efaardvark

We're setting up for the annual open house at work.  This weekend!  Saw a Mars Sample Return vehicle mockup already unpacked as I was leaving & by the end of the week I'm sure they'll have models of all the rovers and a number of spacecraft set up as well.  All part of the (somewhat) controlled chaos that is public outreach.

Hope it isn't super hot this weekend.  A few years back before the covid shutdown we had a weekend with over 40,000 visitors!  Parking was a nightmare and the temperatures got up over 100F, provoking real health concerns since the JPL campus simply isn't set up to accommodate so many people.  (Normal employee count is more like 6000.  Even less now that a lot of them are still doing the work-from-home thing post-covid.)  We had to start requiring tickets to limit the visitor count for safety reasons.  Tickets are free but limited in number and tied to specific times to keep the visitor count at any one time from getting out of hand.