Hi I'm Erin Warrilow
from Dresden Middle School and this is NASA Now.
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Hi, I'm Chris and in today's program, we will talk
with three experts
from different fields who all work at NASA.
We'll find out what their jobs entail
and why education has been so important to their success.
That's ahead, but first, here's what's happening at NASA Now.
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A cosmic coincidence leads to new discoveries.
. . While most of us were anticipating the flyby
of Asteroid 2012 DA14, another cosmic event came
as a complete surprise.
On February 14th, a meteor unrelated to DA14 broke
through the Earth's atmosphere; crashing down over Russia
and injuring over a thousand people.
Russian scientists are studying fragments collected
from the meteorite in an effort learn more
about its original size and composition.
Information gathered from both of these events can reveal more
about our universe; even helping us to predict
and track more Near Earth Objects in the future.
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You're about to hear from three different people,
all working on different projects
that are critical to NASA's mission.
Whether they are underwater, in an observatory
or managing a high tech team, they all play a vital role
in furthering our understanding of our world and the universe.
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My name is Mitzi Adams, I'm an astrophysicist.
The goal of solar studies is
to understand why the solar corona is so hot,
to understand why the solar cycle occurs,
to understand what causes solar flares to occur.
The best part of being a scientist is
to make discoveries, so when I make any kind
of discovery that's the aha moment
or the no-one-has-seen-this-before
moment.
That is really, really exciting.
The best advice I can give to anyone who is interested
in becoming a scientist is just to ask questions, have curiosity
and make sure you have a good,
a very good mathematical background.
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My name is Bill Todd and I am the program manager for NEEMO.
NEEMO is the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations
and it is a team of people that comes to the field, in this case
to an undersea habitat, to execute a mission
with an astronaut crew in an environment that we try to make
as space like as possible.
The best part of my job has always been that we get
to build a mission from the very beginning to the end
and we do it in a short amount of time and we get to do it kind
of under pressure, pretty quickly with a small team,
but we get involved with everyone, we get involved
with the people, the engineers and we get involved
with building the tools that we're going to use.
I would advise anyone that wants to work for NASA
to follow their hearts and follow their passions.
Of course it's always good to be knowledgeable in science
and engineering and we hear that a lot and it's true,
you need to be, but there is so much opportunity
in so many different areas.
If your interest is medicine there's lots
of opportunity for medical doctors.
If your interest is education there's ways to learn all
about space exploration and blend it
with your love of education.
So I would say get really passionate and knowledgeable
about what you love and there's probably a place
for you if you seek it out.
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My name is Gary Fleming and I'm the Chief Engineer
for the Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System
Flight Instruments.
The objective of the CERES program has been
to fly instruments to obtain data that measures
that Earth radiation budget
so climate scientists can get the insight and the measurements
that they need to validate predictive codes
and understand whether Earth's climate is changing.
I've got responsibility for the technical performance
of the instrument from the design as well
as through the instrument build, instrument testing,
and then integration of the instrument
to its host spacecraft and all the testing that we do
on the spacecraft while it's on the ground out through launch.
For me the best part is coming to work every day
and just knowing that you're part of something big,
knowing that you're part of something that is important
to NASA, the nation and climate science worldwide.
When I was four, five, and six I spent my afternoons
out in the backyard flying airplanes
and building model rockets and my brother
and I even built a wind tunnel in our basement one time
for a science project.
So right off the bat I think I was aligned
with the NASA mission, whether I knew it or not at the time
and it's just something that has been ingrained
with me and I've enjoyed it.
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Did you know that advanced electronics
and sensors specially designed to operate spacecraft
in harsh environments could also help improve the delivery
of public power and the performance
of jet engines on aircraft?
Silicon carbide electronics can compensate more efficiently
for local power glitches.
As a result, they could eventually reduce the amount
of extra power generated to protect
against every day load changes.
Silicon carbide sensors are also being developed
to withstand the heat
and pressure inside jet aircraft engines.
Placed inside the engine,
these sensors could help the engine use less fuel
and produce less air pollution.
Now you know.
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As you just saw, there are all kinds of career opportunities
at NASA and they're not all in space.
Check out this great website that's full of stories
about the people and jobs at NASA.
Teachers, you and your students can learn more
about the different types of careers available at NASA.
You'll find it by checking out the extension activity
for this program on the NASA Explorer Schools Virtual Campus.
Well that's it for NASA NOW.
Be sure to visit our facebook page and leave a comment.
We'll see you next time on NASA NOW!
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NASA NOW comes to you from the Virtual Campus
at NASA Explorer schools.