For #GivingTuesday I Am Sharing My Top 9 Favorite Organizations, Foundations And Groups To Give To Today

1337 Hacking... Not really. Checking out the mock up displays for Orion.

I’ll catch you!

Space Walks & Garbage: NASA Co-Op #3 Week One

Space Garbage

Familiarized myself with the Inventory and Stowage Officer (ISO) team this week. They are a console position Mission Control that is in charge of managing the inventory and stowage of all US items on board the International Space Station (ISS). ISO prepares products for upcoming real-time operations and coordinates with other consoles regarding stowage plans. ISO is responsible for directing the crew to consolidate, relocate, audit, and unload a visiting vehicle. ISO as well as the Mission Control consoles’ mantra is to distill all information and procedures to make astronaut’s life easier. This is critical because astronauts have to navigate a lot of factors folks on ground don’t have to like; CO2 clustering around their face due to lack of gravity causing drowsiness, homesickness, isolation and general aggregations of communication challenges.

This week we focused on double checking the list of garbage that will burn up in Earth’s atmosphere in Japanese JAXA’s HTV6 cargo ship. Tediously we reviewed each item so nothing got thrown away that shouldn’t and items that would stink up the station were not missed.

Spacewalk

Conducted on the job training in Mission Control's support room called MPSR  (Multi-Purpose Support Room, pronounced "mipser") during the Friday the Thirteenth spacewalk. With an official Mission Control headset I followed along the astronauts tasks. Astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Thomas Pesquet spacewalked outside of ISS to update power systems. Upgrading power system of ISS was the overall goal of this month’s suite of Extra Vehicular Activities. Three 428lb Lithium-Ion batteries replaced nickel hydrogen batteries to store power for ISS during this spacewalk. Before the conclusion of the spacewalk engineers in mission control confirmed the batteries’ integration and initial power storage operations.

MPSRs usually use multi-view video with six images of ISS’ exterior and the crew to observe tasks being completed. They listen in on live loops to the Flight Director’s final calls, CAPCOM’s instructions and astronaut’s questions. If necessary MPSR operators can relay to their counterparts in front room Mission Control (FCR-1) information that can be filtered and relayed to Flight.

During the spacewalk there are many glove checks to check for leaks and anomalies. These gloves are impressively engineered to be thick enough to pressurize protect you from space yet gentle enough to allow you to feel space station through them. Astronauts could confirm with Mission Control that batteries were correctly mounted into place by describing drill rotations, torque and light sensor reading on the hand tool.

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED

Intern at NASA, year round, summer, spring or fall semesters.

Co-Op at NASA (Pathways Internship) and get sworn in as a Civil Servant.

Full-time employment at NASA opportunities!

This week's NASA achievements.

Everything about Mission Control from a Flight Director

Supposed 125mi high water plumes on Europa spotted by NASA Hubble Telescope's infrared images! https://youtu.be/4QJS9LcB66g

Make the Most of a Summer Internship Establishing good habits, setting goals and doing research - I share internship tips in U of Minnesota Duluth's career blog: https://umdcareers.wordpress.com/2016/05/05/make-the-most-out-of-your-summer-career-experience/

NASA Co-Op Week 1: Mission Control 

What Am I Doing?!

For my first post as a NASA Co-Op I’m going to skip the typical “Houston we have a problem” and “All systems go” intro and get right to the good stuff. I just completed my first week as a NASA Pathways Intern at Johnson Space Center, what NASA calls their Co-Op program. I will be flip-flopping between working at NASA and my university studying Electrical Engineering until I graduate. 98% of students get hired on full-time with NASA after a successful Co-Op experience. This fall 16 out of over 1000 applicants are Co-Oping this fall. I am thankful to be working alongside such talented and passionate people.

Flying The Space Station

I am “touring”, what we call our Co-Op work tours, in a team in Mission Control called PLUTO. No, I am not working with New Horizons, PLUTO is in charge of the Plug and Play-Ability of hardware and software on the International Space Station (ISS). I will be helping develop technology that assist astronauts in experimenting in space, writing procedures for astronauts and sitting console in Mission Control. I can’t rent a car without an extra fee but I can help fly the multi-billion dollar ISS, makes sense. 

How To Get Involved

Follow my weekly posts for the Co-Op perspective, Follow NASA on Tumblr, watch what NASA is up to, and apply for an internship or Co-Op with NASA. 

Internships - Beyond Your Project

Being a better intern by going beyond your project seeking career and professional growth:

https://umdcareers.wordpress.com/2016/08/17/internships-beyond-your-project/

Ideas for Teachers: Apollo Mission Control Simulation Lesson Plan

In this activity students will watch clips of system failures from Apollo 13 movie and must come up with their own solutions to the problem. This activity would be good for 3rd or 4th graders but can be modified to be harder or easier.

Introduce the Flight Positions

Split up students into five groups EECOM (Electrical Environmental and Communication) Power, EECOM Environment, BOOSTER, GNC (Guidance and Navigation Control). and SURGEON. They should have paper and a writing utensil.  

Teacher: "You are each flight controllers in NASA's Mission Control in Houston, TX. Have a picture on the board of NASA's mission control. For this mission I am the flight director but you are all  experts on a space craft system. You are in charge of three astronauts heading to the Moon in this space craft. If you have something you want communicated to the astronaut you must tell me. Have a picture of the Apollo 13 command module attached to the Lunar Lander on the board.

Point at EECOM Power

Teacher: "EECOM Power, you are in charge of the power system that keeps the communication system, computers, heat, and lights on the space craft. You will get data on the battery level, amps, volts and which systems are on."

Point at EECOM Environment

Teacher: "EECOM Environment, you are in charge of the air system on board the space craft. This means scrubbing the carbon out of the air and supplying enough oxygen. You will get data on the O2 CO2 and poisonous gas levels."

Point at BOOSTER

Teacher: "You are in charge of the boosters that fly the astronauts too and from the Moon. You make sure that there is enough fuel to accomplish each task. You will get data on the fuel level and functioning boosters."

Point at GNC

Teacher: "You are in charge of making sure the space capsule is flying in the right direction. You will get data on the flight path of the space craft."

Point at SURGEON

Teacher: "You are in charge of the health of the astronauts. You will get data on their temperature, vital organs, and comments from them on their well being,"

Above are examples of data slides you can display I made with an old Mission Control Picture. Note that these levels and figures in coming up simulation data are not very accurate. For example - in reality over 15% CO2 would cause black outs and brain asphyxiation. What is most important is that data is fluctuating and the students learn what data is important, how to write down observations and react.

Begin Mission

Pull up the current and nominal flight data on the board.

Teacher: "Here is the current data for each of your systems. Write them down because they may change and you may need to fix your systems when something goes wrong."

Students write down data.

Houston We've Had A Problem

Teacher: "These three astronauts are on a mission to the Moon, but something goes horribly wrong. And you have to do something about it. Let's see what happened..."

Show this clip: https://youtu.be/kAmsi05P9Uw

Teacher: "You are tens of thousands of miles away from the astronauts but must fix the problem. Pull up the new set of data. Here the latest data. Tell me whats wrong and how you think we can fix it.

Students write down new data and discuss among themselves whats going on. Students then let the flight director know whats going wrong. Change the data three times so it fluctuates, don't wait for students to write everything down, this is a real time crisis and things won't run as planned.

Example of data slide 4, the vitals show error because in real life the Apollo 13 astronauts took off their vital sensors for privacy.

Teacher checks in with EECOM Power and lets students share their thoughts

Teacher: "Looks like we are loosing power rapidly and can only use certain devices at once. We need to figure out how keep the astronauts alive, send data back to Earth using the computers, and collect enough data on board so we can keep each flight team updated. Hand them batteries, paper clips/ wires, lights and switches. Each light represents an electrical device on board. You must find the correct electrical configuration to power the devices and order in which they must be powered on."

Teacher checks in with EECOM Environment & SURGEON and lets students share their thoughts

Teacher: "Looks like we are losing oxygen for the astronauts to breath. How long till its all gone? Students suggest answers. Here are the materials on board to create a new air filter. This square peg in a round hole. Make it work. Dump the materials on their table." Inspired by this clip: https://youtu.be/C2YZnTL596Q

Teacher checks in with BOOSTER  & GNC and lets students share their thoughts

Teacher: Has BOOSTER & GNC sit closer to each other "Looks like we are off trajectory to the moon, the lunar lander is broken, the space craft is accelerating in the wrong direction we are losing fuel and the only logical thing to do now is head back to Earth. Both of you are needed to solve this problem. Give them a model of Earth, Moon, Capsule and attached Moon Lander. Work together to figure out how to then back to Earth with limited fuel."

Teacher: Talking to all. "Once you come up with a solution come up to the front and explain to your fellow flight controllers what you came up with and why it will work. The other flight controllers can argue if they think it won't work and why. Astronaut lives are at stake so it is necessarily to speak up if something is a faulty idea or you have a better solution."

Students work to solve their problems. Give them a little bit of time to work on it. After each team presents their solution.

Teacher: "Let's see how the NASA engineers solve the problems you were given..."

Note: You may want to scan these clips for swear words before showing them in class. And end the clip accordingly.

EECOM Power: https://youtu.be/KhoXFVQsIxw

EECOM Environment & SURGEON: https://youtu.be/Zm5nUEG5Bjo

BOOSTER & GNC: https://youtu.be/gmLgi5mdTVo

Teacher: "Lastly let's see if the crew makes it back after your adjustments"

https://youtu.be/-1BPx5Wsm7k

Celebrate with astronaut ice cream!

In addition to tech stuff I enjoy drawing to! All doodles by me.

Programming in LabVIEW. The language where Electrical Engineering and Computer Science meet.