Olaf Image From Film: Frozen. Dir. Chris Buck And Jennifer Lee Lee. Prod. Peter Del Vecho. Perf. Kristen

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/

Falcon 9 Sticks the Landing

Game changing launch of Iridium Next mission, Land of Falcon 9 first stage landing and deployment of 10 satellites in low earth orbit by SpaceX. These satellites will provide important data to first responders on Earth. The first stage landing was captured entirely by the Falcon 9's point of view. First launch following SpaceX's 2016 explosion. SpaceX worked with NASA, Airforce and other groups to identify the cause and find a solution. The 2016 was caused by carbon dioxide build up between stage 2's layer of aluminum and carbon fiber wrap.

Stage one successfully lands on barge named “Just Read the Instructions”.

Stage carrying the Iridium Next satellites glows red.

Liftoff with critical small one minute launch window.

Falcon 9′s fins adjust for landing on sea barge. 

It Begins 4,900 Teams of Robot Builders

You may or may not have noticed the anxious stir experienced by high schoolers around the world. Not the stir associated with the holiday season or fear of returning back to school but caused by anxiety for a six week long engineering mission. Tomorrow, January 3rd, over 4,900 FIRST Robotics teams will be assigned a game for which they design, fabricate, and program a 120lb robot to compete. Really, a bunch of high schoolers are going to build a sophisticated machine requiring skills way beyond what they learn in school? Sounds like 4,900 teams of overly confident loony toons to me. I assure you from experience being on one of theses ambitious bot building teams that it is possible with copious amounts of drive and dedication.

Tubes, balls, frisbees and even miniature robots have been tossed, thrown and launched by these high schoolers' mechanical creations. At competition following their build season, teams compete with each other in the game assigned weeks prior. Games in the past have been similar to traditional sports such as soccer, basketball, ultimate frisbee, and volleyball. Until tomorrow teams have no clue what kind of robot they will be creating.

FIRST Robotics is the master mind behind getting students and their communities hooked on robotics. Inventor Dean Kamen and professor Woodie Flowers, FIRST founders, wanted to inspire the next generation of innovators. Their mission is reflected in the competition's name FIRST Robotics - For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. Kind of a mouthful but tech savvy love their acronyms.

Get in on this crazy tech action by watching the FIRST Robotics Kick Off where the new game will be revealed January 3, 2015 10:15am EST : http://corporate.comcast.com/news-information/news-feed/2015-first-robotics-competition-kickoff

This is last years game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5zWzICG5to

The FIRST Robotics team a part of is the Duluth East Daredevils team 2512. Here is a previous robot a robot designed for an ultimate frisbee competition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZqM96bJaH4

FIRST Robotics Link: http://www.usfirst.org/

I’ll catch you!

Jupiter gets his first close-ups by NASA's Juno Space craft! Read about the successful flyby here: http://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasas-juno-to-soar-closest-to-jupiter-this-saturday/ More pictures here: https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/processing

Why Should Anyone Listen?  Day Three NCCWSL

Three of the biggest mistakes women speakers make include; apologizing, not including quality humor, and not taking up space on stage - according to Nancy Denney. Denney is a professional speaker and speech coach who has opened for celebrities like Dr.Phil, owns a publishing company, and visited 900 college campuses. This "Be Better: Enhamced Speaking Skills for Women" workshop was a component that made this conference worth while. Tips you can apply to become a more competent and effective speaker include...

* Practice, practice practice - practice longer than it took to formulate your speech.

* Make meaningful controlled gestures while speaking.

* Memorize your speech but don't sound robotic during delivery.

* Think on the fly during your speech to keep your audience engaged and connected.

* Have someone introduce you to establish credibility.

* Continue to establish your credibility throughout the speech.

* Remember that you are worth listening too, you are the expert and there is a reason you are up there speaking and no one else.

News show host Melissa Harris-Perry expressed the value of women contributions in college, community and congress. Harris-Perry is an author, Ph.D., and professor. She shared the need to teach the history of underrepresented individuals and recognizing them in public spaces. After this keynote I am much more interested in learning and respecting history than when I bumbled through K-12 history classes. Her "call to action" for us included holding ourselves and others accountable to vote in elections, listen to stories of members in our communities and be mindful of the where we get our news from. Even as a show host Harris-Perry advises we not get news from major networks rather with a grain of salt from public radio and podcasts.

Reflections of the day were "Does it matter what women know?", "Why should anyone listen to you?" and "What if we had taken her seriously?". Ways we can be heard include being confident in your competence of a subject, walk your talk and back up your views with fact. Women as a whole need to improve on being effective communicators and the whole country can improve on being better listeners.

Following a keynote, two workshops, a career fair, a graduate school fair, and lunch we were bused out to D.C. to sight see. My group power walked around hitting all the major monuments!

Game plan for “Hour Of Code” 2nd Grader Lesson

Hour of code was started to get kids engaged with programming and computer science. Even an hour of dragging and dropping code can open up a new interest and career for kids. This December I will be introducing 2nd Graders to the world of code.

1st we will talk about what they think code is and how it is used. This is a neat video were coders talk about what they have created and how computer science has impacted them.

2nd we will do my favorite group programming activity ever, programming a yeti to dance on MadeWithCode. Students love to take turns dragging and dropping blocks of code, customizing the yeti and choreographing a dance.

3rd we will travel to the computer lab where kids will have free range on coding Minecraft Characters, Flappy Bird Games and Disney movies. Websites I will suggest are...

MadeWithCode, Code.org and Disney

Click for my article “What’s a Co-Op? and How Do I Get One?”!

-Kirsi Kuutti

Watch JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency)'s HTV-6 cargo ship depart from the international space station 9amCT Friday Jan 27. HTV-6 is scheduled to deorbit in early February and burn up harmlessly while entering earths atmosphere over the ocean. During the decemt JAXA will be gathering data on electromagnetic forces around Earth: http://www.ustream.tv/nasahdtv

Mural of NASA’s past present and future.