Jet Propulsion Laboratory

In the mountains above Pasadena, California, is the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), NASA's lead center for the robotic exploration of the solar system. Knowledge gained in such fabled missions as Voyager, Galileo, and the Mars Pathfinder has led to an exciting future in space. JPL director Dr. Edward Stone has projected this future as a time to send probes into deep space for detailed exploration and, in some cases, to return samples to Earth. At the dawn of the 21^st century, innovative scientists and engineers at JPL are creating the missions that will bring our space neighborhood closer.

In addition, JPL manages the worldwide Deep Space Network, which communicates with spacecraft and conducts scientific investigations from its complexes in California's Mojave Desert near Goldstone; near Madrid, Spain; and near Canberra, Australia. JPL is NASA's Center of Excellence in deep space systems. Managed by the California Institute of Technology for NASA, JPL is also a leader in the space agency's Space Science Enterprise.

Almost 30 years ago, the Mariner 9 spacecraft found evidence that water flowed across the surface in Mar's ancient past. For decades, researchers have debated whether liquid water might have existed on the planet's surface. In what could turn out to be a landmark discovery in the history of Mars, imaging scientists using data from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft have recently observed features that suggest there may be current sources of liquid water at or near the surface of the red planet.

This exciting discovery moves the debate to present-day Mars. The new pictures suggest that some of the water that flowed across Mar's surface millions of years ago went underground, and is quite possibly still there. NASA will continue to investigate using the Mars Global Surveyor and in 2001 will launch a scientific orbiter with a high spatial resolution middle-infrared imaging system that will examine the seepage sites in search of evidence of water-related minerals.

At the beginning of the year, the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, with its science instruments, was launched into space aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. With its radar sweeping most of the land surfaces of the Earth, SRTM acquired enough data during 10 days of operation to obtain the most complete near-global high-resolution database of our planet's topography.

Tiny bolometers, with a design inspired by spider webs, can be used to detect cosmic radiation which can lead to a better understanding of the history of the universe.

In other developments, a tiny sensor has been created that borrows its design from nature's spider webs. The sensors, known as bolometers, can plot a map of cosmic background radiation. JPL bolometers, one hundred times finer than a human hair, allow technologists to capture temperature variations of only 100-millionths of a degree (0.0001) Celsius in just a few seconds of observation. The bolometers are sensitive enough to detect the heat given off by a coffee maker all the way from the Moon. The measurement of temperature variations provides a snapshot of the universe when radiation formed about 300,000 years after the Big Bang. Scientists theorize that in the first moments after the Big Bang, the universe went through a period of extreme exponential inflation that could mean the universe was flat. Further study in this exciting field is planned.

JPL scientists have gone back to the garden, "planting" wireless webs of small sensors in gardens here on Earth in preparation for missions to help monitor biological activity on planets. Like satellites and telescopes remotely "measuring" planets across the vast reaches of space, the webs allow large areas to be monitored. Unlike remote operations, sensor webs are placed inside the environment, thus making them capable of on-site detection not possible from afar. For example, satellite measurements cannot penetrate deep below the ocean surface or detect extremely small quantities of gases coming off a planetary surface. The sensor webs could combine the spatial coverage of a satellite with the precision of an on-site instrument. Sensor webs like those being tested will help make possible a key NASA goal to establish a virtual presence for exploration throughout the solar system.

Small sensors such as the one shown here are being used to prepare for missions to monitor biological activity on other planets.

Breakthroughs in ultralight, inflatable materials are helping to lead development of technologies that will show the way to researchers at JPL in their quest to explore the farthest reaches of the universe. Very light, very powerful telescopes will someday peer far into deep space, looking for Earth-like planets around stars much like our own Sun. Solar-, laser-, and microwave-powered sails weighing less than a paperback book will propel spacecraft through the stars. Robotic rovers with inflatable wheels will explore planets and asteroids and tell us their secrets.

Here on Earth, these same low-cost materials offer potential uses such as portable clean rooms that can be used by one person, perhaps to develop pure drugs; small ultralight devices that can make today's cellular phones seem like rocks; flexible devices for dispensing drugs such as insulin; and lightweight, easily launched weather and communication satellites--all for a future that requires initiative, innovation, and creativity.