Jamie, JPL Librarian/Archivist extraordinaire, gave me a guided tour of the Jet Propulsion Labs facility in La Cañada on August 9, just days after the rover Curiosity touched Martian soil. She also arranged for me to meet way-cool Bobak Ferdowski, a.k.a. Mohawk Guy, and I got his autograph for our class. (Browse our autograph collection here.) Regarding the peanut pic in the 9th row, check out the JPL superstition by clicking here.

Be sure to check out the

“7 Minutes of Terror” video

to the right. Riveting! Adam Steltzner,

leader of Curiosity’s Descent and

Landing Team, narrates.

Another brilliant JPL engineer,

David Doody, created a

“Gravity Assist Mechanical

Simulator” to demo how NASA uses

other planets’ gravity to slingshot

further into space. Check it out here.

Other cool links:

The Basics to Space Flight,

which is a POD e-book;

Build your Gravity Assist Mechanical Pinball;

Fun stuff for kids;

Fun stuff for teachers.