How We Got Into The Jet Propulsion Laboratory

[Music] I'm John and this is the park rock so it's rock oh you think it's a bench yeah and we are in or near Pasadena California USA yep oh yeah we got an invite to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory that's just not the case that's like no better way of saying it we have been as close to Mars as we are getting ha ha that's so not technically true based on orbit fact so back at EMF camp many many months ago middle of summer of 2016 yep uh we met a guy called ARRA who came up to us said hi by the way I'm an engineer at JPL business card I do you want to come and do something with us yes yes so yeah eight or nine months later here we are in California are so you won't see this until quite a few weeks later I might have done a couple of pipe wrench in other locations by the time this goes out okay um but by the time this comes out the first video from JPL will be out and this is the behind the thing this is how we got down what we did firstly massive thank you to everyone that has shown us around today it was a whistle-stop tour I think it's the phrase yes yeah we had only a few hours and they showed us so many different areas so many different places and it's a massive campus they don't like the word campus ah lab lab lab I can't believe a massive site and it's like 10 minute walk between different places it's so big and yeah so yes thanks very much literally everyone we met an interview you're all wonderful thank you thank you thank you um Matt is a bigger space geek than I am I put on a safety feature cuz I'm doing as lazy thing and one person said yes I can see from the t-shirt everyone okay cool I like you should we rock up um we we get through initial Secours you have to like get badged in I show our passports because we're foreign national oh yeah yeah I mean there was a proper email back and forth negotiation with the press department I want to wanted stress that we do not just rock up at a place on one employee say sir that's a bunch of email press department yeah Media Relations all that kind yet um ah and we are taken straight to Mission Control like there's literally the mission control room for the Deep Space Network they call it the center of the universe we walk strated reception right follow me and but uh we're in a mission control room with the banks of desks with the on the walls there were video diagrams of different satellites that are currently being received by the Deep Space Network and we haven't like lit that or anything specifically for film in a moody looking room they have the blue LED light strip refereed there it's clearly like a decades of Hollywood and decades of actual industrial control rooms I've clearly started competing with it just a little bit because we saw the old photos with the SM it did not used to look like it's still a bloody cool yeah but this yes looks shiny but the PR department have clearly had a hand in design more like those graphical displays at the top with the real-time renders of what it might look like if you're on a camera orbiting around the tower with the day and night like you but they don't need that no they don't anything I've done a couple of plaintext terminals and some bottles but does it look cool oh yes yeah and I'm sure it feels so much good I'm going to continue if you're working then you've got all that shiny stuff Randy oh yeah absolutely yeah and then we got there I'm like so what we're doing a video about Voyager 1 well I am you're pointing cameras oh yeah glad you're doing this my script was about Voyager 1 and we get there and our downlinking from Voyager 1 right then like they have a real-time display which with it is messag of I think so that URL probably what makes into the final video but like they have a live my the ears whatever it's in that we will link it in the description below there is a real-time chart of what the Deep Space Network is receiving and sending to all the missions from which antennas in which location yeah you can see which telescopes which antenna receiving what why when and how and for how long yeah and we get there and they are downlinking from Voyager 1 right then so I'm slowly getting my camera out some checking things cleaning lenses that we've only got a not very long till that stops darling ok no no it's going to turn off now Oh quick camera up when it's gone so I don't know if we actually got that oh you'll know why by the time we've seen the video but yeah they were actually down linking from Voyager 1 while we were there and Voyager 2 sure next few minutes and then someone comes in and tells us by the way in about 45 minutes this is all going to go dark maintenance window for the entire DSN for the rest of the day we had got there in the nick of time yeah 45 minutes in which to do an entire interview do a couple of takes just in case of Tom's pieces to camera and then all the b-roll that closed all right the con workshop yes tell you why I worked with a camera op who normally works with YouTube stuff one on videos a while but did not get the concept of b-roll talking just jump cut it I don't do that that's that's not it maybe on here slightly but no um so in 45 minutes a wonderfully in-depth interview I might like no I'm going to sell try and see if I can do an extended interview but they're gonna be better extended interviews out that people who looked into that um but interview with the controller might be might be roll everything it's not like they were going to turn off the consoles it would still be running but people are going to leave to do other stuff and any space nodes watching what immediately go why are you in a closed-off control room is it actually receiving anything it look like a replica or if it didn't seem right to do it when it wasn't doing things yes so we did it he just just a miniature time what the left the last minute of my section is just they were closing it down okay I'm just moving some of the local wildlife so they're all we've been attacked by mosquitoes maybe a little bit okay we are we are filming in a park near a waterfall yeah yeah that's what we get can you see that by the way that's the weird shot because there was Waterfall there yeah we just picked it we just picked a bit apartment at random oh so we didn't DSN then we moved on to rover driving and we didn't have very long after the DSN we couldn't stand and go whoa look at it we got we got selfie we also got a quick selfie yep and the hats the thought as were being haha the next place yeah and we met Paulo the rover driver we met Heather his boss another Rover driver she might not have made into final video I haven't done the edit yet obviously I don't know but she works on opportunity not curiosity I think the narrative might go one way Rodney oh okay um but yeah I'm like everyone was good on camera map everyone there's nothing more I can add bit yeah these people have been doing this for years they know their stuff yeah they know the answer to the questions that we ask I mean artists artists and then on top of that they know more interesting things and go off on one in a good way about yeah unparalleled power has the the longest longing a number of kilometres on mark he has driven the furthest on Mars of any person he's driven all but one of the Rovers I think he said yeah he did well there was one that was sasha her in the seventies eight yes there was before his time but that he's given all the Rovers uh and he's driven sixteen kilometers on Mars that's more than me more than you unless you're one of them hello one novella people watching unless you're him he's no more than any other Rover driver I can't maths or concept haha I'm going to blame this on jet luck yeah yeah they were and there we went off to the Mars yard again oh yeah it's comfy on his computer in front of him he had the thing that he uses to drive it and to simulate driving burning that yeah on the right-hand side they had a 3d mouse click Azumi close enough render of where it is where curiosity is on mars and the landscape around it and it's 3d terrain and they've got that from taking 3d photos because it's got a stereo cameras on it and they've used that to generate a 3d plot so you can just look and scroll around like on a video getting with ya see where it is on whoa yeah uh I this was just office building like after the actually fancy dear son control room like yeah oh no this is just this is just a cubicle in a small cubicle right up in my office that's all it Neal said me is just computers every hit there's computers but yeah and we were talking to him afterwards that one of the things I always wondered is how when you controlling something that far away when you got time lags and different I'm there compared to here how they do it he was saying generally they prepare it in advance yes send it list of things to do they go to bed wake up in the morning and see if it did it that's how I render complicated video so have you got four over on mark Whitey's breath yeah yeah uh yeah and then we got my scoff marred I should point out this it is it is as we record this our throat used in the UK Mardi Gras in the rest of the world so there is a Mardi Gras going on okay like just they giving out free food Engineers litter there's a band about to strike up the entire main plaza area yeah I'm making it sound more grand than it is in JPL it's littered with tables for buffet food and plated vehicles us we didn't go any that we will never rest assured us taxpayers didn't go didn't go to alter knew Marv yard yes so that's where the next which is effectively some rubble yeah it's very very specific rubble really scientifically accurate rubble Garmin yeah baked rocks carefully arranged sand and researchers working on Rovers like I don't think they make that ugly we film them three nodes and uh permission to film and so on ah but why we didn't film because we've never motion to film them uh-huh but scientists working on projects for the next robber and they were like oh during researches like yes one's a model of curiosity there and we get there and there's this thing wrapped in tinfoil looks like it's made by a kid so going to be disappointing whereas I actually know what it looks like because I'm a master space nerd and I've googled things and I've watched all the documentaries so I see the tinfoil thing that like it was made on blue peter british reference and they said that was a thermal or radar use model for testing thermal or radar based yes and we turn the corner and then there is a mirage the look on your face map honestly it there is curiosity's twin it is effectively the same thing that is on Mars but slightly different for testing things at this end yeah and that is the closest you can get to seeing that rover because it's alien ours on Mars at night and those there's there's warnings around it you can't go within three feet because you might give it a static shock and break the systems that's just fine by me so I was within three feet of it and I don't know if you noticed because you would diddling around in your bag but there was a moment hahaha no it's good to give the microphone ready to like do I look round you at though Grindr Gunda uh what yeah oh it's obviously what a selfie with it yeah obviously um yeah we we we did an interview we recorded my bit camera with all the b-roll and then we were out of there and that's a it was in gilead to get out into do the business and then leave yes and we did yes and I took as much time while doing that to look at things ago oh but you know we can only take up so much of these people's time yeah yeah a few people gave somewhere else for us so I quickly snapped some photos so I have the memory yeah I took maybe 20 30 seconds to go Maggie which is the name of the curiosity's twin yep I can't believe we've been here thank you much thank you for coming along thank you for taking the shot Stephan that goes with it thank you for getting us to the stage where we can go through visit it's not bad thank you for watching yeah like they didn't still if the well you know where looms hundred thousand subscribers um you wouldn't get jump on getting this we wouldn't get in this so now I'm not quite sure how we can top this No so if this is the peak that I'm sorry but if you can think of something access to something even bigger and better than this yes then bring it in [Laughter] I expect that's rolling yes that's rolling hi food oh wow

Channel: Matt and Tom

Views: 179,623

Keywords: matt gray, mattgray, mattg, tom scott, tomscott, unnamedculprit, matt and tom, park bench, comfy sofa, california, jet propulsion laboratory, jpl, mars yard, deep space network, mission control, curiosity, rover, mars, robot

Id: ugqyW2xUeu4

Length: 13min 58sec (838 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 24 2017