The recent news about Earth-like exoplanets and Moon-orbiting tourists has us itching to explore anywhere in the universe but here. While the annual open house at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is still certainly earthbound, it's the closest you can come to vehicles bound for Mars and the very edges of our solar system.
JPL's open house, now known as "A Ticket to Explore JPL," will once again take over the NASA and Caltech campus on May 20 and 21. The popular event will once again require a free, non-transferable timed ticket, with up to five per family. Tickets will be available beginning Saturday, March 11, at 9am, and based on last year's near-instant sellout, we recommend grabbing them right away.
Photograph: Michael Juliano
The robotic research center switched to a ticketed system last year after increasingly large numbers of visitors had turned its old walk-up open house event into a bit of an overcrowded mess. Don't get us wrong, it's great that so many people were excited about the cosmos, but we'd characterized the crowd levels as Disneyland-length lines in SGV-strength heat. But the reconfigured admission system—which decreased its daily capacity from 20,000 to 15,000—made last year's event a breeze. Staggered arrival times meant no traffic backups at the entrance gates and, though some line lengths were still daunting, the overall crowd levels were much more manageable.
If you manage to snag a ticket, we suggest making sure to visit the clean room, mission control and the machine shop—and to dress with sun protection in mind. Not to worry if you miss out: JPL offers weekday tours throughout the year.
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