This year, the annual Open House event at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. put science and technology front and center on display. The theme of this year’s event was “The Excitement of Exploration” and over 38,000 excited people visited JPL to learn about topics such as robotics, Earth science, engineering, astronomy, and fabrication.

At exhibits and demonstrations, members of the public were able to interact with JPL researchers, ask questions about current projects, and get an up close and personal view of the work JPL is involved in. Exhibits included: * The Spacecraft Assembly Facility which had the next Mars rover, “Curiosity,” on display * Displays of upcoming NASA missions, such as Juno and Aquarius * Tours of the Microdevices Laboratory * An Earth “Puffersphere” globe that showed recent Earth-related data sets from NASA satellites

Many of JPL’s facilities were also open to the public and staff was on-hand to answer questions about JPL’s past, current, and potential future missions.

 

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Open House Event Pictures
 

	Visitor to JPL's Machine Shop looks for soda, but only finds a vending machine with machine parts.
	Rover demonstration model shows visitors how rovers on Mars roll over rocks.
	A JPL staff member discusses the NASA Voyager mission.
	Guests at JPL see demonstrations of how infrared cameras work.
	Tours of the JPL Spacecraft Assembly Facility.
	Exhibits in the Machine Shop show how different parts of Mars rovers are fabricated.