Carol Elaine generously offered to give us a tour of JPL. (Sadly, it was a holiday of some sort, so I was unable to purchase post cards. You can’t imagine how much pain this caused me.)

I only had my cell phone, so most of my pictures were shit, but here are a few nice ones.

Here’s my favorite thing!

This was a light show that showed you the communication between different satellites and ground control. It was a brilliant way to show the flow of information.

The lights going down the strand represent data coming from a satellite. The lights going up the strands represent data going to the satellite.

Some satellites have very little data transmission right now.

It was a genius learning tool, but also very pretty to watch.

The text that’s hard to read says:
The Habitable Zone: 00001
Confirmed: 01743
Candidates: 03276

HI!

This absolutely delighted me, though I have fears it was a set up, and not just the result of some random argument.

Take THAT Neil deGrasse Tyson!