The Jet Propulsion Laboratory Display Information System (or JPLDIS ) is a file management program written in FORTRAN .
88-556: JPLDIS is important because it was the inspiration and precursor to dBASE , arguably one of the most influential DBMS programs for early microcomputers. In the late 1960s, Fred Thompson at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) was using a Tymshare product named RETRIEVE to manage a database of electronic calculators. In 1971 Fred collaborated with Jack Hatfield,
176-445: A Microsoft Works database file in the dBase file format so that it can be read by Microsoft Excel . A package is available for Emacs to read xbase files. LibreOffice and OpenOffice Calc can read and write all generic dbf files. dBase's database system was one of the first to provide a header section for describing the structure of the data in the file. This meant that the program no longer required advance knowledge of
264-481: A 10-percent raise, and then prints the names and salaries. Note how one does not have to keep mentioning the table name. The assumed ("current") table stays the same until told otherwise. Because of its origins as an interpreted interactive language, dBase used a variety of contextual techniques to reduce the amount of typing needed. This facilitated incremental, interactive development but also made larger-scale modular programming difficult. A tenet of modular programming
352-409: A close flyby of Saturn 's moon Titan . The spacecraft sent back detailed images and data from both gas giants, revolutionizing our understanding of these distant worlds. The Voyager 2 spacecraft followed a more extensive trajectory, conducting flybys of not just Jupiter and Saturn, but also Uranus and Neptune. These encounters provided firsthand data from all four gas giants, offering insights into
440-502: A disaster or terrorist attack. FINDER uses microwave radar to detect breathing and pulses. Additionally, JPL is home to the JPL-RPIF (Jet Propulsion Laboratory – Regional Planetary Image Facility) which is chartered as a repository for all robotic spacecraft hard-copy data and thus provides a valuable resource to NASA funded science investigators, and an important conduit for the distribution of NASA generated materials to local educators in
528-577: A kilometer or more in diameter that cross Earth's orbit by 2013. Entering the 2010s and 2020s, JPL continued its Mars exploration with the Curiosity rover and the Mars 2020 mission, which included the Perseverance rover and the retired Ingenuity helicopter . Perseverance's core objective was to collect samples for a future Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission. In addition, JPL ventured into asteroid exploration with
616-411: A magazine devoted to the professional use of dBase, Data Based Advisor ; its circulation exceeded 35,000 after eight months. All of these activities fueled the rapid rise of dBase as the leading product of its type. As platforms and operating systems proliferated in the early 1980s, the company found it difficult to port the assembly language -based dBase to target systems. This led to a rewrite of
704-872: A memo field is a 10-byte pointer into a .dbt file which can include a much larger text field. dBase was very limited in its ability to process memo fields, but some other xBase languages such as Clipper treated memo fields as strings just like character fields for all purposes except permanent storage. dBase uses .ndx files for single indexes, and .mdx (multiple-index) files for holding between 1 and 48 indexes. Some xBase languages such as VP-Info include compatibility with .ndx files while others use different file formats such as .ntx used by Clipper and .idx/.cdx used by FoxPro or FlagShip. Later iterations of Clipper included drivers for .ndx, .mdx, .idx and .cdx indexes. BYTE ' s Jerry Pournelle in July 1980 called Vulcan "infuriatingly excellent" because
792-507: A new member of the xBase family was born: the XSharp (X#) language, maintained as an open source project with a compiler, its own IDE, and Microsoft Visual Studio integration. XSharp produces .NET assemblies and uses the familiar xBase language. The XSharp product was originally created by a group of four enthusiasts who have worked for the Vulcan.NET project in the past. The compiler is created on top of
880-413: A planned dBase Advisor Magazine was aborted due to the market failure of dBase IV. By the year 2000, the xBase market had faded as developers shifted to new database systems and programming languages. Computer Associates (later known as CA) eventually dropped Clipper. Borland restructured and sold dBase. Of the major acquirers, Microsoft stuck with xBase the longest, evolving FoxPro into Visual FoxPro, but
968-614: A programmer at JPL, to write an enhanced version of RETRIEVE which became the JPLDIS project. JPLDIS evolved into a file management program written in FORTRAN , running on a UNIVAC 1108 mainframe. Hatfield published two papers entitled "Jet Propulsion Laboratory Data Information System (JPLDIS)". The first paper was presented to the Univac Users Group in Dallas, TX (Feb. 1973) and the second paper
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#17328559058131056-589: A resident office at the facility staffed by federal managers who oversee JPL's activities and work for NASA. There are also some Caltech graduate students , college student interns and co-op students. The JPL Education Office serves educators and students by providing them with activities, resources, materials and opportunities tied to NASA missions and science. The mission of its programs is to introduce and further students' interest in pursuing STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers. JPL offers research, internship and fellowship opportunities in
1144-505: A smaller part of JPL's overall budget, they are integral to fulfilling the diverse set of objectives that these federal agencies oversee. In fiscal year 2022, the laboratory's budget was approximately $ 2.4 billion, with the largest share going to Planetary Science development. In 2024, due to budget misappropriation in Mars Sample Return (MSR), the lab slashed approximately 1000 workers and contractors in preparation to make wave for
1232-588: A spare Juno I (a modified Jupiter-C with a fourth stage), the two organizations then launched the United States' first satellite, Explorer 1 , on January 31, 1958. This significant achievement marked a new era for JPL and the US in the space race. Less than a year later in December 1958, JPL was transferred to the newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). As a result of this transition, JPL became
1320-445: A table statement which made referencing a table field unambiguous and simple. For example. one can open a table and assign an alias to it in this fashion, "use EMP alias Employee", and henceforth, refer to table variables as "Employee->Name". Another notable feature is the re-use of the same clauses for different commands. For example, the FOR clause limits the scope of a given command. (It
1408-458: A year on a Saturday and Sunday in May or June, when the public was invited to tour the facilities and see live demonstrations of JPL science and technology. More limited private tours are also available throughout the year if scheduled well in advance. Thousands of schoolchildren from Southern California and elsewhere visit the lab every year. Due to federal spending cuts mandated by budget sequestration ,
1496-465: Is an example of a feature that made dBase programming flexible and dynamic, sometimes called "meta ability" in the profession. This could allow programming expressions to be placed inside tables, somewhat reminiscent of formulas in spreadsheet software. However, it could also be problematic for pre-compiling and for making programming code secure from hacking. But, dBase tended to be used for custom internal applications for small and medium companies where
1584-514: Is given annually to an individual or organization that has made significant contributions to public awareness of space programs, in 1998; and with the John L. "Jack" Swigert, Jr., Award for Space Exploration on three occasions – in 2009 (as part of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander Team ), 2006 and 2005. When it was founded, JPL's site was immediately west of a rocky flood-plain – the Arroyo Seco riverbed – above
1672-451: Is somewhat comparable to SQL's WHERE clause.) Different commands such as LIST, DELETE, REPLACE, BROWSE, etc. could all accept a FOR clause to limit (filter) the scope of their activity. This simplifies the learning of the language. dBase was also one of the first business-oriented languages to implement string evaluation . Here the "&" tells the interpreter to evaluate the string stored in "myMacro" as if it were programming code. This
1760-450: Is subject to annual fluctuations based on both the federal allocation to NASA and the life cycle of ongoing projects. High-profile missions may receive significant long-term funding commitments, whereas smaller or shorter-term projects may have more modest financial support. These agencies often commission projects that leverage JPL's unique expertise in areas like remote sensing , robotics, and systems engineering. Although these projects form
1848-454: Is that the correct execution of a program module must not be affected by external factors such as the state of memory variables or tables being manipulated in other program modules. Because dBase was not designed with this in mind, developers had to be careful about porting (borrowing) programming code that assumed a certain context and it would make writing larger-scale modular code difficult. Work-area-specific references were still possible using
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#17328559058131936-516: The Aerojet Corporation to manufacture JATO rockets. The project took on the name Jet Propulsion Laboratory in November 1943, formally becoming an Army facility operated under contract by the university. In the same year, Qian and two of his colleagues drafted the first document to use the name Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In a NASA conference on the history of early rocketry, Malina wrote that
2024-600: The Army Ballistic Missile Agency 's Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama , to propose orbiting a satellite during the International Geophysical Year . The team lost that proposal to Project Vanguard , and instead embarked on a classified project to demonstrate ablative re-entry technology using a Jupiter-C rocket. They carried out three successful sub-orbital flights in 1956 and 1957. Using
2112-411: The Arroyo Seco . This initial venture involved Caltech graduate students Frank Malina , Qian Xuesen , Weld Arnold and Apollo M. O. Smith , along with Jack Parsons and Edward S. Forman , often referred to as the "Suicide Squad" due to the dangerous nature of their experiments. Together, they tested a small, alcohol-fueled motor to gather data for Malina's graduate thesis. Malina's thesis advisor
2200-666: The JPL Small-Body Database , and provides physical data and lists of publications for all known small Solar System bodies . JPL's Space Flight Operations Facility and Twenty-Five-Foot Space Simulator are designated National Historic Landmarks . JPL traces its beginnings to 1936 in the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology (GALCIT) when the first set of United States rocket experiments were carried out in
2288-534: The Los Angeles Superior Court took opening statements on the case in which former JPL employee David Coppedge brought suit against the lab due to workplace discrimination and wrongful termination. In the suit, Coppedge alleges that he first lost his "team lead" status on JPL's Cassini-Huygens mission in 2009 and then was fired in 2011 because of his evangelical Christian beliefs and specifically his belief in intelligent design . Conversely, JPL, through
2376-725: The MGM-5 Corporal and MGM-29 Sergeant intermediate-range ballistic missiles, marking the first US ballistic missiles developed at JPL. It also developed several other weapons system prototypes, such as the Loki anti-aircraft missile system, and the forerunner of the Aerobee sounding rocket. At various times, it carried out rocket testing at the White Sands Proving Ground , Edwards Air Force Base , and Goldstone, California . In 1954, JPL teamed up with Wernher von Braun 's engineers at
2464-463: The Mariner missions to Venus , Mars , and Mercury , returning valuable data about our neighboring planets. Additionally, JPL was early to employ female mathematicians. In the 1940s and 1950s, using mechanical calculators, women in an all-female computations group performed trajectory calculations. In 1961, JPL hired Dana Ulery as the first female engineer to work alongside male engineers as part of
2552-531: The OSIRIS-REx mission which returned a sample from asteroid Bennu . As JPL moves forward, its focus remains on diverse interplanetary and even interstellar missions. Future Mars missions will aim to return the samples collected by the Perseverance rover back to Earth. Additionally, JPL's Europa Clipper mission launched in 2024 to study Jupiter's moon Europa , believed to harbor a subsurface ocean. Building on
2640-519: The Ranger and Mariner mission tracking teams. Building on the momentum from the successes of the 1960s and early 1970s, JPL initiated an era of deep space exploration in the late 1970s and 1980s. The highlight of this period was the launch of the twin Voyager spacecraft in 1977. Initially set on a trajectory to explore Jupiter and its moon Io, Voyager 1 's mission parameters were adjusted to also provide
2728-565: The Roslyn compiler code, the code behind the C# and VB compilers from Microsoft. Today, implementations of the dBase language have expanded to include many features targeted for business applications, including object-oriented programming, manipulation of remote and distributed data via SQL, Internet functionality, and interaction with modern devices. The following example opens an employee table ("empl"), gives every manager who supervises 1 or more employees
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2816-539: The Soviet Union . Its adaptation to the Russian language was reduced to the mechanical replacement of the name, the russification of the help files and the correction of the sorting tables for the Russian language. Introduced in 1988, after delays, dBase IV had "more than 300 new or improved features". By then, FoxPro had made inroads, and even dBase IV's support for Query by Example and SQL were not enough. Along
2904-506: The United States Geological Survey (USGS), and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). Occasionally, JPL engages in joint missions or research endeavors with international space agencies or research institutions. While these partnerships contribute a relatively small portion of JPL's overall budget, they serve to enhance the scope and impact of its scientific research and technological development. The total budget for JPL
2992-484: The ANSI/ISO standard language for creating, modifying, and retrieving data stored in relational database management systems. Eventually, it became clear that the dBase world had expanded far beyond Ashton-Tate. A "third-party" community formed, consisting of Fox Software, Nantucket, Alpha Software, Data Based Advisor Magazine, SBT and other application development firms, and major developer groups. Paperback Software launched
3080-498: The Department of Commerce, claiming their constitutional rights were being violated by the new, overly invasive background investigations. 97% of JPL employees were classified at the low-risk level and would be subjected to the same clearance procedures as those obtaining moderate/high risk clearance. Under HSPD 12 and FIPS 201, investigators have the right to obtain any information on employees, which includes questioning acquaintances on
3168-556: The Devil's Gate dam in the northwestern panhandle of the city of Pasadena in Southern California , near Los Angeles . While the first few buildings were constructed in land bought from the city of Pasadena, subsequent buildings were constructed in neighboring unincorporated land that later became part of La Cañada Flintridge . Nowadays, most of the 168 acres (68 ha) of the U.S. federal government -owned NASA property that makes up
3256-517: The Fox products). In December 1990, U.S. District judge Terry Hatter Jr. dismissed Ashton-Tate's lawsuit and invalidated Ashton-Tate's copyrights for not disclosing that dBase had been based, in part, on the public domain JPLDIS . In October 1991, while the case was still under appeal, Borland International acquired Ashton-Tate, and as one of the merger's provisions the U.S. Justice Department required Borland to end
3344-584: The JPL campus is located in La Cañada Flintridge. Despite this, JPL still uses a Pasadena address (4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109) as its official mailing address. There has been occasional rivalry between the two cities over the issue of which one should be mentioned in the media as the home of the laboratory. After the 2024 layoffs, there are only approximately 5,500 full-time Caltech employees and contractors working on any given day. NASA also has
3432-519: The Los Angeles/southern California area. The predominant source of JPL's financial support is NASA. As a field center of NASA, JPL's primary activities and projects are generally aligned with NASA's mission objectives in space exploration, Earth sciences, and astrophysics. The funding allocated to JPL comes as a portion of NASA's annual budget, which is itself part of the United States federal budget approved by Congress. The scale of
3520-546: The NASA Museum Alliance in 2003 out of a desire to provide museums, planetariums, visitor centers and other kinds of informal educators with exhibit materials, professional development and information related to the then-upcoming landings of the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity . The Alliance now has more than 500 members, who get access to NASA displays, models, educational workshops and networking opportunities through
3608-578: The Ninth Circuit found the process violated the employees' privacy rights and issued a preliminary injunction. NASA appealed and the US Supreme Court granted certiorari on March 8, 2010. On January 19, 2011, the Supreme Court overturned the Ninth Circuit decision, ruling that the background checks did not violate any constitutional privacy right that the employees may have had. On March 12, 2012,
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3696-630: The VAR market by allowing the VARs to deploy their products using the lower-cost RunTime system. Although some critics stated that dBase was difficult to learn, its success created many opportunities for third parties. By 1984, more than 1,000 companies offered dBase-related application development, libraries of code to add functionality, applications using dBase II Runtime, consulting, training, and how-to books. A company in San Diego (today known as Advisor Media) premiered
3784-638: The Voyager program's success, JPL continues to push the boundaries of deep-space exploration. The Interstellar Probe concept, though not yet formalized, proposes to send a spacecraft ten times the distance from the Sun as Pluto, to explore the interstellar medium and the outermost reaches of our solar system. JPL has been recognized four times by the Space Foundation : with the Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award, which
3872-532: The agency's primary planetary spacecraft center, leading the design and operation of various lunar and interplanetary missions. The transfer to NASA marked the beginning of a "Golden Age" of planetary exploration for JPL in the 1960s and 1970s. JPL engineers designed and operated Ranger and Surveyor missions to the Moon that paved the way for the Apollo program . JPL proved itself a leader in interplanetary exploration with
3960-413: The arrow notation ("B->customer") so that multiple tables could be manipulated at the same time. In addition, if the developer had the foresight to name their tables appropriately, they could clearly refer to a large number of tables open at the same time by notation such as ("employee->salary") and ("vacation->start_date"). Alternatively, the alias command could be appended to the initial opening of
4048-419: The best-selling software titles for a number of years. A major upgrade was released as dBase III and ported to a wider variety of platforms, including UNIX and VMS . By the mid-1980s, Ashton-Tate was one of the "big three" software publishers in the early business-software market, along with Lotus Development and WordPerfect . Starting in the mid-1980s, several companies produced their own variations on
4136-473: The budget is contingent on the projects that JPL undertakes as missions can range from flagship interplanetary missions costing billions of U.S. dollars to smaller Earth observation systems with budgets in the hundreds of millions. Aside from NASA, JPL secures funding for specialized projects from other federal agencies, including but not limited to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
4224-502: The core database engine , a query system, a forms engine , and a programming language that tied all of these components together. Originally released as Vulcan for PTDOS in 1978, the CP/M port caught the attention of Ashton-Tate in 1980. They licensed it, re-released it as dBASE II , and later ported it to IBM PC computers running DOS . On the PC platform in particular, dBase became one of
4312-621: The criteria defined by Dr. Edgar F. Codd 's relational model . It used a runtime interpreter architecture, which allowed the user to execute commands by typing them in a command line "dot prompt". Similarly, program scripts (text files with PRG extensions) ran in the interpreter (with the DO command). Over time, Ashton-Tate's competitors introduced so-called clone products and compilers that had more robust programming features such as user-defined functions (UDFs), arrays for complex data handling. Ashton-Tate and its competitors also began to incorporate SQL ,
4400-404: The dBase product and especially the dBase programming language. These included FoxBASE+ (later renamed FoxPro), Clipper , and other so-called xBase products. Many of these were technically stronger than dBase, but could not push it aside in the market. This changed with the poor reception of dBase IV , whose design and stability were so lacking that many users switched to other products. In
4488-418: The data structure, but rather could ask the data file how it was structured. There are several variations on the .dbf file structure, and not all dBase-related products and .dbf file structures are compatible. VP-Info is unique in that it can read all variants of the dbf file structure. A second filetype is the .dbt file format for memo fields. While character fields are limited to 254 characters each,
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#17328559058134576-510: The diversity of organizations you represent." The NASA/JPL Educator Resource Center, which is moving from its location at the Indian Hill Mall in Pomona, California, at the end of 2013, offers resources, materials and free workshops for formal and informal educators covering science, technology, engineering and science topics related to NASA missions and science. The lab had an open house once
4664-437: The documentation for JPLDIS. He used this as the basis for a port to PTDOS on his kit-built IMSAI 8080 microcomputer, and called the resulting system Vulcan (after the home planet of Mr. Spock on Star Trek ). George Tate and Hal Lashlee had built two successful start-up companies: Discount Software, which was one of the first to sell PC software programs through the mail to consumers, and Software Distributors, which
4752-473: The early 1990s, xBase products constituted the leading database platform for implementing business applications. The size and impact of the xBase market did not go unnoticed, and within one year, the three top xBase firms were acquired by larger software companies: By the opening decade of the 21st century, most of the original xBase products had faded from prominence and many had disappeared entirely. Products known as dBase still exist, owned by dBase LLC. In
4840-535: The first successful Mars rover, Sojourner , demonstrating the feasibility of mobile exploration on the Martian surface. In 2004, the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity , landed on Mars. Opportunity outlived its expected lifespan by 14 years, providing a wealth of scientific data and setting the stage for future Mars missions. In the 2000s and 2010s, JPL broadened its exploration scope, including
4928-637: The flexible and fast VP-Info with a unique built-in compiler. The community of dBase variants sought to create a dBase language standard, supported by IEEE committee X3J19 and initiative IEEE 1192. They said "xBase" to distinguish it from the Ashton-Tate product. Ashton-Tate saw the rise of xBase as an illegal threat to its proprietary technology. In 1988 they filed suit against Fox Software and Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) for copying dBase's "structure and sequence" in FoxBase+ (SCO marketed XENIX and UNIX versions of
5016-578: The football pool at the office. He based it on Jeb Long's JPLDIS and called it Vulcan, after Mr. Spock of Star Trek. In late 1980, George Tate, of Ashton-Tate , entered into a marketing agreement with Wayne Ratliff. Vulcan was renamed to dBase, the price was raised from $ 50 to $ 695, and the software quickly became a huge success. When a number of "clones" of dBase appeared in the 1990s, Ashton-Tate sued one of them, FoxPro , over copyrights. On December 11, 1990, Judge Hatter issued an order invalidating Ashton-Tate's copyrights in its own dBASE products. That ruling
5104-515: The initial pieces of software available when the IBM PC went on sale in the fall of 1981. dBase was one of a few "professional" programs on the platform then, and became a huge success. The customer base included not only end-users, but an increasing number of "value added resellers", or VARs, who purchased dBase, wrote applications with it, and sold the completed systems to their customers. The May 1983 release of dBase II RunTime further entrenched dBase in
5192-473: The laboratory is now owned and sponsored by NASA and administered and managed by the California Institute of Technology . The primary function of the laboratory is the construction and operation of planetary robotic spacecraft , though it also conducts Earth-orbit and astronomy missions. It is also responsible for operating the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN). Among the major active projects at
5280-846: The laboratory, some are the Mars 2020 mission, which includes the Perseverance rover; the Mars Science Laboratory mission, including the Curiosity rover; the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter ; the Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter ; the SMAP satellite for Earth surface soil moisture monitoring; the NuSTAR X-ray telescope ; and the Psyche asteroid orbiter. It is also responsible for managing
5368-421: The lack of protection against copying, as compared to compiled software, was often less of an issue. A major legacy of dBase is its .dbf file format, which has been adopted in a number of other applications. For example, the shapefile format, developed by ESRI for spatial data in its PC ArcInfo geographic information system , uses .dbf files to store feature attribute data. Microsoft recommends saving
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#17328559058135456-478: The late 1960s, Fred Thompson at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) was using a Tymshare product named RETRIEVE to manage a database of electronic calculators, which were at that time very expensive products. In 1971, Thompson collaborated with Jack Hatfield, a programmer at JPL, to write an enhanced version of RETRIEVE, which became the JPLDIS project. JPLDIS was written in FORTRAN on the UNIVAC 1108 mainframe, and
5544-586: The launch of missions to study the outer planets, like the Juno mission to Jupiter and the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn. Concurrently, JPL also began to focus on Earth science missions, developing satellite technology to study climate change, weather patterns, and natural phenomena on Earth. JPL also opened the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA in 1998, which had found 95% of asteroids
5632-631: The lawsuit against Fox and allow other companies to use the dBase/xBase language without the threat of legal action. By the end of 1992, major software companies raised the stakes by acquiring the leading xBase products. Borland acquired Ashton-Tate's dBase products (and later WordTech's xBase products), Microsoft acquired Fox Software's FoxBASE+ and FoxPro products, and Computer Associates acquired Nantucket's Clipper products. Advisor Media built on its Data Based Advisor magazine by launching FoxPro Advisor and Clipper Advisor (and other) developer magazines and journals, and live conferences for developers. However,
5720-530: The nature and dynamics of the outer planets. Both Voyager spacecraft, after fulfilling their primary mission objectives, were directed towards interstellar space , carrying with them the Golden Records – phonograph discs containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life on Earth. The 1980s also saw the inception of the Galileo mission which launched in the late 1980s. The Galileo spacecraft
5808-559: The nearby motion picture and television industries, by advising them about scientific accuracy in their productions. Science fiction shows advised by JPL include Babylon 5 and its sequel series, Crusade . JPL also works with the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (DHS-S&T). JPL and DHS-S&T developed a search and rescue tool for first responders called FINDER. First responders can use FINDER to locate people still alive who are buried in rubble after
5896-479: The next fiscal year 2025. There is a tradition at JPL to eat "good luck peanuts " before critical mission events, such as orbital insertions or landings. As the story goes, after the Ranger program had experienced failure after failure during the 1960s, the first successful Ranger mission to impact the Moon occurred after a JPL staff member had decided to pass out peanuts to relieve tension. The staff jokingly decided that
5984-535: The open house has been previously cancelled. JPL open house for 2014 was October 11 and 12 and 2015 was October 10 and 11. Starting from 2016, JPL replaced the annual Open House with "Ticket to Explore JPL", which features the same exhibits but requires tickets and advance reservation. Roboticist and Mars rover driver Vandi Verma frequently acts as science communicator at open house type events to encourage children (and particularly girls) into STEM careers. In addition to its government work, JPL has also assisted
6072-445: The peanuts must have been a good luck charm, and the tradition persisted. These are some of the missions partially sponsored by JPL: The JPL Advanced Projects Design Team, also known as Team X, is an interdisciplinary team of engineers that utilizes "concurrent engineering methodologies to complete rapid design, analysis and evaluation of mission concept designs". On February 25, 2005, Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12
6160-406: The platform in the C programming language , using automated code conversion tools. The resulting code worked, but was essentially undocumented and inhuman in syntax , a problem that would prove to be serious in the future. In May 1984, the rewritten dBase III was released. Although reviewers widely panned its lowered performance, the product was otherwise well reviewed. After a few rapid upgrades,
6248-451: The product is no longer offered. In 2006 Advisor Media stopped its last-surviving xBase magazine, FoxPro Advisor. The era of xBase dominance has ended, but there are still xBase products. The dBase product line is now owned by dBase LLC which currently sells dBASE PLUS 12.3 and a DOS-based dBASE CLASSIC (dbDOS to run it on 64-bit Windows). Some open source implementations are available, such as Harbour , xHarbour , and Clip. In 2015,
6336-716: The program. Staff at educational organizations that meet the Museum Alliance requirements can register to participate online. The Museum Alliance is a subset of the JPL Education Office's Informal Education group, which also serves after-school and summer programs, parents and other kinds of informal educators. On December 9, 2020 , the Museum Alliance officially announced a rebrand to the Museum & Informal Education (MIE) Alliance. In an announcement to members, they said, "Pronounced 'My' Alliance, our new name better reflects
6424-585: The software was 100% upward compatible as Ashton-Tate had promised, and praised Control Center as greatly improving on III Plus's Assist mode. The magazine noted early reports of bugs and promised a followup, but concluded that "the product seems solid overall". Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ) is a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California , Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by Caltech researchers,
6512-407: The software was powerful but the documentation was poor. He praised its speed and sophisticated queries, but said that "we do a lot of pounding at the table and screaming in rage at the documentation". "Is [dBASE IV 1.0] worth the wait? I think so", Malcolm Rubel wrote in the magazine in 1989, describing it as "a quantum leap over dBASE III Plus in functionality, power, and ease of use". He said that
6600-439: The status of the employee's mental, emotional, and financial stability. Additionally, if employees depart JPL before the end of the two-year validity of the background check, no investigation ability is terminated; former employees can still be legally monitored. Employees were told that if they did not sign an unlimited waiver of privacy, they would be deemed to have "voluntarily resigned". The United States Court of Appeals for
6688-525: The summer and throughout the year to high school through postdoctoral and faculty students. (In most cases, students must be U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents to apply, although foreign nationals studying at U.S. universities are eligible for limited programs.) Interns are sponsored through NASA programs, university partnerships and JPL mentors for research opportunities at the laboratory in areas including technology, robotics, planetary science, aerospace engineering, and astrophysics. In August 2013, JPL
6776-479: The system stabilized and was once again a best-seller throughout the 1980s, and formed the famous "application trio" of PC compatibles (dBase, Lotus 123 , and WordPerfect ). By the fall of 1984, the company had over 500 employees and was taking in US$ 40 million a year in sales (equivalent to $ 117 million in 2023), the vast majority from dBase products. There was also an unauthorized clone of dBase III called Rebus in
6864-399: The use of lower case "d" and all-caps "BASE" to create a distinctive name. Pawluk suggested calling the new product version two ("II") to suggest it was less buggy than an initial release. dBase II was the result and became a standard CP/M application along with WordStar and SuperCalc. In 1981, IBM commissioned a port of dBase for the then-in-development PC. The resultant program was one of
6952-434: The way, Borland , which had bought Ashton-Tate , brought out a revised dBase IV in 1992 but with a focus described as "designed for programmers" rather than "for ordinary users". For handling data, dBase provided detailed procedural commands and functions to dBase is an application development language and integrated navigational database management system which Ashton-Tate labeled as " relational " but it did not meet
7040-481: The work of the JPL was "considered to include" the research carried out by the GALCIT Rocket Research Group from 1936 on. In 1944, Parsons was expelled due to his "unorthodox and unsafe working methods" following one of several FBI investigations into his involvement with the occult, drugs and sexual promiscuity. During JPL's Army years, the laboratory developed two significant deployed weapon systems,
7128-453: Was approved by the Secretary of Commerce . This was followed by Federal Information Processing Standards 201 ( FIPS 201 ), which specified how the federal government should implement personal identity verification. These specifications led to a need for rebadging to meet the updated requirements. On August 30, 2007, a group of JPL employees filed suit in federal court against NASA, Caltech, and
7216-459: Was based on a legal doctrine known as " unclean hands ". Judge Hatter explained that Ashton-Tate knew that the dBase program development was based on JPLDIS, and that fact was kept hidden from the Copyright Office. DBASE dBase (also stylized dBASE ) was one of the first database management systems for microcomputers and the most successful in its day. The dBase system included
7304-479: Was designed to study Jupiter and its major moons in detail. Although the probe only entered the gas giant's orbit in the 1990s, its inception and planning during the 1980s signified JPL's continued commitment to deep space exploration. The 1990s and 2000s saw a resurgence in Mars exploration, driven by JPL's Mars Pathfinder and Mars Exploration Rover missions. In 1997, the Mars Pathfinder mission deployed
7392-563: Was engineer/aerodynamicist Theodore von Kármán , who eventually secured U.S. Army financial support for this "GALCIT Rocket Project" in 1939. In the early years of the project, work was primarily focused on the development of rocket technology. In 1941, Malina, Parsons, Forman, Martin Summerfield , and pilot Homer Bushey demonstrated the first jet-assisted takeoff ( JATO ) rockets to the Army. In 1943, von Kármán, Malina, Parsons, and Forman established
7480-643: Was named one of "The 10 Most Awesome College Labs of 2013" by Popular Science, which noted that about 100 students who intern at the laboratory are considered for permanent jobs at JPL after they graduate. The JPL Education Office also hosts the Planetary Science Summer School (PSSS), an annual week-long workshop for graduate and postdoctoral students. The program involves a one-week team design exercise developing an early mission concept study, working with JPL's Advanced Projects Design Team ("Team X") and other concurrent engineering teams. JPL created
7568-408: Was one of the first wholesale distributors of PC software in the world. They entered into an agreement with Ratliff to market Vulcan, and formed Ashton-Tate (the name Ashton was chosen purely for marketing reasons) to do so. Ratliff ported Vulcan from PTDOS to CP/M . Hal Pawluk, who handled marketing for the nascent company, decided to change the name to the more business-like "dBase". Pawluk devised
7656-416: Was presented publicly in 1973. When Hatfield left JPL in 1974, Jeb Long took over his role. While working at JPL as a contractor, C. Wayne Ratliff entered the office football pool . He had no interest in the game as such, but felt he could win the pool by processing the post-game statistics found in newspapers. In order to do this, he turned his attention to a database system and, by chance, came across
7744-636: Was presented to the National Science Foundation conference on Data Storage and Retrieval Methods at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri (July 1973). Hatfield left JPL in 1974 and the JPLDIS project was assigned to Jeb Long, another programmer at JPL, who added many advanced features plus a programming language. In 1978, while at JPL, Wayne Ratliff wrote a database program in assembly language for CP/M based microcomputers to help him win
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