[X] My Assistant

[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]

Emily - aren't you a local Pasadena girl? Did you or your beau go this year? It was about 140 mile round trip from Ventura... but I bet you Planetary Society types must have reserved parking at JPL anyway

Back to the show - especially for Bob and Phil and Climber - MORE BOTS to play with!


This is getting near the end of the day - crowds starting to thin a bit. A healthy 7 human to 1 rover ratio. You can barely see the Titan drogue and the autonomous helicopter precision landing software testbed on the right.


ROCKY!


This is supposed to crawl around the outside of a spaceship performing maintenance... in my nightmares.
Batteries were dead by the time I got to see it.


Now up the street and a right turn on Mariner Road to catch the Mars exhibits before they close... I was very impressed by the mix of people who were there. All walks of life seemed represented - young, old, rich, poor, white collar, blue collar, all drawn by the lure of science and the cosmos. I actually found myself entertaining thoughts of hope for civilization. Scandalous!


A BIG PRINTOUT! But inside the exhibit will have to wait until tomorrow....

to be continued

[elakdawalla]

... but I bet you Planetary Society types must have reserved parking at JPL anyway

You would think, but no. That's not just for TPS employees. JPLers have told us funny stories about people showing up at JPL flashing their Planetary Society membership cards, thinking that gives them open access

[climber]

[quote name='elakdawalla' date='May 24 2006, 04:48 PM' post='55560']
You would think, but no. That's not just for TPS employees. JPLers have told us funny stories about people showing up at JPL flashing their Planetary Society membership cards, thinking that gives them open access

I didn't even try this. A few years ago, I visit TPS headquarters and get to shake hand with Louis Friedman and asked him if been a member of TPS would be of any help to visit the JPL. He told me that I had to know somebody there. Well, I know Steve Squyres, Rob Manning, Peter Teisinger, and a few others. Only trouble is that... they don't know me . Back in 1989, people were allowed to the visitors center were you could have a view of the inside. It's not allowed anymore now. Anyway, if you go to Pasadena, you'll see some other interesting places. I went to the Mt Wilson observatory, sitting not far, and visited the famous 100' used by Edwin Hubble to figure out what Galaxies were. I also appreciated the visit of the Norton Simon museum were I sew some Picasso, Van Gogh, Degas and many others. Also of great value is the Huntington Library including some very nice gardens :