History WesternAnimation / ReadyJetGo

The show's last episode aired on June 17, 2019. On October 19, 2019, it was confirmed that [[https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2630058487015833&id=353694604652244&anchor_reactions=true show had been cancelled]]. In 2021, PBS, Bartlett and co. began dropping hints that the show would return in some shape or form -- a new online store with shirts in adult sizes was released, and a marathon of the show's two hour-long specials was aired July 2-4. They were even RereleasedForFree on [=YouTube=] for a brief period of time. In August, it was [[https://www.instagram.com/p/CSrgGIwn5GY/?utm_medium=copy_link confirmed]] that new content is being made for the series. On October 7, 2022, Bartlett [[https://twitter.com/bluffscastle/status/1578470089825071105 confirmed]] that the new content is an 80-minute movie for Creator/{{Universal}} set to be released in 2023.

[[caption-width-right:350:''Excelsior!''[[note]]From left to right: [[LittleMissSnarker Mindy]], [[MsImagination Sydney]], [[AmusingAlien Jet]], [[NervousWreck Sean]] and [[CoolPet Sunspot]].[[/note]]]]

The show's last episode aired on June 17, 2019. On October 19, 2019, it was confirmed that [[https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2630058487015833&id=353694604652244&anchor_reactions=true show had been cancelled]]. In 2021, PBS, Bartlett and co. began dropping hints that the show would return in some shape or form -- a new online store with shirts in adult sizes was released, and a marathon of the show's two hour-long specials was aired July 2-4. They were even RereleasedForFree on [=YouTube=] for a brief period of time. In August, it was [[https://www.instagram.com/p/CSrgGIwn5GY/?utm_medium=copy_link confirmed]] that new content is being made for the series. On October 7, 2022, Bartlett [[https://twitter.com/bluffscastle/status/1578470089825071105? confirmed]] that the new content is an 80-minute movie for Creator/{{Universal}} set to be released in 2023.

The show's last episode aired on June 17, 2019. On October 19, 2019, it was confirmed that [[https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2630058487015833&id=353694604652244&anchor_reactions=true show had been cancelled]]. In 2021, PBS, Bartlett and co. began dropping hints that the show would return in some shape or form -- a new online store with shirts in adult sizes was released, and a marathon of the show's two hour-long specials was aired July 2-4. They were even RereleasedForFree on [=YouTube=] for a brief period of time. In August, it was [[https://www.instagram.com/p/CSrgGIwn5GY/?utm_medium=copy_link confirmed]] that new content is being made for the series; whether it's a sign that the show could be {{uncancelled}} in the near future remains to be seen.

The show's last episode aired on June 17, 2019. On October 19, 2019, it was confirmed that [[https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2630058487015833&id=353694604652244&anchor_reactions=true show had been cancelled]]. In 2021, PBS, Bartlett and co. began dropping hints that the show would return in some shape or form -- a new online store with shirts in adult sizes was released, and a marathon of the show's two hour-long specials was aired July 2-4. They were even RereleasedForFree on [=YouTube=]. In August, it was [[https://www.instagram.com/p/CSrgGIwn5GY/?utm_medium=copy_link confirmed]] that new content is being made for the series; whether it's a sign that the show could be {{uncancelled}} in the near future remains to be seen.

''Ready Jet Go!'' also now has a [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/BestEpisode/ReadyJetGo?open=all#hxtbkb17 Best Episode Crowner]], so if you'd like to make your choice for the best episode of the series known, now's your chance.

''Ready Jet Go!'' is an EdutainmentShow that currently airs on Creator/PBSKids in the United States, and was created by Creator/CraigBartlett (whose works include ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' and ''WesternAnimation/DinosaurTrain''). It made its television debut on February 15, 2016, and is aimed at kids ages 3-8. The series is produced by Wind Dancer Films and Snee Oosh, Inc, in cooperation with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Due to being an alien, and the most interesting kid ever, Jet has become popular in the town of Boxwood Terrace and has formed a posse with the neighbor kids, appointing himself leader of the group with little complaint from the others. His friends are Sydney Skelley, who is a huge science fiction geek and NiceGirl with a great imagination and idolizes a fictional character named Commander Cressida, the 4 year old LittleMissSnarker Mindy Melendez, who is hilariously snarky and is ConstantlyCurious, often asking the questions that lead the episode's plots, and even though she cannot go into space with the older kids yet, she is still treated as an equal and never talked down to, and the NervousWreck Sean Rafferty, a ChildProdigy who is practical, easily nervous, and dreams of leading the first human mission to Mars, but, [[FatalFlaw gets space-sick easily, is afraid of heights, and has claustrophobia, while also having panic attacks]]. And even better, the Propulsions' car turns into a flying saucer, which they frequently use to take the other kids into space.

The show's last episode aired on June 17, 2019. On October 19, 2019, it was confirmed that [[https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2630058487015833&id=353694604652244&anchor_reactions=true show had been cancelled]]. In 2021, PBS, Bartlett and co. began dropping hints that the show would return in some shape or form -- a new online store with shirts in adult sizes was released, and a marathon of the show's two hour-long specials was aired July 2-4. They were even RereleasedForFree on [=YouTube=]. In August, it was [[https://www.instagram.com/p/CSrgGIwn5GY/?utm_medium=copy_link confirmed]] that new content is being made for the series.

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Tropes A to M]]
* AbhorrentAdmirer:
** Mindy seems to like Mitchell, though he is mean to her and doesn't like her back.
** This is later averted in the episode "Detective Mindy", where Mitchell declares Mindy his detective partner and they become friends.
* AbortedArc: In "So Many Moons", Mindy mentions that her parents are thinking about having another baby. This could have set up an arc about Mindy preparing to be a big sister, but this was subsequently dropped and forgotten about in later episodes.
* AbsenteeActor:
** Mindy was absent in "Beep has the Blues", " A Visit to the Planetarium", "Asteroids, Meteors, and Meteorites", "Tiny Blue Dot", "Earth Camping", "What's a Satellite?", "Space Junk", "Beep and Boop's Game", "Sunday Drive", "Whole Lotta Shakin'", "My Fair Jet", "Space Race", "Sean's Neptune Tune", "Castaway Carrot", "Not a Sound", "A Hammer and a Feather", "Commander Mom", "Asteroid Belt Space Race", "Water, Water Everywhere", and "Treasure Map".
** Sean and Sydney were both absent in "Earth Camping", "Sunday Drive", "Castaway Carrot", "Mindy and Carrot Bake", and "Treasure Map"[[note]]Technically, only Sean was absent, since Sydney made a cameo at the beginning of the episode.[[/note]].
** Celery was absent in "Backyard Moon Base", "Mindy's Moon Bounce House", "Visit to Mom's Office", "A Visit to the Planetarium", "What Goes Up...", "Asteroid Patrol", "Treehouse Space Station", "Earth Camping", "Satellite Selfie", "Scientific Sean", "Beep and Boop's Game", "Constellation Prize", "Total Eclipse of the Sunspot", "Sean's Year in Space", "Lone Star", "Jet's Time Machine", "Commander Mom", "Jet Shrinks the Kids", "Measure for Measure", "Mindy and Carrot Bake", "Magnet, PI" "Eye in the Sky".
** Carrot was absent in "Mindy's Moon Bounce House", "Beep Has the Blues", "Visit to Mom's Office", "Mission to Mars", "A Visit to the Planetarium", "Ice Moon Enceladus", "What Goes Up...", "Asteroid Patrol", "Treehouse Space Station", "Face on the Fritz", "Sunspot and the Great Red Spot", "Detective Mindy", "Satellite Selfie", "Beep and Boop's Game", "Total Eclipse of the Sunspot", "Sean's Year in Space", "Whole Lotta Shakin'", "The Mindysphere", "Lone Star", "Space Race", "Sean's Neptune Tune", "Not a Sound", "From Pluto With Love", "Commander Mom", "Mindy Turns Five", "Jet Shrinks the Kids", "Measure for Measure", "Commander Cressida Begins", "My Three Suns", and "Eye in the Sky".
* AccentInterest: In the episode "Kid-Kart Derby", Mr. Peterson takes note of Jet's apparent Midwest accent. Jet says that Bortron is in the middle of their spiral arm of the galaxy, so midwest was accurate. Luckily, Mr. Peterson avoids finding out that Jet is an alien by assuming that Bortron is somewhere in Iowa.
* AccidentalPervert: Sunspot in "Satellite Selfie", where he tries to take a picture of Jet's house from above [[ItMakesSenseInContext but ends up taking a picture of Mr. Peterson's butt]].
* AccidentalPun: Carrot and Celery think their names are "Earth" names. They were probably going for Garrett and Sally, respectively. Uncle Zucchini was most likely going for Zachary. Auntie Eggplant was likely going for either Agatha or Edna.
* TheAce:
** Jet. He can stretch his body, is really tall, smart, and the leader of his gang.
** Sunspot is scarily good at everything. He can even pull objects from HammerSpace.
* AcePilot: Celery. She is great at piloting the flying saucer, avoiding asteroids and other threats with ease. In fact, Carrot mentions in "How Come the Moon Changes Shape?" that Celery has been voted the best driver (well, technically pilot, but the Bortronians tend to treat saucers like cars) in the Bortron system for three years in a row.
* AcquiredSituationalNarcissism: In "Not a Sound", Sean already knows that there is no sound in space, yet Jet and Sydney are convinced that there is sound in space. Sean uses this as an opportunity to look smart and rub the fact that they're wrong in Jet and Sydney's faces.
* ActingForTwo: Several InUniverse examples.
** In "Lone Star", Sydney tells the other kids about the legend of Lone Star, and they imagine themselves as people in the story. Sydney plays both one of the townspeople and the town's only science teacher.
** In "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", Mindy plays both the Head Elf and the Head Scientist in the Christmas pageant.
** In "A Star is Born", Jet plays both hydrogen and helium in the kids' movie about the formation of a star.
* ActionGirl:
** Commander Cressida, Sydney's favorite comic book character.
** Sydney herself can slip into this territory at times, most notably in "Back to Bortron 7".
* ActionMom: Celery. Besides being an AcePilot, she has super strength as revealed in "A Hammer and a Feather", and is generally the most action-y of the Propulsion family.
* {{Acrofatic}}:
** Despite Sean's weight, he was able to do a perfect somersault over Jet's aunt, Eggplant in "Back to Bortron 7".
** It's also worth mentioning that in "What Goes Up..." he could run at almost the same speed as super-athletic Jet.
* AdaptationDistillation: The books based on some of the show's episodes (like "Night of a Bazillion Stars" and "From Pluto With Love") remove some scenes and lines to make them shorter.
* ADayInTheLimelight:
** "Commander Cressida Begins" mostly revolves around Sydney and Mindy. Jet and Sean do appear, but they have non-speaking cameos.
** "Fact Or Fiction?" gives Lillian the most focus.
** Sunspot is the focus of "Sunspot's Sunspot".
* AdBreakDoubleTake: A variant occurs in TV broadcasts of the two-parter, "Mindy Turns Five".[[note]]PBS doesn't have commercials, so live-action segments with Astronomer Amy Mainzer are used to fill the timeslot on this show[[/note]] At the end of Part One, Mindy says "This is one small step for Mindy, and one giant leap for Stuffy Bear!" and she steps on the camera. At the beginning of Part Two, Mindy says it again and her stepping on the camera is accompanied with puff effects and the other kids cheering.
* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: In "Earth Camping", Carrot and Jet go through their packing list, which consists of '''p'''ickle juice, a '''p'''ing '''p'''ong '''p'''addle, and a '''p'''ocket '''p'''rotector. It turns out, that their "packing list" was the "P" section of the dictionary!
* AdorablyPrecociousChild: All the kids count as this, especially Mitchell, who is about Mindy's age and can make an exact copy of Saturn V.
* AdultFear:
** [[spoiler: In "Back to Bortron 7", Eggplant informs Carrot and Celery that once they finish their presentation, they can never go back to Earth. Keep in mind that the Propulsions brought Sean and Sydney to Bortron 7 while their parents were out of town. Imagine your children being stranded on a planet thousands of lightyears away from Earth, taken by a crazy alien family, '''''never to return ever'''''. Luckily, Carrot and Celery's boss allows them to stay on Earth, so they get to return to Earth with their parents none the wiser.]]
** In "My Fair Jet", [[spoiler: the DSA weather balloon gets away in some nasty weather. Sean tries to grab it, but it ends up carrying it with him. You can tell by the expression on Dr. Rafferty's face that she is ''traumatized'' by her son flying away. Even Sydney was distraught. She pretty much begged Jet to forget his "Earthie" training just so he can save Sean.]]
* AdvancedTech2000: Face 9000 is a computer who answers the kids' questions. He also has a brother named Face 9001.
* AerithAndBob:
** We have Mindy, Sean, Sydney, and then there's Jet. But to be fair, his parents thought Jet was an earth name.
*** Actually, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_(name) it is...]]'. Now compare Jet to family member names such as Carrot and Celery.
* AffectionateGestureToTheHead:
** Dr. Rafferty gives one to Sean in "Face on the Fritz".
** Sunspot gives one to Sean after pinching him in "Space Junk".
** Dr. Bergs gives one to Mindy in "Solar System Bake Off".
* AffectionateNickname:
** As of the episode "Constellation Prize", Sean refers to his mother as "Dr. Mom".
** Numerous times in Season Two, Jet calls Sean "Sean-zo".
* AgelessBirthdayEpisode: Mindy has her birthday in "Mindy's Moon Bounce House", but it is unspecified what age she became. Even though Mindy was 4 up until season 2.
* AgentMulder:
** Mindy and Lillian, but especially Mindy. They believe that witches, ghosts, and the like are real as shown in "That's One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!".
** Taken further in "Fact Or Fiction?", where they both believe that clouds are made out of cotton candy, until they are proven wrong. Jet is also this.
* AgentScully:
** Mitchell, on the other hand, doubts that Halloween is magical, until he is proven wrong at the end of "That's One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!".
** In "Fact Or Fiction?", Sean and Sydney don't believe that clouds are made of cotton candy. Obviously they're right, but Jet, Lillian, and Mindy don't believe them. Luckily, Sean and Sydney are proven right by the DSA scientists.
* AgonyOfTheFeet: In "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa", Bergs hurts his foot.
* AirQuotes: In "Kid-Kart Derby", Jet makes air quotes when saying the word "winning".
* AlienAmongUs: The whole premise of the show is that the Propulsions are aliens from the planet Bortron 7 who are living on Earth to study its customs, but must keep their alien identity a secret.
* AlienAnimals: Sunspot is kind of a mix of a rabbit, kangaroo, and raccoon.
* AlienArtsAreAppreciated: Carrot grows to love Earthie cooking, even watching an Earthie cooking show in "What's a Satellite?".
* AlienLunch: Carrot tends to make many odd Bortronian dishes such as "deep-fried lollipops"
* AliensLoveHumanFood: To say that Jet loves human food is an understatement. He's '''obsessed''' with it, especially when it comes to donuts and pies.
* AnAlienNamedBob: Downplayed with Jet, as his name is pretty rare, but he gave himself an "Earthie" name after he and his family moved from Bortron 7 to Earth. His other family members named themselves after vegetables (Carrot, Celery, etc).
* AliensStealCable: "How We Found Your Sun" reveals that the Propulsions discovered Earth by picking up a primitive radio signal playing a 1950s rock and roll song called "Jet Propulsion", which they found catchy. This is also how our young hero Jet Propulsion got his "Earth" name.
* AlienNonInterferenceClause: Jet's parents are intergalactic travel writers from the planet Bortron 7. They came to Earth to study it and write reports on it. In "Back to Bortron 7", they state that their number one rule is "don't freak out the locals", which basically means that they can't expose their alien identity to humans or tamper with Earth in any way. Jet struggles to keep his alien identity a secret throughout the series, and it fuels the drama and comedy of several episodes. Heck, the official PBS description of Carrot and Celery even calls the rule the [[Franchise/StarTrek Prime Directive]].
* AllCGICartoon: The show is animated in CGI.
* AlliterativeName: '''M'''indy '''M'''elendez and '''S'''ydney '''S'''kelley.
* AllAnimalsAreDogs: Lampshaded within the show. Sunspot sometimes behaves like a dog, and people often confuse him for one.
* AllDesertsHaveCacti: In "Every Day Is Earth Day", Sean points out that deserts have cacti in them.
* AllLovingHero: Jet, being new to Earth, loves ''everything'' about it, and is nice to everyone, even Mitchell, who sometimes acts like a jerk to him and wants to find out if he's an alien.
* AllLoveIsUnrequited: Mindy's crush on Mitchell is unrequited. Though this trope is later averted in "Detective Mindy".
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: In "Visit to Mom's Office", when Jet is telling Dr. Rafferty, that he is an alien, she says that she ''felt'' like an alien when she was a kid, which implies that she was teased as a kid.
* AllWorkVsAllPlay: Whenever the kids need to solve a problem, Sean wants to use the Scientific Method and work to get the problem solved, while Jet wants to play around and deliberately make mistakes in order to solve the problem.
* AliensSpeakingEnglish: The Bortronians can speak English ''perfectly''.
* TheAloner: In "Sean's Year in Space", Sean tries to live in the treehouse for a full year all by himself, but eventually comes down for dinner.
* AlmostKiss: In the TV movie "Back to Bortron 7", during the Just Add Water number, [[https://youtu.be/3l6ailrQXcY?t=104 Jet and Sydney are almost about to either hold hands or kiss, but Celery obscures the shot]].
* AmateurFilmMakingPlot: In "A Star is Born", Sydney and the gang create a ''Commander Cressida'' fan-film about the birth of a star. Complete with cardboard props and wooden acting, but still very charming and educational nonetheless.
* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: In "Project Pluto", Dr. Rafferty unintentionally embarrasses Sean by mentioning that when he was four, he insisted on carrying a purple hippo plush everywhere.
* AmbiguouslyAbsentParent: It seems like any kid who isn't named Jet Propulsion only has one parent. Sean's dad, Mitchell's mom, Sydney's dad, and both of Mindy's parents are mysteriously absent. However, Mitchell's mom was heard talking to him in "Mindy's Moon Bounce House", and Mindy's mom can be heard calling to her in several episode.
* AmbiguouslyBi: Jet's sexuality has yet to be confirmed, but Jet always shows signs of being attracted to both Sean (a male) and Sydney (a female). See ShipTease and the HoYay subpage for more. While he was merely ambiguous throughout the show itself, Craig Bartlett stated that Jet was bi after the show ended.
* AmbiguouslyGay:
** Jet's cousin Zerk, who bats his eyes at Sean and calls him "adorable".
** Sean himself can also apply, due to the amount of ShipTease he has with Jet, especially in Season 2. He does have rare moments with Sydney, and did try to impress a background girl in "Mindy's Meteorite Stand", but this could be chalked up to [[HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday overcompensation]]. Also, Sean loves it when Jet calls him "Sean-zo", but gets annoyed with the very female Mindy when she calls him that in "Mindy's Bedtime".
* AmbiguousDisorder: Again, this is what Dr. Rafferty thinks when Jet reveals that he is an alien from Bortron 7, as "being from another planet/being an alien" is a common metaphorical description of what autism feels like. Sean could possibly have a high anxiety disorder due to being afraid of going to space and paranoid whenever someone touches his birthday telescope.
* AmbiguousSituation:
** In "You Can Call Me Albedo", it is unknown why Mitchell made Cody wear the black sweater in the first place.
** The identity of Mindy's mother. Apparently, her mother [[https://youtu.be/aHWCT_wzmUA?t=88 as seen]] in "Jet Can't Sleep" is [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/readyjetgo/images/8/89/DrMelendez.png/revision/latest?cb=20171031121907 Dr. Rafferty and Dr. Bergs' boss from "My Fair Jet"]]. However, when Mindy's mother is calling for her offscreen, she is voiced by Meg Roe. The boss was voiced by Ashleigh Ball. It is unknown if they are the same person or the animators got lazy and decided to use an already existing character model for Mindy's mom.
** Despite what the title of "Sean Has A Cold" implies, he seems to be fine other than a slight cough.
** [[spoiler: In "One Small Step", the kids land their saucer in Little Dipper Lake, where Mitchell is rowing a boat. When the kids are rescued by Mitchell, Jet explains that they built a super saucer and went to the moon. Later, Mitchell is invited to the kids' slumber party, where everyone, including Mitchell, sings about how hard it is to get back to Earth from space. It's really made unclear if Mitchell knows that the Propulsions are aliens or not]].
* AmericanGothicCouple: In the episode "The Mindysphere", Sunspot shows a picture[[note]][[https://www.facebook.com/therealetchman/photos/a.361105048582.154614.361059823582/10153963767158583/?type=3&theater The picture was made for the show]] by Etch-a-Sketch master Christoph Brown[[/note]] on his tablet of Carrot and Celery posing as the American Gothic couple, with Carrot holding a rake instead of a pitchfork.
* AmusingAlien: The Propulsions may as well be the prime example for this trope.
* AnAesop: The show has Aesops in a few episodes, but they're unique in that they're woven subtly into the narrative of the episode instead of being shoved down your throat. Examples:
** The moral of "Sounds Abound" is "Performing experiments is better when you're doing them with your friends".
** An overall theme of the show is "Failure is a stepping stone to success".
** "Kid-Kart Derby" has two: "Winning isn't everything" is the main one and "Don't cheat" is the minor one.
** The show had a BeYourself Aesop in the episode "My Fair Jet" that was surprisingly PlayedForDrama.
** "Jet 2" - "It's not good to stay jealous".
** "Space Junk" - "Knowing there's a problem should make you want to help solve it".
** "Jet's Time Machine" had a ''very'' important one - "You can't change the past, you can only learn from it".
** "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace" - "You should welcome other people into your friendship group".
** "Racing on Sunshine" - "Don't be overconfident".
** "Mindy's Bedtime" has Mindy want to keep the sun from going down so she can play more. Then, she learns about Sydney's pen pal Ahana, who lives in India. When it's day in India, it's night in Boxwood Terrace, and vice versa. When Celery takes the kids to a beach somewhere in the southern hemisphere, Mindy realizes that if she makes the day last a long time, Ahana won't get to wake up, resulting in a ''very'' subtle lesson on empathy.
** "Ain't No Mars Mountain High Enough" has a moral about teamwork.
** "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa" has the moral that the best solutions can come from the most unlikely places. Also that play is important for children and you should enjoy being a kid.
** "Who Messed Up The Treehouse?" - "Problems aren't going away unless you help solve them. We should all take care of the place we live."
** "Fact Or Fiction?" - "If something is too good to be true, it probably is. Do your own research to find out if something is true or not".
** "Sean Has A Cold" teaches us that you can have a good time, even when things don't go your way.
* AnachronismStew: Lampshaded during the planetarium show, which includes Pluto as a planet, ''after'' it had been demoted, something Sydney points out.
* AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle: Sometimes, the Amy Mainzer segments reiterate what was taught in the episode.
* AnimalAthleteLoophole: In "Mini-Golf at the DSA", [[TeamPet Sunspot]] helps Mindy score the hole-in-one needed for the kids' team to win. Bergs thinks that they might be cheating, but Mr. Peterson allows it since there's no rule in the rulebook about animal assists.
* AnimalMotif: Mindy seems to have a bear motif going on. She wears a bear hat, and she wears a different bear hat when she goes to sleep. She has a teddy bear named Stuffy Bear, who she dresses up as for Halloween. [[spoiler: And her space helmet has bear ears on it]].
* AnimalsFearNeutering: In "Castaway Carrot", Celery says "let's fix this puppy" (referring to the saucer) and [[TeamPet Sunspot]] screams in terror. Jet reassures him that Sunspot isn't going to be 'fixed' and the 'puppy' in question is the saucer. Due to BizarreAlienBiology and BarbieDollAnatomy, it's unknown if Bortronian pets even need neutering, but the context suggests that they do and Sunspot is afraid of it.
* AnimationBump:
** The animation in more recent episodes of the show is much better compared to older ones. The animation is much more high quality and puts detail into the character models.
** The show is animated by multiple different studios, with some episodes looking better than others. Here's a handy guide to the studios and their animation:
** Hot and Sour Animation animated the early episodes of Season 1, from "Tour of the Solar System" to "What Goes Up...". They're generally considered to have the weakest animation, with overly shiny, somewhat unfinished textures.
** Digitales Studios takes over for the next portion of Season 1, from "Solar System Bake-Off!" to "Sunday Drive". Their episodes have less shiny animation, full textures, and an overall soft feel. The colors can be a bit muted at times.
** Enchanting Studio Limited takes over for the rest of Season 1 and most of Season 2. They have the strongest animation overall, with stunning attention to detail, prominent colors, and bouncy, fluid movement.
* {{Animesque}}: The characters' huge, shiny eyes and spiky hair on some of them could bring anime to mind. Also, [[ArtShift the comic-book style transitions and montages]] resemble anime just a little bit.
* AntiHero: Mitchell appears to be heading in this direction. Mitchell can be sarcastic, condescending, and harsh towards the group, but he has a few PetTheDog moments that show that he can be nice. [[spoiler: The ChristmasEpisode pretty much reveals that he's a lonely kid who just wants to have friends.]]
* AppointmentTelevision: In "What's a Satellite?", Sydney is very anxious when the satellite TV service stops working because she doesn't want to miss the new episode of ''Commander Cressida''. Mr. Peterson is also frustrated when his sports game fizzles out. Carrot isn't that bothered by his cooking show being interrupted though, just very, very confused.
* ArcWords:
** "Oh I'm sure, I'm ''sure-sure''" is repeated multiple times throughout "Mindy's Mystery".
** Whenever Mitchell fails to expose Jet's alien identity, and his parents tell him that he has a "great imagination", Mitchell always tells them that he has no imagination. He even says this to his mom in "Mindy's Moon Bounce House", his first appearance. However, in "Moon Face", he finally sees a face on the moon and realizes that he does have an imagination after all. "Moon Face" is also Mitchell's final appearance in a regular episode. In his final appearance overall, the One Small Step special, he says that Jet has "quite an imagination".
* AreYouPonderingWhatImPondering: Happens in a few episodes between Jet and one other person.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking:
** In "Earth Camping", Mr. Peterson, Jet, Mitchell, and Carrot get lost in the middle of the woods on their camping trip. Carrot reveals that he has been marking their trail with Mitchell's jellybeans, but then a nearby squirrel comes and eats up the jellybeans that Carrot had laid.
-->'''Mitchell''': Hey, that squirrel took all my jellybeans!\\
'''Jet''': This is bad. He's eating our trail markers back to camp!\\
'''Carrot''': Plus, [[ComicallyMissingThePoint his teeth are gonna be just awful if he doesn't brush]].
** In "Eye in the Sky", after it is discovered that it will indeed rain on the night of the Space Scouts' sleepout.
-->'''Mitchell''': Bad news for Sean's sleepout, but good news for plants and flowers, and [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers umbrella salespeople]]!
* ArtShift:
** In several parts of "Diggin' Earth", Sydney imagines Commander Cressida and her crew digging to the center of the Earth, in a 2D style.
** Several times in the show, transitions and montages are drawn in a comic book art style, such as in "Sean Has a Cold", "The Mindysphere", "Jet Cooks Dinner", "Detective Mindy", "Treehouse Observatory", "The Tide is High", and "Sean's Robotic Arm".
* ArtStyleDissonance: The show has a somewhat simplistic but stylized art-style that appeals to young children, but the show itself is full of [[{{DemographicallyInappropriateHumour}} adult humour]] and quite a bit of NightmareFuel. Some mature themes are also implied such as PTSD, anxiety, racism, addiction, toxic parent-child relationships, and possibly more. Then again, Administrivia/TropesAreTools.
* AscendedExtra:
** Dr. Skelley, Sydney's mom. She was only ever mentioned by Sydney during some episodes of season 1, and appears in the very last of said season, but season 2 gives her a lot more screentime and focus.
** Lillian only appeared in one episode of season 1, and another two as cameos. Season 2 bumps her from minor character status to recurring character status (most likely in part due to her being a [[EnsembleDarkhorse popular character]]. Her appearances even rival those of Mitchell and Dr. Rafferty in terms of recurring characters.
* AsianAirhead: It seems the writers are attempting to make Lillian this, but it's downplayed for the most part. In "The Grandest Canyon" she doesn't know what "perspective" means, and in "Mindy Turns Five", she outright tells Mindy what she got her for her birthday instead of keeping it a surprise like she said she would.
* AteItAll: Several instances. For example, Sunspot eats all of Sean's peanut butter sandwiches in "Sean's Year in Space", and the entire pizza in "Satellite Selfie". In "Earth Camping", Cody eats all of the Petersons' camping snacks.
* AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever:
** In "The Plant From Bortron 7", Jet's Bortronian plant becomes enormous after it grows under the light of the Sun. It also becomes a monstrous Godzilla-like creature.
** At the end of "Jet Shrinks the Kids", Mindy uses the shrink ray in reverse to become a giant, and startles Mitchell in the process.
* AuthorAvatar: Jet is one to the series creator Craig Bartlett:
-->'''Craig Bartlett''': “[[WesternAnimation/HeyArnold Arnold]] was how I felt being a kid and [[WesternAnimation/DinosaurTrain Buddy the T-Rex]] is really optimistic and doesn’t see how anything can’t work out and a friend to all. And Jet is even more so because Jet won’t shut up, you can’t get him down, he is always optimistic and he’s like the music man always bursting into song. When I was a kid, I thought wouldn’t it be fun if everything was a musical and people were always bursting into song. So I feel like he is the best iteration of my kind of personality that we’ve come up with yet.”
* AwesomeMcCoolName: The Propulsions obviously have these names.
* TheBabyOfTheBunch: 4 year old Mindy to the other kids, who are about 9-12.
* BadassAdorable: The kids, while definitely adorable, can be this occasionally. Especially in the one-hour special "Back to Bortron 7".
* BadassCrew: Jet, Sean, Sydney, Mindy, Sunspot, and Face 9000 (with some assistance from Zerk and Jet 2) all prove to be this in "Back to Bortron 7", where they combine their efforts to save Carrot and Celery's presentation. Highlights include Zerk chauffeuring them to the headquarters in record time, Jet, Sean, and Sydney doing acrobatic stunts to get past Eggplant, Sunspot and Face 9000 saving the [=PowerCube=], and Mindy and Jet 2 unintentionally causing an eclipse which distracts the townspeople from noticing that the Propulsion house is gone.
* BadBadActing: During the rehearsal of the pageant in "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", Mindy performs her lines extremely woodenly.
* BaitAndSwitch:
** The episode "Mindy in Space" is about [[spoiler: the kids pretending to take Mindy to space, complete with Mindy singing the take-off song]].
** The episode "Mindy and Carrot Bake" is about [[spoiler: Mindy and Carrot getting lost in outer space.]]
** In "Treasure Map", when Mitchell encounters the treasure chest, he is confused by its contents...and then declares that he loves it and does a dorky HappyDance.
** In "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa", the scientists hear footsteps approaching the door, and think it's Ellen. It turns out to just be the kids.
** In "Mars Rock for Mom", when Sean shows his mom the rock he found, Dr. Rafferty comments that she knows where it came from. At first, Sean is worried that she knows that it came from Mars, but Dr. Rafferty says that she knows that it came from Sean.
* {{Balloonacy}}: In "Every Day Is Earth Day", Sunspot is able to puff up like a balloon, and Jet flies away while holding on to him.
* BananaPeel: Sunspot slips on a banana peel in "Mars Rock For Mom".
* BatmanCanBreatheInSpace: Sean, Sydney, and [[spoiler: Mindy]] can breathe in space, even without spacesuits with oxygen tanks.
* BeachBury: A photo on Sunspot's tablet from "Endless Summer" shows Jet being buried in the sand, and in the comic-book montage in "The Tide is High", Mindy is shown with a sand mermaid tail.
* BeachEpisode: "The Tide is High", where the kids try to figure out why the ocean looks different from when they last went there. Thankfully, there is no fanservice involved.
* BearerOfBadNews:
** In "Mindy's Meteorite Stand", Dr. Rafferty breaks the unfortunate news to Mindy that [[spoiler: that her rock isn't really a meteorite, since it has quartz in it]].
** In "Project Pluto", Jet loses to Sean and Sydney in a game of "not it" and has to tell Mindy that Pluto is no longer a planet. However, he gets off easy because when he tries to tell her, she tells Jet that she already knew.
** In "Back to Bortron 7", Eggplant tells Carrot and Celery that after they do their presentation, they're done with Earth. They respond appropriately.
* BeautifulSingingVoice: Sean doesn't get to sing much outside of rhythmically talking during song numbers, but when he does sing, everyone acknowledges that he's got talent. Sean apparently gets this from SingingInTheShower. Jet spends a good chunk of "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace" gushing over Sean's beautiful singing voice.
* BecomingTheMask: [[spoiler: Implied. As shown in "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", Mitchell fakes his jerk attitude to hide his loneliness and social insecurity. Even after he befriends the other kids in this episode, he still acts like a jerkass in some episodes of season 2, although he's mellowed out ''a lot'' more. Since he is shown acting rude towards the other kids in many episodes of season 1, it is implied that he's been hiding behind his jerk mask for so long, that it's become a part of his personality, and its something that he can't shake off, at least for the time being]].
* BefriendingTheEnemy: Later on, the main characters befriend Mitchell, a jerk who had tried to expose Jet's alien identity multiple times throughout the series. Mitchell becomes kinder as a result.
* BenevolentBoss: As revealed in "Back to Bortron 7", Carrot and Celery's boss is one of the nicest aliens in the Bortron system. Also, Dr. Rafferty's boss in "My Fair Jet".
* BerserkButton: Sydney will get ''pissed'' if you make her miss one episode of Commander Cressida.
** Sean will murder you if you get a fingerprint on his birthday telescope.
** Mitchell '''hates''' it when people sneak up on him.
* BeYourself: PlayedForDrama in the episode "My Fair Jet". Jet wants to go to the DSA Open House with Sean and Sydney, but Sean and Sydney will only let him go if he behaves like a regular Earth kid. He can't say he's from Bortron 7, he can't use his "tool-armed backpack thingy" (which doubles as a jetpack), and he can't sing. However, at the Open House, the DSA weather balloon flies away in some bad weather, carrying Sean along with it. So, Sydney convinces Jet to be himself, so he can save Sean. He ends up rescuing Sean with his jetpack, and sings a song about how he is Bortronian. Pretty much, if Jet wasn't himself, Sean probably would've been killed.
* BigBallOfViolence: In "Uncle Zucchini Babysits", Jet, Sean, Sydney, Mindy, Uncle Zucchini, and Moonbeam form one of these while trying to grab Sunspot so they can give him a bath.
* BigBeautifulWoman: Eggplant, Jet's aunt.
* BigBrotherBully: More like Little Brother Bully. In "A Kid's Guide to Mars", Face's younger brother, Face 9001, is mean to him, argues with him, and always try to show off, to the point of the original Face calling "'''MOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!'''" at least two times.
* BigDamnHeroes:
** In "Back to Bortron 7", [[spoiler: just as Celery and Carrot are about to fail their presentation, Jet, Sydney, Zerk, Sean, and Sunspot save the day by putting on a musical number about how Earth is full of water, which convinces Carrot and Celery's boss to let them stay on Earth for another season. Actually, Zerk didn't even perform in the musical number, but that didn't stop him from bragging about how it was supposedly ''his'' idea]].
** In "One Small Step", [[spoiler: Sydney and Jet 2 get their moment when they fix the super saucer together, allowing the gang to head back home. Mitchell also gets his moment when he saves the kids from drowning in the lake]].
* BigEater:
** Jet is this. It seems that every few episodes, he develops a new food interest, whether it be pie or sushi. He even listed eating as one of his favorite things in "Treehouse Observatory". Despite this, he is still very skinny.
** Sean is this to a smaller extent. In "Sean's Year in Space", he tries to stay in the treehouse for a year but comes down when he smells pot roast. Also, it is revealed in "Whole Lotta Shakin'" that he stress-eats, and in "Project Pluto", he said that the Propulsions usually have snacks when the kids go to ask Carrot a question about Pluto, which earned him a funny look from Sydney.
** Sunspot can also be this too. Sunspot eats all of Sean's peanut butter sandwiches in one episode, and scarfed down an entire pizza pie in another. He even ate an entire sub sandwich in "Mindy in Space".
* TheBigGuy: Jet is the tallest of all the children.
* BigNo:
** Zerk screams "NOOOOOOOOO!" at the end of "Whole Lotta Shakin'" after Jet throws his smartwatch away, which means Zerk can no longer bother Jet.
** Sean delivers one in "Sean's Robotic Arm" when his Neil Armstrong action figure falls into a hole.
* TheBigRace:
** In "Kid-Kart Derby", Jet races against Mitchell in the annual Boxwood Terrace Kids' Soapbox Derby.
** The sequel episode "Racing on Sunshine" is essentially the same plot, but Sydney, Sean, and Mindy are involved, and in this episode, the kids have to design solar-powered karts.
** The episode "Space Race" has Celery racing against her brother Zucchini.
** The sequel episode "Asteroid Belt Space Race" has Celery and the kids racing against both Zucchini ''and'' Eggplant & Zerk.
* BigYes: In "Potatoes on Mars", when Jet suggests that they go to Mars, Sydney and Mindy shout "YES!"
* BilingualBonus: In Norway, the show is called ''Jet fra Bortom'', which literally translates to ''Jet from Beyond''. "Bortom" sounds exactly like "Bortron", the star system that Jet and his family are from. So they really are from beyond.
* BinarySuns: In "My Three Suns", the gang visits Proxima B, an exoplanet that has three suns.
* BinocularShot: This happens ''a lot'', usually when Mitchell is spying on the gang.
* BirthdayEpisode:
** "Mindy's Moon Bounce House".
** "Earthday Birthday", even though it is about the anniversary that Jet landed on Earth, and not an actual birthday.
** "Mindy Turns Five".
** "Moon Circus" for Carrot.
* BizarreAlienLocomotion: Sunspot moves underwater by whirling his striped tail like a propeller.
* BizarreBeverageUse: In "Uncle Zucchini Babysits", it's mentioned that Bortronians bathe their pets in milkshakes.
* BlackBeadEyes: Sunspot and Moonbeam both have these eyes.
* BlahBlahBlah: In "Pet Sounds", Sydney says that all Cody hears is "Blah blah blah, food, blah blah blah."
* BlandNameProduct: Jet mentions wanting to play [[TabletopGame/{{Monopoly}} Bortropoly]] when he and his parents get home in one episode.
* BlondeBrunetteRedhead:
** Sean[[note]]Whose hair can sometimes appear blonde [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screen_shot_2017_11_13_at_52049_pm.png as shown in this screenshot from "Kid-Kart Derby"]][[/note]], Sydney, and Jet.
** This also goes for the four main DSA scientists: blonde (Dr. Bergs), brunette (Mr. Peterson and Dr. Skelley), and redhead (Dr. Rafferty).
* BlowingARaspberry: In "Ain't No Mars Mountain High Enough", Sunspot blows a raspberry at Sydney because he wants to hike alone and doesn't want to team up with the others.
* BlueIsCalm:
** Jet and his parents all wear blue. While they are usually peppy and cheerful, they are rarely angry and stay calm when others get frustrated. The one exception to this was when Zerk provoked Jet in "Whole Lotta Shakin'".
** Dr. Skelley's entire outfit is varying shades of blue, and she is the calmest and most level-headed of the DSA scientists (Bergs is a coffee addict, Rafferty is a worrier, and Mr. Peterson is....[[SmallNameBigEgo Mr. Peterson]]).
* BlueIsHeroic: Jet and his (immediate) family are heroes, and they wear blue space-suits.
* BoringVacationSlideshow: In the episode "The Grandest Canyon", the Petersons get back from their vacation in Arizona and force the Propulsions to watch a slideshow of their trip to the Grand Canyon. It includes an embarrassing photo of Mr. Peterson and Mitchell wearing matching canyon hats, causing Mitchell to pout in the photo. All it does is leave Jet and Carrot perplexed as to what the Grand Canyon is.
* BotanicalAbomination: The titular plant from "The Plant From Bortron 7" becomes this after it grows in the sun's light.
* BookEnds:
** The season 1 premiere, "Tour of the Solar System", starts off in Jet's backyard. The season 1 finale, "Commander Mom", ends in Jet's backyard.
** In "Mindy's Moon Bounce House", Mitchell's first appearance, he tells his mom that he saw Mindy floating, but she doesn't believe him and says that he has a "wonderful imagination", and Mitchell protests that he has no imagination. In his final appearance in a regular episode, "Moon Face", Mitchell sees a face on the moon and realizes he does have an imagination after all.
* {{Bowdlerise}}: In the Uzbek dub, they censor any and all kissing scenes because apparently, parents in Uzbekistan think that kissing in kids' shows is inappropriate.
* BrainFreeze: Sunspot gets one in the beginning of "Mindy's Ice Rink" after he eats a whole popsicle in one gulp.
* BrainyBrunette:
** Sean and his mom are both know a lot about science, and they both have brown hair. Although Dr. Rafferty's hair is a bit reddish.
** Mitchell counts too.
** And Mr. Peterson, who also happens to be a DSA scientist.
* BreadEggsBreadedEggs: Happens in "Commander Cressida Begins".
-->'''Mindy''': I guess, a planet. No, a moon. No, a planet with a moon?
* BreakingTheFourthWall:
** In "Mindy's Weather Report", Mindy is watching TV and comes across a channel which is showing ''WesternAnimation/DinosaurTrain'', one of Craig Bartlett's shows.
*** In the same episode, we get these meta lines, which are referencing how bland Mitchell was as a character at that point (He eventually got some CharacterDevelopment):
--->'''Mitchell''': Dad, this sandbag is kind of heavy.\\
'''Mr. Peterson''': That’s okay, son. Mine is too. Builds character.\\
'''Mitchell''': [[FlatCharacter I think my character’s big enough.]]
** In "Tiny Blue Dot", Sydney says "Somehow, this day just turned into a space-travel musical!" referencing how the episode is a MusicalEpisode.
** In "Back to Bortron 7", Sean says "There's not a moment to lose!" and "Come on Zerk! Back to the house, and step on it!". Both times, he looks directly at the viewer and says "I've always wanted to say that".
** In "A Star is Born", Sunspot shows some crude drawings on his tablet. Those drawings ''are the storyboards for the episode'',
** This is probably the most meta moment that the show has to offer, courtesy of the episode "Commander Mom"
--->'''Dr. Amy Skelley:''' Well, it's about time you all came to see me, after all those times you've been by to see Sean's mom in the other building.
** There's an extremely meta line in "Mindy and Carrot Bake: When Mindy and Carrot are stuck in space, they try to call Face 9000 for help, but they find out he's on vacation, which explains his overall absence from the show as of late season 1 and early season 2.
** In "Mini-Golf at the DSA", Sean breaks the fourth wall when he says "Hey, that's my line!" in response to Mr. Peterson using his catchphrase.
** In "Every Day Is Earth Day", after it is mentioned that Earth is the only planet with life, Jet looks at the audience and says "That we know of!" and then winks, since he's an alien from another planet.
* BreatherEpisode: In some episodes, the show will take a break from teaching science to provide entertainment and character development in its episodes: "My Fair Jet", "Jet's First Halloween", "Date Night", "Jet's Time Machine", "Mindy in Space", and "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace" all qualify for this trope, all of them having little to no actual curriculum (even though "Jet's Time Machine" provided an important Aesop and "Jet's First Halloween" tried to teach viewers about harvest moons).
* BrickJoke:
** One early example of Carrot's weirdness is when the kids find him ''mowing the roof'' of his house. We find out it's not (quite) so silly in "Back to Bortron 7", which reveals that Bortronian houses are designed to blend in with their natural surroundings and hence, have red grass on their roofs that ''needs'' mowing.
** In "What's Up With Saturn's Rings?", Mindy and Sunspot wish that Saturn's rings were made out of cookies. In "Solar System Bake Off!", the kids bake a Saturn cake for the titular bake-off. They make the rings out of cookies.
-->'''Mindy''': I always wanted Saturn's rings to be made out of cookies!
** In "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", Mr. Peterson is annoyed at a random kid pitching him a pageant idea involving a surfing Santa Claus. In "Endless Summer", the kids go to Australia (during the Christmas season) and get to see a real surfing Santa.
** In "Earth Mission to Moon", Zerk asks Jet who was the first human to land on Bortron 7. Then Sean and Sydney became the first humans to land on Bortron 7 in "Back to Bortron 7".
* BriefAccentImitation:
** In "Castaway Carrot", while Carrot is stranded on the moon, he decides to go in his "talk-with-an-accent" crater, and briefly talks with a British accent.
-->'''Carrot''': 'Ello, guv'nor. Fancy a spot of tea or bangers and mash?
** In "Bortron Leprechaun", Carrot briefly puts on an Irish accent.
* BrokenAesop: In "Solar System Bake Off", the kids aren't allowed to ask for help from grown-ups. Technically, they ''did'' ask for help by asking Jet's mom to drive them to Saturn to find out if it's cold outside, hot inside or the other way around.
* BrokenBird: If you think about it, Sean really has it rough. Sean’s got a DisappearedDad and a mother who’s almost always working. He’s also a huge perfectionist. He always needs everything to be the way he wants it to, and he gets very upset when he doesn’t get his way. He idolizes Neil Armstrong heavily, to the point of obsession, and wishes to be like him, but he can’t. Sean also fears cramped spaces, heights, and easily gets space-sick (and sick in general), which are things that are preventing him from becoming an astronaut. Despite wanting to be an astronaut, he heavily fears space, and is constantly forced by his friends to go. They never allow him to stay on Earth. He’s also somewhat of a ButtMonkey within the group, and no one listens to him when he suggest using the Scientific Method to solve problems. He hides all of this pain with a CheerfulChild exterior. It makes you want to jump into the TV and give him a hug.
* BrokenRecord: When Sean, out of nowhere, says "Help, help, help, help, help!" in "Sean's Robotic Arm".
* BuffySpeak: The Propulsions talk like this sometimes, such as calling the humans "Earthies".
** In "My Fair Jet", Sydney refers to Jet's robotic arm backpack as a "tool-armed backpack thingy".
* BumblingDad: Carrot is this due to be very silly and often clueless compared to his wife. However, he provides helpful information to the kids and is a great baker.
* TheBusCameBack:
** [[spoiler: In "Mindy Turns Five", Lillian finally comes back after disappearing for a while. She even had the same voice actor that she had in "The Grandest Canyon"!]].
** Sydney 2 and Dr. Rafferty's boss both reappear in "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa".
* ButNotTooBi: Jet is never stated to be bi on the show, despite it being indirectly confirmed via WordOfGay. Justified, as this is a PBS show. Due to not being a human, however, it can be hard to say if his sexuality can be categorized at all, although he's definitely shown attraction to multiple genders.
* ButtMonkey: Due to this being a show for young children, this is very mild, but Sean seems to be this.
* ByTheLightsOfTheirEyes:
** Briefly in "Jet Can't Sleep". There was a brief black out, and only the Propulsions' eyes were visible.
** This also happens in "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa".
* CallBack:
** "The Grandest Canyon" references an earlier episode where Mindy mishears "perspective" as "''re''spective", only this time Mindy can say it and it's her friend Lillian who has the same trouble with the word. Mindy lampshades the situation.
** In "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", Jet seems confused by Christmas at first, and Sean brings up how Halloween was confusing for him and his parents in the HalloweenEpisode.
** "Endless Summer" includes a call-back to "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", with Sunspot showing images from that episode on his tablet.
** "That's One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!" has a call-back to "Jet's First Halloween" when Mindy shows a picture of a witch (actually Jet) flying across the moon.
** In "Mars Rock for Mom", a reference to the end of "Try and Try Again" is made, and is a crucial plot point. In that episode, the kids want Jet 2 to be their Mars rover, so they give him a new set of wheels and take him to Mars. However, Jet left Jet 2 there. During the time in which he was stranded there, he has adapted to the Mars environment and apparently formed a relationship with Boop.
* CallingYourBathroomBreaks: In "Back to Bortron 7", after Sydney asks him what he wants to do, Sean says he has to go to the bathroom. He never does actually go to the bathroom, though.
* CameFromTheSky: As shown in the theme song, Jet's house just fell to Earth.
* TheCameo:
** Sean's dad appears in a [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/readyjetgo/images/0/08/Screen_Shot_2017-08-29_at_8.13.38_PM.png/revision/latest?cb=20170830001508 photograph]] in "Sean's Year in Space".
** Dr. Rafferty, Dr. Bergs, and Dr. Skelley make cameos in "Every Day Is Earth Day".
** For some reason, Mitchell makes a cameo in "Sunspot's Sunspot".
** Mr. Peterson, Celery, Dr. Rafferty, and Dr. Bergs make cameos at the end of "Mindy's Mystery".
* CampingEpisode: "Earth Camping", where Carrot and Jet go camping with Mr. Peterson and Mitchell.
* CampStraight: Carrot. He does feminine activities such as cooking and ballet (as revealed in "Castaway Carrot"), wore a pink scarf in the aforementioned episode, and yet he is married to Celery.
* CanineCompanion: Cody, to Mitchell.
* CannotKeepASecret:
** Jet has a hard time keeping his alien identity a secret.
** Even the Propulsions have a hard time keeping ''other'' secrets. In "Earthday Birthday", Carrot and Celery let slip that a surprise party is being planned to Jet, luckily they don't tell him that it is for him (to celebrate the anniversary of when he arrived on Earth).
** Lillian can't keep secrets. She told Mindy what her surprise birthday present was in "Mindy Turns Five".
** In "Moon Circus", Celery says that this is a shared trait between Jet and Carrot.
* CannotTellAJoke: Face 9000 tries to take up comedy, but fails due to not being funny.
* CartoonCreature: '''Sunspot''', as well as the other Bortronian pets such as Moonbeam. They look like dog-cat-bunny-kangaroo-raccoon hybrids. Uncle Zucchini even lampshades this in "A Visit from Uncle Zucchini".
* CartoonJuggling: In "Freebird", the shower variant occurs when Jet is juggling some meatballs.
* CashCowFranchise: Commander Cressida, in-universe. It has a show, a comic book series, and tons of merchandise, including wristwatches, toys, backpacks, and Halloween costumes.
* CassandraTruth: Expertly played with in "Back to Bortron 7". In order to keep the Propulsions' alien identity a secret, Jet 2 has to project a hologram of their house so that no one would notice that they were gone. However, Jet 2 later has trouble keeping the hologram stable, which leads to it glitching. Mitchell even stays up all night to prove to his parents that the Propulsions are aliens from another world. However, when he takes his father outside, the hologram is perfectly fine, which leads to Mr. Peterson scolding Mitchell for waking him up at 2:00 AM. When the Propulsions are just about to land back on Earth, the hologram disappears completely, and then Mitchell tries to expose Jet's secret '''to the entire population of Boxwood Terrace''', [[spoiler: however Jet 2 causes an eclipse which distracts the townspeople from seeing the Propulsion house land back on Earth]]. Mr. Peterson scolds Mitchell again, telling him that he has quite an imagination, but Mitchell claims that he has no imagination.
* CastHerd: The show has three groups in which the characters are split. The main cast consists of Jet, his immediate family, and his closest friends. The Bortronians include Jet's extended family from Bortron 7. The Earthies are recurring friends/family of the main cast who are from Earth.
* CastOfSnowflakes: Somewhat. All of the characters have unique designs, especially the adults.
* CastingGag:
** This is not the first show to have Ashleigh Ball playing the main protagonist. Just ask [[WesternAnimation/LittlestPetShop2012 Blythe Baxter]].
** Uncle Zucchini, Jet's uncle, is voiced by Ian James Corlett. We have Ashleigh Ball voicing a young male character, and his uncle is voiced by Ian James Corlett. That's not the first time it [[WesternAnimation/DinosaurTrain happened]].
** Tatyana Vesyolkina voices Jet in the Russian dub. She also voiced the protagonists (Arnold and Buddy) in the Russian dubs of Craig Bartlett's two other shows.
* CasualInterstellarTravel: The flying saucer can go to space in a short amount of time. This is because they have interstellar overdrive.
* {{Catchphrase}}:
** "Excelsior!" (onward and upward in Latin) - Jet
** Also, "SUNSPOT, CAR TRIP!" and "What an amazing/funny/great Earth word!"
** "Let's think scientifically" - Sean
** "A kid's place is exploring space!" - Sydney
** "POPPYCOCK!" - Western!Sean in "Lone Star".
** "Hi, I'm Astronomer Amy Mainzer." - Amy Mainzer
** "So the next time you do X..." - Amy Mainzer
** "Booyah, science!", which has been said by multiple characters, but most often said by Sean.
** “Hello. Yes. Play. Haha.” - Jet 2.
* CatConcerto: In "Sunspot's Night Out", Sunspot participates in a neighborhood animal choir with some alley cats and Mitchell's dog Cody. They howl "Ode to Joy".
* CelebCrush: Dr. Bergs seems to have one on Ellen Ochoa. He has a coffee mug with her face on it, and when she shakes his hand, he looks at his hand and smiles with absolute glee, almost like he's thinking "I'll never wash this hand again!". Dr. Rafferty can be seen giving him a funny look after that happens.
* CentralTheme:
** No matter what happens, keep a positive attitude and persevere through obstacles, no matter how impossible they may seem.
** Another overarching theme of the show is that Earth is a beautiful planet that is worth protecting.
** Nobody's perfect and it's okay to make mistakes. The show emphasizes that making mistakes is part of the learning process, while also emphasizing each character's flaws by having them act unkind, arrogant, overconfident, jealous, selfish, etc and having them make rash decisions at times. They all go through character development to become better friends and people overall. Sean particularly gets hit hard with this theme. He sets very high standards for himself and is distressed when things don't go exactly as he planned, but he learns that it's okay to try and fail.
** Imagination. While science facts are important, it's also beneficial to let your imagination roam wild and create new ideas. Sydney helps to promote this theme, being the MsImagination. Imagination and creativity help the kids a lot, and represent innocence in that Sean wants to grow up already and become a professional astronaut, but he realizes he should enjoy his childhood while he can. Mitchell, who repeatedly fails to expose Jet's alien identity, constantly [[CassandraTruth gets told]] that he has a "great imagination", which he denies. While true to [[AgentScully some extent]], Mitchell ''does'' have an imagination but his low self-esteem causes him to push it away. In "Moon Face", he sees a face on the moon and realizes he does have an imagination after all.
* CerebusRollercoaster: Beginning with the episode "What Goes Up..." the show constantly switches between having cute, light-hearted episodes and having dramatic, emotional, and sometimes even ''dark'' episodes.
* CharacterCheck: Even though Mitchell has been taking a level in kindness in Season 2, in "Our Sun Is A Star!", he's just as mean as he was in Season 1. However, this episode takes place in January, and Mr. Peterson is shown taking down Christmas decorations, so it's possible that this episode could have taken place after "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", where Mitchell becomes part of the group. That episode was one of the very last Season 1 episodes, and Mitchell didn't start becoming nicer until "Try and Try Again", a Season 2 episode.
* CharacterDevelopment:
** As time goes on, Sean becomes less and less scared of going to space. He even calls himself "Mr. Adventure".
** Zerk was initially stuck up and rude towards Jet and his friends. Come "Back to Bortron 7", he is much nicer to them, but still keeps a bit of his ItsAllAboutMe attitude. In "Zerk Visits Earth", his vain attitude disappears completely, and he is polite and respectful towards his cousin and the Earthies.
** Mitchell was a bit naive before, as he actually believed Jet when he told him (in his alien costume) that he was from Bortron 7 in the HalloweenEpisode. Come season 2, however, [[spoiler: Mindy explicitly tells him that she went to the moon, and even holds up a moon rock, but Mitchell doesn't believe her]]. Besides that, he is shown to have taken a level in kindness, especially in the second half of season 2.
* CharacterNameAndTheNounPhrase: "Sunspot and the Great Red Spot".
* CharacterNarrator: Sydney narrates "Mindy's Mystery".
* CharacterTics: Jet often walks with his elbows out, as if he's marching.
* CharacterTitle: The title has Jet's name in it, and it is named after the Jet Propulsion Lab. It also helps that the show used to be titled Jet Propulsion.
* CheerfulChild: All of the children count as this, but special mention goes to the protagonist, who sees the good in everything, is a FriendToAllLivingThings, and is perpetually enthusiastic.
* CheesyMoon: In "Mindy Turns Five", it's implied that Mindy told her teddy bear that the moon is made out of green cheese.
* ChekhovsGun: The big rock Mindy sits on in "Mindy's Meteorite Stand". [[spoiler: Turns out that while Mindy's meteorite was really an Earth rock, the rock she was sitting on was a ''real'' meteorite!]]
* ChildProdigy:
** The kids all seem to be this. They are all extremely smart for their age.
** At least justified with Sean, as his mom is a scientist who works at the space program.
* ChirpingCrickets: In "Ice Moon Enceladus", the kids make their own sno-cone stand so they can raise money to send astronauts to Mars. Sean insists that since it's so hot out, they should be able to sell a ton of them, but then crickets start chirping since no one is there.
* ChristmasEpisode: The show now has its own Christmas half-hour special entitled "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", which focuses on the gang putting on a Christmas pageant and desperately trying to seek and define the Spirit of Christmas.
* ChromaKey: This is used in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0qLzrOQjo0 the Amy Mainzer segment]] in "Back to Bortron 7".
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Face 9000's brother, Face 9001, only appeared in the episode "A Kid's Guide to Mars" and never came back.
* CircusEpisode: The episode "Moon Circus" focuses on the kids setting up a circus for Carrot's birthday. They can't do their stunts on Earth, so they take it to the moon instead.
* ClashingCousins: Zerk often likes to annoy Jet and try to compete with him, as shown in "Whole Lotta Shakin'". However, they seem to get along better as of Season 2.
* ClockworkPrediction: In the episode "Mars Rock for Mom", Jet keeps forgetting his things. He forgets his jacket. After he leaves, Celery counts down 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and then Jet comes back to announce that he has forgotten his wallet.
* {{Cloneopoly}}: In "Castaway Carrot", Jet mentions wanting to play ''Bortropoly'', presumably a Bortronian version of ''Monopoly''.
* CloseKnitCommunity: Boxwood Terrace, WA is a small, semi-mythical, science-based QuirkyTown where all the residents are close to each other, and they're made even closer when Jet arrives. You can find almost all of the characters at town events like kart races, cooking contests, pumpkin growing competitions, Christmas pageants, Earth Day shows, watching the solar eclipse, going to the Open House at the DSA, mini-golf tournaments, and more.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}:
** The Propulsion family seem to be this at times, with their wacky antics.
** Even though Sunspot is usually weird, he acts weirder than usual in "Sunspot's Sunspot".
* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: Sydney and Sean are both in charge of making sure Jet's crazy ideas don't get out of hand.
* ColorCodedCharacters:
** Red - Mitchell.
** Orange - Mindy, Sunspot, Face 9001, and Dr. Bergs.
** Yellow - Mr. Peterson and Uncle Zucchini.
** Green - Eggplant, Zerk, and Sean.
** Blue - Jet, Carrot, Celery, Moonbeam, Face 9000, Dr. Rafferty, and Dr. Skelley.
** Grey - Sydney.
** Pink - Lillian.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Celery's saucer is blue, Zucchini's saucer is green, and Eggplant's saucer is pink.
* ColorMotifs: Character types are sorted by color. Jet and his family all wear blue because of their heroism and optimism/serenity in dire situations. Enthusiastic and kind characters, like Mindy, Bergs, and Sunspot wear orange. Sean's green shirt emphasizes his connection and love for Planet Earth (and his nausea, since he gets nauseous in space). Yellow is used for bombastic {{Large Ham}}s like Zucchini and Mr. Peterson because of how bright yellow as a color is. Sydney's grey shirt emphasizes her serenity and peace-keeping demeanor. Finally, Mitchell's red jacket helps him stand out from the crowd and has an interesting multi-faceted meaning. Red is a color associated with anger, and Mitchell ''is'' TheNapoleon. But it's also associated with passion, and Mitchell is very passionate and dedicated to his amateur detective work. Finally, RedIsHeroic, [[spoiler:and Mitchell is a trusted ally to Team Propulsion by the end of the series]].
* CombatCommentator: In "Space Race", while Celery and Zucchini are racing, Sydney briefly provides sports-like commentary.
* ComicallyMissingThePoint:
** In the CampingEpisode, a squirrel eats all of the jellybeans that Carrot had been marking their trail with. Mitchell and Jet are concerned that they are lost, but Carrot is only concerned about the squirrel's dental hygiene.
** In the beginning of "The Mindysphere", Sean tells Jet and Sydney about how his mom taught him about the heliosphere while eating breakfast. Jet is only interested in what Sean had for breakfast. [[labelnote:What was it?]]Omelettes. But why would you want to know that? [[HypocriticalHumor Weirdo]].
[[/labelnote]]
** In "Sean's Neptune Tune", Sean keeps running away from Jet and Sydney because he doesn't want to go to Neptune. While Sydney realizes that Sean is upset, Jet thinks that Sean is playing hide-and-seek.
** In "Earthday Birthday", Sean, Sydney, and Mindy make up a lie that they're planning a surprise party for "Brett", so Jet won't find out that the party is actually for him. Jet thinks that Brett is real and starts to look for Brett. Later, when Jet comes to the surprise party, the other kids explain that Brett isn't real, but Jet still thinks that he is and wonders where he's at.
* ComicBookTime: One year has passed InUniverse, but the characters (save for Mindy and Carrot) never get any older. There have been two Halloween episodes, one Christmas episode, an episode referencing said Christmas episode as being 'last year', and Mindy and Carrot both had birthdays. Besides them, none of the characters age. Making things more confusing, "One Small Step" takes place on the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, meaning it took place in July 2019. For reference, the show started in 2016.
* ComicTrio: Jet, Sean, and Sydney. Jet comes up with crazy ideas, Sydney blindly follows, and Sean is the OnlySaneMan.
* CompanionCube: Sean, Sydney, Mindy, and Mitchell all have one. Sean has his Neil Armstrong action figure, Sydney has her Commander Cressida action figure, Mindy has her teddy bear, Stuffy Bear, and "Sean's Robotic Arm" reveals that Mitchell has one as well - his Sherlock Holmes action figure.
* CompanyCrossReferences: In the episode "Mindy's Weather Report", Sunspot flips through the channels on Face 9000. One of the programs he flips to is ''WesternAnimation/DinosaurTrain'', another PBS Kids show created by Craig Bartlett, complete with a second of the ''Dinosaur Train'' theme song playing.
* ConformingOOCMoment:
** The usually logic-minded Mitchell joins in on the investigation to see if there's a face on the moon in "Moon Face".
** There are several instances where Sean ''does'' want to go to space like the other kids do, despite being hesitant to do so most of the time.
** In "Lone Star", the kids act out the Lone Star legend. Sunspot plays Lone Star's horse. Lone Star (Jet) is shunned by the town for his "loopy ideas", and they all point shovels at him, including Sunspot. A moment after, Jet leaves while riding Sunspot.
* ConstantlyCurious: Mindy. 8 times out of 10, her questions are what prompt the kids to go into space. In fact, all the main kids could qualify for this trope, giving the likes of Literature/CuriousGeorge and WesternAnimation/SidTheScienceKid a run for their money.
* ContinuityCavalcade: In "My Fair Jet", one of the tasks that Jet has to do in order to be a regular Earth kid is to sort a bunch of pictures that Sunspot took in previous episodes, such as the butt picture from "Satellite Selfie", and the Great Red Spot Club group picture from "Sunspot and the Great Red Spot".
* ContinuityNod: See CallBack above.
** In "Mindy Pet-Sits", Mindy comes across the meteorite that she found in "Mindy's Meteorite Stand".
** In several episode, the kids point out how they have already been to certain planets.
** Jet builds a robot in the episode "Jet 2". In later episodes, the robot can be seen around the children.
** Some in "Mindy Turns Five::
*** Similar to how Mindy was jumping on the bounce house in "Mindy's Moon Bounce House", she is seen jumping on it again, and is singing a song that is sung to the tune of "My Name is Mindy".
*** Before the gang gets back to Earth, they look at and describe Earth like they looked at and described it in the episode "Tiny Blue Dot".
*** The gang goes to Pluto a second time, and they sing "Dear Little Frozen Pluto" again.
** The squirrel that ate Mitchell's jellybeans in "Earth Camping" makes several more appearances throughout the show, in "The Mindysphere", "Space Race", "Jet Shrinks the Kids", and in "Mindy's Bedtime", he is finally given a name: Floyd.
** In "Galileo, Galileo!", Mindy unintentionally makes Sean nervous to do his report on Galileo, and while doing so, Sean imagines himself on the ''exact same stage'' that the kids did their Christmas pageant in "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", which is where [[spoiler: Sean got nervous to perform his song in front of everyone]].
** In "Total Eclipse Block Party", Sean and Sydney initially won't let Jet perform on the DSA stage for fear that he will sing and use his Bortronian robot arms, which is a reference to the events of "My Fair Jet".
** "Racing on Sunshine" takes place one year after "Kid-Kart Derby".
** "That's One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!" takes place one year after "Jet's First Halloween".
*** In the same episode, Jet uses the Bortronian sun lamp from "The Plant from Bortron 7" to grow a pumpkin.
** In "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa", Mindy's love for Pluto gets mentioned again.
*** In the same episode, Sean setting up a lemonade stand to raise money for a rocket to Mars is similar to the plot of "Ice Moon Enceladus".
** In "Potatoes on Mars", Sean says he sings in the shower, which was previously mentioned in the ChristmasEpisode.
** In "Bortron Leprechaun", Jet's birthday badges from "Earthday Birthday" get brought up again.
** In "Magnet, PI", Mitchell's scooter from "Try and Try Again" makes another appearance.
* ConvenientEclipse: '''Played straight''' in "Back to Bortron 7". When Mitchell is about to expose Jet's secret to the entire town, Jet 2 causes an eclipse which distracts the townspeople from seeing the Propulsion house land back on Earth.
* CoolBigBro: Mindy sees Jet as one, and he does act as one to her due to his caring, optimistic personality. He even gives her a piggyback ride in "Project Pluto".
* CoolBigSis: Sydney serves this role to the other group members. She's easily the most level-headed, wise member of the group, and she's also a creative (if a bit over-ambitious) go-getter with a kind personality.
* CoolPet: Sunspot. He is very intelligent and can pull objects out of HammerSpace.
* CoolShades:
** Sunspot wears some sometimes, such as when he's playing the instruments to Jet's songs.
** In "Sunspot's Sunspot", Dr. Rafferty gives the kids some colored sunglasses to wear so they can see what it's like to live on a planet with a different colored sun. Jet has a little too much fun with it, much to Mitchell's annoyance.
* CoolUncle: Uncle Zucchini. He's a fun and friendly guy who is an intergalactic garbage-man.
* CowboyEpisode: "Lone Star", where Sydney tells the rest of the gang the story of a pioneer named Lone Star who built the town's first observatory on a hill. It is also a Western-flavored MusicalEpisode. "Lone Star 2 - Rocket Kids!" is also this.
* CreditsGag: In episodes like "Backyard Moon Base", the Commander Cressida theme song plays in the credits.
* CrazyEnoughToWork:
** Many of Jet's ideas are this.
** Sean's idea to combine various items together to make a robotic arm is explicitly stated by Sydney to be this in "Sean's Robotic Arm".
* CrazyPrepared: A RunningGag in "One Small Step" involves Sunspot conveniently packing a lot of items the kids need and pulling them out whenever they needed. He packed food, Mindy's teddy bear, a moon rover, a parachute, and more.
* CreativeClosingCredits:
** The credits have crude doodles of all the characters scattered around the credits, with some of them even foreshadowing certain episodes. It even includes half of the show's theme song, without Craig Bartlett's vocals. The special ''Back to Bortron 7'', technically being part of season 2, includes newer doodles, including [[spoiler: Mindy in a spacesuit, which foreshadows the fact that Mindy goes to space in season 2]].
** In some episodes, like "Diggin' Earth", the Commander Cressida theme song plays in the credits instead of the RJG theme song instrumental.
* CreatorProvincialism: The series takes place in Washington state, where the creator, Craig Bartlett, grew up.
* CuddleBug:
** At least implied with Jet. He always puts his arm around Sean or Sydney (but mostly Sean), sometimes putting his hand on the former's chest or back. He also seems to enjoy group hugs, as evidenced in "Back to Bortron 7" and "Racing on Sunshine".
** Mindy is also this. She always hugs Sunspot or one of the older kids (mainly Jet). In "Sean's Robotic Arm", she hugs Mitchell.
* CurseCutShort:
** In "Asteroid Belt Space Race", the characters go in slow motion after getting their energy sucked from their saucer by Eggplant's Anti-Gravity Fluxinators. Sean almost says "What the fuck?", but as soon as the characters get their speed back, he finishes his sentence with "-xinator". He was really asking what a fluxinator is, but his voice is covered up by the revving engine, making it comes off as he if did cuss.
** In "What's Up With Saturn's Rings?", Sean struggles to stand on the slippery surface of Saturn's rings. When asked if he wants to dance, he says "You're kidding. I'm just trying not to slide and land on my--", and then he falls. He was going to say 'ass'. It looks like Sean is quite the SirSwearsALot!
* CurtainsMatchTheWindow: Mindy has brown hair and brown eyes.
* CutawayGag: In "Every Day Is Earth Day", when Jet mentions how he and his family always mix up certain words, it cuts to Carrot and Celery hammering toasts on the wall, instead of posters.
* CuteMachines: Beep and Boop, the twin rover sisters. Beep lives at the DSA and Boop lives on Mars.
* TheCutie: Jet proves to be this trope entirely with his endearing tendencies. Mindy and Mitchell also qualify for this trope.
* DameWithACase: In "Sean's Robotic Arm", Sean drops his Neil Armstrong figure down a hole and needs help getting it out. Mindy approaches local Mitchell (who has a crush on her) to ask him to help. He says that it doesn't sound like a detective problem, but lets her borrow Cody to help dig the hole.
* DarkHorseVictory: In "Asteroid Belt Space Race", Eggplant and Zerk end up winning the race because of their anti-gravity fluxinators.
* DaydreamBeliever: In "Diggin' Earth", Jet seems to believe that he and his comrades can dig to the center of the Earth just like Commander Cressida and her squad. Sydney reminds him multiple times that Commander Cressida is a made-up story and is not real.
* DeadpanSnarker: Mitchell, Mindy, and to a lesser extent, Sean.
* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype:
** Sean deconstructs ThePerfectionist. Sean strives to be the best that he can be and to lead a team of astronauts to Mars in the future, but his SuperOCD, fact-driven tendencies clash with Jet's cartoony alien ways and Sydney's love of fiction. Plus, in spite of his dream of being an astronaut, he fears cramped spaces and heights. When Sean fails at something, he becomes very upset and self-deprecating, things that make him a BrokenBird.
** Mindy deconstructs the TagalongKid and TheBabyOfTheBunch. Because she's the youngest, she can't go to space with the older children ([[spoiler: at least not until her fifth birthday]]), and she increasingly feels left out, and ashamed of being the youngest and the smallest.
** Jet deconstructs the MagneticHero. Jet is a lovable kid who is friends with every character in the show, but he can't stand to be apart from ''anyone''. Even if he's on his own, he's with his loyal pet Sunspot. [[spoiler:In "My Three Suns", he has a nightmare about him being lost in a void, away from everything and everyone. [[HatesBeingAlone He is absolutely distressed at this]], reflecting his fear of loneliness]].
* DefrostingIceKing: Mitchell in "Detective Mindy", where he becomes kinder than he usually is.
* {{Determinator}}: All the Propulsions are this, as they never give up. In fact, there's no word for failure on Bortron 7. Jet even has his own song about not giving up.
* DeusExMachina:
** Sunspot often functions as this, figuring out what is going on and what needs to be done and then conveying that information to one or more of the children.
** Some of these occur in the secret alien identity arc. In "Visit to Mom's Office", Jet openly tells Dr. Rafferty that he is an alien from Bortron 7, but luckily, [[spoiler: Dr. Rafferty thinks that Jet is pretending to be an alien due to "feeling" like one]]. And the residents of Boxwood Terrace don't notice the Propulsion vehicle transforming into a flying saucer.
*** As mentioned above, Jet 2 causes an eclipse in the TV movie "Back to Bortron 7", which distracts the townspeople.
* DemotedToExtra: Face 9000. Back in the day, he appeared in practically every episode alongside the rest of the Core Eight: Jet, Sunspot, Sean, Sydney, Mindy, Carrot and Celery. Ever since "Sunday Drive", he has been making less and less appearances. Nowadays, the kids usually get answers to their science questions from Celery, the DSA scientists, or by figuring it out themselves.
* DependingOnTheArtist: For whatever reason, the characters' looks can change from episode to episode.
** Mindy might have slightly darker skin but reddish-brown hair, or slightly lighter skin but blackish-brown hair. Also, Mindy might be way shorter or the same height as Mitchell.
** Sean may either have light brown, reddish-brown, or flat out blonde hair. His eye color also varies. It might be green, blue, or grey. His shape varies as well. Sometimes he has a bulging stomach, other times he doesn't. A common animation error also gives him a longer torso than in other scenes. Occasionally (for example, in "Racing On Sunshine"), he will actually appear rather ''muscular''!
** Sydney sometimes has a different color hair-tie than her usual yellow, like green or red. She might even wear grey leggings at night as shown in the end of "Back to Bortron 7" and "Jet's Time Machine".
** Jet's hair color also varies. It might be reddish-orange, red with orange tips, dark red, or even pink! (Jet seems to have pink hair in the beginning of "Lone Star".)
* DependingOnTheWriter: In some episodes, Mitchell can be a quiet yet obedient spy and in other episodes, he can be cold and anti-social.
* DesperateObjectCatch: In "A Hammer and a Feather", Jet gets a bit carried away with a gravity experiment and thoughtlessly tosses Sean's telescope off the treehouse balcony. Sunspot [[DivingSave dives underneath it]] and puffs up his belly like a balloon, so the telescope bounces back up again where Sean can reach over the balcony and grab it safely.
* DickDastardlyStopsToCheat: In "Asteroid Belt Space Race", Eggplant stops to turn on the anti-gravity fluxinators in her saucer. Upon using them, the other saucers lose gravity, causing Eggplant and Zerk to win the race.
* DidNotThinkThisThrough: In "Kid-Kart Derby", Mitchell finds the plans for an ion drive, but it does not work because Mitchell didn't read farther down in the plans.
* DiegeticSoundtrackUsage: Several.
** In "How We Found Your Sun", it is revealed that the Propulsions found Earth by picking up a radio signal that was playing a 1950s rock 'n' roll song called "Jet Propulsion". It sounds ''just like'' the show's theme song, and is the protagonist's namesake. However, it has different lyrics. Here are some lines from the song that can be heard during Jet's narration:
-->''Jet Propulsion, that's what I've got. Jet Propulsion, man I'm hot. I'm on fire, baby give me some room. You've brought love to light up the room. It was a love by the light of the moon. E=[=Mc2=], baby you could take me there.''
** In the beginning of "Satellite Selfie", Jet hums the show's theme song.
* DisappearedDad: Sean says he has a dad in "Night of a Bazillion Stars", but he is never seen, though Sean's mom is always shown.
* DiscoDan: Jet is shown to be fond of notably dated music, specifically '50s rock and roll and Broadway.
* DisproportionateRetribution: In "Ice Moon Enceladus", the kids set up a sno-cone stand in order to raise money to send astronauts to Mars. Now, an important characteristic of Sean's is that he wants to grow up to be the leader of the first human mission to Mars. Mr. Peterson comes by the kids' sno-cone stand, and Mindy informs him that buying a sno-cone will help send Sean to Mars. Mr. Peterson recognizes Sean as the kid who keeps kicking his soccer ball into his yard, and then Mr. Peterson proceeds to purchase several. In short, ''Mr. Peterson wants to send Sean to Mars just for kicking his soccer ball into his yard''.
* DistaffCounterpart: In "Sydney 2", Sydney builds the eponymous robot, who is a female version of Jet 2 and is designed specifically to be friends with him.
* DistantReactionShot: At the end of "What Goes Up...", Mitchell screams at the sky, and his scream is so loud, that the camera zooms out on the Earth.
* DistressedDude:
** In "My Fair Jet", the DSA weather balloon flies off in some nasty weather, and carries Sean along with it. But luckily, Jet saves him with his jetpack.
** In "Castaway Carrot", Carrot gets stranded on the moon, but gets rescued by his family.
* TheDitherer: "Commander Cressida Begins" explores Mindy's indecisiveness on where to go next [[spoiler: in space]]. Luckily, she learns that just like Commander Cressida, she can [[spoiler: explore space one adventure at a time]].
* TheDitz:
** Jet and his dad both qualify, but especially Jet since his friends keep telling him to not tell anyone he's from Bortron 7, and yet he still does. Luckily, when he told Sean's mom, she thought that he ''feels'' like an alien, like she did when she was a kid.
** Lillian, who believes in ghosts and witches, can't keep secrets, and doesn't know what perspective is. She also unironically believed that clouds were made of cotton candy in "Fact Or Fiction?".
** Uncle Zucchini. In his debut episode, he believed that Saturn's moon Titan was Earth. In "Uncle Zucchini Babysits", he was somehow unaware of the three states of matter.
* DitzyGenius: Again, Jet is this. Jet can name every one of Jupiter's moons, but can't try to keep his alien identity a secret.
* DoAnythingRobot: [[spoiler: Sydney's mom programs Jet's robot clone, Jet 2, to a robot that can do practically anything in the season 1 finale. He is renamed to Jet 3]].
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything:
** "Lone Star" has Jet portray a pioneer who wasn't afraid of new ideas. Because of that, he clashes with the people of Boxwood Territory, who want things to stay the same. There's even a song about how you shouldn't be afraid of new ideas, and that "Old ideas ought to move aside, so the new ones can replace 'em". WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical, indeed.
** In "Who Messed Up The Treehouse?", the kids all make a huge mess in the treehouse. None of them want to take responsibility for the mess. They try to find different places to play, but they don't work out. They eventually realize that this problem isn't going away unless they do something about it, and that they only have one treehouse, so they have to learn to share the responsibility and clean it up. This is a metaphor for the trash problem on Planet Earth, and how Earth is the only place we can live, so we have to take care of it.
* DogsHateSquirrels: At the end of "Magnet, PI", Mitchell's dog Cody barks at Floyd the Squirrel and chases after him.
* DoIReallySoundLikeThat: Sean says this in "Back to Bortron 7" after a bunch of TV screens show him saying "Booyah! Science!"
* DoItYourselfThemeTune: ''People of Earth, you ain't seen nothing yet! I'm from Bortron 7 and my name is Jet!'', ''I'm a space tripper and a galaxy crosser. My parents brought me here in a flying saucer'', and ''Nice to meet you, human race, tell me all about the place!'' all of which are spoken by Jet.
-->'''Sydney''': Jet Propulsion!.\\
'''Sean''': Jet Propulsion!\\
'''Mindy''': Jet Propulsion!\\
'''All''': Ready Jet Go!
* DoesNotLikeSpam: In "Mindy's Weather Report", Jet reveals that he hates ice cream. This hatred is also shown in "Asteroid Patrol" and "Detective Mindy". He'd give it a chance if it wasn't "so cold".
* DontSneakUpOnMeLikeThat:
** Mitchell '''hates''' it when people sneak up on him, especially Mindy, who ''always'' sneaks up on Mitchell as he is spying on Jet. He gets very startled. No violence is involved, since this show is for young children. Lampshaded in the episode "What Goes Up...":
-->'''Mitchell''': ...Mindy?!? Don't sneak up on me like that!
** In "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", Mitchell berates Jet for unintentionally sneaking up on him.
* DontTryThisAtHome: In "Our Sun Is A Star!", when Dr. Rafferty conducts her experiment with the campfire and poker, she warns the kids to not try the experiment at home.
* DoorSlamOfRage: In "Mindy's Mystery", Mitchell is very angry at Team Propulsion because he thinks that they're not real detectives, so he slams the door to his house in their face very hard.
* DoubleDoubleTitle: "Galileo, Galileo!".
* DoubleMeaningTitle: "A Star is Born" both refers to the educational theme of the episode (how stars are born) and the plot of the episode (the kids making a movie).
* TheDragAlong: Whenever the gang has to go on a space mission, Sean always wants to stay on Earth. He is always forced to go regardless.
* DramaQueen:
** Jet is this in the episode "Jet's Time Machine". He builds a time machine, and he wants to go back in time because the previous weekend, he ate a delicious pie and forgot to ask for seconds. Then he makes a big deal over it.
--->"How could I have been so '''''foolish?'''''"
** In "The Tide is High", Sunspot makes friends with a crab. When he discovers that the crab is gone, he gets way too upset and faints on Dr. Skelley's lap.
** Dr. Bergs is this in "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa" when his coffee mug with Ellen Ochoa's face on it breaks.
* DramaticIrony:
** Series-wide example: No one knows that Jet is an alien except for Sean, Sydney, and Mindy.
** In "A Visit to the Planetarium", Jet sings a bombastic song about the Milky Way to entertain the kids at the planetarium. Mr. Peterson, the curator, is away. When he comes back and sees the kids cheering, he doesn't know why they're so happy, because the planetarium film is the same as it's always been, unaware that Jet entertained them.
* DreadfulMusician: In "Mindy's Mystery", Mindy's flugelhorn playing isn't very good when she's sleepy.
* DrinkBasedCharacterization: In "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa", Ellen Ochoa drinks some lemonade from the kids' lemonade stand. This gives us some insight into her character by telling us that even though she's a major scientist, she's really just a normal person and is also OneOfTheKids.
* DubInducedPlotHole: When the show premiered in Sri Lanka, the first installment to be dubbed in Sinhala was the ''Back to Bortron 7'' special. They removed all the songs, even the theme song. Each song in the special is crucial to the plot, so as a result, the Sinhala dub creates plot holes regarding how Sean is convinced to go to Bortron 7, how Sean bonds with Jet, the Bortron solar system, the history of Bortron 7, and the kids saving Carrot and Celery's presentation -- without the songs, Sri Lankans will be confused, and think these developments came out of nowhere.
* DubNameChange:
** In general, Jet's family members, who are all named after vegetables, will often be renamed in accordance with what the vegetables are called in a specific language. For example, in the Spanish dub, Carrot becomes Zanahoria and Celery becomes Apio.
** In the Norwegian dub, Sean is Lars, Sydney is Signe, Mindy is Mina, and Mitchell is Harald.
** In the Polish dub, Carrot and Celery have regular human names (Karol and Celina, respectively), because Polish is a gendered language and the words for the vegetables are the opposite gender from the characters Carrot and Celery.
** Zig-zagged with the Hungarian dub. Jet's name is different in the intro than in the series proper; in the intro, his name is "Hungarianized" to "Rakéta Jet". But in the episodes themselves, Jet uses his English name. His parents and Sunspot have Hungarianized first names, but keep their English last name.
** Most dubs keep Sunspot’s name in English, but some dubs translate or change his name:
*** Finnish: Sputnik (a reference to the famous satellite)
*** Hungarian: Napfolt (“Sunspot”)
*** Latin American Spanish: Mancha Solar (“Sunspot”)
*** Latvian: Saules Zaķis (“Sun Bunny”)
*** Russian: Лучик (“Little ray of sunshine”)
* DynamicEntry: Zucchini slides right on into Boxwood Terrace, in "Uncle Zucchini Babysits", complete with Moonbeam playing guitar.
--> '''Uncle Zucchini''': Hi-ho, Propulsions! Found your house [[ContinuityNod this time]]!
* DysfunctionJunction: Although the show is upbeat and positive, its characters have deep-seated emotional issues. Jet struggles to keep his alien identity a secret and secretly fears being alone/being abandoned. Sean is a NervousWreck with daddy issues and PTSD. Sydney is overly attached to fictional characters and struggles to be the team peacekeeper, heavily fearing her friends being in danger. While Mindy is [[FlatCharacter normal]] compared to her friends, her mother is overprotective (until Season 2). Face 9000 suffers from serious jealousy and abandonment issues. Lillian is very naive, almost too much for her own good. Mitchell is a lonely kid who wants to have friends, but he also acts like an asshole, temporarily ruining his potential friendship and making him a ByronicHero as well as HisOwnWorstEnemy. Mr. Peterson caters to Mitchell's every whim, yet is also snobby and uptight, with slight anger issues. Dr. Rafferty is as anxiety-ridden as her son Sean, with workplace issues such as not getting enough funding and her husband being absent slapped on top. Dr. Bergs is an extreme caffeine addict. Zerk is a racist braggart. Face 9001 is an AttentionWhore bully who gaslights his brother by telling him that their mother prefers 9001 over 9000. Really, the only characters without some sort of issue are Sunspot, Moonbeam, Dr. Skelley, Carrot, Celery, Zucchini, and Eggplant.
* EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference: In Zerk's wristphone picture in "Whole Lotta Shakin'", he bears an uncanny resemblance to his cousin, Jet. In "Back to Bortron 7", he makes his first physical appearance and has a new, permanent design that is different from his cousin's.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The earlier episodes of the show are very strange to watch in comparison to the later ones. There's the [[NoFlowInCGI wonky]] CGI, voices being higher or lower-pitched than normal, the show having a very small cast of only eight characters, episodes following the same format, and weird one-off jokes such as Mindy taking jiu-jitsu lessons and the frozen star system of Marzipan. However, they're still entertaining to watch and the show eventually starts to improve in quality.
* EarthDayEpisode: In "Every Day is Earth Day", Jet learns about Earth Day and the rest of the gang travel the planet to see what makes Earth so unique. They even paint a hot-air balloon to look like the planet and perform a CrowdSong about how great Earth is. Also, Mitchell recites a little poem of his about Earth.
* EarthSong:
** "Tiny Blue Dot" is a soft ballad sung by the characters about how precious Earth is, and how it's worth protecting.
** "Every Day is Earth Day" is about how Earth Day should really be celebrated every day. It talks about the various features of the Earth and how unique and livable it is compared to other planets in the Solar System.
* EatingPetFood:
** In "Sunspot's Night Out", Cody goes missing and Mitchell leaves a trail of dog treats for him to find. Jet and the gang stumble upon the trail while trying to find Sunspot, who's also missing. Jet almost eats a dog treat, but his friends warn him not to.
** In "Pet Sounds", the gang is petsitting Cody and realize that he can do tricks if he gets treats as a reward. Jet ends up eating a dog treat, and remarks that it's better than the school cafeteria food on Bortron 7.
* EatTheCamera: During the takeoff song in "Back to Bortron 7", the camera zooms in on Sean's mouth.
* EccentricTownsfolk: While the Propulsion family are obviously a QuirkyHousehold, the people living in Boxwood Terrace are all eccentric in their own ways. We've got:
** A perfectionist ChildProdigy who idolizes Neil Armstrong and fears going to space.
** A science-fiction geek who is obsessed with ''Commander Cressida'' and writes fanfiction.
** A geeky little kid who tries to be a detective.
** A girly AsianAirhead.
** A DSA scientist whose past is very mysterious, but she says that she felt like an alien when she was younger, hinting at this.
** Another DSA scientist with an obsession for coffee.
** A robotics engineer who still loves ''Commander Cressida''.
** Another scientist who always speaks very bombastically, is the judge/referee of every single contest in the neighborhood, and is somewhat of an ExtremeDoormat. He also treats mini-golf as SeriousBusiness.
** And then we have Mindy, possibly the token normal, since she is so incredibly generic that she has no quirks to speak of.
* EdibleThemeNaming: The Propulsion family, with the exceptions of Jet and Zerk, are named after vegetables. Examples: Carrot, Celery, Eggplant, Zucchini, and Spinach. Jet even calls himself Cucumber in the HalloweenEpisode.
* EdutainmentShow: This show teaches kids about Earth science (gravity, force) as well as space science (planets, the Sun) but also gives good lessons.
* EEqualsMCHammer: In "Jet's First Halloween", Sean's "can't fail scientific method formula" to get candy in the least amount of time goes "T = H + C^2" or in LaymansTerms, houses + great costumes = lots of candy.
* EmbarrassmentPlot: In "Sean's Neptune Tune", Sean is scared to visit Neptune and is embarrassed to tell Jet and Sydney. They assure him that he can tell them anything and he should never feel embarrassed. Jet helps soothe Sean's fears by coming up with a song.
* EnsembleCast: While Jet is definitely the main character, Jet, Sean, Sydney, Mindy, Sunspot, Carrot, Celery, and Face 9000 (or "the Core Eight") all get episodes focused on them.
* EntertainmentAboveTheirAge: In "Treasure Map", Mitchell the KidDetective reads ''Literature/TreasureIsland''. Mitchell is also shown to be a fan of ''Literature/SherlockHolmes''.
* EpisodeTitleCard: Appears during the first few seconds of every episode, and also credits the writer of the episode.
* EverybodyLaughsEnding: Happens in a few episodes.
* TheEveryman: Sydney and Mr. Peterson.
* EveryoneIsASuspect: Played with in "Mindy's Mystery". The kids interview everyone they know and interrogate them about the mystery smell.
* EverythingsBetterWithRainbows: The entire premise of "Bortron Leprechaun". Jet sees a rainbow for the first time and thinks it's the most beautiful and magical thing he's ever seen.
* EverythingsBetterWithSparkles: Mindy sure thinks so as shown in "Every Day Is Earth Day", but Sean isn't sure how that will improve her poster.
* EverytownAmerica: Boxwood Terrace, a fictional town located in Washington state. It is quite the QuirkyTown.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin:
** What is "Jet Cooks Dinner" about? Jet cooking dinner.
** Guess what the plot of "Sean Has a Cold" is.
* ExcitedKidsShowHost: Amy Mainzer, the host of the show's interstitial segments, is a Type 3. She can be quite energetic at times, but normally talks in a calm manner and ''never'' talks down to kids. Her segments also appeal to adults.
* ExcitedShowTitle: ''Ready Jet Go!''
* ExplodingCloset: In "Space Junk", Jet tries to clean the garage by stuffing all of his boxes in the closet. Then the closet explodes, letting all the boxes out, and the garage is messy again.
* ExpositoryThemeTune: The rather catchy theme song of this show explains the plot of this show in one minute.
** ''Jet Propulsion, that's his name. Jet Propulsion, he'll rocket to fame! When he arrived, he created a buzz, cause there was no house, and then there was.'' One gets the sense that the show was very nearly ''entitled'' "Jet Propulsion."
* {{Expy}}:
** Celery is an expy of Miss Frizzle from ''WesternAnimation/TheMagicSchoolBus''. They are both eccentric ladies with red hair, and they drive vehicles that take children on wacky science adventures.
** Sean is also an expy of Arnold from that same show, because they are both [[ButtMonkey butt monkeys]] and [[LovableCoward lovable cowards]], and are always hesitant to go on trips.
** Jet and Carrot are quite similar to a character from ''WesternAnimation/TheGroovenians'' who had Jet's name, Carrot's appearance, and a (somewhat) similar personality to them.
* ExtracurricularEnthusiast: Mindy does a lot of extracurricular activities. Whenever the older kids go to space, she leaves by saying she has to go to a specific class. She takes jiu-jitsu, rumba, and especially flugelhorn lessons.
* EyedScreen: Used in "Racing on Sunshine" when the camera does a closeup on Mitchell's eyes during the race.
* FacePalm: Happens quite often. For example, Mindy face palms in "Mars Rock for Mom", Mindy does this when Jet reveals that he left behind her camera.
* FacePlant: Sean falls face first onto the ground in "Sean's Robotic Arm".
* FailedASpotCheck: Carrot when he removes the spigot valve from the lemonade machine in "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa". Lemonade ends up flowing everywhere, but luckily, Sunspot serves lemonade to the neighborhood cats.
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: No matter how many times Mitchell tries, he just can't successfully expose Jet, because in this universe, the identity of the Propulsions is apparently the CassandraTruth.
* {{Fainting}}: Several.
** Mitchell faints:
*** At the sight of Mindy at the end of "Jet Shrinks the Kids".
*** At one point in "That's One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!".
*** When Sunspot gets up close to him in "Our Sun Is A Star".
** Sunspot faints on Dr. Skelley's lap in "The Tide is High" after discovering that the crab he has befriended has disappeared.
** In "Mindy's Bedtime", Sean collapses after [[ItMakesSenseInContext walking backwards for a long time.]]
* FaintInShock:
** Carrot faints into Celery's arms when Jet mentions him in his song in "My Fair Jet".
** Moonbeam faints after Sunspot flirtatiously winks at her in "Back to Bortron 7".
** Jet faints after Zerk informs him that his parents will be assigned to another planet after their presentation in "Back to Bortron 7".
** Mitchell faints at the ''very sight'' of [[LoveInterest Mindy]] in "What Goes Up...", after she sneaked up on him a second time.
* FailuresOnIce: A RunningGag on the show, usually involving [[ButtMonkey Sean]].
** In "What's Up With Saturn's Rings?", Sean slips while trying to skate on Saturn's rings.
** The kids also have trouble standing on Pluto in "From Pluto With Love".
** Sean slips on the ice rink in "Mindy's Ice Rink.
** In "Water, Water Everywhere", Sean has trouble skating on the South Pole, and Europa.
* FakeBand: The kids have their own band. Jet is the lead singer, Sean plays the drums, Sydney plays the piano, Mindy plays the flugelhorn, and Sunspot plays the electric guitar. However, it only appeared in "Potatoes on Mars".
* FanBoy:
** Sean is a huge fan of Neil Armstrong, as well as Ellen Ochoa. "One Small Step" can best be described as Sean gushing over the Apollo 11 mission for 60 minutes.
** Dr. Bergs is also an Ellen Ochoa fan. He even has a mug with her face on it.
* FanGirl: Sydney is this to Commander Cressida.
* FantasticAnthropologist: The Propulsion parents came to Earth to study it. They return to Bortron in "Back to Bortron 7" and give a report on it.
* FantasticRacist: In "Whole Lotta Shakin'", Jet's cousin Zerk says that humans are not good at building. Keep in mind that this is a cartoon aimed at children.
* FantasyHelmetEnforcement: Whenever the kids ride their hover scooters or go-karts, they always make sure to wear helmets. The kids also always buckle up whenever they're about to go into space.
* FasterThanLightTravel: In the one-hour special "Back to Bortron 7", the Propulsions convert their house back into a starship for a visit to their home planet. Whereas their usual saucer has used Interplanetary Hyperdrive to bring the kids on tours within the solar system, this much longer journey requires Interstellar Superdrive. Details on how it works aren't given, but their journey is accompanied by a flashier, more colorful variant on the light-speed F/X from Star Wars.
* FastForwardGag: In "Measure for Measure", while Jet is measuring how many astronomical units Neptune is from the Sun, a video progress bar appears. Sunspot appears behind the bar and fast forwards, speeding up the process.
* FatalFlaw: Sean's fatal flaw is that he fears cramped spaces, heights, and gets space-sick easily, but he must overcome these fears in time so he can achieve his dream of being an astronaut when gets older.
* FatBestFriend: Sean is the most overweight of the clique, but he doesn't really fit into any categories, as his main defining traits are his high intelligence and reluctance to go to space.
* FeudEpisode: "Treehouse Space Station.", where the kids fight over who gets to use the treehouse for whatever reason.
** In the episode, "Which Moon is Best?", Sean wants to be the first person to walk on a specific Moon. For the rest of the episode, Jet's parents argue over which moon Sean should walk on: Enceladus or Europa. They even have an argument in song. Luckily, [[spoiler: they discover that both Enceladus and Europa are good moons in their own right.]]
* FeministFantasy: Although Jet, [[NoBiologicalSex a male-presenting alien]], is the main character, the series has an EnsembleCast and so girl characters like [[ActionMom Celery]], [[MsImagination Sydney]] and [[ConstantlyCurious Mindy]] get extensive focus. Many of the characters' parents are also successful women in STEM, something never questioned or mocked. Sydney and Mindy don't exist solely to be friends with Jet, they also stand on their own and are crucial to the plot. Each of the female characters has a [[CastOfSnowflakes unique design]]. The series had the Geena Davis Institute for Gender in Media as part of its advisory board along with a mostly female writing team[[note]]Three women - Rachel Lipman, Christie Insley, and Michelle Lamoreaux; two men - Craig Bartlett and Joe Purdy[[/note]], resulting in it being quite feminist.
* FictionalCounterpart: In a presentation, the creator, Craig Bartlett said that Commander Cressida is supposed to be a long running franchise like Doctor Who.
** The Deep Space Array, where all the kids' parents work, is an {{Expy}} of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
* FictionalVideoGame: In "Asteroids, Meteors, and Meteorites", Sydney and Sean play a video game called Astro Tracker, where to win, you have to identify and name certain asteroids.
* FieryRedhead: Jet, the energetic type.
* FishOutOfWater: The Propulsions are aliens trying to fit into Earthie society.
* FiveManBand:
** TheLeader: Jet.
** TheLancer: Mitchell.
** TheSmartGirl: Sydney.
** TheBigGuy: Sean.
** TheChick: Mindy.
** TeamPet: Sunspot.
* FiveTokenBand: Jet is a human-like alien (so he isn't actually white), who appears male but is actually sexless. The other kids featured in the show are
** Sydney Skelley (African-American)
** Sean Rafferty (implied to be Irish-American)
** Mindy Melendez (Latina; her exact nationality is never stated on the show, but she is most likely Mexican-American as the show's official social media pages often use Mindy to promote Cinco de Mayo)
** Mitchell Peterson (white; judging by his name, he's probably of English, Scottish, and/or Scandinavian descent)
** Lillian (Chinese-American)
* FlyingSaucer: The Propulsions have a minivan which turns into a flying saucer in space.
* {{Foil}}: Has [[Foil/ReadyJetGo its own page]].
* FoodAsBribe: In "Pet Sounds", the kids realize that they can use dog treats to motivate Cody to do tricks.
* FoolishHusbandResponsibleWife: Zig-zagged. Carrot is something of a {{Manchild}} HouseHusband who stays home while his intelligent wife Celery takes the gang on space adventures. However, Carrot can be quite competent, particularly at culinary arts and survival skills, while Celery is as goofy as her husband at times.
* ForgetfulJones:
** The Propulsions always forget ''not'' to tell people that they come from Bortron 7.
** Jet, who always needs to Sean to teach him the Scientific Method over and over.
** A RunningGag in "Mars Rock for Mom" is Jet leaving his things behind and forgetting where he put them. First, he forgets his jacket. Next, he forgets his wallet. Then, he devises a plan to get Jet 2 to pick up after him so he doesn't leave his stuff behind, only to realize that he left Jet 2 on Mars. Finally, Jet leaves behind Mindy's camera. Luckily, the camera was inside Jet 2's stomach compartment.
* ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself: In the Halloween special, Jet dresses up as an alien. And gets away with telling people he is from Bortron 7.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Plenty of examples.
** In "Backyard Moon Base", the kids find the house remote. They press some of the buttons on it, which causes the house to fly in the air, unbeknownst to them. In "Back to Bortron 7", it is revealed that [[spoiler: the Propulsion house is actually a starship turned house. Pressing the remote converts the house back to a starship. No wonder Carrot was especially freaked out when he saw the house flying in "Backyard Moon Base"]].
** In "Project Pluto", Carrot at one point utters "little frozen Pluto". And in the planetarium show in "Visit to the Planetarium", the aforementioned show refers to Pluto as "dear little frozen Pluto". Both foreshadow the song "Dear Little Frozen Pluto" from "From Pluto With Love".
** Tons of examples in "Back to Bortron 7":
*** During the first song "Is Your Planet Like My Planet?", one of the lyrics is ''There's no planet like my planet'', which foreshadows the song aptly named "There's No Planet Like My Planet".
*** Somewhere at the beginning of the movie, Carrot and Celery are practicing their [=PowerCube=] presentation. Their lines are ''It's not too hot, and not too freezing / And is suitable for breathing / Not too big / And not too small / And planet Earth is what its called!''. Later, during the Just Add Water song, the cast sing these lines: ''Plus it's not too hot, and no, it's not too freezing / Add to which its atmosphere is suitable for breathing / It's really not too big / And really not too small / And planet Earth is what its called!''
*** At one point, Jet says "What do you call those things in cities that shoot water in the air?", and Sydney and Sean respond with "Fountains.". Later, during "Just Add Water", the song stops so Celery can asks what they call those things in cities that shoot water in the air. Guess what Sydney, Jet, and Sean respond with.
*** In the show credits, doodles of the characters are scattered throughout. However in the credits for "Back to Bortron 7", at one point we see Mindy in a space suit, which foreshadows the fact that [[spoiler: Mindy turned five in season 2, and is now able to go to space]].
** In "Asteroid Belt Space Race", Eggplant's lyrics in the song "Space Racin'" foreshadow to her having anti-gravity fluxinators installed in her saucer.
-->'''Eggplant''': Well, boosters and carbifonators may sound good, but I've got something special sittin' under my hood.
** In "Bortron Leprechaun", Carrot's can of green paint falling on Sunspot foreshadows that the leprechaun was actually Sunspot all along.
** In "One Small Step", during the song "Super Saucer", the kids sing about how it's easy going to space, but hard getting back. [[spoiler: Later, the gang has trouble getting back to Earth from the moon because Sydney used the landing gear crank to fix the saucer. The gang ends up using a parachute and crashing into Little Dipper Lake, where they almost drown but Mitchell rescues them]].
*** In that same special, [[spoiler: Jet 2 presents Sydney with a mysterious object that Sydney thinks is a robot arm. She asks Jet 2 if they will need it in the future, and he says no, so Sydney uses it to fix the saucer. It turns out that the "robot arm" was the landing gear for the saucer. Without the landing gear, the landing will be difficult. So, the kids end up using a parachute and crashing into Little Dipper Lake back on Earth instead]].
** At the end of "Back to Bortron 7", Zerk asks Jet when he can come to visit Earth, which is foreshadowing to Zerk visiting Earth in "Zerk Visits Earth".
* ForWantOfANail:
** ''The entire show'' wouldn't have happened if the satellite radio station didn't play the 50s song "[[DiegeticSoundtrackUsage Jet Propulsion]]", and thus lead the Propulsion family to Earth.
** In "Face on the Fritz", Jet gets distracted by the ice cream truck and accidentally breaks Sunspot's pet house. The kids consult Face 9000 for instructions on how to build a new pet house, but Face breaks down and has to be repaired, and the kids have to use a bulky PC and learn what programming is. Face 9000 later comes back with an all-new look. In summation, an ice cream truck caused Face 9000's MidSeasonUpgrade.
** In "Satellite Selfie", Jet serves some pretty disgusting cookies to Sean, Sydney, and Mindy. They decide to order some pizza to get the taste out of their mouths, and consult a satellite map to find pizza near them. They find out that the map is outdated since it doesn't have Jet's house, and try to get an aerial picture view of the house in the process. So, rutabaga and garlic cookies allowed Jet's house to be added to a satellite map.
** Jet 2 is built so that Jet could be in two places at once (watch ''Commander Cressida'' with Sydney and hang lights with Sean). However, Jet 2 becomes an important plot device who [[spoiler:has saved the kids' lives]]. Thanks to a cartoon and some LED lights, the Propulsions get to stay on Earth and write more stories about it.
* TheFourLoves: The show manages to cover all four forms of love.
** ''Storge'' (Affection/Family): Jet and his family have a powerful familial bond and love each other very much. Carrot and Celery are truly loving parents who aren't abusive, deceased, neglectful, or 100% perfect goody-two-shoes. They're realistic, rounded-out, loving parents who both have well-paying jobs and are both there to support their kid. The other kids love their parents too. Sean is proud of his mother's work at the DSA, and Sydney sees her mother as a role model.
** ''Philia'' (Friendship): From the moment he landed on Earth, Jet has been best friends with Sean, Sydney, and Mindy, and they are inseparable. Throughout the show, Jet learns about traditional childhood activities and in turn, takes his friends on epic sci-fi adventures. Obviously, the gang gets into spats, and they've been through A LOT of drama regarding Jet's alien identity, but they love each other to death and will do anything for each other. [[spoiler:Mitchell is a shy loner kid that envies their friendship and wants to join in, but doesn't know how to ask. Eventually, he becomes an HonoraryTrueCompanion of the clique]].
** ''Eros'' (Romance): Carrot and Celery are HappilyMarried parents and their relationship is the focal point of several episodes. The children are too young to get into any serious romantic relationships, but Jet has had a PrecociousCrush on Dr. Rafferty, then had ShipTease with Sydney before having even more obvious ShipTease with Sean. Mindy has slight affection for Mitchell and really wants him to come out of his shell, because she sees the good in him, and Mitchell feels the same way towards her.
** ''Agape'' (Unconditional Love): Jet is an AllLovingHero who vows to protect Earth. Jet is kind to every living creature big and small, even if some people are rude to him. Jet and his friends do their part to take care of and appreciate the Earth, while Jet teaches Boxwood Terrace to love again.
* FourPhilosophyEnsemble: The main cast of kids fit into this.
** The Cynic: Sean. He's usually the most logical of the group and doesn't always agree with Jet's ideas. However, this is downplayed, as Sean is not as mean as most examples.
** The Optimist: Jet. He's a GenkiGuy who always looks on the bright side of things and sees the good in everyone.
** The Realist: Sydney. She usually meditates between Jet and Sean's differences and balances them out, often acting as the TeamMom towards them.
** The Apathetic: Mindy. Being a little kid, she just doesn't care either way.
** If Mitchell is involved, then he'll be either The Cynic, The Apathetic, or The Conflicted (he's not only morally complicated, but he was also insecure about fitting in with the group).
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Jet (Sanguine), Sean (Melancholic), Sydney (Phlegmatic), and Mindy (Choleric).
* FreeRangeChildren:
** The children are always doing stuff on their own, such as building a treehouse. Craig Bartlett even stated that the kids' adventures are supposed to be similar to his childhood adventures where the kids would just run around without adult supervision.
** However, the kids always have adult supervision in outer space.
** Taken further in "One Small Step", which marks the first time that the kids go to space by themselves. However, they got Carrot and Celery's permission to go by themselves.
* FreezeFrameBonus: Plenty in "Back to Bortron 7". At one point in the movie, Mindy wakes up at midnight and tries to make Jet 2 put the hologram of the house back, and Jet 2 instead projects many other holograms that can only be seen if you pause. The holograms include Sean standing with his hands folded, that same hologram with Sean's mouth closed, a hologram of Sydney, a hologram of Sean in his space-suit, the weather balloon from "My Fair Jet", a hologram of Mitchell cackling, a hologram of Sunspot in a Greek outfit from "Jet's Time Machine", a hologram of Mindy in her pajamas on the flying saucer, and a hologram of the pineapple jack-o-lantern from "Jet's First Halloween".
* FreezeRay: Sunspot builds one for Mindy in "Mindy's Ice Rink".
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Zerk, mostly because he was a racist bigot to the Earthies in the past, and he is quite irritating. The other kids only hang out with him because he's Jet's cousin. Everyone is actually glad when he leaves at the end of "Zerk Visits Earth".
* FriendlyTickleTorture: In "I Feel The Earth Move", Dr. Rafferty tickles Sean's belly.
** In "Satellite Selfie", Jet and Sydney tickle Face 9000. Apparently, computers are ticklish.
* FreudianTrio:
** Sydney is the Id. Unlike Sean, Sydney wants to become a successful science fiction author and is more into science fiction and Greek mythology. She is also more emotional, kind, and loving than any of the group.
** Sean is the Superego. Sean is studious and smart, and wants to grow up to be a great scientist and lead the first human mission to Mars. Sean is also concerned about his grades most of the time and uses the Scientific Method, as well as logical reasoning, to solve problems. Due to this, he has a terrible imagination.
** Jet is the Ego. While Sean and Sydney are polar opposites, Jet is one of the sole reasons why they hang together and the arrival of Jet pretty much brought them together. Jet is talented at acting, singing, and dancing, and is curious about everything, especially Earth. Jet is also kind and generous, and always has a positive attitude and great leadership skills.
** The younger kids trio fits into this as well:
*** Lillian is the Id. She's the most emotional and loving of all of them, and she easily believes that Halloween is magical.
*** Mitchell is the Superego. Mitchell is nerdy and tries to use logic and reasoning when dealing with strange things. He's also a bit of a jerk.
*** Mindy is the Ego. She's Lillian's best friend and Mitchell's (speculated) crush, which is why they both hang out with her. She easily balances them out.
** Dr. Rafferty, Dr. Bergs, and Dr. Skelley end up forming one in "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa". Dr. Bergs is the Id, because he's the most emotional of the trio. Dr. Rafferty is the Superego, since she seems more composed than Bergs, though that's not saying much. Dr. Skelley is the Ego, being the middle point between the two and the most level-headed one.
* FriendlyEnemy: Mitchell is this to Jet and his group. Mitchell is rude to the group, but he can get along with Jet and Mindy sometimes.
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: In "How Come the Moon Changes Shape?", Carrot and Celery sing an [[{{Narm}} amazingly sappy]] love song. While they're singing it, Jet and Sean are grossed out, and Sydney and Mindy punch them for disliking the song.
* FunWithHomophones: In "Constellation Prize":
-->'''Jet''': No way! A dog star? You can't be serious.
-->'''Dr. Rafferty''': Actually, it is Sirius.
-->'''Jet''': I get that it's serious, but I wonder what the star is called.
-->'''Dr. Rafferty''': It's Sirius.
-->'''Jet''': What's serious? I just want to know what the dog star's name.
-->'''Dr. Rafferty''': It's seriously called Sirius.
-->'''Jet''': Whoa! Slow down...
* GadgeteerGenius: Dr. Skelley, Sydney's mom. She knows all about robotics, engineering, and technology. She also holds a strong belief that robots are the future, and teaches the kids about the types of jobs robots have, like helping out at a grocery store, rescuing trapped animals during a flood, collecting comet dust samples, and exploring volcanoes on Mars. [[spoiler: She even rebuilds Jet's robot clone, Jet 2, at the end of the episode and makes him into a DoAnythingRobot.]] Now that is awesome.
* GagNose: In "Mindy's Mystery", Sunspot squeezes Jet's nose, and it honks.
* {{Gasp}}: In "Sunspot's Sunspot", when Sunspot says [[spoiler: "No, thank you"]], all the kids do a dramatic gasp.
* GenderBlenderName: Sydney is traditionally a boy's name.
* GenderEqualEnsemble: In Jet's clique, there are two boys (Jet and Sean), and two girls (Sydney and Mindy), if one does not count the TeamPet Sunspot.
* GenkiGuy: Virtually every member of the Propulsion family.
* GetAholdOfYourselfMan: The gang is usually this to Sean, who is usually apprehensive about going to space
* GetOut: In "Mindy's Mystery", Mitchell tells the other kids to exit his yard in an extremely rude manner.
%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.
* GiantFood: Using his Bortronian grow lamp, Jet grows a huge pumpkin in "That's One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!"
* GilliganCut: Happens in "Space Junk", where Sean says there is no way he is flying outside the saucer. In the next scene, he says he can't believe he's flying outside the saucer.
* GirlishPigtails: Mindy wears her hair like this.
* GirlsLoveStuffedAnimals: Mindy and Lillian both have teddy-bears.
* GirlsNightOutEpisode: "Commander Cressida Begins" mostly focuses on the female characters, namely Mindy, Sydney, Celery, and Dr. Skelley. On top of that, Celery takes only Sydney and Mindy to space to see Jupiter's moons, while leaving behind Jet and Sean.
* GirlyGirl: Mindy, at least in comparison to Sydney. Lillian is even more so.
* GlassSmackAndSlide: In "Castaway Carrot", the saucer malfunctions which causes Jet, Celery, and Sunspot to end up smushed against the saucer window. They then slide off.
* GleefulAndGrumpyPairing:
** Jet is a ray of sunshine who is perpetually optimistic, energetic, and friendly. Sean[[note]]Who has a subtle crush on him[[/note]] isn't all that grumpy, but he can be stubborn, a NervousWreck, and is prone to bouts of angriness and upsetness.
** Mindy and Mitchell's relationship directly mirrors Jet and Sean's. Mindy is a CheerfulChild who is enthusiastic and curious about everything. Mitchell is a snarky, deadpan, egotistical, antisocial know-it-all. Mindy helps draw Mitchell out of his shell and become a better person over the course of the show. Like Jet and Sean, they also have ShipTease here and there.
* GoMadFromTheIsolation: Carrot undergoes a '''major''' SanitySlippage in "Castaway Carrot" while stranded on the moon. He gets a twitchy eyelid at one point, attempted to ''farm pizza'' on the moon, and drew pictures of his family on rocks, and ''made out with the Celery rock.''
* GoodLuckCharm: "Magnet, PI" reveals that Mitchell wears a lucky magnet under his jacket.
* GoodNewsBadNews: In "Sean's Robotic Arm", Jet delivers this in the form of "Good News, Better News". The "Good News" (which is actually bad news) is that Jet's broken Bortronian robot arms have been sent back to Bortron 7 for parts, which will take a week even with expedited intergalactic shipping. Then Jet reveals that there are no better news.
* [[GoodParents Good,]] {{Open Minded Parent}}s:
** Jet's parents are very kind, tolerant, and encourage the children in their science exploration, and are always happy to take them into space.
** Dr. Rafferty and Dr. Skelley are also excellent parents.
* GoshDangItToHeck:
** In "Who Messed Up The Treehouse?", Jet says "It's those darn squirrels again!".
** In "Lone Star 2 - Rocket Kids!", Western!Sean says that going to space is "dag-blamed" impossible. This is a child-friendly version of "goddamned".
* GracefulLadiesLikePurple: Part of Lillian's dress is purple. Fitting the "graceful" part, she's a GirlyGirl and she also likes to do gymnastics, even doing a somersault with ease.
* GracefulLoser: In "Kid-Kart Derby", Jet ends up losing the derby, but takes this in stride and is glad that he had fun in the race anyways. This contrasts with Mitchell's reaction to winning the derby, where he's happy about it at first, but sad because no one's cheering for him.
* GratuitousDiscoSequence: In "Moon Circus", part of Carrot's famous flip is to do a disco dance, complete with techno music.
* GratuitousFrench:
** In "Sunday Drive", Celery briefly practices French and says "''Allons à Mars''", which is French for "Let's go to Mars".
** In "Sunspot's Sunspot", Celery says "''Bon appetit'', as the French Earthies say".
* GreatBigBookOfEverything: As of season 2, a new element of the series is "The Big Book of X", an InUniverse book series that will sometimes be brought up by Sean, and will always relate to the topic of the episode. There's "The Big Book of the Sun", "The Big Book of Birds", "The Big Book of Eclipses", "The Big Book of Clouds", and possibly even more.
* GreenAroundTheGills:
** Mentioned in "You're Never Too Big For A Lullaby" from "Jet Can't Sleep", where one lyric is "I'll sing a song if you're ''green'' or you're blue".
** Played with in "That's One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!". Sean's pumpkin stays green instead of turning orange, so he decorates it to look like someone sick. Complete with a cold cloth and thermometer!
* GreenEyedMonster:
** In the episode "Jet 2", Jet gets jealous of his robot clone, Jet 2, because Sean and Sydney are playing with the robot and not the real Jet.
** In "Back to Bortron 7", Face 9000 is extremely salty that the Propulsions have chosen the [=PowerCube=] for their presentation and not him. He does get to help with the presentation at the climax, though.
** In "My Three Suns", Face was jealous that the kids found Sunspot to be funnier than him.
* GroinAttack: In "How Come the Moon Changes Shape?", Mindy briefly punches Jet in the crotch for being disgusted at Carrot and Celery's duet.
* GroundhogDayLoop: Happens in "Jet's Time Machine", where the kids go back in time, but are stuck in an endless loop and keep missing the meteor shower. However, once they correct their mistakes, they break out of the loop and are able to watch the meteor shower.
* GroupieBrigade: Mitchell tries to invoke this in "Kid-Kart Derby" by asking anyone if they want autographs from him after he won the race, but fails.
* GroupHug:
** Jet, Sean, and Sydney share one in "Back to Bortron 7".
-->'''Jet:''' Come on guys, bring it in!
** Jet, Sean, Sydney, Mindy, and Sunspot share one at the end of "Racing on Sunshine".
** Jet, Sean, and Mindy share one when Mindy and Sean find him in "One Small Step".
* GroupPictureEnding: The episode "Space Race" ends with Jet, Sean, Sydney, Celery, Zucchini, Sunspot, and Moonbeam taking a picture together.
* GrowlingGut:
** Happens to Carrot in "Castaway Carrot" due to hunger.
** Mindy gets one in "I Feel The Earth Move" due to hunger
** Sean's tummy gurgled in "Tour of the Solar System", "Jet's First Halloween", "The Mindysphere", "Jet's Time Machine" [[note]]for a split second in between looking like he's about to throw up and saying "I'm not really meant for this kind of travel!"[[/note]], and "Mindy's Ice Rink", all times due to stomach pain.
** For some reason, a stomach rumble was heard in "More Than One Moon" when Mindy says "That's a moon?"
* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Bergs has blonde hair, and is very kind and friendly.
* HalloweenCostumeCharacterization: In both [[HalloweenEpisode Halloween Episodes]] of the show, the kids wear costumes that reflect their personalities:
** Jet, the local alien, [[ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself wears an alien costume]] to conceal his identity even further. He also thought that the costume was a cucumber, showing his eccentricity.
** Sydney wears a Commander Cressida costume, showing her nerdiness and her love of the titular comic book heroine.
** Sean wears a Neil Armstrong costume, showing his love of space and adoration of Neil Armstrong.
** Mindy wears a costume of her teddy bear, Stuffy Bear, showing her innocence and her AnimalMotif that involves bears.
** Mitchell wears a Literature/SherlockHolmes costume, showing his aspiration to be a detective. Sherlock Holmes being a classic literature character also shows Mitchell's love of classic books and desire to be taken seriously.
** Finally, Lillian wears a pirate costume, showing HiddenDepths - she's more than just a girly girl.
* HalloweenEpisode: "Jet's First Halloween" and "That's One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!".
* HandshakeSubstitute: In "Detective Mindy", the kids put together pieces of evidence and discover that Mr. Peterson had knocked his wife's sunglasses down with his glass of water, and then Mrs. Peterson vacuumed them by mistake. Jet and Sean then proceed to do a fist bump.
* HappilyMarried: Carrot and Celery, even having a love song dedicated to them.
* HappyDance: Mitchell does a dance upon uncovering the treasure in "Treasure Map".
* HarmlessElectrocution: In "One Small Step", while attempting to turn on the engine of the super saucer, Jet 2 is electrocuted. However, he turns out okay, and since he's a robot, it doesn't inflict much damage as it would a human or alien.
* HartmanHips: Jet's aunt, Eggplant, has these.
* HatesBaths: Sunspot loathes taking baths, as shown in "Uncle Zucchini Babysits" and "Bortron Leprechaun".
* HauntedHouse: In "Jet's First Halloween", Carrot and Celery turn the garage into a haunted house, but it isn't scary because they used Valentine's Day decorations. However, the ominous glowing light and behavior of Carrot and Celery freak Mitchell out.
* HaveYouTriedNotBeingAMonster: "My Fair Jet", Sean and Sydney try very hard to get the alien Jet to behave like a human so he can blend in and not risk his true identity being exposed. They try to get him not to be an alien even though that's pretty much impossible, and Jet's alien quirks end up saving the day in the end.
* HeadDesk: Sean does one in "Fact Or Fiction?".
* HeightAngst: Mindy expresses angst about being small in "Jet Shrinks the Kids", which kickstarts the main plot of the episode.
* HelpImStuck: A RunningGag in "Jet's Time Machine" involves Carrot repeatedly getting a vase stuck on his head. At one point, Sean ends up with the vase on his head, [[FridgeLogic even though his head is too big to fit inside it]].
* HereWeGoAgain: At the end of "Sean's Robotic Arm", Cody runs off with Sydney's Commander Cressida figure and puts it in his hiding spot. The kids use the robotic arm to take it back.
* TheHero: Jet, of course.
* HeWentThatWay: In "What Goes Up...", Mitchell tries to chase after Jet's flying saucer. Mindy tells him that the flying saucer went to the right. Mitchell assumes if Mindy says he's going to the right, [[InsaneTrollLogic then he must be going to the left]]. Of course, Jet didn't actually go left.
* HeyLetsPutOnAShow:
** The synopsis of "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", but without monetary gain in mind.
** This is also the plot of "A Star is Born".
* HeyThatsMyLine: In the episode "Mini-Golf at the DSA", Sean says this when Mr. Petersen scores a hole-in-one and says Sean's catchphrase "Booyah, science!".
* HiddenDepths:
** Sunspot is revealed to have many talents. He can pull objects out of HammerSpace, and can play several instruments, including concertina and pan-pipes.
** Jet has these, too. He turns out to be very handy with tools, and a great musician.
** Carrot is revealed to be a great cook, and "Castaway Carrot" reveals that he taught himself ballet.
** "Eye in the Sky" reveals that Mitchell is an expert on weather.
** "That's One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!" reveals that Dr. Skelley has a knack for gardening.
** "Freebird" reveals that Dr. Rafferty likes studying birds.
** Sean is a drummer and Sydney is a pianist, as shown in "Potatoes on Mars".
** In "Mars Rock for Mom", Jet 2 is revealed to have adapted to the Mars environment when he was stranded there, and also learned how to play checkers. Meanwhile, Dr. Rafferty is revealed to have a rock collection.
** Sydney is shown to have a real knack for engineering and mechanics. She builds her own robot in "Sydney 2", and fixes the saucer in "One Small Step".
* HiddenInPlainSight: The show ''thrives'' off of this trope. The Propulsions coincidentally look like humans,
which allows them to hide in plain sight on Earth easily without anyone discovering their secret alien identity. Averted with Sunspot, some characters like Dr. Rafferty and Mitchell often question what kind of animal he is.
* HighPressureEmotion: In "Jet's First Halloween", Jet's ears leak steam - not because he's angry, but because he's so excited to learn about Halloween. This is also the only instance in the show where steam comes out of someone's ears.
* HiroshimaAsAUnitOfMeasure: In "Measure for Measure", the kids decide to make a scale model of the solar system in the yard. They use Sunspot as an astronomical unit.
* HisOwnWorstEnemy: [[spoiler:Mitchell's loneliness and lack of social skills cause him to build up a snobby jerk persona that is keen on exposing Jet's alien identity. However, these traits prove to be self-destructive; despite Jet, Sean, Sydney, and Mindy not having any animosity towards him, they often leave him out, forget about him, or are even cautious of him because of his stalker behavior and mean attitude, as the ChristmasEpisode shows. Mitchell shuts all his potential friends out by telling them to go away or leave him alone, since he does his detective work by himself. He realizes this and attempts to make a change in season 2 by being more polite to the other kids and helping them out instead of spying on them all the time. Sure enough, it works, and Mitchell is an HonoraryTrueCompanion of Team Propulsion.]]
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: An odd example. In "Kid-Kart Derby", Mitchell cheats by installing an ion drive into his kid kart, but then when he starts to use it, it doesn't work. Jet then informs him that ion drives only work in the vacuum of space. [[spoiler: Mitchell still wins the derby, however.]]
* HoldingHands:
** In "Back to Bortron 7", Carrot and Celery hold hands as they're about to enter the Intergalactic Travel Writers' headquarters.
** In "That's One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!", Mitchell, Mindy, and Lillian all hold hands as they go trick-or-treating.
* HolidayEpisode:
** The episode "Bortron Leprechaun" takes place on St. Patrick's Day.
** The episode "Every Day Is Earth Day" takes place on Earth Day.
** The episode "Mars Rock for Mom" takes place on Mother's Day.
* {{Hologram}}: Ever since "Back to Bortron 7", holograms have been used egregiously on the show. They have been used to deceive the neighbors, show maps of the galaxy, take online classes, and more.
* HologramProjectionImperfection: Played straight in "Back to Bortron 7". Jet 2 has to project a hologram of Jet's house, while the real house converts back into a starship for a trip to Bortron 7, so Mitchell doesn't get suspicious. However, Jet 2 has a hard time keeping the hologram stable, as it keeps glitching. Towards the end of the movie, ''it disappears completely'', which gives Mitchell an opportunity to expose Jet (which luckily fails).
* HookHand: Lillian wears this as part of her pirate costume in "That's One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!".
* HonoraryTrueCompanion: [[spoiler: While Mitchell is not a member of the main cast of characters, by the end of the series, he's a trusted ally to them. He often helps them out like in "Sean's Robotic Arm" and "Eye in the Sky", and is much more of a sweetheart than he was in season 1. Solidified in "One Small Step", when he rescues the kids from drowning in Little Dipper Lake, and is invited to their sleepover. It's even implied that he now knows that the Propulsions are aliens]].
* HouseHusband: While Celery is always taking the kids to space, Carrot stays home and does things like cooking.
* HuddleShot: In "Back to Bortron 7", this happens while Jet, Sean, and Sydney are thinking up ideas to improve the presentation.
* HumanAliens: The Bortronians seem to be humans, but they treat the human earthlings as though they are members of a different species.
* HumansThroughAlienEyes: Jet and his family do not seem to get the Earthlings' behaviors and vocabulary, often using them the wrong way. Once, Carrot was shown ''mowing the roof''.
* HyperventilationBag: In "Jet Cooks Dinner", the kids are running out of time to cook a meal for Jet's parents before they return home. This causes Sean to have a panic attack, and he briefly breathes into a brown paper bag.
* {{Hypocrite}}:
** In "That's One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!", Mitchell chastises Jet for singing to his pumpkin, but Mitchell himself creepily talks to his own pumpkin and calls it his "precious". [[SanitySlippage Er...you okay, Mitch?]]
** Mitchell is a huge one in "Mindy's Mystery". He dismisses Mindy's case as fake because she's looking for a smell, and yet Mitchell's case could also be considered silly by his logic because he's looking for a light.
* IAlwaysWantedToSayThat: Sean says this after saying "There's not a moment to lose!" and "Come on Zerk! Back to the house! And step on it!" in "Back to Bortron 7".
* IAmSong: "Bortronian Is What I Am", written and sung by Jet himself in "My Fair Jet".
** In "Lone Star", there is "Lone Star", sung by Jet, playing the titular Lone Star.
** Mindy has "My Name is Mindy".
* IAteWhat: Mindy, Sean, and Sydney have this sort of reaction in "Satellite Selfie", where they discover that the cookies that they ate were made from a full cup of minced garlic and rutabaga.
* ICantBelieveImSayingThis: In "Back to Bortron 7":
-->'''Sean''': I can't believe I'm saying this, but, let's go to Bortron 7.
* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: Sometimes. Some episode titles are based around a question ("How Come the Moon Has Craters?")
* IdiosyncraticWipes: The show often uses spinning silhouettes of Sunspot for transitions.
* IdiotBall:
** Jet gets passed this in "Mindy's Weather Report". In that episode, Mindy tells the gang that a storm is on Saturn, and Jet believes that there's a storm in Boxwood Terrace, and tells all the neighbors (including the Petersons) to prepare, despite the number of times Sean, Sydney, and Mindy try to tell Jet that the storm in on Saturn. When the gang goes into space, they see the storm on Saturn and Jet says: "Why didn't you tell me?" with Sean and Sydney in annoyance.
** Mindy gets passed the idiot ball in "Galileo, Galileo!", where she believes that the sun orbits the Earth, despite the fact that in "Round and Round", she portrayed the Sun and saw that the solar system revolves around the sun, not the Earth.
** Mindy grabs the idiot ball in "Our Sun Is A Star!". In "How We Found Your Sun", she learned that the sun is a star, but in this episode, she's somehow convinced that the sun isn't a star.
* IJustWantToHaveFriends: This is most likely Mitchell's FreudianExcuse for why he acts the way he does. It is revealed in "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace" that he is really a lonely kid and he acts like a jerk to hide it.
* IllBoy:
** Sean is a borderline example. He gets space-sick easily, and as a result, he often suffers a sore tummy.
** He even has his very own SickEpisode, "Sean Has A Cold".
* IllnessBlanket: In "Endless Summer", Carrot has a cold and is later wrapped up in a blanket.
* ImagineSpot:
** Happens in "More Than One Moon".
** There are several imagine spots in "Backyard Moon Base".
** In "Sean's Robotic Arm", Sean has one where he's on the moon dressed as Neil Armstrong and Jet, Sydney, and Mindy are in their regular space-suits. Sean gives them a motivational speech and convinces them that they should combine the various parts together to make a robotic arm to retrieve Neil.
** In "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa", the kids and Ellen have one where they fly in space and go to the International Space Station.
** In "My Three Suns", Sean, Sydney, and Jet all have imagine spots about what it would be like to live on a planet with 3 moons. Sean imagines never being able to sleep, Sydney imagines having too many birthdays, and Jet imagines playing shadow tag and then being unable to find anyone.
** In "Diggin' Earth", the kids imagine that they're Commander Cressida characters and that they're digging to the Earth's core.
* ImNotHereToMakeFriends: In a non reality show example, in the ChristmasEpisode, Sean asks Mitchell if he wants to join them, saying that "you are our friend", but Mitchell claims "he doesn't do friends". Of course, he's lying.
* ImpliedLoveInterest: Mindy and Mitchell are heavily implied to have crushes on each other, in episodes like "What Goes Up..." and "Kid-Kart Derby" where Mindy constantly sneaks up on Mitchell and and even tried to ask him out on a date in the latter episode[[note]]Mindy technically only asked Mitchell to come see Jet's electric engine with her, but the context makes it seem like Mindy is trying to ask out Mitchell.[[/note]] Mitchell acts abrasive towards her in return, ''especially'' in "Mindy's Mystery", but "Solar System-Bake Off!" and '''especially''' "Detective Mindy" (where Mitchell proposes to her at the end of the episode[[note]]Again, Mitchell technically did not propose to Mindy, he simply just got down on one knee and said that this was the start of a ''beautiful friendship'' for him and Mindy, but the fact that Mitchell just ''had'' to get down on one knee and the fact that the other characters cheered wildly for them at the end seems to imply that Mitchell did in fact, propose to Mindy[[/note]] seem to show that Mitchell does care about Mindy. However, it hasn't been confirmed in the show at all.
* ImpossiblePickleJar: In "My Fair Jet", one of Jet's tasks, in order to behave like a human, is to open a pickle jar with his bare hands. Jet has a hard time doing so, and even tries to use his robotic arms even though it's against the rules. However, Jet does eventually open the jar.
* ImpossibleShadowPuppets: In "My Three Suns", the kids learn how to make some very hard shadow puppets towards the end of the episode.
* ImprobablePilotingSkills: In "Back to Bortron 7", Celery assigns Sydney the role of the co-pilot of the Mothership. Sydney figures out how to steer the mothership almost instantaneously. This continues into the regular season 2 episodes as well. In "Souped Up Saucer", Sydney becomes the {{Wingman}} of the flying saucer, proving herself to be just as skilled a pilot as she was in "Back to Bortron 7".
* ImStandingRightHere: In "One Small Step", the kids have a brief 'moon monster' scare, and when it turns out to be fake, Sean says that it would be scary to find an actual alien lifeform and Sydney says it would be weird-looking. This is all said in [[AlienAmongUs Jet]]'s presence.
-->'''Sean''': Man, the idea of finding an actual alien lifeform is really scary.
-->'''Sydney''': Yeah, think how weird looking it might be.
-->'''Jet''': Hey, guys? I'm right here.
* IncomingHam: "In the quiet I hear the stars, calling to me from on '''''HIIIIIGGGHHH!!!'''''"
* InconsistentColoring: Sean has either blue, green, or grey eyes. Also, Mindy has really light skin and really dark hair or reddish-brown hair and tan skin. Some sunset scenes can even make it look like Jet has pink hair.
* InconsistentDub:
** The Hungarian dub contains numerous inconsistencies and errors:
*** The Propulsion family is both referred to with their English last name and English name order (surname after given name), as well as with a Hungarianized last name with Hungarian name order (surname before given name). The usage of last name and name order varies from episode to episode.
*** Mindy's last name varies between "Melendez" and "Mendez."
*** During the "Scientific Method" song, whether or not the line where all the kids sing the chorus is dubbed or left silent varies from episode to episode.
*** During the "Night of a Bazillion Stars" song, the names of the stars which Jet sings do not match up to the stars he points at in the song. The beginning line is also repeated three times at various speeds, as Jet's voice actor flubbed the line; these outtakes are kept in the final version of the song.
** The Uzbek dub contains numerous inconsistencies:
*** The name of Sydney's favorite superhero, Commander Cressida, was translated as "Qo'mondon Kressida" up until "So Many Moons," in which the translation used by this dub was changed to "Kapitan Kressida." However, beginning with "Scientific Sean," the "Qo'mondon Kressida" translation began being used again alongside "Kapitan Kressida."
*** The lyrics to the Commander Cressida Theme Song and Take-Off chant were inexplicably changed following the first 10 episodes. The changed lyrics more closely resemble the Russian-dubbed versions of the songs than their original English versions. The lyrics were reverted back to the initial lyrics in "Space Junk," but episodes following it such as "The Mindysphere" continued using the changed lyrics alternating with the initial ones.
* IncorruptiblePurePureness: While Jet is by no means perfect, he is still an optimistic, kind-hearted kid who sees the good in everyone, and wants to help in any way he can. He's even able to put up with Mitchell's constant spying on him, and (to an extent) Zerk's over-the-top antics.
* IncredibleShrinkingMan: This is the plot of "Jet Shrinks the Kids", where Jet shrinks himself, Sydney, Sean, and Sunspot to become Mindy's size. Things go awry, however, and they become the size of mice. Mindy spends the episode trying to reverse the shrink ray, while Jet, Sydney, Sean, and Sunspot try to evade Mitchell and Cody.
* IncrediblyLamePun:
** Face 9000 makes one in "Mindy's Meteorite Stand":
-->"And Sean's right, the proper tests will help you discover if your rock is meteorite or meteor-wrong!"
** He makes another one in "Eye in the Sky":
-->"I couldn't tell ''weather'' or not you needed my help!"
** Mindy makes one in "You Can Call Me Albedo" after having just learned what albedo is.
-->"''Albedo'' right there!"
** In "Our Sun Is A Star!", when Jet lifts his sunglasses up and down so it appears that Mitchell is turning orange and then back to his normal color, he says this: "Orange you glad you're not permanently orange?".
* IndividualismVsCollectivism: The show generally supports themes like friendship and teamwork. Each of the members of Team Propulsion contribute to the exploration of space and conduction of science experiments. Quite a few episodes emphasize teamwork: in "Sounds Abound", Sean wants to do his sound experiment alone and quietly but realizes that he needed his friends' noises all along. The closest thing the show has to an antagonist is Mitchell Peterson, whose smug, pretentious attitude and desire to be alone drives his potential friends away, saddening him. Mitchell realizes that having people help him can be worth it, and actually hangs out with and helps the gang in later episodes.
* INeedToGoIronMyDog: Whenever Mitchell is about to be caught spying, he always makes flimsy excuses to leave.
** In "Kid-Kart Derby", when Mitchell overhears Sydney while he's in Jet's garage, Mitchell says that he thinks he left the hose on, or the lights.
** In "That's One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!", when Jet and Sydney catch him spying on them, he says he has to go water his dumplings. Later, when he's with Lillian and Mindy, he says that he has to go do something completely different from what they're talking about.
* InherentlyFunnyWords: Jet considers lots of "Earth words" (like "falafel") to be absolutely ''hilarious''.
* InnocentAliens: The Bortronians are very kind-hearted.
* InnocentlyInsensitive:
** Jet means well, but can sometimes do some rather careless things when helping others.
** Celery is also this. Best exemplified in "My Three Suns", where she doesn't let Sean go to the bathroom in the name of learning.
* InstantlyProvenWrong:
** In "Jet's First Halloween":
--> '''Sean:''' "Eh, you're right. It ''is'' fun! And I'm not even space-sick!"
--> (his [[GrowlingGut tummy gurgles]].)
--> '''Sean:''' "Ugh, much."
** In "From Pluto With Love":
--> '''Sean:''' "At least the low gravity will keep me from getting hurt."
--> (he falls)
--> '''Sean:''' "Ow-that hurt."
** In "Freebird", Jet states that there's only one snow goose in his yard. Cue a flock of snow geese arriving.
* IntergenerationalFriendship: Jet, Sean, and Sydney, who are possibly in their mid-to-late preteens, are friends with 4-year old Mindy.
* InterspeciesFriendship: The humans Sean, Sydney, and Mindy are best friends with the alien Jet.
* InterspeciesRomance: In "The Tide is High", Sunspot comes a little too infatuated with a crab at the beach.
* IntriguedByHumanity: The Propulsions are very interested in humankind, or as they call them, "Earthies", and are always trying to learn their customs.
* InSeriesNickname: Sean has "Sean-zo", an AffectionateNickname coined by Jet in season 2.
* InsistentTerminology:
** Sean's Neil Armstrong figure is an "action figure", ''not'' a "toy".
** In "My Three Suns", Face 9000 demands that the kids call him "Funny Face".
* InsomniaEpisode: In "Jet Can't Sleep", Jet is unable to fall asleep because he's so excited about a storm happening at the moment. His family tries absurd methods to get him to go to sleep, but Celery gets him to sleep using a lullaby.
* InstantCostumeChange:
** Whenever the group goes into space, Sean and Sydney instantly change from their regular outfits to their space suits.
** In "Sean's Year In Space", Sean changes into his space suit when he tries to live in the treehouse for a year ''very quickly''.
* InstantWristwatch: This happens ''a lot''. At any given moment, Sydney's Commander Cressida watch might randomly appear on her wrist.
* InTouchWithHisFeminineSide:
** Mitchell, perhaps? In a leaked image of "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", [[https://www.awn.com/sites/default/files/styles/original/public/image/featured/1040951-ready-jet-go-christmas-special-launching-dec-11.jpg?itok=3XyvptY7 he is shown wearing a lavender dress]]. Judging by the reaction on his face, he seems to be ''happy'' about it.
** Also, in "Try and Try Again", Mitchell seems to have no qualms about wearing Mindy's lucky helmet...which has rainbows and unicorns on it.
** Carrot too. Carrot is a stay at home dad, and he likes to cook. He is also revealed to like ballet in "Castaway Carrot", and he briefly wore a pink scarf while admiring himself in a mirror in the same episode.
* InvisibleParents:
** Aside from Jet, whose two parents are always present, Mitchell, Sean, Sydney, and Mindy are all confirmed to have both a mom and a dad each, but almost none of them are ever shown. Mitchell's dad is always shown, but Mitchell's mom has only been heard. Sean's mom is always shown, but his dad is nowhere to be seen. Mindy's mom is heard, but not shown, and her dad is also nowhere to be seen. And Sydney's parents have been neither seen or shown, though Sydney's mom appeared in the season 1 finale, and makes frequent appearances in season 2.
** As for Lillian, she is confirmed to have a mom in "Mindy Turns Five", but is unknown if she has a father.
* IrisOut: Part 1 of "Jet's First Halloween" ends like this. Sunspot breaks the fourth wall by stretching the circle opening, screaming, and then winking before closing it.
* IronicEchoCut: The episode "Castaway Carrot" has this exchange:
--> '''Celery''': Way the by, your dad is fine. I can hear him testing his moon wilderness skills.
--> '''Carrot''': (from outside the saucer) I love testing my moon wilderness skills!
* ItsAllAboutMe:
** Mitchell seems to have a bad case of this as shown in "Kid-Kart Derby". When he wins the soapbox derby, he is the only one cheering for him and even asks anyone if they wants autographs from him, but instead everyone is looking up at and cheering Jet (who was parachuting) even though he lost the derby. Mitchell is the ''complete'' opposite of Jet, who is very selfless and tries not to expose his alien identity because he doesn't want to be a celebrity and leave his friends.
** Also in "Racing on Sunshine", before the race starts, Mitchell boasts that he was "[[BlatantLies ready to retire]]", but Cody convinced him to race again. Needless to say, the other racers weren't amused.
** Mindy, to a lesser extent. "I guess you're just not me".
** Jet's cousin Zerk. He is a huge braggart as revealed in "Whole Lotta Shakin'", and he also attempted to take credit for the "Just Add Water" in "Back to Bortron 7".
* ItsALongStory:
** In "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa", Dr. Bergs says this word for word when Ellen finds his mug with her face on it.
** In "Who Messed Up The Treehouse?", Jet says this when Sean asks why he has an egg in his ear.
* ItsAlwaysSpring: In this show, it always seems to be summer. Averted in both of Halloween 2-parter, where it's fall, and in "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace" and "Endless Summer", where it's winter.
* ItsForABook: In the episode "Solar System Bake-Off", Mitchell sneaks into Jet's house to gather info on Mindy's baking contest entry. He writes down some information in his notebook. When Sydney asks what he's writing in there, Mitchell says its for a cookbook. Or a blog. Or webisodes.
* IveHeardOfThatWhatIsIt: In "Mini-Golf at the DSA", Sean tells Jet that he needs to use the right amount of force to get his golf ball to move properly and not bounce all over the place. Jet says he loves force, only to ask a second later what force is.
* IWillFindYou: In "One Small Step", Sean and Mindy become worried when Jet and Sunspot go missing. At one point, Mindy even thinks that a "moon monster" got them. So, Sean and Mindy make it their mission to go and locate them. Along the way, they learn about the Apollo 11 mission. When they finally find Jet, they share a GroupHug.
* IWorkAlone:
** It isn't said verbatim, but Mitchell usually rejects help from other characters when trying to solve his cases, claiming that he needs to solve his mysteries himself, as shown in episodes like "What Goes Up...", "Kid-Kart Derby", and "Mindy's Mystery". However, this trope averts in "Detective Mindy", where Mitchell actually lets Mindy help him.
** In the ChristmasEpisode, Mitchell claims that he "doesn't do friends". He's lying, of course.
** Even after the ChristmasEpisode, Mitchell still rejects help from the kids in "Racing on Sunshine" and "You Can Call Me Albedo", but both instances stem from Mitchell's overconfidence in being a detective rather than outright hatred for the clique.
** Sunspot has this mindset in "Ain't No Mars Mountain High Enough". He doesn't want help from any of the other characters to climb Mt. Sharp.
* JabbaTableManners: Zerk. In "Back to Bortron 7", he asked the group if they wanted to see how many Figinnuz he could fit into his mouth until his mom stopped him.
** All the kids exhibit this in "Mindy Turns Five". At Mindy and Lillian's tea party, the kids put the teacups on their heads, and Jet grabs things using his ''feet''.
* JawDrop:
** Sean does a major jaw drop in "Space Race", after Zucchini uses his new thrusters in the titular race.
** Carrot does one in "Back to Bortron 7" after Eggplant informs him and Celery that they'll be done with Earth after their presentation. For dramatic effect, the Exploding Shake that Carrot was holding explodes in his face.
* {{Jerk|ass}}: Mitchell, obviously.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold:
** Though Mitchell has his many jerky moments, Mitchell does have a good heart deep down. Episodes supporting this are "Detective Mindy", "You Can Call Me Albedo", and especially "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace".
** This is what becomes of Sean's western persona in "Lone Star 2 - Rocket Kids!". In the first "Lone Star" episode, Western!Sean was disapproving of Lone Star's ideas. In this episode, however, although he was somewhat disapproving at first, he eventually warms up to Lone Star, admitting to liking him.
* JerkassBall:
** ''Somewhat'' grabbed by Sean in "Sounds Abound", but in this case, it's understandable because he just wants some peace and quiet to work on his sound experiment. He eventually learned that he needed his friends' noise for the experiment. And, it's easy to sympathize with both parties: Sean wanted peace and quiet, while his friends just wanted to help and stopped bothering Sean when he asked them to.
** In "Ain't No Mars Mountain High Enough", Sunspot grabs this. He refuses help from the other kids and refuses to team up with Celery. After the kids save him from flying away in the wind, however, he is humbled.
* JerkassHasAPoint:
** In "Lone Star", Western!Sean is a cranky shopkeeper who dislikes Lone Star's ideas because they actually '''could''' hurt the economy of Boxwood Territory. Western!Sean claims that if people are looking up at the stars all night, they will be tired in the morning and won't be able to cut down trees or dig for gold.
** In "That's One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!", Mindy and Lillian keep insisting that Halloween is magical, while Mitchell repeatedly refutes their claims. Yes, he was rather blunt about it, but he did have a point that the stuff that they said were real like demonic spiders, ghosts, and witches are fake.
* JetPack: Jet has one. He uses in a few episodes like "Mindy's Moon Bounce House" and "My Fair Jet".
* JustAKid: A HeroicSelfDeprecation version in "Diggin' Earth" — Sean thinks that he and the others can't really dig all the way down because they're just kids, and wants to give up, but Dr. Rafferty tells him that kids (like them) can do amazing things and encourages him to keep going.
* KangarooCourt: In "Fact Or Fiction?", the kids set up a court in order to determine whether clouds are made of water or cotton candy. Sean says that clouds are made of water, while Lillian says that clouds are made of cotton candy. The judge, Jet, is clearly biased seeing as he believed that clouds were made of cotton candy, so he rules in favor of Lillian, much to Sean's annoyance.
* KarmaHoudini:
** Mitchell tried to get intel about Mindy's recipe in "Solar System Bake Off" and cheated at a race in "Kid Kart Derby", but he never gets punished for this.
** In "Asteroid Belt Space Race", Eggplant and Zerk cheat in the race by using anti-gravity fluxinators (which effectively ''steal'' gravity from the other racers), yet they win and don't get their comeuppance.
* {{Keet}}: Jet is this to the extreme, always being loud and cheerful.
* KidAppealCharacter: Mindy, who was originally not in the show, [[ExecutiveMeddling but was added to appeal the younger demographic]][[note]]Believe or not, the show wasn't originally intended for preschoolers, but they didn't want to completely lose them[[/note]]. This is a successful example, as Mindy became a very popular character within the show's target audience. However, in season 2, this prompted the writers to [[SpotlightStealingSquad make everything revolve around Mindy]].
* KidDetective: Mitchell is always trying to be a detective and find proof that the Propulsions are aliens. In "Detective Mindy", Mindy becomes Mitchell's detective partner.
* KidsDrivingCars: On Bortron 7, flying saucers are treated as cars. Jet builds and flies his own little saucer starting in "What Goes Up...", and Zerk can drive too. Jet and Zerk are both children, and they can drive presumably because Bortron 7 has different driving laws than any country on Earth.
* KidsHateChores: In "Chore Day", Jet doesn't want to do his chores because he thinks they're boring, and would rather play around with his friends. As it turns out, all his friends have to do chores as well -- Sydney has to fold the laundry, Sean has to water the plants, and Mindy has to clean up her toys -- but they find ways to make the chores fun and get them done quicker by applying science. In the end, Jet's chore was to test out the hover scooters, and he ends up having a lot of fun with it.
* KindheartedSimpleton:
** Uncle Zucchini. He mistook Titan for Earth and was unaware of the three states of matter, but he's unfailingly kind and loyal to the Propulsion family.
** Lillian is slightly ditzy, but she's one of the nicest characters on the show.
* KissingTheGround: Sean often does this whenever they get back from space. A few times, this is coupled with him spitting out grass. For example, he does this towards the end of "One Small Step".
* KnockKnockJoke: In "My Three Suns", Face 9000 tries to tell one, but fails.
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Zerk proves to be this in "Asteroid Belt Space Race". After he learns just a little bit about asteroids from Sean and Sydney, he declares that he is an asteroid expert when he actually isn't.
* KnuckleCracking:
** Celery does this in "Castaway Carrot".
** Jet cracks his knuckles in "Treasure Map" as he prepares to make a treasure chest.
* LackOfImagination: Mitchell, being the AgentScully, refuses to believe that Halloween has any kind of magic. By his own admission, he has "no imagination". Whenever he tries (and fails) to expose Jet as an alien, his parents always say that he has a 'wonderful imagination', and he insists he lacks one. However, in "Moon Face", he ends up seeing a face on the moon and realizes he does have an imagination after all.
* LampshadeHanging: In the winter episodes "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace" and "Endless Summer", there's not much snow on the ground in Boxwood Terrace. In "Freebird", this is lampshaded when it is revealed that Boxwood Terrace doesn't get much snow, which explains the lack of snow.
* TheLancer: Sean is this to Jet.
* LargeAndInCharge: Jet is the tallest and is the leader of his group.
* LargeHam: The song number in "A Visit to the Planetarium" proves that Jet is this. You can listen to the song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyDXNRJtRK0 here.]]
* LaserGuidedKarma: In "Whole Lotta Shakin'", Zerk keeps bothering Jet, Sean, and Sydney to no end via Jet's smartwatch. At the end of the episode, Zerk annoys Jet ''again'', and gets what he deserves after Jet throws the smartwatch into the vastness of space.
* LastNameBasis:
** Mr. Peterson refers to males by their last names, using Peterson to refer to his own son, and Propulsion to refer to Carrot and Jet.
** In "Mini-Golf At The DSA", he refers to Dr. Rafferty as simply Rafferty.
* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers:
** Happens in "Detective Mindy":
-->'''Sydney''': How does [the black hole] do that?\\
'''Mindy''': And how did it get there?\\
'''Jet''': [[WeirdAside And how]] [[TheTriple does my hair look today?]] (beat) Oh...not the right time?
** This happens again in "Galileo, Galileo!", where Sean is listing his heroes: Galileo Galilei, Neil Armstrong, Albert Einstein, Madame Curie, and Music/PattiSmith.[[note]]All of Sean's heroes are scientists, except for Patti Smith, who is a punk singer[[/note]]. Even Sunspot seems confused.
** In "Freebird", the kids point out that they can make a bird feeder, a birdbath, plants that birds like, and the right seeds. Jet follows that up by saying that he can teach the snow geese to river-dance. No, really.
** In "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa", when the kids show their drawings to Ellen, Sydney shows her a Commander Cressida comic she drew, Mindy shows her a Pluto drawing, and Jet shows her a drawing of a cucumber sandwich he ate the week before.
** In "Moon Circus", when the gang is trying to think of places to take the circus to, Sean suggests Mercury, Jet suggests the comet Churymov-Gerasimenko, and Mindy suggests Edmonton, Alberta. Sean and Jet's suggestions are both from outer space, while Mindy's suggestion is the capital of a Canadian province.
* LaughingMad: In "Detective Mindy", Jet looks for a black hole in the trash can. He puts it over his head and starts laughing like a madman.
* TheLeader: Jet is the leader of his group.
* {{Leitmotif}}:
** "My Name Is Mindy" for Mindy. If you listen closely, you can hear an instrumental playing when she's around sometimes.
** Sometimes, in Sean's scenes, you can hear a composition of "The Scientific Method".
** Mitchell has a jazzy lounge piece that plays in almost every one of his scenes.
* LetsDuet: Some. "Let's Fly Our Little Saucer to the Moon", "There's No Planet Like My Planet", and "Enceladus vs. Europa".
* LetsSplitUpGang: In "One Small Step", the gang splits up: Sean and Mindy go to look for Jet and Sunspot, and Sydney and Jet 2 stay behind to fix the saucer.
* LicensedGame: There's an app for this show called Space Explorer that uses augmented reality technology to help you learn about space.
* LightBulbJoke: Beep tells Jet one of these jokes in one episode.
* LighterAndSofter: "One Small Step", the second TVMovie, is much tamer compared to "Back to Bortron 7", the first one. While "Back to Bortron 7" was very dark in some places and even had some adult jokes, "One Small Step" has no peril [[spoiler: except for when Jet and Sunspot go missing and when the kids crash land into Little Dipper Lake and nearly drown, but both of these are made softer when it was revealed that Jet and Sunspot were just building a mini-golf course, and when Mitchell saves the kids with his rowboat]]. Plus, all the jokes are clean for kids.
* LikeParentLikeChild: Celery says this trope's name out loud in "Moon Circus" when comparing Carrot and Jet's shared tendencies to not keep secrets. She also offhandedly mentions that they both like prune juice with lemons.
* LimitedSocialCircle:
** Jet, Sean, Sydney, Mindy, and Sunspot are very close-knit and never seem to talk to any other kids. Lillian only appeared in one episode (and another one as a cameo), and Mitchell is their frenemy.
** However, this trope averts starting in late season 1 and the entirety of season 2. [[spoiler: They assure Mitchell that they are friends with him in the ChristmasEpisode]], and due to Lillian becoming an AscendedExtra, they hang out with her a lot more.
* LimitedWardrobe:
** Almost every character. Though Sydney and Sean wear the same suits as the Propulsions while going into space.
** The characters (save for Mindy), don't even wear pajamas when they go to sleep! Now that's gotta take the cake.
** This is eventually played with in "Mars Rock for Mom", which reveals that Jet has been wearing a white shirt under his signature jacket this whole time.
* ListSong: This show ''loves'' this trope, "So Many Moons!", "Solar System Song", "Night of a Bazillion Stars", etc.
* LiteralMinded: Jet's parents' learning curve is filled with funny misunderstandings of the human ways of things, and both kids and parents will have a lot of fun watching them get the hang of "throwing a salad together" and understanding the "string" part of beans. Their ''Literature/AmeliaBedelia''-like follies are good for some laughs, but they also reflect the challenges of immersing yourself in a culture that's different from your own. This exchange from "Tiny Blue Dot" is just one example of many:
-->'''Sean''': Ohh, I think I left my stomach on Venus.
-->'''Celery''': Ooh, should we go back for it?
* LittleMissSnarker: Mindy is this in ''spades''.
* TheLoad: In "Asteroid Belt Space Race", Zerk proves to be this towards Eggplant. After learning a little bit about the asteroids from Sean and Sydney, Zerk believes that he is now a complete expert on the asteroid belt even though he's really not, and mixes up the directions in the process. This is later subverted, as they did win the race thanks to a device installed in Eggplant's saucer.
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Pretty much anyone who isn't Sean, Sydney and Mindy, and to a lesser extent Mitchell, toward the Propulsions' identities as aliens.
* LonerTurnedFriend: [[spoiler: Mitchell was previously a ShrinkingViolet loner with a {{Jerkass}} facade, who wanted to join Jet's clique but didn't know how to fit in. However, once he sings with them in the pageant, he gets to belong to the group. Sydney and Mindy reassure him that he can always be a part of whatever the clique is doing. So Mitchell is technically now part of Jet's circle of friends]].
* LookalikeLovers: Carrot and Celery look exactly alike.
* LookBehindYou: In "Sean's Neptune Tune", Sean distracts Jet and Sydney by saying "Wow! Look, a rare moment when you can see the sun and the moon in the sky at the same time!" so he can run away from them.
* LoonyFriendsImproveYourPersonality: Jet's craziness and Sydney's huge imagination have had positive effects on Sean. He is more open to making mistakes, taking chances, and using his imagination as the series goes on. Sometimes, he lampshades this by calling himself "Mr. Adventure".
* LoopholeAbuse:
** At the end of "Solar Power Rover", Jet makes some solar-powered lanterns, and puts them in the background. Celery then comes and tells him it's time to go to bed, since it's getting dark. But because of the lanterns, it will be bright all night.
** In "A Visit to the Planetarium", Sydney and Sean say that Jet can't say he's from Bortron 7. Jet sings a song at the planetarium and mentions Bortron. However, he never said he was from Bortron 7.
* LostToyGrievance: In the episode "Sean's Robotic Arm", Sean loses his prized Neil Armstrong figure in a narrow crevice, and is very upset about it since the toy is very important to him and has accompanied him in his many journeys. The rest of the episode is dedicated to the kids constructing a robotic arm to rescue the Neil figure.
* LovableCoward: Sean is almost always afraid to go to space, but he usually ends up coming along for the ride anyway, and can be brave if he needs to be.
* TheMadHatter: Jet is a huge {{Cloudcuckoolander}} and enjoys every minute of it. He creates odd inventions, sings silly songs, prepares odd dishes, talks in an eccentric English, does strange dances, is perpetually optimistic and upbeat, and adores everyone.
* MakeAWish: In "Bortron Leprechaun", Sydney tells Jet that leprechauns will grant you a wish. Jet wishes that Sunspot was there with him to help him decide on his wish, and his wish gets granted when the leprechaun is revealed to be Sunspot.
* {{Malaproper}}: In "Every Day Is Earth Day", Carrot mistakes "toaster" for "poster" and presents a toaster at the DSA celebration, much to Mr. Peterson's annoyance.
* MaleSunFemaleMoon: Sunspot (a masculine alien pet) is themed after the sun and his counterpart Moonbeam (a feminine alien pet) is themed after the moon.
* MamasBoy: Sean, considering how we never see his dad, and how close he is to his mom.
* TheManInTheMoon: In "More Than One Moon", Sydney tells the story of the Man in the Moon to Mindy.
* MassOhCrap: Near the end of "What Goes Up...", Jet and the gang flip out when Mindy reveals to them that Mitchell is spying on them.
* MayIBorrowACupOfSugar: In the episode "Solar-System Bake Off!", Mitchell goes to Jet's house and asks for a cup of sugar, but really, he wants to gather information about his (speculated) crush Mindy's baking contest entry.
* MeadowRun: Parodied in "The Tide is High". When Sunspot encounters his crab friend again, he runs towards him in slow motion, complete with dramatic music. However, the crab just stays where it is and goes in a different direction.
* MeanCharacterNiceActor: In "Lone Star", Sean plays a JerkAss shopkeeper who doesn't believe Lone Star. However, Sean wouldn't hurt a fly in real life.
* MeaningfulName:
** Jet is named after the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who helps out with this show.
** Jet's last name, propulsion, refers to the type of pushing force that allows things to move.
** Sydney's last name, Skelley, means "storyteller". Which relates to how Sydney is imaginative and likes to tell stories.
** "Sunspot's Sunspot" reveals that Sunspot gets his name from the sunspots on the sun, as well as the fact that the spot on his tummy looks like a sun.
* TheMentor:
** Face 9000, who knows everything about science, and often pops up to answer the kids' questions.
** Dr. Rafferty, Dr. Bergs, and Dr. Skelley are also this.
* MenUseViolenceWomenUseCommunication: In "The Plant From Bortron 7", Sydney assumes that the giant plant has a head, and offers a peaceful solution to the problem by wanting to talk to the plant. But Sean offers a violent solution by wanting to get a big pair of clippers and snip the plant. They keep arguing about it until the plant runs away, most likely because of Sean wanting to snip the plant.
* MetaphorIsMyMiddleName: In "Total Eclipse of the Sunspot", Jet claims that "Super Smart" is his middle name.
* MidseasonUpgrade:
** In "Face on the Fritz", Face gets an upgrade and a new 3D-ish design.
** Technically not in the middle of the season, but in the actual season 2 premiere, "Souped-Up Saucer", Celery upgrades the saucer so it has new features, including a robot arm.
* MinimalistCast: "Treasure Map" has Sean, Sydney, and Mindy deleted from the cast, leaving Jet and Mitchell as the only characters in the episode (besides their pets, Sunspot and Cody).
* MiniGolfEpisode:
** The season 2 episode "Mini-Golf at the DSA" has the Deep Space Array install a mini-golf course. The kids compete against the adults in the DSA's first mini-golf tournament, and they win by applying their knowledge of force.
** Mini-golf was also a plot point in "One Small Step", where the kids play golf on the moon, and [[spoiler: is the reason why Jet and Sunspot went missing in the first place, because they were building the course]].
* MissingMom:
** Mitchell's mom has never been seen, though his dad is always shown.
** Mitchell's mom was actually heard talking to Mitchell in "Mindy's Moon Bounce House", but wasn't seen. And she was mentioned in "Detective Mindy".
* MistakesAreNotTheEndOfTheWorld: A common theme is that nobody's perfect and it's fine to make mistakes. Sean starts out as a perfectionist who gets frustrated when he makes mistakes but grows more accustomed to failing over time. Jet has a song about failure being acceptable called "If You Try and You Make a Mess, Who Cares if it's Not a Success?".
* MobileShrubbery: Mitchell often hides inside an object and moves around while spying on the main cast. For example, he hides inside a present in "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", and he hides inside a bush in "Jet Shrinks the Kids".
* MoeCouplet:
** Jet and Sean bring out the best in each other whenever they work together. Jet's excitable nature highlights Sean's hard-work ethic.
** Mindy and Mitchell - Mitchell brings out Mindy's confidence and leadership, and Mindy brings out Mitchell's kindness.
* {{Mondegreen}}:
** Jet mishears "habitable" as "habit-a-bubble" in "Every Day Is Earth Day".
** In "Diggin' Earth", due to crackling static, Carrot and Celery believe that their boss told them to go to the center of Jupiter. He was actually telling them to go to an Earth mall shopping center to buy a juicer. A gift for his wife on her birthday.
* MonkeyMoralityPose: In "Mini-Golf at the DSA", Sunspot helps Mindy putt the golf ball into the tenth and final hole -- the rocket ship. The ball ricochets all over the place. Jet, Sean, and Sydney, all on edge, do the famous pose -- Sean is see no evil, Jet is speak no evil, and Sydney is hear no evil.
* MoodWhiplash: In "Holidays In Boxwood Terrace", Mitchell tearfully watches as the kids rehearse their play and wishes he could join them, but then Sunspot eats his popcorn comically in front of Mitchell, contrasting sadness with comedy.
* MoralGuardians: Some parents are not letting their kids watch this show due to Jet's friends lying to avoid people finding out about his alien identity.
* MotorMouth: Jet just loves to talk. He has enough breath in him to recite all the neighborhood stars and most of the moons of Jupiter.
* TheMovie:
** In August of 2017, the show premiered its own TVMovie entitled "Ready Jet Go!: Back to Bortron 7", as part of the PBS Kids "Summer Adventure" initiative in order to bridge the summer learning gap. The special focuses on the Propulsions needing to go back to their home planet in order to do a presentation of everything that they've learned. Sean and Sydney's parents are out of town, so Sean and Sydney get to stay with the Propulsions, and of course, go to Bortron 7 with them.
** In June of 2019, the show premiered another TVMovie entitled "One Small Step". Jet builds a super saucer and takes the kids to the Moon for a slumber party celebrating the Apollo 11 mission. However, the saucer has a rough landing, and Jet and Sunspot go missing. Sydney and Jet 2 stay behind to work on the saucer, and Sean and Mindy look for Jet and Sunspot, while Sean teaches Mindy all about the Apollo 11 mission.
* MsImagination: Sydney is this. She loves to use her imagination in science and sometimes leads the gang in [[ImagineSpot Imagine Spots]].
* MrFixit:
** Jet ''is'' pretty handy with tools, as he was able to fix the satellite in "What's a Satellite?".
** Sydney is a Ms. Fixit. She was able to fix the saucer in "One Small Step", with the help of Jet 2, of course.
* MulticoloredHair: Eggplant has several blonde streaks in her hair.
* MultiPartEpisode: Several:
** "Sunday Drive", where everything goes out of whack after the Propulsions download the new version of the saucer dashboard software.
** "Jet's First Halloween", the HalloweenEpisode.
** "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", the ChristmasEpisode-MusicalEpisode-WhamEpisode epic combo.
** "Mindy Turns Five", [[spoiler: where Mindy finally gets to go to space]].
** "That's One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!", the second HalloweenEpisode, this time with Jet growing a huge pumpkin and entering it in the local contest, and Mindy and Lillian trying to convince Mitchell that Halloween is magical.
** "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa", where Ellen Ochoa, the director of the Johnson Space Center, visits Boxwood Terrace.
* MultipleDemographicAppeal: The show is designed to appeal to both kids and adults, and it has gained a teen/adult fanbase thanks to the entertaining manner in which it conveys science facts, as well as clever writing, strong characterization, and catchy songs.
* MundaneMadeAwesome: As shown in the beginning of "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa", Jet somehow came up with a convoluted yet awesome way to make lemons into lemonade.
* MundaneObjectAmazement: Jet is constantly fascinated by the most simple of Earth objects, such as drinking fountains.
* MusicalEpisode:
** The episode "Tiny Blue Dot", which puts a lot of emphasis on the 3 original songs.
** The episode "Lone Star" is a Western-flavored musical.
** "Back to Bortron 7", despite not being marketed as such, turned out to be a musical, with a whopping '''eight songs'''.
** "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace" too, justified as its about the kids putting on a Christmas pageant.
** "Potatoes on Mars", which features rock-inspired songs.
* MusicalisInterruptus:
** In "Which Moon is Best?", Jet interrupts Carrot and Celery's duet.
** In "Zerk Visits Earth" and "Water, Water Everywhere", Sean starts to sing "Tiny Blue Dot", but is interrupted.
* MusicalWorldHypotheses: Fits into the AlternateUniverse hypothesis. Singing songs out of nowhere is completely normal.
* MustHaveCaffeine: Dr. Bergs. He is almost never seen without a cup of coffee in his hand. It even gets lampshaded in "Comet Fever".
-->'''Sean''': You have enough coffee for an ''army''.
-->'''Dr. Bergs''': An army of one, my friend. An army of one.
* MyFriendsAndZoidberg:
** In "Commander Cressida Begins", after Mindy and Sydney ask Celery to take them to space, Celery exclaims "Girls trip!". After Sunspot gets annoyed, Celery changes it to "Girls ''and Sunspot'' trip!"
** In "Freebird", the snow geese are collectively referred to as "The Hanks and Cynthia".
* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: In "Whole Lotta Shakin'", Celery describes Zerk as not being a typical Bortronian and she is absolutely right. Whereas most Bortronians are sweet and like to compete for fun, Zerk (at least in that episode) is a CompetitionFreak and constantly annoys his cousin. He's even somewhat racist to Sean and Sydney.
* MysteryEpisode:
** In "Mindy's Mystery", Mindy is kept up at night by a mysterious sweet smell, and the gang has to find the source of it. [[spoiler:It was moonflowers]].
** In "Detective Mindy", Mitchell (who himself is a KidDetective) has to find his mother's sunglasses after they go missing. Mindy helps him out. The RedHerring of the episode is a black hole, which Mitchell believes actually sucked up the sunglasses. [[spoiler:The sunglasses were sucked up by the vacuum cleaner, so close enough]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Tropes N to Z]]
* NamedAfterTheirPlanet: The Bortronians are named after Bortron.
* TheNameIsBondJamesBond: This is how Jet introduces himself to Dr. Bergs in "Visit to Mom's Office".
-->'''Jet''': Propulsion, Jet Propulsion. How d'ya do, sir?
* TheNapoleon: Mitchell, who is little but has huge temper problems, and is an AttentionWhore at times.
* NiceGuy: The PBS Parents website has confirmed that all Bortronians are perpetually cheerful and friendly.
* NiceHat: Mindy has a bear hat, and Mitchell has a detective hat.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: In "Moon Circus", when Jet blabs out loud that they're planning a surprise party for Carrot, unaware that Carrot is listening. Carrot also gets a moment of this when he says out loud that they're planning a surprise party for him.
* NiceMeanAndInBetween: The trio of younger kids (Mindy, Mitchell, and Lillian) fit into this:
** Lillian is Nice. She is one of the most kind-hearted characters in the show, and is gentle and innocent.
** Mitchell is Mean. He snarks a lot, and has a big ego. [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold He does have a good side, though]].
** Mindy is In-Between. She is friendly, but isn't above being a DeadpanSnarker from time to time.
* NerdGlasses: Mitchell has these glasses.
* NervousWreck:
** Sean tends to be pretty anxious almost all the time, especially when it comes to space travel.
** In "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa", while all the DSA scientists are nervous about Ellen's visit, Dr. Bergs certainly takes the cake. He tries to drink coffee to compensate for it but is only made more hyper. This isn't helped when his Ellen mug gets shattered.
* NeverASelfMadeWoman: Played with. The adult women in this show seem to all have successful jobs, especially Dr. Rafferty.
* NeverBareheaded: Mindy and Mitchell are '''never''' seen without hats on. They even wore hats as part of their Halloween costumes in "Jet's First Halloween", and Mindy even wears a hat when she goes to sleep.
* NeverMyFault: In "Racing on Sunshine", the kids have to design solar-powered karts for the annual kid-kart derby. During the race, it gets cloudy. Jet and Sydney have batteries installed in their kid-karts so they can use the sun's energy later, but three-time champion Mitchell got too overconfident in winning the race, and did not think to use the battery. He ends up coming in at 3rd place, and he blames the clouds blocking the sun instead of his own carelessness.
* NeverSayDie: In "How We Found Your Sun", Sydney tells the story of Icarus to Sean, but instead of saying that he died, she just says he "fell to Earth".
* NeverTrustATitle: You would think that the episode "Asteroid Patrol" would be about the kids trying to look for asteroids from the treehouse. In the episode, Sean ''does'' set up an asteroid watch station in the treehouse, and gets the rest of the clique involved, but most of the episode revolves around Jet trying to fix Sean's telescope.
* NightAndDayDuo: The alien pets Sunspot and Moonbeam are associated with the sun and moon through their names and colors ([[OrangeBlueContrast Sunspot is orange, black, and white; Moonbeam is purplish-blue and white.]])
* NoAntagonist: Even though Mitchell always spies on the group, he is not really an antagonist.
* NoBiologicalSex: According to Craig Bartlett, the Bortronians are neither male nor female. Despite this, they use pronouns like he/him or she/her for convenience's sake. The only indication given in the series that Bortronians don't really have gender is when Jet calls Carrot and Celery "Parent 1 and 2" instead of "mom and dad" in "Jet Cooks Dinner", showing that he's attempting to adapt to Earth's gendered terms.
* NoCommunitiesWereHarmed: Boxwood Terrace, Washington is inspired in name by Mountlake Terrace. According to Creator/CraigBartlett, the town is north of Seattle and south of Vancouver, BC, just off Interstate 5.
* NoEnding: "The Plant From Bortron 7" ends with [[spoiler: Mindy announcing that she has planted more seeds. Then, more giant plants emerge, and the kids scream in terror. That's it. That's the ending]].
* NoFlowInCGI: This show plays with this trope. In the earlier episodes of the show, the characters had blocks for hair and skin-tight clothing due to the low-quality CGI. However, in the later episodes (starting with "Solar System Bake-Off!"), the characters have a better flow. For example: Mindy's pigtails move and bounce freely even with the slightest movements of her head in the latest episodes.
* NoodleIncident:
** In "My Fair Jet", Jet rhetorically asks if he's ever made a mistake. Sunspot then shows him some pictures of mistakes he's made in the past on his tablet. The giant runaway plant from "The Plant from Bortron 7" was brought up, but two other incidents (a "porcupine jumping contest" and a "maple syrup catapult") were brought up. Jet, at the very least, seems embarrassed by those incidents, and we have yet to learn exactly what went down in those events.
** In "Treasure Map", Jet recalls an incident where Carrot got his head stuck in a vacuum.
* NoodlePeople: While all the other characters have realistic body proportions, Jet and Zerk are both very thin. However, this is justified due to them being aliens.
* NonHumanNonBinary: The Bortronians are neither male nor female, so they're all technically non-binary, even though a lot of them present as either masculine or feminine. Jet himself [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/readyjetgo/images/2/2d/Screenshot_2020-06-13-21-10-25~2.png/revision/latest?cb=20200614011225 swings both ways]], and him not giving a crap about gender is one major reason why.
* NonStandardCharacterDesign: As opposed to the huge, shiny, semi-circle eyes that most of the characters have, Mr. Peterson has tiny eyes. It makes him stick out like a sore thumb amongst the cast.
* NoSocialSkills:
** Mitchell in the episode "Solar System Bake-off!" When he spies on the gang in order to gather information, he acts awkward and almost robotic around them, especially around Mindy. Before he entered the house, he was even thinking of what he should say to them.
** He also acts especially shy when Mindy compliments his rocket cake.
* NotAllowedToGrowUp: Averted, in "Mindy Turns Five", [[spoiler: she obviously turns five and is allowed to go to space]].
* NothingIsTheSameAnymore: [[spoiler: The show's dynamic was changed forever in the season 2 episode "Mindy Turns Five", where, you guessed it, Mindy turns five years old and is now allowed to go past Jet's yard by herself. In other words, Mindy is now allowed to go to space with the older kids]].
* NotSoAboveItAll:
** Sean becomes more excited about going into space with the others in more recent episodes, despite him wanting to go the space the traditional way.
** Mitchell acts like he is a better detective than Jet and his friends, but he still attends Mindy's concert at the end of Mindy's Mystery.
* NotSoInnocentWhistle: In "Detective Mindy", Mr. Peterson finds his wife's sunglasses, only for them to be broken. He almost goes to the mall to get another pair to replace them (even though he doesn't like shopping), but Sunspot gives Celery's sunglasses to Mr. Peterson instead. Seconds later, Celery asks if anyone has seen her sunglasses, and Sunspot starts whistling.
* NotQuiteStarring: Ellen Ochoa is featured in "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa", but she doesn't voice herself. Instead, she is voiced by Creator/KathleenBarr.
* NotWhereTheyThought: In "Sunday Drive", Jet, Celery, and Carrot go to a desert and mistake it for Mars. They get suspicious once they see a lizard and plants in the area, and Jet realizes it's Earth when he notices that the air is still breathable.
* {{Novelization}}: There exist book versions of episodes from the show aimed at young readers, such as "Sunspot's Night Out" and "From Pluto With Love".
* NumberedHomeworld: Bortron 7 is one of many Bortrons.
* NumerologicalMotif:
** Jet is 63 years old in Bortronian years. 63 is a number that represents humanitarianism, family, and idealism. It is a number of harmony and tolerance. This fits Jet because he loves his family very much, and is optimistic, compassionate, and accepting of differences.
** 7 is a significant number for Bortron 7. In the Bible, 7 is the number of completeness and perfection (both physical and spiritual). It derives much of its meaning from being tied directly to God's creation of all things. The number 7 is also important in Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism. This fits with how Bortron 7 is the ideal planet in the Bortron system.
* ObsessedWithFood: Jet, in addition to being a BigEater, seems to always have food on his mind. In fact, in "Bortron Leprechaun", he even contemplated wishing for all the marshmallows in the world.
* OddFriendship: Sean and Sydney are complete opposites: Sean is crazy about science facts and dreams of one day leading the first human mission to Mars, but is afraid of cramped spaces and likes everything to be his way. Sydney is obsessed with science fiction and dreams of one day being a great science-fiction author, and she is totally okay with being in space and with changes. They are also best friends with a little girl named Mindy, who knows nothing about science, yet is curious about everything. They all befriend Jet, who turns out to be a space alien, and completely changes all of the kids' lives.
* OddNameOut:
** Jet and Zerk are the only members of their family to not have a vegetable name.
** In "Freebird", all of the snow geese are named Hank, except for Cynthia. Mindy insists that they can't all be named Hank.
* OfficialFanSubmittedContent: An InUniverse example in "Commander Cressida Story Contest". The prize for winning the titular story contest is to have your story in an official Commander Cressida comic.
* OhCrap:
** Many times, usually by Sydney and Sean whenever Jet does something stupid or is about to expose his alien identity.
** Sean screams in terror every time he is taken to space.
** This is Mindy's reaction when the house hologram completely disappears in "Back to Bortron 7".
* OlderThanTheyLook: Jet looks like a tween, but "Earthday Birthday" reveals that he's really 63 (Bortronian) years old.
* TheOneGuy: Mitchell is the only male in his friendship group with Mindy and Lillian.
* OneHeadTaller: Mitchell is roughly a head taller than Mindy, and he possibly has a crush on her.
* OneLinerNameOneLiner:
** When Sean comments on Bergs' coffee consumption in "Comet Fever".
-->'''Sean''': You have enough coffee for an ''army''.
-->'''Dr. Bergs''': An army of one, my friend. An army of one.
** When Sean is excited to lead a human mission to Mars in the future in "Ain't No Mars Mountain High Enough"
-->'''Jet''': Dream big, [[AffectionateNickname Sean-zo]]. Dream big.
** When Jet and Carrot talk about Sunspot in "The Grandest Canyon".
-->'''Carrot''': You ever get the feeling there's something he's not telling us?
-->'''Jet''': All the time, dad, all the time.
* OneOfTheKids: In "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa", Ellen hangs out with Jet, Sean, Sydney, and Mindy, and genuinely enjoys it. She even ends up playing with them.
* OneSteveLimit: Averted with Amy Mainzer (host of the interstitial segments in between episodes) and Amy Skelley (DSA scientist/Sydney's mother).
* OnlySaneMan:
** Sean and/or Sydney usually have this role. Sean has this role when the other kids are jumping to logically impossible conclusions and deliberately making mistakes, and Sydney is this when the kids are making dumb decisions and Sean is being OutOfCharacter.
** Mindy fills this role toward Mitchell, as she's the only one of Jet's friendship circle who knows he is out to expose him as an alien.
* OnlyOneName: Lillian is the only main child character who doesn't have a last name.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness:
** In "Not a Sound", Sydney, Sunspot, Jet, and Celery are taken aback when Sean says he wants to go to space.
** In "Sunspot's Sunspot", while the kids are concerned about Sunspot's weird behavior, what really shocks them is when Sunspot refuses to eat a hoagie.
* OrangeBlueContrast: Many examples. Bergs wears an orange shirt and blue jeans, and his orange shirt also contrasts with Dr. Rafferty's blue shirt. Sunspot's orange fur contrasts with Moonbeam's blue fur. And Mindy wears an orange shirt and blue denim shorts.
* OrbitalShot:
** Used on Jet during the "Lone Star" song in the episode of the same name.
** Used on Mitchell when he sings "The Spirit of Christmas" in "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace".
** Used on Zerk when he looks at the view from the treehouse in "Zerk Visits Earth".
* OriginsEpisode:
** The beginning of "How We Found Your Sun" reveals how the Propulsion family found Earth.
--->''Well, my mom and dad are, um, how would you say-- they write true stories about traveling and exploring around the galaxy. And we were flying across this part of the galaxy, looking for nice, life-friendly planets to visit and write more stories about. And way out in the middle of nowhere, we picked up this primitive radio signal from Earth that had been traveling across space, so we figured you'd still be here. It was a song... and a catchy one! We knew that whoever was out there at the other end of the signal would be life-friendly and have a good sense of rhythm. So we followed the radio signal. That's how we found your star, the Sun!''
** In a way, "Commander Cressida Begins" acts as one for the InUniverse fictional character. Sydney and Mindy read the first-ever issue of the comics, where they see how Cressida used to be a farm girl in Indiana and how she built a rocket and became a commander.
* OutOfCharacter: Sunspot doesn't act like his usual self throughout "Sunspot's Sunspot". This is justified though, as Sunspot acts strangely whenever there's a huge sunspot on the sun.
* OutOfCharacterAlert: In "Date Night", Sean helps recreate Celery and Carrot's anniversary by going with the others to Saturn's moon Mimas. Something that surprised Jet's parents since they know Sean's always reluctant to go into space.
* OutOfFocus: "Commander Cressida Begins" has Jet, the main character of the show, reduced to a non-speaking cameo, making it the smallest role he has ever had in an episode.
* OverlyLongName: In "Moon Circus", when the gang plans to take the circus to the moon, they come up with a bunch of overly long codenames for the mission. [[SpotlightStealingSquad Of]] [[CreatorsPet freaking]] [[CharacterShilling course]], it's ''Mindy'' who comes up with the simple one that ends up getting praised by the characters and ultimately used: [[TitleDrop Moon Circus]].
* OverlyLongTongue: "Sunspot's Sunspot" shows that Sunspot's tongue is very long.
* OverlyNarrowSuperlative: In the episode "[[ChristmasEpisode Holidays in Boxwood Terrace]]", Jet calls Mitchell "the best detective he knows". Mitchell is the ''only'' detective Jet knows, and Jet even lampshades it.
* PaletteSwap:
** Moonbeam is a light blue version of Sunspot.
** Carrot and Celery's boss from "Back to Bortron 7" is just a huge green Sunspot, but with a mustache obscuring his mouth.
** Face 9001 is an orange recolor of Face 9000.
* PaletteSwappedAlienFood: A part of the classic three-part Bortronian meal, the hoagie, basically resembles a submarine sandwich except the bread is red.
* PanFromTheSkyBeginning: Almost every episode begins with a brief shot of the sky before the camera pans down to whatever the characters are doing. This is fitting, considering that the premise is about Jet and the gang going to space.
* ParentalBonus: In "Mindy's Mystery", when the kids are interviewing Carrot about the mystery smell, it comes off as if they are investigating for possession of illegal substances. Complete with the funny looks they give him as they leave, and the fact that Carrot was apparently cooking up a "sweet sauce".
* PassThePopcorn: In "Sean's Year in Space", Sunspot briefly eats popcorn while seeing how long Sean can last in the treehouse.
* PenPals: In "Mindy's Bedtime", it is revealed that Sydney has an Indian pen pal named Ahana. Since it is night in India and when it is day in Boxwood Terrace and vice versa, Sydney and Ahana email each other.
* ThePerfectionist: Sean. He always wants to do things by the Scientific Method, and gets frustrated when mistakes are made.
* PerformanceAnxiety: [[spoiler: Sean gets this in the second half in "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace" when he's about to sing his song about the Spirit of Christmas, and he realizes that everyone is looking at him.]]
* PetTheDog: Mitchell isn't exactly the nicest character on the show, but the episode "Detective Mindy" shows that he ''can'' be nice. He is nicer towards Sean, Sydney, Jet, and especially Mindy in that episode, and forms some sort of bond with Mindy after they solve the mystery of the missing sunglasses.
* PhenotypeStereotype: Mindy is Latina and she has brown skin, although animation inconsistencies can make it appear lighter than it probably should be.
* PinkGirlBlueBoy: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flpIPHOqQIo A Christmas promo]] for PBS Kids included some clips of "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace". Sean wears a blue jacket and Sydney wears a pink jacket.
* PinkMeansFeminine:
** Mindy's friend Lillian wears a big pink bow on her head, and she is a big GirlyGirl.
** Eggplant has a pink saucer in "Asteroid Belt Space Race" and she is fairly feminine.
* PirateGirl: Lillian dresses up as one in "That's One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!".
* PlanetOfSteves: In "Freebird", all of the snow-geese are named Hank, with the exception of Cynthia.
* PlayingSick: In "Mindy Pet-Sits", Sean, Jet, Sydney, and Carrot fly out to space in order to look for the Northern Lights. Since Mindy is too young, she cannot go, and she is sad that she cannot go to see the Northern Lights. Sunspot, feeling sorry for her, fakes an injury so he gets to stay with Mindy, [[spoiler: and make Mindy her own Northern Lights show in the backyard]]. All of the other characters are aware of this.
* PlutoIsExpendable:
** The show didn't mention Pluto at all until an In-Universe moment of Anachronism Stew happens during "A Visit to the Planetarium" in which Pluto is still listed as a planet in the planetarium show. The controversy surrounding Pluto does get touched upon briefly when Sydney points out that the film was made before Pluto's demotion.
** They had an entire episode where the kids debate whether Pluto is a planet or not.
* PocketDial: This trope is referenced in "Sunspot's Night Out", where Face 9000 appears out of nowhere, and Jet wonders if he pocket-dialed him.
* ThePollyanna: Jet. You can't get him down, and he always finds a solution for the problems the kids face.
* PoorCommunicationKills:
** In "Mindy's Weather Report", Mindy, Sean, and Sydney try to tell Jet that there's a storm on Saturn, not in Boxwood Terrace. Jet keeps interrupting them, leads the entire neighborhood into believing that a storm is coming, and encourages them to prepare for ''nothing''. It's only when Celery takes the kids to space that he realizes that the storm is not on Earth.
** In "Detective Mindy", Mr. Peterson compares the kitchen counter (where his wife's sunglasses went missing) to a black hole. Mitchell doesn't ask his dad what he means by that, and thinks the kitchen counter is ''really'' a black hole, which drives the plot of the episode.
* PopCulturePunEpisodeTitle: A lot of the episode titles, especially those in Season 2, are references to vintage popular culture. Just some of them are "[[Film/MyFairLady My Fair Jet]]", "[[Film/FromRussiaWithLove From Pluto With Love]]", "[[Series/MagnumPI Magnet, PI]]", "[[Music/TheBeachBoys Pet Sounds]]", etc.
* {{Portmanteau}}:
** In "Back to Bortron 7", when the group is leaving Bortron 7, there are tons of TV screens that feature Sean saying "Booyah, science!" during his interview after the group successfully convinced Carrot and Celery's boss to let them stay on Earth for another season. Sean's response......'''coolsome''' (a portmanteau of "cool" and "awesome")
** "Coolsome" was also used egregiously in "Mindy in Space".
* PositiveFriendInfluence: Jet is a positive influence on everyone he meets and befriends throughout the course of the show. He helps Sean be more open to making mistakes, encourages Sydney to think outside the box, strengthens Mindy's leadership skills, helps Mitchell come out of his shell, and inspires a sense of wonder and childlike joy in the DSA scientists.
* PostStressOvereating: Sean eats when he's stressed. In "Whole Lotta Shakin'", he offhandedly comments that he wants to eat macaroni and clarifies that he eats a lot when he's nervous. And considering he's a NervousWreck all the time, this provides an explanation for his overweight figure.
* PowerGlows: Due to the sun's effects on him, Sunspot's tummy glows throughout "Sunspot's Sunspot".
* PowerOutagePlot: In "Jet Can't Sleep", the electricity goes out in the Propulsion house because of a thunderstorm. Luckily, they have their emergency Bortronian lights (which don't use earth energy). The rest of the episode is dedicated to the family learning about thunderstorms and trying to get Jet to sleep.
* PowerWalk: In "Mindy's Meteorite Stand", the kids do this type of walk on the way to Jet's garage. Even the music that plays during that scene is awesome.
* PrecisionFStrike: In "Back to Bortron 7", when Zerk is introduced in person, he actually says "Oh my God!"
* PrecociousCrush:
** It's ''really'' easy to think that Jet has a crush on Sean's mom as of "Visit to Mom's Office". When he first sees her, he immediately gives her a big hug (Sean's mom looks surprised, Sean looks annoyed, and Sydney looks sad, since she has frequent ship tease with Jet and possibly likes him), and even calls her "Dr. Sean's Mom" even though he knows that their last name is Rafferty. He is later seen smiling widely at her and raising his eyebrows trying to catch her attention, which also made Sydney upset. To top it off, he seemed all too excited to tell her that he is from Bortron 7. This crush can also be seen in other episodes. In "Ice Moon Enceladus", when Dr. Rafferty is passing by Sean's snow cone stand, Jet immediately greets her, even though she ignores him, and in "Mindy's Meteorite Stand", when Dr. Rafferty was inspecting Mindy's "meteorite", Jet also looked through a magnifying glass to impress her.
** In "Asteroid Patrol", Sean's telescope needs adjusting and Jet happily offers to go to Sean's house to get some items. Of course, when he sees Sean's mom, he acts awkward around her.
** In "Face on the Fritz", Jet takes a selfie with Dr. Rafferty's phone and then gives it back to her in embarrassment.
** However, in later episodes, the crush is no longer apparent.
* {{Pride}}: In "Racing on Sunshine", Mitchell, the three-time kid kart derby champion, rejects help from Jet because he is sure that he will win. His overconfidence causes him to not think and forget to install a battery in his solar-powered kid-kart, and he ends up losing the derby because of it.
* PrimalFear: Sean is afraid of heights and being in tight spaces.
* ProductionThrowback: The show uses a lot of ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' stings and sound effects. In fact, one recurring character, Lillian, resembles a character seen in one of Creator/CraigBartlett's claymation shorts he made for ''Series/SesameStreet''.
* PullARabbitOutOfMyHat: A variant occurs in "Magnet, PI"; Sean attempts to pull Sunspot out of a box as part of his magic show.
* PunBasedTitle: ''Ready Jet Go!'' is a pun on the phrase "ready, set, go". The main character is named Jet.
* PunctuatedForEmphasis: Jet being bummed out over [[{{Irony}} having to test out the hover-scooters]].
-->'''Jet''': Worst. Chore. Ever.
* PuppyDogEyes: Jet and Sunspot make these eyes at Sean and Sydney in "A Visit to the Planetarium" in order to convince them to let them go the planetarium show.
* PushedInFrontOfTheAudience: In "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", [[spoiler: Sean gets PerformanceAnxiety]], and Mitchell just happens to be singing [[spoiler: Sean]]'s song backstage. So, Jet pushes Mitchell in front of the audience, and pulls [[spoiler: Sean]] offstage.
* QuarrelingSong: In "Which Moon is Best?", Carrot and Celery argue, in song, about which moon is better -- Enceladus or Europa.
* QueerColors: In the special "Back to Bortron 7", Jet sings a soft duet with his male friend Sean, and the colors in the song are all of the bisexual pride flag - pink, purple, and blue. They have a lot of ShipTease in the special, and in the show in general. Jet started out as AmbiguouslyBi, but after the show ended, he was [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/readyjetgo/images/2/2d/Screenshot_2020-06-13-21-10-25~2.png/revision/latest?cb=20200614011225 confirmed]] to be bisexual by Creator/CraigBartlett.
* QuestioningTitle: Used as [[IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming an episode naming convention]].
* QuirkyHousehold: The Propulsion family, who do many odd things. They also all have an unironic love of failure, cannot keep their alien identities secret, are perpetually enthusiastic, and, according to WordOfGod, wake up each day having forgotten previous events.
* QuirkyTown: Boxwood Terrace. A small, semi-mythical neighborhood full of eccentric, but loving people, all of which work at at a JPL {{Expy}}. Never mind that there are actual aliens living there, unbeknownst to most of the townspeople.
* RainRainGoAway: Happens in "Eye in the Sky". Sean plans a sleepout under the stars for his space scout troop, but the rain ruins his plans.
* RecordNeedleScratch: One can be heard in "The Tide is High" at one point, and also in "Mindy Turns Five".
* RedheadInGreen: Eggplant and Zerk are both redheads, and they both have green space-suits.
* RedHerring: The episode Detective Mindy has Mrs. Peterson's sunglasses go missing, and Mitchell, being a detective, naturally tries to find out where his mother's sunglasses went. Mindy, Sean, Sydney, Sunspot, and Jet all get involved in this mystery, too, one by one. Mr. Peterson said the kitchen counter, where Mrs. Peterson lost her sunglasses, was like a black hole, which causes all the kids to believe that the kitchen counter ''really is'' a black hole, and they waste their time trying to find an actual black hole. In the end, it is revealed that [[spoiler: Mr. Peterson was just using an expression.]]
* RedOniBlueOni: Jet is the Red Oni, Sean is the Blue Oni. Jet is hyperactive, leaps before he looks, and is very energetic and enthusiastic. Sean is more nervous, intellectual, and calm. During Sean's dream sequence in "Back to Bortron 7", Jet even stands in front of a red sphere and holds a pink one, while Sean stands in front of a blue one and holds a purple one.
* ReflectiveEyes:
** Used in "Zerk Visits Earth", when Zerk sees the Earth for the first time.
** In "Sunspot's Sunspot", Sunspot gets these eyes when he sees the sun.
** In "Mars Rock for Mom", when Jet 2 leaves Mars with the kids, Boop gets memories of when they formed a heart in her lenses.
* RefrainFromAssuming: The song sung at the end of "Date Night" ''is'' actually called "Date Night" according to the episode credits, but fans always call it "Real Bortronian Deal" because of that phrase being repeated in the song.
* {{Retcon}}: Many examples. For example, the kids mention having a treehouse in "Jet 2", but they build the treehouse in the later episode, "Treehouse Observatory". This is due to PBS airing the episodes out of production order.
* RetroUniverse: The show takes place in the mid-to-late 2010s, most likely somewhere between 2015 and 2019. However, the show's architecture and design are clearly '50s-60s inspired. The show also includes songs inspired by '50s rock and roll music, including the show's theme song.
* RhetoricalRequestBlunder:
** In "Space Junk", Sean is flying outside the saucer, collecting garbage, with a guy named Zucchini. He then asks Sunspot to pinch him, which he does.
** This also happens in "Whole Lotta Shakin'", "Zerk Visits Earth", and in "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa".
* RhymingWithItself: In "How Come the Moon Changes Shape?", Carrot rhymes "my dear" with "my dear" during his duet with Celery.
-->"Well I could fix a little dinner, my dear / But this night is such a winner, my dear"
* RiddleForTheAges:
** What happened to Sean's dad, Sydney's dad, Mindy's parents, Mitchell's mom, and Lillian's parents?
** Does Lone Star have future vision?
** What happened to Mitchell that made him have self-esteem issues and a mean streak as a result?
** What are the other 8 Bortrons like? In particular Bortrons 8 and 9.
** In "Ice Moon Enceladus", Jet mentions the frozen star system of Marzipan. We never got to see Marzipan. It's implied that it also inhabits aliens.
* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: Sunspot.
* RidiculouslyFastConstruction: In "Sean Has a Cold", Sunspot manages to build a kite flying machine in a matter of seconds.
* {{Robinsonade}}: In "Castaway Carrot", Carrot gets stranded on the moon.
* RobotBuddy: Jet 2, and later, his companion, Sydney 2. Face 9000 also qualifies.
* RousseauWasRight: Jet is an AllLovingHero to makes it a point to treat every living thing with kindness, even those who are mean to him, because he loves them so much. We later learn that the resident douchebag of the cul-de-sac, Mitchell Peterson, has a heart of gold deep down, and his rude behavior stems from deep-seated emotional issues.
* RubberForeheadAliens: The Bortronians look exactly like humans, but have stretchy bodies and very thin faces.
* RubberMan: The Bortronians can all stretch their bodies. This is one of the things that make them stand out from humans since they ''are'' HumanAliens.
* RubeGoldbergMachine:
** Jet and Sean construct one in "Sydney 2".
** In "Sean Has A Cold", Sunspot and Sean design and build one in order to entertain Sean while he's sick.
* RuleOfCool: In general, this trope is why the kids always go to space to look for answers to their science questions instead of simply looking it up online. It even gets lampshaded a few times, like in "Potatoes on Mars".
* RuleOfSymbolism: According to Craig Bartlett, each one of the main child characters is supposed to represent an important factor of science, given the show's science curriculum.
** [[NiceGirl Sydney]] represents the power of imagination in science. Sydney is obsessed with science fiction and comics, and idolizes a character named Commander Cressida. She is very imaginative and likes to think creatively in situations, as well as create her own fanfictions about Commander Cressida in the treehouse. She correctly states that science-fiction ideas have inspired many technological innovations and advances, that scientists are as inspired by what they saw on Star Trek as anything in a scientific journal.
** [[BrokenBird Sean]] represents science facts. In contrast to Sydney, who likes fiction, Sean is all about the facts. Sean likes to do things the old-fashioned way and does not like change as much as the others do, and he's got a hard time using his imagination as shown in "Backyard Moon Base", however he does come from a family of scientists AND astronauts, so he figures he's going to be a great scientist himself, and likes to use the Scientific Method to solve problems. He also wants to lead the first human mission to Mars, despite the fact that [[FatalFlaw he gets space-sick easily, is afraid of cramped spaces, and has a fear of heights]].
** [[LittleMissSnarker Mindy]] represents curiosity. Mindy was originally not in the show, according to the producers. But after testing the initial pilot with children, [[ExecutiveMeddling the producers decided to add Mindy in to have a character for the younger set to look up to as a role model]], since this show is more for older kids. Mindy doesn't know a whole lot about science, and is far too young to go into space with the others, but she’s welcomed into the group, treated as an equal, and never talked down to. Mindy is often the reason for the episodes' plots. Due to her curiosity, she often asks a basic, kid-friendly question about space which prompts the kids to look for an answer, either by going into space or by staying on Earth.
** And rounding out the main cast of children, we have [[TheAce Jet Propulsion]], who is the coolest kid ever, and an ambassador for space. Jet embodies what the other children represent. Jet is creative, and being ''from'' outer space, and having travel-doc parents, he knows a whole lot about it, and he's very curious to learn about Earth and its customs. Jet also represents how the creators of this show want the target audience to see Earth: with a sense of curiosity and wonder. Jet is continuously amazed by our lush and beautiful planet, and as such, wants to protect it, since it is his current residence. The episode "Tiny Blue Dot" proves this.
* RuleOfThree: In "My Three Suns", the kids have three daymares as to what it would be like to live on a planet with 3 suns.
* RunningGag:
** Mindy not being able to go into space due to not being allowed to go anywhere past Jet's yard. Averted after she turns five in Season 2.
** The Propulsions messing up on Earth words and traditions.
** Jet almost exposing his identity.
** Sean being nervous when going into space.
** Sean singing the Scientific Method.
** Mitchell spying on Jet, followed by Mindy sneaking up on him to his discomfort.
** Sunspot being silly and functioning as a DeusExMachina.
** Carrot making weird dishes.
** The show having a comic book motif and using comic book transitions.
** In "That's One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!": zoom transitions being used any time someone calls Sunspot.
** A recurring gag on the series is Jet's strange obsession with his hair.
** In "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa", Sean exercising while doing math problems.
** In "My Three Suns", Face 9000 trying to be a comedian.
** In "Mars Rock for Mom", Jet being a ForgetfulJones and leaving his stuff behind.
* SaltAndPepper: Jet's best friends, Sean and Sydney. Sean is the Salt -- he's a neurotic, uptight, fact-driven white guy. Sydney is the Pepper -- she's an imaginative, laid-back, fun-loving black girl. Despite their wildly different personalities, Sean and Sydney are great friends.
* SamusIsAGirl: A variant occurs in "Solar Power Rover". Sean's "pet" rover, "Shep" was referred to with male pronouns. After Jet suddenly become fluent in rover-speak, he talks to "Shep" and reveals that he is actually a she, and her name is Beep.
* SanitySlippage: PlayedForLaughs in "Castaway Carrot". Carrot '''goes insane''' while stranded on the moon. He attempts to ''farm pizza on the moon'', and gets lonely so he draws pictures of Jet, Celery, and Sunspot on some moon rocks. He even briefly makes out with the Celery rock!
* SayMyName:
** In "Total Eclipse Block Party", everyone yells "SUNSPOT!" after they discover that [[ItMakesSenseInContext he stole the eclipse countdown clock]].
** Mitchell screams Jet's name at the end of "What Goes Up..."
* ScoobyStack: The kids form one in "Freebird".
* ScoutOut: Sean is a part of a scout troop called Space Scouts, as shown in "Eye in the Sky". Their business isn't selling cookies or popcorn though; their business is learning about science.
* ScrewballSquirrel: Floyd the squirrel is a literal example, as he likes to be naughty and cause trouble sometimes, such as when he eats the jellybeans in "Earth Camping". Although, on occasion, he helps the kids out.
* SecretChaser: Mitchell. Only Mindy is aware of this.
* SecretIdentity: The Propulsions are secretly aliens from the planet Bortron 7, and are trying to keep a low profile on Earth or else they could become celebrities, and Jet would never get to play with his friends again (as pointed out in "Visit to Mom's Office"). Their alien identities are only known to Sydney, Sean, and Mindy.
* SecretKeeper: Sydney, Sean, and Mindy keep the secret that Jet is an alien.
* SecretSecretKeeper: In "Moon Circus", Carrot overhears from the kitchen that Jet is planning a surprise party for him. Carrot then has to keep the secret that he knows about the surprise party, but ends up telling Jet anyway.
* SecurityCling:
** Jet jumps into Sunspot's arms at one point in "Sunday Drive".
** Sean and Carrot do this to each other in a few episodes, like "How Come the Moon Changes Shape?" and "Which Moon is Best?"
* SentimentalMusicCue:
** In "Jet 2", somber piano music starts playing when Jet discovers what jealousy is.
** The same music cue plays in "Castaway Carrot" when Carrot worries that Jet and Celery won't come back for him.
* SequelEpisode: "Asteroid Belt Space Race" is a sequel to "Space Race", as it focuses on the rematch that Celery and Zucchini promised to have at the end of the latter episode, this time with Eggplant and Zerk involved.
** "Racing on Sunshine" is a sequel to "Kid-Kart Derby", and takes place one year after said episode.
** "Lone Star 2 - Rocket Kids!" is a sequel to "Lone Star", hence its title.
* SeriesContinuityError:
** See {{Retcon}} above.
** In "How We Found Your Sun", Mindy learned that the sun is a star, but in "Our Sun Is A Star!", she doesn't think that the sun is a star.
** In "Round and Round", Mindy learned that the Earth revolves around the sun. But in "Galileo, Galileo!", she thinks that the sun revolves around the Earth.
** In "Diggin' Earth", Jet and Mindy learn that magma is underneath the Earth's crust. They forget this in "I Feel the Earth Move" and have to learn it again.
* SeriesGoal: Mitchell's is to expose Jet's identity as an alien.
* SeriousBusiness:
** Mr. Peterson treats mini-golf as such as shown in "Mini-Golf at the DSA". The kids even lampshade it.
-->'''Jet''': Isn't mini-golf supposed to be goofy fun?
-->'''Mindy''': Isn't pretty much ''everything'' supposed to be goofy fun?
-->'''Jet''': I certainly think so!
** Bergs' motto is to stay calm, but coffee is an exception to that rule.
-->'''Dr. Skelley''': What about your rule about staying calm in any emergency?
-->'''Dr. Bergs''': '''''[[SuddenlyShouting THAT DOESN'T INCLUDE COFFEE EMERGENCIES!!!!!!!!]]'''''
* ShaggyDogStory: In "Project Pluto", Mindy wants to make a model of Pluto for show-and-tell at school, but then the other kids tell her that Pluto is no longer a planet. Then, the older kids go to the DSA and have a debate with the scientists on whether Pluto ''should'' be considered a planet or not. Then, the kids are forced to go home and tell Mindy that Pluto truly is no longer a planet, (which could have lead to an emotional ending with AnAesop) but then discover that Mindy has already accepted the fact that Pluto is no longer a planet and has made a model of Saturn instead.
* ShakingTheRump: Sean does this at one point during the song featured in "Sean's Neptune Tune".
* ShellGame: In "Kid-Kart Derby", Mitchell is using a stack of identical cups to listen in on Jet's plans. When Jet and Sunspot catch him, the cups collapse and wanting to distract them, Mitchell quickly puts a tangerine under one of them, asking Sunspot to guess which cup the tangerine is hidden inside. Sunspot correctly guesses where it was hidden.
* ShipperOnDeck:
** [[spoiler: The older kids seem to largely support Mitchell/Mindy as of Detective Mindy. They cheered wildly when Mitchell "proposed" to Mindy, Jet was largely interested in the fact that Mindy was working with Mitchell to solve a mystery, and Jet invited specifically Mindy and Mitchell to the treehouse in the Halloween special.]]
** The kids love it when Mr. and Mrs. Propulsion do something romantic.
** Sydney also ships Jet 2/Boop as seen in "Mars Rock for Mom", when she calls their apparent relationship sweet.
* ShipperWithAnAgenda: Jet definitely ships Mindy and Mitchell, and in "Jet's First Halloween", he gets them to come to the treehouse together so they can look at the red moon together and see Jet (dressed up as a witch) fly across the moon on a broom to fulfill Mindy's wish of wanting to see a witch fly across the moon.
* ShipSinking: Creator/CraigBartlett [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screen_shot_2018_04_02_at_52254_pm.png stated in a Reddit AMA]] that Mitchell and Mindy would just be friends, which sank the Mitchell/Mindy ship to the lowest depths of the ocean. In spite of this, Mitchell and Mindy still have lots of ship-tease in season 2.
* ShipTease:
** Sydney and Jet danced together at the end of "How Come the Moon Changes Shape?", and Sydney hugged him in "Kid Kart Derby". Also, in "Tour of the Solar System", Sydney asks why she was chosen to be Venus, and Jet says that Venus "is the brightest planet in the sky." Venus is also the goddess of love. Then, they skated together on one of Saturn's rings in "What's Up With Saturn's Rings?".
*** They nearly held hands at one point in the Just Add Water number in "Back to Bortron 7", but Celery obscured the view.
*** In the ChristmasEpisode, Jet casts Sydney as Mrs. Claus in the pageant. Sydney then says "Sounds good, ''Mr. Claus''", in a very flirty tone.
*** In "Mindy's Ice Rink", Jet dances with Sydney during the "Ice Skating in July" song. [[AmbiguouslyBi He also dances with Sean]].
** However, Jet has much more ship tease with Sean. Jet likes to be affectionate with Sean all the time, and is always the first one to motivate him to go on a space mission.
*** In "Back to Bortron 7", where Sean has a dream where he sings a soft duet with Jet. Just him and Jet are in the dream, and no one else. They hold glowing orbs, look at each other, and smile. Sean sings about how he may like Bortron 7. Sean smiles after he wakes up from the dream.
*** Multiple times in Season 2, Jet lovingly calls Sean "Sean-zo". Sean is also the only person Jet has a nickname for. Sean likes it when he's called that, and has embraced the nickname as his own as of "Magnet, PI". Sean also visibly dislikes it when Mindy, who's female, calls him "Sean-zo" in "Mindy's Bedtime".
*** In "Eye in the Sky", Jet is in awe at Sean's Space Scouts uniform. We then get closeups from Jet's perspective of Sean's feet, chest, back, and hat, and tells Sean it's a nice outfit. Later, Jet puts Sean on his shoulders while riding a unicycle.
** Mindy is constantly sneaking up on Mitchell whenever he is spying on Jet, in episodes like "Solar System Bake Off", "Kid Kart Derby", and "What Goes Up...". Also in Mitchell's debut episode, he watches Mindy ''very'' intently. In "Detective Mindy", Mitchell lets Mindy be a detective with him, and they bond after solving the case of the missing sunglasses. At the end of the episode, Mitchell gets down on one knee to propose [[spoiler: [[BaitAndSwitch that this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship for him and Mindy.]] ]]. Cue the older kids [[ShipperOnDeck cheering]] after he says that. In "Mindy's Mystery", Mitchell was mostly mean to Mindy and her friends, but then he is shown at the end of the episode at [[LovingBully Mindy's concert.]]
*** In "You Can Call Me Albedo", Mitchell shakes hands with the rest of the kids to thank them for finding Cody and making a reflective collar for him so he won't get lost again. Mitchell shakes hands with Mindy for ''five seconds'', while he shook hands with the other kids for 2-3 seconds. Mitchell and Mindy also look into each others eyes.
*** In "Sean's Robotic Arm", Mindy hugs him.
*** At the end of "One Small Step", [[spoiler: Mitchell rescues the kids from drowning in the lake with his rowboat]]. The kids head off to have the slumber party in Jet's backyard. Mindy goes back and invites Mitchell to sleep over as well. Mitchell has a huge smile on his face, stammers a bit, and says he's in. Mitchell and Mindy escort Jet 2 to the backyard together. At the backyard, while the older kids, Jet 2, and Carrot and Celery are sitting around the campfire, Mitchell and Mindy are off to the side playing mini-golf, just the two of them. They also sing together.
** In "Mars Rock for Mom", Jet 2 and Boop were implied to be in love with each other during Jet 2's time on Mars. They make tracks in the soil together and form a heart. They even play checkers together. Jet 2 is very sad when he has to leave Mars, and when he leaves, Boop gets memories of when they formed a heart in her lenses. Also, Sydney seems to ship them.
* ShinyLookingSpaceships: The flying saucer is ''very'' shiny.
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** In "Kid-Kart Derby", Mitchell installs an ion drive in his kid kart to win the derby. It does not work. Jet lampshades this by saying that ion drives only work in the vacuum of space.
*** In the same episode, Mitchell is delighted at winning for the third year in a row, and tries to invoke a GroupieBrigade, but everyone is distracted by Jet, who is humble about not winning, and most likely risked his own life to save Mitchell's dog Cody from being hit by his kid-kart.
** In "Sean's Year in Space", Sean tries to stay in the treehouse for a year all by himself (probably with no food, as Sunspot ate all of his peanut butter sandwiches), but then comes down after being tempted by food.
** In "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", the kids are so tightly involved in their own clique that they genuinely don't realize [[spoiler: Mitchell's loneliness]] until the end of the episode, where he explains his issue to them and they accept him.
** In general, it is shown that Carrot is not just a 100% BumblingDad who is just there for comic relief. He is just as smart as his wife and is competent at surviving in remote locations and cooking. He only acts like that because he's Bortronian
*** Dr. Bergs is silly compared to Dr. Rafferty, and Lillian is TheDitz, but those aren't their defining character traits and they are shown to be kind-hearted and talented in several areas, whether it be science (for the former) or gymnastics (for the latter), and they always have good intentions.
** This trope is why Mitchell still acts like a {{Jerkass}}, even after [[spoiler: befriending the other kids in the ChristmasEpisode]]. Healing inner wounds is not an easy or quick process. Besides, if you put on a mask for so long, chances are ''you are'' going to [[BecomingTheMask become that mask]].
** While the entire town seems to have WeirdnessCensor permanently turned on, Mitchell notices the Propulsions' strange behavior and thinks that they are aliens. This shows that if you act weird and then try to cover it up with [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial suspiciously specific denials]], people are going to notice.
** In "Sydney 2", Sydney is convinced that building a robot in her own vision as a great friend will be an easy task. Then she realizes that robots don't have feelings and that programming a robot is truly difficult.
** In "Racing on Sunshine", Mitchell is convinced that since he won 3 years in a row, he is sure to win the derby this year. This overconfidence causes him to forget to install a battery in his kid-kart, and he ends up coming in at third place.
*** In the same episode, he tries to impress [[LoveInterest Mindy]], Sean, and two unnamed background kids (one of which was one of his fans that went "Whoa, it's Mitchell!" in "Kid-Kart Derby") by boasting about how he was ready to retire, but then Cody encouraged him to race again. This does not amuse ANY of them, and they all have deadpan looks on their faces.
* TheShowMustGoOn: In "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", [[spoiler: Sean gets PerformanceAnxiety right before he sings his big finale song]], but Mitchell takes over for him and the pageant continues.
* ShownTheirWork:
** This show has a production team composed of people with great track records for cartoons, and more importantly, astronomers like Amy Mainzer. This helps them to convey verifiable information about space and science in every episode.
** In just one example, in "Earthday Birthday", Face 9000 says that Mindy would be almost 17 years old on planet Mercury. Mindy is 4 years old on the show. If you multiply 4 by 365 (the number of days in an Earth year), you get 1,460. Divide that by 88 (the number of days in a Mercury year), and you get 16.5909090909. '''So, yeah, Face 9000 was correct.'''
* ShowWithinAShow:
** "Commander Cressida", the kids' favorite show. Also, the Bortronian hit show, "Bortron Chef".
** ''Hilda Horse's First Sleepover'', the book that Mindy's mom was going to read to her and Lillian in "Our Sun Is A Star!".
* ShrinkRay: In "Jet Shrinks the Kids", Jet builds a shrink ray so he, Sean, Sydney, and Sunspot can become small like Mindy. It can also be used as a grow ray when reversed.
* ShyFingerTwiddling:
** Sean does this at one point in "Our Sun Is A Star!".
** In "Mars Rock for Mom', Sean does this after he's relieved that Dr. Rafferty doesn't know that the rock he gave her came from Mars.
* SiblingRivalry: Face 9000 has a rivalry with his younger brother Face 9001, who only appears in "A Kid's Guide to Mars" but has a huge impact on Face 9000's character development. Face 9001 is a bonafide little-brother-bully who pesters his brother, is always trying to one-up him, loves to show off, and outright gaslights Face 9000 into believing that he's TheUnfavorite of the family and that Face 9001 is smarter than him.
* SickEpisode:
** In "Endless Summer", Carrot has a cold.
** In "Sunspot's Sunspot", Sunspot's odd behavior concerning the sunspot is regarded as an illness.
** Downplayed in "Sean Has A Cold". Sean only has a slight cough, but it's treated as a cold InUniverse, thus forcing him to have to stay at home. Sunspot joins him, and they do building activities to have fun instead.
* SicknessEqualsRedness:
** A sickly Carrot in "Endless Summer" had a red nose.
** Averted in "Sean Has A Cold", where Sean doesn't have a red nose despite being sick.
* SignatureLaugh: Jet's "HA-HA-HA-ha-HA!"
* TheSilentBob: Sunspot and Moonbeam do not talk, but use body language and sound effects to communicate.
* SilentSnarker: Sunspot and/or Moonbeam can be like this at times, snarking via [[FacePalm face-palms]].
* SingingInTheShower: In "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", Sean reveals that he sings a lot....in the shower.
* SingingVoiceDissonance: In "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", Mitchell's singing voice is very high-pitched compared to his regular voice. The reason being is that Mitchell had a separate VA for his singing voice.
* SkywardScream:
** Mitchell screams Jet's full name at the end of "What Goes Up...", after proclaiming that he will figure out Jet's alien identity one day.
** Mitchell screams at the sky again at the end of "Pet Sounds".
* SliceOfLife: For the most part, the show is this, but a better way to describe it is that it's a sci-fi slice of life show.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: Leans heavily on the idealistic side. Despite the snarky jokes and the fact that the entire cast is [[DysfunctionJunction broken deep inside]], the show is about overcoming your personal struggles, the beauty of imperfection, and learning to love yourself and others. The world is seen through the optimistic Jet's eyes as a planet full of wonder and beauty, even amidst the hidden anxiety and loneliness that plague Boxwood Terrace.
* SlowMotion:
** This is used when Beep the Rover jumps across the Mars Yard in "Beep and Boop's Game".
** Used in "Asteroid Belt Space Race" after Eggplant and Zerk steal gravity from the other saucers.
* SlumberParty:
** The kids have one in "Night of a Bazillion Stars".
** Mindy plans to have one with Lillian in "Our Sun Is A Star!". They wanted to have it outside, but they later take it indoors.
** In "One Small Step", the kids plan a slumber party, and then take it to the moon to celebrate the Apollo 11 mission. They then take it back to Earth, where they invite Mitchell.
* TheSmartGuy: Sean.
* SmartJerkAndNiceMoron: Mindy's two friends, Mitchell and Lillian, fall into this category. Mitchell is quite smart for a kid his age, and he's also very blunt and snarky, with a high-and-mighty attitude at times. Lillian, on the other hand, is ditzy and forgetful, but makes up for it with her politeness and sweetness. However, Mitchell [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold is nice deep down]], and unlike most examples, he certainly doesn't go out of his way to bully Lillian.
* SmartPeopleWearGlasses: Plenty of smart people on this show wear glasses, like Dr. Rafferty, Dr. Bergs, and Mitchell.
* SmiteMeOMightySmiter: In "Jet Can't Sleep", the Propulsion family is playing charades. In one round, Celery pretends to be sleeping. Carrot guesses a coffee table, but then Sunspot correctly guesses that Celery is sleeping. Carrot then remarks that [[BlatantLies he was gonna say that]]. Carrot says: "If I wasn't, may lighting strike me!" Then lightning flashes in the sky, and Carrot jumps into Jet's arm. Carrot then remarks that tonight isn't a good night to say that.
* SnakeCharmer: In "Sunspot's Sunspot", Carrot plays some typical snake charming music, and Sunspot's tongue wiggles like a snake.
* SneezeOfDoom:
** In "Endless Summer", Carrot gets sick, and his sneezes are practically deadly.
** In "Sean's Neptune Tune", Sean gave away his hiding place by sneezing.
* SnowballFight: Sean, Sydney, and Jet have one in the beginning of "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace"
* SolidClouds: In "Fact Or Fiction?", Jet, Lillian, and Mindy all believe that clouds are made of cotton candy, although at first Jet thought that clouds were made of cotton balls and wanted to take a nap on them. However, a trip to the clouds proves that they aren't solid.
* TheSongRemainsTheSame: The Indonesian dub keeps the songs in English. It also removes the background music, making the dub pretty creepy.
* SoundOff: In "Earth Camping":
-->''I don't know but I've been told'' (x2)
-->''Camping songs will never get old!'' (x2)
* SoupIsMedicine: In "Endless Summer", Carrot is sick. Mindy gives him chicken noodle soup to help him feel better.
* SourOutsideSadInside: [[spoiler: Mitchell hides behind this as revealed in the ChristmasEpisode. Mitchell acts mean to Jet and his friends, and Mitchell claims that he "doesn't do friends", but Mitchell isn't really mean, he's really just a lonely kid who wants to join Jet's clique, but doesn't know how to fit in. Fortunately, he gets his happy ending]].
* SpaceIsCold: Constantly gets brought up in "From Pluto With Love".
* SpaceIsNoisy: Averted to hell and back in "Not a Sound". Jet and Sydney are convinced that there are sounds in space, but then they learn that there isn't. However, they can still hear each other through their helmets, but only because there is air in their helmets.
* SpecialGuest: Ellen Ochoa, in "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa", even though she doesn't star as herself.
* TheSpeechless: Sunspot does not talk, instead he uses various sound effects to communicate.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS:
** Many, many, ''MANY'' people spell Sydney and Sean's names as "Sidney" and "Shawn/Shaun" respectively. Some people also call Sydney "Cindy". A few people refer to Mindy as "Mindi".
** ''Even PBS themselves'' claim that Mitchell's surname is "Petersen", even though the show's credits literally spell it as "Peterson".
* SpinningPaper: In "Mindy's Meteorite Stand", as meteorite fever grips the neighborhood, a spinning newspaper is shown with Mindy's portrait on it.
* SpiritualSuccessor: The show is one to ''WesternAnimation/SidTheScienceKid'', as both shows are PBS Kids shows that have a STEM curriculum, and both shows star four kind-hearted, cute, curious children who just want to learn about science. It also helps that the creator of the show worked on ''Sid'' as a story editor, and ''Jet'' premiered 8 years after ''Sid''.
* SplitScreenPhoneCall: Jet has this with Carrot and Celery in "The Plant From Bortron 7".
* SpoiledBrat: Mitchell is a downplayed example of this trope. In "The Grandest Canyon", when he and his father look at the Propulsions' pictures of Valles Marineris, Mitchell whines that the hats that the group wore in the picture were not at the store that was at the canyon that the Petersons went to. Also, in "Mindy's Weather Report", Mitchell whines that the sandbags are too heavy, and his father spoils him by carrying his sandbag for him.
* SpoilerTitle: Guess what happens in [[spoiler: "Mindy Turns Five"]].
* SpotlightStealingSquad: Mindy in season 2. Due to how much she resonated with the target audience, she plays a major role in most, if not all of the episodes she stars in and has the most spotlight episodes of all the characters in the season. This unfortunate practice has reduced screen-time for actually interesting characters who deserve spotlight episodes more than she does such as Face 9000, Dr. Rafferty, Sydney, Dr. Bergs, Mitchell, Lillian, and even Uncle Zucchini.
* StageMagician:
** In "Who Messed Up The Treehouse?", Jet tries to be a magician to make the trash disappear, with failed results.
** "Magnet, PI" reveals that Sean is an amateur magician called The Great Seanzo. Later, the kids put on a magic show for Carrot using magnets.
* StalkerWithACrush: A rare example in which both the stalker ''and'' the crush are this to each other. Mitchell is the stalker first. In his debut episode, "Mindy's Moon Bounce House", Mitchell watches Mindy, his (speculated) crush ''through a pair of binoculars''. Later, in "Solar System Bake-Off!", Mitchell attempts to spy on Mindy and her baking contest entry, and acts rather awkward around her. Mindy then becomes the stalker starting in "What Goes Up...", where Mindy sneaks up on Mitchell several times throughout the episode. It would then become a RunningGag which would appear in "Kid Kart Derby" and "Detective Mindy", where Mitchell more or less warms up to her. Then in "Mindy's Mystery", Sean and Sydney actually more or less ''help'' Mindy to stalk Mitchell! (Then again, all they were doing was trying to track the source of the mystery smell from Mitchell's yard)
* StatusQuoIsGod: The show for the most part avoids this, especially with its large amounts of continuity and [[WhamEpisode Wham Episodes]]. However, in the season 1 finale, "Commander Mom", [[spoiler: Dr. Skelley rebuilds Jet 2 into Jet 3]], only for him to return to his normal form in season 2.
* StayingAliveDancePose: In "Moon Circus", Carrot assumes this pose when he does his famous flip.
* SteamrolledSmartGuy: Sean is an uptight perfectionist who likes to do things the traditional way, most notably by using the Scientific Method. He's the resident SmartGuy and also serves as the StraightMan and OnlySaneMan in his gaggle of goofy friends, and they never listen to him, especially Jet since he always wants to make mistakes deliberately and play around to solve problems.
* StepfordSmiler: In "Mars Rock for Mom", Jet 2, being the PerpetualSmiler that he is, still keeps a smile on his face even though he's clearly dejected that he has to leave Boop behind.
* StockFoodDepictions: The series has featured apples, cake, cookies, pancakes, eggs, pizza, sandwiches, and sushi before, and all of them looked like their stock depictions.
* StockFootage:
** Face 9000 shows the real-life Apollo 11 launch in "Earth Mission to Moon".
** The show reuses the same footage of the kids buckling up when they're about to go into space ''over and over'', though it gets changed whenever Carrot and/or [[spoiler:Mindy]] come with them.
** In "Commander Cressida Story Contest", stock footage from '''the entire "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" segment from a season 1 episode''' is used to pad out the runtime and to explain how Earth's water is "just right".
** In "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa", when the kids explain how to play a game to Ellen, stock footage from "Sean's Year in Space" is seen.
** In "Moon Circus", footage from "What Goes Up..." is reused during the "What Goes Up (Must Come Down)" song, but there is some new animation and new voice-clips, except all the kids sound terribly off-key this time around, a far step down from the original.
* TheStoryteller: Sydney. She loves to tell stories, the most famous example being when she told Jet about the legend of Lone Star in the episode of the same name.
* StraightMan:
** Mitchell's dad, when paired with Carrot.
** Sean is usually this when with Jet, Sydney, and Mindy.
** Mitchell, when with Mindy and Lillian.
* {{Sting}}: In the episode "Diggin' Earth", Sunspot does it by drumming the air (aliens!) then hitting a shot blade as a cymbal. A response to Dr. Rafferty's "groundbreaking project" quip.
* StockAudioClip: The show uses the same stock audio clip of Sean (voiced by William Ainscough) screaming every time the gang goes into space, even after Sean was recasted. Fans dub this "[[FanNickname The William Scream]]". Another stock audio clip includes Mindy's "yay!"
* StoryArc: There are actually some subtle ones:
** The secret identity arc. The Propulsions are aliens, but they can't let anyone find out. They have a hard time keeping the secret. This comes to a head in "Back to Bortron 7" where [[spoiler: Mitchell almost exposes the Propulsions, but fails thanks to Jet 2]].
** Sean's CharacterDevelopment arc. Over time, Sean becomes less nervous of going into space, and more open to trying and failing. In "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa", he learns that he doesn't have to worry about training to be an astronaut for years, and he should just enjoy life since he's still a kid.
** Mindy's turning five arc. Over the course of Season 1, Mindy's boundaries get expanded beyond Jet's yard. [[spoiler: In "Mindy Turns Five", Mindy finally turns five and goes to space]].
* StrawberryShorthand:
** Sydney reveals that she likes strawberry cupcakes in "My Three Suns".
** In "Fact Or Fiction?", Mindy says the best flavor of ice cream is strawberry.
* SuddenlyFluentInGibberish:
** Jet is somehow able to communicate with the rovers Beep and Boop perfectly.
** In "Freebird", Sunspot turns out to be an expert at communicating with the snow geese.
* SuddenlySpeaking: [[spoiler: Sunspot had never said anything before, but "Sunspot's Sunspot", he says "No, thank you" and "I am lovable, aren't I?"]].
* SuddenNameChange: In "Solar Power Rover", Beep the rover was originally named Shep until Jet found out that she was actually named Beep.
* SuperHearing: Bortronians have super-hearing; this is showcased every time Celery pulls up with the minivan anytime someone mentions going to space.
* SuperOCD: Sean definitely has a case of this. Especially in "Eye in the Sky", where he has a chart for every possible situation, except for rain.
* SuperSenses: In "Just the Right Distance From the Sun", Celery reveals that Bortronians have super hearing. This does explain why she conveniently drives the minivan up whenever the kids mention going to space.
* SuperStrength: Celery possesses this as shown in "A Hammer and a Feather", where she lifts the saucer up with ''one hand''.
* SurpriseParty:
** The episode "Earthday Birthday" has the group planning a surprise party for Jet for the anniversary that he came to Earth.
** In the episode "Moon Circus", the kids plan one for Carrot, though it's not much of a surprise later on.
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: Many of these occur throughout the series, usually by Jet, along the lines of "I'm totally not an alien from another planet or something!"
* TagalongKid: Mindy is the youngest of the clique and wants to go into space, but can't because she can't go anywhere past Jet's yard.
* TagLine: A Kid's Place is Exploring Space!
* TakeThat: In "Galileo, Galileo!", Sean makes a well-deserved jab at flat earthers in his rendition of "I'm Not Afraid of New Ideas".
-->'''Sean''': Some folks say that the world is flat, the edge is very scary / But me, I say the world is round, exactly the contrary.
* TalkingToPlants: In "That's One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!", Jet not only talks, but ''sings'' to the pumpkin to make it grow. Mitchell, on the other hand, simply talks to it and calls it his "precious".
* TalkLikeAPirate: Lillian does this at some points in "That's One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!" as part of her Halloween costume.
* TearfulSmile: In "Jet Cooks Dinner", the Propulsions begin to miss Bortron 7 and the Classic 3-part Bortronian Meal. After they sing the commercial tune, Jet gets nostalgic about Bortron 7 and starts to [[https://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/readyjetgo/images/5/5d/Screen_Shot_2017-04-20_at_12.37.21_PM.png/revision/latest?cb=20170421000231 cry a little bit, while smiling.]]
* TeamChef: Carrot is a great chef, making many odd Bortronian dishes.
* TeamMom: Sydney usually plays this role to the other kids, being the wisest of them all.
* TeamPet: Sunspot, being the only animal in the main cast, fills in this role, and also serves a mascot of sorts for the group.
* {{Telepathy}}:
** In "Whole Lotta Shakin'", Jet speculates that Zerk can read his mind, since Zerk ''always'' seems to know what Jet's doing.
** Carrot's reaction to [[ItMakesSenseInContext the kids knowing that he needs to get a vase to put in flowers]] in "Jet's Time Machine".
-->'''Carrot''': What is this, Mind-Reading Day?
* TemptingFate: In "Satellite Selfie", Jet says he's not gonna blink when the satellite takes a picture of Boxwood Terrace. [[spoiler: He then sneezes, which causes him to blink]].
* ThatCloudLooksLike:
** Happens at the beginning of "Project Pluto".
** Happens at the beginning of "Fact Or Fiction?".
* ThatRemindsMeOfASong: This show ''loves'' this trope.
* ThisIsGonnaSuck: In "A Hammer and a Feather", Carrot [[ItMakesSenseInContext tries to drop a chicken egg and an ostrich egg at the same time.]] Sydney's reaction:
-->'''Sydney''': I think I know where this is going...
* ThreeAmigos:
** Jet, Sydney, and Sean.
** Mindy, Mitchell, and Lillian.
* ThrowTheDogABone: Despite his ButtMonkey status, Sean does get tossed a bone in "Tiny Blue Dot" where his being space-sick is treated with concern.
* TimeForPlanB: In "One Small Step", when the gang is heading back to Earth, Sydney reveals that she used the landing gear crank to fix the saucer. Jet says that it's time for Plan B, and Plan B involves manually deploying the landing gear himself.
* TimeTravelEpisode: Jet's Time Machine" has Jet build a time machine. On the same night, a meteor shower is to occur. Jet, Sean, and Sydney get distracted while helping Carrot, and they end up missing the meteor shower. The gang goes back in time to see the meteor shower, but end up in a GroundhogDayLoop. They learn that you can’t change the past, you can only learn from it.
* TitleDrop:
** Happens quite often. The kids often say "Ready! Jet! Go!" while blasting off.
** In Part 2 of "That's One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!", Sean says "That's one gigantic pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!" as he looks at Jet's enormous pumpkin.
** Mindy name-drops the episode title of "Moon Circus" when she comes up with a simple codename.
* TitleScream: '''''READY! JET! GO!!!!'''''
* TitleThemeTune: "Jet Propulsion, Jet Propulsion, Jet Propulsion! '''READY JET GO!'''"
* TodayXTomorrowTheWorld: Parodied in "Try And Try Again". The kids want Jet 2 to be their Mars rover. So they make a 'Mars Yard' in their backyard and put some wheels onto Jet 2 in order to see if he can balance on the rocky surface of Mars. It succeeds, and Jet proclaims "Today, our Mars Yard. Tomorrow, Mars!". However, Celery pulls up with the minivan so they can go to Mars today.
* ToiletHumour: The show studiously avoids this kind of comedy, but "Earthday Birthday" has some. One of Jet's birthday badges makes a ''farting noise'' (and also emits skunk spray).
* TokenEvilTeammate: Mitchell is this ever since he somewhat [[spoiler: joined the clique in "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace"]]. He definitely has the most vices of the cast, being aloof, sarcastic, vain, and temperamental. Plus, he's out to expose Jet's identity. However, he is not evil and has many good qualities.
* TokenMinority: Several.
** Sydney is African-American.
** Mindy is Latina.
** Lillian, Mindy's friend, is Chinese-American.
* TokenRobot: The main team has Face 9000, a talking computer who serves as a teacher of sorts to the kids. Everyone else in the team is either an alien or a human.
* TokenTrio: The three main kids: Jet is an alien who disguises himself as a white male, Sean is a human white male, and Sydney is a human black female.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl:
** Sydney, who has no interest in feminine things, and Mindy, who loves teddy bears, dolls, and tea-parties.
** Mindy is herself the tomboy to Lillian's girly girl, as seen in "The Grandest Canyon". Mindy may be fairly feminine in her own right, but Lillian appears to be even more so, right down to her blatantly feminine outfit when she first appears, in comparison to Mindy's more, um, plain usual outfit.
* TomboyishPonytail: Dr. Skelley wears her hair like this, which fits her due to her job as a robotics engineer.
* TookALevelInKindness:
** Mitchell in "Detective Mindy". Also in "Mindy's Mystery", even though he was a jerk towards the group for most of the episode, Mitchell still attended Mindy's concert just for the heck of it (and possibly out of sympathy). It's also important to note that he's considerably mellowed out in season 2, considerably in the second half. Compare the aforementioned "Mindy's Mystery" to "Sean's Robotic Arm", and you'll notice massive character growth.
** In the first "Lone Star" episode, the townspeople were utter jerks to Lone Star, didn't approve of his ideas, and kicked him out of town. However, in the SequelEpisode, "Lone Star 2 - Rocket Kids!", they are much kinder to him and even help him build the first rocket.
* TooMuchInformation: In "Date Night", Jet is looking at pictures of Carrot and Celery on their first date. He sees a picture of them about to kiss, and is promptly disgusted. Then, he has this to say:
-->'''Jet''': Woah, okay! This is too much. That's enough, mom and dad!
* ToothStrip: The characters' teeth are usually styled in this manner, although a few close-up shots show that they do have individual teeth.
* TotallyRadical: "Hey, daddy-o! What's shaking?"
* TrademarkFavoriteFood:
** The Propulsions love the Classic 3-Part Bortronian Meal, which consists of a Hoagie, a Figinnuz, and an Exploding Shake.
** Sean loves pot roast.
* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The commercial for the week of new episodes in August 2016 spoiled Face 9000's new look.
** Sometimes, this is a case of Episode Descriptions Always Spoil. For example, the description for "Mindy's Meteorite Stand" spoils the fact that Mindy's meteorite [[spoiler: really wasn't a meteorite, but the big rock she was sitting on is]], "Sunday Drive"'s description spoils that [[spoiler: the Propulsions weren't on Mars, but an Earth desert]], and the description for "Mindy's Mystery" spoiled that [[spoiler: the mystery smell came from moonflowers, and the bright light that was bothering Mitchell was from the moon itself]].
** Zigzagged for the images the wiki provided for Season Two. While some images are tied to the episode's theme, some are just random screenshots. A few ridiculous examples of the latter include: The image for "Zerk Visits Earth" doesn't feature Zerk, the image for "Sunspot's Sunspot" doesn't feature Sunspot, the image for "Sean Has a Cold" depicts Sean as completely healthy, and the image for "Mars Rock For Mom" is a frame from the ''[[StockFootage the takeoff sequence.]]''
* TrailOfBreadcrumbs: In "Earth Camping", Carrot marks the hiking trail with Mitchell's jellybeans so the group can find their way back to camp. However, Floyd the squirrel eats them all, rendering the group lost.
* TrainingMontage:
** Parodied in "My Fair Jet", Jet goes through a training montage while training to behave like a regular human child. Complete with rock music playing in the background, until Sean tells him to stop that.
** A variation occurs throughout "Pet Sounds", with the kids trying to train Cody to do tricks, but with the show's regular quirky music instead of rock music.
* TrashOfTheTitans: The conflict of "Who Messed Up The Treehouse?" stems from the kids all making a mess in the treehouse and not disposing of their trash properly.
* TreasureHuntEpisode: "Treasure Map". In the episode, Mitchell is convinced that there's buried treasure in his yard after reading ''Literature/TreasureIsland''. Wanting to do something nice for Mitchell, Jet decides to make a treasure chest for Mitchell to find, with a map.
* TreasureMap: Jet makes one for Mitchell to use to find the treasure in "Treasure Map".
* {{Troperiffic}}: It utilizes a lot of common science-fiction, sitcom, and edutainment tropes, as well as general cartoon ones.
* TropeyComeHome:
** In "Sunspot's Night Out", Sunspot goes missing in the neighborhood, and the gang tracks him using the North Star. Mitchell's dog Cody also went missing. Turns out, they were both performing in an animal choir.
** In "You Can Call Me Albedo", Cody runs away after Mitchell makes him wear a black sweater.
* TrueBlueFemininity: Celery, Dr. Rafferty, and Dr. Skelley all wear blue. Moonbeam has blue fur.
* TrueCompanions: Even after all the drama they've been through regarding Jet's alien identity, and the occasional disagreements, Jet, Sean, Sydney, Mindy, and Sunspot love each other to death, hang out all the time, and will do literally anything for each other.
* TruthInTelevision: While the idea of getting space-sick may seem a bit bizarre at first, it actually can happen. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzlG9efOg1A&t=39s This video]] made by astronaut Chris Hadfield connects it to the shift in gravity.
* {{Tsundere}}: Mitchell. Type A. He's usually very cruel and snobbish towards the main characters (especially Mindy) in public, but he actually does have a nice side[[note]]In his debut episode, where he watches Mindy through a pair of binoculars, he goes somewhat ''dere dere'' on her in private, which does nothing but increase shipping fuel[[/note]]. The ChristmasEpisode even reveals [[spoiler: that his ''tsun tsun'' tendencies are all a facade]].
* TwitchyEye: As part of his SanitySlippage, Carrot gets one at one point in "Castaway Carrot".
* TwoGirlsToATeam: The full FiveManBand (Jet, Sean, Sydney, Mindy, and Sunspot) has only two females - Sydney and Mindy.
* TwoGirlsAndAGuy: The trio of Mindy, Lillian, and Mitchell.
* TwoGuysAndAGirl: Jet, Sean, and Sydney.
* TwoLinesNoWaiting: The episodes of the show often have two plot-lines in the same episode. Often, these two plots will collide.
** "Mindy's Moon Bounce House" had a sub-plot of Mitchell wondering why Mindy appears to be floating, this being his first appearance on the show.
** "A Kid's Guide to Mars" had the main cast go to Mars to update the information on it in Carrot and Celery's guidebook, while the side-plot was Face 9001 visiting and having a rivalry with his brother, Face 9000.
** In "Sunspot's Night Out", while the main characters search for Sunspot, Mitchell looks for Cody, who has also gone missing. [[spoiler: Sunspot and Cody were actually missing for the same reason - they were both involved in an animal choir]].
** In "The Grandest Canyon", Mindy and Lillian dig a hole in the sandbox while the rest of the characters go to Valles Marineris.
** "Mindy's Weather Report" has Mindy give pretend weather reports while chaos around the neighborhood ensues as misinformation spreads.
** "Solar System Bake Off" and its sister episode "Kid-Kart Derby" both have subplots involving Mitchell spying on the main characters and trying to get information about their contest entry.
** "Mindy Pet-sits" has two plot-lines: Jet, Sydney, and Sean going to space with Carrot (!!!) to try and find the Northern Lights, and Mindy pet-sitting Sunspot, unaware that he is planning a surprise for her.
** In "Diggin' Earth", besides the main plot, there's also a side plot of Carrot and Celery attempting to go to the center of Jupiter.
** In "Mindy's Mystery", the main characters try to find out what kept Mindy up at night. At the same time, Mitchell is trying to find the source of an annoying light that bothered him. [[spoiler: They both have the same source - the moon. (The smell that kept Mindy up at night was moonflowers)]].
** In "Jet's First Halloween", the main characters go trick-or-treating. At the same time, Mitchell investigates to solve 3 mysteries involving weird-looking pumpkins, a flying saucer, and a green alien head.
** In "The Mindysphere", Jet, Sean, and Sydney go to space to fly past the heliosphere, while Mindy, who has recently been given permission to go out farther into the neighborhood, proceeds to explore her new boundaries.
** In "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", the A-plot is Jet, Sean, Sydney, and Mindy putting on a Christmas pageant, and the B-plot gets set in motion when Jet hires Mitchell to find the Spirit of Christmas. Mitchell's plot involves [[spoiler: the revelation that he acts like a jerk to hide his loneliness, and him wanting to be friends with the main characters]]. These two plots collide when [[spoiler: Mitchell takes over Sean's role in the play after the latter gets PerformanceAnxiety]].
** "I Feel the Earth Move" has a very strange B-plot - Sunspot riding Mindy's bounce house all over town, causing the ground to shake.
** In "Endless Summer", the main characters go to Australia to experience summer, while Mindy stays on Earth to take care of Carrot, who has a cold.
** "That's One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!" has the A-plot of Jet, Sean, and Sydney trying to figure out what to do with Jet's giant pumpkin, and the B-plot of Mindy, Mitchell, and Lillian going trick-or-treating.
** In "Total Eclipse Block Party", Sunspot had his own sub-plot involving him trying to teach the Earth animals about eclipses so they won't sleep during the eclipse.
** In "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa", the main one is Jet, Sean, Sydney, and Mindy meeting Ellen and hanging out with her. The subplot is Dr. Rafferty, Dr. Skelley, and Dr. Bergs panicking over Ellen's impending visit. When Ellen helps revise Jet's rocket chair, this inspires her to use the same solution with the DSA project.
** In "One Small Step", the main one is Sean and Mindy looking for Jet and Sunspot after the latter two went missing, and the other one is Sydney and Jet 2 fixing the super saucer. There's also a tiny subplot involving Mitchell doing his spying as usual.
* TwoOfYourEarthMinutes: The Propulsions tend to talk like this.
* TwoShorts: There are usually two 11 minute shorts, with a minute and a half long Amy Mainzer segment in between.
* TwoTimerDate: A non-romantic example. In the episode "Jet 2", Jet wants to watch Commander Cressida with Sydney, but also promises to help Sean with something at the same time. Jet tries to remedy the situation by making a robot clone of himself called Jet 2 and having it watch Commander Cressida with Sydney while he helps Sean, but when Sean and Sydney start hanging out with the robot instead of the real Jet, he gets jealous.
* TreehouseOfFun: In "Treehouse Observatory", the kids build their own treehouse which serves as a hangout for the clique and an observatory.
* TyopOnTheCover: One Australian website listing the Season Two episodes spell/punctuate certain titles wrong. Some of the more ridiculous examples include "[[SpellMyNameWithAnS Dean]] Has A Cold" and "Mindy And [[SpellMyNameWithAThe The]] Carrot Bake".
* {{Understatement}}: In "Who Messed Up The Treehouse?", everyone thinks they only left a little mess in the treehouse. However, the treehouse is incredibly messy, making this an understatement.
* UnexpectedlyDarkEpisode: The episode "My Fair Jet" is famous for being this. Jet wants to go to the Deep Space Array's Open House, but Sean and Sydney won't let him out of fear that he will expose his alien identity. They force Jet to undergo training to behave like a human kid. The first half of the episode seems light-hearted as normal, but then we get the revelation that ''there's a reason'' that the Open House needs to go well: if it doesn't, then all funding will be cut from the DSA. It starts raining, and the weather balloon flies away. Sean grabs onto it, and he gets carried with it, '''and is on the brink of death by almost slipping off'''. Jet saves Sean from death, and then sings about how he is Bortronian, exposing his alien identity to the whole neighborhood (not that Sean and Sydney cared, they were just glad that Sean was okay). Of course, WeirdnessCensor and some minor StatusQuoIsGod prevent the townspeople from remembering or even caring that Jet is an alien, but still, this is pretty dark for a PBS episode.
* UnknownRival:
** Jet, for the most part, is unaware of Mitchell spying on him. The only kid who knows about it is Mindy.
** However, in "Back to Bortron 7", it is implied that the other kids know that Mitchell spies on them.
* TheUnpronounceable: All three members of the Propulsion family have weird strings of sound effects for their Bortronian names.
* UnwantedAssistance: Happens many times, usually with Mitchell trying to solve a case. If another character offers to help, Mitchell will usually turn them down, claiming that he works alone. Usually, this is out of shyness or overconfidence.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom:
** In "What Goes Up...", Mindy tells Mitchell next door that Jet is building a flying saucer. This causes him to get suspicious and begin his SeriesGoal to learn the truth.
** In "Sean's Robotic Arm", Mindy slams her toy rocket on the seesaw, causing Neil Armstrong to fly in the air and fall into the crevice.
* VagueAge:
** While it is known that Mindy is 4 years old, it is unknown how old Lillian and Mitchell are supposed to be, especially considering Mitchell's height constantly fluctuates. Jet, Sean, and Sydney are all 10 [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130115025611/http://www.winddancer.com/film-tv/upcoming-tv/jet-propulsion according to an early description]].
** Zerk, who is presumably no older than Jet (in Earth years at least), ''is allowed to drive flying saucers'' as revealed in Back to Bortron 7. And he's been doing this ''since he was fifty''. However, Bortron 7 may have different driving laws.
* ValentinesDayEpisode: "From Pluto with Love" is this, making it the 3rd holiday episode. The kids get ready for Valentines Day by making their own valentines out of paper, and Mindy feels sad that little, frozen Pluto is so far out at the edge of the solar system. So, the older kids go up in space and visit Pluto, while Mindy watches on Jet's smartwatch, and the cast sings "Dear Little Frozen Pluto".
* VanillaEdition: The first DVD release was so barebones, it only had the episodes, and ''four'' of them at that.[[note]]Parts 1 and 2 of "Jet's First Halloween", "Diggin' Earth", and "Mindy's Mystery"[[/note]] So the DVD only lasts ''1 hour'' since each individual episode is 11-minutes.
* VerbalTic: Jet's cousin Zerk has a tic where he says a word multiple times. For example: "Bye bye bye bye bye!"
* VibrantOrange: The show uses ColorMotifs for each of the characters. The ones associated with orange; Sunspot, Dr. Bergs, and ''especially'' Mindy are known for being enthusiastic and lively.
* VineSwing: Carrot briefly does this in "Mindy in Space". He even imitates the Tarzan yell!
* VocalEvolution: In season 2, Sean's voice gets deeper and raspier, likely due to puberty.
* TheVoice: Several characters have been heard, but not shown, such as Mitchell's mom.
* VoiceoverTranslation: The Latvian translation is just one man voicing over the show. Only the theme song is properly dubbed.
* VoidBetweenTheWorlds: During Jet's ImagineSpot in "My Three Suns", he eventually ends up in a black void, unable to find anyone
* WaterIsDry: [[spoiler: In "One Small Step", when the kids land in the lake, they don't seem to be wet at all]].
* WaxingLyrical: In "Jet Can't Sleep", the characters are playing charades. Sunspot acts out a thunderstorm by dancing around with a flashlight and drum. Jet guesses "[[Music/EllaFitzgerald I got rhythm, I got music]]".
* WeirdnessCensor: '''Nobody''' in Boxwood Terrace (save for Mitchell), acknowledges the alien behaviors of the Propulsions, or notice their minivan turning into a flying saucer.
* WeNeedADistraction:
** In "Mindy's Mystery", the kids try to infiltrate Mitchell's backyard in order to find the source of the mystery smell. In order to distract Mitchell, Jet and Sunspot stop him in his tracks and perform circus tricks while Sean, Sydney, and Mindy search Mitchell's area.
** In "Ice Moon Enceladus", the kids run out of ice for their sno-cone stand, so they decide to fly to Enceladus to get more. However, the Propulsions need to keep secret that they are aliens, so in order to distract the angry customers, Mindy sings a reprise of "My Name Is Mindy" while hula-hooping to distract them.
* WeWereRehearsingAPlay: In "My Fair Jet", Jet sings a song about how he is Bortronian. Then, Mr. Peterson comes over, and asks "Bortronian is what you what?!?" Sean and Sydney, desperate to keep Jet's alien identity a secret, claim that he was rehearsing for a play he wrote.
* WhamEpisode: Several episodes.
** "What Goes Up...", where [[spoiler: Mitchell vows to uncover Jet's alien identity.]]
** "Kid-Kart Derby", where [[spoiler: Mitchell is more antagonistic than he ever was before. He resorts to cheating to win the race and '''exposes Jet to the entire neighborhood''', which luckily backfired.]]
** "My Fair Jet", where [[spoiler: at the DSA Open House, the weather balloon (with Sean grabbing for dear life on it), gets away in some nasty weather. Sydney nearly ''succumbs to tears'' to convince Jet to rescue Sean. Jet also spills the beans to everyone in Boxwood Terrace that he is from Bortron 7, [[WeirdnessCensor although they didn't seem to care, and it is forgotten about in later episodes]]. Did we mention that '''''Sean almost died?!?''''']]
** "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", which reveals [[spoiler: that Mitchell is really a lonely kid who has trouble making friends and hides behind a JerkassFacade due to his insecurities, confirming the fan theories. The other kids realize this and assure Mitchell that they're his friends at the end of the episode.]]
** "Back to Bortron 7", [[spoiler: where we finally see Bortron 7, Sean and Sydney are almost permanently separated from their parents, and Mitchell exposes Jet AGAIN, which also backfired]].
** "Mindy Turns Five" is a '''huge''' one. [[spoiler: Mindy turns five years old and finally goes into space with the older kids, permanently breaking the chains of the status quo]].
** "One Small Step", the series finale where [[spoiler: the kids get stranded on the moon (they get off, thankfully) and Mitchell most likely knows about Jet's alien identity]].
* WhamLine:
** [[spoiler: "That looks like fun. I can only imagine."]] and [[spoiler: "Thanks for including me. I really wanted to be a part of the show, but I didn't know how to ask]], both from the Christmas episode.
** [[spoiler: "No, thank you" and "I am lovable, aren't I?"]], both spoken by [[spoiler: Sunspot]] in "Sunspot's Sunspot".
* WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong:
** Jet says this in "Back to Bortron 7", after Sean says that he hopes that he doesn't regret going to Bortron 7. [[spoiler: Tons of things go wrong. The group finds out that after Carrot and Celery do their presentation, they will be done with Earth, and they will be assigned to another planet. They '''can't''' go back to Earth, meaning that Sean and Sydney will never go back to Earth. Also, Mitchell almost exposes Jet's alien identity to the public]].
** Sean says this in "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace" after Mindy asks him if the pressure for him to sing the pageant finale song will be too much. [[spoiler: When its time to sing it, Sean gets PerformanceAnxiety and freezes up in front of everyone. Mitchell takes over for him.]]
* WhateverHappenedToTheMouse:
** In "Beep and Boop's Game", the DSA scientists want to know if a mountain on Mars is really a volcano. By the end of the episode, we never do find out if it was a volcano or not.
** In "Magnet, PI" we never find out what Mitchell's "top-secret" detective case was. When he appears again at the end of the episode, he only wonders why Sunspot appears to be tap-dancing on the ceiling, and is then dragged away by Cody.
* WhatHaveWeEar: Sean pulls a magnet out of Sunspot's ear in "Magnet, PI".
* WhatTheHellHero: The other kids are this to Jet whenever he does something really dumb.
* WholePlotReference:
** "My Fair Jet" is an entire reference to ''Film/MyFairLady'', since Sean and Sydney try to get Jet to be a regular Earth kid the same way that Professor Higgins tries to get Eliza to become a proper lady.
** "Endless Summer" is an entire reference to ''Film/TheEndlessSummer'', as both plots involve traveling to the Southern Hemisphere in search of summer.
* WhosOnFirst: In "The Grandest Canyon", Carrot serves Mr. Peterson a chocolate cake, which he calls a "Carrot cake". Mr. Peterson points out that it isn't a carrot cake, but Carrot points out that he called it a carrot cake because Carrot is his name.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes:
** For Sean, it's heights and cramped spaces -- things that he's trying to overcome in order to become an astronaut.
** Mitchell is scared of clowns.
* WideEyedIdealist: Jet. He is perpetually optimistic and sees the good in everyone.
* WingdingEyes:
** Jet gets these towards the end of "Lone Star 2 - Rocket Kids!"
** Sean gets fireworks in his eyes when he sees Ellen in "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa".
* WinkDing: A "ding!" sound can be heard almost every time a character winks.
* WiseBeyondTheirYears: The kids all seem to be this, especially Mitchell, who is little but can build an exact copy of Saturn V.
* WomenAreWiser: This show ''loves'' this trope.
* WorldBuilding: Slowly over the course of the show, Boxwood Terrace begins to encompass more than just a small science-based town. Also, we get to learn a lot more about the lore of Bortron 7 in "Back to Bortron 7".
* TheWorldIsJustAwesome: One overarching theme of the series is just how wonderful the Earth really is. Jet, being an alien, absolutely adores everything about Earth and often points out the wonders of ordinary things to the Earth kids. This is exemplified in the episode "Every Day Is Earth Day".
* WorstWhateverEver: In "Chore Day", Jet calls his chore of testing out the hover scooters the "Worst. Chore. Ever."
* WrenchWench: Sydney is shown to be an expert mechanic in "One Small Step", fixing the super saucer with ease.
* WritersCannotDoMath: In "Mindy's Ice Rink", Sean says that winter will come in six months. The episode takes place in July, and since December is the start of winter, that means winter will come in five months.
* YouAreNumberSix: In "Freebird", all of the other Hanks are referred to as "Hank Two", "Hank Three", and so on.
* YouGetMeCoffee: In "Commander Mom", there's a RunningGag that involves Jet ordering Sunspot to get him a glass of water, instead of actually helping him with his project.
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Strangely, Lillian has purple hair.
* YouRemindMeOfX:
** In "The Grandest Canyon", Sean remarks that Mindy reminds him of a young him, but Sydney tells Sean that "you are still young you."
** In "Visit to Mom's Office", after Jet blabs to Dr. Rafferty that he's from another planet, she says that Jet reminds her of her when she was a kid, since she felt like an alien too. She appreciates how he's got it all worked out, unlike her in her youth, apparently.
** In "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa", Ellen says that the kids remind her of herself, when she was a kid.
* YourSizeMayVary:
** Seriously, this show's sense of scale is practically nonexistent. For example, in one scene Mitchell might tower over Mindy, and in another he might be the same height as her.
** It's especially ridiculous in "Jet Shrinks The Kids", where Sydney can't reach something on a high shelf and gets Sean to help her, ''even though Sydney is taller than Sean.''
* YouSayTomato: While Uranus is often pronounced as "your anus", the characters insist it is called "your-eh-nus", which is actually the correct way to pronounce it, making this a weird example of the trope.
* YouthfulFreckles: Sean, Mitchell, Dr. Rafferty, Eggplant, and Zerk all have these.
* ZanyScheme: Jet is ''full'' of them.
[[/folder]]

* ItsPronouncedTroPAY: Though Uranus is often pronounced as "your anus", the characters on this show correctly pronounce it as "your unus".

* ChildProdigy: The kids all seem to be this. They are all extremely smart for their age.

* CircusEpisode: The episode "Moon Circus" focuses on the kids setting up a circus for Carrot's birthday. They can't do their stunts on Earth, so they take it to the moon instead.

** The name of Sydney's favorite superhero, Commander Cressida, was translated as "Qo'mondon Kressida" up until "So Many Moons," in which the translation used by this dub was changed to "Kapitan Kressida." However, beginning with "Scientific Sean," the "Qo'mondon Kressida" translation began being used again alongside "Kapitan Kressida."
** The lyrics to the Commander Cressida Theme Song and Take-Off chant were inexplicably changed following the first 10 episodes. The changed lyrics more closely resemble the Russian-dubbed versions of the songs than their original English versions. The lyrics were reverted back to the initial lyrics in "Space Junk," but episodes following it such as "The Mindysphere" continued using the changed lyrics alternating with the initial ones.

* InconsistentDub: The Hungarian dub contains numerous inconsistencies and errors:
** The Propulsion family is both referred to with their English last name and English name order (surname after given name), as well as with a Hungarianized last name with Hungarian name order (surname before given name). The usage of last name and name order varies from episode to episode.
** Mindy's last name varies between "Melendez" and "Mendez."
** During the "Scientific Method" song, whether or not the line where all the kids sing the chorus is dubbed or left silent varies from episode to episode.
** During the "Night of a Bazillion Stars" song, the names of the stars which Jet sings do not match up to the stars he points at in the song. The beginning line is also repeated three times at various speeds, as Jet's voice actor flubbed the line; these outtakes are kept in the final version of the song.

** Several times in the show, transitions and montages are drawn in a comic book art style, such as in "Sean Has a Cold".

* AppointmentTelevision: In "What's a Satellite?", Sydney is very anxious when the satellite TV service comes on because she doesn't want to miss the new episode of ''Commander Cressida''. Mr. Peterson is also frustrated when his sports game fizzles out. Carrot isn't that bothered by his cooking show being interrupted though, just very, very confused.

* {{Bowdlerization}}: In "Just the Right Distance From the Sun", Sydney tells the story of Icarus to Sean, but mostly leaves out the part about his death.

* {{Portmanteau}}:
** In "Back to Bortron 7", when the group is leaving Bortron 7, there are tons of TV screens that feature Sean saying "Booyah, science!" during his interview after the group successfully convinced Carrot and Celery's boss to let them stay on Earth for another season. Sean's response......'''coolsome''' (a portmanteau of "cool" and "awesome")
** "Coolsome" was also used egregiously in "Mindy in Space".

*** In the HalloweenEpisode, in a blink and you'll miss it moment, [[https://youtu.be/cA9_RLvAcEo?t=20m6s Mindy very clearly]] checks Mitchell out.