On Monday, January 6, 2014 7:58:48 PM UTC-5, John B. wrote:
On Mon, 6 Jan 2014 08:34:09 -0800 (PST), rangerssuck

wrote:



On Sunday, December 29, 2013 10:47:40 PM UTC-5, John B. wrote:



Just a thought. Is sitting at a computer really "metal working" or is

"metal working" getting your hands dirty and actually doing it?



I suspect the later. The bloke that wrote the software that controls

the Mars explorer thingy doesn't claim to be a space explorer.

--

Cheers,

John B.



I wouldn't be so sure of that. The people who work "behind the scenes" at NASA and JPL are very proud of their work and consider themselves very much part of the "front line."



And they call themselves "space explorers"? and post to Usenet site

loudly proclaiming their titles?

--

Cheers,
John B.

I'm not sure what you're looking for here. I'm not aware of any astronauts who post to usenet, nor am I aware of any Mars probe programmers who post to usenet. proclaiming anything.

However, space exploration is a team effort, and every member of the team is entitled to refer to himself as a team member.

If you are asking me whether Jon Banquer in particular is a machinist, that's a whole different question.