Landing on Mars is a Feminist Issue

[OutwiththeOutCrowd]

Did anyone else watch the live feed from NASA Mission Control as the probe InSight landed on Mars?

Compare this image of Mission Control celebrating yesterday to an image of Mission Control celebrating after the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969.

Wow that is very striking!

I watched live last night and felt quite smug. DH commented too. Even the NASA TV anchor was female.

Considering that the moonlanding was apparently an all male endeavor: are we sure it really happened and wasn‘t just all braggadocio? 💪🚀🌕🤥 😉😉😉

Yes! It's great.

Unless they picked the only 3 women in the room and were like "hug for the camera, laydeeez"...

I'm joking of course. It is a happy picture.

This made me smile

mobile.twitter.com/morroweric/status/1067145583704576014

I know what you mean, WomaninBoots, but it really wasn't a case of shove the token women to the front for the photo ops.

Here's some footage of the NASA control room for those who didn't manage to see the landing live in which you can see that there really are quite a lot of female scientists/engineers taking part in the operation.

Actually, even back in the bad old days, women contributed as 'human computers' doing tedious meticulous calculations in backrooms while the men took centre stage and got all the plaudits.

The Twitter clip shows that yes, there were about 20 blokes and 3 women.

Actually, even back in the bad old days, women contributed as 'human computers' doing tedious meticulous calculations in backrooms ...

Ok, maybe the moonlanding did happen after all... .

(Happy for the Mars mission success! )

I would not necessarily expect, or be disappointed if there isn't, parity of representation.

I have a background in the physical sciences myself and have been the lone woman in the lecture theatre/research group. What we saw in the NASA control room yesterday looks like progress to me.

Young girls who are excited about space should be shown the extended footage and interviews with those involved for inspiration - not the brief twitter clip.

Here is Marleen Sundgaard, lead testbed engineer, talking about her role in the Mars mission.

I was space obsessed as a kid - right at the point where Helen Sharman went into space - total and utter hero worship material for me.

DD1 had to do a project on an astronaut last year and I gently prodded her towards Sharman... she was not even aware of her existence from their topic in school - it was all Tim Peake and nothing else. Grrr.

hexagonal me too :)

Watching her on Newsround I think - I thought: I can do this. She’s also from yorkshire!