Angeles explores outer space at JPL

By Commodore Dave Mason

LA CAñADA FLINTRIDGE — The interstellar voyages of the USS Angeles led us right to it.

The Center of the Universe!

There it was, right before our feet in a transparent square in the floor of Mission Control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the NASA campus in La Cañada Flintridge. That’s where the USS Angeles got a personal tour, led by Krys Blackwood of JPL, following our participation in the costume contest at JPL’s first Geek Fest on April 22.

Space Flight Operations Manager Jim McClure talked to the five Angeles members – Ed Millner, Kat Campbell, Jeremy Kranz, Lisa Sobien and me – and a few other guests inside Mission Control, where he told us that the “Center of the Universe” square was inspired by Charles Elachi. The former, longtime JPL director told McClure that Mission Control really was the center of the universe because of its deep space missions.

McClure said he couldn’t question Elachi’s wisdom, so he made Mission Control’s status official by putting the “Center of the Universe” square right in the floor. And appropriately enough, the official name of the room is the Charles Elachi Mission Control Center.

Before our trek into Mission Control, we looked through the JPL outdoor mall’s Geek Fest exhibits. We also listened to classic rock performed by Shop 300, a band made up of JPL employees on vocals, guitars, drums and brass. They covered many hits, including Alexander Courage’s original theme for “Star Trek.”

The USS Angeles was the “Star Trek” club invited to Geek Fest, thanks to Blackwood, who leads the Human Centered Design Group at JPL. She told us that her job involves determining how JPL employees can interact with each other to achieve mission objectives. 

As previously mentioned, Angeles members participated in the Geek Fest costume contest, which was judged by celebrities such as Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry, one of the executive producers of current “Star Trek” shows and “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry and actress Majel Barrett’s son. Roddenberry, McClure, actress Cara Gee (“The Expanse”) and Gee’s husband, actor/producer Richard De Klerk, awarded the prize for best non-JPLer to USS Angeles member Ed Millner, who dressed as Dr. Nichols, the plant manager at Plexicorp in San Francisco in “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.” 

The JPLer winner of the contest was an employee dressed as a robot. And Blackwood, who co-emceed the costume contest with JPL staffer Greg Ivan Smith (dressed as Obi-Wan Kenobi), won an award for wearing her “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” instructor uniform.

As we mingled with JPL employees in the courtyard, we met engineers working on the Europa Clipper mission, which NASA describes on its website as the first mission to do a detailed study of Jupiter’s moon, covered by a frozen ocean. 

Could there be some microscopic life under the icy surface? The engineers at JPL told me they hope to someday send a probe to land on Europa and find out. For now, Europa Clipper, which launched in 2024, is on its way and is expected to arrive there in 2030. NASA says the spacecraft will do 49 close flybys to determine whether the moon has habitable conditions.

After our time in the courtyard, Blackwood led USS Angeles members, Gee, DeKlerk and Gee and DeKlerk’s two young children to an exhibit featuring a duplicate of the Perseverance rover. About the size of an SUV, “Percy” has been on Mars since landing on Feb. 18, 2021 on the Jerzero Crater.

Then Blackwood took us to Mission Control, where McClure, the spaceflight operations manager, noted JPL’s robotic Surveyor spacecraft landed five times on the moon before Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface. McClure also pointed out that despite no mention of JPL in national media, 95% of the data from the recent Artemis II mission orbiting the moon went to JPL for processing. 

He also noted the importance of a jar of peanuts to JPL’s success.

JPL didn’t successfully land craft on the moon until the flight director at the time decided to relieve some of the tension at Mission Control by bringing peanuts. That proved to be lucky, with Surveyor 1 landing in 1966.

McClure told us he brings peanuts for each launch. They’re in a jar with the JPL logo, and McClure likes to photograph celebrities visiting JPL with that jar. True to his word, we saw McClure take Gee and DeKlerk into a room next to Mission Control and photograph them with the jar of peanuts in front of an American flag. Red, white and true.

Later during the tour, Blackwood led us to the Rover Operations Center, where we learned more about the Martian rovers from Doug Ellison. He’s the integrated planning and execution team chief for the Curiosity rover. Ellison led us into a room where we met Changrak Choi, Curiosity’s arm and mobility lead rover planner. Choi showed us how engineers at JPL operate the Curiosity rover, which carefully brushes dust off the Martian surface before taking photos. 

Choi and Ellison answered our questions as Choi explained how JPL transmits several days of instructions at one time to Curiosity. Lisa asked if that was essentially the rover’s “honey-do list,” and Choi confirmed that with a smile.

The transmission takes anywhere from five to 20 minutes depending on the distance between Earth and Mars, Choi said.

It’s a different process for sending the gigabytes of data back to Earth, Ellison said. He explained Curiosity sends its images and data to the spacecraft orbiting Mars, and they typically send the data to JPL within 15 minutes to a half-hour.

We learned a lot from Ellison and Choi. Blackwood told me later in an email, “They’re epic heroes of science.”

We enjoyed our afternoon at JPL and with Blackwood. I met her when she moderated a JPL panel that I sat on last November at Loscon in Los Angeles. 

Other USS Angeles members will meet Blackwood when she talks about JPL as our special guest speaker at a future Angeles party. More details will go to our members. To become one, click here on join us.

More photos from our day at JPL will appear in the June edition of Angels Flight, the newsletter that goes out to USS Angeles members.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory Space Flight Operations Manager Jim McClure talks to USS Angeles members inside Mission Control. (Photos by Dave Mason / USS Angeles / Angels Flight)

Krys Blackwood of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory talks about the Martian rover Perseverance.

From left, “The Expanse” actress Cara Gee, USS Angeles member Edward Millner, Krys Blackwood of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and USS Angeles members Jeremy Kranz, Dave Mason, Lisa Sobien and Kat Campbell gather at JPL. Standing in front is Gee’s child. Ed is holding his prize from winning the “non-JPLer” category of the Geek Fest’s costume contest.

Ed Millner of the USS Angeles wins the “non-JPLers” category of the costume contest at Geek Fest at Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Ed came as the manager of the Plexicorp factory in “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.”

As Spaceflight Operations Manager Jim McClure talks to the USS Angeles, member Kat Campbell listens and looks at the big screen at Mission Control. On the screen at the right is a list of JPL’s missions, ranging from the Martian rovers to Europa Clipper.

Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry and Lisa Sobien get together for a photo at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The Center of the Universe lies in the middle of the floor in Mission Control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.