Freshman from physics classes were waiting for the bus to arrive at the Stowell drop off at 5 am. The two buses left Santa Maria High school at about 5:45. It was a long drive down to Pasadena with Los Angeles traffic delaying the trip.
The two buses arrived at the NASA Jet Propulsion lab around 9 o’clock. Both buses unloaded and we were divided into two groups (between the two buses). The tour guide introduced himself and other tour guides and gave us each a lanyard with passes for the tour to be seen at all times.
We then walked down to an auditorium where we received a history lesson on the Jet Propulsion Lab.
It began with a group of students who graduated Caltech University and ran a series of tests in which they made explosions in their dorm rooms and classrooms. Eventually, they were kicked out of Caltech and found another spot for their shenanigans.
On the West border of Pasadena was dry wasteland known as Arroyo Seco. In this land they were able to continue their experiments with rocket motors. Soon enough they began to see success. On October 31st, 1936 they had they’re first successful rocket launch that didn’t lead to an explosion for ten seconds. This had been the first sign of hope for the notorious “Suicide Squad.”
In 1943, due to their successful launch they had gained the interests of the U.S. Military. Since then JPL has been one of ten NASA centers around the U.S. They’re main focus is sending robots out into space instead of humans due to them being more replaceable.
Inside the Auditorium there were also some projects that JPL had worked on such as the Twin Voyagers. A peculiar fact about both voyagers is that they carry a record with instructions on how to build a functional record player in case life is found way out where they travel.
Another interesting orbiter from JPL was the Juno satellite which is currently out by the Leo constellation exploring Juno.
After that short introduction we were then shown a video about JPL’s mission to find life around the galaxy. The video was then followed by a short walk around the museum where we saw different projects previously worked on by JPL.
The Europa clipper is a satellite that is heading for Jupiter’s 3rd largest moon, Europa. As we saw in the presentation of JPL’s mission, we know that they are exploring around the galaxy looking for life. Water is a huge sign of life, and we now know that there are layers of ice on Europa. This was a huge discovery, and the Europa clipper is going to be launched up there on October 10th, 2024.
We then walked down to one of the main buildings where there would normally be a group of people observing a launched rocket but was currently empty. Inside the control room you will find live readings of satellite dishes around the world in Australia, Spain and the United States.
After the visit inside the control room we walked back down to the entrance of the tour at 12:00 pm and got back on the buses to go home. We made a quick 1 hour pitstop at In N Out in thousand oaks. After a long bus ride, the two buses arrived back in Santa Maria High School around 4:30 pm.
