The wildfires burning in Southern California aren't only visible from space. But it also threatens the jobs of scientists. in area as well
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena must be like this. Evacuated on January 8 It remains closed until Monday due to the spread of the Eaton fire. So far, the research center has been spared from the flames. Even if there is an emergency It prevents JPL from processing certain data. and follow posts on social media Having a significant impact on the JPL community, the Deep Space Network was able to maintain contact with all active spacecraft throughout the evacuation.
JPL “untouched by fire Because of the heroic dedication of our first responders. But our community has been hit hard with more than 150 JPLers losing their homes and many more being displaced,” JPL Director Laurie Leshin. Write in post On Friday, JPL's Facebook administrator confirmed this scary situation in comment On Sunday, this week most employees were asked to work from home. and the system administrator has started Welfare fund For the Caltech and JPL communities
Update: @NASAJPL Untouched by fire due to the heroic dedication of our first responders. But our community has been hit hard with more than 150 JPLers losing their homes and many more being displaced. Please consider providing support here: https://t.co/PGpNj2Z1Zf
— Laurie Lechin (@LaurieofMars) January 10, 2025
JPL is a federally funded robotic space exploration laboratory. It is administered by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) on behalf of NASA. It is also home to various agencies. deep space network (DSN), a network of giant radio antennas used to communicate with space missions. NASA's DSN was established in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and is still in contact with the Voyager spacecraft. Mars probe and the Juno probe around Jupiter The Space Flight Operations Center at JPL “has been open and staffed daily since 1964.” like that To NASA
according to Evacuation announcement A post on the lab's website Wednesday said: “facilities laboratory And JPL's hardware is secured and protected. Deep Space Network Operations which normally operates at JPL has been moved off-site to an alternate operations center.” In a bit of good news, the DSN team remained in contact with their spacecraft throughout the evacuation. space.com–
“Our incredible DSN team has gone to great lengths to ensure that not a single bit of data was lost,” said Nicola Fox, NASA deputy administrator, during the 245th American Astronomical Society meeting held in This week in Maryland, according to reports. space.com– “It was very emotional. For the first time in 60 years, there was no one in the mission control office there at JPL because they had to move to the emergency center.”
Unfortunately, some evacuation of the research center resulted in this. Interruptions in data processingIncluding some parts as well near real time (NRT) data (data that exists shortly after being recorded by space instruments) Data from soil moisture Active-Passive (SMAP), which measures the soil surface condition regularly and data from Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS), which measures atmospheric characteristics twice a day.
The fact that JPL remains intact is a relief to the scientific community, though. But it remains to be seen how the lab will fare as the dry winds intensify. It is expected to continue until Wednesday.–