Sketching Space Science Stuff

Going to public open house event at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena was on my list of "things to do in Los Angeles", so I jumped at the chance when I found that it was happening. What I didn't expect was the sheer amount of people that showed up.

It's heartening to see so many people interested in aerospace science, but it made for difficult sketching conditions. The crowd made it a challenge to find a place to draw without bumping into anyone or being my view blocked, so I colored these sketches at home. I tucked myself in an alcove between a fire hydrant and a display shelf to draw this giant vacuum chamber and an emergency shower inside the microdevices lab. There were many more fascinating-looking machines in clean rooms throughout the campus.

I went outside to escape the thickening crowd and jostled with another set of crowds to see some Mars rovers. I have learned from one of the many helpful JPL employees that that one on the top is a cousin of Curiosity rover that is currently on Mars, but it doesn't have a computer "brain" - hence, it's called the "Scarecrow".
The bottom one is an egress rover called "Bubba". I have multiple views of it because it was lumbering along over the rocks, just like it would on Mars, while its six wheels on levers help keep the solar panel flat and continuously facing up to the sun.

There were so many more I missed due to the long wait times to see them, but it's still exciting to learn that this is where the technology of the future is already happening today!