Every year, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, or JPL, has an open house to the public to tour some parts of the campus and check out the latest things that they have been working on for NASA. JPL is part of the Caltech campus where they do a lot of outer space research and create lots of the technology that NASA uses for their expeditions.
We went to one of the public open houses a couple years ago, and it was really cool! The event is completely free, all you have to do is get tickets. But THIS year, we were able to go during the JPL Family Day to check out the new projects that they have been working on. JPL is very open about the technology that they are working on and don’t have too many classified projects, mostly because they want people to be excited about space and space technology and be engaged with what they are doing!
Mission Control
Mission Control is the room where all the outer space magic happens! It is where all the satellites are sending information, it’s running 24 hours a day, and is where all the space flights are controlled from.
From the JPL Deep Space Network website:
“The Deep Space Network – or DSN – is NASA’s international array of giant radio antennas that supports interplanetary spacecraft missions, plus a few that orbit Earth. The DSN also provides radar and radio astronomy observations that improve our understanding of the solar system and the larger universe.”
There are three facilities equal distances apart–one in Goldstone, CA, one in Madrid, Spain, and one in Canberra, Australia. These facilities collect information transmitted by satellites that we have sent to space and then send all that information to one place.. Mission Control!!
In the center of Mission Control, there is a plaque on the ground under plexiglass that says, “The Center of the Universe.” Ha! That’s because all of the information from SPACE is sent all the way to this very room. Science!!
The Pulse
The Pulse is a really cool sculpture that they describe as the “heartbeat of deep space exploration.” This structure represents the “live communications of 30+ interplanetary spacecraft and the Deep Space Network.” Basically, the lights make really cool patterns, but when they are moving upward they are uplinking to space, and when they are moving downward, they are downlinking to Earth.
Mars Rover
Last time we came, we were able to see a life-size replica of the Mars Rover driving over a bunch of children laying on the ground (hehe). This time, the replica was located near Mission Control for everyone to check out.
Another thing we got to see is the Mars Yard! Basically, it is a small yard that the engineers created to test all the different rovers and wheels with different types of terrain and rocks to drive over to mimic what it would be like to drive on Mars. It was really interesting listening to the engineers describe how they try to anticipate different things they could run into, but it’s amazing to think of all the backup plans they have for actually running into these situations.
But nothing is certain when it comes to space, which I think gave me an even greater appreciation for what they do, since it’s pretty shocking to me that they can fly something MILLIONS of miles away AND successfully land it on a foreign planet AND then drive around AND STILL transmit information back to Earth. Amazing!
Mars 2020 Spacecraft
In another one of the buildings, they had a huge room where they are building the spacecraft for the next expedition to Mars! It was a really brief visit (they make you keep walking the whole time and you don’t have a great chance of taking pictures since everyone wants to see this).
What’s REALLY interesting to me (from experience working in many sterile settings in the hospital) is that all of the spacecraft that head into the great unknown to land on another planet are STERILE. Whoa! That’s because they don’t want to send any weird bacteria or organic Earth material to another planet when they don’t really know what the craft is going to encounter. Talk about foresight!
Pie ‘n Burger
After our morning trekking around the JPL campus, we had worked up an appetite and ended up going to lunch at Pie ‘n Burger, a place recommended to us by some of our friends. Parking wasn’t too bad–it was all street parking within a 2-minute walk.
This place had a very classic diner feel (but not quite classic diner prices… hehe). There was no wait for us around 1 PM on Sunday afternoon, but as we were there, the line started to get a little bit long.
Everyone was so hungry that I barely got any pictures in before they all dug in. Not even pictures of the pieces of pie!! The veggie burger was apparently DELICIOUS (per Casey and Tim), as was the grilled cheese. Tristan and I got the patty melt, which was pretty tasty as far as patty melts go. Ben and Jane got the chili cheese fries (the Hat seems to give you a much bigger portion) and a chicken pot pie that had a crust so flaky you could feel the butter settling into your arteries.
Another thing to note is that this place is cash or check only. Who uses checks to pay for food anymore? There is an ATM located right at the front if you need cash though. And they have this cool vintage cash register that they have probably been using since they opened.
Pie ‘n Burger was pretty good, but I’m not sure if we need to go back right away. I enjoyed the food a lot, but I kind of thought the pie would be more mind-blowing, especially if it’s a place with “pie” in the name. Either way though, it was a perfect way to end our JPL day!