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BEYOND JET
PROPULSION
For over 50 years,
Caltech's JPL h as turned
space-age fantas ies into fact,
become a m astermind
be hind NASA, and
expanded our perspective
of the Earth, the solar
system a n d the universe.
t e x t
0
b y
JANE PLATT
n a b almy Saturday morning
last June, as the sun streamed
across
the
San
Gabriel
Mou ntains , a long line of people
snaked down a tree-lined street. One
might think they were waiting for a
blockbuster movie or a new amusement
park ride, but thi s parti cular crowd was
eager to enter the Jet Propul sion
Laboratory (JPL), near the California
Institute of Technology (Caltech), during its annual Open House.
Visitors wanted to see the l arge,
sandbox -like Mars Yard, where rovers
get a test drive before heading to the
Red Planet. They were anxious to
watch an infrared camera highlight hot
and cold spots on the ir faces. Another
crowd-pleaser was the Spacecraft
Asse mb ly Facility, with windows
overlooking steri le "clean rooms" where
spacecraft are bui lt by workers wearing
sanitized "bunny suits." JPL screened its
Welcome to Outer Space documentary,
narrated by Jodie Foste r. These were
just a few of the attractions that drew a
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So u t h l a nd
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diverse a udience of 53,000 people to
the two-day event.
Step back in time to this area on
Octo be r 3 1, 1936 , wh e n Cal tec h
Left: One of many JPL spacecraft, the
unmanned Mars' Global Surveyor maps the
planet 's sw jace. More spacecraft will join it
and bring back Martia n rocks.
Above: Inf rared satellite views, such as this
one of the Santa Monica Mountains, assist
in determining regional weather patterns
and changes in global climate.
Above right: Designed in birds-eye maple by
interior designer Roseanne Sachson, the
Flight System Testbed facility was planned
fo r three projects and now runs 32.
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professor Theodore von Karman and
several graduate students successfull y
tested a primitive rocket engine in a dry
riverbed in the Arroyo Seco, near the
Rose Bowl. Their experiments p iqued
the interest of the U.S. Army. The
Army helped Cal tech obtain land and
funding for the development of strapon rockets to help Army planes take off
from short run ways. World War II
brought great demand fo r the rockets
and for new technology to keep pace
with Germany's development of guided
missiles. The team at Caltech aptly
named their organization the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory.
Their military work continued into
the '50s, but the space age changed
their focus dramaticall y. JPL deve loped
the first Ame rica n space mission,
Exp lorer I , whi ch laun ched on
January 31, 1958. Eleven months later,
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the Army turned JPL over to the newly
formed civilian space agency, the
Nat ional Aeronauti cs and Space
Administration (NASA).
With its unique he ritage, JPL is
funded as a NASA center but is managed
by Caltech. This successful blend of
government and academia provides a
campus-like atmosphere at JPL, which
spraw ls over 177 acres in Altadena, La
Canada-Flintridge and Pasadena. The
patchwork of buildings tucked against
the foothill s is dominated by 1940s
and '5 0s architecture, with a few
high-tech glass and steel structures.
Squirrels, deer and other creatures
freely roam the grounds.
The lab provides fertile ground for
sharp minds to push the limits of their
imagination and design cosmic journeys, often turning science fiction into
fact. With films and TV series like Star
Wars a1~d The X-Files, it's no wonder
kids and adults are drawn to JPL's
Open House, where they can sort out
reality from Holl ywood fantasy. In
fact, JPL employees serve as technical
consultants for many films.
Over the past four decades, JPL has
sent unmanned spacecraft to orbit or
land on many solar-system neighbors,
including Mercu.ry, Venus, Mars ,
Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and our
Moon and Sun.
In Jul y 1997, when the JPLdesigned and built Pathfinder spacecraft
landed on Mars with its rover,
Sojourner, millions of Earthlings logged
on to JPL's website to see the first
pictures. Mars' Global Surveyor is
currentl y mapping the Martian surface-,
and another spacecraft will arrive on the
Red Planet in December. Future missions
include one to scoop up Martian rocks for
return to Earth for study.
Left: Tucked against the foothills, JPL's
campus-like 177-acre facility in Altadena,
La Canada-Flintridge and Pasadena is funded by NASA and managed by Caltech.
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space and Earth-based observatori es
will study the formation of galaxies
and stars and look for Earth-like planets
that may harbor life. These missions
are sequels to NASA's Hubble Space
Telescope, with its colorful , aweinspiring images. JPL des igned and
built Hubble's primary camera.
Planet Earth gets its share of
scrutiny at JPL through a series of
orb itin g s atellites and instruments
flyin g on the Space Shuttle. The
Topex/Poseidon satell ite tracks the
Above: Desert-tested before healling to
Mars, rovers Like this one can be seen in the
Mars Yard at JPL's annual Open House.
JPL's Galileo spacecraft has been
orbiting Jupiter and its moons fo r nearly
fo ur years, gathering evidence that the
icy moon Europa may have a liquid
ocean. That prospect will be studied by
the Europa Orbiter spacecraft, launching in 2003. The Cassini spacecraft,
curre ntly on a seven-year journey to
Saturn, will observe the planet and its
most Earth-li ke moon, Titan, which
may contain organic chemistry similar
to materials that led to life on Earth.
Another proposed mission wotild fly
past distant Pluto- the only known
planet not yet visited by a spacecraft.
S o u t h l an d
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Then there are Earth 's second
cou sins-t he rocky, pota to- shaped
asteroids and "dirty snowball" comets.
These cosmic leftovers may hold clues
about how Earth and other planets
formed. Stardust, c urre ntl y zooming
toward a comet, will capture cometary
dust samples and return the precious
cargo to Earth. A small , JPL-built rover
will hitch a ride to an aste roid on a
Japanese spacecraft. And just in case
an asteroid or comet should stray too
close to Earth, JPL astronomers keep a
watchful eye with their ground-based
Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking Syste m.
" How did we get here? Are we
alone?" These age-old ques tions
inspired NASA's Orig ins program,
managed b y JPL. Its sophisticated
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fickle ocean currents of El Nino and La
Nina , while the recently la unched
QuickScat satellite wi ll monitor ocean
winds and flesh out our kno wledge of
global weather patterns. Other current
a nd future Earth observations study
ozone deple tion, tropical rainforests
and causes of acid rai n.
The New Millenni um Program,
which includes the current Deep Space 1
'
miss ion , de-bugs new technologies for
future mission s. Man y space technology breakthroughs provide important
applications on Earth. For insta nce,
infrared ea·r the rmometers use JPLdeveloped technology, and the lab has
signed a licensing agreeme nt for use of
a JPL computer c hip that may diagnose
misfirings under the hoods of cars,
which may boost fuel economy and
reduce emissions. The lab 's non-s p ace
ve ntures in volve infrare d cameras
to help track forest fires; a document
survei ll ance and monitoring system
to protect the U.S. Co nstitution ,
Declaration of Inde pende nce a nd
Bi ll of Rights; an d a Defe nse
De partment battlefi eld informat"ion
management system.
Have you ever wondered "What on
Earth are they doing at JPL?" Clearly,
JPL sc ie ntists and eng ineers have
expanded our view of the solar syste m
and the universe, and j ust as importantly,
prompted us to reflect on the wonders
on Earth.
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