This is an annual event which I was finally able to attend this year, having missed it the last two years I've known about it, travelling out of town. From the outside, JPL, or Jet Propulsion Labs, is a sprawling collection of odd-sized buildings nestling in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, just north west of Pasadena, CA. This is the place where NASA scientists do much of the research and development for various space exploration missions.

We first had a 20 minute video presentation illustrating the past successes of JPL's work, and applications on earth that have benefitted from space research. It also talked about future space exploration - seems like the goal is to make future space hardware small and light to reduce cost and power consumption.

Here's photos of what we liked the best (click to expand images):

Various experimental vehicles in the "Mars Yard"
The 25ft Space Simulator.
The Workshops & Assembly building.

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