JPL Visit 1

On our first visit to JPL, we saw so many amazing things! Starting with the observation deck of a clean room where engineers worked on the 2020 mars rover, we were able to see the process the rover will take in landing on the moon. I thought this was very interesting in particular, how the carrier would bring the rover close enough to the surface to lower it to touchdown on a cable. It was awesome to see the difference in how the rover for 2020 will land versus the last one in a giant sort of bubble cushion. Throughout the day we moved to see the metalworking lab, with water-cooled metal saws and hydraulic presses. One of the engineers showed us the similarity in weight from a huge piece of low-density aluminum and a high-density sort of steel. We saw a hydraulic garnet drill that used high pressured water and pulverized granite to laser-cut sheets of metal in half.

We talked briefly with the woman in charge of the tree of life project about her plans for attaching antennae to trees and transmitting information from the tree to the rest of the world in various forms. I think a lot of us left a bit confused on the purpose of the project and how the longevity of it would realistically play out. We saw an empty mission control at the end of the visit and, overall, I think the day was an amazing experience well worth the four-hour round-trip drive to Pasadena!

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