LEWISHAM... WE HAVE A PROBLEM
Mars rover run from flat over salon
A SCIENTIST is helping to run Nasa’s £2.7billion Mars Rover mission – from a one-bedroom flat above a hairdresser’s in Lewisham.
Prof Sanjeev Gupta should be based at mission control in California.
But travel restrictions caused by the
Covid-19 pandemic have forced the
55-year-old to work from home in south east London.
He said: “I should be at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, in a series of offices each one about three times bigger than this lounge, full of hundreds of scientists and engineers with their heads buried in laptops surrounded by large screens.
“Nasa’s headquarters is certainly a far cry from a one-bedroom flat.”
Prof Gupta is one of the leaders of the Perseverance mission. The robot is on the Red Planet looking for signs of ancient life and collecting rock samples.
A geology expert at Imperial College London, Prof Gupta and his colleagues will begin directing Perseverance to spots to drill for samples, which will be transported back to Earth in 2027 by a separate UK-backed project.
He said: “The teenage son of a friend of mine asked me if I could order the rover to do a wheelie for him. I told him, ‘Not with my motoring skills.’” Prof Gupta has rented the apartment near his family home so that his wife and children are not disturbed by his round-the-clock work. The flat has been kitted out with five computers and two other screens for Zoom-style meetings. Prof Gupta said: “Our working patterns are all over the place. It takes 11 minutes for the signals to get back from Mars, because it’s around 150million miles away. “Yet due to the pandemic, I cannot be where I am supposed to be – in California, a mere 5,500 miles from here.
“Still, it’s a lovely little flat, even if it isn’t the typical image of one of the nerve centres of space exploration.”
GOGGLEBOX star Scarlett Moffatt claims she met a ghost that looked just like Noel Edmonds.
She said she has seen a number of spooks since she was a child, including one the image of the Deal Or No Deal host, above.
Scarlett, 30, said: “You see, I’m not scared of ghosts because I think they’re a bit like the emergency services – I feel like they arrive when you need them the most.
“So if you’re feeling a bit crap, I think they keep you company. One really looked like Noel Edmonds.”
Former I’m A Celebrity winner Scarlett reckons she has a “third eye” which means she can see ghosts.
And she says being with them feels like getting “an invisible hug”.
She said: “You just open your third eye and let everything in.
“Your third eye is where you sort of let all the spirits in and you let everyone come in.
“I think you just need to be more open with people, because if you are more open with your third eye then you’ll just see other things around you.”
Scarlett continued: “I think I’ve seen lots of ghosts as a kid.
“The thing is, I was quite a lonely kid, I didn’t have many friends, and I think the ghosts knew that.
“And I think that’s why they hung about. There was a few of them.
“It’s a feeling, like a safe feeling. I never feel scared.
“It’s a comfort feeling, like an invisible hug.”
On her podcast Scarlett Moffatt Wants To Believe, she told her boyfriend Scott Dobinson why she thinks he can’t see them. She said: “Have you ever seen a ghost? No, of course you haven’t.
“Do you know why? Because you’re not opening your third eye. You need to open it to let things in.”
The TV star added: “Because your third eye is closed you’re not seeing all the things around you – like ghosts.”