Astronomy Class Tours JPL

Dr. E’s Astronomy Class Soars to JPL... Online

This picture was taken from the clean room viewing gallery where you can see the Spacecraft Assembly Facility testing their robotic spacecraft.

by Mallika Vairavan

Dr. Espanol’s astronomy class of 16 students went on a virtual tour of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on Wednesday, September 15. Due to current circumstances, this tour had to be taken virtually, though JPL has an interactive virtual tour exploring key areas of the lab such as Mission Control, the Visitors’ Center, the Spacecraft Assembly Center, and many more. The tour was led by Brian White and Nikkie Wyrick Through the JPL Public Service Office. The students were able to ask complex questions about JPL’s development process and new studies and findings of the laboratory.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center managed by the California Institute of Technology for NASA in Pasadena, California. JPL dates back to the 1930s and started building spacecraft before NASA’s inception in 1958. It is best known for planetary exploration, among other research areas. where staff conduct operations during some of the most critical phases of missions. It then continues through the von Kármán Auditorium and Visitor Center. Throughout the tour, the guides show many important projects the laboratory has worked on, such as Juno, the Voyager, the Cassini, and SWAT. The clearing room gallery is then followed by the gowning room, the airlock, and the clean room.

Zander Clift (‘23), a student on the tour, stated, “My favorite exhibit in the tour had to be the robotics section of the tour… I also enjoyed BRUIE which is being developed for deepwater exploration in 2023 to explore Europa (a moon orbiting Jupiter)… and create a space station in the process.”

Rachel Rubenstein (‘23) enjoyed examining where the rockets are developed and the Space Control Center Room. Rachel describes, “It gave me a different perspective on space travel and exploration because I was able to see how we build rockets and how we choose the astronauts.”

After realizing how different countries work hand-in-hand towards pushing the limits with space exploration, Zander understood how the future of space exploration will be “really extraordinary.” It was also eye-opening to him the number of people who have the chance to participate in space travel.

Both Zander and Rachel highly recommend taking the Astronomy Class and the virtual tour. Rachel feels as though the Astronomy Class studies “so much more than space.” Zander especially enjoyed the virtual tour and recommends that if people have the opportunity to take it in person, to do so.

Both students wished they could have taken the tour in person, but they understand due to current circumstances it is not possible. Zander explained, “I would have totally had an in-person tour because you can interact with a lot more things and you get to see them in scale. You really get to spend more time seeing things rather than the virtual tour. But as of right now, a virtual tour is what we can get, and that’s what we had to settle for.” Rachel agreed, stating, “I understand because of the circumstances right now… I would have rather taken it in person because then we could have been able to see the labs first-hand and would have been able to see everything.”

Overall, the tour had a very positive impact on the students, as they were able to learn as much as they could virtually. However, an in-person tour would’ve elevated the experience to another level. Hopefully, in the future, the students of Dr. E’s Astronomy Class will get an opportunity to experience the JPL Laboratory in person.

JPL Virtual Tour