How
is the daily life at NASA?
Daily life at NASA
demands both hard skills and soft skills. The hard skills in terms of technical
skills are important but so are soft skills. You need soft skills of
leadership, team building, and negotiation. What I do in technical terms is
related to the commercial crew program, SpaceX, and the Moon project. In the commercial
crew program, I mostly deal with certification of software and hardware for the
SpaceX missions. Regarding the moon program, I am educating potential vendors
about the space environment such as the
radiation environment. I am also involved with the safety of the commercial
crew making sure interfaces between different subsystems are designed to handle
hazards.
Which are the skills you search for in your team?
I value team inputs-expertise and opinions
(recommendations). At NASA, people need to be critical thinkers. Their
observations should be objective and they should challenge opinions and ideas. for
NASA, you need to be good at asking questions.
What
are the key characteristics of a leader in the space industry?
A leader needs to
help you do your job. They have to provide you the right tools and support and
also clear the way so the job is done. A
leader needs to build the team in the way that it works and that the problems
can be solved with team effort. At NASA,
we praise teamwork, regardless of the project. A leader needs to give credit to
the ones that “go the extra mile”.
A leader needs to
listen to every opinion, point of view and come up with a consensus that works
and stimulates team spirit.
What will be the greatest breakthrough in space in the
next decade and what breakthrough do you hope will be achieved still in our
life-time?
I think it will be
a manned mission to Mars which will at least orbit around Mars, if not landing.
For this to be possible we will have to solve a lot of issues first. Graphics
processing is a major challenge for preparation to go to Mars as well as
radiation protection. Graphics processing is critical for the display of information
to the crew as well as providing applications to help keep the crew
psychologically healthy such as games. Personally, I will also be very happy
when we've accomplished the task of living off the land such as converting Moon
soil into water and oxygen as well as filtering
the soil so that astronauts can grow plants.
Your
passion is sharing knowledge with students (through speaking engagements,
tutoring, and mentoring). When does this passion arise and why?
I didn’t like to speak in public and give presentations,
so I asked other people that did presentations really well for advice. Someone
suggested that I start giving presentations in schools and train my communication
skills with students first. And I followed the advice and ended up really
enjoying speaking to a younger crowd. And I see two benefits in it: 1) students
get to know NASA better and 2) they have a chance to understand better what I
personally had a tough time understanding when I was a student myself.
What
is your advice for young scientists hoping to pursue a career in the space
sector?
My advice comes
from my experience. It’s not necessarily important how smart you are. It’s more
important what you do with the knowledge you acquire and then what you do with
it. It’s a matter of taking what you learn and improve and become a better professional.
Never stop learning. Finally,
perseverance and dedication are the key. One only fails when one stops trying,
Know who the experts are and ask them questions. That will go a long way in
helping you become a better engineer.
Interested in a space-related career? Let us know in the comments!
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