How do you accomplish that in a world in which those who would terrorize you are willingly to go to any limits to harm you?
Now THATS what I call recycling!
Give me a break. Milking this whole "9/11 Changed Everything" crap a little too much, huh? Why doesn't NASA put a rusty old car on Mars considering 10x more people die PER YEAR on the roads than the whole over-done "9/11" inside job ever did.
So what perfect country are you from? Obviously, you don't realize the good that came out of the attacks on 9-11. The national unity was utterly amazing to be a part of. There are a few bad things that came out of the attacks, but they are far outweighed by the good that come out of it. This story is just another example of the good. If you don't like the stories, don't read them, since you seem to be offended by the 9-11 attacks, and how they changed my country!
Imoen is a misguided fool who shames himself with his comments. I am guessing he is a US-born follower of radical Islam. He is the dream of Al Queda. He is a US citizen who can "pass" through most security without notice. He is destined to bring more suffering to the world in the name of a religion he does not truly follow. Do not ignore him or his kind and do not feel sorry for him. He is lost. He is damned, in the eyes of Allah and the Prophet, blessings be upon him.
Regardless of all else, thousands of people died in a matter of hours on 9/11. Someone directly affected by that event wanted to do something special to honor those people who lost their lives. It was not an organizational goal to create a 9/11 memorial out of the rovers.
Imoen, your thoughts about 9/11 are what they are and you are entitled to them but you clearly misunderstand the nature of little aluminum memorial to 9/11. Some guy working on some part for some rover that would eventually go to Mars basically made the decision to create this memorial himself. It was not a NASA-planned event and it has nothing to do with you inside job ideas about 9/11.
The buildings fell. People died. It was a serious tragedy in American history. You disrespect all the people who died by calling it "9/11 changed everything crap". Regardless of who you believe masterminded the 9/11 tragedy you can't just sit there and disrespect the people who died. They were human beings and they did not deserve the end that came to them.
Who or whatever "Imo" (above) is, he? she? it? must be boring his keepers again. Pore thang. Go easy on those pastic restraints, guys. Or has he already finished chowing down on the plastic that long ago replaced those minuscule few left of whatever cells are left between his ears?
Im saddened by Imoen's response. I have pity for u.
What a waste of time. Let the inside 9/11 job rest will you please. No disrespect to the victims,
but your country let you down.
Let's see them fly a plane into that. There's an imam somewhere fuming with rage right now.
What a lovely tribute and remembrance of 9/11. Nothing but praise for those responsible for the creation of this memorial. Very nice, very classy. Two thumbs up.
Heya Skip! Agreed 100%. These are some classy folks that thought to incorporate the aluminum into the RATs.
I'm Brazilian, but I respect a lot your country. There are 204 nations in this world, and only the United States of America has flags on the surface of another celestial bodies (Moon and Mars), without counting the other probes that are flying through the Solar System. What a country you guys have!!! Made a tribute like this on Mars, this is a thing to feel HUGE pride to be an American. The notion that most of the Brazilians has of Americans is that the U.S can do almost everything on the technology field, that the U.S is almost perfect in some ways. So, be very proud of your nation, to do such a tribute like this, absolutely amazing. I wanted that Brazil was doing things of this magnidtude and historical importance.
Peace be upon you Mike. Let us all come together again. Left, right, black, white and all others if only for a while. I spent much of last night watching several documentaries on that horrible day. The one most striking to me was a program named 'Voices From Inside The Tower' wherein many recorded messages from people affected were played back including accounts from family and friends whose devices they were recorded to during the moments after the planes hit to the time the towers fell.
I am definitely not an emasculated male in any way and more of a manly man if you will, but let me tell you I was in tears along with my wife for almost the whole show. It was so tragic and personal that I couldn't help myself. I wanted to turn the channel, but something in me told me that I must watch it so as to never forget the horrible events that unfolded that day on an individual level. Most were short and sweet telling loved ones how they felt and their last wishes concerning their young children etc.. The calm during the dire and imminent situation tells of a coming to terms with their fate that really moved me. You realize during those times what should really be important in ones everyday life. That to me is a life not squandered in anger and defiance.
I highly recommend that you try to DVR the show if it runs again on The History Channel.
Not sure why I posted this amongst strangers, but the one thing that stood out to me as I saw those fleeing and dying was that as I saw their faces I thought of them not as Black or White, man or woman, left or right, liberal or conservative but as Americans and guests of this great nation.
If any atheist are reading this may you not take offense because I include you, whether you would want me to or not, I say God bless ALL of us and always remember that there are more things that unite us and things we have in common than there will ever be of those that divide us.
Greetings from a Good ol Boy from the hills and woods of the beautiful Ozarks.
P.S. You New Yorkers are some tough s.o.b.'s.. Really are. Maybe I'll run into one of you some day and I'll show you a country good time and how we do it down here. Catfishin', shine and barkin' at the moon. Yeehaw!
amazing. Remembered forever
You all need to get your facts straight.
First of all they could not scramble a fighter jet because a week before 9/11 Israeli intelligence said told the US that terrorists were planning to crash jets into financial centers or landmarks. So the US initiated training exercises to stop a terrorist attack of this magnitude. Unfortunately for us the military was running the exercise on the day of 9/11 in Canada so all of our jets were training in Canada for a 9/11 type of attack.
This is why our air traffic controllers and military controllers were so confused on 9/11 and kept asking officials if the crash was a real time scenario or part of the training that was taking place that day.
Alot of people lost friends and relatives that day, including people working in NASA. This is a wonderful tribute to those people that were lost. God Bless the USA including the infidels, yup thats how god works.
Although I appreciate the gesture; isn't the flag backwards? I believe the star should be at the top left corner.
You do realize that the flag is facing downwards and not straight across, Right?
ImoenOfTelengard,
you are an a$%hole!
Correct on the flag, if hung vertical. I'm betting the flag is actually affixed horizontally in respect to the RAT. A great tribute. Not marred by a few ever-present asinine comments.
Very nice tribute, too bad they made the biggest mistake of all when displaying our cherished flag. The position of the union on the flag is not correct. Upper left corner when displayed vertically.
If the flag was intended to be positioned vertically then yes, it would be incorrect. But this flag was meant to be positioned within the rover horizontally. When the tool set comes into view of the camera however it shows as pictured. Regardless of this I have to say that to know a piece of American history, tragic though it is rests now on the surface of another planet is AWESOME! Way to go guys!
I'm not knocking the effort here, please.
They new which end was up when they designed it back here on Earth.
Regardless, its the substrate that the flag is on that makes the difference here. A very nice tribute.
Then again they could have mirrored the image to make the flag appear correctly presented, but then the conspiracy theorists would be scrambling like crazy!
The flag is properly oriented when the arm it is on is stowed on the vehicle. If you were standing in front of Spirit or Opportunity the flag would be correctly displayed.
When the arm is extended for sampling, as seen by the camera on the Rover, it appears vertical from that perspective - much like the flag tattoo on my arm looks right for the rest of the world, but from the perspective of my own eyes is upside down.
It's a very cool and extremely thoughtful tribute.
Two F-16 fighters were scrambled. But seriously, firing on a commercial airliner or colliding with it (which was the case as these reserve fighters only carried machine guns that would not stop a 40,000 ton vehicle).
Until the first collision who would pull the trigger? Who would give the command? Unless you have been in that chain you have no idea what it would take.
It isn't like a movie where the command structure is ready to fire off at the first indication of attack. Keep in mind that even during wars like WW2, countries like Russia in 1940 didn't react for WEEKS against the Axis forces.
Planes at just below the speed of sound, you might want to consider how hard it is to direct an aircraft to intercept that vehicle.
Give it a try on on any number of simulators out there, go ahead, let's see how you do. If you are using a good simulator you will likely never be able to launch the fighters, direct them to the right location and then do damage within the time alloted.