Jpl Open House, 2008: May 3 & 4 from 9 AM to 5 PM Options

[lyford]

JPL Open House

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is pleased to announce that this year's Open House will take place on May 14th and 15th, 2005, from 9 a.m to 5 p.m. both days....For more information, please call (818) 354-0112

Anyone else going? I should be there on Saturday...
Bring the kids!

[lyford]

STATUS REPORT - JPL OPEN HOUSE 2005

Well, I ain’t doing that again!

Between the 91 degree heat, and the THOUSANDS of people, screaming kids, the long lines and the 2 dollar bottles of water, JPL felt more like a bad country carnival than the lean mean hub of Unmannded Space Flight that it is.

We had to wait 45 minutes in line for a 5 minute glimpse of mission control, which consisted of herding us into the observation gallery and watching a video that described the DSN, but not actually anything of what was happening in front of us.

There was a half hour wait for the Mars testbed, which yielded at least this picture proving that Opportunity should be able to egress fine:

This line wrapped around the building, through the cafeteria, then around a patio and ended just a few feet from where it started. (It was a 30-40 minute wait to get in)

At least we got to see Jim Erickson give a little spiel while we were waiting in the sun!


We never made it into the Cassini room, or the deep space exploration section or even the visitor center as the lines were all too long to bear, and we ran out of time.

The best part was the imaging stuff, it wasn’t nearly as crowded and they opened up quite a bit their shop to see. And the printouts! It’s so incredible to see glorious billboard size prints of panoramas that I have been used to seeing one my monitor!
They also took stereo pics of the visitors and put them online to download. Here’s your’s truly with my better half green screened infront of Jibsheet:


Lastly we hit the emerging tech displays on the way out to the car (we had to park on the other side of the arroyo - all the other lots were full already!), I saw in person one of the creepiest things ever:

I had heard about this "human expression robot" on BoingBoing but seeing it move is just too freaky. Until we can make a robot that looks and acts EXACTLY like a human, the result is going to be nightmare food. The Japanese know this; we intereact more naturally with a stylized critter like Aibo and Asimo than something that seems almost, but not quite, human. *shiver*
Here is the head in action - I think the kid’s reaction is hilarious:
1.2meg Quicktime File:http://homepage.mac.com/lyford/jpl2005/head.mov
I must quote Marvin from HitchHiker's at this point - "I'm a prototype, you can tell, can't you?"

The only positive thing about the whole experience (other than the freebies - bookmarks, stereo glasses, and a four color JPL pen-nerd alert!) was the fact that obviously science must hold an attraction for quite a bit of people in Southern California - and they all seemed to show up at the same time on Saturday! (Next time I am just getting on the 6-8 month waiting list and taking a day off work to go on the normal tour.... )

[djellison]

Just to see the MER test bed - I'd wait all day for that


Doug

[lyford]

Just to see the MER test bed - I'd wait all day for that
Doug

Don't get me wrong, Doug, I was comparing my experience to that of the regular tours that you can sign up for. I have gone on them in the past (last time Cassini was in the spacecraft assembly building, so it's been a while), so my expectations were based upon those great experiences. However on Saturday, I enjoyed what I got to see, such as the prototypes and mockups and other goodies, including the Mother Of all Machines in the machine shop:


But the crowds ruined it quite a bit - at each display there was always a group 4 or 6 people deep. We were lucky to fight to the front a few times before security pushed you along.... and just like Disneyland, you ened up spending more time in line (on line, queing, etc) than you do actually doing anything, and we ran out of time to see some of the things we wanted.

Here are some more pix of the testbed - I couldn't use a flash and we were (understandably) limited to the glass enclosed observation gallery. Between the low light, my inability to hold a camera still when using slow shutter speed and the troop of boy scouts jumping up and down on the scaffolding, these are the best I could manage:






And the hasty mission control shot, while being hurried out by the guard:

[djellison]

I think I live in the wrong country...

Then again - I did get to see the Beagle 2 facility at the National Space Centre here in Leicester..for all the good it was worth

Very cool pics indeed - thanks for sharing them!

You can see the folded up engineering model of the lander tucked up in the corner of one of them.

Doug

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Superb photos ... anyone else having photos of JPL Open Door ?

[ljk4-1]

JPL's latest Open House is on May 20-21, 2006.

Details here:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/pso/oh.cfm

[lyford]

I may be up for another go, if I can overcome my misanthropy, I mean, agoraphobia.

[RNeuhaus]

Lyford and ljk4-1, thanks for sharing us your expectant pictures and info. I live around 9 hours of airplane flying to arrive at JPL Open House.

Rodolfo

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Sure love to see some photos of the Mars-related displays at JPL

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Who of our US-based forum-members are going to visit the JPL Open Day ? Wish I was there

[ljk4-1]

Sneak preview slide show of the upcoming JPL Open House:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/slidesh...=y&auid=1681721

[mars loon]

Last year (2005), I attended the JPL Open House and it was fantastic beyond description. A space enthusiasts dream. Highly recommended.

My experience was the complete opposite of Lyford's surprisingly negative comments from 2005. One could avoid the really long lines by simply visiting one of the many different venues and visiting DSN and Mars a bit later in the day. I met several top JPL scientists and engineers. Saw the rovers in action and much more, as portrayed in Lyfords excellent pictures. Certainly it was hot but so much fun and although the water bottle was overpriced at $2, mine was specially labeled "MARS WATER: We found it" in big bright letters. What a great souvinier !! And wow so many great t-shirts, mugs, memoribilia, etc. I wish it never ended !!

ken

PS: the excellent preview pictures posted above by ljk4-1 give a good flavor of the activities, but are just the tip of the iceberg so to say:

Sneak preview slide show of the upcoming JPL Open House:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/slidesh...=y&auid=1681721

[lyford]

Yes, marsloon looking back on my comments from last year I think I was a bit of a curmudgeon. I guess I just really can't handle crowds....
But one must suffer for one's art!

(Maybe they will have a full Fembot this year and not just its head...)

[mars loon]

Yes, marsloon looking back on my comments from last year I think I was a bit of a curmudgeon. I guess I just really can't handle crowds....
But one must suffer for one's art!

(Maybe they will have a full Fembot this year and not just its head...)

Hi Lyford,

it sure was crowded and hot.

I'll be there in 2007 and hope to meet you and the full Fembot !!

ken

PS: by the way I liked your pluto top 10 contributions from awhile back

http://planetary.org/explore/topics/topten/

and at several of my lectures on the pluto topic your contributions have been quoted !!!
thought you might enjoy hearing that