By Jason KUROSU Jet Propulsion Laboratory held its annual open house last weekend, a two-day event titled “The Excitement of Exploration” in which the lab opened its doors to the public. With admission being free, lines to enter the various buildings on site seemed like something one would see at Disneyland, snaking around buildings with […]
By Mary O’KEEFE Jet Propulsion Laboratory allowed reporters a rare opportunity into the Clean Room to get a close up look at the Mars Science Laboratory. The Clean Room, or Spacecraft Assembly Facility, is where spacecraft like the Mariner and Pathfinder and now the Curiosity rover and components for the MSL are assembled. It is […]
By Mary O’KEEFE On Wednesday the U.S. Supreme Court said that background checks of low risk employees at Jet Propulsion Laboratory could continue. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled to hold the background checks while the case was moving through the court system. Employees of JPL had brought suit against NASA and […]
“Imagination Meets Innovation” was the theme at Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles’ (GSGLA) Annual Family Science Festival recently on the Caltech campus in Pasadena. The event, held in association with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), brought over 2,000 Girl Scouts and their families to a fun-filled day of exploring the wonders of science, technology, […]
By Mary O’KEEFE Paul Backes, shown here, joined fellow engineers and scientists at Jet Propulsion Laboratory for a demonstration of the Axel rover and the proposed scientific equipment that will be part of a future mission. The demonstration was on Wednesday afternoon at the Mars yard, a red planet model on the lab. Backes demonstrated […]
By Mary O’KEEFE Keep your eyes open – the Perseid meteor shower will be visible in the night sky Thursday night into Friday morning. “First of all, you can see meteors every night; [the best time to view is] between midnight to dawn but on the night of Aug. 12 and early Aug. 13 the […]
By Mary O’KEEFE On Friday Curiosity took its first steps across the “clean floor” at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. To be more accurate the future Mars rover rolled across the floor. Scientists and engineers working on the Mars Science Laboratory, named Curiosity, are preparing for its launch in 2011. At present it is in the […]
By Mary O’Keefe On Monday the Supreme Court of the United States agreed to review a Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals injunction that temporarily banned background checks of Jet Propulsion Laboratory employees. In August 2007, 28 scientists and engineers from JPL filed suit against NASA for its newly required background checks. The employees contend […]
By Brandon HENSLEY For football fans, the bowl season may be over. Now it’s academia’s turn. The National Science Bowl held its regional competition at JPL on Saturday, with Crescenta Valley High School among its participants in a field of 24 high schools from the L.A., Orange and Riverside counties. “It’s a great opportunity for […]
Wheel slippage during attempts to extricate NASA’s Mars rover Spirit from a patch of soft ground during the preceding two weeks had partially buried the wheels by the 1,899th Martian day, or sol, of the Spirit’s mission on Mars. Once the Martian rover Spirit makes it through the hard winter it more than likely will […]