By Mary O’KEEFE

I began writing as a journalist because of science. As I have stated multiple times in the past I love science fiction; the reason I do is because it takes science and pairs it with imagination that goes beyond.

When we moved to the Crescenta Valley and discovered the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) was just down the street we knew we had to take advantage of being close to this historic location.

I found that once a month it had seminars on missions it was on or planning. My son and I started going whenever we were in town; I traveled a lot on location so we weren’t always around but when we were here, we were there. He was 3 when we started going to the seminars and continued going as our family grew. It was so fascinating to learn about the amazing things being done at JPL and my son was entranced by everything. He has always been excited about learning. We would listen to the scientists and engineers talk about their plans or show discoveries of distant worlds. Then at the end of the seminars the speakers would set aside time for questions and would then stay longer to talk individually to people. When my son was 6 or 7, he was fascinated by physics so there were always questions.

One day as we were walking into a seminar my son, who I love so much, turned to me and said, “If you have a question why don’t you ask me first?” He did this not because he thought he was smarter than the speakers but because he was afraid I would relate my question to a “Star Trek” episode, which in all honesty I would have. Just to be clear – there was always someone in the audience or sometimes the speaker, who would relate the science to “Star Trek” … I’m just saying.

When my daughter was born we started taking her to these seminars and she was also enthralled. She wasn’t quite as serious as my son though. She was more fascinated by who the engineers and scientists were, and if it was a woman speaker it was guaranteed we would stay after to talk to her. Then with my third child – well it was a little different. She was terrified of space, anything to do with space. This doesn’t make a lot of sense and she is not even sure where the fear came from but I have my suspicions that her older brother may have told a terrifying tale of space. That would explain why my little daughter would come running in from the yard terrified that the “black hole” would eat her and my son following her with a smirk on his face.

Despite the fear of outer space, we continued to attend the annual JPL open house, and any other event offered to the public.

This trip down JPL memory lane was inspired by a recent notice that only a few weeks are left to add your name to a microchip that will ride aboard a spacecraft on the mission Europa Clipper. That spacecraft will be exploring Jupiter’s moon Europa. Isn’t that amazing? We can be part of this exploration. Now I know how hard all JPLers work to get from the “what if?” phase to actual exploration, and I don’t want to minimize that, but holy cats! We can be part of this mission just by adding our names.

This is actually a tradition at JPL/NASA.

Pioneers 10 and 11 carried small metal plaques “identifying their time and place of origin for the benefit of any other spacefarers that might find them in the distant future,” according to JPL/NASA. (This is an important quote – remember it.) Pioneer 10 was launched on March 2, 1972 and was the first spacecraft to “visit,” that is flew past, Jupiter. It was the first to cross the asteroid belt, was the first human-made object to leave the solar system and operated for 30 years before contact was lost. Pioneer 11 launched on April 5, 1973 and flew past Jupiter and Saturn. It was the first spacecraft to fly past Saturn and operated for over 22 years before communication was lost. But for me it was the Voyager 1 and 2 missions that really captured the imagination. JPLers placed a golden record on the space capsules “intended to communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials,” according to JPL/NASA. (Again – remember this quote, too.) The record contained sounds and images that portrayed the earthlings’ diversity of life and culture. The contents were selected by Dr. Carl Sagan and contained spoken greetings beginning with Akkadian, which was spoken in Sumer about 6,000 years ago, and ending with Wu, a modern Chinese dialect. It also included the sounds of nature including volcanoes, earthquakes and thunder, along with sounds from animals. It included music from Bach to chants from around the world, including America’s blues with “Dark Was the Night” by Blind Willie Johnson, “Melancholy Blues” performed by Louis Armstrong and then “Johnny B. Goode” performed by Chuck Berry.

“The twin Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft are exploring where nothing from Earth has flown before,” according to JPL/NASA. (Remember this as well.)

The mission launched in 1977 with the primary mission to explore Jupiter and Saturn. The spacecrafts discovered active volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon Io and gave us a really good look at Saturn’s rings. Voyage 2 went on to explore Uranus and Neptune, still the only spacecraft to visit those outer planets. And now they have traveled past the heliosphere and are in deep space. Voyager 2, as of August 2023, was located more than 12.3 billion miles from Earth, Voyager 1 is almost 15 billion miles away, and yet they are still both in communication with Earth.

With all the recent news of how evil and ignorant humans can be it is worth remembering how astonishing humans can be as well. And that brings me back to Europa Clipper.

JPL/NASA’s mission will log a half billion miles during its orbits as the “spacecraft’s payload of science instruments gathers data on Europa’s subsurface ocean, icy crust and atmosphere to determine if the moon could support life,” according to JPL.    

The “Message in a Bottle” campaign invites everyone to put their name on this mission. The deadline to place your name is Dec. 31 at 11:59 p.m. EST. So far there have been about 700,000 names submitted. Imagine adding your name to those from around the world – having your name as part of this family of earthlings that will be part of a spacecraft that flies to Jupiter’s moon Europa.

And even the way it is going to be placed on the spacecraft is fascinating.

“Once all the names have been gathered, technicians in the Microdevices Laboratory at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California will use an electron beam to stencil them onto a dime-size silicon microchip. Each line of text is smaller than 1/1000th the width of a human hair (75 nanometers),” according to JPL/NASA.

The spacecraft will also include a poem, “In Praise of Mystery,” written by U.S. poet laureate Ada Limón.

Again – isn’t it wonderful that we are still sharing with the universe the best part of us, our art partnered with science and engineering? So put your name on this spacecraft. Be part of the exploration and offer friendship to future explorers.

Now for those quotes I asked you to remember. Just to let you know, all of them can be related to a “Star Trek” episode. Regarding placing information for future space travelers see how many “Star Trek” episodes dealt with the results and/or consequences from that plot. And come on – Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft are “exploring where nothing from Earth has flown before.” That’s just “Star Trek” avoidance speak for “where no one has gone before.”

To add your name and to find out more about Europa Clipper go to: https://tinyurl.com/426z8335.

For earthlings, we will be seeing fewer stars and more clouds. According to Ryan Kittell, NOAA meteorologist, there is one storm on its way with “two organized periods of widespread rain.” The first drenching will come from Wednesday to Thursday morning. The second one is predicted to be here from Friday night into Saturday. The brief breaks between the two will not be dry periods but scattered showers will continue. We should start drying up around Sunday late afternoon, early evening.