JPL at 90: From Rocket Tests in Pasadena to Helicopters Over Mars
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's story starts with a group of Caltech graduate students and enthusiasts who began conducting rocket-propulsion tests in Pasadena's Arroyo Seco on Oct. 31, 1936 — work that marked the inception of the lab. Ninety years later, the lab is managed by Caltech for NASA, and as NASA tells it, this anniversary is not only a celebration of past historic firsts but a step toward the next ones.
Aiming for a 2028 launch, the JPL-managed SkyFall mission will deploy three helicopters mid-descent over Mars to map hidden ice deposits and analyze weather patterns.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
The helicopters get the poster, but the actual product is a water-ice map. Flying three of them mid-descent is the trick; finding where the ice hides is the point.
The 1936 group had no idea their rocket tests were the start of JPL — which is a decent reason to be humble about any confident list of what the lab will be known for in 2116.