The Intersection of Art and Science Fall 2017

2nd Trip to NASA This week at JPL we started by visiting the clean room. We got to speak to one of the engineers currently working on a portion of the landing craft for the next Mars rover launching in 2020. She told us all about how they came up with the idea of how to land on mars and how that process has evolved since the first mars rover landing. She also told us about the process of going into the clean room. The steps she listed had a ton of similarities to me with going into the operating room. Something I might want to work on in a later project or something. Then we got to go to the machine and learned about how they worked with he engineers directly to manufacture all these new and very specific parts. I found the bas and forth between the engineers and mechanics very interesting. It was also amazing to see their 3-D printing lab where they are able to print models of the parts they want to build.   The rest of the day was spent learning from Paul Rosen a...

At our recent visit to the NASA Jet propulsion lab we began by taking a look at the clean room. In this room they are currently working on the 2020 Mars rover. This will investigate a region of Mars where there might signs of microbial life. The rover will collect samples of soil and rock to look for these signs of life. We didn’t actually go into the room because of the major cleanliness requirements to enter the room. We met with one of the engineers who told us about the strict policies of the clean room. Some of the world’s most famous spacecrafts have been assembled there. Nothing can come in that might remotely contaminate the space. You can’t even bring in water and seemingly clean people can present a real threat. They have cleaners come in constantly to clean the room. Because of the very time consuming cleaning process you must go through to enter the room, when engineers and scientists enter they spend long periods of time there.       ...

Paul Rosen, an electrical engineer and product designer, was the first person to talk to us about NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab’s newest mission, NISAR. Essentially, NISAR is a satellite that will be sent out to space in 2021 which can scan the earth in resolutions that have never been done before. NISAR is a collaboration with an Indian space agency. There are several other satellites out there that already do a similar thing to what NISAR will accomplish, but the data that they provide is nowhere near as consistent, long term, and detailed. NISAR will be able to take high definition scans of the earth every week and every other week from a different angle. NISAR will use two different satellites to scan the earth to measure soil water levels, atmosphere changes, geographical changes, changes in ice sheets, measure biomass and more. What makes this project different is the consistency and depth of the swaths that will be used to scan the earth. Although the satellites that will be us...

This week while we were at JPL NASA we saw their clean room where they are working on the Mars rover, we also went into their machine shop, and finally we got to talk to talk to the project scientist for the NISAR mission and the geologist. The project scientist is Paul Rosen and the geologist is Tom Farr. First Paul Rosen explained to us what the NISAR mission did. It is a mission to send a satellite into space that they are working on together with India and their space center. They are working on sending a SAR satellite into the earths orbit to collect data and observe and quantify changes in the earth. It will do things such as monitor the ground water, the change in biomass, the change in ice sheets, the change in ocean level and record changes in subsidence levels. This satellite will have a 12 day repeat  schedule, which means it will go around the earth to each spot where it will collect data every 12 days. They want to build this satellite to collect data from all over the...

               At our second trip to JPL we were lucky enough to see where a lot of the magic of making space craft takes place. We got a debriefing from Natalie, the lead construction engineer for EDL or entry, decent and landing. There are two clean rooms at JPL, and in the one we observed they were working on Mars 2020. They are currently working on the cruise stage of the space craft.               This stage weighs about 350 pounds, has 8 thrusters, 2 tanks of fuel, 1 star scanner for navigation and sun sensors. The rover itself will weigh about 3,000 pounds, similar to the size of a small SUV. The space craft will eventually be moved to florida in 2019 for final touches.               Clean rooms like this one at JPL are key to a successful mission. If a speck of dust or skin cells got in the room it could ruin the whole mission. Natalie to...

In our most recent trip back to the NASA Jet propulsion lab, we had the fantastic opportunity to get two lectures from scientists who work there. The first lecture was about a new satellite that NASA is planning to launch called the NASA-ISRO SAR which is a satellite that helps radar earth's surface to investigate on subjects like earthquakes and climate change. During out second lecture we discussed subsidence in the central valley. This was very interesting because not many people know what is going on underneath California. After more than five years of drought in California, this 2017 water year has seen above average rain and snowpack, which makes people wonder “is the drought over?,” well during our lecture with Tom G Farr we discussed this important topic. On April 7, 2017, Gov. Jerry Brown issued Executive Order B-40-17 , which officially ended the drought state of emergency in all California counties except Fresno, Kings, Tulare, and Tuolumne. Scientifically, however...

All forms of knowledge rely on some sort of visual or translatable context so that the information can be defined and reiterated other people. Studies done in science must be defined in a way that everyone can understand, or at least observe. Since the beginning of scientific discovery another discipline has always been linked to it, that being art. Art may not be regarded as an important element of scientific exploration, but it is the primary means of engagement for between the scientist, and those interested in the subject matter. Scientific observations have also allowed for a transcendence of information and observation throughout history, it provides a portal into realities of the past, and helps us maintain an accurate record of life, as we know it. Perhaps the most infamous observer of science and nature is Charles Darwin, the biologist and naturalist who lived in the 19th century. He visualized and supported the theory of evolution through his illustrations of animal life,...