Valleywide : Exhibit at Fair Gives a Cool View of Pluto

Outside, visitors to the San Fernando Valley Fair wilted under the scorching afternoon sun Friday as they explored the sights and sounds of the carnival midway and livestock tent.

Inside the fair’s education pavilion at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Burbank, Richard Shope was millions of miles away, exploring the cool mysteries of the planet Pluto.

Shope’s title? Curriculum development lead for the Pasadena-based Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Pluto Educational Outreach Program.

In English: He’s part educator, part cheerleader, charged with turning teachers and their students onto the Pluto Express, a deep-space probe that will survey the solar system’s farthest planet starting early next century.

“Part of our job is to communicate the excitement and challenges of space exploration,” he explained, surrounded by photos, sketches and graphics detailing the mission.

But there wasn’t much communicating going on in the air-conditioned--though mostly empty--exhibit hall.

“I think the heat’s keeping people away,” Shope speculated as his colleagues relaxed around other JPL exhibits devoted to ozone depletion and future spacecraft that will explore Mars and Jupiter.

Then, suddenly, an audience appeared--30 summer-camp children from Foothill Baptist Church in Sylmar. For 20 boisterous minutes, Shope led them through a bit of living theater as they “performed” the mission, with the children playing everything from planets to radio waves.

“There’s one more thing I want to give you before you go,” Shope said as the show wound down.

“What, candy?” a camper wanted to know.

Alas, it was not, just a sheet of planetary facts.

Candy for the mind, perhaps.