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Welcome to the Women of NASA forum with Alda Simpson from Goddard Space Flight Center. You may submit your questions to our MODERATED chat queue. We will post a few questions in the chat room periodically.

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DONT'T WORRY if you don't see your questions appear on your screen immediately during moderation. You only need to submit your questions once to our chat queue.

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At the conclusion of this forum, please share your thoughts with us at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/qchats. Thank you for joining us, and we look forward to hearing from you!

[ Tish/NASAChatHost - 5 - 07:11:49 ]
Thank you for joining our Forum. If you are new to the Forum format you may read through a brief overview at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/women/forums/overview.html This Forum will last through Thursday, 12/9. You may post questions at any time over the course of the 3 days and check back throughout to see if Alda has answered.

[ AldaSimpson/GSFC - 13 - 11:17:11 ]
RE: [Toni] Hello Alda! I'm a not-so-young woman who is planning to start a second career - this time in aerospace engineering. I am applying to go back to university next fall. Do you have any advice for those of us who are ready to start a second career and would like it to be in engineering? Thanks. I agree that co-op education is very advantageous for the financial benefits and work experience you outlined. I completed my previous post-secondary education in a co-op program and it gave me a leg-up on my (first) career. For the young women in Canada, please note that Carleton University in Ottawa offers a co-op aerospace engineering program, but only to applicants coming directly from high school.
Toni, Congratulations on your decision to go back for an aerospace degree. I went into college fresh out of high school so I may not be the best person to give advise here but I will offer a few thoughts. Hopefully you have a good support system at home. You don't mention if you are married or have children. If so, everyone is going to have to step up to giving you extra help. Aerospace is a wonderful career but there is a large amount of time that needs to be invested outside the class room to keep up. Another advantage that the co-op program would offer is time away from the classroom to decompress a bit while continuing to learn - you'll reclaim your evenings and weekends. Best of luck to you!!

[ AldaSimpson/GSFC - 14 - 11:17:27 ]
RE: [Pam] Hi, Alda! We are four seniors in high school who would possibly like to pursue careers in space and work with NASA. We were wondering if there is anything we can major in, besides engineering(which we know little about), that would enable us to be qualified to work at NASA. For example, what do the civil servants and contractors working for you do and how do you select these people?
Pam, First of all find out more about engineering. It's a very rewarding career (not that I'm biased there). That said "do you mean work for NASA or literally work in space?" The work in space people are pretty much all engineers or scientists (biology, chemistry, astronomy, physics, etc). However if you mean work for NASA we have a crosscut of most professions - people who work in personnel, training, procurement, safety specialists, technicians, lawyers, business specialists, clericals, and many others as well as lots of engineers and scientists. At Goddard about half the workers are engineers, about a fifth are scientist, and the rest are a host of different types of administrative support.

[ AldaSimpson/GSFC - 15 - 11:17:51 ]
RE: [EmilyCHS] Have requirements changed for astronauts? Do you think that bad knees and eyesight as you said discouraged you before would still be a factor?
Emily, Requirements have definitely changed and are much less stringent particularly for those who are mission specialist as opposed to the pilots. My knees are really bad and would probably still keep me out but physical perfection isn't a necessity anymore.

[ AldaSimpson/GSFC - 16 - 11:18:09 ]
RE: [Alice] Do you work on all space craft and is all spacecraft built at Goddard? Or are only specific crafts?
Alice, I'm actually in a new job that is more of a strictly management job. When I was more "hands on". I worked on all the spacecraft that were built at Goddard. However not all of our spacecraft are built at Goddard. In fact the majority of our spacecraft are built by private companies to NASA specifications. We have cadres of engineers that will periodically review what the contractor is doing to make sure they are on the right track. We deal with many different companies -some might be doing a whole spacecraft or just one particular component. Therefore most of NASA's money is passed on into the general economy through contracts to these many companies. The ones we choose to do here are for two purposes. We tend to pick high risk spacecraft that are very technologically challenging and that a private company might not want to take on the liabilities associated with it. Also we like to do a certain amount in-house to keep our engineers on their toes at the cutting edge of technology. This better enables them to be smart buyers and watchers making sure we get the best return on our tax dollars.

[ AldaSimpson/GSFC - 32 - 14:11:52 ]
RE: [Elizabeth] Did you ever have any problems balancing raising your two daughters and pursuing your career? Any advise for us women who are attempting to struggle with both?
Elizabeth, Balancing my career and my daughters has been quite a challenge at times but I think I've navigated it successfully. My older daughter is now a junior at Ohio U majoring in African History and my younger daughter is a sophomore at Notre Dame and they are both wonderful people and as you can tell I'm very proud of them both. When my oldest was born I switched to part time work (2 days a week) until my younger daughter was 2 years old. At that time I went back to full time work and both the girls were at our on-site day care center so I could visit them and have lunch together. Goddard is very family friendly in many regards. As the girls hit school age, my husband and I paired up with another couple and we alternated who stayed home with all four children and who got the kids on and off the school bus. Between flexible work schedules and annual leave (our vacation days) we had them covered all the time. I strongly encourage you to try to find some other working parents to partner with and share the load. I also am very lucky in that my husband has always helped out around the house and with the girls. Last of all try to find some time for you (even an hour a week) as hard as that can be you're a better wife and mother for it in the end.

[ AldaSimpson/GSFC - 33 - 14:12:22 ]
RE: [SarahCHS] Why did your parents refuse to pay for your tuition?
Sarah, My parents were of the generation that had a struggle to finish high school let alone college so it would have been a huge drain financially for them. They had started my brother off in college and he dropped out after two years. After that unfortunate experience they basically told me they would provide me free food, shelter and clothes but tuition was up to me. So you see they weren't totally unsupportive but did what they thought they could.

[ AldaSimpson/GSFC - 34 - 14:12:47 ]
RE: [Trisha/14] Have you worked on any spacecraft that has had problems and tried to figure out what happened?
Trisha, Fortunately most of the spacecraft that I've had to troubleshoot (our expression for figuring out what's wrong) have been still here on earth while we were doing it. It's rare to go through a whole test program without finding any problems - that's why we test. I also had the honor of working on both the Solar Maximum Repair Mission and the Hubble Space Telescope Repair Mission.

[ AldaSimpson/GSFC - 35 - 14:13:13 ]
RE: [Tova] Hi Alda - Thank you for letting us ask you questions. What is the difference between being a civil servant and contractor and would it make any difference in getting a job at NASA if it were in either type of position?
Tova, A civil servant is employed directly by the government and is a NASA employee. A contractor is someone who is employed by a private company, such as Ball Brothers or Lockheed, who does work for NASA. Both work in the space program. There are some jobs that only civil servants can do such as deciding which companies will get to do work for NASA and for how much money. Some contractors work at their own companies locations but there are some who work right at the NASA center.

[ AldaSimpson/GSFC - 36 - 14:13:42 ]
RE: [ryan] As a school project, we are working on a GAS can experiment to be included in a future shuttle launch. We will be testing the decomposition of foods in space. We have determined that we need to test for the levels of ammonia, methane, carbon dioxide, mercaptans, and hydrogen sulfide. I have been told that you might be able to help me locate a company who could supply such sensors. We aren't looking for very elaborate sensors with such features as displays and relay outputs, just some simple sensors. We are hoping to spend around a thousand dollars, if possible. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Ryan, I'm not a materials person so I don't know the answer to your question. I'll try to find out before the chat ends. If I can't perhaps you can e-mail your question and e-mail address to our web site and I'll get back to you. I will try to get the information tomorrow though.

[ AldaSimpson/GSFC - 37 - 14:14:39 ]
RE: [Harley] We were reading about the tests you perform on the hardware and were wondering more about them. For example, how long does testing take and how do you simulate launch and the space atmosphere? Are the tests that you do repetitive? Do you personally involved in performing all of the tests(vibration, acoustic, acceleration, etc.)? If so, which is your favorite?
Harley, Different tests take different amounts of time and it's very much related to the amount of time a spacecraft is exposed to that type of environment when it flies. Acoustic and vibration testing only take a few minutes although it may take days to get ready for those few minutes. They make sure the spacecraft survives the noise and the shaking that the launch creates. Thermal vacuum tests take from days long to over a month. They start out by sucking all the air out of the chamber which simulates the reduction in air as you rise in altitude. We then change the temperatures over a range greater than the spacecraft will see in orbit and do lots of performance tests. We cycle the temperatures back and forth to be sure the cycling doesn't bother any thing. Acceleration tests the ability to withstand launch loads and take a few hours but again a long time to get ready for. I've been a thermal vacuum engineer personally but as a supervisor I was responsible for all of them. I think the acceleration tests are the most fun (as well as most nerve racking).

[ AldaSimpson/GSFC - 41 - 20:39:14 ]
RE: [Debbie] We are seniors looking at colleges. We wondered if you recommended any particular colleges for engineering or for working at NASA. Also, it sounded as if you strongly recommended co-op programs. We don't know much about this and wondered if there were any disadvantages.
Debbie, NASA draws from many, many colleges. Some of the best include (please don't be mad if I leave someone out it's impossible to remember or list them all) MIT, Purdue, Cal Tech, Notre Dame, University of Cal-Berkley, Drexel U (co-op), Georgia Tech (co-op), Virginia Tech and many, many more. NASA probably has someone from every engineering school in the country if you do well any school won't limit your opportunities. The only disadvantage I see is that it typically takes five years in stead of four but you have close to two years of real world experience.

[ AldaSimpson/GSFC - 42 - 20:39:59 ]
RE: [KELLY] Hi! I'm only 11 years old, but ever since I was five I've wanted to be an astronamore, and I think I would probably be good at it. ( that is just my opionion), but I was woundering if their are astronamores at Nasa our only astronouts, and people like that. I hope one day I can work at Nasa even if it means becomeing an astronout. From, Kelly F.
Kelly, We employ many astronomers mostly at the Goddard Space Flight Center here in Maryland and at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. I think you'd make a great astronomer too - good luck.

[ AldaSimpson/GSFC - 44 - 09:07:19 ]
RE: [Kaite] I am a senior female in high shcool, pursuing a carreer in aerospace engineering. I was wondering if there are any scholarships that are available to women in my position. Thank you!
Katie, There is a wide range of scholarships available. Your guidance councilor at school is usually a good source of information. You can also try a web search as well. Good luck!

[ AldaSimpson/GSFC - 46 - 13:55:34 ]
RE: [AldaSimpson/GSFC] Ryan, I'm not a materials person so I don't know the answer to your question. I'll try to find out before the chat ends. If I can't perhaps you can e-mail your question and e-mail address to our web site and I'll get back to you. I will try to get the information tomorrow though.
Ryan, Here is some advise from one of our materials engineers. He adds the caveat that, of course, he's not in complete knowledge of your experiment so it's his gut feel. >The simplest and cheapest techniques involve testing the headspace gases after the experiment is returned. The simplest answer is to simply hermetically seal the specimens in individual containers with septa ports. This would allow the sampling of the gas upon return. The headspace could then be directly sampled from the septum. There would be sufficient headspace to allow multiple determinations. The next option is to place a sorbent in to each container. This would collect the gas during the flight. The best options for the sorbents are Tenax TA or Graphtrap GB. Another potential material for trapping is 5A molecular sieve. The potential problem with these materials is there may be irreversible absorption on the sorbent, as well as potential differential absorption. The sorbents would then have to be sampled upon return using appropriate sampling techniques. All of the gases except methane could be trapped using acidic or basic trapping media such as tetramethylammonium hydroxide and phosphoric acid. These trapping materials could be immobilized on a solid support such as silica gel and the gases regenerated by shifting the pH to the opposite extreme to recover the gas. These above listed techniques have the advantage of allowing the samples to be analyzed by a wide variety of techniques upon return, including classical wet techniques and instrumental methods. Depending upon the ultimate goal of the experiment, the gas could be analyzed by a contract laboratory to provide complete identification. and quantitation of the gases. This might be the most feasible option. It may be possible to utilize standard industrial hygiene testing air sampling devices such as Draeger tubes to directly analyze the gas composition. this would however, exclude the methane due to its low reactivity. All of the above listed methods would not provide trend data, these would be strictly endpoint determinations. There are other technologies that could potentially provide time correlated data but these are likely out of the price range of the experiment. They include Surface Acoustic Wave Sensors, Chem FETS, etc. Unless this equipment could borrowed, the price is prohibitive, the weight could also be prohibitive. The simplest and best option is to contain the foods and evolved gases in heat sealed gas tight plastic bags, such as Mylar, and send them out for analysis upon return. The samples should be frozen upon return to provide a stop time for the experiment. >

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Thank you for your participation in our Women of NASA Forum with Alda Simpson from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. We would like offer our special thanks to Alda for her thoughtful responses to our questions during our forum. Thank you, Alda!

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This concludes our Women of NASA chats and forums for this year. We will take a break for the upcoming holidays, but will return in January with more chats and forums with our experts. On behalf of Tish Krieg, manager of the Women of NASA project, have a wonderful holiday season.

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A final reminder to share your thoughts with us at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/qchats.

[ AldaSimpson/GSFC - 53 - 17:32:00 ]
RE: [Ellie] Hi, I am 11 and doing a killer report about the inside of a rockets. What does the inside of a rocket look like?
Ellie, I've never worked woth rockets so I fear I can't help you with your question but good luck with your report. I'm sure it'll be great.