I never realized it before but NASA is basically a middle-aged baby boomer dad. Born in the 1950s, raised on comic book dreams of exploring deep space in a rocket ship, NASA showed a lot of promise as youngster. As NASA grew up, everyone told it to be realistic, focus on practical things closer to home: Velcro, Tang, pens that work upside down. Sure, it was taking care of its responsibilities, but its dreams faded away. Where did the last three decades go? One day it shows up out of nowhere with a sporty little car that can drive on Mars, it says the van is too old and besides it doesn’t need it anymore. Jeez, mid-life crisis much, NASA? Now, it spends all its time doing fix-up work on an expensive second home it can’t really afford, and never gets to spend any time at anyway.