After watching yesterday’s Mars landing, I’m only a little less impressed with the fact that I’ve made it to bag nine (out of 21). There are so many similarities to our missions that I don’t want to take the time now to point them all out.

I will, however, mention that Curiosity’s “seven minutes of terror” during descent pales in comparison to the 15 seconds of horror and disgust I experienced when I read a review of the grand piano (a few days too late I’m afraid) that made a point of warning against not inserting the batteries during bag three procedures, because, as I discovered today, there is absolutely no way to insert them now without undoing a lot of work, which is not going to happen. In other words, failure is an option.

The piano will still look good when completed. it just won’t be functional, like when I forget to turn on my digital piano before starting to play it. The silver lining – no power means no audible mistakes.