JPL: Where Old Campaign Signs Go to Die!

As noted yesterday, the JPL open house was this weekend (May 19 and 20).  It's often too crowded to actually learn much, but it's still nice to see what the rocket scientists up on the hill are working on.

The first picture attached below is a full-scale model of the Voyager spacecraft.  They flew by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune during the late 1970s and 1980s: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/current/voyager.html

But the highlight of many trips to JPL is the JPL store.  Folks buy t-shirts, hats, mugs, and all sorts of NASA/JPL paraphernalia.

During the open house, they set up shop under a building.  They stack their wares on folding tables.  And they hang some of their sweaters and t-shirts from pipes that run under the building.

Because the pipes are too large to use regular hangers, they cut out cardboard torsos and use a string to tie those to the pipes.  Then they hang the clothes from the torsos.

You'll never guess what they used for their torsos!

[See the second picture attached below.  It's not a very good picture.  And, unfortunately, when the sales people saw me taking pictures of their "hangers," they quickly hung another sweather over the sign, so I didn't get a chance to put the picture in context. :-(]