JPL Open House

So, once per year, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory throws open its gates to the public. For one weekend a year, you can drive out there and visit without a security clearance or previously-scheduled tour. It's completely free and no tickets or reservations are required. So, of course, about 20,000 people take advantage of it every year. It's basically Nerd Disneyland.

They really go all out, with hundreds of their researchers on hand to explain what they do and how they do it, and glossy printed brochures of all of their projects to take home with you. Every single employee I met was friendly, excited to answer questions, and most of all really passionate about the work they were doing. It was truly, truly inspiring, and made me wish I'd continued in science after getting my B.S. in chemistry.

Among the most popular exhibits were the "highbays", observation galleries allowing you to look down on the sealed clean rooms where they actually build spacecraft. We were able to look into the room where they built Voyager (launched 1977), and where now they are building a new technology called a starshield, meant to go to outer space and help us locate planets.

We also saw an entire exhibit entirely about Voyager. It was originally designed for a mission projected to last 12 years, but Voyagers 1 and 2 have now successfully been exploring and sending back data for over 30 years, and the NASA scientists have hope that both will last until the half-century mark.

When we were talking to the researcher about Voyager, he mentioned that many of the technologies JPL developed for Voyager and the subsequent deep space missions had made their way into consumer electronics and other applications. "But not weapons," he stressed, "nothing we make here is weapons." I was both proud and touched by his insistence. He also observed that Voyager and its compatriots are exploring where we'll need to go, when our sun dies. It will be thousands of years from now, but it will happen. And when it does, we'll need to go to the stars.

In that moment, I reconsidered my stance on having children. I've never been sure if I would be a good parent, or if I want to make the attempt. I'm not saying that this visit to JPL swept all these concerns aside, but it did make me think. What is the point of life, if not to contribute to something bigger than ourselves? I want my descendants to go to the stars.

I bought myself a JPL shirt to commemorate the day. On the front, it just says "NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory". But on the back, it has a picture of the Curiosity Rover, with the words "Dare Mighty Things".

Humanity is going to the stars, and JPL scientists will get us there. Dare mighty things indeed.