I ended up at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) as part of a science conference being held in Long Beach, CA. JPL was located about 30 miles away and a tour bus shuttled participants there. As the drive started, there were views of the ocean, shipping containers, and sunshine. I anticipated a beautiful 30 - 40 minute drive into the tree-lined hills of Pasadena. Obviously, I’m not from California. One hears rumors of horrible traffic commutes, and I can now verify that they are true. It took a little over two hours to travel the 30ish miles—HIGHWAY miles! And we still had the return trip to make later. I wondered if it was worth it.
JPL was definitely worth it. Some of the things I found interesting were the following:
- Many displays showing the history and technology of JPL missions.
- An observation area above the room where space technology is being built. Although, there were just people in white suits walking around slowly. I couldn’t tell if they were actually working on anything or whether it was just showing what it might look like if they were.
- A large, dark room with screens showing current communications with spacecraft out in space.
- Life size models of rovers that have been sent to space.
I encountered the mystery in front of the life-size model of the Curiosity rover. Curiosity landed on Mars in May of 2012. Its mission is to find out if Mars has the right conditions for microbial life. It is still operating, although power conservation efforts have been established. I listened as the docent was describing how NASA and the JPL are partners in these projects, but NASA would not allow any identification to be placed on the rover. JPL really wanted some recognition and managed to sneakily place their acronym on the rover. The docent asked if we could see it. Try as I might, my observation skills just weren’t up to it. I squinted and scanned. Nothing. The docent directed our attention to a front wheel. It had holes in it for, I assumed, traction on the Mars landscape. I squinted and scanned the wheel. Still nothing. The docent then pointed out that the holes in the tire were shaped like dots and dashes. Morse code! All that time I spent in middle school memorizing Morse code so I could solve mysteries was wasted. The letters J, P, and L were cut into the front wheel. As it rolled across the mars landscape, it left those marks. Scientists could measure how far the rover had traveled by looking at the repeated pattern in the dirt.
This missed observation has encouraged me to explore more, just as the mystery books did decades ago. And, bonus, now I have my own car.
CuriosityOn!