From Space Age to New Age, JPL Celebrates 80 Years Of Propelling Mankind Into New Territories

JPL launches into its eighth decade as the world’s one-of-a-kind innovation institution that has changed the world and advanced mankind in remarkable ways that many only dreamed of when it was created in the early 20th century.

What started as an idea from Caltech rocket enthusiasts in the 1930’s has since morphed into an international hot zone for the world’s most impressive technological advancements that seek to explore the universe far away and continue to push the envelope and change the way we live right here on earth in 2016.

“The biggest transformation for JPL was when we ceased to do ballistic missiles and started doing planetary exploration in 1958,” explained JPL’s Historian Eric Conway.

JPL’s beginnings can be traced to the mid-1930s, when a few Caltech students and amateur rocket enthusiasts started tinkering with rockets. After an unintended explosion occurred on campus, the group and its experiments relocated to an isolated area next to the San Gabriel Mountains, the present-day site of JPL, according to JPL’s website.

It was was sponsored by the U.S. Army to develop rocket technology and the Corporal and Sergeant missile systems. JPL transitioned indefinitely whenit launched America’s first satellite, Explorer 1, in 1958 and has since participated in more than 114 missions to space since its formation.

“The dreams and spirit of exploration that originally propelled JPL into the forefront of rocket research and ultimately deep-space exploration continue to this day. I think the pioneers of JPL would be very proud to know that today we have some two dozen spacecraft and instruments studying our solar system, the universe and our home planet, Earth,” said JPL Director Mike Watkins.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration was founded in October 1958, and JPL was transferred from the Army to the new agency and has been structured as an FFRDC(Federally Funded Research and Development Center) dedicated to the robotic exploration of space.

In the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s, NASA focused JPL’s expertise on large, complex, one-of-a-kind space missions, according to the website.This era produced the Voyagers to the outer planets, the Vikings to Mars (in partnership with NASA’s Langley Research Center), the Galileo mission to the Jupiter system (in partnership with NASA’s Ames Research Center), and Cassini-Huygens to the Saturn system (in partnership with the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency).

“It’s hard to find a science book where a JPL mission hasn’t had an impact on what’s written in it. The technologies and the capabilities that are here are being used to advance national and international purposes. That’s a neat thing,” said JPL’s MARS 2020 Mission Manager Jennifer Trosper.

Another defining moment for America in space came in 1962, when the JPL-built Mariner 2 flew past Venus to become the world’s first spacecraft to successfully encounter another planet.

JPL’s technology creations are widely integrated for eventually consumer use. Some examples include cell phone cameras and streamlined coding and digital compression that is used for things like CD’s, streaming media and so on.

“Everybody loves their cell phone camera, for example. A lot of that starts with the thinking, the people and the richness of the information and the technology that we have here,” said Trosper.

Conway and Trosper mentioned that the most noticeable difference in JPL in 2016 compared to 80 years ago is the sheer expansion of its facilities and the growth of employees that went from just a few people to several thousand employees.

“The culture and the makeup of the people at JPL has changed over time. It’s always been an academic environment, but certainly there are more women scientists and engineers here now more than ever. We’re evolving in a more diverse way,” explained Trosper .

There are a couple common public misconceptions that “JPL-ers” can agree upon.

“There’s an image in the public mind that we’re just ‘The Big Bang Theory’ kind of people,” said Trosper. “That’s not entirely true.”

Another misconception is the idea that JPL is a top secret place that solely focuses on going to Mars and similar missions. Earth science projects account for approximately one third of JPL’s budget, according to Conway.

“We have continued that character of challenging the status quo. JPL is what it is today because the people attract the people. There aren’t places like this,” said Trosper. “We’re doing more international cooperation than competition, which is an interesting transformation.”

It’s safe to say that JPL-ers are visionaries with big plans for the future.

“I’d like to see JPL being involved in imaging the first habitable planet. That hasn’t been done yet. We’d like to be the first place to identify habitable worlds. We’ll get there,” said Conway.