I was there. . .
 

A couple of weeks ago a high school friend of mine who is now an engineer at NASA’s JPL Laboratory in Pasadena (La Canada) gave my family a personal tour of the lab.

Amazing in and of itself. . .

While looking at one of the exhibits, my son asked my friend “Should that lady be standing on that display?” We turned around to see a news crew photographing a lady standing next to a full scale model of the Mars Perseverance Rover.

His reply;

“That’s Dr. Laurie Leshin, she is the new director of the Lab, she can stand anywhere she wants.”

Today I was reading online articles and I saw a photograph of the moment my son saw the director on the display.

A pretty neat “Hey, how about that!” moment.

https://apple.news/AS5gY5S3hQX2XAmK79bxU3A

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659111022.jpg


I snapped a photo of the group once she got down from the display.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659111127.jpg

Cool!

I've been there a couple of times.
The whole place is like a hippie colony.

Almost got a job on the DSN, still trying though.

That is cool !

My Daughter works for APL in MD and is involved with the Europa Clipper Space Probe. She was working with the team on calibrating and testing the camera.

We got to see the camera and rocket in person (behind the glass) during a family tour a few weeks ago before it was shipped off to JPL in CA.

This photo was taken in the large clean room at JPL where they assemble the probes. This room is where they will eventually assemble the Europa Clipper probe.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659132046.jpg

Thanks for sharing!

Spaceflight Operations
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659137875.jpg


Spirit Mars Exploration Rover
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659138241.jpg


Voyager Golden Record
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659138403.jpg

Cool stuff!

In the spirit of the post title and the subject of space...

I attended LotusSphere 2007 in Orlando and Neil Armstrong was the guest speaker. I found the video on Youtube:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uUzHeaDU4NM" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Alas, it was impossible to get near him, but it was an honor to be in the same room.

That video brought tears to my eyes. What an incredible person.

I once went to Buzz Aldrin’s house and give him a ride to LAX. Definitely a highlight of my life.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659202460.jpg

We got a personal tour from a client of mine about 7-8 years back when kid were younger. She was head of HR there once and have since moved on to other higher up type jobs there. Did you noticed that some of what looks like huge CNC machines are mostly Mitsubishi instead of a domestically made machines? I wonder if we don't make one (we have to, right?) or they just aren't good enough for them?

When I had bypass surgery last year there were three little wires attached to the heart they pull out a tiny bit near the sternum and snip off. The wires retract back into the chest. They used to just pull them out.

They did that to Neil Armstrong and that is how he passed away. He bled to death from the fine wires tearing tissue away from his heart.

RIP

I didn't know that.

I'm always thankful to live in these times of modern medicine. But even so, there is so much more to learn and progress to be made. A hundred years fron now, I'm sure our methods will be considered primitive and barbaric.