Best known for its role in crafting and commanding spacecraft such as Curiosity, JPL is also home to decades’ worth of accumulated oddities. (p. 32)

NASA’s newest rover, Curiosity, wasn’t alone on Mars for long. Two hours after Curiosity landed in Gale Crater on August 6, her cranky alter-ego plopped down with a huff on the Red Planet. That is, a virtual alter ego named Sarcastic Rover appeared on Twitter and began updating followers about her exploits. “Oh sure,” she tweeted early on. “I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing than driving around a wasteland looking at dirt for the rest of my life.” Sarcastic Rover (@SarcasticRover) tweets about the desolate Martian wilderness, her silent, rocky companions, and the dru...