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Surprise visitors

Surprise visitors
Surprise visitors Left: “I thought it was somebody playing a prank,” recalled MER Rover Planner Paolo Bellutta, pictured here with Academy Award winning actor Morgan Freeman, who invited the rover driver to a party for various scientists and engineers in Malibu in August 2012. “What you can possibly give to a man who has everything and usually gets asked for autographs? Give him a page signed by all Mars Rover Planners!” said Bellutta. And he did. Right: Ray Bradbury, author of The Martian Chronicles and other cherished short story collections and novels, dropped by to spend some time with MER ops team members at JPL on the mission’s 5th Earth birthday in January 2009 and they taught him how to drive a rover on Mars. Surrounding the beloved author, L-R: Sharon Laubach, Ashley Stroupe, Jennifer Herman, Scott Maxwell, John Wright, and Frank Hartman. Collection of Paolo Bellutta; JPL-Caltech