Activities

Our activities

Beyond its exploration projects, the Brinson Exploration Hub supports hands-on education, workshops, and collaborations that bring people and ideas together and create new opportunities for science and exploration.

  • Pasadena Fire Department paramedic Engine 37 parked in the station bay, with firefighters seated in the cab.

    Science and Engineering for First Responders Workshop

    A workshop connecting Pasadena first responders with Caltech and JPL researchers to identify operational challenges that could benefit from scientific and engineering expertise. The activity focuses on developing practical solutions, defining technical pathways, and identifying potential funding strategies to address needs identified by first responders.

    • Andy Klesh points out 3D-printed payload hardware on a lab bench to three National Geographic Explorers.
    • Gloved hands hold up a petri dish of bacterial colonies against a dark background
    • Gloved hands steady a 96-well sample plate on a lab bench
    • Two divers sample a reef beneath a rocky, tree-covered island, shown in a split above-and-below-water view
    • A student in a lab coat pipettes samples next to a microscope
    • Labeled cutaway of the L³ Little Living Lab payload showing its cameras, CO2 sensors, temperature sensors, Peltier coolers and electronics, and the three compartments for Explorers Gabrielle Corradino's, Moola Mutondo's and Suchana "Apple" Chavanich's experiments

    Andy Klesh shows National Geographic Explorers the payload accommodations co-built by students in his EE 154 course for their experiments aboard the International Space Station.

    Little Living Lab: National Geographic Explorer Experiments on the ISS

    Little Living Lab (L³) carries experiments designed by National Geographic Explorers to the International Space Station. Through Caltech's EE154ab course, students worked alongside engineers from JPL to design and build the payload that houses the Explorers' experiments, from initial concept through flight preparation.

    • Overhead view of a fiber-optic sensing setup on an optical breadboard: lasers, amplifiers, coiled fiber and a fiber spool in an insulated box.
    • Callum Sambridge adjusts fiber wrapped around a clear cylinder on an optical bench, with seismic data displayed on a monitor behind him.
    • A snowmobile tows a sled carrying equipment used to deploy fiber-optic cable across the Antarctic ice.

    A close-up of the Lunar DAS fiber-optic sensing system during testing at Caltech.

    Lunar Distributed Acoustic Sensing

    Building on the techniques demonstrated through GLASS in Antarctica, this effort advances fiber-optic distributed acoustic sensing for future lunar seismic observations. Supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the work focuses on maturing the technology and developing a lunar experiment concept that could enable new investigations of the Moon's interior.

    This activity builds on these projects:

    • Symposium participants gather for a group photo outside a red-tile-roofed building
    • Participants talk around tables during a breakout session, with a sticky-note board behind them
    • A speaker presents at a Keck Institute for Space Studies podium
    • Attendees listen during a symposium session
    • Two participants review notes in front of a wall of colored sticky notes

    A New Era of Space Science

    A symposium convened by the Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS) and the Brinson Exploration Hub to explore actionable and affordable concepts for future space science. The gathering brought together researchers to examine emerging scientific opportunities, identify promising approaches, and consider pathways for advancing concepts toward implementation.

    See the symposium & report (opens in a new tab)

    • Students sit on the ground around two instrument packages with clear pressure housings and blue 3D-printed mounts, as one works on a laptop.
    • Divers in scuba gear and students gather on a beach beside an inflatable kayak loaded with an ocean instrument, with a pier and harbor behind.

    From Concept to Coast

    A hands-on Caltech course in which students design, build, and deploy autonomous systems for in situ ocean science. Students work through the progression from scientific objectives and engineering concepts to field-ready instruments, gaining practical experience in system integration, testing, and deployment.

    • A team in hard hats watches a weather balloon and its payload lift off over the desert
    • Students release a white weather balloon beside a pickup truck in a wide desert valley

    Caltech Student Balloon Launch

    Caltech's CAOS student club conducted a high-altitude balloon launch in connection with the opening of the Resnick Sustainability Center. The activity provided students with hands-on experience preparing and launching a balloon system, demonstrating how student-led engineering activities can contribute to the Hub's broader culture of experimentation and deployment.

    • Workshop participants talk around a table of laptops and sticky notes while others sketch balloon ideas on whiteboards behind them
    • A speaker sits at the front of a lecture room beside a projected "Community of Ballooning" sticky-note board
    • Workshop participants at tables in a room lined with balloon-launch photographs and whiteboards
    • A participant gestures while leading a small-group discussion in front of whiteboards and a balloon-launch photo
    • Participants laugh during a session, with balloon-launch photographs on easels behind them
    • A participant writes ideas for precursor balloon flights on a whiteboard as others look on

    Science from Balloons Workshop

    A joint Caltech and JPL workshop bringing together scientists and engineers to examine opportunities for scientific observations from high-altitude balloon platforms. Discussions explored science objectives, instrument concepts, and implementation pathways, contributing to the development of the SCWI ultraviolet balloon observatory proposal.

    This activity contributed to the development of these projects: