Doug Ellison
@dougellison.bsky.social
Dad, Husband, Mars Rover Crew Chief. Opinions and views expressed are my own. Not a NASA account. Contains strong language. He/Him
On Monday I braced for this most recent round of JPL layoffs by looking around my office for what I cared about most to take it home in case I never got to return. I grabbed just one thing - the beautiful bowl by @amyraehill.bsky.social inspired by the false color postcard I took with Curiosity.
October 16, 2025 at 12:09 AM
On Monday I braced for this most recent round of JPL layoffs by looking around my office for what I cared about most to take it home in case I never got to return. I grabbed just one thing - the beautiful bowl by @amyraehill.bsky.social inspired by the false color postcard I took with Curiosity.
Reposted by Doug Ellison
If you, like me, are the parent of a neuro-atypical child dreading this autism press conference, please remember: These are the people hurting our kids. Not us. They are the ones stigmatizing and pathologizing them. They are the ones peddling untested science. And we should be very, very angry.
September 22, 2025 at 9:03 PM
If you, like me, are the parent of a neuro-atypical child dreading this autism press conference, please remember: These are the people hurting our kids. Not us. They are the ones stigmatizing and pathologizing them. They are the ones peddling untested science. And we should be very, very angry.
Winter is giving way to Spring in Gale Crater. The atmosphere is waking up from its chilly quiescent slumber.
#NASA's #Mars rover #Curiosity
Sol 4662 2025-09-17: Right Navigation Camera
mars.nasa.gov/raw_images/1...
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/j. Roger
Sol 4662 2025-09-17: Right Navigation Camera
mars.nasa.gov/raw_images/1...
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/j. Roger
September 18, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Winter is giving way to Spring in Gale Crater. The atmosphere is waking up from its chilly quiescent slumber.
Ruin a book by adding Tom Clancy's to the title
Tom Clancy's Roving Mars
Tom Clancy's Roving Mars
Ruin a book by adding Tom Clancy's to the title
Tom Clancy's Emma
Tom Clancy's Emma
Ruin a book by adding Tom Clancy's to the title
A Farewell to Tom Clancy's Arms
A Farewell to Tom Clancy's Arms
August 28, 2025 at 1:09 AM
Ruin a book by adding Tom Clancy's to the title
Tom Clancy's Roving Mars
Tom Clancy's Roving Mars
Reposted by Doug Ellison
We are outraged and deeply distressed that armed federal agents came onto our campus—making arrests on the very ground where, in 1942, Japanese American families were forced to board buses bound for concentration camps. It was a deliberate act of provocation and intimidation.
August 18, 2025 at 4:37 PM
We are outraged and deeply distressed that armed federal agents came onto our campus—making arrests on the very ground where, in 1942, Japanese American families were forced to board buses bound for concentration camps. It was a deliberate act of provocation and intimidation.
Last times I was in DC was for a Good Night Oppy thing. Walked past a charity run on my way to NASM to visit a dusty old friend, and then a spectacular array of kites being flown on the mall walking to the film festival later in the day.
Post your last photo of DC to show what a hell-hole it is.
Post your last photo of DC to show what a hell-hole it is.
August 12, 2025 at 3:50 AM
Last times I was in DC was for a Good Night Oppy thing. Walked past a charity run on my way to NASM to visit a dusty old friend, and then a spectacular array of kites being flown on the mall walking to the film festival later in the day.
Post your last photo of DC to show what a hell-hole it is.
Post your last photo of DC to show what a hell-hole it is.
Don’t threaten me with a good time.
“a single lawsuit raised by three authors over Anthropic's AI training now threatens to ‘financially ruin’ the entire AI industry”
AI industry horrified to face largest copyright class action ever certified
Copyright class actions could financially ruin AI industry, trade groups say.
arstechnica.com
August 10, 2025 at 1:06 AM
Don’t threaten me with a good time.
The engineering side of our mission rarely gets told....but we're pushing to turn every heckin' joule of that RTG into pure distilled awesomeness. Thanks to @abbyfrae.bsky.social for the postcard idea. I had a LOT of fun sequencing and then processing it :) www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/marking...
August 4, 2025 at 8:14 PM
The engineering side of our mission rarely gets told....but we're pushing to turn every heckin' joule of that RTG into pure distilled awesomeness. Thanks to @abbyfrae.bsky.social for the postcard idea. I had a LOT of fun sequencing and then processing it :) www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/marking...
Someone claiming to be a scientist but proposing something as objectively idiotic as sending Juno to an interstellar object is not a scientist. Any high school kid could google how impossible and stupid the idea is. Stop treating Loeb like a scientist. He’s a lazy attention seeking crank.
August 2, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Someone claiming to be a scientist but proposing something as objectively idiotic as sending Juno to an interstellar object is not a scientist. Any high school kid could google how impossible and stupid the idea is. Stop treating Loeb like a scientist. He’s a lazy attention seeking crank.
Are we fast? No. Are we consistent? Also no. Do we have alt.barney.dinosaur.die.die.die on the rear wing? You’re god damn right.
July 13, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Are we fast? No. Are we consistent? Also no. Do we have alt.barney.dinosaur.die.die.die on the rear wing? You’re god damn right.
This....so much this. I don't want AI search summaries that just lie to me. I don't want co-pilot looking at my machine or Gemini reading my docs. Get the hell out of here with your content stealing, lie regurgitating torment nexus BS.
And I resent the way companies are trying to force it. The other day Slack emailed saying they were adding AI to their product that already functions fine. I immediately cancelled that account. I don’t want it. It is not a benefit or feature. It is a yoke. I am happy on this hill even if I am alone
June 19, 2025 at 9:23 PM
This....so much this. I don't want AI search summaries that just lie to me. I don't want co-pilot looking at my machine or Gemini reading my docs. Get the hell out of here with your content stealing, lie regurgitating torment nexus BS.
At lunch in a small cafe in the Cotswolds in 2016, I waited until after we left before telling my wife that she had been sat back to back with someone at the next table who I was briefly at school with about 24 years earlier. It was Zara Tindall - the late Queen's granddaughter
Right folks. Feeling rather down at the moment so bringing back an oldie
Please Quote this with your most minor celebrity interaction
Please Quote this with your most minor celebrity interaction
June 13, 2025 at 9:03 PM
At lunch in a small cafe in the Cotswolds in 2016, I waited until after we left before telling my wife that she had been sat back to back with someone at the next table who I was briefly at school with about 24 years earlier. It was Zara Tindall - the late Queen's granddaughter
In the dining room of Minchinhampton Golf Club in the late 1990s, 3 time Formula One World Champion Sir Jackie Stewart asked me where the bathrooms were.
Right folks. Feeling rather down at the moment so bringing back an oldie
Please Quote this with your most minor celebrity interaction
Please Quote this with your most minor celebrity interaction
June 13, 2025 at 8:56 PM
In the dining room of Minchinhampton Golf Club in the late 1990s, 3 time Formula One World Champion Sir Jackie Stewart asked me where the bathrooms were.
Playing Cards Against Humanity on the floor of @planetarykeri.bsky.social's apartment with @jerilryan.bsky.social . You think you're good at Cards Against Humanity.....I PROMISE you.....Jeri is better. Much..MUCH better.
Right folks. Feeling rather down at the moment so bringing back an oldie
Please Quote this with your most minor celebrity interaction
Please Quote this with your most minor celebrity interaction
June 13, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Playing Cards Against Humanity on the floor of @planetarykeri.bsky.social's apartment with @jerilryan.bsky.social . You think you're good at Cards Against Humanity.....I PROMISE you.....Jeri is better. Much..MUCH better.
Hosting a tour at JPL for Damon Lindelof - I went to hit play on a 3D movie about Earth Science "The production values aren't quite as good as Lost, but at least the plot makes sense" I warned him. He laughed.....put on his 3D glasses....and muttered "That's fair". He enjoyed the movie.
Right folks. Feeling rather down at the moment so bringing back an oldie
Please Quote this with your most minor celebrity interaction
Please Quote this with your most minor celebrity interaction
June 13, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Hosting a tour at JPL for Damon Lindelof - I went to hit play on a 3D movie about Earth Science "The production values aren't quite as good as Lost, but at least the plot makes sense" I warned him. He laughed.....put on his 3D glasses....and muttered "That's fair". He enjoyed the movie.
In a line for a visa at the US Embassy in London in early 2010 I was behind then BBC News Royal Correspondent Nicholas Witchell. In front of us was Jeremy Irons. "They don't make you go through this for every movie do they?" I said. "every....single.....time" he replied.
Right folks. Feeling rather down at the moment so bringing back an oldie
Please Quote this with your most minor celebrity interaction
Please Quote this with your most minor celebrity interaction
June 13, 2025 at 8:46 PM
In a line for a visa at the US Embassy in London in early 2010 I was behind then BBC News Royal Correspondent Nicholas Witchell. In front of us was Jeremy Irons. "They don't make you go through this for every movie do they?" I said. "every....single.....time" he replied.
At the 50th Anniversary party for 'The Sky at Night' at Sir Patrick's house I turned to the person behind me to joke that the line for dinner was going slowly and that maybe we joined the wrong end of the wrong line. It was Terry Pratchett. "Wouldn't that make this the right place?" he replied.
Right folks. Feeling rather down at the moment so bringing back an oldie
Please Quote this with your most minor celebrity interaction
Please Quote this with your most minor celebrity interaction
June 13, 2025 at 8:41 PM
At the 50th Anniversary party for 'The Sky at Night' at Sir Patrick's house I turned to the person behind me to joke that the line for dinner was going slowly and that maybe we joined the wrong end of the wrong line. It was Terry Pratchett. "Wouldn't that make this the right place?" he replied.
My first time visiting Mojave Air and Space Port - I parked my rental car quite badly outside the Voyager Restaurant. Aviation legend Dick Rutan was walking to his car and said "You parking that thing or abandoning it?"
Right folks. Feeling rather down at the moment so bringing back an oldie
Please Quote this with your most minor celebrity interaction
Please Quote this with your most minor celebrity interaction
June 13, 2025 at 8:36 PM
My first time visiting Mojave Air and Space Port - I parked my rental car quite badly outside the Voyager Restaurant. Aviation legend Dick Rutan was walking to his car and said "You parking that thing or abandoning it?"
"And I'm getting really sick of guys named Todd....."
ha ha fuck you TODD
Awww you guys - the Acting Director of ICE is really upset that we keep accurately refering them the American Gestapo and calling out their kidnappings. Keep up the good work everyone!!!
June 7, 2025 at 5:07 PM
"And I'm getting really sick of guys named Todd....."
Start Wars ( sry @markhamillofficial.bsky.social )
ADD a letter and ruin a movie
Stop Gun
Stop Gun
May 27, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Start Wars ( sry @markhamillofficial.bsky.social )
Yes and.....
Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry
Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry
Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.
buff.ly
May 26, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Yes and.....
Interviewer: Can you explain this gap in your resume?
Mars Rover Ops Team: Sorry - the rover was in runout due to an unexpected outage at the DSN antenna.
Mars Rover Ops Team: Sorry - the rover was in runout due to an unexpected outage at the DSN antenna.
Interviewer: Can you explain this gap in your resume?
Astronomer: It’s not truly a gap—rather, dust has obscured our view of that region, but if you would provide me with a very large infrared space telescope, I’ll see what I can do.
Astronomer: It’s not truly a gap—rather, dust has obscured our view of that region, but if you would provide me with a very large infrared space telescope, I’ll see what I can do.
Interviewer: Can you explain this gap in your resume.
Genealogist: That part was lost in a fire some years ago.
Genealogist: That part was lost in a fire some years ago.
May 14, 2025 at 3:13 AM
Interviewer: Can you explain this gap in your resume?
Mars Rover Ops Team: Sorry - the rover was in runout due to an unexpected outage at the DSN antenna.
Mars Rover Ops Team: Sorry - the rover was in runout due to an unexpected outage at the DSN antenna.
This is the time used by MSL and M2020 ( i.e. NRB_799975504EDR_F1152616NCAM00551M_ / FLF_1497_0799847065_176ECM_N0730000FHAZ00219_01_295J01 ) Time to party like it's 8 o'sclk
Hey internet, we are like 2 hours away from exactly 800 billion milliseconds into the J2000 epoch. Set your reminders. currentmillis.com?j2000
Current Millis
Convert milliseconds to date-time. Link to a moment.
currentmillis.com
May 8, 2025 at 5:49 PM
This is the time used by MSL and M2020 ( i.e. NRB_799975504EDR_F1152616NCAM00551M_ / FLF_1497_0799847065_176ECM_N0730000FHAZ00219_01_295J01 ) Time to party like it's 8 o'sclk
Just don't look at the back - that's where I hid all the aliens.
April 23, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Just don't look at the back - that's where I hid all the aliens.
Number 3. And still SO much more to do.
April 17, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Number 3. And still SO much more to do.