It is shocking how many people I talk to who have no idea what the Curiosity rover is.
It is even more shocking when they learn that Curiosity is a two and a half billion dollar, SUV sized, atomic powered robot, which spent three months hurdling through space at 13,000mph and was lowered by a rocket powered sky-crane onto the surface of an alien planet which is so far away that it takes an average of twelve and a half minutes to get there at the speed of light!
AND that among its dozen or so main scientific instruments, is a nuclear powered laser which it uses to vaporize rocks!
Do you understand why scientists scoff at the idiotic things normal people think are important and interesting?