NASA

Women@NASA: Aspiring Judge Turns Into ‘Rising Star’ Engineer

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This is one among a collection of videos and essays from women who contribute to NASA’s mission. They are part of the agency’s efforts to create a collaborative and supportive community of women at the agency, inspire girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and to encourage openness and accountability at NASA.

I wish that I could say that I knew early on in life that I wanted to become a scientist or engineer. That would not be the true. My career goals changed a lot when I was growing up. During high school, I thought I wanted to become a Supreme Court judge. Then one day my father suggested that I pursue a career in engineering; and, because my father was the most intelligent person in the world, I did just what he suggested. Keep reading →

 /  Published August 14, 2012 at 7:00 AM

How Curiosity Landed Itself On Mars

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One of the many extraordinary aspects of NASA’s successful landing of the Curiosity rover onto the surface of Mars Aug. 5 was ensuring the spacecraft had the information it would need to make its own decisions in the final moments of its descent without any help from mission controllers at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. And at least some of the credit can be attributed to the advanced work of two earthbound high performance computing systems called Nebula and Galaxy.

“What’s most nerve-racking is that the first time Curiosity goes through the whole landing sequence is on Mars,” said Ben Cichy, JPL’s chief software engineer for the Mars Science Laboratory, which includes the Curiosity rover and its scientific instruments. “By the time we heard about it, it was already over.” Keep reading →

 /  Published August 13, 2012 at 2:00 PM

Women@NASA: Mentor Inspires Next Generation of Female Scientists

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This is one among a collection of videos and essays from women who contribute to NASA’s mission. They are part of the agency’s efforts to create a collaborative and supportive community of women at the agency, inspire girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and to encourage openness and accountability at NASA.

Growing up in India, newly liberated from British rule, and at a time when there were few women scientist role models, I still dreamed of being one. When the Russians launched Sputnik and my grandmother gathered the whole family early one morning to see the satellite pass overhead, I wanted nothing more than to explore space. When NASA landed a man on the moon, I promised myself that one day I would work for NASA. Encouraged by my mother and teachers, I strongly believed that if I worked hard I would achieve my goals of going to Oxford University in England and working for NASA in America. I doggedly pursued my dreams and won a scholarship to Oxford University and received my doctorate in Physics in 1976. Joining NASA took a little longer. Keep reading →

 /  Published August 7, 2012 at 7:00 AM

Feds@Work: Robonaut2 Technology Helps Astronauts Aboard International Space Station

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This is one in a series of profiles on the 2012 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal finalists. The awards, presented by the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, recognize outstanding federal employees whose important, behind-the-scenes work is advancing the health, safety and well-being of Americans and are among the most prestigious honors given to civil servants. This profile features a finalist for the Science and Environment medal Myron “Ron” Diftler, robonaut project lead in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Robotics Systems Technology Branch in Houston, Texas, and his Robonaut2 Team.

An advanced robot with a unique human-like hand is working with astronauts on board the International Space Station, thanks to revolutionary technology developed by a project team headed by Myron “Ron” Diftler. Keep reading →

 /  Published August 2, 2012 at 7:00 AM

Women@NASA: Philippines Native Works On Team Developing Lightweight Materials for Space Travel

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This is one among a collection of videos and essays from women who contribute to NASA’s mission. They are part of the agency’s efforts to create a collaborative and supportive community of women at the agency, inspire girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and to encourage openness and accountability at NASA.

Becoming part of the NASA family was a happy accident. I was born in the Philippines and grew up there. I received my Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the Ateneo de Manila University, a liberal arts Jesuit university. Coming to the United States for graduate studies was as far as I dreamed about, coming out of college. I went to Virginia Tech for my masters degree in chemistry. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 31, 2012 at 7:00 AM

Women@NASA: Reaching A Younger Generation

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This is one among a collection of videos and essays from women who contribute to NASA’s mission. They are part of the agency’s efforts to create a collaborative and supportive community of women at the agency, inspire girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and to encourage openness and accountability at NASA.

One of my greatest accomplishments that I am most proud of is developing a web development training module to expose the younger generation to website programming. Since 1999, I have taught web development classes to hundreds of elementary and middle school students in two of NASA Goddard’s education outreach programs, SISTER (Summer Institute in Science, Technology, Engineering and Research) and SUNBEAMS (Students United with NASA Becoming Enthusiastic About Math and Science). During these training sessions, students are provided with hands-on experience in developing a web page while learning basic hypertext mark-up language programming concepts. Each year the excitement and passion is rekindled as I continue to teach this class and share the skills that I am obtaining with the younger generation. In the future, I hope to build on this experience and develop new educational opportunities to share what I have learned with others. Sharing my knowledge and experience with the younger generation has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my work career. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 24, 2012 at 7:00 AM

There Will Be (Virtual) Blood – Navigating the Hypervisor Boom

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There’s a battle brewing in the agency IT world, and for once, it has nothing to do with cloud computing — at least on the surface.

This fight is over hypervisors – a key component of a virtualization strategy and one that forms the basis for a successful private or hybrid cloud implementation. Specific battle lines are drawing around the various hypervisor “flavors” and which, if any, federal IT teams should standardize upon. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 17, 2012 at 10:00 AM

Women@NASA: Humble Beginnings, Parents’ Work Ethic Inspires Contracting Officer

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This is one among a collection of videos and essays from women who contribute to NASA’s mission. They are part of the agency’s efforts to create a collaborative and supportive community of women at the agency, inspire girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and to encourage openness and accountability at NASA.

Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that I would one day work for NASA. My name is Connie Snapp. I’m a Contracting Officer for Langley Research Center in Hampton,VA. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 17, 2012 at 7:00 AM

OpenStack Still Part of NASA’s Cloud Landscape

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It’s no surprise that recent reports of NASA’s shift from OpenStack — and open source cloud computing — in favor of a commercial platform stirred some chatter in and around the federal space.

After all, NASA officials foresaw open source cloud computing’s potential and invested in the new phenomenon back in 2008, when it was still just a shimmer on the horizon. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 12, 2012 at 11:00 AM

Women@NASA: Passion for Flight Turns Teacher Into NASA Software Engineer

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This is one among a collection of videos and essays from women who contribute to NASA’s mission. They are part of the agency’s efforts to create a collaborative and supportive community of women at the agency, inspire girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and to encourage openness and accountability at NASA.

The potpourri of childhood and past experiences really does all add up to the present! Keep reading →

 /  Published July 10, 2012 at 7:00 AM
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