Amidst a swirl of budget cuts and an ever-increasing workload, Mom resigned from her job as a school psychologist at the Watkins Glen School District in 2012. After resigning, she took up a profession she had been doing on and off since she was 18 and in college: bartending.

Late last month, the inhabitants of Mars welcomed two new arrivals. The newcomers are NASA’s MAVEN and the Indian Space Research Organisation’s MOM — pronounced “M.O.M.,” not “mom.” They...