On Monday, June 6, 2011, I was fortunate to be among the 100 or so individuals invited by NASA to attend a daylong Tweetup at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena, California. The event included briefings by members of several major unmanned mission teams, as well as tours of the Deep Space Network Mission Control and the Spacecraft Assembly Facility (where the newest Mars rover — Curiosity — is being prepared for launch).
Over the coming days, I will post detailed write-ups of all of the main presentations, as well as links to additional information about JPL and NASA’s current unmanned missions. (To view the original JPL Tweetup Group Photo, click here.)
Here is the high-level agenda from the JPL Tweetup, including presenters and their Twitter IDs:
- Introduction & Overview
@NASAJPL (@VeronicaMcG, @Stephist, @CourtOConnor)
@NASA (Stephanie Schierholz) - Dawn Mission (@NASA_Dawn)
Marc Rayman, chief engineer - Voyager Mission (@Voyager2)
Suzy Dodd, project manager - Oceans, Climate and the Upcoming Launch of Aquarius
Josh Willis, oceanographer - Tour #1:
Earth Science Center, JPL Museum, 3-D Pictures on Mars - Our Favorite Martians (@MarsRovers)
- Group Photo
- Juno Mission to Jupiter (@NASAJuno)
Steve Levin, project scientist - GRAIL Mission
Gene Fahnestock and Amanda Briden, mission engineers - SOFIA Mission (@SOFIAtelescope)
Eric Becklin, chief science advisor - Near-Earth Objects (@AsteroidWatch)
Don Yeomans, manager - Eyes on the Solar System (@NASA_Eyes)
@Doug_Ellison, visualization producer - Imagine Mars
David Delgado, project lead - Tour #2:
Spacecraft Assembly Facility (@MarsCuriosity), Mars In-Situ Lab, Deep Space Network Mission Control
NASA JPL Online Resources:
Facebook.com/NASAJPL
YouTube.com/JPLNews
Ustream.tv/NASAJPL
Ustream.tv/NASAJPL2
Flickr.com/photos/nasa-jpl
Other JPL Tweetup Photos:
Finally, my personal photos from the JPL Tweetup can be found here.