100 Million X-Rays: NASA Co-Op #2 Week Three & Four

How to Work for NASA: Tips from a NASA Intern

Working for NASA is a life long dream for those who grew up building LEGO space stations, watching Space Shuttle launches and admiring Apollo Era heroes. Transforming this childhood dream into reality is more complicated than handing your resume to the right person but more straightforward than receiving a classified invite from an intelligence agent. I will share the many avenues of becoming a part of interstellar exploration discovered during my time interning at NASA. Ramen to Rockets NASA has two primary avenues for current college students to get involved - OSSI Internships and thePathways Internship program (Co-Op). OSSI (One Stop Shopping Initiative) is the main source for internships, fellowships and scholarship opportunities at various NASA centers. An internship is a semester long program where you work alongside professionals in your discipline, get paid in a stipend and do meaningful work that advances NASA’s mission. Some interns have been invited to join NASA full-time but is not common. A Pathways Internship (Co-Op) is similar to an OSSI Internship except a Co-Op is sworn in as a US Government Civil Servant, paid bi-weekly, receive benefits of a Civil Servant, and flip-flops between semesters studying at college and working at NASA. Some Co-Ops extend their flip-flopping into grad school. NASA’s primary pipelines for full-time Civil Servants is the Pathways Intern (Co-Op) program. I shared in great detail what the Co-Op program is and how to apply in this three part blog series. The phrase “college student” may spur images of a microwavable ramen zapping Millennial but NASA’s college programs are great for every kind of college student! OSSI and Co-Op students are parents, veterans, Millennials, experienced in industry and more. Cold Call Nothing can stop you from simply applying to a full-time position at a NASA center. I call it a “Cold Call” because this isn’t a pipeline program driven process. Go on USAJobs and search “NASA” and pages of positions will appear. Applying in this manner may feel like tossing your resume into a black hole. With stellar related experience in aerospace industry, research, military or start up work this method of applying may just work! I share how to use the USAJobs resume builder in this post. Alternatively, an extreme way to join NASA is to become an astronaut. I shared tips on the astronaut application processhere. Note that becoming an astronaut is the least probable way to work at NASA. Space Contract The majority of individuals working onsite at NASA centers are actually contractors. This means they are employed by private companies that NASA collaborates with on projects. Some of many contractors are Lockheed, Boeing, Jacobs, and System Technologies Group (STG). Projects that contractors work on include Orion, Space Launch System, propulsion testing, and International Space Station maintenance. A private company may have a contract to build a part or system and do so offsite at their respective facility. Contractors that produce a part offsite often come onsite to perform integration tests and are an important part of the NASA team and mission. Keep in mind, if you apply to a private (possibly aerospace related) company you may not have much control over if you are a part of a NASA related project.  More recently NASA has been reaching out to small businesses for parts, services and solutions via Small Business Innovation Research. Small businesses can propose projects that can advance NASA’s mission. From Civil Servant on site to a small business working in a small town you can work with NASA and advance space exploration.

I had the awesome opportunity to have coffee with Johnson Space Center (JSC) Director Ellen Ochoa and Deputy Director Mark Geyer. Above I am pictured to the left of Ochoa in a red blazer and I look pretty serious writing notes. JSC leaders have been striving to hear voices from employees up high, in the trenches, wise, and new. Recently JSC Center and Deputy Directors have hosted coffees to share their goals for JSC and listen to concerns. Ochoa and Geyer shared their vision of JSC 2.016, how NASA can do more with less resources and deliver what is expected and beyond on current missions. Out of all NASA contractors and civil servants I was randomly selected to share my perspective and concerns as a Co-Op.

JSC 2.016

It's no secret that NASA's budget is far less than it was during the Apollo Era. NASA's budget was over 4% of the federal budget during the Space Race to the Moon and now below 1% despite NASA's goals to journey to Mars. Keeping realistic in funds and resources JSC 2.016 is a mantra adopted by NASA employees to do more with the resources they have. At the coffee Ochoa shared that the goals of JSC 2.016 is to ensure our work is pushing forward NASA's current missions, enabling change by listening to and adopting new ideas, removing obstacles that hinder progress, and share NASA's missions with communities.

Concerns

Before attending the coffee I polled JSC interns and Co-Ops to see if they had  concerns and questions to share. Within moments of the coffee starting Ochoa and Geyer shared essential insights on how NASA’s mission is evolving in a five, ten and beyond year sense - it was very Carl Sagan Cosmos-esk. Once I was brought to this level of long-term thinking my key concern broadened from specifics. During my opportunity to talk I mentioned the concern about the vagueness of the Journey to Mars mission compared to the solidity of Space Launch System, Orion, Space Station and Commercial Crew missions. I was surprised to hear that fluidity of our Journey to Mars is actually intended. Discoveries and knowledge from Space Launch System, Orion, Space Station and Commercial Crew missions are necessary before solidifying the Journey to Mars. During those missions we will collect a lot of data on the vehicles that will be carrying our astronauts, learn new things we didn’t plan to learn and test the waters with deep space collaboration with private industries and international partners. Fluidity is the nature of NASA’s long-term impact on humanity which is unique to all other forces in the world advocating for short term instant gratification (short term can even mean one year, eight years and even decades compared to humanity as a whole). NASA must deliver what is expected of us and beyond on these current solid missions to ensure more solidified Mars related mission in the future.

We Still Need NASA

With all the SpaceX, Lockheed Martin and general private space industry hype some may have the impression that we no longer need NASA for space exploration. Articles titled "U.S. government should fund private space companies, not NASA" paint false claims of competition between government space missions and private industry. During this coffee this misconception of competition was expunged and I was re-energized about why we still need NASA. NASA, as a subset of the US Government, awards contracts to private space companies that would otherwise not be able to pursue these aerospace endeavors because they do not bring in a profit. The government can risk to make these long-term investments without certainty of short-term instant gratification like profit. There is a tendency to forget that NASA has been contracting work to private companies since the 1960s. Grumman Aircraft was contracted to build the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) in 1962. Being a government agency, NASA can foster a unique relationship between other countries space agencies such as ROSCOSMOS, JAXA and ESA. Through decades NASA is the government agency that has lead the cohesiveness and steady beat of the drum of space exploration progress.

Olaf Image from film: Frozen. Dir. Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee Lee. Prod. Peter Del Vecho. Perf. Kristen Bell,

Robots Storm the Castle

After a year of watching robots playing forklift simulator in the FIRST Robotics 2015 game Recycle Rush FIRST has raised the bar with their new game Stronghold. Alliances will work to take over the opposing team’s castle with Medieval flair. Robots must break through opposing alliance’s defenses, launch boulders to weaken the castle, and climb its walls to claim it as there own. A unique aspect of this game is the modularity of the defenses. Outer barriers that the robots will be navigating through can be swapped between matches with the choice of a portcullis (gateway to be lifted up), Cheval de Frise (teeter totter), moat, rampart (opposing steel ramps), drawbridge, Sally Port, rock wall, rough terrain, low bar and platforms. Five of these defenses assigned with obscure french names will be picked before each match. For the first time in FIRST Robotics history there will be audience participation enabling spectators to choose one of the defenses. There are 10,000 different field combinations!

Creativity of Stronghold was manifested from FIRST’s new partnership with Disney Imagineers. They collaborated to carry the season’s Medieval theme through the game’s decorative field pieces and motivating the teams to create a standard, a sort of battle flag. Ample Monty Python and the Holy Grail references were scattered though out the Kick Off broadcast from FIRST Headquarters. I am suspicious that the Stronghold theme was solely conceived for that reason. The trailer like game hint was created to capture interest of folks outside of the FIRST world instead of “in joke” game hints like this. It seems FIRST will continue to release game hints with this a mobile game aesthetic style in future years revealing the years’ theme.

Already most teams have brainstormed a design and a strategy. A group called Ri3D (Robot in Three Days) has already built a fully functional robot. This robot can complete in every aspect of the game proving from my perspective to be worthy of a regional competition win. The idea of building a competitive robot in three days must give rookies teams hope.  Check out Ri3D’s final product: https://youtu.be/Kd1FaSNoDiM

This season my hands are off the robot and on the computer as a project mentor helping students write newspaper articles covering the build season and competition. Check out earlier publications by our group BlueDevil Press and online here.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

If you are a strategy engineering feel you may enjoy reading the Stronghold game manual:

https://firstfrc.blob.core.windows.net/frc2016manuals/GameManual/2016GameManual-Full-20160112.pdf

Mentor a team or volunteer at a regional event: http://www.firstinspires.org/ways-to-help/volunteer

Find a local robotics team to donate to. Often local teams will have their own website with instructions on how to donate/ where to send a check to: http://www.firstinspires.org/find-local-support

Check out my old robotics team the Duluth East Daredevils: http://www.daredevils2512.org/

NASA National Community College Aerospace Scholars Fellow interns did an amazing job mentoring NASA's National Community College Aerospace Scholars (NCAS). They held a panel sharing their NASA stories as NCAS alumni sharing wisdom about treating rejection like an opportunity, achieving excellence over perfection, fundraising no matter what, and following your passion. The NCAS students built autonomous Lego robots that retrieved pieces of rovers from a mock Mars surface. You too can be a part of NCAS Due Early December 2015: https://nas.okstate.edu/ncas/

Ideas for Teachers: Space Lesson Plan

When I return back to my hometown I will be visiting schools to share about my NASA experience and teach programming. This is my lesson plan for teaching about NASA and space. One of my first stops will be my Mom’s Kindergarten class so you will notice my lesson plan is catered for elementary students.

Morning: Letter Of The Day

Start the day with a regular greeting an opportunity for students to share thoughts around the room. Your usual "magic talking stick" can be replaced by a space related object like an inflatable planet or space craft.

"Today we are going to visit your letter of the week in a way that is out of this world." Cheesy I know but we should let the students define what outer space is. "What is outer space?" Write down the students answers and this is the dictionary definition... the void between planets and other celestial bodies. Kindergarten classes often have letters of the week and outer-space things are very easy to categorize into letters.

Story Time

I had a unique opportunity to meet Buzz Aldrin, purchase a children's book written by him, and get it signed by him. I plan to introduce the students to the author showing pictures of him and the Apollo 11 landing. There are many children's books written by or starring astronauts. This particular story has a project involving creating a Mars habitat that students will compete after story time.

Nap Time

Prior to nap time I show a neat star mapping project put together by Google called 10,000 Stars. You can tour stars from around the Milky Way and see their name, color, size and brightness. The ambient music playing in the background is excellent for nap time.

Afternoon Snack: Eat like An Astronaut

"The International Space Station is a science lab orbiting the Earth every hour and a half. Let's hear about how they live in space." Show a few clips like this...

Chris Hadfield's Space Kitchen making a "sandwich": https://youtu.be/AZx0RIV0wss

Karen Nyberg washes he hair in space: https://youtu.be/kOIj7AgonHM

Sleeping in space: https://youtu.be/UyFYgeE32f0

Running in space with Karen Nyberg: https://youtu.be/_ikouWcXhd0

Pass out freeze dried astronaut food like ice cream, grapes and strawberries. While watching the astronaut clips.

It is possible to have a meaningful internship before college and completing core classes! I share early career tips in the U of MN Duluth Career Center blog: https://umdcareers.wordpress.com/2016/03/30/its-never-too-early-to-intern/ Side note: NASA interns toured the Historic Mission Control where Moon missions were guided from. I wasn't actually the Flight Director of Apollo Missions. However I did sit console in current Mission Control logging tasks during a space walk.

NASA Co-Op Week 3: Sitting Console

A scene from the New York stock exchange center was what I expected from Mission Control. Imagining the flight director with a thick cigar and eyebrows raised, flight controllers sitting console arguing about an experiment or device gone haywire and astronauts happily floating and Tweeting hearing only commands from Cap-Com that got through. My expectation was fortunately far from the truth. 

Mission Control is calm, controlled and direct. The flight director welcomes the console leads, PLUTO, Ops Plan, RIO, ROBO, ISO and so on. Each flight controller checks in with a status and their goals to accomplish. Astronauts join in every morning for a daily operations meeting asking questions about upcoming experiments and big ticket events. Cap-Com is the only position in Mission Control that speaks with the astronauts so other flight controllers let Cap-Com know what needs to be relayed to astronauts. While sitting console with PLUTO I could listen to all the audio loops, Russian translation loop, JAXA, ESA, each console, and other NASA centers. 

 HOW TO GET INVOLVED: 

*Tour the Mission Control Center through Space Center Houston

*Apply for a Pathways Internship (Co-Op) NOW ONLY OPEN SEP 14-18 for Johnson Space Center

*Apply for an internship at one of the many NASA centers.

*Follow NASA on Tumblr

NASA is very much alive.

Intern Orientation Summer 2015

Since over $20k was raised for space camp scholarships, students can APPLY NOW for a full ride to space camp! This was a result of The Martian novel themed Potato Challenge fundraiser on Minnesota Give to the Max day: http://themarsgeneration.org/scholarships/