1337 Hacking... Not Really. Checking Out The Mock Up Displays For Orion.

What r u majoring in

As a NASA intern most people assume that I am an aerospace engineering major but I am actually a computer science and electrical engineering double major. I wanted to build the broadest knowledge base possible. I know interns here that are psychology, graphic design, and fashion design related majors. NASA isn’t just for STEM majors. :)

High School Women - Aspirations In Computing Award

Due November 7th!

High school women, check out the questions for the NCWIT Aspirations In Computing award, your qualification may surprise you! Seriously gals, apply. You will get internships/ job shadowing opportunities, access to college $$$ and most importantly meet peers with similar interests. This award made me look at computer science as a serious major, awarded me a new iPad and CAD software, gave me the opportunity to visit the white house to advocate for project based learning during a Champions of Change Event and encouraged me to attend Grace Hopper Computing Conference. At least look at the questions because you qualify more than you think, I promise. I talked on WDIO's Good Morning Northland about NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Award for high school women which may provide some insight. Teachers, relatives and friends of HS women, please encourage them to apply.

‪STEM is uniquely comprised of careers for every person with every desired lifestyle.

These are essential tips for FIRST Robotics teams starting build season this Saturday!

8 Ways to Stay Healthy During Build Season

Three more days until kickoff! You know what this means: pizza, caffeine, and no sleep for 42 days.

However, despite all the jokes we all make about awful diets and bad sleep habits, self-care is something we all need to remember during build season. Here are some tips to stay healthy as we approach a time when our health often, unfortunately, ends up as a low priority.

Reusable water bottles. Water is pretty important for obvious reasons, but multiple bottles of water can be tiring to lug around. Plus, it’s better for the environment than the recyclable water bottles.

Sports drinks in moderation. Although water is always a good go-to when you need to hydrate, if you’ve been sweating a lot, you also need to replenish the electrolytes you lose. Drinks like Powerade and Pocari Sweat are great for those purposes.

Don’t fall asleep in a binder. We all know how it happens: after a long day’s work, you get home, plop in bed, and pass out in grimy clothing. It’s fine. Just make sure you remove your binder if you wear one.

Utilize team sweatshirts and layers. Depending on what part of the world you live in, it can get pretty cold outside, so make sure to bundle up when traveling to and from your team’s shop. If you wear a binder, you can also use sweatshirts and larger clothing to take a break.

Fruit instead of sweets. And most snacks in general. Vitamin C prevents colds, which is extremely important when you spend a lot of time close to people in the winter. It’ll also help prevent breakouts.

Protein bars. Pizza is the solution to almost all your problems most of the time, but if you’re eating it three meals a day, that’s a problem that can’t be solved by more pizza. Protein bars are just one alternative, and a fantastic one at that.

Set an alarm for lunchtime. Speaking of eating three meals a day, you need to make sure you really have three meals a day. It also goes for anything else you need to remember at a certain time, like picking up an object, taking your meds, checking a monitor, etc. This is also useful during competition season, because it’s very easy to forget in the heat of things.

Work out. You don’t necessarily have to do any intense workouts, but doing at least one physically active thing for an hour each week serves as a good distraction from spending so much brainpower on robots every day. It will also help prevent you from passing out at competitions when you run back and forth between the pits and the stands, or when everyone gets up to do the Macarena.

Good luck, and remember: safety and your health come FIRST.

~Staff: Errica 1073

Looking Forward to NASA

Recently I received, and accepted, the gracious opportunity to intern at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas this summer. Using my skills in HTML and Java programming I will be assisting in the Flight Deck of the Future Project. With a team of engineers and fellow intern we will create a user interface for astronauts on board a habitat. I will be blogging about my internship throughout the summer! I had a fantastic experience interning at NASA's Glenn Research Center the summer following my high school graduation. At Johnson Space I hope to meet other peers who share the same passion in aerospace, learn about NASA's latest and greatest endeavors, and maybe even shake hands with a few astronauts.

While captaining my high school's FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition for Science and Technology) robotics team I got hooked on engineering and aerospace research. During a robotics Kick Off event NASA’s Jon Grunsfeld, remarked that FIRST robotics is similar to "how we design, built, and tested the NASA Mars Curiosity rover”. This encouraged me to apply to a NASA internship even as a high school student. I interned at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio and built a circuit board for a solar array regulator on board a deep space habitat. My circuit board will ensure the habitat is powered by solar panels or batteries at all times. Some of the things I enjoyed at Glenn that I hope to experience again at Johnson Space is the ample hands on meaningful work I did and presentations interns got to attend highlighting NASA's new innovations.

How you can get involved...

High School to College: There are internship opportunities in the fall, spring, and summer in a wide variety of disciplines. There are some interns this summer studying medicine, graphic arts, and journalism. There is something for everyone! Contact me if you need help with the application. Apply on OSSI (one stop shopping initiative) here: https://intern.nasa.gov/ossi/web/public/main/

Elementary to Middle School: There are a ton of  programs for students, even a chance to train as a junior astronaut at space centers. Here are a list of programs: http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/programs/descriptions/Students-rd.html

Everyone: Honestly I get most of my NASA updates from twitter and you can follow here: https://twitter.com/NASA They post lots of beautiful pictures too.

People Who Want to be Astronauts (I want to be one too): NASA gets the "how do I become an astronaut?" question a lot and they complied a helpful guide to how you can become one! http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/outreach/jobsinfo/astronaut101.html

Intern Week 5: Astronauts, Shuttles and Excitement

Excitement is unavoidable after experiencing a week like this. Attending an exclusive unveiling of TIME's new Documentary Series 'A Year in Space', creating a display for a water distiller on board a space habitat, meeting Astronaut Clayton Anderson, touring the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility, and listening to Ginger Kerrick speak about her journey through NASA. Where do I start?

A Year In Space

"We must test the only hardware we didn't design, the human body". Jeffrey Kluger, Author of Apollo 13, reflects on the importance of Scott Kelly's year long mission in space. Two summers ago during my internship at NASA Glenn I was frustrated with how slowly our journey to Mars was taking. Even co-workers and fellow interns were perturbed by what seemed to be minimal progress. What I didn't understand at the time is that there are many variables to test, that are currently being tested, before we can ethically send a human to Mars. Scott Kelly's mission is one of those trial runs to learn about the effects of long duration space flight. During the unveiling we watched the first to episodes of 'A Year in Space', produced by Jonathan Woods, which captures Scott Kelly's professional and personal trials and tribulations while preparing for the mission. The first two episodes were cinematically spectacular and emotionally captivating. You can watch them here:

http://time.com/space-nasa-scott-kelly-mission/

Distiller Interface

Resources are extremely precious, especially if you are 250 miles or further (distance of the ISS) away from spaceship Earth. Among the human essentials for life absent in the big black vacuum of space is water. According to NASA's Consolidated Launch Schedule approximately 420 kg of water (887 bottles of water) has been transported to the International Space Station (ISS). This may seem like a lot of water however it is used for consumption, washing, experimenting, cooking, and many more activites. ISS has a highly efficient distiller system which takes the waste water and separates un-salvageable waste from reusable drinking water. This week I created a display so the crew members to monitor the water distiller's functionality. By programming visuals that illustrate the direction the liquids are flowing, visually displaying liquid levels with dynamic images of tanks filling and emptying, indicating the pressure, temperature, and amount of liquid flowing through the system crew members can keep track of the vitality of their distiller system.

Astronaut Clayton Anderson

Tenacity is a key ingredient in becoming an astronaut. One of the things Astronaut Anderson is known for applying to become an astronaut candidate 15 times before being accepted into the program. I was honored to meet Astronaut Anderson at his book signing for "The Ordinary Spaceman" telling his journey as a NASA intern-employee turned astronaut. He has spent 167 days living and working on the ISS. Check out his work: http://astroclay.com/ "Astro Clay" is also very active on Twitter and fun to follow: @Astro_Clay

Space Vehicle Mockup Facility Tour

Although these are referred to as "Mockups" in reality they are exact replicas of the vehicles in space right now so astronauts can accurately simulate missions. My mentor gave us interns a ground tour of the facility. We were able to explore inside the shuttle replica, visit Soyuz spacecraft and look inside the latest Orion mockup where they are currently positioning the displays to the correct eyesight for crew members. Visitiors to Johnson Space Center (JSC) can also tour the Mockup Facility also known as the astronaut training facility. If you are ever in Houston stop by Space Center Houston and you can take a tram tour which takes you around JSC and into a walkway overlooking the mockups: http://spacecenter.org/

Ginger Kerrick

Interns and Co-Ops (Pathways Interns) had the gracious opportunity to attend a lecture by Ginger Kerrick. As a young girl Kerrick dreamed to become an astronaut. From childhood dream to intern to Co-Op to employee to astronaut candidate to astronaut assistant to Capcom to Flight Director to essentially the head of ISS to... *catching breath* - Ginger Kerrick is amazing. Hear her story on Women@NASA: http://women.nasa.gov/ginger-kerrick/

It has been an amazing week with sadly only five more to come. I wish you all could have this experience and I encourage you if you are interested in an aerospace or space related career to intern at NASA: https://intern.nasa.gov/ossi/web/public/main/ All photos were taken by myself or fellow interns of me.

Wiring the basement of my team’s robot.

NASA Super Bowl Wrap Up: NASA Co-Op #3 Week 3 & 4

Houston, we have ourselves a ball game! A byproduct of a Houston based Super Bowl is the media's fascination with NASA and desire to team up with NASA to make some awesome football space crossover clips. Fox Sports descended upon Johnson Space Center last week to shoot a promo in a trainer Mission Control room called the White Front Control Room. Flight Controllers were invited to sit on NFL themed consoles and take orders from Jimmy Johnson, announcer for Fox Sports, posing as the Flight Director. Other Mission Control employees were invited to the viewing room, a fellow Co-Op and I got to watch the promo filming. Jimmy was a natural Flight Director, passionately and powerfully presenting the script. Here is a clip with Jimmy's Mission Control segment. Fox Sports announcers also had the opportunity to film in orange flight suits and on top of a Space Shuttle mock-up.

Over the past few years NASA's media presence has been increasing due to human exploration themed movies and now the Super Bowl. Love the public's interest in space from those in lab coats who studies ripples in time space to view gravity to those who think watching a rocket launches are cool. Science literacy is for everyone!

Work wise, user testing was conducted for a stowage app that can assist astronauts with (un/re)loading cargo ships. We performed tests in the Space Vehicle Mock-Up Facility inside International Space Station nodes.

Photos by NASA and Fox Sports

I'm Just A Bill: NCCWSL Day Two

"Stand up if you agree and stay seated if you disagree. Then we will pass microphones so you can share your side". NCCWSL has been challenging girls to speak up during this "Find Your Voice" session since 1991. A typical first group activity does not include discussing you view point on polarized topics in front of 500 some women. The packed ballroom was asked; Will a women become President within your lifetime, is College a confidence booster, and does society accept how you identify. None of these were leadership questions but questions some conference goers navigate on a daily bases. Attendees shared stories about their success going to college as a first generation student, being energized to learn by being involved in student government and taking a tally of how many students would like to run for President. I shared that women that are studying in degrees other than political science can run for President too.

Slowly we rolled to Capitol Hill following the view point sharing session. Led by a Representative from Connecticut we admired statues given to the Capitol Hill from each state, retired meeting rooms and historic paintings. Later we attended a panel featuring five women who have served as Chiefs of Staff on Capitol Hill; Margaux Matter, Kristin Nicholson, Betsy Hawkins, Rhonda Foxx, and Jenifer DeCasper. A Chief of Staff works for a representative to manage, communicate the representatives views, schedule, manage budgets and gate keeps what/ who is the representative's top priority. Here is some of the advice the Chiefs of Staff shared with us...

*There needs to be more women at Capitol Hill in order to accurately represent constituent population.

*Once you have crawled through the pipeline, which is clogged, work harder than everyone else.

*The most important thing you have is your integrity and reputation.

*Make your own luck by being observant, seizing opportunities and going above and beyond.

*If you want to run for office start thinking about money sources ASAP. Emily's list is a great funding resource. Find an experienced fundraiser who knows what resources to pull from.

*Put yourself where women are not. Ask for the tax, budget and defense portfolios to work on.

Following the stint at the Capitol we were graced by the presence and persistence of five amazing women: Cleopatra Campbell (long time defense attorney), Danielle Feinberg (Disney Pixar light animator), Roise Rios (43rd Treasurer of the United States, her signature is on all of the paper money), Amanda Nguyen (got Sexual Assault Survivors' Bill of Rights passed), and Crystal Valentine (one of the top 10 poets in the world). One of my favorite messages include "become memorable by not doing what everyone else is doing" following a story by Danielle about how she was the only 8th grader who took apart a lawn mower, put it back together and successfully use it to mow. 

Dedicating my pencil sketch to the Apollo 11 anniversary!