For two days this weekend, thousands of people from around the country will get to go behind the scenes at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., NASA's lead center for robotic space exploration.
Those who can't attend this year's open house on Saturday and Sunday, May 19 and 20, can tune in and view a live webcast that will bring all the flavor of this year's theme, "JPL 2001: A Space Odyssey," right to their desktops.
The free-style webcast will feature a diverse lineup of scientists and engineers who work on various missions. The hosts are a husband-and-wife team, making it a real family event. The show will be jammed-packed with interesting characters, from cutting-edge researchers to kids who love to build their own robots. Complete with props, such as an inflatable antenna and a wearable computer communications system, the webcast will give a glimpse of the kind of work that goes on at JPL.
The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.