Caltech

The Eagle has landed!

So I think this will be my last post for the summer, hence the epic title reminiscent of the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon. :)

First I want to show you some pictures of the sightseeing I did during my last day at JPL. :) Right after my presentation, one of my co-mentors (Greg) took me around JPL to see some awesome stuff! First, we walked up one of the many hills at JPL to the building in which most of the testing for MSL (I talked about it in this post) is done. It was called the "Sandbox." Basically it's a giant room in which JPLers can set up different scenarios for the rover (easy tasks and difficult ones) and see how the rover responds. They use this room for during the mission too. If a rover encounters an unforseen situation on Mars, JPLers have facilities to test out different ideas on how to react to the issue.

^ Half of the "Sandbox" with a full-scale version of MSL

^ The other side of the "Sandbox," with a bunch of working JPLers.

After seeing the Sandbox, my co-mentor took me to see the Deep Space Operations Center, as well as the general JPL Mission Control Area:

^ Mission Control! The Screens from left to right: telemetry data, the various working antennas all over the world turning to face a specific probe to receive data, the middle screen was blank - we couldn't figure out why, various missions in transit and where they are in the solar system/universe with respect to the Earth, the 70-meter antenna used to communicate with most of the deep space missions and the antenna's "vital signs."

So that was my last day at JPL. But my summer of cost model research wasn't over yet. During the week of August 15-19, I got to go to Houston for the 2011 NASA Cost Analysis Symposium with one of my co-mentors (Sherry)!!! :) It was an awesome experience. Not only did I get to go to a national NASA conference and meet some really smart people, but I also got the chance to go to Johnson Space Center!

First about the conference:

I got to meet and talk with the people that developed the models I was studying! I got to have all my questions answered, and I even learned about things that allowed me to add to my analysis (can't talk too much about that...it's confidential NASA information!). And through that process, I got some major networking done! :) All the people there were very encouraging of my dream of becoming an astronaut (I was one of three people there under 30...with a total of 119 people). So that was cool too.

Sherry not only gave a presentation on the 2011 Cost Estimating Handbook, but her team also got an award for the work they did the past year!

^ Sherry Presenting

^ Sherry receiving her award!

^ Woohoo! Giant cake. :)

Lunch was catered for the conference and snacks were provided:

^ Snack #!: Popcorn!

^ Snack #2: Candy - Peanut M&Ms and Twix Bars ...don't let the bowl of fruit deceive you. It remained untouched throughout the day! haha

Another awesome part of the trip was my hotel room! It had its own kitchen and everything! haha :)

All joking aside, another amazing part of the trip was my tour of Johnson Space Center. We didn't get to see too much because we had flights to catch that day, but what we did see was pretty cool! :)

^ THE Mission Control! This is where NASA scientists/engineers controlled all the space shuttle missions from! So awesome.

^ The patches of all the successful space shuttle missions. 

A few facts about these patches: first, all the patches are designed by the astronauts of each mission. Second, there is a tradition in which the mission control operator that goes above an beyond his/her call of duty during a mission gets on a ladder and places the patch on the wall after a mission's completion. NASA has quite a few customs like that. :)

Outside the Mission Control center, we saw trees like this one planted along a road to commemorate the astronauts that sacrificed their lives for the benefit of space exploration (Challenger, Columbia):

Sherry and I also got to experience a part of EVAs (ExtraVehicular Activites - spacewalks) with a device called the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU...yeah, the acronyms were not restrained to JPL xD). It was basically like hovering on an air hockey table, trying to maneuver, and complete a task - all at the same time. It was SO fun. haha

^ My brief stint with the MMU. :)

Right before we had to leave to catch our flights, we got to hear Scott Parazynski talk! I had read about him before and was super excited to hear him talk. He's a medical doctor, he has been on five missions, AND he has climbed Mt. Everest. WOW, right?!

^ Scott P with his five mission patches behind him!

Apparently there are a bunch of prayer flags on the summit of Mt. Everest that were left by those that climbed the mountain. Scott P took some flags up as well! They had the pictures of the astronauts/cosmonauts that had died for space exploration:

He also took up a sample of Moon rocks with him. Those rocks, along with a rock from Mt. Everest, were framed, and now reside in the International Space Station:

^ Scott P with the Moon rocks

^ Frame with Mt. Everest rock on left, Moon rocks on right

So yeah...Scott Parazynski is just plain amazing! :) I hope I can accomplish even half of the stuff he did. Hearing him talk made me want to become an astronaut even more! And I know that my experience at JPL this summer and (hopefully) for more summers to come will help me on my way.

So that was my awesome, exciting, epic summer. I hope you enjoyed reading about it! :)

To Infinity & Beyond! (but don't forget about Earth!)

So I’ve mentioned before how JPL lets us tour some of its really cool facilities. I’ve gotten to see the Lunar Surface Operations Testbed (LSOT) and the clean room where MSL was being packed. Well, last Friday, I got to see some more cool things! I actually got to go on two lab tours. The first was the Planetary Robotics Lab (PRL), which is where I saw that funny Godzilla sign that I showed you in my last post.

The PRL facility is where a lot of the prototypes are generated for missions like MER and MSL. The prototyping includes design, construction, and testing for mobility and manipulation. I’d like to work in a lab like this next year! When we went, the JPLers were working with FIDO (Field Integrated Design and Operations), which is almost a generic, “first step” kind of rover. It acts as the prototype for many of JPL’s Martian Missions, including MER and MSL. In other words, JPLers use FIDO to test a lot of the technology they want to use on future Mars Missions.

^ FIDO & me!

Right now, JPLers are using FIDO to test prototypes of the Mars Sample Return Mission. We had one of our “Thursday Talks” on this mission (which will be launched pretty far in the future) and the technology being developed for it, so it was cool to see some of that technology right in front of me!

^ FIDO's drill and the rock that it drilled into!

^ Possible Sample Return Mechanism!

I also found out about this cool project that JPL worked on a while ago (more acronyms!): TRESSA (Teamed Robots for Exploration and Science in Steep Areas). It’s so cool! They’ve tested it not only in the JPL Arroyo Seco area, but also in Norway. The purpose of this project was again to develop technology that would be used on future Martian (and Lunar!) rovers. In this case, the technology would allow the rovers to maneuver on different types of terrain – especially steep terrain, if you couldn’t tell by the name. xD

After checking out the PRL, I got to see the Atmospheric Kinetics Lab. This is a lab in which JPLers study chemistry, notably how ozone depletion happens and if there's anything we can do (besides just stopping the use of refrigerators/air conditioners...) to prevent it.

^ Atmospheric Kinetics Lab Part 1 - Spectrometer!

^ Atmospheric Kinetics Lab Part 2 - Lasers!

So this lab was pretty sweet too, even though chemistry isn’t really my thing. It was nice to hear that JPL not only works with deep space science, but also with (seemingly) plain old Earth Science! I think it’s important that we learn as much as we can about our own planet while we explore the vastness of outer space.

It was also cool to see this in the lab:

^ National Instruments/LabView Control System!

I did FIRST Robotics in high school and for my junior and senior years, I was the lead programmer. Those were the years during which FIRST made the HUGE switch to the “cRIO” control system and LabView as a programming language. It was cool to work with such a graphical language, though I didn’t like it at first. FIRST told us that it was making the switch because the cRIO and LabView had become industry standards. I didn’t quite believe them until I saw this awesome stuff at JPL! :) I was excited and the JPLer was a little surprised when I asked to take a picture of their control system. xD

Anyways, those two tours were awesome. And I learned a lot! (Well, that's really nothing new...I'm at JPL!)

And finally, my presentation! :) It went super well. My mentors were happy with it! After my presentation, one of my co-mentors took me for some sightseeing around JPL. And next week, I’m going to Houston for the 2011 NASA Cost Analysis Symposium! I’m superrrr excited. :D Not too many people get to go to a national NASA symposium after their first year in college! I'm so lucky to get an opportunity like this! I love JPL. (and Caltech!) I’ll tell you about what I saw around JPL with my co-mentor and details about the Houston symposium in my next post. :)

An Egg, A Crater & A Launch

Last Friday (August 5^th) was a very busy day for me. Let me tell you all about it! :)

For some reason, I was really hungry that morning, so I went to one of the JPL cafeterias to get some breakfast. I had never gone there for breakfast – only lunch – so I *scrambled* (get it? Haha scrambled eggs!) to figure out what I should get. I decided to get the “1-2-1 Combo,” which was made up of one pancake, two pieces of bacon, and one fried egg. This next factoid is probably going to surprise you: I’ve never eaten a fried egg before! So when then chef asked how I wanted my egg, I was confused, because the only kind of eggs I had eaten were either scrambled or boiled! So the chef explained it to me while I held up the line of hungry JPLers…haha so I ended up getting my egg "over medium" and well, that was one of the new things I learned that day! xD Needless to say, my breakfast was delicious and filling. :) Another interesting thing: JPL’s cafeterias are run by Caltech Dining Services (CDS), so sometimes I’ll see some of Caltech’s chefs at JPL!

Friday was also the day that the JPL mission Juno was supposed to launch. So after my yummy breakfast, I waited anxiously with my group as we all crowded around a computer screen watching NASATV and listening as Kennedy Space Center got the Atlas V rocket ready for launch. They had a few nerve-wracking delays, so Juno still hadn’t launched when I left for my second MERSOWG Meeting (read this blog post for background on that).

This MERSOWG Meeting was even more exciting than the last one! Opportunity was getting really close to Endeavour Crater after traveling towards it for three years. This time, according to the Chair of the meeting, around 30 people were attending the teleconference, instead of the usual 6-7! Because the rover was getting so close to this incredibly large crater, there was a lot that the MER team wanted to do, from taking pictures and videos to taking data and navigating towards the rim of the crater. Now keep in mind that after taking these images/videos/data, the rover also has to transmit the data to a Mars orbiter, which then transmits that data to the Earth. It took a lot of discussion and arguing for the team to decide on what tasks the rover would do and in what order it would do them. That was really cool to hear, because each team member seemed to have a valid scientific reason for wanting to one thing instead of another! And today, Opportunity actually reached the rim of the crater. Isn't that exciting?! :)

Guess what! During this meeting, the team even named a crater! Well, they joked about it being more of a “dimple” than a crater, but still! The theme they used was “Ships of Exploration.” Some of the famous ones they’ve used so far: Endurance Crater and Eagle Crater.To learn more about the naming conventions, read this article.

So on Friday, they named the dimple “Jolbe” …at least that’s what I heard over the not-so-clear telecon speaker. I tried searching for it on google, but couldn’t find anything. So if you’ve heard of a famous ship of exploration that sounds like “Jolbe,” comment on this post! :) Afterwards, we actually got to see the operations center, from where commands are sent to the rover.

^ John Callas describing Opportunity's "arthritic" shoulder joint on its robotic arm.

^The Operations Center for the MER! Sorry it's a little blurry; my hand was shaking from excitement xD

Oh! Remember Juno? Well, the MER team was just as anxious as the rest of JPL to know whether it launched or not. So before the meeting, they turned on NASATV on one of the screens and muted it. When it launched not only were there cheers in our room, but also on the speakers! Apparently everyone tuning in to the meeting was watching the launch. It was awesome. Everyone sort of watched the screen in awe until the Chair of the meeting reluctantly broke the wonder-filled silence by getting the group back on task.

After the MERSOWG Meeting, I went back to my office only to find out that a lab tour I had signed up for was canceled. :( But I had signed up for another lab tour, that didn’t get canceled: the Atmospheric Kinetics Lab. I’m not a huge fan of chemistry, but this was cool! This post is getting a little long, so I’ll tell you about that in my next post. I’ll also tell you how my final presentation goes (it’s tomorrow!). *fingers crossed that it goes well*

In the meantime, here's a funny sign I found at JPL:

We've got spirit, yes we do! We've got spirit, how about you?

So last time, I talked about Opportunity, the Mars Rover launched in 2004 that was supposed to last only 90 Martian Days (called sols). Well, it’s still on Mars; it’s still functional; and it’s still returning lots of cool data. Unfortunately, Opportunity’s twin (Spirit, which had the same purpose/intended lifetime) recently passed away. It’s still on Mars, but NASA is unable to communicate with it…JPL had its last contact with Spirit just last year.  :(

^ A full scale model of Spirit/Opportunity at JPL (the tiny rover next to it is Sojourner)

So this year, JPL held a sort of “celebration” for Spirit, in which there was a panel of scientists that had worked on the rover to talk about all the exciting data Spirit had returned and discuss just in general everything that the rover had done for science and exploration.

^ Near the beginning of the event

The event was supposed to begin at 3:15, but when I got there at about 3:00, all the seats in the giant auditorium were already filled! Well, there were a few seats remaining, but the ushers were only letting in those that had been/still were a part of the MER program. So I watched the first half of the event on a TV screen right outside the auditorium with a huge crowd of JPLers that wanted to be a part of the celebration. :) I got to hear about how Spirit had found traces of silica, which indicated that Mars was once a warmer, wetter place. I learned that JPL almost lost Spirit 18 sols into the mission, when there was a software error and communication with the rover was nonexistent. I gained a deeper appreciation for all the MER team had done for something so (as it seems to some people) simple as sending a rover to another planet.

Towards the middle of the celebration, some ever-busy JPLers began to leave the auditorium. And then I got to go in! When I went in, the first thing I noticed was how many seats were reserved for media...a good third of the auditorium was just for media: cameras, tape recorders, and notepads were everywhere! JPL definitely has its place in the local community and the world as a whole. :)

Anyways, once I found a seat, the final set of panelists had come to the stage. This set was made up of the primary leaders of Spirit's mission, including Steve Squyres, who was/is the MER Principal Investigator for the Science Payload.

 
^ Left: Steve Squyres, Right: Oded Aharonson (MER Planetary Scientist)

Steve Squyres said something that I really liked. (Warning: he was very eloquent and the following is just paraphrasing!) He said that yeah, Spirit had led a great scientific expedition, but he hoped that it had left an even greater legacy. He hoped that collecting data and taking pictures of this initially "far-away" planet had brought it somewhat closer and had served as an inspiration for the entire world, especially children. I really liked that he said that! It's one of my goals to inspire kids the way they were inspired after Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon, to instill in them the same enthusiasm I have for space exploration...Well, I'm on my way! :)

At the end of the event, John Callas said that the two MER "represent the highest aspiration of our species" because they allowed us "to explore, to discover, to learn - for the benefit of all humankind".  I agree with him. :) (Yeah, I wrote that quote down xD) The Spirit Celebration was a fun little ordeal; I'm glad I was at JPL to experience it all.

Acronyms Galore & A Little Bit of "Opportunity"

On the first day of my time here at JPL, during the orientation talks, I was introduced to an alternative full-form of the acronym "NASA": National Acronym Slingers Association. :) And well, this expression is pretty accurate! I’ve heard so many acronyms while at JPL that it’s hard to keep track of them all! In my last post I mentioned “ATHLETE.” That stands for “All-Terrain Hex-Limbed Extra-Terrestrial Explorer.” How did they come up with that one?!

Another interesting one I heard being thrown around among some SURFers during my second week here was “MERSOWG.” You’ll never guess what this one stands for. xD Well, the first part isn’t too hard: “Mars Exploration Rovers.” But the second part, “SOWG,” stands for “Science Operations Working Group.” :) At first, I didn’t quite understand what this meant. But after asking around, I realized that it was during these MERSOWG meetings that JPLers and other NASA-affiliated scientists/engineers from all over the world would meet through a teleconference to discuss the activity schedule of two MER for the following few days. And the group would let the first six summer students that signed up sit in on the meeting. Whoa! Cool, huh? …guess who one of those lucky summer students was! Yep, as soon as I heard about this MERSOWG deal, I rushed over to my computer, signed up and was one of the first six to do so!

The MERSOWG Meeting (for Opportunity) took place in a tiny room with two projector screens, a set of computers with job title plates on the monitors, and a large table in the center. We were there really early, so John Callas, the NASA MER Project Manager, gave us a rundown of what would be happening and gave us all packets of information and cool pictures. The packet even included a calendar that spanned the length of a Martian year, instead of an Earth year. :) First, the JPLers (and other NASA people) discussed a detailed outline of what Opportunity would be doing in the next few days, including how far the rover would be traveling, when it would be transmitting data to the Earth, and when it would be “sleeping.” The group then moved on to analyzing photos that Opportunity had recently sent back. 



^ Pictures like this one!

That was the most intense part of the meeting because one of the JPLers thought she saw a strange rock on the surface of Mars and the whole group discussed the matter thoroughly until it was (unfortunately) decided that the “rock” was actually just a disturbance with Opportunity's camera. And yes, this whole meeting was FILLED with acronyms that I had to ask about. There were so many that the JPLers were throwing around so freely…I’ll get used to it eventually! xD

Of course, this experience made me feel “closer” to it all and guess what! I’m going to another one of these MERSOWG meetings on Friday. I’m excited to see what Opportunity will be working on and the cool pictures it sent back!  In my next post I’ll talk about the other half of the MER project: Spirit. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this xkcd that I’m sure many of you have seen. :)

Giant Martian Rovers, Oh My!

As I mentioned briefly at the end of my last post, I got to tour the Lunar Surface Operation Testbed (LSOT), which is the facility that JPL uses to simulate low gravity and test the large ATHLETE Rover.

Now, when I say large, I mean HUGE! The prototype being tested is a whopping four meters tall when the rover’s legs are fully extended. Four meters?! And that’s just the prototype. The actual rover, which was going to the Moon, but might now go to Mars or a Near-Earth Asteroid, will be nearly double that height: ~8 meters! :D Yes, I am in awe of this humongous beast. :) I’m 5’2” (~1.6 meters), so you can see the size difference is evident, even when the rover’s leg is folded up. xD (The JPLers working on it let us take pictures)



^ The cables you see behind me are what JPL uses to suspend the rover to simulate low gravity.

^ Another view of ATHLETE's folded leg

^ ATHLETE after setting down its cargo, with its legs unfolded 

ATHLETE isn’t the only giant roving around. At the beginning of the summer, we got to see the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL – also known as “Curiosity”) being packed to be shipped to Cape Canaveral (in FL) for its launch in November.  During our orientation talks, we were encouraged to go see it before it was shipped off the next week. I really wanted to see it, so I rushed over there after lunch the first day! xD We didn’t actually get to go inside the clean room, but we did get to watch up close as the JPLers in their pristine, white bunny suits wrapped the large rover in a golden saran wrap-type material. There was also one suited person walking around with a large video camera, filming the JPLers as they worked. I always wondered who took those videos! I watched them religiously off of NASA's website when I was in high school. Now I don't need the videos! I can see everything up-close. :)

MSL, though smaller than ATHLETE, is still the size of a large car, an SUV perhaps. You can see the difference in size between this new Mars rover and the previous ones:

^ From Left to Right: Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity, and Curiosity.

And here is the wheel that JPL plans on using for ATHLETE:

It's actually not a wheel! It's called a "tweel" and was developed by Michelin as an "airless" tire that would never become flat and always keep its utility. We got to touch this amazing piece of technology! As you can probably guess, it was very light and didn't take very much force to push down. The best word I can think of to describe it is "flexible" or "squeezy." xD

If you read my last post - in other words if you haven't, read it! :) - you probably know what I'm going to say next. These experiences (standing next to ATHLETE's giant legs, seeing new pieces of technology and where prototypes are tested, and watching a soon-to-be launched rover be packed for shipment) all gave me the "closer" feeling. It's surreal to know that I get to work at the place where all these missions really start!

*_* <-- "star"struck face. Get it? Stars in space that leave me in awe and the asterisks are star-like too! haha

Until next time! :)

Just a Little Bit Closer to Space

Hello! :)

Did you know that there are more than 300 summer interns at JPL this summer? Over half of those (188 to be exact) are Caltech affiliates. The Caltech Student Faculty Programs Office administers eight undergraduate research programs, one of which is SURF.



Yep, 188 (!!) of these 700 Caltech Summer Students (from all over the world) are working at JPL.

Four of those programs give you the opportunity to work closely with incredible scientists and engineers at a NASA center (SURF is limited to JPL, but with Space Grant, NASA USRP and NASA PGGURP, you can work at whichever participating NASA center you're interested in). How much better can it get?! Caltech is the place to be if you're interested in space exploration. :)

So as you can tell from the number of students on the JPL campus this summer, JPL is very active in educational outreach and aims to encourage students to pursue math, science, and engineering.  So in this post, I’d like to tell you guys about one of the cool things that JPL organizes for its summer students. Every Thursday, a JPL scientist-engineer (or just “JPLer”) takes time out of his/her day to tell us about an interesting project or mission on which they’ve worked or on which they are currently working. And almost all of these presentations touch on what is going on in the space industry today.

For example, during the second week of SURF, we got to hear about the Dawn Mission. We learned about the awesome new ion propulsion technology that the probe is using (no, not this kind xD) and found out about what sorts of studies the spacecraft would be conducting once it reached and inserted itself into the orbit of the massive asteroids between Mars and Jupiter. It was during that talk (only my 7th day at JPL!) that it “dawn”ed on me (haha, get it? I’m so punny ;)) how amazing it was to be at JPL. We were at the place where this spacecraft was designed...constructed...tested. And where it was going to be controlled and operated from. Suddenly, all of NASA’s Earth and Space Science missions that I had only heard and read about became much more real. I felt closer to it all. I think I’ll have this “closer” feeling pretty often this summer…I’ll be sure to mention it every time I experience it. It’s a great feeling to realize that maybe you aren’t that far from the vastness of outer space after all! :D

This Thursday, we had another one of these talks. For this one, we had a JPLer come and talk to us about the future of Mars exploration. Even though the presentation didn’t include any discussion of the manned exploration of Mars, it was still very exciting! :) We got to learn about the research and development going on right now at JPL and in Europe (with the ESA) for a potential Mars Sample Return mission. We found out how complex the process would be and about how the technology for the mission is slowly (but surely) being developed. We have three more of these talks left, and I can’t wait to hear them all!

In addition to holding these awesome talks, JPL also lets its summer students tour its really cool, high-tech, fancy facilities. On Friday, I’m going to get to check out the Lunar Surface Operation Testbed (LSOT), which is what JPLers have been using to test their prototypes of the gi-normous ATHLETE Rover. I’m sure this tour will give me the “closer” feeling too. I can’t wait! I’ll tell you all about it in my next post, so stay tuned! :)

5th Week Already?!

Hey guys!

First blog; and it’s already 5 weeks into the summer, so beware! It might be long. ;)

My name is Garima Gupta and I’m a rising sophomore* here at Caltech (originally from Florida). I am majoring in Mechanical Engineering and will minor in Aerospace Engineering. My goal-in-life/dream is to become an astronaut and the first woman (if not the first person) on Mars. So you can probably guess what the biggest reason was for my coming to Caltech. JPL, of course! JPL stands for Jet Propulsion Laboratory and it’s a NASA Center that focuses on robotic missions into space (Earth-orbiting and planetary). And guess what! Even though JPL is considered a “NASA Center,” the people that work there are employed by Caltech! :) Read up on the JPL-Caltech story!

This year, I was lucky enough to apply for and get a SURF at JPL. Even though I’m not working on a project very closely related to my major, I’m lucky that I even get a chance to work at such an amazing place (I call it “Caltech’s twin”…the people there are just as smart, and the campus is just as beautiful! :) oh and a random factoid that I want to throw out there: JPL’s campus is twice the size of California’s Disneyland!)

First some background on my project – because of the recent economic decline that we’ve been experiencing, NASA has put many of its centers into competition with each other. NASA Headquarters believes that if its centers are competing against each other to get the chance to work on a specific mission, then they will try their hardest to drive down the costs and make their processes more efficient. So NASA centers, and JPL specifically, have produced cost models that help estimate the cost of a mission. Each model has a different purpose. One might only estimate cost for an Earth-orbiting mission. Another might only estimate cost for the phases of a mission that occur before the launch. My project is to compare many of the cost models that NASA uses to determine which one is the most encompassing and accurate.

So on the first day (after all the not-so-fun export compliance/IT security/orientation talks), I got my own cubicle, phone, and nameplate (so exciting! :D).

The second day, I got something even better! I found out that I would be going to Houston, TX at the end of the SURF program for the 2011 NASA Cost Analysis Symposium! My co-mentor was heading down there to present the 2011 NASA Cost Estimating Handbook and thought it would be good for me to go as well, to do some extra research. Yeah, it’s during the very last week of SURF, and I will have already given my final presentation, but all my research will be on a wiki, accessible to the JPL Ground Segment Team. So I will update the wiki as I do more research at the conference! The conference will last three days and on the fourth day of our trip, I’ll get to check out Johnson Space Center (JSC). !!!!! This is pretty exciting for me, because even though I’ve seen Kennedy Space Center (more times than I care to count xD …I mean, I am from Florida and I ­do want to become an astronaut), I’ve never been to JSC! And guess what! That’s where all the astronauts train! :D Maybe we’ll even get to see the giant pool. ;)

Well, that’s not even a third of all the exciting stuff that’s happened here at JPL so far. But that huge thing above is quite a novel for you to read. So I’ll tell you more in my next post!

(*I’m technically not a sophomore yet, because according to Caltech tradition, frosh become sophomores when pre-frosh become frosh after rotation. Because, well, there always have to be frosh for upperclassmen to yell at: “Go to bed, FROSH! It’s Ditch Day tomorrow!” …no matter how far away Ditch Day actually is! Wait what am I saying? Ditch Day IS tomorrow! )