And of course, JPL plays a leading role in America’s continuing exploration of Mars. Engineers launched an ultra-precise, mercury-ion atomic clock into Earth orbit to test its potential as a next-generation tool for spacecraft navigation, radio science and global positioning systems. Today, JPL is involved in numerous exciting missions like its Deep Space Atomic Clock. With the help of Caltech professor and aerodynamicist Theodore von Karman, the rocketeers would continue their experiments at a facility that would become known as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Four times they tried and failed to test fire their small rocket. With some scraped together engine parts, the men attempted to prove rocketry, at the time a sci-fi pipe dream, could be real. The history of JPL began on when a few engineering enthusiasts gathered at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains to do science. The center developed America's first Earth-orbiting science satellite, created the first successful interplanetary spacecraft, and launched a robot into space to study all the planets in the solar system as well as asteroids, comets and Earth's moon. JPL's objectives are to implement programs in planetary exploration, Earth science, space-based astronomy and technology development. It’s technically located in La Cañada Flintridge, California, but it has a Pasadena zipcode and La Cañada Flintridge doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, so people just says it’s in Pasadena. JPL, or “the Lab,” is a federally funded research and development center that is owned by NASA and managed by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |