Pasadena.science

Deep Space · Pasadena

How we explore the planets with robots

Pasadena is home to Caltech, which has managed NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory since 1958. Many of the robots that have flown to other planets were designed, built and steered from here. This site explains how that work is done, step by step, for readers with no background in space engineering.

How a mission fliesThe Deep Space Network

Guides

Start here

01 · Missions

From proposal to launch

How NASA turns an idea into a spacecraft, phase by phase, and where JPL fits in.

02 · Mars

Mars, one rover at a time

Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity and Perseverance: what each was built to find out.

03 · Outer Planets

The long road of the Voyagers

Two spacecraft launched in 1977, four giant planets and the edge of interstellar space.

04 · Deep Space Network

Three dishes, one conversation

Why antennas in California, Spain and Australia keep distant spacecraft in touch day and night.

05 · How a Mission Flies

Navigating by radio signal

How engineers know where a spacecraft is, and what “seven minutes of terror” means.

06 · Institutes

Caltech, JPL and the observatories

A university, a NASA laboratory and the telescopes on the mountain above the city.

Science profile

What Pasadena is known for in science

Pasadena’s science grew around one university and the laboratories it founded or shares. Five fields stand out, and each has a page on this site.

  • Planetary explorationJPL, managed by Caltech for NASA, builds and flies robotic missions to the planets.
  • Spacecraft communicationJPL operates NASA’s Deep Space Network, the antennas that talk to distant spacecraft.
  • AstronomyMount Wilson, above the city, is where Edwin Hubble showed in 1929 that the universe is expanding.
  • SeismologyCaltech’s Seismological Laboratory is a leading source of earthquake information for Southern California.
  • Gravitational wavesCaltech co-founded and co-manages LIGO with MIT.

On the Atlas

Space route

  1. Pasadena.science
  2. Noordwijk.science
  3. Bonn.science
  4. Frascati.science

Space agencies, mission centres and the people who build spacecraft. Atlas →

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Science news explained without hype, including space exploration and the missions described on this site.

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Pasadena

Pasadena, the place

The city behind the laboratories: its history, its institutes, its public lectures and the places a visitor can see.

City & Region

Pasadena, California: a short history, from the Arroyo Seco and the Rose Parade to Caltech and the laboratories that made the city a centre of space science.

Institutes & Facilities

Caltech, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mount Wilson Observatory, the Seismological Laboratory and LIGO: the institutions behind Pasadena’s science.

Conferences & Events

Public science in Pasadena: the JPL von Kármán Lecture Series, Caltech’s Watson Lectures and other recurring events.

Science Travel

Visiting science in Pasadena: JPL public tours, Mount Wilson Observatory and the Gamble House, with practical notes.

Contact

Contact Pasadena.science, part of the TheScience.fm Platform.