The people of JPL

Years ago, sitting at the scorers table at Laker games, I used to hear writers gripe, "I can't find my lead for the story".

Not the problem today.  My first NASA Tweetup is completed, and my "lead" is about the people of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

The people of JPL make the machines, with care, and specificity.  They do it year after year.  After they build them, they test those machines to make sure that nothing can possibly go wrong.

Theory, engineering, construction, testing, launch and then operations.   Simple words, but the process is anything but simple.  Each step must be executed perfectly.  Each seam, solder, cable wrap, must be designed & constructed with perfection.  Each device must be hand manufactured, to exacting tolerances, sometimes with years of research for the most minute details.

Then comes "shake and bake" testing, to simulate the launch, and then heat and cold of space travel.

If it fails take it apart, and see what failed and why.  Re-think, re-engineer, re-construct.  Do it again until every possible risk has been eliminated.  This is only a small portion of a process that is infinitely more complex.

Yet, the NASA JPL folks do it was such pride and perfection that something that was supposed to last 90 days, lasts 7 years.  Heck, two spacecraft built in the 70's sail on, "phoning home" despite the 13 hours it takes the radio signal to travel back to earth.

The two Voyager spacecraft have less on board memory than an original IBM PC (64K) and they are *still* performing useful science as they leave our solar system.  Their nuclear power sources (already at half their original power levels) will likely cease to function before the hardware they power does.  This is a testament to engineers and scientists whose children and perhaps even grand-children will be the only family members still alive when the final Voyager signals are received sometime in the next 20 years.

When people work this hard and care this much, working to such exacting tolerances there is no longer a line between "job" and "love".  Those "thinking pieces of metal" become extensions of the builders, engineers, controllers and scientists.

A NASA Tweetup event allows for a lucky few of us to become "extensions of extensions" as it were.

During the program, I sat quietly dry eyed during the "Farewell to Spirit" segment.  I was fine until the Mars Rover Spirit operations team was pointed out to to us by Doug Ellison.  Most of the team were standing silently at the back of the room.  They were a small fraction of the over 4,000 people responsible for the Mars Rovers, "Spirit" and "Opportunity". 

Frankly, at that point I lost it, openly crying and not caring who saw. I stood with every other Tweetup attendee for what became a standing ovation.  There were several yesterday, for various projects and teams.

I must admit, even now, my emotions are very strong about this "piece of thinking metal", but even more so for the group of folks that made Spirit do her job.  I have followed the Twitter feeds of Doug, Scott, and a half dozen others for over a year now in addition to the official NASA feeds.  I cannot help but cheer when there is good news, be frustrated at the challenges... and now cry at the goodbyes.

"Do not grieve for the loss of Spirit, but celebrate the accomplishments of the team that she was part of", Doug said.

Truer words, I have never heard spoken.  These are amazing people.  They do amazing work.  They do it for decades... under terrific pressure, and mostly they are invisible to the public eye.  The unique thing about Twitter is the ability for 140 characters to give such unique access to people that the public would not otherwise meet in real life.  The even more unique thing about a NASA "Tweetup" is for a very lucky few of us to be put us in a room full of these scientists and engineers.

I think that what I take away from this Tweetup will be the unique willingness of NASA and Jet Propulsion Laboratory to make the people who do very complex jobs accessible.   However, I haven't yet found a JPL employee yet that I did not want to spend another 5 hours listening to, perched on the edge of my seat the entire time.  Frankly, as I interact with more folks at NASA, I discover that this is the case, with everyone I have interacted with.

Thankfully, I live in Los Angeles:   "Need help changing your tire?...  Just tell me about your job at JPL...I saw the sticker on the back of your car, so I pulled over"

Sadly, their time is very valuable.  Not just in terms of "billing hours", but in terms of deadlines and responsibilities.   Physics never sleeps, and "crunch time" takes on new meaning when you have to meet a launch window that won't be available again for 26 more months.  Or a decade. Or 77 years.

"Every time our schedule slips, it is like having to sell the entire program all over again",  one presenter said.    Think about it.  Work on something for 7 years, and then have to re-request a budget, to launch a spacecraft that is already built, tested and ready to fly.

Then think about how you would feel, if the answer to the budget request is "no".

Sadly It has happened.  Several instruments have been recycled and flown from space projects that "lost their budget" and never left the ground.

So, when you watch an unmanned launch on the web, or look at a blurb about a little robot on Mars, (or her much bigger cousin!- "Mars Curiosity"), don't think only about the technology... think about the *people* behind the technology.

Think about the team, some parts of which are "people" and some parts that are "thinking metal", that give us such a unique look into other worlds than our own.

Oh, and while you are at it, send an email to your Senator, or your Representative and tell them about the work of the people of NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Please see the links below.

https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm