Children at the Sylmar Branch Library were captivated by David Lehman, a volunteer NASA/JPL Solar System ambassador who knows a lot about Mars because he was a project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena for 40 years until his retirement in 2021.
As Young Adult Librarian Dana Eklund said, Lehman “gave a wonderful presentation on the history of Mars exploration to our library patrons,” and “kept it engaging for the younger children through fun quizzes and even a sing-along at the end.”
On Tuesday, July 15, children, parents and other library patrons learned about the history behind NASA/JPL’s Mars Exploration.
Both Lehman and Eklund are volunteer NASA/JPL Solar System ambassadors who explain the mysteries of space to the public. “I mostly do the outside ‘Telescope Nights’ which I have here for the library patrons in the evenings once a month in fall and winter,” Eklund said. And she takes the library’s telescope out in August for a “daytime sunspot viewing event.”
Lehman’s PowerPoint presentation, with archival video footage from NASA, went into depth about the history of NASA’s quest to reach Mars. And among the most popular topics from the children was, “How we could journey to Mars, someday in the future.”