Johnson - Blog Posts

ok but what would you do if you saw them

PATHWAYS INTERNSHIP (Co-Op) postings for NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX to open September 12th-16th, 2016! Get your USAJobs.gov resume builder resumes ready because the have changed the website layout! Mine was 20,000 characters and 7 pages long so don't wait until the night before. They are looking for business and technical Co-Ops. It looks like they are accepting COMPUTER SCIENCE students now as long as your college's curriculum meets their new criteria! What is the Pathways Intern Program? The NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) Pathways Intern Program (formerly known as co-op program) follows a cooperative education model where current undergraduate and graduate students gain valuable work experience on an alternating school/work basis, and serves as a pipeline for our future full-time employees. Each work tour you will rotate into a different functional area at JSC, this allows you to try out different career paths while you are still in school and decide what you want to do after graduation. Each time you come for a work rotation you'll be assigned a mentor who will work side-by-side with you to make sure that you have a meaningful project and the tools/knowledge to complete it. Additionally, Interns are able to receive the same benefits as full-time employees such as bi-weekly pay, insurance, and paid time-off. Will be posted here on the 12th: http://nasajobs.nasa.gov/studentopps/employment/opportunities.htm

NASA Co-Op Week 16: Barf Lab & Mockups

Twenty five weeks at NASA Johnson I finally got a proper tour, lead by a tour guide, of the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility that houses exact replicas (build with same blueprint) of International Space Station modules, Shuttle, and Soyuz. Astronauts train in these mockups. A "low definition" mockup of Orion was present too.

Neurosciences Laboratory took us on a tour of their various astronaut barf machines. It is really like the rumors of spinning chairs, dizzying treadmills, and dark enclosed sliding contraptions. The spinning is to isolate parts of your brain that are used for balance. Only one day after Space Station astronauts return to Earth in Russia they are flown over to Johnson Space Center and put through a series of gravity adaptation tests. They had to pick up weighted objects, navigate around obstacles, jump of a short platform, and exit a hatch like structure. These tests will help NASA determine if astronauts would be capable of completing Mars surface operations after a long low gravity flight to the Red Planet. I wouldn't be surprised if returning astronauts Kjell, Oleg and Kimiya are on their way to the barf lab right now!

Most of the NASA Johnson Co-Ops and Interns complete their Fall semester this week. It is absolutely heart breaking to get to know so many space passionate people only to have to say goodbye at the end of the semester. I wish I could see all of these stellar students participate in NASA's future as they have already contributed to the growth of space exploration. It was an honor to work among these bright minds.

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED

Accomplishments this week at NASA: https://youtu.be/4tw5uwHD0PEApply for a NASA Internship NOW (high school to grad school):https://intern.nasa.gov/ossi/web/public/main/Apply for a NASA Co-Op (Pathways Internship):http://nasajobs.nasa.gov/studentopps/employment/opportunities.htmLearn to code: https://hourofcode.com/usMeteor Shower live chat December 13th: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/news/releases/2015/M15-180.htmlCurrent NASA opportunities for students: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/current-opps-index.htmlCode more: https://www.madewithcode.com/

NASA Co-Op Week 15: Precious Cargo

Six flags of countries who contributed to the International Space Station decorate the flight console. I return to Mission Control watching launch preparations from a new perspective - with Remote Interface Officer. Colloquially called RIO this team of international collaborators were originally dubbed Russian Integration Officer. The RIO flight controller communicated with the Russian team for launch and cargo capture system checks for the Cygnus rocket launch carried by an Atlas V rocket. Cygnus carries over 7,000 pounds of experiments, food and replacement parts to Space Station. cell cultures, bacteria, and microbe satellite experiments are on board the Cygnus rocket. We are calling this event a "Cyg"-nificant launch.

A team of  NASA flight controllers flip-flop working in the Russian Mission Control Center in Moscow and NASA's in Houston. For two months controllers visiting Moscow sit console for eight hours a day, six days a week, and on call 24/7.  By being available to assist with international troubleshooting, answering the right questions, and making right calls at the right time RIO has saved the space station hundreds of thousands of dollars. Ten years ago an hour of an astronaut's time in space was worth $100,000 so that cost has inflated even more now!

RIO introduced me to their mascot, a groundhog named Phil. One of the first Russian American collaborations took place on a Groundhog Day. Phil's collar is decorated with pins from various missions. The plush Ground Hog was hibernating under the console but has been kidnapped and escorted around the Red Square.

An odd anecdote I learned is that there is a survival hand gun stowed away on the Soyuz capsule. It is used if the Soyuz makes an emergency landing in an unexpected area and the astronauts need to defend themselves from bears or wolves. That's pretty hard core!

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED Watch the Cygnus cargo launch Dec 3rd 4:55pmCT: http://www.ustream.tv/NASAHDTV Accomplishments this week at NASA: https://youtu.be/t3_5ahJ0-Lw Apply for a NASA Internship & Scholarships NOW: https://intern.nasa.gov/ossi/web/public/main/ NASA Co-Op applications: http://nasajobs.nasa.gov/studentopps/employment/opportunities.htm NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars: http://nas.okstate.edu/ncas/ Join an aspirations in computing community: https://www.ncwit.org/programs-campaigns/aspirations-computing

NASA Co-Op Week 10: Rocket Science Is Hard

I get frustrated with NASA asking “Why don’t we just build a rocket and go?”, looking and sounding like a doofus in a horse head. NASA Johnson and Kennedy interns met up at Cape Canaveral to watch the Atlas V launch. Visiting Kennedy Space Center reminded me about how much goes into a rocket launch, sending humans or satellites into space. Of course budget and the ability to set and maintain ten year plus political space exploration goals would speed up the process. Those variables aside I want to share what goes into a rocket launch.

Fishing For Rockets Surprisingly NASA does indeed reuse rocket parts, I thought this idea was unique to SpaceX but has been in the works for decades. Following shuttle era launches skirts of rockets and other parts were retrieved from the ocean. They would be inspected, refurbished and reused. Shuttle rocket parts will be used on the new Space Launch System (SLS). Signs labeled parts that will be used for the EM-1 Orion launch. Protective materials preventing heat damage often get reapplied to these parts. Parts of the rocket get so hot it reaches 6000 degrees Fahrenheit while others get so cold ice forms. The technology used to mix these epoxies in mid air is the same technology that coats M&Ms and Doritos. Talk about spin off technologies!

Monster Tank So you made rocket parts. Great, but how do you expect to assemble and transport something so huge? This was a problem my robotics team ran into as well. We had to make sure the robot we built would fit through the door. Once you have all the rocket parts they will be assembled in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), the tallest one story building in the world at 526 feet. It takes 45 minutes for the main door to be opened. Clouds have been known to form inside the VAB and rain has fallen too. Despite how big the VAB may be when transporting one of the rockets into an assembly segment it needed to be tilted at a 45 degree angle. Upgrades are currently being made for the massive SLS. Once the rocket is assembled it is transported on the Crawler-transporter moving at a back breaking speed of one mile per hour. This transporter insures the rocket reaches the launch pad safely limiting the movement of rocket to less than a diameter of a basketball.

Blast Off Wave goodbye to your creation because it will soon launch, release its payload, tumble into the sea repeating the cycle. A successful launch is dependent of many variables including launch pad hardware, windspeed, humidity, weather, and simply fishing boats in the line of debris reentry. If launch is a go bolts the size of your lower leg explode freeing the beast from the ground. If the bolts do not successfully release the rocket don’t care, it will continue to lift off and tear its restraints off like King Kong.

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED Consider touring Kennedy Space Center. While Johnson Space is the home of the human aspect of space flight Kennedy is in charge of getting is up there: https://www.kennedyspacecenter.com/

Write your congress members and senators encouraging them to support space exploration: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

Discover accomplishments made this week at NASA: http://youtu.be/_a9og3pAqxY

Watch highlights from the latest launch by United Launch Alliance of AtlasV carrying a GPS into orbit: https://www.youtube.com/embed/NPcRziWDigQ