[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 0 - 11:38:00 ]
Thank you for registering for our National Engineers' week bilingual forum with Fanny Zuniga from NASA Ames Research Center. This forum will begin on Tuesday, February 22, at approximately 8:00 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. Be sure you have read Fanny's profiles at http://quest.nasa.gov/women/bios/fz.html or http://quest.nasa.gov/aero/team/zuniga.html to prepare your questions

[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 1 - 11:40:30 ]
You may deposit your questions for Fanny and they will be posted in the forum room beginning at 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday. If you have any questions or require additional assistance, please visit our NASA QuestChat Information Center, at http://quest.nasa.gov/qchats. Thank you for your interest and participation in our National Engineers' Week events. We look forward to hearing from you!

[ FannyZuniga - 10 - 11:32:20 ]
RE: [Valentina] Hola, soy de Argentina y es para mi un gusto poder hablar con usted. Quisiera saber ti existe alguna posibilidad de que algún día pueda trabajar para la Nasa. Tengo 16 años y voy a estudiar medicina. Pienso poder sacar la cuidadanía americana. Mi principal problema es que mi pais no tiene ningún tipo de desarrollo en las ciencias espaciales, ni tampoco desarrollo económico. Otra de mis preocupaciones es el idioma. Mi lengua natal es el español, pero manejo muy bien el inglés y tengo títulos de grado, pero talves no sea suficiente y no pueda desenvolverme de la manera adecuada. ¿Hay muchos latinos en sus equipos? Muchas gracias.
Hola Valentina, Gracias por su pregunta. Es un gusto para mi tambien de tener esta oportunidad de comunicarme con companeras Latinas de Sud America. Te quiero felicitar por tu ambicion y deseo de estudiar medicina y trabajar para la NASA. Muy bien! Hay que tener mucho animo y fortaleza para salir adelante. Como Latina Americana, yo se que no es facil y hay mucho obstaculos por adelante pero tienes de seguir la lucha y tener mucha fe en ti misma y tus suenos. Siempre se crea posibilidades cuando uno pone todo su energia en su lucha. Si usted de verdad quiere alcanzar trabajar en la NASA, lo puede conseguir. Le recomiendo estudiar su universidad aqui en Estados Unidos para tener mas oportunidades para trabajar y hacer contactos con personas en la NASA. NASA solamente da empleo a ciudadanos americanos entonces necesita sacar su ciudadania primero. No hay muchos latinos en la NASA por eso es que necesitamos mas Latinas como usted. Entonces le quiero dar aliento que siga adelante y que siga sus suenos. Le deseo mucha suerte, Fanny

[ FannyZuniga - 11 - 11:56:22 ]
RE: [Irene] ¿Cuántos años tenías cuando volaste tu primer avión?
Hola Irene, Yo tenia 21 anos cuando vole por primera vez con un amigo en una avioneta. Me encanto esa experiencia y comence tomando clases de piloto de los 23 anos. Recibi mi liciensia de pilota a los 25 anos.

[ FannyZuniga - 12 - 12:04:21 ]
RE: [Mike] Do you like to work for NASA?
Hi Mike, Yes, I love working at NASA. I started my career at NASA and I would never want to leave or work for anyone else. I love working for a research organization whose main mission is to conduct research and develop technologies to advance aeronautics and explore space. It was always my dream to dedicate my life to this endeavour and I'm proudly doing just that. Thanks for your question, Fanny

[ FannyZuniga - 13 - 12:13:00 ]
RE: [Bill] When will this Supersonic Commerical Transport be finished?
Hi Bill, Unfortunately, the program funding the development of the Supersonic Commercial Transport was cancelled last October 1999. This decision came from the leaders of NASA and Boeing. All work on the Supersonic Transport stopped immediately after October. We have done our best to archive all the data and report all the results up to that date. We are hoping that funding for the program will again become available in the next 5 to 10 years. But for now, the program was cancelled due to lack of funding.

[ FannyZuniga - 14 - 12:22:24 ]
RE: [Irene] ¿Cómo se siente volar en una Cessna?
Hola Irene, Me encanta volar en la Cessna. Volar en una avioneta es muy diferente de volar en un avion comercial. En una avioneta, se puede sentir las aceleraciones, caidas y vueltas mucho mas fuerte que un avion grande. A mi me encanta estas clases de maniobras y por eso me encanta ser pilota.

[ FannyZuniga - 15 - 12:35:02 ]
RE: [Viri] ¿Qué hacen tus amigas en el trabajo de NASA?
Hola Viri, Tengo muchos amigos aqui en NASA. La mayoria de ellos son de mi misma profesion. Y hay otros que son ingenieros de otras especialidades como ingenieros mecanicos, ingenieros en computacion, etc. Relativamente somos muy pocas las mujeres en esta carrera, de alli es que tengo mas amigos que amigas.

[ FannyZuniga - 23 - 22:27:19 ]
RE: [Irene] ¿Porqué es marte tu planeta favorito?
Me gusta el planeta Marte porque es muy similar a la Tierra. Es el planeta que hay mas probabilidad que haya vida. Es por eso que me interesa saber mas acerca de este planeta.

[ FannyZuniga - 24 - 22:33:51 ]
RE: [Martha] ¿Cuándo va a volar el transporte civil de velocidad supersónico?
Hola Martha, Desafortunadamente, el proyecto de este avión supersónico se cancelo por questión económico. Espero que en el futuro se realice este proyecto.

[ FannyZuniga - 25 - 22:41:46 ]
RE: [ViriyAlma] ¿Usted y sus amigas tienen tiempo para salir a pasear juntas?
Hola Viri y Alma, Estoy estudiando mi Doctorado en la Universidad de Stanford y trabajando tiempo completo y la verdad no me queda tiempo para relaciones sociales. Espero que en el verano mi vidad sea mas placentera.

[ FannyZuniga - 26 - 22:46:55 ]
RE: [Irene] ¿Cuándo tu eras una niña quien era tu modelo, quién querías imitar
Hola Irene, Honestamente de niña nunca tuve modelo en frente mio. Mi pasión y adoración siempre fué la Organizacion de NASA.

[ FannyZuniga - 27 - 22:52:52 ]
RE: [Irene] ¿Cómo le trataban a tu mamá cuando inmigró a los estados unidos? (mis padres inmigraron de México.)
Según lo que yo se ella nunca tuvo problema en ese aspecto. Lo dificil para ella, fué adaptarse a un nuevo clima, idioma, cultura, etc.

[ FannyZuniga - 28 - 23:01:41 ]
RE: [Brad] What do you know about the apollo missions?
Hi Brad, I'm a big fan of the Apollo missions. My first memories as a young child were watching the Apollo missions on TV in the late 60's and early 70's. Since then I've read much about the missions and when I can I still try and learn as much as I can about these incredible missions into space.

[ FannyZuniga - 29 - 23:09:33 ]
RE: [AmberMyers] What kind of education do you need to perform the things you do for your job?
Hi Amber, I have a very specialized job here at NASA. Most of my colleagues and myself have degrees in aerospace engineering and have much experience in vehicle design. I have a Bachelor's and a Master's of Science in Aerospace Engineering which I feel isn't enough so I'm still studying and going for my Ph.D. right now in Astronautics at Stanford. Many of my colleagues also have Master's and Ph.D.'s in this field.

[ FannyZuniga - 40 - 13:47:51 ]
RE: [Lynzie] HOw does your influence on the new flight system effect the public?
Hi Lynzie, Normally, everyone who does research wants their new invention or system to ultimately benefit the public in some way. In my organization, the goal for our research is to ultimately improve the aerospace industry by building better airplanes or space vehicles. For example, by making airplanes safer to fly or more efficient would ultimately benefit the public by having safer and/or faster vehicles at the same or less cost.

[ FannyZuniga - 41 - 13:55:26 ]
RE: [Curtis] Since space exploration has always been a passion for you, my question is this: In the next twenty years, where do you think NASA will be in space exploration? Thank you very much for your time. Sincerely, Curtis Adams
Hi Curtis, Hopefully in 20 years, NASA will be heavily involved in sending explorers to Mars to learn and understand the evolution and current state of this planet. I hope we will have a permanent settlement on Mars by then and have started the process of terraforming Mars so it would be more livable for us. Our next step after Mars would be to build faster vehicles to get us there in less than 6 months and that way we would start planning on investigating other celestial bodies in our solar system.

[ FannyZuniga - 44 - 15:27:40 ]
RE: [Joel] Will your new high speed Civil Transport replace regular jetliners?
Hi Joel, The plan was for the new High Speed Civil Transport to replace most jetliners on transpacific and transatlantic routes. However, the whole program got canceled last October due to lack of funding. Hopefully, once funding becomes available in a few years, they will start up the program again and eventually build this Supersonic Transport.

[ FannyZuniga - 45 - 15:30:13 ]
RE: [Bill] When will this Supersonic Commerical Transport be finished?
Hi Bill, I think I've already answered this question previously. Last October 1999, the program that was funding the Supersonic Transport got cancelled unfortunately. There is still some research being done to advance technologies in critical areas but for the most part the whole program got cancelled. Hopefully, in a few years though there will be more funding and the Supersonic Transport will eventually be built.

[ FannyZuniga/ARC - 49 - 18:41:01 ]
RE: [Regina] Hola Fanny, soy una estudiante española de ingenieria industrial. Mi sueño ha sido siempre trabajar para NASA, pero me siento desalentada porque veo que la preparación que ustedes tienen es impresionante. Estoy trabajando con un profesor de la Universidad con el que probabl. presentaré este verano un paper en un congreso organizado por ESA, aunque no creo que eso me sirva de mucho. No se como orientar mi carrera para poder tener la posibilidad de entrar en este mundo o si deberia abandonar mi sueno. Ahora tengo 22 anos y estudio 4rto de ingenieria industrial. Me podrias dar algun pequeño consejo? Gracias
Hola Regina, Gracias por su pregunta. Le quiero consejar que siga adelante y que nunca abandone sus suenos. Yo siempre me repito que nadie ni nada me puede impedir mis suenos. Por eso yo vivo y por eso yo estoy aqui en este mundo para contribuir lo que mi corazon me pide. Usted necesita esta clase de determinacion y fe para seguir siegamente adelante. Nada lo llega a uno facil. Siempre le viene obstaculos. Pero siempre doy este consejo que uno hay que tener fe para mover montanas. Si usted suena de trabajar para NASA, debe seguir la carrera que mas le atrae y comunicarse con personas de la misma carrera en NASA. Tambien debe comunicarse con personas en ESA que trabajan juntos con los de NASA. Asi comunicandose se llega a donde necesitas ir. No se preocupe de su edad porque de verdad tienes todo su vida para realizar sus suenos. Siempre acuerdese que con fe, determinacion y paciencia se puede crear milagros. Le deseo mucha suerte. Fanny

[ FannyZuniga - 50 - 18:46:43 ]
RE: [Meghan] How many years would it take for the Supersonic Commercial Transport system to be outdated?
Hi Meghan, Well, it will be a long time before the Supersonic Transport system will be outdated since we're having a lot of difficulty in getting an economically viable one to be built. As it is, it's going to be 5 to 10 years before our technologies are ready to get the Supersonic Transport ready for flight and it will even take longer for this transport to reach routine flight.

[ FannyZuniga - 51 - 18:49:22 ]
RE: [Scott] How did u construct your wind tunel?
Hi Scott, The 12-ft. wind tunnel here at NASA-Ames was constructed about 4 years ago. I wasn't on the team of engineers that designed this wind tunnel. My test in this wind tunnel was only one of many that they normally run. I just am familiar with its operation.

[ FannyZuniga - 52 - 18:55:41 ]
RE: [Zasquia] What made you pick this kind of job (project for low-speed wind-tunnel tests)?
Hi Zasquia, I picked this project to work on because I wanted to contribute to developing this Supersonic Transport. I thought it was an exciting project and one of the most challenging problems was trying to make this transport takeoff and land safely. I've always been interested in learning how airplanes and space vehicles fly so this kind of work always interested me. I'm now working on designing new space vehicles that can reach space easier and land with more ease. I always knew this was the kind of work I wanted to do since I always had a genuine interest in airplane and spaceflight.

[ FannyZuniga - 53 - 18:59:26 ]
RE: [Megan] Have you ever been inside a space shuttle?
Hi Megan, Yes, I took a peek inside the shuttle once a long time ago when I was working at Dryden Flight Research Center. The shuttle would land there routinely so I got the opportunity to take a tour around the shuttle while it was there. I was amazed at how small the living quarters were and how huge the shuttle really is. It's really amazing to see it up close. I'm lucky I had the good fortune of getting up so close to it.

[ FannyZuniga - 54 - 19:08:29 ]
RE: [DeniseGilbert] What do you hope you will discover throughtout this year?
Hi Denise, That's an interesting question. I've been working so hard recently I haven't stopped to think what I want to accomplish this year. As I mentioned before, I started a new job recently since the Supersonic Transport project was cancelled. I'm learning all kinds of new things right now about designing new space vehicles and making them easier to land. I'll be doing a simulator experiment later this year that will help us design better space vehicles. A simulator is a pretend cockpit where pilots and astronauts practice flying. We will be experimenting with new space vehicles and checking to see if the astronauts can handle them easily. In this way, we'll be using the simulator to check out our newest space vehicle design before it actually gets built. Hopefully, this will teach us how to build better space vehicles.

[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 68 - 13:03:01 ]
RE: [Helen] I'm not sure if I should address this question to you Fanny or to Oran, but here it goes. Our class had an assignment to read the bio, and compose a questions for Fanny. Unfortunately the district has a firewall in place and they were not allowed to write their questions. I promised them I would do this from home Tuesday night. Do you select certain questions to answer? I noticed three of the students recieved replys. I'm sorry if this caused any problems, but the students are very excited. Just today I took the replys into class and all were gathered around to see the actual response. Is there another method we can employ to reach out to these wonderful forums?
Helen during our forums, we select questions from different students and post them in the main room for our featured experts to answer. Therefore, if you submitted your students' questions from home, they were deposited in our chat queue, and certain questions were selected for posting. Our forum with Fanny is scheduled to end later today. Unless she is able to answer additional questions later this week, additional questions from your students will not be answered during this session. However, we will consider other ways of allowing you and others to connect with NASA experts. We appreciate you and your students' interest, and look forward to hearing from you.

[ FannyZuniga - 74 - 11:32:26 ]
RE: [Meghan] How many years would it take for the Supersonic Commercial Transport system to be outdated?
Hi Meghan, I believe I've answered this question before. As I said before, the Supersonic Transport project was cancelled due to lack of funding. There were still more technologies that we needed to develop to make an economical airplane. We could build the supersonic transport right now if we didn't care how much money it would cost the passengers or how much it would pollute the environment. But we had goals we wanted to make sure the Supersonic Transport met, like making it economical for everyone to fly and that it would be environmentally friendly. Therefore, we didn't have the technologies ready to build the supersonic transport and our funding wasn't enough to keep the project going. We saved all our work and data so hopefully in a few years this work will start up again and maybe the Supersonic Transport will be built then. So it will be a long time from now before this transport will be outdated.

[ FannyZuniga - 75 - 11:43:48 ]
RE: [Harley] What other projects have you worked on during your 10 years at NASA? Is it ever boring doing research?
Hi Harley, I've worked on a number of projects. I think the most fun was working on the space shuttle project. I worked on a team that studied the shuttle as it landed. We wanted to make the shuttle safer on landing and make it more maneuverable. We ended up adding a drag chute to the shuttle when it landed and that made it safe for it to land at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. So it was fun studying the shuttle data, designing the experiments and watching it land and trying to think of ways to make it safer. I guess there are days when you sit in your office writing reports that can be a little boring but you know it's important to write the reports so everyone can learn from what you did. However, there are a lot more days when it's exciting to be doing experiments that you know are going to help out the space program.

[ FannyZuniga - 76 - 11:55:14 ]
RE: [AztecsJG] Cuanto gastan cuando mandan un cuete espacial a un planeta?
Hola JG, Los cuetes espaciales cuestan de $50 millones hasta $100's de millones. Depende del tamaño y el peso del cuete y la distancia que va ir. Es muy costoso mandar estos cuetes, por eso estamos haciendo muchos investigaciones y experimentos para construir cuetes mas económicos.

[ FannyZuniga - 77 - 12:48:41 ]
RE: [Aztecsleoh] Para yo poder hacer astonauta o trabajar para NASA debo estudiar lo mismo que Usted?
Hola Leoh, No tienes que estudiar la misma profesión que yo ni trabajar para NASA para llegar hacer Astronauta. Puedes elijir diferentes profesiónes como Ingenieria, Medicina Ciencia, Aviacion, etc. y de alli aplicar para hacer Astronauto. Para calificar en el programa de Astronautas, lo único que se require es estudiar una carrera en matematicas o ciencia o aviacion (Piloto). Por supuesto es preferible que uno estudie una carrera que esta asociada con la exploración del Espacio, como Astronomia, Geologia, Ingenieria Aerospacial, Computacion, etc. pero no es necesario para calificar. Mi consejo para ti, es que estudies lo que mas te apasione y con esa profesión trates de asociarlo a las investigaciones que hace NASA.

[ FannyZuniga - 78 - 12:49:47 ]
RE: [AztecsEC] Tiene mucho tiempo libre para estar con su familia o solamente les llama - debes en cuando si no los ve los- momentos lejos de ellos que siente?
Hola EC, Si, por supuesto hago tiempo para estar con mi familia. Mi familia es lo mas importante para mi. Yo trabaje duro para traer a mi familia a vivir conmigo en California. Esto siempre fué parte de mi plan y lo logré. Ahorra yo vivo con mi mamá y mi hermana con su familia viven a 5 minutos de mi casa. Yo no podría estar feliz aqui sola sin ellos.

[ FannyZuniga - 79 - 12:50:47 ]
RE: [AztecsLM] Cual es uno de los desportes que a vivido en su carerra?
Hola LM, Yo tengo muchos deportes que me encanta. Soy pilota, el cual asocia a mi carrera. Tambien me encanta el futbol, busear, paracaidas, correr, hacer pesas, escalar montañas, kickboxing, etc. etc.

[ FannyZuniga - 80 - 18:57:07 ]
RE: [Rebecca] like the military will does Nasa give you the option of sending you through school?
Hi Rebecca, Yes, NASA does give you the opportunity to pay for your education. It works differently than the military, though. I know they do pay for advanced degrees once you're a NASA employee as they have done for me. However, if you're interested about the programs they have for undergrads, you should check out the NASA web page for more information.

[ FannyZuniga - 81 - 19:01:31 ]
RE: [Danielle] Where do you see the future of the space program and the airplne going?
Hi Danielle, In the future, we will start seeing more missions to Mars. I think it's inevitable that we will one day send human beings to explore Mars. I hope it happens within my lifetime. There are a lot of plans now to make this happen so I think it should happen within 20 years. Also, the space station will be done in about 2 years. We should start seeing men and women working and living in space constantly aboard the new space station. These are exciting times and I'm glad to be a part of it.

[ FannyZuniga - 82 - 19:03:31 ]
RE: [DeeDee] do you think nasa will be around in the next century with all of this new technology?
Hi DeeDee, I'm pretty certain NASA will be around for the next century. There is still a lot to be done. We have only just begun to explore our solar system so I'm sure there will be plenty of work for NASA to do within the next century.

[ FannyZuniga - 83 - 19:07:33 ]
RE: [rebecca] is working for nasa like the way they show it in the movies
Hi Rebecca, It is pretty exciting working for NASA. I'm not sure what movie you're referring to but from the movies I've seen, I'd say it's pretty similar. However, they normally don't describe the technology accurately.

[ FannyZuniga - 84 - 19:16:03 ]
RE: [Florian] Hi, I´m a 17- year old student from Austria, who has nearly finished 12 years of school. I´m very interested in the work of Nasa and think about studying a subject at university, which I could use for working at Nasa. I´ve already checked out most parts of the Nasa homepage containing information on the different jobs and what to do for it, but I´ve still got some questions. I´m especially very interested in the work of space scientists. E. g. I would begin studying Astrophysics in two years (next year I have to complete my military service)and finish after about five years. How high is the possibility for me to get a secure job there? I have read that students of US universities, who are interested to work at Nasa, are practically trained at Nasa centres on-site. I have also thought about going to study the last semesters in america to look for a job at Nasa on-site. I hope that you understand why I have to think about my far futere that soon and I hope that you can help me to find a good decision or give me an advice what I shall do next. My last question is if you think it´s sensible if I come on-site and examine (for example during doing small jobs) if this would be the right job for me. Please excuse my bad english expresion and try to give me any kind of information or advice. Thanks alot Florian Selch
Hi Florian, That's great that you're planning your future so early. I also started planning my future early and it really paid off. It is true that American University students do get selected to work at NASA during their school years and a lot of them then get selected to work for NASA full-time after they graduate. However, I don't think they select students for this program outside of the US. I know you have to be a US citizen to work for NASA. However, if you try to study over here in the US, you would probably qualify for the student programs at NASA. I'm not really sure, though, how that would work out. My advice to you is to write and ask for information on the student programs. They are great opportunities and you should try to take advantage of them if you can.

[ FannyZuniga/ARC - 85 - 19:19:03 ]
RE: [Shawna] Are pregnant women allowed in space?
Hi Shawna, I don't think pregnant women are allowed in space yet. Most of the missions now require a lot of stressful work and training and it wouldn't be good for the mother or baby to be subjected to such stressful conditions. Maybe in the future, when people are leisurely living in space under better conditions, women will be able to become pregnant in space.

[ FannyZuniga/ARC - 86 - 19:25:47 ]
RE: [Kirsten] Do you think that somewhere in space could be a cure for aids?
Hi Kirsten, I am not a medical specialist but I know that the astronauts in space are doing all kinds of experiments to help medical doctors understand cell growth and other phenomenom better in space while under zero-g conditions. In this way, they hope to find cures to different diseases so it might be possible that they some day also might find a cure to AIDS one day. You should check out the NASA web pages for more detailed information, though.

[ FannyZuniga/ARC - 87 - 19:31:55 ]
RE: [Rebecca] did anybody else in your family work for Nasa or did they want to?
Hi Rebecca, No, nobody in my family has ever worked for NASA or ever had an amibition to work for NASA. I am the only one in my family who ever had an interest in science and engineering. Most of my family members have more of an artistic inclination. However, I have a new nephew and niece now that I hope may have an inclination to study science or engineering but if they turn out liking something else that's okay, too.

[ Harley - 66 - 07:48:11 ]
We find all you did to accomplish your dreams very inspirational. We would someday like to work at NASA also. Thanks for chatting with us and answering our questions. Good luck-hope you become an astronaut!!