Re: JPL visitor pass
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Originally Posted by lapinschous
Wow , that's so cool!  How did you manage to get one? Do you live nearby ?  |
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Originally Posted by Future Raptor Ace
Dude that's fricken sweet! Please do share the story!
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Sorry, it's not much of a story. I've got a relative who works there, not with any of the Mars stuff. Actually I don't know what the project is since it's not discussed. Some kind of proprietary R&D. I'm nowhere near there, I'm on the east coast. But family met out in SoCal for Thanksgiving that year and we went over for a short little tour one morning. The facility is situated on a hillside for the most part, and looks a lot like a college campus. There is a small museum where models and replicas of probes and landers are displayed. There is a viewing gallery above the work room where the rover was being assembled and we saw that, workers doing science right there before our eyes. I forget the proper term, but the crane that lowered the rover was also in the room, off to the side. The only other thing I really remember was that we went to the mission control building to see if we could get into the viewing gallery for that. My relative wasn't sure if the key card would open the door, but it did, and then wasn't sure if visitors were really supposed to be in there. But we got in and peeked down. There wasn't much activity that day, I suppose it was just a few people monitoring routine activities. We figure the access was logged somewhere but nothing ever came of it. Some family members are older and climbing the hills and stairs was getting to them so we called off the rest of the tour.
Like I said, not much of a story. I wish I could remember more such as 'this building is where such and such happened/was built/designed.' I think one relative took some photos, I'll ask if they have them and maybe I'll get some posted sometime.