Saturday Nathaniel and I headed up the Arroyo to the open house at NASA's Jet Propulsion Labs (JPL). Its an annual event and I expected to walk through one building of JPL scientists with posters demonstrating a few rovers. It was actually a huge event with more than 20 buildings on the college-sized campus hosting displays. We received an id-badge style lanyard in which we put the activity cards we collected at different stations throughout the displays.
We didn't wait in any of the long lines (for the robo-dome that was demonstrating hovercraft rovers) but we saw some cool stuff. Here's Nathaniel in front of a giant rover prototype that easily rolls over this little boulder and turns on a dime.
Don't we look like we're having fun?
Chris has been working on some industry report for sustainable energy companies. He had asked how electricity is used to turn water into hydrogen fuel. They had a display sitting on a table doing just that. This is a little solar panel which makes electricity that is channeled through the column of water (electrolyzer chamber) in the background. We could see bubbles rising in the water which was hydrogen and oxygen gas. I don't know how they separate the hydrogen and oxygen, but the hydrogen can be stored for use later in a fuel cell to re-create electricity.
Here's the diagram for those of you who want to build your own "storable" solar energy system.
And I couldn't resist taking a photo of the working lego-model of the solar system. The battery operated drill on the right is the motor running the gears.
We had a great day with all the cool stuff to see and the soft pretzels and kettle corn. A fun mother-son outing!
We actually went hiking in the upper Arroyo with the whole family before Davis left. But Nathaniel was the only one who looked like he was having fun.
Nathaniel loved the butterfly pavilion at the L.A. County Natural History Museum. (Can you see the butterfly on his back?)
You can't tell what this exhibit was at the California Science Center - but I think it's easy to see Nathaniel is having fun!
There was a "Sustainable Globe" exhibit in Exposition Park (that's where the 1984 Olympics were held.) It was a nice day so we looked at about 30 globes.
Nathaniel and sock monkey slept most of the week in a tent in the living room.
