Humans are celebrating the successful entry and landing of the Perseverance Rover on Mars – and the Filipino community feels proud to have one engineer who helped achieve this monumental success!

Fil-Am Engineer Helps in Perseverance Rover’s Safe Landing

Mars has always held fascination for humans, particularly because the red planet has land mass that many believe could have harbored life in the past or might still have alien life possibly hiding beneath the ground. A lot of movies have taken up stories about Mars or have Martians as Earth invaders.

While science does not believe such alien life exists, at least at present, it is believed that Mars might have had some life form but not the same green aliens that are often shown in the movies.

Recently, a robotic visitor from Earth called the Perseverance Rover successfully landed on the red planet’s surface. It is just the size of a car and has been designed to explore Mars. Not only will Perseverance take photos, it will also collect samples of broken rock and soil as well as look for signs of potential life.

It is the first of its kind – and the Filipino community is proud to have a Fil-Am engineer among the people who designed, tested, and piloted the rover.

Gregorio Villar III has been working for the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for 12 years. He is the Entry Descent Landing (EDL) Systems Engineer of Mars 2020 Mission and operations systems engineer for NASA JPL.

As one of the engineers in this massive project, he led the council of atmospheric scientists to study the Martian atmosphere and did a parachute test campaign in the world’s largest wind tunnel. He has also spent over 7 years creating and testing a system that would land a car-sized rover on Mars. This came into fruition with the Perseverance Rover.

The young Fil-Am engineer graduated from Saint Louis University – Laboratory High School in Baguio. He completed his bachelor’s degree in Physics at California State Polytechnic University and finished his doctoral degree in Astronautical Engineering at the University of Southern California.

What is a Rover?

A rover is a kind of robotic vehicle and planetary surface exploration device that’s designed to move across the solid surface of a planet or other planetary mass celestial bodies such as moons and asteroids. It takes photos and might also collect samples.

They opened the roadside pop-up coffee stand last December 2020 with just 3 customers, but the shop is doing so good that they’re now selling as much as 100 cups a day! Amazingly, they are only open from 5AM to 9AM. Wow.

Coffee Stand by the Road Goes Viral

Brewing coffee sourced from the fields of local farmers in Sagada, Kalinga and Benguet, a pop-up coffee stand along Candaba-Baliuag Road by the rice fields in Pampanga is getting much attention online. The setup is rather simple, with the guys brewing coffee by hand, but they are enjoying so much success that they’re selling about 100 cups on good days.

Even on bad days, Coffee Bros sells at least 20 cups. Definitely not bad for a pop-up coffee stand that only opens from 5AM to 9AM each day.

“Nung nagsimula po kami, three customers lang kami. Pinsan lang namin ‘yung dalawa bumili,” explained Johndoe Gallegos who co-owns the store with brother Kim Martin Gallegos and cousin Bill Lawrence Estacio.

The happy store owners proudly shared that their coffee is sourced from different farmers in Northern Luzon, particularly in Sagada, Baguio, and Kalinga. Not only are they selling delicious, aromatic coffee that the locals are enjoying, they are also helping provide livelihood for these farmers.

“Nag-eenjoy po kami sa ginagawa namin. Plus, sa mga taong namamahangha sa paggawa namin ng kape… Masaya na kami. Dahil manual lang po lahat ng gamit namin. At ang importante po is nagiging aware po ang mga tao sa mga lokal natin na coffee beans at local coffee farmers at kung anong sarap ng ating local coffee,” Johndoe explained.

“Marami rin po ang na-inspire nagstart ng business nila dahil nung nagpost po ako sa mga groups ng kape dito sa Pinas. Doon pa lang masasabi ko matagumpay na shop namin dahil sa daming na-inspire sa amin.”

What is a Pop-Up Stand?

A pop-up stand is simply a display that is often used for shops due to the easy way these can be dismantled and assembled. This is perfect for vendors who do not have a permanent store to sell their items.

A gadget store recently earned praise from netizens for repeatedly letting a mom use a demo MacBook to connect with her family! Many were impressed, particularly because everyone has this notion that gadget stores limit people from using the gadgets on display!

Gadget Store Lets Mom Use Demo MacBook

These days, it is easy to connect with friends and family who live in faraway places as long as you have a gadget and internet connection. While it had only been a dream in the past as well as subject of ‘futuristic’ sci-fi movies, it now so easy to make video calls on real time.

But not everyone has the money to buy gadgets or pay for an internet connection. That’s why there are still many people who can’t connect that easily to relatives and friends in faraway areas.

Netizen Walter So was at a gadget store when he saw an elderly woman sitting on a chair, using the demo MacBook as if it was her own. She was chatting with her family.

“I couldn’t resist not taking a photo…” Walter wrote on Facebook, sharing a snapshot of the woman.

“The store personnel call her “nanay” (mother). She can’t afford a gadget to be able to connect with her family and so she frequents the store, so that she can use the demo MacBook and free internet and chat with her family and check Facebook. I’m not sure why her kids would not buy her any gadget, but knowing the motherly value of selflessness, I’m sure she is telling her kids she has all that she needs.”

He was touched by how this woman was trying her best to connect with her family and also impressed that the gadget store let her do it. He learned that she does this on a regular basis.

“I salute the store employees for being charitable. I hope the returns they get is ten fold. This is now my favorite store,” he added.

“Oh… by the way, nanay is amazing at using MacBook. The employees have taught her well.”

The sweet story quickly went viral, with many netizens also adding their praises to the store employees. Soon, netizens were trying to find a way to get this woman a MacBook of her own plus internet access so she wouldn’t have to visit the store to connect with her family. Wow.

What’s a MacBook?

A MacBook is a brand of laptop designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The MacBook Air is currently the least expensive of the line, with prices starting from Php54,900. The MacBook Pro 16” costs Php141,990.