People like Gentry Lee

Bert Gentry Lee (born 1942) is an American scientist, space engineer, and science fiction author. He is currently chief engineer for the Planetary Flight Systems Directorate at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Lee had engineering oversight responsibility for the twin rover missions to Mars that landed in January 2004, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) in 2006, and the Deep Impact and Stardust missions. He was also the chief engineer for the Galileo project from 1977–1988 and director of science analysis and mission planning during the Viking projects.

In 2009, Gentry narrated and appeared in Discovery Channel's 2-hour special "Are We Alone?", which examined the possibility of life on other worlds in the solar system.