Photo by Mario Romero
Mario Romero is an assembly, integration and test engineer at innovative Houston aerospace company Intuitive Machines, and as an avid Alkaline Trio fan and friend of the band, he’s a punk rocker too.
He was a former Navy Seal and also a EVA Flight Simulator Specialist at NASA before landing at Intuitive Machines, which just completed its second lunar mission lander to Florida. Intuitive Machines recently secured a $2.5 million contract with NASA that will fund development of a heavy-cargo-class lunar lander to streamline payload transport to the Moon. The collaboration falls under NASA’s NextSTEP initiative, which hopes to advance human exploration from the Moon to Mars. In February, Intuitive Machines will launch the IM-2 Athena mission that will also test Nokia's 4G/LTE cellular technology on the moon's surface.
“I think it’s of particular importance for Intuitive Machines because my extremely capable team is more than worthy of having their place stamped in history,” Romero said on the innovation he gets to be a part of. “We, as a species, have to strive to become a multiplanetary species. Incidentally, part of the trickle-down effect of innovation often leads to spin-off technology that in some way benefits humanity here on Earth.”
Photo by Mario Romero.
The South New Jersey native was also awarded the key to the city from his hometown Vineland, and wore an Alkaline Trio shirt as he spoke to the town about giving kids a chance to succeed.
“I am the product of many chances, secondary, tertiary, and more, given to me,”Romero said. “Many of these were admittedly entirely undeserving. I look back now and recognize that those teachers, judges, police, etc. might have all seen something in me that I couldn’t -then- see in myself. I think about how easy and justifiable it would have been for any one of those people to forgo giving me a chance, but they didn’t. They put in the extra time and effort, and I wouldn’t be where I am today had they done otherwise. This is precisely why I often emphasize giving kids multiple chances. Kids are kids, and you can never fully know how you’re inspiring them in the moment nor how the chances that you give them will affect the trajectory of their lives.”
Romero, a self-described emo/punk kid, discovered Alkaline Trio in the late 1990s as he discovered them on a mixtape. He’s also represented the band by holding its flag in front of some of the Intuitive Machines machines.
“Trio had a lasting power that few other bands back then had, and I loved every album they’d go on to drop, Romero said. “I followed the members of Trio on social media, namely Instagram, for years, and one day, maybe around 2016 or 2017 Matt (Skiba) posted a photo of a Navy SEAL sniper wearing a trio patch on his sniper kit. Being a Navy SEAL sniper myself, I left a comment that there were a few of us in the Teams that were big time fans. I never expected a response, however. Matt must have scanned through my IG profile to ensure I wasn’t lying about being a SEAL, then he sent me a message. We spent a lot of time chatting, and I realized quickly he was one of the most genuine sweethearts I’ve ever met. We’ve been close ever since.”
As the UAP topic continues to become more mainstream with high profile military witnesses coming forward, and artsist like Skiba and Tom DeLonge showing interest, as an aerospace engineer Romero is more reserved in his views.
“I’m actually a pretty ardent advocate of appealing to restraint when it comes to UAPs,” Romero said. “What I mean by that is that anytime we’re met with some seemingly inexplicable event, the unfortunate tendency is to leap into explanations with some unqualified certainty. ‘Look, it’s a UFO! That must mean ALIENS!’ I think this speaks to a deep-seated human need to be free of uncertainty and of an unknowing. We like to be in the know. The problem is, as has been repeated often, we’re rarely offered any recourse when the “event” turns out to have been some perfectly normal/explainable phenomena later on. How many times do we have to suffer the realization that our immediate jumping to conclusion was actually in error before we learn our lesson and begin invoking some restraint? Don’t get me wrong, though, as an X-files super fan, ‘I Want (desperately) To Believe.’
For someone so deeply invested in innovation and STEM, an avid music and horror movie fan, Romero sees the importance of the arts in music, literature, and film as a way for the next generation of kids to help move the needle.
“As fantastic and essential as this is, I want to emphasize the importance of the arts as well,”Romero said. It has an important place and an important role to play in our evolution, so I personally don’t limit youthful interest to STEM alone. There are fantastic works of art awaiting us, in all their variety, that will come as a result of the efforts and innovation!”
If you are a fan of pop-punk, Mike Damante’s latest book “Hey Suburbia: A guide to the emo/pop-punk rise” is out now, and features interviews with , Alkaline Trio, blink-182. Descendents, New Found Glory and others.
By MIKE DAMANTE
If you are a fan of pop-punk, Mike Damante’s latest book “Hey Suburbia: A guide to the emo/pop-punk rise” is out now, and features interviews with , Alkaline Trio, blink-182. Descendents, New Found Glory and others.
More Alkaline Trio:
Alkaline Trio review at House of Blues
REVIEW: Fall Out Boy, Alkaline Trio rock Wrigley Field in Chicago
From the vault interviews: Matt Skiba talks surfing, bikes, and Alkaline Trio
The 13 best Alkaline Trio songs