JPL Open House gives visitors excitement in explorations

 Thousands of visitors, many of them children, went to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California for the annual open house Saturday to experience the excitement in explorations.

To many visitors, the open house is a rare opportunity to see the federally funded research and development center and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) field center, which is close to the public. JPL is managed by California Institute of Technology.

The event, themed "The Excitement in Explorations," provides visitors with the chance to share in the wonders of space through high-definition and 3-D videos, live demonstrations, interactions with scientists and engineers, and a first look at JPL's new Earth Science Center.

The Earth Science Center showcases the home planet and JPL's Earth science missions. Since it was the first time open to the public, it attracted many visitors who had to wait for over an hour to get admitted.

Visitors first passed by two touchscreens located on opposite walls of the facility that control real-time views of "Eyes on the Earth," an interactive 3-D visualization website. Visitors also had the opportunity to watch a movie in the 3-D theater, which seats up to 40 people.

Other Open House highlights include: A chance to see the most unique car in this world before it leaves Earth: The next rover bound for Mars, Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity, in the "clean room" before it is shipped to Florida for a November 2011 launch.

JPL further runs its own "reality TV show" via live-streaming webcam: http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl.

The life-size rover models in a "Mars" test bed is another attraction and a perennial crowd-pleaser. Named the Robo-Dome, it is where visitors could see a pair of 700-pound robots gliding in a high-tech arena under artificial stars.

The Robo-Dome is used to simulate complex maneuvers that could be used for future space missions.

The year 2011 is an exciting year for JPL's robotic explorers. In the past twelve months, two spacecraft made close encounters of comets. This summer, the Dawn spacecraft will arrive at the giant asteroid Vesta.

In 2011, JPL will launch the Aquarius satellite studying Earth' s ocean, the Juno mission to Jupiter, the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory's twin spacecraft to Earth's moon, and JPL's next-generation rover - Mars Science Laboratory's Curiosity.

These explorations further aroused the curiosity of visitors to learn all about these and other projects as they toured the Laboratory.

This popular event is also an opportunity for JPL to celebrate its accomplishments with exhibits and demonstrations about the Laboratory's ongoing research and space exploration.

Many of the Lab's scientists and engineers were on hand to answer questions about how spacecraft are sent to other planets, how scientists utilize space technologies to explore Earth and how researchers are searching for planets beyond the solar system.

The Open House is a fun and educational experience for children in particular, with special hands-on activities designed for kids. Children showed special interest in lying down on the ground and let a small rover to roll over their bodies to experience the thrill of exploration.

Among the visitors was a retired man around 70s who only identified himself as Gary. He said he lived in Southern California, but it was his first time to visit JPL.

"Many times when you live close to a place, you would always think that it is close and there is chance to visit it at anytime, that explained why I came to see JPL for the first time at my age," said Gary.

He said to explore the universe needs efforts by generations after generations and in his generation, he has seen the landing by man on the Moon and the landing of rovers on the Mars. He expected to see more wonders in his life time and maybe some day the next generation will have a chance to discover life on the other planet.

To JPL and many scientists, the open house is a good chance to arouse the curiosity of younger generation in the exploration of the universe, and to many children, it is where they have their first hand-on experience on the sun, earth, moon and the universe through the exhibits and demonstrations and perhaps some of them would continue the exploration of the universe when grow up. The event, free to the public, will continue for another day on Sunday.

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