The personal and professional website of Douglas Van Bossuyt
Sometimes I see strange things around Pasadena. For instance tanks, art cars, oodles of deer wandering through lab, and funny license plates often greet me on a daily basis.
This was on I-210 eastbound near the Hill Street exit.
At JPL we have quite the deer infestation.
A doe and her fawn near some outside seating at JPL.
This was a strange art car on Arroyo going toward Highway 110. It was rather post-apocalyptic.
A license plate as seen at JPL.
Last weekend I took a trip with Zach and Sondy to Death Valley and the surrounding countryside. On the way there we stopped off at the Mojave Spaceport to check out the aircraft boneyard. Coming back from the valley of death we detoured out to Zzyzx and took the long way home along the Angeles Crest Highway.
Zach driving the Mercedes.
Sondy in the back seat.
Approaching Vasquez Rocks.
Look familiar? Kirk and Spock battled many an enemy under these rocks.
It’s a long way up from the parking lot.
A young Kirk?
Sondy on the summit waiting for her alternate time line Spock to arrive.
Sondy got tired of waiting and decided to become Spock instead.
Mojave Spaceport!
Some old planes parked at the entrance as an advertisement.
This MiG can be rented by the hour. For $2400, you too can fly shotgun in a fighter jet. Several are available for rental at the same time allowing for awesome dogfights. One person even proposed to his girlfriend while they were dogfighting against each other.
Some F-16’s sitting on the flight line. The air force is too busy with the various wars to do their own testing so they loaned some jets out to a private company that does testing of new configurations for them.
The MiG gets ready to take off.
Somehow we stumbled onto a van tour of the Mojave Spaceport. For five dollars each we got a 45 minute narrated jaunt through the aircraft and spaceships.
BAE Systems has a big facility for retrofitting old fighter jets into target drones for missile testing.
Some of the old jets parked outside being outfitted with drone equipment.
Over in the aircraft boneyard. This is where jets go to die.
That “boat” was used in the filming of WaterWorld.
For sale: one 747. BYOEngines.
The doors are left open to prevent mildew.
The wrecked tail section and other bits are from the TV show Lost.
The engine cowlings would make a nice planter box.
MythBusters used this plane to test the shoe bomb myth. Myth confirmed!
A series of tubes. The internet?
This airplane is up on blocks. Must have been in east LA.
The first commercial passenger jet to be able to fly non-stop across the Atlantic.
Some old fighters in storage.
The storage area for planes that will be flown again.
A Belgian cargo transport aircraft. There were several of these sitting out in the desert.
This is the famous Gimli Glider.
The Nemesis shop. The original Nemesis that set all of the records now sits in the Smithsonian.
A Russian-built bi-plane. It’s an An-2. It can carry 12 passengers and 2 crew.
An old French light fighter. Evidently it’s a real bear to fly.
Some old fighters waiting to be repaired and a Cessna.
Scaled Composites hangar. SpaceShipTwo or WhiteKnightTwo is inside. The plane sitting outside is one of the chase planes.
The F-16’s sitting outside.
The control tower and Voyager Restaurant.
The Rotary Rocket. It didn’t work very well.
Planes in the desert.
Long straight road across the desert.
Randsburg, CA.
Old mine shafts.
The road down to Johannesburg, CA.
Another long, straight road outside of Johannesburg.
We hit Mach 0.14.
A massive collection trailers in the desert. This is a big ATV/off-road area.
Zach was very happy to be driving his precision German touring auto.
The chemical plant in Trona, CA.
A radar site outside of Trona. Jets fly low-altitude passes through this valley on the way to the bombing ranges.
Looking out into the Panamint Valley.
Driving by the radar installation on the way to Ballarat.
The ghost town of Ballarat.
That is supposedly Charles Manson’s last truck.
I made it back!
And we didn’t even break down!
Driving up Wildrose Canyon Road.
The oasis where I had to turn around the last time I went to Death Valley.
Down toward Death Valley.
Our first view of the valley.
The Stovepipe Wells Sand Dunes.
All my oxen died, too.
Love that sand dune under-crust!
Devil’s Cornfield.
Another long road through the desert.
The 20 mule team wagons outside Furnace Creek Ranch.
The traction engine that replaced the mules.
Sunset in the valley.
Saving diesel in the desert.
Watching the stars while being lit up by a single candle behind the camera.
Zach’s tent is on the right. Sondy was in my tent on the left with her red LED.
Moonrise over the desert.
Zach next to his trusty steed.
The moon really lit things up!
Morning at the Mesquite Springs Campground.
Some Flor de Cana 4 year gold rum is the only way to start the morning.
The road to Ubehebe Crater.
Driving in Death Valley can be very fun!
Little Ubehebe Crater.
Sondy looking good on the crater rim.
Running down the crater felt a little like what Evan and I did in El Salvador.
A cute little lizard.
On the way to Scotty’s Castle.
Sondy followed the creek up to its source. A pipe coming out of the ground.
The desert at high speeds.
Salt Creek. We went here to look for Death Valley Pupfish.
None were found because the creek had retreated too far up the canyon.
Another 20 mule team wagon assembly at the Harmony Borax Works.
Where cottonball borax comes from.
Driving through Mustard Canyon.
This was Sondy’s default riding position.
Sondy discovered she could use my shirt as a dress.
Going up Artist’s Drive.
Back down toward the valley.
Way up on that hill there is a sign that marks where sea level is.
There it is!
The air is appreciably thicker when you’re this far below sea level. You can hear someone talking much farther away than normally would be the case.
At 45C our shirts automatically opened to keep us cool.
A roller coaster of a drive out of the valley.
Shoreline Butte where you can see evidence of the old lake that once filled the valley.
An old ore processing facility.
Looking up the road to the mountain where the ore used to come from.
Out by Tecopa.
Another radar array of some sort in the desert.
Yet another long, straight road.
At Zzyzx, CA.
The Boulevard of Dreams.
Our trusty vehicle.
We found some interesting vehicles on a flatbed at a truck stop.
A big cement plant on Route 66 outside Victorville.
Joshua trees in the desert.
Sunset on Highway 18. We drove on to Highway 2, the Angeles Crest Highway. Our fine German touring auto took us up and over the mountains, and back down to Pasadena. If only my Taurus was as efficient and reliable!
I finally remembered to bring my camera to work today to grab a couple of snaps. Up at the Mars Yard they had the Athlete vehicle out for testing. Down at the Space Flight Operations Facility there were a bunch of satellites being tracked and talked to. Elsewhere on lab, people were working on a plan to get the Spirit MSL rover unstuck from the sand. In the afternoon some friends from NASA Ames came down for a short tour. These are the photos and videos of a typical day at JPL.
The Mars Science Laboratory happened to be sitting out by the front entrance in the morning.
One of the alleyways between buildings. Note the gaseous liquid nitrogen torpedo tanks on the left. (thanks Jim for correcting me!)
ROBO-DOME! Two bots enter! Only one bot will leave!
Mars Yard with Athlete going through its paces.
Where we manufacture analog material for Mars and Moon testing.
Aerial view of the Mars Yard with Athlete doing some tests.
Athlete’s driving abilities through loose sand were being characterized.
The guy by Athlete was moving the power tether around to make sure Athlete didn’t cut its own power.
A Mars Exploration Rover prototype sitting in the Mars Yard garage.
A Sojourner prototype waiting for the day that it might be useful again.
Some other rover analogue with a joystick.
Another rover in the garage.
Such awesome machining and attention to detail!
Thumbs up for the Athlete!
It’s rather large. And this is only about a 1/4th scale model of the final version!
The robot tried to kill me. I made a miraculous recovery.
Another building at JPL. I think this is the Spacecraft Assembly Facility. Notice the liquid nitrogen tank and evaporators. (Thanks Jim for correcting me!)
The A-Team interns from NASA Ames showed up in the afternoon.
We went to the Spacecraft Flight Operations Facility, otherwise known as Mission Control.
On the way to the next stop we walked through our Jurassic Park compound.
In the Solar System Simulation group.
Just another day at JPL.
Looking down toward the Vehicle Assembly Building.
Highbay #1 where the Mars Science Laboratory is being assembled.
At the Mars Exploration Rover testbed. They are still trying to figure out how to Free Spirit.
Inside the Von Karmen Auditorium looking at some of the spacecraft mock-ups.
