A Day in the Life of Karen Peck

Fall 1995

This entry was created under the previous format and will be updated to reflect the other "Day in the Life" entries. This entry reflects a glimpse of Karen's daily work.

Right now I'm working on two projects. The first is to make some changes to a laser laboratory located inside one of the wind tunnel buildings. The goal of the project is to provide air conditioning, heating, better lighting, and a barrier to try to reduce the noise level inside the room. Since the wind tunnel produces more noise than a jet engine taking off, you can imagine how difficult it is to reduce the sound enough to be tolerable for workers!

When I began this project I knew nothing about acoustics or gypsum wallboard construction. Gypsum, also known as "drywall" or "sheetrock" is a paneling product used on interior walls. You probably have it on the walls in your home and school. This happens to me pretty often, that I don't know anything about the materials or conditions I am working with, since (1) I don't have very much experience (I graduated from college 2 years ago), and (2) NASA Ames has some very unusual facilities that they didn't teach me about in college, such as wind tunnels, aircraft hangars, steam vacuum systems, etc. When this happens I have to find ways of learning what I need to know-- from reading textbooks or manufacturer's catalogs, calling manufacturers, calling consulting engineers, talking with other NASA personnel, or however else I can find it out.

So, anyway, I've learned a lot about acoustics and gypboard. I learned that to provide a good sound wall you have to have a lot of mass, as well as provide void space in the wall. Mineral-fiber insulation helps absorb the sound as well. It is very important to seal off all the joints because the sound can find a way to sneak through the tiniest cracks. I was taught to think of a soundproof room like a bucket full of water. You can make the bucket material as strong as you like, but as soon as you have even the tiniest hole in it, all of your water is going to leak out!

My other project is the installation of an elevator and a seismic retrofit of one of our office buildings. "Seismic retrofit" means making the building stronger so that it won't fall down during an earthquake. This particular building was built in the early 1940's, which means that not only has its concrete degraded, but the design standards used then were different, not as strict as today's. One good way to strengthen an existing concrete building is to fill in some of its windows with concrete, thus making its walls bigger and stronger. However, we have an Architectural Review Board which likes to maintain the exterior of the buildings to look the same as when they were originally built, so I don't know yet whether they will let me fill in the windows.

The elevator part of the project is being designed by one of our on-site contractors. These are people who don't work for NASA, but they work for a company that has a contract with NASA to help us do our work. My job is to communicate NASA's needs to them, supervise their efforts, and make sure their designs conform to NASA standards. It is very challenging. I think learning to work well with people takes practice, just like anything else, and it's not something you can be taught in school.