This small, family-run gear-making company called Forest City Gear was founded in 1955 by Stetler and Evelyn Young in Roscoe, Illinois. Their son, Fred Young is now CEO of the company. See how he and his workers helped build the Mars rover Curiosity and got to touch a little bit of Mars in the video below.

Our Curiosity from Our City, Our Story on Vimeo.

As amazing and inspiring as it is, my guess is that their story probably isn't that unique: Hundreds of businesses were probably hired by NASA and JPL to participate in the $2.5 billion mission.

(Via Boing Boing)