JET PROPULSION LABORATORY

[Music] [Laughter] [Music] this is JPL the Jet Propulsion Laboratory a national research center for NASA we are exploring the solar system with unmanned spacecraft from the Sun to the outer reaches of deep space billions of miles from Earth over 40 years ago students at the California Institute of Technology began experimenting with crude liquid rockets which led to the establishment of this laboratory today working with Caltech we are performing hundreds of scientific and engineering tasks in space exploration basic research through the development of new energy sources [Applause] our first venture into space began when JPL built Explorer one the Western world's first satellite we sent Ranger spacecraft to impact on the moon we touch down softly on the lunar surface hit surveyors [Applause] [Music] [Music] interplanetary exploration began with the Mariners series of spacecraft Mariners have measured the blazing heat of Venus photographed the motions of the clouds measured the solar wind close to the Sun discovered Mercury's magnetic field photographed its ancient craters and mapped the entire surface of Mars discovering its volcanic mountains channels and deep canyons [Music] with NASA's Langley Research Center we shared the Viking mission to Mars and took detailed high-resolution pictures of the planet [Music] each Viking dispatched the lender to the surface and the Landers returned the first close-up photographs of the rock covered surface of the Martian flame [Applause] [Music] our spacecraft our intricate remote-controlled machines that are evolving into robots designed to think for themselves this is the Voyager spacecraft [Music] two identical voyagers are now in deep space they photographed the swirling colors of Jupiter's atmosphere and on Io one of Jupiter's 13 moons they discovered active volcanoes [Music] at Saturn they saw the great classic rings which appeared to be composed of thousands of smaller rings but careful analysis revealed the major rings were continuous sheets of particles and they explored the planet strange icy moons Voyager 2 may reach Uranus with the invisible leash of radio our spacecraft are linked to the antennas of our deep space network which capture the faint electromagnetic whispers sent across hundreds of millions of miles of space a link from spacecraft to tracking station is continued with a link to computers and control rooms at JPL JPL is a magnet that draws the technical skills of men and women from a broad spectrum of engineering and scientific disciplines nearly 4,000 people work at JPL some in spaceflight some in research others in telecommunications but a new group has formed at the laboratory in recent years and its task is to adapt the skills and automation of space exploration to everyday use and often we see a hint of our future reflected in their work a future in which a driverless vehicle moves in the flow of traffic it is guided electronically by wires in the pavement and consents other vehicles in its and react to their presence a future in which cars run not on gas but on electricity this sleek model under test at JPL moves in eerie silence past cars it could replace a moocher freeway with scale models helps us examine the problem automobile exhaust dispersion in covered roadways [Applause] we have investigated a new method of using coal by converting it to a liquid that can be pumped through pipelines and sprayed continuously into steam boilers in the digital language of the computer whai insights for the physician the computer can precisely measure the thickening of an artery near the heart [Applause] our map critical changes in muscle fibers we have long been able to transmit sight and sound electronically across great distances now with teller manipulation the hand of man reaches electronically across those distances [Music] we have developed a system that converts the motions of a man's arm and hand into electronic signals these in turn are translated by a remote manipulator system that imitates the motions with great precision manipulators such as these can operate where man cannot these extensions of man cannot duplicate his sense of touch and detect when they are close to an object a glimpse of tomorrow is revealed in a robot that can see recognize and make decisions acting on one simple command the Machine coordinates electronic eyes and middle hand to efficiently perform its selected tasks the era of the robot is fast approaching a robot can easily work on the ocean floors where man is limited but place man and other hazardous occupations or take over tedious repetitive tasks that man is unsuited for [Music] in the future electricity direct from the Sun may be available as an energy source the solar cell a thin flat wafer made of silicon can convert sunlight directly into electricity as a lead Center for the Department of Energy we are reducing the cost of the solar cell to make it competitive with other energy sources someday the solar cell may provide power for our homes farms and factories but the sun's power can also be collected with mirrors and focus to heat of fluid and drive an engine or produce electricity and these same highly refined mirrors are used by astronomers to focus the energy emitted by stars and gas clouds in deep space to study the nature of the universe [Music] we are exploring the use of light in the form of lasers for application and remote sensing a laser can detect the molecule of gas and yield precision data on the chemistry of smaug or measure the distance from a spacecraft to an asteroid [Music] galaxies of stars billions of light years from Earth are captured in a computer and glowing star light is transformed into new shapes and colors to aid in analysis similar techniques are being used to examine pictures of our own world supplied by the land satellite the bizarre coloring can reveal riches in the earth that are hidden from our eyes we have scanned the oceans of the world with cease at the first degree of satellites to explore the waters that cover 75% of the globe with the radar techniques designed to probe an alien planet we have looked at our vast oceans where the Earth's weather is born and have given oceanographers a fresh look at their domain when the second shuttle was launched into orbit JPL experiments scanned the Earth's surface in the infrared and with a new imaging radar looked down upon the earth to map geological features that are clues to hidden resources the radar swept four miles of the Earth's surface each second 10,000 miles in only 45 minutes recording the terrain below through storms or darkness to monitor the shuttles boom JPL is designing a voice control system for the operator but this allows him to command a battery of television cameras to follow the movements of the boom without removing his hands from the controls in the future the spacecraft Galileo will cross the half billion miles of space to Jupiter it will orbit the planet and send a probe hurtling into its atmosphere the probe designed by NASA's Ames Research Center will slash through clouds of ammonia crystals plunged through a layer of water ice and continued deep into the thick gases of the atmosphere we're supporting mission to the Sun by the European Space Agency that will look down on the sun's poles which have never been seen to help understand the complex physics of our star in a joint effort with the Netherlands in the United Kingdom satellite with a telescope sensitive to the infrared radiation which does not penetrate the Earth's atmosphere the familiar night sky is seen by our eyes will glow in a strange new pattern of stars galaxies and clouds of dust [Music] in the future mission we are planning to skim the tops of the clouds of Venus and with powerful radar Matt the unseen surface of the planet we have researched a new propulsion system the ion drive which can slowly build spacecraft velocity to hundreds of thousands of miles per hour we can chase and catch a comet and examine the material unchanged since the birth of our solar system JPL is designing a sensitive electronic camera for the Space Telescope that will be launched by the Space Shuttle in 1985 the telescope will look deeply into our Milky Way galaxy and explore the vastness of space beyond our galaxy to the edge of the visible universe but we can also explore the universe without leaving the surface of Earth the antennas of the Deep Space Network can be used to listen for a message from outer space for evidence of other civilizations among the billions of stars in our Milky Way galaxy in the future lies a spacecraft that we can conceive but his yet not design a machine that can safely plunge into the void of interstellar space and make possible the ultimate journey to explore the stars that shine in our night sky [Music] [Music]