Kids in Space

Ava's life is more than just sports, Girl Scouts, and junk food.  She loves science - whether it's animals and plant life or earth and space science.  She even wrote a paper this year about the earth's crust.  This past weekend, Ava got a chance to visit the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the home of NASA's Deep Space Network and robotic spacecraft.

One of the highlights was Mission Control (or the Center of the Universe) where scientists and engineers communicate with spacecraft throughout our solar system.  On July 4, Mission Control will be buzzing as everyone waits in anticipation of Juno's arrival at Jupiter after a five year journey.

JPL is known for its work on the Mars Exploration Rovers and the Curiosity rover.  Ava saw mockups both large and small, and even had a rover crawl over her.

Throughout the day we learned about deep space, the search for exoplanets, dark matter, and had the chance to take part in interactive experiments and play with some of the exhibits. 

For anyone in Southern California with an interest in science and space, Ava highly recommends the JPL open house.