JPL a leader in science, technology

Pasadena Star News  

By: Cynthia Kurtz  
Posted 11/20/2013

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's annual report for 2012 begins with a question. "Can it get any better than this?" It was posed by JPL's Director, Charles Elachi, regarding the defining moment on August 5, 2012 when the mission team, the San Gabriel Valley and the world knew that Curiosity, the Mars Rover, had safely landed on the Red Planet. 

This week they did it again with the flawless launch of MAVEN - a spacecraft that will investigate the atmosphere of Mars when it arrives next September.

This epic began in 1936 when a team of Caltech students and researchers was asked to conduct its experiments "somewhere else” after an unfortunate explosion on campus. They chose an isolated area near the San Gabriel Mountains. It was a humble beginning for what was to become the most prestigious space exploration center in the world.

Today JPL, a NASA laboratory managed by the California Institute of Technology, is well known as a pioneer in space exploration. JPL's impressive resume of technological innovations has transformed not only our region but our world.

Since launching the Explorer 1 satellite in 1958, JPL has reached into the uncharted depths of the universe.  

Voyagers 1 and 2, the only man-made objects to ever leave the solar system, were built and are still operated by JPL. Now in their fourth decade of exploration, the Voyagers have passed the farthest planets in our solar system and continue to send back information about the previously unexplored places in space through the antennas of the global Deep Space Network which is also managed by JPL.

Through its innovative work in robotic space exploration, JPL has become a world leader in science and technology. Tools developed for space explorations provide us the opportunity to learn more about our own planet, its climate, oceans, geology and atmosphere.  

NASA has announced two future Mars missions for JPL - InSight that will study the planet's interior in 2016 and a major new rover in 2020.  

Under the leadership of Charles Elachi the 5,000 geniuses and rocket scientists who work at JPL are sure to excite, surprise and make all of us in the San Gabriel Valley proud as they plan these new missions.