Robotics Blog #2

Hello again! It’s been quite some time since I last posted – things have been quite hectic these days! I decided for this next entry, I’d like to hear from you all. What kind of questions do you have: about working at NASA?...about working with astronauts?...about the upcoming Shuttle missions?

I’ll consolidate all the questions and have answers posted in the next entry. Looking forward to hearing from all of you! - Madi Read more!

Hubble Blog Entry #3: The Reality of Dreaming

One question I’ve gotten asked by a few folks who read this blog is why I always sign off with “dream big”. I think NASA, collectively, is a group of folks who aren’t afraid to think--and dream--big. Put a man on the moon? Sure, we can do it. Land a rover on Mars? You got it.

I think this closing fits the collective theme of what NASA stands for pretty well—but on a more personal level, my involvement in HST has really allowed me to interact with folks who embrace this philosophy on a daily basis.  To say that this has been incredibly rewarding and beneficial to me as a young engineer would honestly be a great understatement.




Personally, I was about 9 when I figured out that I wanted to “dream big” and become an engineer when I grew up. More specifically, I decided on aerospace engineering sitting in a movie theatre watching “Apollo 13” to celebrate my 11th birthday. I can even go as far as to tell you what scene in the movie (the one where the engineers in mission control are trouble-shooting the air filtration system) led to this decision. It may sound cheesy, but that movie changed my life. Fast forward 13 years and here I am—a “rookie” at Kennedy Space Center providing launch site support for STS-125. Living my dream? You bet; and if I ever doubted it, the last few weeks have really helped to drive the point home.
 
We’re about a month out from launch right now, so we’re starting to hit some major milestones—from final system walk-downs (that’s NASA-speak for inspections), to the shuttle rolling out to the launch pad. It’s almost like watching a complex, choreographed dance. Every member of the team has a specific task that they need to complete in order for us to launch safely and on time. The amount of team work required—and frequently displayed—is downright amazing. There truly are no “loners” here.
 
Because so many things need to happen between now and our launch date, a lot of integration work actually follows a parallel schedule instead of happening in line one right after the other. Right now, the carrier teams are getting ready for what we call “canister ops”—this is how we’ll ultimately load our hardware into Atlantis for flight. Each of our carriers will be loaded into a large canister that fits right into Atlantis’ belly, thus allowing us to work off-line from the work flow at the pad. (The orbiter actually rolls out to the pad with an empty payload bay so they can keep their pre-flight tests going without us.) Once we’re ready to go, the canister will be rolled out to the pad where we’ll be integrated into the payload bay for flight. From everyone I’ve talked to who’s seen it before, this is one of the neater I&T operations that we perform during our preparation activities. I can’t wait to get an up-close look at it in the next few weeks.
 
So that’s the latest and greatest from sunny (and humid!) Florida. I think this picture says it best:




Until next time…
 
Dream Big,
Meg


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Robotics Blog Entry # 1

Hello! My name is Madhurita Sengupta, but most of my friends call me Madi. I am a robotics instructor at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas. This means I, as well as other instructors in my group, work with flight controllers (who sit in Mission Control) and astronauts to train them on how to use the robotic arms on the International Space Station.


The robotic arms are used to put together parts of the space station when they’re first brought into space. Astronauts train for many months, to make sure they are able to operate the arms properly when they go into space. As a self-proclaimed space nut, this is quite possibly one of the coolest jobs ever.

Just like many of you, I grew up wanting to be an astronaut. In fact, I still remember touring NASA at eight and coming home to tell my mom that I would one day work in Mission Control and be an astronaut! After participation in several high school programs, I headed to the University of Texas at Austin and majored in Electrical Engineering. During this time, I also worked at JSC as a co-op (like an intern, but I was able to come back multiple times). After finishing my degree, I started full-time with the Space Station Robotics Training group earlier this year.

Fifteen years ago, I never realized how amazing the opportunities in my life would turn out to be – and now I can safely say I am living my dream! Through the amazing student programs at JSC, I was fortunate to have gotten involved with NASA pretty early on. No matter where you are in school, there are many opportunities to get involved with the space program, so I encourage you all to explore all of them!

In the coming months, I hope to give you all a little more insight on the space program and my part in it. I am more than happy to answer any questions or hear any comments you may have – so don’t be shy!
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Hubble Blog Entry #2: Pieces of the Puzzle

Well, it’s been about 2 months since my last entry and a whole lot of stuff has gone on here at Goddard. Since I last wrote, the crew of STS-124 successfully completed their mission and returned to earth. Translation: we’re up next! The team here at Goddard couldn’t be more excited—just last week, we shipped 3 of our 4 carriers (those are the large building blocks that make up the payload for STS-125) to Kennedy Space Center and have begun the process of integrating our hardware to the shuttle’s payload bay.


It’s really hard to believe how much time, effort, and energy goes into preparing for a launch. There are so many people that need to work together in order to make things “go”; from the folks who design the parts to those who run the final checkouts, everyone’s role is important to the success of the mission and program in general. I was thinking about this the other day—in my day-to-day life here at Goddard, I interact with upwards of 20-30 people beyond a casual “hello” in the hallway….and that’s just the folks working on one sub-system! When you propagate that number over a vehicle the size of the space shuttle that contains thousands of subsystems, you really get an appreciation for just how big this all really is.

As the launch gets closer, this team has really come together to meet all of our goals. I won’t lie—the hours and days are getting long for all of us right now; but we’re coming down the home stretch. Systems are coming together, final rounds of testing are being completed, and piece by piece, our hardware is coming to the end of its preparatory journey. Over the last two and a half years working here at Goddard, I’ve gotten to see several of these designs go from initial concepts on a meeting room whiteboard to a physical systems that I’ve gotten to help build and test. To see everything come full circle like this has been absolutely incredible.

Lately, my part of the “circle” has been to support the last of our testing efforts….a process we affectionately refer to as “shake and bake”. Space is a pretty unforgiving place – the launch/landing loads and temperatures experienced once on orbit are far greater than those you’d see in your day-to-day life here on Earth. Because of this, we need to perform a variety of tests in order to qualify the hardware for flight. We develop plans—similar to a lab report you’d write at school—outlining the test we’d like to perform, why we’d like to perform it, and what we expect to happen. From there, we shake, pull, push, heat, and cool the system until we’re certain that it will behave the way that we expect it to. This often results in getting to perform some pretty neat, hands-on activities in order to get the measurements that we need. For me, this is probably one of the most exciting parts of my job.

So what’s up next? After I finish my work here in Maryland, I’ll be headed down to Kennedy Space Center to help with payload integration work. NASA’s already started an official web site documenting our team’s efforts at the Cape. You can check it out here: http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/search.cfm?cat=180

Until next time (from Florida!)….

Dream BIG!
Meg

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In response to Jennie from the CLC of St. Louis…

My "home" center is the Buehler Challenger & Science Center in Paramus, NJ. I first attended a program there as a junior girl scout back in 1996 when my troop did an overnight camp-in. Needless to say, I was hooked! I lobbied for my middle school to take another trip, which we did when I was in 8th grade (1998). From there, I was actually fortunate enough to become a volunteer with the center as a Junior Commander/Camp Counselor for a few years in high school. While leaving NJ for college and a busy work schedule have prevented me from staying as involved as I once was, I often find myself calling upon my experiences—that initial spark, if you will—that I got from the Center in my day-to-day work. My experiences definitely helped me to solidify and stick with my ultimate career choice, and I'm forever thankful for that!

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Hubble Blog Entry # 1, May 11, 2008

Hello and welcome to the Challenger Alumni Hubble Blog! My name is Meg and I’m a member of the team of engineers helping to prepare for STS-125—the fifth and final Hubble Servicing Mission. Over the next few months, I hope to give you some insight into my job at the Goddard Space Flight Center as well as to share some general information about the mission itself.

STS-125 is scheduled to launch aboard Atlantis later this year with the aim of visiting the Hubble Space Telescope. Upon launch, Atlantis will have a payload bay full of equipment that the crew will use to complete one of the most exciting missions to date. If all goes as planned, these upgrades will help to make Hubble better than it’s ever been before.

This is where I come in. While I’m an aerospace engineer by education, my official title here at Goddard is mechanical systems engineer for the Orbital Replacement Unit Carrier (ORUC). It may sound like a mouthful, but it really just means that I help to ensure that all of the pieces of the ORUC—roughly a third of the shuttle’s payload for this mission—fit together properly and function in the way that they’ve been designed. Day to day, my job is rarely the same (which is exactly how I like it!) since I’ve been able to get involved in all phases of hardware design, development, and testing.

I hope to update this blog at least once a month with an entry talking about various aspects of my job—from all of the neat people I get to work with to the hardware I get to help prepare for flight. In the mean time, feel free to leave any comments or questions and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Until then, dream big!

-Meg
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