Jet april Propulsion 2014 Laboratory volume 44
number 4 THE DAWN OF TIME JPL-Caltech technology views the first moments of the universe
Technology developed at JPL and Caltech has brought Council postdoc Chao-Lin Kuo, who now teaches at humanity closer to understanding how the universe was Stanford. created 13.8 billion years ago. Lange and Bock had big success with a balloon When astronomers announced March 17 that they had experiment named BOOMERANG 15 years ago, which discovered ripples in space from the very beginning of used instruments called bolometers that measure time, they used a telescope at the South Pole equipped electromagnetic radiation by turning it into heat and with detectors conceived and developed in a close col- measuring the temperature. They later developed laboration between JPL and campus. an experiment called BICEP1 at the South Pole, us- The signal they detected—faint spiral patterns in ing detectors similar to those that Lange and Bock the polarization of microwave radiation left over from developed for the European Space Agency’s Planck the Big Bang—could solve one of cosmology’s oldest mission. mysteries. What powered “inflation,” a period just mo- BICEP2 upgraded the existing BICEP1 cooling and ments after the Big Bang when a repulsive force caused optical systems with new technology to gain the sen- space to rapidly expand? Did that inflation originate sitivity that turned out to be crucial for their discov- from a time when three of the four fundamental forces ery. The BICEP2 detectors are based on a radically of nature—electromagnetism, and the strong and weak new approach, inspired by JPL Chief Technologist nuclear forces—were originally unified, as scientists Jonas Zmuidzinas, that collects and filters light, and believe they must have been? analyzes its polarization, with a fully lithographed Many in the science community view the announce- antenna. The light is then dissipated into heat and ment as one of the most important science discoveries measured with a superconducting thermometer. Ac- of the past two decades. cording to Bock, this was a bigger jump than “the The team believes their finding is connected to a familiar analogy of replacing conventional film with long-sought union in physics—Einstein’s theory of CCDs in photography. Instead it is more like building gravitation, which usually applies to large objects over a whole camera from a circuit board.” long distances, and quantum mechanics, which usually Anthony Turner of JPL’s Microdevices Laboratory governs the realm of the very small. In the earliest mo- said the detector uses a micromachined island of ments of the universe, they say, tiny quantum-gravita- free-standing material that is key to detecting the tional noise was blown up to enormous sizes during the minute temperature rise from absorbed light. period of inflation. This has left a telltale background of With the new detector technology, “BICEP2 gets gravitational waves that stretch and squeeze space— to the same sensitivity as BICEP1 in a tenth of the producing a distinctive swirly polarization pattern in the time,” Bock told Caltech News in an interview. “It cosmic microwave background detected by the Antarctic would have taken BICEP1 30 years to get to where telescope. we are with the BICEP2 results that just came out. I Jamie Bock, who serves a joint appointment as a JPL really like working at the South Pole, but 30 years? researcher and Caltech physics professor, is one of four That’s a bit much.” principal investigators for the Antarctic telescope exper- Follow-up experiments are underway, including iment, called BICEP2. He led the team that developed a new stage of the program called BICEP3 that is the detector technology at JPL and Caltech. scheduled to deploy to the South Pole this October. The late Caltech physics professor Andrew Lange, a BICEP2 is funded by the National Science Founda- From top, the lab housing the BICEP2 telescope three-fourths of a mile from the pioneer in the field, was a mentor to Bock and many tion, which also runs the South Pole station where South Pole; the telescope’s focal plane, developed and produced at JPL; detectors others, including two of the other BICEP2 principal BICEP2 and the other telescopes used in this work that work by converting light into heat; JPL’s focal plane being examined at the investigators—former Caltech postdoc John Kovac, now are located. Microdevices Laboratory. on the faculty at Harvard, and JPL National Research 2 Elachi, Bolden celebrate network’s 50 years
niverse NASA Administrator Charles Bolden “The Canberra station carried the prime
U joined JPL Director Charles Elachi and signals confirming the landing of the local dignitaries March 19 to celebrate Curiosity rover on Mars in August 2012,” 50 years of the JPL-managed Deep said Elachi. “In 2015 it will have another Space Network and Australia’s part in it. starring role, receiving the first images of The event marked the beginning of the Pluto from the New Horizons spacecraft.” 50th year of the Australian station, the “To bring back those images from Pluto, Canberra Deep Space Communication NASA is investing in this station’s future, Complex, which is managed by the Com- building two more antennas at a cost monwealth Science & Industry Research of $110 million,” added Commonwealth Organization and operates on behalf of Science & Industry Research Organization NASA. chief executive Megan Clark. “We look forward to our ongoing col- There are currently three antennas in laboration as we reach higher in air operation in Canberra: two of 34 meters and space, sending humans deeper into in diameter and one 70 meters in diam- the solar system, including a mission to eter. Other Deep Space Network stations retrieve and visit an asteroid and a hu- are at Goldstone, Calif. and Madrid,
In Canberra, Australia, JPL Director Charles Elachi, left, joins Commonwealth Science & Industry Research Organization CEO Megan Clark man mission to Mars in the 2030s, and Spain. and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in celebration of the Deep Space Network’s 50th anniversary. peering beyond it,” Bolden said.
The team in charge of JPL’s Dawn system. In 50 years of space exploration, mission, history’s first detailed explora- no other spacecraft has orbited a distant Dawn team receives Smithsonian honor tion of a celestial body inside the main solar system body, then left to travel to— asteroid belt, received the Smithsonian and eventually orbit—another extrater- National Air and Space Museum’s high- restrial body. est group honor at a dinner in Wash- Several NASA planetary mission teams ington on March 26. Dawn received the have won the award in previous years, 2014 Trophy for Current Achievement, including last year, when JPL’s Curiosity which honors outstanding achievements rover picked up the trophy. The year be- in the fields of aerospace science and fore that, the Cassini mission to Saturn, technology. also managed by JPL, took the honor. Having explored the giant asteroid For a full listing of previous awardees, Vesta and on its way to the dwarf planet along with a video about Dawn’s award, Ceres, the Dawn spacecraft is designed to conduct an in-depth and up-close visit http://airandspace.si.edu/events/ trophy. study of these two celestial bodies From left: Dawn flight team members Grant Faris, Carol Polanskey, Chris Russell, Steve Joy, Greg Whiffen, Marc Rayman, Robert Mase, formed early in the history of the solar Tim Weise, Brett Smith, Nick Mastrodemos, Paul Fieseler, Carol Raymond and Don Han.
New Earth-orbiting center dedicated A new facility to provide cost-efficient Moisture Active Passive and RapidScat/In- flight operations functions for smaller ternational Space Station missions, with satellite missions and International near-term plans for an Orbiting Carbon Space Station payloads was officially Observatory 2 backup flight operations dedicated March 31. area and CubeSat command/control cen- The Earth Orbiting Missions Opera- ter. Real-time transfer of data from air- tions Center, located on the first floor borne instrument flights is also planned, of Building 264, will serve as an institu- which will greatly increase operational tional resource for Earth science, astro- efficiencies given their often-dynamic physics, and select deep-space missions flight schedules. between lower Earth and Lagrangian For additional information on the cen- point orbits. The facility will also enable ter’s capabilities and support options, project teams to integrate low-cost flight please contact Mark Fujishin in the Earth support options into their future baseline Science Missions Office or Ben Jai in the proposals. Integrated Earth Mission System Office. Activities currently being conducted Dedicating the Earth Orbiting Missions Operations Center are, from left, Mark Fujishin, Earth Science Missions Office manager; Diane in the center include preparations for Evans, Director for Earth Science and Technology; JPL Director Charles Elachi; Earth Science and Technology Associate Director Jim Graf and Ben Jai, Integrated Earth Mission System Office manager. launch and flight operations for the Soil JPL’s communications products go to a more functional design Less is more By Mark Whalen
JPL SPACE Greenhouse-gas emissions & geostationary measurements Peter Rayner, Earth science professor at the University of Melbourne, will speak Thursday, March 20, at 11 am at von Karman
More Top Stories
JPL SPACE SPACE Greenhouse-gas emissions & geostationary measurements Peter Rayner, Earth science professor at the University of Melbourne, will speak Thursday, March 20, at 11 am at von Karman JPL SPACE
Greenhouse-gas emis- More Top Stories sions & geostationary measurements
Peter Rayner, Earth science professor at the University of Melbourne, will speak Thursday, March 20, at 11 am at von Karman
More and more, Internet users are ditching the desktop material such as stationery and letterhead. Publications where design meets functionality. for the mobile device. It’s a trend JPL is working to keep up distributed outside of JPL, such as posters, are covered “This is going to result in a huge improvement on with in its efforts to inform employees—and the public— in the guide as well. how to find information to do your work internally,” about the Lab’s ongoing achievements. “Our goal is to provide templates for visual design, so said Baggett, who added that it’s JPL’s goal to also The plan entails improved design of JPL’s communications that JPLers can concentrate on content and get their match the improved design and functionality for its products. But looks aren’t everything. New, sleek layouts for jobs done more easily,” said Stolze. public websites. many of the organization’s websites—both internal and ex- The overriding goals are to emphasize JPL and its One example, launched in concert with Women’s ternal—are accompanied by increased functionality, provid- strong relationship to NASA and Caltech while providing History Month in March, is the Women at JPL website ing a more efficient way to find information easily. more efficiency and improved aesthetics. (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/women/), which features pro- “Making things more efficient means making things sim- The newest example in the initiative is the March 31 files and success stories of the Lab’s highest achievers pler, with greater clarity,” noted Communications and Edu- launch of a redesigned JPL Space, the internal news and leaders. Another recent website launch, http:// cation Director Blaine Baggett. “In the words of Thoreau: and information portal for employees. “It’s clean, it’s deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov, profiles this year’s 50th anni- Simplify, simplify.” simple, it’s easy to find the information,” said Baggett. versary of the Deep Space Network. A JPL style guide is being developed to help employees The JPL Space redesign is a joint effort of the Office of The “Eyes on the Solar System,” “Eyes on Exoplan- produce a consistent look on websites and printed material, Communications and Education and the Office of the ets” and “Eyes on Earth” sites are also undergoing both internal and external, said Carolyn Stolze, recently CIO. facelifts that will improve search functionality. hired as creative designer in the Office of Communications The site follows the recent rollout of an updated JPL Baggett said JPL’s public communications should and Education. The guide will show required font styles and Rules, the Lab’s official document repository site. A strive for excellence at a level rivaling the Lab’s engi- sizes as well as appropriate usage of the JPL logo. leaner, cleaner look on the home page (http://rules.jpl. neering and science feats. “Fundamentally the impart- The style guide will also include templates to help JPLers nasa.gov) accompanies links to provide both users and ing of that information includes design—not just how produce PowerPoint documents as well as other printed document owners easier access to documents. This is something looks, but how it works.” 4 Engineers’ Council honors JPLers Merit Award Science Laboratory’s entry, descent and More than a dozen JPLers received Steven Lee: For management and landing systems. ews honors of achievement at a recent technical contributions to the delivery Previously, he led development of N gathering of the Engineers’ Council, a of the Mars Science Laboratory guid- flight hardware for Mars Pathfinder and Nacer niverse nonprofit group that advocates for the ance, navigation and control subsys- the Mars Exploration Rovers.
U Chahat advancement of science and engineering. tems. Briefs At the group’s awards banquet in Robert Manning: In honor of service Bar-Cohen pens eighth book Universal City, the Voyager team received as Mars Science Laboratory chief engi- Yoseph Bar-Cohen, supervisor of the the Distinguished Engineering Project neer and for technical leadership in the Advanced Technologies Group and a se- Achievement Award “for significant en- design, development and delivery of the nior research scientist, is the editor and gineering achievement, careful steward- fault-protection system. co-author of “High Temperature Materi- ship and dedication, resulting in Voyager Michael Sierchio: For exceptional als and Mechanisms,” his eighth book. 1’s successful transition into interstellar achievement in the design, construction Topics include materials, processes, Prize, an honor that rewards outstand- space 35 years after launch.” and testing of the Mars Science Labora- adhesive bonding, energy harvesters, ing doctoral research work. Here are other JPLers who received tory avionics subsystem. characterization methods and electron- The winning thesis must have con- individual honors: Jeffrey Umland: For exceptional ics, as well as the nondestructive evalu- tributed to significant progress by Leonardo DaVinci Award achievement as Mars Science Labora- ation and health of high-temperature exploring options that are likely to Ed Stone: In honor of his many de- tory’s chief mechanical systems engi- materials and structures. The book lead to technological and conceptual cades of service and scientific explora- neer, resulting in the Curiosity rover’s considers the multidisciplinary nature breakthroughs, and by suggesting new tion as well as leadership of JPL. successful landing. of high-temperature materials and paradigms or new bridges between Distinguished Achievement Award mechanisms, and covers technology disciplines. Blaine Baggett: In recognition of Alumni honor for Umland related to space, aerospace, electron- Chahat’s Ph.D. thesis received six bringing engineering and scientific Jeffrey Umland, a JPL Fellow, has ics, energy and metallurgy. national and international awards, achievements and education to the pub- received an award of excellence from Bar-Cohen, a physicist, joined JPL including the Institute of Electrical and Yoseph Bar-Cohen lic’s awareness and engagement. his alma mater, the University at Buf- in 1991. That year, he established the Electronics Engineers’ Antennas and Distinguished Engineering Award falo in New York. Nondestructive Evaluation and Advance Propagation Society Doctoral Research Douglas Bernard: For outstanding The college bestowed the Clifford Actuators Lab (http://ndeaa.jpl.nasa. Award, as well as France’s best Ph.D. achievement leading to the design, C. Furnas Memorial Award to Umland gov), which has been responsible for electrical engineering thesis from that development and delivery of the Juno March 28. The annual honor goes to numerous innovative concepts and country’s electrical engineering associa- spacecraft. graduates of the university’s School of mechanisms for planetary exploration, tion. He is the youngest Ph.D. to have James Donaldson: For exceptional Engineering and Applied Sciences or medical, commercial and other applica- won these six awards. initiative and contributions as Mars College of Arts and Sciences who distin- tions. Prior joining to joining Group 337B, Science Laboratory’s avionics chief guish themselves in a field of science. Information about the 551-page book Chahat was a post-doctoral fellow engineer. Umland earned a Ph.D. from the college is available at http://www.crcpress.com/ under a French government defense Carl Guernsey: For excellence in in 1990. product/isbn/9781466566453. procurement agency fellowship with the space propulsion design and program Umland oversaw Curiosity’s mechani- Submillimeter-Wave Advanced Technol- management, culminating in the Mars cal engineering technical development, Thesis honors for Chahat ogy Group (389A). Science Laboratory propulsion system including its surface, sampling, thermal Nacer Chahat of the Spacecraft An- architecture. and propulsion systems. He was also in- tennas Group was recently awarded the Jeffrey Umland Outstanding Engineering Achievement strumental in the development of Mars Airbus Group Foundation’s Best Thesis
My 86-year-old dad recently passed away and I wanted to thank everyone assings P L etters on the Juno team who contributed to the beautiful floral arrangement for his James “Mike” Stewart, 73, a Mardy My family and I would like to thank services and to others on lab for your retired engineer and manager, died Wilkins our friends and colleagues at JPL for Jan. 2. kind words and thoughts. I’d also like the condolences and blessings we re- Stewart worked at JPL from 1978 to to thank JPL for the beautiful plant ceived following the passing of my dear 2000, contributing to such projects as that arrived at our home. It all meant a father. He loved JPL and would have Voyager, Galileo and Magellan. He man- great deal to me and my family. loved the beautiful plant we received in aged the Magellan Operations Monitor Rick Nybakken and Control Office, for which he earned his honor; my mother was very touched. the NASA Exceptional Service Medal. I’d like to give a special thank you to I am very touched and grateful for Section 398 for their wonderful kind- READ AND SUBMIT CLASSIFIED ADS He also served as the project’s mission Wilkins worked at JPL from 1980 to the beautiful “Lemon Lime Dracena” AT JPL’s online news source director and deputy project manager. 2005. In 1993 she was honored by ness and support; it is greatly appreci- plant that arrived at my home last http://jplspace He was instrumental in the radar map- NASA’s Space Flight Awareness Pro- ated. Friday from JPL. My dearest mom from ping of Venus and was a primary leader gram, which included a visit to Ken- Karen Boggs heaven, and my family, sincerely thank E-mail us at of the aerobraking effort at the planet, nedy Space Center for a space shuttle everyone for their condolences, kind [email protected] a first for any mission. He moved to the launch. We would like to thank our wonderful words and prayers. Special thanks to She is survived by her husband, Bob, JPL family for all their prayers, kind Nancy Kapell, who had met my mom daughter Lynette, sister Jean, and thoughts and support that they gave and offered me her beautiful thoughts grandchildren Alyssa and Trent. Memo- us during my mother’s illness and her and kind expressions of sympathy. Most rial services were held Feb. 18 at Crip- subsequent passing away last month. sincerely, pen’s Mortuary in La Crescenta. All the messages of condolences in Mike Olivia Tyler Stewart the form of cards, telephone calls and Editor Retiree Fred Tomey, 79, died e-mails brought us a lot of comfort and Mark Whalen Feb. 20. strength to bear the loss. Thank you Tomey worked at JPL from 1961 to the ERC for the beautiful plant, and to 2006. He supervised engineering etirees Design also to the members of the Interplane- R groups that developed ground sup- tary Network for the plant for my office Audrey Steffan port equipment to simulate spacecraft The following employees retired in and also for their generous donation to Barbara Insua systems and testing and development of March: M Kathy O’Hara, 44 years, Deep Space Network in 1994, working my mother’s favorite charity. software in support of planetary mis- Production with the Goldstone-Apple Valley Radio Section 2672; Sheryl Bergstrom, 41 sions from the Ranger program in the Al and Shehenaz Bhanji David Hinkle Telescope System Development Team years, Section 1661; Wayne Zimmer- 1960s through Cassini and the extended and the Lunar Prospector Team. man, 37 years, Section 3800; Aaron Voyager mission. We would like to thank the JPL fam- Stewart is survived by his daughter Fishman, 35 years, Section 352H; Photography He is survived by his wife, Marian, ily for the cards, condolences, support Nancy Brewington and husband James, , 33 years, Section JPL Photo Lab daughter Jennifer Austen, son Greg and donations after the passing of Fred Iain McDermid sister Kathy Odorizzi and husband Don, Tomey, five grandchildren and one Tomey. Your support through this dif- 3287; Duc Vu, 32 years, Section 5140; sister Alice Schill and husband Jerry, great-granddaughter. Services were ficult time has been a comfort to our Paul Pangburn, 27 years, Section Universe is published by the Office four nephews and five nieces. Services held March 8 at Our Lady of Mt. Leba- family. Fred loved JPL and all of you. 352H; Roger Diehl, 24 years, Section were held Jan. 18 in Mt Vernon, Ill. of Communications and Education non-St. Peter Cathedral. In lieu of flow- Your sympathies are greatly appreci- 3101; Keith Anderson, 13 years, of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mardith “Mardy” Wilkins, 73, a ers, donations may be made in Tomey’s ated. Section 393F. retired secretary, died Feb. 6. 4800 Oak Grove Drive, name to www.carouselranch.org. The Tomey family Pasadena, CA 91109.