Tomorrow is my last day as an intern at JPL and my last full day in California. With that said, this will most likely be my last post from out here, but I will undoubtedly have airport stories and I will certainly have more pictures to share after I return. After all, I did promise in one of my first posts pictures of my room, Caltech’s campus, and JPL. I haven’t forgotten! I hope you will still find them interesting. But for now, I’ll catch you up on everything that’s happened in the past month.
This week has been a busy, stressful one. USRP interns had final reports due Monday and presentations yesterday and today. I presented my research yesterday to my mentors, several other interns, and their mentors. Other than my fear of public speaking, my presentation went well and Paul and Rob (I still feel bad calling my mentors by their first names, but they insist) said I did a great job. One of the scientists at my talk was especially excited about the research I had done and the fact that I had had the opportunity to do this kind of research at this point in time. Planetary ice research is a very popular field right now; hearing his comments was particularly rewarding. I know I have said very, very little about my research here, but there is still little I can say in this context. My research had changed from the N2O investigation into what I’ve titled my paper and presentation, “Photolytic Reactions in Ices Relevant to Triton”. Basically, I used two different UV sources to irradiate an ice composed of compounds known to Triton, and determined mechanisms for the production of new compounds. For obvious reasons, I cannot share with you the exact experiments I have been doing or the results I have obtained. I can tell you that, like any research, there was trial and error, but for the most part everything ran smoothly and it has been an awesome experience.
On Tuesday of this week something very exciting happened. We at JPL experienced a 2.9 earthquake which originated only 3 miles north of Lab and 1.9 miles below the surface. On our way out of the building, Paul said to me, “Well, now your summer here is complete”. And that’s exactly what I was thinking. I had hoped to experience an earthquake while I was out here, nothing catastrophic of course. This one was merely a shaking of the room for a few seconds, had there been noise I would have attributed it to equipment being moved around in the lab next door. Nonetheless, I was excited to have experienced it. Josh had an even better day on Tuesday. There were two things he wanted to experience/see when he came here: an earthquake and a black widow spider. He was in the Mars Yard when both happened…I don’t know that it gets any cooler than that. And while I’m on the subject of somewhat peculiar things at Lab, I should mention that I also had my first experience with California wildfires a few weeks ago. When I left my building at the end of the day I immediately knew wildfires were burning somewhere close by. The usually blue, cloudless sky was yellow and hazy and the air smelled of smoke. Fortunately, the fire was killed within a few hours.
In other news on Lab, the Spirit rover replica is still being tested for ways to get the real one free on Mars. The JPL Store has a nice selection of “Free Spirit” merchandise, and I will be sure to get my t-shirt before I leave. And in case you hadn’t heard, one month ago marked the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon. Not only was July 20th special for that reason, but a meteor crashed into Jupiter on that day as well. This was good news for Nick, who had been researching spots on Jupiter all summer, and who had been scheduled to observe the planet very early in the morning after the collision happened. He was one of the first to observe the new dark spot left behind by the impact, and the scope of his project has shifted since that time to track changes in Jupiter’s atmosphere caused by this meteor. Not only that, he’s been busy turning data into media-friendly pictures and helping his mentors out as they prepare for interviews in newspapers, radio, and television. Then there’s ATHLETE, the new one of which Josh and Matt worked on. Different in design from the former ATHLETE, this new robot has been nicknamed TRI-ATHLETE because it can split into two 3-legged robots. At this point in time, building the new ATHLETE is the top priority for many of engineering folks at JPL, as field testing in the desert is scheduled for early next week.
Alright, now on to other adventures. A few weekends ago, while Josh was hiking around Sequoia National Park with his family, Nick, Shaddi, Matt, and I had an epic day in the Los Angeles/Hollywood area. We each made a list of five things we wanted to see and/or do in the area, and our goal was to accomplish them all in one day. We set out at 8:30 in the morning, taking public transportation, which amazingly can cost only $5 a day for all the train and bus routes you need to take. We began in Hollywood, seeing the Hollywood and Highland Mall, (and the Hollywood sign from a distance), the Kodak Theater, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Then we went to downtown LA to see some architecture. First there was the Bradbury building (Latin renaissance), though it was not very impressive from the outside. We got lunch at the Grand Central Public Market, where a pint of blueberries costs only $1 and everything else is just as cheap, but delicious. Then we found Carroll Avenue, which has the highest concentration of Victorian-era houses, including one in which parts of Thriller were filmed. After that we went to the La Brea Tar Pits and the Page Museum, which I quickly became very excited about. In the museum there is a place called the FishBowl, where visitors can watch as one staff member and a few volunteers clean and repair fossil bones pulled out of the tar pits both in the early 1900s and more recently. I asked for an application, but much to my dismay volunteers must commit for three months. So I promised myself that if, no when, I am back here for that amount of time, I will be volunteering eight hours each week in that lab! We had dinner at the LA County Farmer’s Market before going to the Getty Center, an art museum with amazing architecture and views of LA. I found myself more at awe with the beautiful scenery than the artwork. We only saw the French bronze sculpture exhibit before moving on to our final destination for the day: the Santa Monica Pier. We ate funnel cake and recapped the day, totaling 13 things in all! (we added ½ for driving past Rodeo Drive en route to the Getty Center and ½ for being outside LACMA (the Los Angeles County Museum of Art). Although now that I think about it, we should get 14 (another ½ for seeing the Thriller house, and ½ for being across the street from the Petersen Automotive Museum). At any rate, we had a pretty awesome day. You can find pictures from this day at:
To see pictures from my weekend with Jen and David, look at my Beaches, Sequoia, and LA folders:
Here’s a random story I just remembered. A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from a girl named Lauren who said she also is from Perry County, Pennsylvania but is now living in the Hollywood area. Her father sent her the local newspaper which had an article about my internship and a link to my blog. She offered to meet up with me for dinner or coffee and to show me around her neighborhood. Of course I was thrilled and said that would be great. We went to dinner at Fred 62, a restaurant that occasionally appears in shows and movies. She’s worked on a bunch of shows and movies; the one I was most excited about was one of my favorite episodes of NBC’s The Office. And she’s seen and met quite a few actors and musicians. She was very excited to have had the opportunity to meet up with someone so close to home, as was I. It certainly is a lot different here than in Perry County!
Two weekends ago on Saturday Nick, Matt, Josh, and I went to Venice Beach. It took us two hours to get there via buses, but in my opinion it was worth the wait. I swam more than all the other times I’ve been to the beach this summer combined. Then on Sunday we (plus Shaddi) went to the Huntington Botanical Gardens, which cover 150 acres and have 10 themed gardens. It was a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
Last Saturday Nick, Josh, and I went to the Petersen Automotive Museum in LA. The museum has a variety of cars from throughout the last 100+ years, including concept cars, alternative fuel cars, celebrities’ cars, and race cars. I got to see my new favorite car (not that I ever had a favorite car before), the Bugatti Veyron, the fastest, most expensive car in the world. It has a W16, 1,001 horsepower engine and can go from 0 to 60 in 2.5 seconds. It can reach its top speed of 254 mph in 50 seconds. The price tag? Just shy of 1.5 million ($1,400,000). I was also excited to see the signature yellow van of the movie Little Miss Sunshine.
Well, for now that’s all the excitement I can remember. Please don’t forget to check out my photos or to check back in a few days for details on my return home and more pictures. Until then, I want to thank you all for your interest in my stories. I hope you found them entertaining and informative. Tonight’s shout-out goes to Matt (whom I miss!) and Nick. I had to give these guys shout-outs before returning home. The two of them plus Shaddi and Josh have been amazing friends and have made this summer awesome. I can truthfully say I would have been lost without them. So thank you, guys!