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New Mexico is a land of wide, open spaces, far from "civilization"- city lights, mechanical noise. Perfect for testing bombs, building observatories. Easy to protect the privacy of the labs, to control access. During World War II, New Mexico was chosen as the location for some important military projects, the most notable was the Manhattan project - the building of the atomic bomb. Heightened security since the attack of 9/11/01 closed a number of sites to the casual visitor. Thus, we were not able to visit Sandia Labs in Albuquerque. Too bad; they have a "Tower of Power" solar collection field that would have been a fantastic photo op.
We were able to go to Los Alamos and the bus ride there - over 3 hours - proved how isolated the place is, and difficult to get to. We went to the Bradbury Science Museum, not named for Ray Bradbury, by the way. We learned the whole story of Los Alamos and the Manhattan Project, from the initial letter written to FDR by Einstein, and his reply, to the early days at the lab with Oppenheimer, Feinman, and so many world famous physicists, to the exploding of the first Atomic bomb at Trinity site. Unfortunately, Trinity site was one of the places we could not visit.
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 Robert Goddard is called "the father of rocketry". In Roswell, we visited a recreation of Robert Goddard's first laboratory, where he worked on and developed the first American rockets. We saw some of his home movies depicting early rocket launches - both successes and failures.At Almagordo we went to the Space Hall of Fame. There, surrounding the Museum, was a rocket park, which included the Nike Ajax. Larry was delighted to see his old buddy! In the late '50's he had been stationed at White Sands, learning how to shoot off these Ajax missiles. (Later, he was assigned to a Nike site in Needham, MA.) The more years between his days at White Sands and the present, the fonder are his recollections. He sat at the base of his rocket and told all who came near, all about it.
 At the White Sands museum, we saw both rockets and bombs. Many pieces of equipment and photographs dating from the years he was there. And one room devoted to the crew who put together the first atomic bomb. (no, not the physicists who designed it, the "grunts" who actually built it.)
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We also learned, through a lecture at the hotel, of some of the projects that the lab is doing on the war on terrorism: tracking the source of the anthrax scare through genetic detective work. They have created an anthrax killing foam from common everyday ingredients.