In The Belly of The Beast

Would they really welcome me if they new my true secret superhero identity?


This weekend my buddy Christian Meoli from Cabaret Voltaire and I went up to the JPL open house in Pasadena. We thought maybe there'd be some interesting little references to various aspects of Dark Mission (maybe a pic of an aritfact on prominent display, the odd Egyptian reference), but alas, we were disappointed. The displays were pretty generic and pure vanilla, but it was still interesting to walk around and see some of the places we'd like to get access to. So near and yet so far...

What is really impressive is the degree of sophistication of the various labs and facilities. JPL is truly a cutting edge research laboratory, boasting facilities that far exceed anything I've seen in over 25 years in aerospace. I'm sure we have our share of cool labs and equipment, but I was very impressed with what I saw. Here's a little photo blog of the day.


Pulling up to the gate: I'm a little apprehensive. What if they make me take a loyalty oath or something to get in?

There were only a few Orion references in the displays that I saw.


This is not a real person. I suppose you could say that about some of the posters on this blog...

There were lots of "actual size" models and mock-ups and wall hangings of various JPL spacecraft.

Christian does a little guerrilla marketing for the "UFO's in Hollywood" panel coming up in two weeks. Wish I'd thought to bring some Dark Mission cover cards to leave lying around!

You know when I saw this sign, this was the place I really wanted to see the inside of...

One of the uber sophisticated labs in the basement of one of the buildings. Wish I had the Reynolds Wrap concession for this place...

The main Mission Control room at JPL. The heart of darkness...

Well, that's basically it. I highly recommend that you go if you ever get the chance. Whitewashed and vanilla all the way, but it's totally cool to see some of this stuff up close.