GSoC, RustReach Day 27 and JPL Open House 18

I got up at a decent time

• Went to catch the bus and got to my last bus that would take me to JPL. But then, I saw nothing. So I called the lady on the phone who didn’t even know what JPL was, and she said the next bus was at 9:41am. That was a problem, since I was waiting on the 8:26am one. So I told her I was probably going to go home, and thanks for her time.
• A second after I stepped away, I saw a bus arriving. So look at that; I guess I’m going to this JPL event after all. Yeah..LA.

Here are some pics!

Mars Helicopter

• Oh, that’s Lithium ion batteries and a Zigbee antenna. Didn’t get the best photo of the details, but a lot of that information is online.

• I asked the guy what would happen if the helicopter lost a leg, and he said “that would be a very sad day for the Mars Helicopter” LOL. I also asked why it had only one antenna, and he said it’s because of the weight constraints they had, and if they lose the antenna well, I guess that’s it. LOL.

I had an interesting conversation

• With a guy who was a programmer on the Mars 2020. He was a joy to speak with, and got really excited when we first ran into each other. Programmers unite! :D
• He was an ARM / Assembly guy, and saw my LambdaConf t-shirt. I usually opt for t-shirts that are tech-y but a bit esoteric. A lot of people wear things at the event like “I ate Pi” tshirts or “I need my space” t-shirts. But you’d have to dig a bit to figure out what Coq is (LOL), or be in the field, so usually if someone starts talking to me excitedly, it tends to be a scientist or fellow programmer. :D One scientist in particular teases me every year because I like Haskell.
• Anyways, programmer guy told me about how they downloaded and received data and how they multi-thread everything.
• I told him I’d love a talk on that at Von Karman. I wish they’d discuss how they actually get and receive data. Basically it goes into this mode autonomously where it sends a bunch of stuff and it says “done” on disk. Every year I go, they always try to convince me that I need to come work with them on lab. Maybe one semester it will work out. We’ll see. Maybe they’ll run after me more when I start doing my PhD. Unfortunately, my specialization may not line up as much with what they do, unless there is some sort of compiler system involved or something. My friend is going to do his Master’s to become a roboticist, and is interning there, so that makes more sense. I seem definitely more in line with the kind of work for tech companies in the Valley doing research and stuff, so I don’t know. It seems I’m going farther away from that stuff, but who knows. I did work in a hardware / electronics place for 7 years while going to school, so I always take that stuff with me (and the IEEE certifications).

Mission Control

• Charles retired, so he’s at Caltech, but his name is on Mission Control. I love that man! He’s an inspiration to me, especially as an immigrant! :D

All in All

• I really liked this one, because my mentor worked on Voyager, which was part of the Mariner Program. And I like DSN, which is the Deep Space Network.

• JPL was fun. I had to get back for my 1pm meeting. I was so tired. I’ve been running on low energy for the latter part of this week.

• I took a nap and plan on staying up to do Rust and Haskell tonight and all of tomorrow.

And that’s it!