Blog 7: JPL Visit and the Tree of Life

JPL Visit #2

In our second visit to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, it had seemed that we were much more aquatinted with our surroundings, however the excitement and anticipation that we all shared was felt by all.  We first began by visiting the "art/creative" department of NASA who are responsible for their largest project, "The Tree of Life".  In a brief, short summary, the Tree of Life project is designed to answer the most troubling question in the science field, "How can we produce a creation that is long-lasting and has the ability for longevity for centuries to come?".  The creative department thus brain-stormed various ways in which a man-made creation can last for generations to come.  However, what if something that can last didn't have to be man-made but rather found in nature.  Thus, the idea to utilize trees to carry the mission's projects became the focus point of the Tree of Life experiment.  With the use of "electrical satellites" that surround the tree's branches/trunk, the trees will be used as tools to communicate to the cube-stat (a form of satellite) and will translate their "message" where humans can interpret their signals to see the condition of earth.  Therefore we can assume that the trees can tell us how healthy the earth is.  However, this is all based on the assumption that trees will survive the age of mass-deforestation, global warming, and urban growth.  In addition, there are many questions that were raised on this project; 

"How does global warming affect communication from the tree's satellite to the cubestat?"
"How does each differing tree species and tree characteristics affect the tree's "translated signal"?"
"How reliable are trees 'communicating' to us on how the earth is doing?"
"What are the distinctions between a "healthy" earth and "dying" earth?"
"What is the purpose of the project?  Won't we be able to tell how the earth is doing based on enhanced science findings and improved technological advancements?"

Truthfully, the more we delved into the topic of the "Tree of Life" project, the more unsure I felt it as a NASA certified mission.  To explain more, I see this project in the artistic sense as we are able to learn more about the earth through its natural counterparts (it details to me about the "true language and song" of nature).  However in the scientific standpoint, there are too many variables that would discredit this project.  If this were to be successful, significant experiments and determinations of the type of tree, which habitat, its height, its conditions that it thrives in, how it responds if healthy or dead, etc.



Artwork that I passed by in the bathroom that I was told to delete but was too fascinated to delete


Next, we moved forward to (what I assume) to be EVERYONE's favorite part of the day.  We went to the "tech" department of NASA where their aims are to visually create a system to not only help astronauts through the aid of "virtual-reality" lens during their space missions but also to introduce the public about NASA missions to mars.  We were able to utilize these googles to see up-close (and personal) the new mars rover and see all the counterparts.  It will be incredibly useful to austronauts (who may not know the mechanics of certain robotics) in order to fix machinery where the visual-aid of tech support can demonstrate clear instructions on how to fix a certain problem.  Next, it was STUNNING to be able to "visit" Mars.  The definitions and detailed features of mars was incredibly life-like that the fluid motions of my eyes could see almost everything around me.
Visualizing Mars Rover through Lens

Everyones amazement at the rover

Visualizing Mars through Lens


moon rock!


Once again, JPL continues to amaze me with their numerous projects and I am incredibly excited to see what the world's leading scientists will take us!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

JPL Visit 2

On our second trip to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory campus, the majority of the day was focused on the tree of life project being run by the arts team. We had many of our questions answered about the project, and witnessed first-hand the process the team takes in generating and refining their projects based on the research and findings of the NASA scientists. My main question in regards to the tree of life dealt with how the team planned to create a cube-sat which had the ability to last the duration of the project, 200 years, since no such thing has ever been done before. My favorite brainstorming session activity was writing down every question we had about the project on sticky notes and putting them up on the wall. I wish our questions had all been answered because I think the project is still very early on and a lot of people had really great questions to ask. We briefly viewed a few of the things we had seen during the first visit, including the clean room with the more-develop...
Read more

Blog #7- Sammy Keane

Image
Sammy Keane Blog #7  Since I was unable to attend the second JPL field trip due to unfortunate events, I found myself looking throughout NASA’s dense website. Juno, NASA’s mission to Jupiter, really stood out to me. Launched on August 5, 2011, the goal of this mission was to understand the origin and evolution of Jupiter. Juno is a solar-powered spacecraft that’s observations will lead to a better understanding of the formation of our solar system and planetary systems discovered around other stars (eyes on the solar system). In addition to that, Juno would look for solid planetary core, map its magnetic field, measure water and ammonia in its atmosphere, and finally observe auroras (nasa.gov). Juno did not arrive at Jupiter until July 4th of 2016. Reading into Mission Juno allowed me to understand more about Jupiter, a planet that I before knew nothing about. For example, written on October 24,19, data from Juno has helped scientists discover that the swirling ban...
Read more

Blog #7: JPL -Sophie Ungless

Image
The majority of our time during this visit to JPL consisted of working with the A-Team to go over the Tree of Life project, which we were introduced to during our first visit last month. The last time we learned about it, I left feeling really confused about exactly what the project was and how it has relevance, so being able to inquire more on this trip was helpful. That being said, though, I am still having a hard time wrapping my head around what the goal of the mission is. It's clear that they were inspired by how we can eventually create a mission that has the ability to arrive at Proxima B, and the drive behind the Tree of Life is this idea of time and longevity. However, the team still doesn't seem clear about how the information they gain from this project can be applied to a future mission involving Proxima B. Or if they do know, they aren't effectively articulating it to the general public, which I believe is going to be vital for keeping interest in the 200 year ...
Read more