ISS - A Home in Microgravity: National Engineers' Week and Black History Month

February 26, 2002 Transcript

Speakers: Sherri Jurls

Fernando Zumbado

Laurie Darling

Louis Malone, II

Lori Keith

Bill Foster

Questionable words/phrases in brackets

NASA logo shown on screen

Video of President Kennedy, the first astronauts, and clips of the history of the NASA Space Program, John Glenn's orbiting of Earth, the moon landing, the International Space Station

Sherri: To all of you out there and world-wide Web land, I'd like to welcome you to Johnson Space Center here in Houston, Texas, on behalf of the Distance Learning Outpost and NASA-Ames Quest Program. My name is Sherri Jurls and I'm going to be your host for today's program

This Webcast is part of our event sponsoring National Engineers Week. And today, we have three very special guests with us.

Sherri and three engineers shown on screen

Some co-ops that are participating at Johnson Space Center and we are going to be talking with all of them here today. And let me go ahead and introduce them.

Fernando Zumbado shown on screen

Let's start off with Fernando Zumbado. Fernando is working at the Advanced Space Propulsion Laboratory and that laboratory focuses on developing technology that will help us have faster space travel. He is currently attending Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois and studying a mechanical engineering degree.

Laurie Darling shown on screen

The next co-op that we have as a guest with us today is Laurie Darling. And Laurie is co-oping in the Flight Design and Dynamics Division which works with the Visiting Vehicles Office. And Laurie is an aerospace engineering major at the University of Buffalo.

Louis Malone, II shown on screen

The third co-op that we have joining us today is Louis Malone, II and he works with the space station training facility. He has a bachelor of science degree in mathematics from South Carolina State University. And he just couldn't get enough school so he has started pursuing his bachelor of science in computer science at the University of Houston at the downtown campus. And he is currently on his second co-op tour here at Johnson Space Center.

Sherri Jurls is speaking on screen

So that's a quick overview of our guests today, and we'd like to take a few minutes and have each one of them tell us a little bit about their specific projects that they're working on. And we're going to start off with Fernando. Fernando, tell us what you're working on?

Fernando is speaking on screen

Fernando: I'm working at the Advanced Space Propulsion Laboratory at the Sun and Carter training facility. And the goal of the entire laboratory is to make a rocket that would render space travel a lot faster, up to three times as fast as current chemical rockets. It's a very exciting time, it's very new technology and we're creeping along but we're making very good progress.

And I was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I grew up in San Jose, Costa Rica for about 19 years, and then I went to Northwestern University where I'm currently finishing my Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering

Sherri: Wonderful.

Fernando: And concerning the work I'm doing at ASPL, there's the rocket which is basically a test chamber so far.

Slide showing the VASIMR Project

And in this slide that is going to be seen, you can see an injection of hydrogen where it is radiated with radio waves, it's energized to the plasma state, and the fumes that you see coming out of the machine is actually liquid nitrogen that is evaporating because current is run through copper coils and through these copper coils that create a magnetic field which encompasses the plasma.

The plasma is about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit and it's so hot that no man-made material can contain it. But luckily it's a charged state of matter, it's a fourth state of matter, so you can contain it with a magnetic field.

Fernando speaking on screen

The specific project I'm working on is the high-temperature superconducting magnet. And this magnet is ceramic,

Picture of the HTS Magnet

and when it is dropped to a certain temperature, it provides no resistance to current. So you can get a very low-current magnet, and that is good because not only is it cheaper, and it's also a little bit safer. And my whole goal is to model it, make a mockup of it so we can test the thermal response to the electric current into the environment.

Fernando speaking on screen

On the next slide,

Picture of Magnet mockup

also you can see some of the work that's being done for the shield, and so the mockup is made of material that would simulate the magnet thermally. It's not the magnet itself, because it's very expensive, and we don't want to damage it, but it has about the same thermal mass and the materials that we use are very similar to the actual magnet.

Now that magnet will be implemented into the rocket

Back to Fernando

and hopefully we'll have it working very soon.

Sherri is speaking on screen

Sherri: How wonderful. Well it sounds very interesting Fernando. Thank you so much for sharing with us.

Laurie, will you please take a moment and share with us about your current projects, where you're from and maybe just a little bit about yourself in general.

Laurie is speaking on screen

Laurie: Great, thanks, Sherri. My name is Laurie Darling, I have a PowerPoint presentation I'd like to talk about as I'm going through this, so if we could go ahead and start that.

Cooperative Education Student

I'm from Jamestown, New York, born and raised there. It's right outside of Buffalo. I went to Southwestern Central High School and on the next slide, I'm just going to talk about high school experience.

From High School to Here

I always wanted to be an astronaut, work for NASA, I knew that my whole life. So I went to Space Academy when I was a junior in high school and then I returned as a counselor when I was in college for a summer. And that, it just, it whet my appetite for space. I knew that that's what I wanted to do and I wanted to keep pursuing my dream.

Laurie speaking on screen

And so it's also there that I learned that I would never be able to fly the shuttle, which was my real dream, because my eyesight isn't good enough. So I decided to take the engineering route, and that's what I did in college. And on the next slide, it'll kind of tell about my college experience.

College Experience

I went to the University at Buffalo where I majored in aerospace engineering. I played on the women's lacrosse team and I was a member of AIAA, which is American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. And it's basically the aerospace engineering club of the school.

Back to Laurie

Any engineering school will have this club and we got to design model rockets and build planes and design mission to Mars. So it was a really good experience in college.

And then junior year, I applied for a co-op at the Johnson Space Center and was lucky enough to get one.

Co-op Experience

So on the next slide, I'm just going to briefly explain the three semesters that I worked out here.

My first semester I was in the biomedical engineering division. That was last fall, and these past two semesters I've been in the flight design and dynamics division; two different branches. Next slide please.

Biomedical Engineering Hardware

Biomedical engineering. I got to work on a project called HRF: Human Research Facility. And it's on the Space Station, and it's basically two sections of the wall or racks as they call them, and it's a human research facility. I like to call it "a doctor's office in space," because NASA can monitor the crew's

Laurie speaking on screen

blood pressure, their heart rate, anything, just to keep up with their health

Specifically, I worked on a project called SLAMMD,

Biomedical Engineering Hardware

Space Linear Acceleration Mass Measurement Device. And it's basically a scale for astronauts. NASA's concerned that when astronauts are in space for long periods of time, their body mass depletes because without gravity, they don't use their muscles, and so their muscle mass and their bone density decreases.

Back to Laurie

So we had to figure out how to measure their mass in space. But how do you do that without gravity? You can't just step on a scale. So SLAMMD did the job. It's basically a retractable arm that comes out of the side of the Space Station. The astronauts grab a hold of the end of the arm, push a button and it pulls on the end at a certain force.

So if anyone's familiar with Newton's Law of Motion, F=MA, that's what we used. They pull the astronauts in at 5 pounds, we could tell their acceleration and therefore tell their mass.

Sherri speaking on screen

Sherri: So that SLAMMD, I think we have a picture of it that maybe you can show everyone. Is this it?

Video of SLAMMD device

Laurie: That's it, yeah.

Sherri: Let's pop it out so the folks can see. Yeah, this is the SLAMMD device.

Laurie: Yeah, that's it. The astronaut just basically holds onto the end and it pulls on them at 5 pounds and there's a big fly wheel inside that you can't see that measures the acceleration.

Laurie speaking on screen

So it's just F=MA.

Sherri: Great.

Laurie: Last summer, I worked in the Flight Design and Dynamics Division in the Ascent - Entry branch.

2 Flight Design & Dynamics Slide

And we were mainly concerned with the launch and landing off the space shuttle. One of the programs that I got to work with was figuring out the launch trajectories of space shuttle missions and one of them just happened to be SCS-109, which launches tomorrow. So when I watch that go up, it's going to be something special because I helped figure out the launch trajectory for that.

Back to Laurie

And since Flight Design and Dynamics Division supports Mission Control, I was lucky enough to be able to sit in Mission Control; headset and everything this summer and watch SCS-104 launch and land. So it was pretty intense.

So I returned here this semester, and this is my third semester working here.

3 Flight Design & Dynamics Slide

I'm in the Orbital Dynamics Branch and my group is called the Visiting Vehicles Branch. And we're in charge of any space vehicle that wants to travel to the International Space Station.

Right now, the U.S. and Russia are the only two countries that have space vehicles now that can go up there. But in about four to five years Japan and the European Space Agency are going to be building space vehicles.

Back to Laurie

So I'll get to learn Japanese and Russian and hopefully travel over there. So that's really interesting.

My specific project is really cool. I like it a lot.

3 Flight Design & Dynamics Slide

There's a piece of hardware on the Space Station and it's just a temporary piece of hardware that they're not going to be needing in a few months. So they need to get rid of it. Well we're trying to figure out the best option to do that. We're looking at three different ways.

One of them would be having an astronaut do a space walk and literally throwing it into space and eventually having it burn up in the atmosphere. The second would be to take the robotic arm on the space station and have that grab it and then throw that in space

Back to Laurie

and have it burn up in the atmosphere. And the third option would be when the space shuttle comes up there, put it in the payload bay and return it safely to Earth.

So we're just figuring out how much each option would cost and if we were to throw it into space, if it would come back and hit the Space Station, which we wouldn't want. So we're just-, we're figuring out which is the best option.

Besides Work Slide

On the next slide, it shows what co-ops do besides work. This is a really great program. We take a lot of tours and we get to tour all over NASA, Mission Control Center, the Neutral Buoyancy Lab,

Video showing astronaut working in Neutral Buoyancy Lab

which is you can see it on the cameras right now. It's a huge pool with an underwater full-sized space shuttle and Space Station. It's where the astronauts train. It's the closest they can get to weightlessness.

We've seen the X-38 that they're building here.

It's the crew-return vehicle. It's going to hook onto the Space Station and it will be their emergency vehicle if they need ever to return to Earth. Some of the lectures that we've attended, I met numerous astronauts, some of them, second man on the moon, Buzz Aldrin, the flight director for Apollo 13, Gene Krantz, and Eileen Collins, the first female shuttle commander and pilot.

So I can't pump up the co-op program enough. It gives you something that you don't learn in school, the hands-on experience. And what I'm going to be doing in the future?

What the Future Holds slide

I just accepted a full-time position with the division that I'm in right now and so for the next year or so, I'll be training to work in Mission Control. And then after I'm finished with that, return to grad school, get my master's in aerospace engineering and hopefully one day be an astronaut.

Sherri speaking on screen

Sherri: Great. Well, Laurie, sounds like you've been very involved as well. Thank you so much for sharing that.

Send in your questions for the co-op today. We'll be looking for those so we can answer them for you very shortly.

Okay, well we've got one co-op left to give us his rundown of where he comes from and what he's all about here at Johnson Space Center. Louis, take a moment and talk with us.

Louis speaking on screen

Louis: Thank you, thank you. Last but not least, but I won't take up a lot of time. But I do want to have a lot of interaction with the students out there. I do respect the students because I was a student at one time myself and I do teach computer science at my school and I have a lot of interactions with the 9th through 12th graders. So I'm glad to have some interaction with some of-, again.

This is my second Webcast and I'm pleased and blessed to have been able to participate in the Webcast, and I do want to say that the co-op program at NASA is the best. The best. And you're being treated with the utmost respect. Some people ask, "Do you do real work?" Yes we do. We do real work and we do interact quite a bit with the reality of what's going on with the space program.

Actually one of the things I had an opportunity to do was to take a class with several of the astronauts, and one with Peggy Witson. She's going up in the Expedition 5 and also let's see here, I can't remember his name, but his name was Frank Culberson, and he went with Expedition 3. And it was only three people in the class, me and the two astronauts and my head is really big because of that. That's something that I will never, ever forget.

I'm originally from Savannah, Georgia, a long ways from home. And I'm just proud to be here at NASA. I want to give you a little bit of insight on where I work at, I have a great support staff where I work, and actually it's my second tour, and I'm at the same place, which is the SSTF, the Space Station Training Facility.

And the Space Station Training Facility is the primary facility used to train the flight and the ground crews of the operation of the International Space Station.

I do want to show you a little PowerPoint presentation that I prepared for you all, and the first slide was missed,

Picture of expedition crew

but I do want to say that my supervisor's name on the first slide, is Barbara Corbin.

Back to Louis

and I do want to give her accolades because she has supported me tremendously. And we can continue with the PowerPoint presentation.

Back to slide of expedition crew

I had another-, that's some of the astronauts right there: Helms, Usachev and Voss. And that is the actual facility that the astronauts train in and I have interactions with. The equipment that you see there is actually the same equipment that is used onboard the International Space Station. So this is a very, very unique chance for anybody who has-, who wants to explore space and who wants to learn more about space and the interactions about how the International Space Station is composed.

Picture of Mission Control room

The next slide will show, this is the Mission Control Department here, and it's just a panoramic view so you can see the actual place where we train the astronauts and some of the interactions with the International Space Station.

Picture of the SSTF - US Lab

The next slide is, this is the US lab portion of the International Space Station and this is the actual place where the astronauts train at, and as you can see some of the equipment there, that is in real time. And as you can see, I think I'm in the picture as well. The next slide.

Another view of the SSTF - US Lab

This is another view of the US lab and if you look to the left-hand side, you can see the robotic workstation. That is some of the state-of-the-art scientific equipment that we have and will be imported on the International Space Station. The next slide.

Picture of NASDA-JEM

Picture of Louis in the NASDA-JEM

This is the Columbus-, actually this is the JEM, the NASDA JEM which is the Japanese Experimental Module and just playing in there, not playing in there, but trying to test some of the intercoms equipment. The next slide please.

Picture of ESA-Columbus

This is the far-off distance view of the Columbus and we've just installed this particular Columbus module. The Italians, Europeans installed this probably about two weeks ago. So we're very proud to have that in, in our facility right now. The next slide will show-,

Russian FGB/SM

this will be the Russians, the FGB portion of the International Space Station. Actually the Space Station training facility and we do have the Russians that come aboard and they do have to train just like our astronauts have to train as well. I just want to give you a little insight on where I work and how it looks. The next slide.

Picture of SSTF- US Payloads

Okay this is one of the glass racks, the technology. It has haptic interfaces where you can just touch screens. This is something we're very proud of and hopefully we can implement that into training a little bit more elaborate later. The next one.

The End slide

Louis is speaking on screen

And that'll be it. I'm looking forward to the interactions and the questions that you have for us.

Sherri is speaking on screen

Sherri: Great. Well Louis, perfect tie in. We will now go to the chat room. Fernando, Jack is a 12th grade student and he wants to know what did you have to do to be accepted to become a co-op student?

Fernando speaking on screen

Fernando: It works a little bit differently from university to university, but at Northwestern you have to apply to the co-op program within the school first. Once you get selected and approved, you try to find employers that you want to work. I have some friends working for Ford, for CBM. And I was just interested in space since I've been very little.

So what I did is I wrote in the form, I contacted the co-op office, which is instituted here at NASA and I got in touch with Robert Musgrove which is the director for the club program and through paperwork and a few interviews, I got accepted and I've been working here for three tours now.

Back to Sherri

Sherri: Okay, great. Okay well Louis, our next question comes in for you from Negrove and I'm hoping Negrove I'm saying your name right.

Sherri and engineers shown on screen

He wants to know if you will be doing more than two tours and also what's typical for a co-op student?

Louis speaking on screen

Louis: What's typical for a co-op student is to be dynamic, basically. You want to be involved in real work of course, but you want to have a social aspect as well and you want to interact with other co-ops as well.

When I first became a co-op, we had a scavenger hunt and that got everybody involved in getting to know each other and to getting to know about other co-ops and things of that sort.

Back to Sherri

Sherri: So is it typical to have two tours or more?

Back to Louis

Louis: Basically it's up to the co-op. And I've heard of co-op having as many as seven, so it's up to the co-op. You elect when to go back to school or when to return. Next year I'll be graduating so hopefully I'll have one more tour after this and hopefully I'll be affiliated with NASA permanently.

Sherri speaking on screen

Sherri: Oh wonderful. Well good luck to you on that. So you're planning on doing three. Negrove I hope that answers your question.

Timothy writes in and, Laurie, he wants to know do you know Russian or Japanese and if not, do you have plans for learning these languages?

Laurie speaking on screen

Laurie: Well since like I said, we're going to be working with the Russians and Japanese, I actually have started taking Russian classes. It's a six-week long program that's just Russian I, just the basics. And then there's a three-year long program that I'll hopefully enroll in afterwards. And I'll also learn Japanese, so yes, I will learn both languages.

Back to Sherri

Sherri: Well on the same topic, Timothy, you have a great question. Let's go ahead and extend that to Fernando and Louis.

Sherri and all three engineers on screen

Do either one of you guys know these languages or do you plan on learning additional languages. Fernando?

Fernando speaking on screen

Fernando: Since I know Spanish from living in Costa Rica, I took up on Italian at school, and as both of these co-ops, I want to have a full-time job at NASA. So we have to do any work with ESA, the European Space Agency, it at least facilitates some of that communication. And since NASA works with Russia and a lot more with Japan nowadays, I think I'm going to take on Japanese as well.

Sherri: Okay Louis, what about you?

Louis speaking on screen

Louis: I would love to learn Russian, actually. I know a little French and Spanish but I do want to expand my vocabulary of course.

Sherri speaking on screen

Sherri: Great. All right. Well Pamela is an 11th grader from Texas. She writes in, do any of you want to be astronauts?

Sherri and Louis, Laurie, and Fernando on screen

Now Laurie, we know you told us your lifelong dream has been to be an astronaut. What about the rest of you?

Louis speaking on screen

Louis: I would love to be an astronaut. One thing about the astronaut corps, it's very, very competitive. So you need to get advanced degrees in order to be considered for that. So my immediate goal would be to obtain higher degrees and to be considered in that corps one day, yes.

Back to Sherri and all three engineers

Fernando: Being an astronaut is one of the first things

Fernando speaking on screen

I can remember from when I was young. And Louis is right, it's very competitive, but being a co-op, I think you have sort of an edge, because you know the center, you know the work that's being done here. So you know what you can give to the center in order to become a successful crew member.

Sherri speaking on screen

Sherri: Great. Well for those of you just joining us out there in worldwide Web land, this is a Webcast being broadcast live from Johnson Space Center here in Houston, Texas, on behalf of the Distance Learning Outpost and NASA-Ames Quest Program. And we are supporting National Engineering Week, this program. And we have three very special guests with us, co-op students

Sherri and all three engineers

in the engineering field visiting with us today. And they are here to answer your questions.

Sherri speaking on screen

Okay the next question coming down the pipeline. Jerry writes in and wants to know where do you guys live while you're visiting and working here at Johnson Space Center?

Sherri and engineers

Louis: Well for me,

Louis speaking on screen

I'm local, basically. I go to school here in Houston, so it's not a problem for me as far as lodgings.

Laurie speaking on screen

Laurie: This semester and the past semester, I rent an apartment with co-ops that you meet down here. But your first semester down here when you don't know anyone, NASA sends out a housing guide that NASA employees will rent out rooms out of their house, and many co-ops do that for their first semester because you don't want to bring furniture down here. You don't know anyone, so it's a great way to meet people and to meet other NASA employees.

Fernando speaking on screen

Fernando: That's what I do. I rent a room from an employee and it's very easy, as Laurie said. You avoid the furniture and sometimes paying for gas and electricity. It's also very convenient because you have a little bit of somebody who can help you out if you need to know where the closest supermarket is or where to renew your AAA membership, for example. Just things like that, you can rely on somebody who knows the area a lot better than you do.

Sherri speaking on screen

Sherri: Great. Well Fernando, Jerry also wants to know, as co-ops, do you guys get paid.

Back to Fernando

Fernando: Yes we do. We get paid twice a month. Basically it's every two weeks and the pay that we get is more than enough to live, to pay for gasoline, for going out with your friends to the movies and even for food. So we do get paid fairly.

Sherri: Do either one of you have anything to add to that?

Louis speaking on screen

Louis: I do want to add, it is-, I don't want to say disparity, but the more education, the more you're closer to completing your degree, the more money that NASA will allocate towards your salary.

Back to Sherri

Sherri: Well they're obviously paying for your experience and knowledge, there, huh, Louis?

Louis: That's correct.

Sherri: Okay. Well Sue is a 10th grade student from Iowa. Hi Sue. And she'd like to ask Louis, are you working in the same area and the same exact project that you co-opped on last time?

Back to Louis

Louis: Oh no. I am in the same area because just like I said, I have a great support base, why should I leave. So I do work with SSTF, that's the Space Station Training Facility, glad to be there, and hopefully one day I can solidify a position there permanently.

No, I'm not working on the same thing. I'm very dynamic. I used to work in the facility last time, but this time I'm working on a lot of Web-based material. I redesigned and revamped our total Web site. So I am involved in that as well.

Back to Sherri

Sherri: All right. Well two very different projects you're working on. Thanks for that question, Sue. Well flight controllers have a wonderful job here at Johnson Space Center, and we saw the pictures of Mission Control earlier. That's typically where they work, and we have a very short clip that we would like to show you with flight director Bill Foster, to share with you some of the opportunities that are available for you here at JSC.

Video of Lori Keith

Lori: Hi, I'm Lori Keith with NASA Quest. I work at the Johnson Space Center here in Houston, Texas. Today I want to share with you an area of careers for engineering you might not know about: NASA flight controllers.

Now we all know that scientists and astronauts are important to their jobs, but the flight controllers are the backbone of every mission. It's their job to monitor and maintain what they call the health of the vehicle, whether that vehicle is the ISS or one of the shuttles. And if a problem arises, it is their job to figure out how to fix it or how to work around it.

Their jobs are crucial to the success of every NASA space flight mission. And on that note, I would like to introduce you to

Video of Bill Foster

Bill: Hi, I'm Bill Foster. I'm a data communications engineer with a Bachelor of Science degree in electro-optics. I work at NASA as a space shuttle, ISS flight controller. My call sign is GC, which stands for Ground Controller. The GCs are responsible for all aspects of ground support required to provide telemetry, command and voice for U.S. manned spacecraft.

The telemetry is received from the spacecraft, processed by the MCC and then distributed throughout the building to flight controllers here, engineers both here and around the country, and to payload scientists around the country or sometimes around the world.

The command capability gives the flight controllers the option of sending commands onboard the space shuttle or the ISS. Those commands are used to control the communication systems on board, the television cameras, we can send up new software loads or even send up email to the crew, using that command system.

And then we also have the two-way voice capability which uses both the telemetry, which we also call the "downlink" and the command, which we call the "uplink" system. So that lets us receive voice from the crew and lets us send voice to the crew.

In order to make all of this work, all three systems work, the GCs are responsible for the Mission Control room, for the building that we're located in, all the equipment that's in this building, plus we're coordinating with all the various network elements around the country and in fact sometimes around the world.

We primarily deal with White Sands, New Mexico, which is the ground station for the tracking and data relay satellite. That's our primary communications link with the spacecraft. We also deal for shuttle, for launch and landing operations, with ground station at Myla, which is at the Kennedy Space Center and at Dryden, which is at the Edward's Air Force Base in California.

I generally support space shuttle launch and landing operations myself. I work with a partner and we come in a day before launch, go through all of our interfacing to connect the MCC with the space shuttle on the pad. We do that by coordinating with the Myla ground tracking station at Kennedy, and we spend about an eight-hour shift hooking up all the interfaces and making sure that we can communicate two-way with the orbiter.

We come back in the next day and spend about five hours pre-launch going through all our interfaces with the various network sites around the country and around the world, making sure everyone's set, that the MCC is set to supports the shuttle launch. And then we go for about two hours into the launch when we hand over to an orbit team.

All in all, that's the most exciting shift of anything that we do in the Mission Control center. It's about an eight-hour shift, and from the time you come on to the time you get off, it's like no time has passed at all. It's very cool. And I think you'd all like to be doing something like that.

We also come in the day before landing, and we do some checks with the spacecraft, with the space shuttle and make sure that we can communicate with the ground sites that we're going to use the next day for landing. The flight controllers in the room are also doing checks, making sure that the flaps on the shuttle work, that all the power systems work that are needed for landing.

So it's an interesting shift. Then we go home, come back in the next day and about five hours before landing, we go through all the checklists needed to make sure that the onboard systems are ready, the crew is ready and the ground systems are ready. It's not quite as exciting as being on for ascent, but it's still a pretty neat shift.

All in all, working with this team of flight controllers in the MCC is one of the most exciting jobs I can imagine. Maybe not quite as good as being an astronaut, but it's the next best thing. So I'd like to encourage everyone out there to really hit the books, do your best at that, and then hopefully someday you'll be working either with me in here in the Control Center, or maybe I'll be listening to you talk on the other side of the interface.

Sherri speaking on screen

Sherri: Well I hope you enjoyed that. It's just another example of some of the really cool engineering jobs available here at Johnson Space Center, being a Ground Controller in the Flight Director's Office in Mission Control.

Let's go ahead and go back to your questions and see what we've got next. Terry writes in, Louis, in the training facility, do you actually get to help train the crew members? And if so, in what area?

Louis speaking on screen

Louis: Yes. We do train the crew members and we do it in conjunction with the MCC, like I said before, the Mission Control Center. We have an integrated environment that tests different operations and we also test the software. And we test procedure verifications. Say for instance the astronaut is up in space or what have you, and he gets hurt. He has specific procedures to go about when-, in trying to remedy the situation.

So he would have to go through a certain number of procedures and the protocol for that is basically started at the SSTM.

Sherri speaking on screen

Sherri: Great. Well how about the others of you? Are you involved at all in any direct way with astronauts?

Laurie speaking on screen

Laurie: In the project that I'm working on now, if we do decide to get rid of that piece of hardware from the Space Station, or if we decide that we're going to have a crew member throw it off the Space Station, we're going to have to work with them and put them in the space suit and see how much force they can generate and if this would be something they would be capable of doing, or if they would want to do. So I haven't yet, but hopefully in the future.

Sherri: Great.

Fernando speaking on screen

Fernando: Well actually my boss is an astronaut, Dr. Franklin Chen Diaz, he's the director of the Advanced Space Propulsion Lab. And he comes in and goes. He has a mission, so we don't see him that much right now. But he is the principal investigator for this project, and hopefully if this project goes on to its next stage, we would have a probe up in the Space Station so we would get to interact with astronauts as well, telling them how to assemble it into a Space Station and test their rocket out.

Back to Sherri

Sherri: That's great. Well Jeremy writes in. He's a 10th grade student, Fernando, wanting to know what exactly is a magneto plasma rocket and could you please tell us what plasma is?

Fernando speaking on screen

Fernando: Of course. Plasma is the fourth state of matter, gas, liquid and solid being the other three. And usually it's ionized gas. They ionize it with radio frequencies so they strip away the electron, and it's so hot it gets to about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, even more. So you cannot contain it with any material that is made by man. So that's the plasma part of the rocket.

The electromagnetic comes from the electromagnets that we use to contain this hot plasma. Since it's an ionized gas, you can contain it with an electric-, magnetic field, excuse me. And the way you generate that electric field is you run currents just like if you'd plug in your TV set, it's current running through your television. You run the current through copper wire and you produce a very strong magnetic field.

In fact one of the scientists that was working with us, he kept his credit card in his pocket while he was operating the rocket, and the field is so strong it demagnetizes his credit card. So he had to go back to his bank and request for another one because it's very, very strong. So it's a very interesting thing to see the beam of hydrogen ionized gas.

Back to Sherri

Sherri: Okay so the tip there being take your credit cards out of your wallet before you go in the lab to work in Fernando's area. Okay, Wesley is a 12th grade student and wants to know, he's read all of your bios,

Sherri and all three engineers

and notices that all you guys are a good ways away from home except for Louis, and wants to know how difficult is it in making the adjustments of being so far away from home. Fernando?

Fernando speaking on the screen

Fernando: Mine started when I went to college in '98. I lived all my life in Costa Rica, and when I went to Northwestern, I just started to get a feel for the U.S. culture first of all. And once I traveled for co-oping, it's actually not that hard. I made friends, good friends here and I still have good friends in school, and I'm a very adaptable person. So it doesn't take a lot, and I think I speak for the majority of co-ops where we don't have a problem jumping between school and work. It's fun.

Back to Sherri

Sherri: Laurie how about you? Did you find it difficult making the adaptation here?

Laurie speaking on screen

Laurie: Well, weather-wise, yes, because Buffalo and Houston, Texas are completely different. So it was a little hard to get used to the heat at first. But most co-ops aren't from around the area and so the co-ops are like one big family. There's about 50 of us here every semester, at least 50. And so everyone just, there's always something to do and we have Thanksgiving dinner, so it makes it a lot easier to adjust. Because everyone's going through it at the same time.

Sherri: Louis, do you have anything to add to that?

Louis speaking on screen

Louis: I just want to add something to that. Even though I'm centrally located right now, I'm a long ways away from my mom and my dad, which is in Savannah, Georgia, which is almost 1,000 miles, actually over 1,000 miles away. But I would say, you're going to be a little bit apprehensive about leaving home at first because you're so attached to your surroundings or your family structure. But I would say don't be scared to expand your horizons. There's a lot out here.

Sherri: That's great. Good advice. Thank you.

Back to Sherri

Rachelle, thank you for your question. She writes in and wants to know what made the difference for all of you guys to choose NASA as your co-op program? Was there any one particular thing or was it just a general decision, easy to make because it was Johnson Space Center? Louis, we'll start with you.

Back to Louis

Louis: Well I could tell you for sure that I always wanted to be, just like Laurie said, I wanted to always be affiliated with science, space exploration, and what better place to work or to be affiliated with a co-op program, than NASA? This is the best.

Sherri: I agree.

Louis: And I would add that Bob Musgrove is a wonderful manager and very, very equitable and very fair. And I just wanted to put that, kudos for him.

Sherri: Oh great.

Back to Sherri

Laurie speaking on screen

Laurie: When you talk space or anything related to space, NASA is just the cream of the crop. And so, but deciding Johnson Space Center, I was actually considering Kennedy Space Center in Florida and Langley in Virginia. But Johnson has the most to offer and they work directly with the astronauts. And so I figured, like they'll find something there I like, definitely. Definitely did.

Sherri: All right. Fernando, how about you?

Back to Fernando

Fernando: Well when I was deciding, I look at GM, General Motors, I look at 3M, I look at other companies but all of them don't offer what Johnson Space Center offers. I also looked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. They work with mainly robotics, probes, but none of them has the interaction of people, machines, software, everything is here, like Laurie said. And it's a lot of fun.

I think for me it's the best center because not only is it sort of the principal center, NASA center, when it comes to space flight, but it's also one of the widest in terms of selection that we can do.

Back to Sherri

Sherri: That's right. Well Johnson Space Center, for all of you out there, is just one of 10 NASA centers from across the United States that each has a special focus. And our focus here is the human space flight programs, so all of the things that the co-ops are talking about today, the space shuttle program, the International Space Station program, the astronaut corps, all of these opportunities are centered here at Johnson Space Center since this is the home base for Human Space Flight Program.

It's a beautiful campus if you have never visited us. We have about 1620 acres.

Video of Johnson Space Center from the air

Looks kind of like a college campus, it's really very beautiful. In this video here, you can see in the background some blue just over the horizon there is the Gulf of Mexico. So come on down and visit us. We've got about 26,000 employees, federal workers and contractors who all work together to support the Human Space Flight Program here at Johnson Space Center.

Well Ben is in Ohio. Hi, Ben, thanks for your question. He wants to know where do all of you see yourselves five years from now?

Sherri and all three engineers

Fernando speaking on screen

Fernando: Grad school, most likely.

Sherri: Fernando?

Fernando: Most likely graduate school.

Sherri: Graduate school.

Fernando: I'm going to finish my Bachelor's in about a year and a half. Hopefully take some time off, get some hands-on experience, hopefully here at Johnson Space Center. But after that, I'll go into grad school, hopefully with robotics, which is the field I wanted to take more expertise in.

Sherri: Great. Laurie, how about you?

Laurie speaking on screen

Laurie: In five years hopefully I'll have finished my master's because I graduate in May. And I'll be applying for an astronaut position, but working at Johnson Space Center.

Sherri: Great, and how about you, Louis?

Louis speaking on screen

Louis: Graduate school sounds great to me as well.

Sherri: You're a professional student, aren't you?

Louis: That's correct. And basically I'm a lifetime learner and I will be affiliated with schools my entire life. And I do want to go to graduate school and I just recently took the GRE and thank God I did pretty well on it. So I look forward to being affiliated with NASA of course, but in conjunction going to school on the side.

Sherri speaking on screen

Sherri: Thank you. All right, well Laurie, Otis writes in and wants to know what is Space Camp?

Back to Laurie

Laurie: Space Camp is a program offered in Florida and in Huntsville, Alabama. And it's offered year-round. It's a five-to-eight-day program where you can go I think 4th grade through 12th grade students can go and you go and you just basically, you train to be an astronaut. I mean you do all the same training that they do and you actually do a real mission, a 12-hour mission and you get to learn everything about NASA and what NASA does.

Back to Sherri

Sherri: Great. Okay, well Johnny is a 9th grade student, writes in, wants to know if you guys work on teams

Sherri and engineers

or do you have to work on individual projects, or is it a combination of the two. Laurie, why don't we start with you?

Laurie speaking on screen

Laurie: It's a little of both. Mainly teams though. You're put in the projects with probably about four or five people usually. You do a lot of individual work on your own, but then you go to the team. So it's a little of both, but more so teams.

Back to Sherri

Sherri: Do the others of you have anything to add to that?

Louis speaking on screen

Louis: I would just add that she's correct. You do have to work in a team-oriented environment, but sometimes you do have individual projects to complete. But you do have to match that with other people as well to make it work.

Fernando speaking on screen

Fernando: Like Louis said, it's mostly individual pieces of a bigger project that you work on. And then together teamwork is extremely important. Because if your teammate doesn't come through for you, then it means the whole project is left behind. So especially working in a laboratory environment, you do need to keep up with your individual work, but most important is the team work which will eventually get the project on the road.

Back to Sherri

Sherri: Well speaking of teamwork, the International Space Station program is the largest team project I can think of off the top of my head. There are obviously 16 different partner countries working as a team with one another for this program. We've got 16 different languages and cultures and work styles and food preferences and the whole nine yards. And, wow, what a challenge it must be working together all 16 of those nations as part of the team on this one project, the International Space Station. So thanks for bringing that up, guys.

Okay. Mike, 86, I don't know what that call name stands for, but Mike, I'm sure you know. He wants to know what the coolest things are that you guys are doing or have done during your co-op stay here at Johnson Space Center. Fernando why don't we start with you?

Fernando speaking on screen

Fernando: My first tour I got to work with the robotics division, and we worked on a project that was an anthropomorphic robot. It's a human robot, waist-, it's a robot that looks like a human, excuse me, from the waist up. And it has a dexterous hand, five fingers and they move like my hand.

Video of robot, robot hand with moving fingers

And it's such a complicated robot that you can see it on the screen, it's really, really impressive to see what we have come up with.

And they recently put in some stereo vision, so you can see like humans do and it's a robotic assistant for ultimately space walks. The robot can go out, set up a work station, and then the astronauts can be exposed to less time in the vacuum of space.

Back to Fernando

It's very neat and to see it operated is, I feel like it's Star Wars. So it's incredible.

Sherri speaking on screen

Sherri: It kind of looks like C3PO, a little bit.

Fernando: Yes, a little. The whole goal is to assist astronauts and hopefully I'll get to see that in space some time.

Sherri: Okay, Laurie what about your coolest thing?

Laurie speaking on screen

Laurie: My coolest part of my job would be working in Mission Control. You just, you walk in there and you've got to take it all in. You think so many missions have been flown from here and so it's definitely, by far, working in Mission Control.

Louis speaking on screen

Louis: To put one thing, I cannot. But I can say that I'm like a kid in a candy store. Everything I work on is exciting, it's new and it's avant-garde, it's something new that's going to be in the forefront for the future.

Back to Sherri

Sherri: All right. Well Delilah, thanks for sending in your question. You want to know if the three co-ops have ever met before this Webcast today, and do you guys know other co-ops?

Sherri and all three engineers on screen

So Louis, why don't we start with you?

Louis speaking on screen

Louis: Yes, we are affiliated with each other, but it's hard when everybody's in their own domain to really be collective. But we do have a forum where most of the co-ops get together and they go to lunch and every day if you would like, but sometimes my money doesn't permit me to do so.

Sherri: Laurie?

Laurie speaking on screen

Laurie: Yeah, you're basically every day interacting with co-ops, whether it be at lunch or doing something at night, going to see a movie, or shopping or whatever. But yeah, the co-op program is so big here and it's so well held together, that you do interact with co-ops a lot.

Fernando speaking on screen

Fernando: I actually knew Laurie from our first tour. I met Louis today, because we were in alternating semesters. When he was working, I was at school. But we do a lot of things together. We have gone down to Kennedy Space Center to watch a couple of shuttle launches. We've gone to New Orleans, we've gone to Austin, to San Antonio. So Laurie said we were a family and while we're here, we're a family.

Sherri and engineers

Sherri: Wonderful. Well sounds like a neat family to be a part of.

Sherri speaking on screen

Okay, Wesley, 12th grade student writes in and wants to know what types of classes have you guys taken in your most recent semesters at school and what types of classes will you be planning on taking in the future? We'll start with you, Laurie.

Laurie speaking on screen

Laurie: Okay, well in high school, it's a lot of math and science. If you like math and science, engineering or math is probably the way to go. In college, some of my most recent and interesting classes were aircraft design where we had to redesign the Concord. Structures is really interesting also, propulsion, just a lot of classes that most of them are applicable to your job. And so it's truly interesting.

Louis speaking on screen

Louis: Basically, if I got down to the nuts and bolts of my classes, it would be pretty boring for everybody. I don't want to bore everybody, but I'm in computer science and we deal with bits, zeros and ones, and computer languages and the things like that. So basically a lot of computer-oriented classes.

Fernando speaking on screen

Fernando: My classes deal mostly with mechanical systems. I'm almost graduating, so I had a class in electromechanical-, microelectronic mechanical systems which are tiny, tiny machines made out of silicon wafers. It's very interesting. I'm probably going to take heat transfer and some of it, you'd think that they are boring, but once you get to work, you get to actually apply them, I'm looking forward to heat transfer because I can help analyze the magnet better because I was doing the magnetic model.

So it might be boring when you're in school, but once you get to work and you apply them, you see how much you actually know and it's very rewarding.

Back to Sherri

Sherri: Okay, Carrie writes in and wants to know how did you guys find out about the co-op program?

Louis speaking on screen

Louis: They do have a co-op Web site. I'm not sure if you have it on the screen or not but it's coop.jsc.nasa.gov. And you could start there if you want to inquire about the co-op program.

Sherri: Okay, is that how you heard about it, on the Web site?

Louis: Yes I did and I religiously kept emailing Bob Musgrove, and he one day gave me a forum to meet him. And I had an interview. He only had two spots left, and I was blessed enough to receive one of those spots.

Sherri: How about you, Laurie. How did you find out about it?

Laurie speaking on screen

Laurie: I also found out about it through the Web page. I knew they had some type of internship program, and all the co-ops put their biographies on the Web site as well as their email address. So I would just email different co-ops, asking them for advice.

Sherri: Oh great.

Back to Fernando

Fernando: I found out through my university. I would recommend for students, especially the seniors who are starting to look into universities, to see if their university actually has a co-op program. They may have a deal with Langley Research Center or with Kennedy Space Center. But I found out through my co-op program at school.

Sherri speaking on screen

Sherri: Okay. Well as a reminder to all of you out there again, that Web site is coop.jsc -- which is short for Johnson Space Center -- .nasa.gov@gov. And please note there is no www in front of that. Coop.jsc.nasa.gov, because that will give you a great starting place.

Well Patty want to know if you can be a part of the co-op program if you're not in an engineering field, for instance you might be in journalism.

Louis speaking on screen

Louis: I can say yes. Last Webcast we had somebody who was not affiliated with science, but maybe Laurie or Fernando can expound on that a little bit more.

Laurie speaking on screen

Laurie: My roommate is actually a management major and she works in the business area of NASA. So NASA is a regular business like any other. It needs photographers, journalists, business majors, everything.

Back to Fernando

Fernando: I know a few who are biologists, geologists. So it's not only engineering, but it also applies to other types of sciences as well as management and journalism and some other professions.

Back to Sherri

Sherri: Okay. Well I had the privilege of working with a co-op named Kiley Moritz in the public affairs office in the newsroom about a year and a half, two years ago. And she has since come onboard to work for us full time. So there's another example of someone who doesn't have a traditional engineering degree.

Now obviously this week we're focusing on engineering because of the National Engineers Week. But it is good to know that everyone out there has an opportunity to come be a part of the co-op program at Johnson Space Center.

Okay, we just received a question from Thomas. And he wants to know what got you guys excited about engineering, and did you ever consider any other occupations besides engineering? Fernando, why don't we start with you?

Fernando speaking on screen

Fernando: I always liked sciences. I considered biology, chemistry, physics, but I really just wanted to know how things work. I took apart our TV and that got me in trouble. I tried to work with our car, my dad didn't let me. But it was just for me it was sort of an elimination. I knew I didn't want to do certain things, so that kind of narrowed it down to mechanical engineering.

Laurie speaking on screen

Laurie: Since I was nine I've wanted to be an astronaut, and since I really wanted to be a pilot, but because of my vision, I couldn't, and doctors, engineers, and pilots are the three main categories which astronauts are. So I chose engineering. And I really enjoy science and math, so it fits well.

Louis speaking on screen

Louis: Well to platform off what Laurie just said, everybody can't go into sciences, they don't have the ability or they just might not like the field. So it's up to you to find out what you want to do and pursue that.

Now for me, I'm pretty versatile. I want to be a lawyer one day as well. So that's why I said I'm a lifetime learner. And I do want to be affiliated with higher education throughout my life.

Back to Sherri

Sherri: Okay great. Well Carrie you write in and want to know if you get school credit for your time while you're working here at NASA. It's a great question.

Sherri and all engineers

Louis: It depends on the school that you go to.

Louis speaking on screen

I have gotten up to six hours upper-level electives to count toward my degree. So it depends on what school you go to and what programs that they have.

Sherri: How about you?

Fernando speaking on screen

Fernando: Even if you don't get credit, at least the fact that you are working, and when you graduate you usually have about a year and a half of labor experience. So you have a little bit of a heads-up on what's happening in the industry and employers like that.

It takes about three years for an engineer to be actually productive in the workforce, but if you have a year and a half of that, employers might be less reluctant to hire you in the first place.

Sherri: Laurie, do you have anything to add?

Laurie speaking on screen

Laurie: Our school, every semester you co-op, you get one credit hour. So basically it works out well. I would do it even if you didn't get credit hours.

Sherri: So a tremendous experience, isn't it?

Laurie: Yes.

Back to Sherri

Sherri: Okay, I think we have time for one more question. Joey wants to know did you know anything about the projects that you're working on now before you came to work here at NASA? Fernando, let's start with you.

Fernando speaking on screen

Fernando: The first time I came here, I got assigned to robotics. But these other two tours, I actually did a little bit of research within the center, and I found the project I wanted to work with. I interviewed and they explained to me what I would be doing, even before I got here. So you sort of get this excitement because you already know what you're going to be doing when you get here.

Laurie speaking on screen

Laurie: As for project, not really. I knew the basics, like orbital dynamics and flight dynamics. But not really a lot about the projects. You learn that more on the job.

Louis speaking on screen

Louis: Short answer: no. And to reiterate what I said earlier, I'm like a kid in a candy store, so everything that I learn is something new and it's exciting and I love it.

Back to Sherri

Sherri: Well, thank you so much co-ops. We have run out of time today, unfortunately. We appreciate all of you out there in world-wide Web land who have submitted your questions today. Sorry we couldn't get to all of them. We got through as many as we could in the time that we had today.

On behalf of the Distance Learning Outpost and NASA-Ames Quest Program, we do want to thank you

Sherri and engineers on screen

for spending this time with us today, being interested in the program. If you would like to find out more about the co-op program or other educational programs that are available to you at NASA, you can visit the education.jsc.nasa.gov Web site. Again there is no www in front of that. And you can click on the appropriate grade category and see a listing of all the different programs, including the co-op program, and Bob Musgrove's contact information, if you are interested in it, to read about.

Sherri and all on screen

Well again, thank you so much. We hope that you have a great afternoon here at Johnson Space Center. Bye-bye.