I just got back from a field trip to Jet Propulsion Laboratories in Pasadena and I found the entire experience so cool. We got to see them building the new Mars Rover that’s going up in 2011, a Rover driver told us about the various rovers and we got to go to where they do practice runs over rocks.
It was awesome sitting in the mission control room. Oh, we also go to see where they have the Spirit mock up that’s buried in dust and how they’re trying to figure out ways to get it out (the driver said there’s a good chance it’ll move again).
I want to be a scientist now!
Sweet. Did you get to see the aliens? That’s where they keep them, right? 
Seriously though, that’s awesome. Definitely on my list of places to visit. Do they let you bring cameras, and could you get any cool photos?
Unfortunately they didn’t let us see the aliens. Those were only for VIPs.
You could take pictures, I did. But I only had my cell phone so they aren’t very good, but one of the people had a real camera and they let him take pictures of everything, even the new Mars rover while they were working on it.
I’m jealous! Was the trip part of a school field trip? If so, what class was it for? Man, I wish I could go and visit JPL too.
Isn’t it great when things are just as great as you hope they will be? All is right in the universe 
Or at least with the new Mars Rover.
Bah! Pish-Posh and Balderdash!
Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Is the Mars lander JET propelled?
Is the rocket that gets it there jet propelled?
Harrumph! 
It was a for school. It was for this one class that’s taught by a JPL technician called “NASA missions” but they allowed others to go along.
The group was a hodgepodge of astronomy classes. Some where just in the club, some were in the astronomy honors class. I took astronomy in the summer and last semester took a class called “Black holes and the universe,” and I’m also apart of the club.
I’m a history major, but I love astronomy.
Technically speaking, yes. Rocket engines < jet engines, they just happen to carry their own oxygen rather than taking it from the atmosphere.
In jet assisted take-off (JATO) arrangements, the “jets” are small rockets, added to a heavily loaded airplane to help it become airborne.
When I was a senior in HS, my physical anthropology teacher took us out to CalTech to hear Donald Johansen present a lecture on the newly discovered Lucy. We also went to the L.A. County Museum of Natural History, and the San Diego Zoo. Damn, we had some good field trips in that class, and it was like a college seminar because everyone was very interested in the material.
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My dad works at JPL, I’ve gotten to see all sorts of parts of it not open to the general public. They also have very good wood fired pizza in the employee cafeteria.
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