Engineering for Life in Space
I am a Project Engineer supporting the International Space Station (ISS) Incubator Project, at NASA Ames Research Center.��� The hardware development is currently in the final stage of development, so I am working test and verification of the flight and qualification incubators in preparation for its first flight on the space station in 2006.
The most exciting aspect of my job is being part of a team that is working together to design and develop a payload that will actually fly in space, and which research scientists will be able to use to advance our knowledge of the effects of microgravity on living systems. My ultimate goal with NASA to to work on a mission that will go to Mars.
My first payload hardware that I helped design, test and verify flew on the Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-107) in January 2003.��� Unfortunately, the hardware was lost with Columbia and its crew.��� In preparation for STS-107, I was asked to help with launch preparations at Kennedy Space Center for hardware manifested on the shuttle.��� That was one of the highlights of my career, seeing the Space Shuttle launch in person, with hardware I had worked with and prepared for flight.
I was always good, but far from outstanding in math and science. I was just very driven to work to my potential, so that I could work in a technical environment at NASA. I had to work very hard to get where I am. Even though the pressures were there that some fields were for "boys", I mostly ignored those because I personally felt that girls could do and should do anything boys did. I would have liked to have known that NASA and other federal agencies offer many exciting career opportunities for every girl and boy (there was no internet back then, so information was harder to come by!).
In high school, I was not exposed to the opportunities that an engineering career has to offer, so I went into health/life sciences (naturally, as my dad was a doctor). Once I had completed my undergraduate degree and learned about space life sciences, I went back to school for a graduate degree in aerospace engineering.
On��� my way to my engineering degree, I exploited my adventurous side in the Air Force for 6 years as a flight medic on a C-130 aircraft, and was in the Persian Gulf during the 1991 Gulf War.
After coming to NASA Ames in 1991, I settled down and married an aerospace engineer, and have two children ages 7 and 9. I now work part time so that I can be involved in my kids activities, coaching my sons baseball team, working my daughters swim meets and chauffering to Girl Scouts and music school.
I have to say, I have the best two jobs in the world!
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