A Day, A Week, Hemant, A Year

Wednesday was the last full day I had in Los Angeles and we had a trip planned to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. There is only one tour a week so today was the only day we could do it. For those who are not familiar with JPL and what role they play in space exploration, here’s a short excerpt taken from the JPL website.

“Do not go where the path may lead,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. “Go instead where there is no path, and leave a trail.” That could be the motto of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Trailblazing has been the business of JPL since it was established by the California Institute of Technology in the 1930s. America’s first satellite, Explorer 1, was created at JPL. In the decades that followed, we sent the first robotic craft to the Moon and out across the solar system, reconnoitering all of the planets. Pushing the outer edge of exploration, in fact, is the reason JPL exists as a NASA laboratory.

The tour was scheduled for 1:00 pm so Connie and I were planning on picking Ryan up at work (his first day back since I got here) and have lunch at the “Dirty Truck”. Apparently a mobile catering truck would stop by their office everyday at lunch serving pretty good Mexican food. The truck came to be known as the Dirty Truck, even though it wasn’t really that dirty. For some reason I was really excited to try it out.

Connie and I arrived at the office on schedule at 11:30, giving us enough time to grab a bite to eat and head to JPL which would be about a 30 minute drive. They recommended checking in around 12:30. Ryan met us outside the office by the “Dirty Truck” and asked Connie if she had brought their passports. Apparently you need them to get into the facility if you are not an American citizen. I carried mine with me at all times while here, so I had mine. There must have been some miscommunication because Connie knew nothing about bringing passports. The real story is still under investigation.

We looked at the time and decided we had no time for lunch and would have to drive back to Rancho Cucamonga (about 15 minutes), grab the passports, and then drive to JPL in Pasadena. We would be cutting it close. Ryan jumped in the driver’s seat and we were off at breakneck speeds. Luckily the freeways weren’t too busy. We picked up the passports and headed to NASA. As we got back on the freeway the fuel light came on, adding another element to this adventure.

We finally arrived at JPL at about 12:45 and had no problems getting through security. We got to the visitor’s building and they were not checking people in yet. We made it just in time As we were waiting in the lobby, I overheard some people talking about Saskatoon. I went over to them and asked, “Did I hear someone say they were from Saskatoon?” I kid you not, there was a young software developer for Dreamworks Animation whose parents were visiting from Saskatoon. What are the odds of that? We chatted for a couple minutes before we checked in with our tour guide.

The tour started off by watching an interesting film (narrated by Harrison Ford) giving an overview of JPL and what unmanned planetary missions they’ve been responsible for. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Once the film finished the tour guide took over and started to talk about the replicas of satellites in the room including Voyager and Galileo. Ryan and I noticed that he seemed to repeat himself quite a bit.

After we finished in this area we moved on to another place that had more replicas of famous unmanned probes including the first one launched into orbit by the United States – Explorer 1. There was also a display for the world’s lightest material called Aerogel. It was pretty neat how it looked like it was there, but kind of like a hazy hologram. Here’s a picture of Ryan checking it out.

After this piece of the tour we moved on to another facility where JPL’s mission control was housed. This room was pretty cool and you could see live telemetry coming from actual spacecraft in real time. There was also two giant screens showing the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and countdowns to their next two missions. Sounds pretty straightforward, doesn’t it. Well, our tour guide went into about a ten minute talk on UTC, continually repeating statement after statement. Ryan, Connie, and I were having a tough time keeping our composure. It was ridiculous. There were fairly young children in the group (one was wearing an orange NASA flight suit), but come on – they likely weren’t following much anyway. Then when the guide finished his big lecture on UTC and how to tell time, he asked if anyone had questions. One of the children raised his hands and asked, “What is the UTC on those clocks?” It may have been the most hilarious thing we’ve seen in while and I can’t believe none of us cracked up. The tour guide started explanation again, but made it real short this time. I’d like to think that the child was actually sticking it to the tour guide – mocking if you will….but I highly doubt it – he was only about four.

The guide then started to talk about the planets and the distance between them, making it difficult for spacecraft to communicate efficiently with mission control. He continued to repeat himself over and over. Another child asked the question, “Can I sit on the edge of Saturn’s rings?”

We then moved on to the final facility that housed the test room for the Mars Rovers. This was easily the best part of the tour, especially since a different tour guide made the presentation. She proceeded to explain (without the repetition) how they used the test room to run simulations prior to missions, and how they still use it to mimic problems the rover may encounter or is currently encountering on the Martian surface. She was pretty thorough and did a good job of explaining the rover to us.

This wrapped up the tour and we were lead back to the visitors center. The tour was decent and I liked getting to see what I did, but I was disappointed with how elementary it was. I’m not saying I’m a genius or anything, but they didn’t talk about anything I didn’t already know (and I’m pretty sure that most people who are even interested in going on a tour of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have a basic knowledge of the solar system and the major unmanned missions). The only thing I really learned about was the history of the facility. The last tour guide did mention there was an open house in May where the actual engineers are to speak. That would probably be more interesting, but I’m not going to be around.

Since we had to skip lunch we were all pretty hungry. I wanted to make sure I had Mexican food while in California so we hit a place Ryan and Connie had been once before. It was quite good, but I mistakenly ordered a burrito that had no meat in it. We’re not sure what was actually in it, but it looked like a pancake. You can see more picture from the day here.