According to the owner of an employment agency located near NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, the majority of JPL's administrative staff are temps and so are not really JPL employees per se. (The major Hollywood movie studios do the same, BTW.)pov603 wrote:One thing that has always puzzled me with large organisations such as NASA is what does NASA actually produce [other than fakery so to speak]?
I had the unfortunate experience of living in an apartment next door to an actual JPL employee. What he did there was a mystery but he was gone for about 2 weeks out of every month. When he was home he evidently drank himself unconscious every night in front of his TV set, leaving his set blaring at max volume all night long prompting me to attempt to get him to turn it down. I could see him inside, unconscious in a big recliner chair in front of the TV as I pounded on his door which usually did no good and I ended up having to call the police. Once I did manage to wake him up and he began scurrying around on the floor on all fours howling like a dog with his head turned up toward the ceiling. At that point I decided not to deal with him directly anymore and to only let the police handle him.
As a result, one night when he found out I had called the cops on him, just after they left he punched this hole through my front door with his fist.
(That's a solid wood door -- not the flimsy hollow type)
The next day he saw me and talked to me like I was his buddy and had no recollection of having done it. He didn't seem to be lying, he was just obviously an insane multiple-personality type.
I moved out of that apartment right then and there.
BTW, according to the media, the guy below was a local JPL employee too:
They call him the "Santa Shooter" because he supposedly shot a bunch of people while dressed as Santa Claus a few years ago (and a few years after I moved out of that apartment). He was described as a former JPL employee.
Funny thing is he looks remarkably like my former neighbor yet his name is different. They also say his home was very close to where my former apartment building is located.
So anyway, getting back to the question asked, maybe this is what NASA actually produces.
Finally, Space Florida, one of the "Preferred Partners" for the competition has offered an additional US$2 million bonus to teams who launch their mission from the state of Florida.
. Although it was ultimately unsuccessful, the BlastOff! initiative paved the way for the Google Lunar X Prize.
