MSL/Curiosity: "We're NASA and We Know It!"

Okay. Full disclosure. This is not an official, NASA-produced video. In addition, I am not aware that NASA has made any endorsement of the video whatsoever. Even so, it's a fun shout-out to the recent achievements of NASA and the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) / Curiosity rover mission. And most importantly, it's pretty darn cool!

I'm referring to a parody music video posted to YouTube on Wednesday, August 15th, by YouTube contributor "Satire." The video is called, "We're NASA and We Know It," and is a parody of the song, "Sexy and I Know It." The video's lead performer is David Hudson, who adjusted his hairdo to bear a more striking resemblance to MSL flight engineer Bobak Ferdowski (who, coincidentally, is a former rock musician, himself). In the 2-minute 48-second video, Hudson performs with others who all mimic the appearance of MSL mission team personnel, wearing ID badges and light blue shirts from former NASA missions. The video's cut-together scenes are a combination of (1) actual mission control images from Curiosity's landing night on August 5th (PDT), (2) footage from the Curiosity landing simulations, (3) performers mimicking the mission controllers at their stations, and (4) performers singing, dancing and generally looking really cool in their NASA nerdiness.

CLICK Here to watch the video on YouTube.

Below are the production credits and lyrics for the video. More information is available at the YouTube video URL.

"We're NASA and We Know It"

Performed by David Hudson; Executive Producer: Alexander JL Theoharis; Director: Forest Gibson; Editors: Cinesaurus, Steven Hudson & David Hudson; Written by Rob Whitehead; Prop Designer: Christopher Parker; Costumer: Jared Cheshier; Camera Operator: Forest Gibson, Steven Hudson, Jon Sim; Cast: Steven Hudson, Tara Theoharis, Zac Cohn, Danielle Sparks, Kevin Lane, Monica Houston, Anne Ketola, Tim Uomoto, Brendan Uomoto, Alexander JL Theoharis; Promotional Support: Zac Cohn and Tara Theoharis; Special Thanks to Anne Ketola for all the awesome NASA gear!

Lyrics:

When I EDL, time for seven minutes of flamin' hell
Rover's touchin' down
everybody passin' peanuts around, yeah
We're at mission control, getting full use outta ev-er-y Sol (wa!)
Just 25 feet left to go
It's Curiosity, look out below (yo)

Crane lower that rover (ah)
Crane lower that rover (ah)
Crane lower that rover (ah)

N-N-N-Now bug out!

Crane lower that rover
Crane lower that rove
Crane lower that rover

Now bug out!

Kickin' it at my con(sole), this is what I see (okay)
Data streaming back from curiosity
I got stars on my 'hawk
and I ain't afraid to show it (show it, show it, show it)
We're NASA and we know it
We're NASA and we know it

(Yo)
When I look for ice, gotta calibrate, gotta be precise
And when I raise the mast, panoramic views are unsurpassed (wha?)
This is how I rove, baking red rocks in my nuclear stove
We headed to the peak, with my laser eye
No one to bury me when it's time to die (ow!)

Crane lower that rover
Crane lower that rover
Crane lower that rover

Now bug out!

Crane lower that rover
Crane lower that rover
Crane lower that rover

Now bug out!

Shoutout to Carl the Sage (and) Neil Degrasse T (B.A.!)
Shoutout to JPL and the Rocker-Bogie
We're better than SpaceX
And we ain't afraid to show it (show it, show it, show it)
We're NASA and we know it
We're NASA and we know it

And now, some actual mission particulars...

The Mars Science Laboratory / Curiosity rover mission is managed for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C., by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena (Caltech). More information about Curiosity is online at www.nasa.gov/msl and mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl . You can follow the mission on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

-