Think You Are Bombing An Interview? Ways To Turn Things Around, Gain Control And Get Hired!

Click for my article “What’s a Co-Op? and How Do I Get One?”!

-Kirsi Kuutti

It's Small Business Saturday folks! Did you know that NASA collaborates with SmallBiz on extraterrestrial projects? This summer I worked on a NASA small business project, innovating ways to create energy on Mars! I have also sat in on two SmallBiz design proposals and was blown away by the ideas for deep space travel, energy creation and resource utilization. Despite my Black Friday all-nighter I have kicked off today having breakfast at a local joint. Take time today to support SmallBiz and learn about SmallBiz projects with NASA... SmallBiz Mars Humidity Sensor Project: http://kirsikuutti.blogspot.com/2016/08/sensing-mars-nasa-co-op-2-week-nine.html NASA SmallBiz success story: http://www.spacenewsmag.com/feature/bridging-the-valley-of-death/ SmallBiz on Space Station: http://www.spacenewsmag.com/feature/starting-small-to-develop-big-ideas/ SmallBiz deals in Duluth,MN: http://downtownduluth.com/df-data/files/SBS-2016.pdf Find NASA SmallBiz Partners:https://ehb8.gsfc.nasa.gov/sbir/public/technologySearch/searchAction.do?requestFrom=NASASBIRHome

Olaf Image from film: Frozen. Dir. Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee Lee. Prod. Peter Del Vecho. Perf. Kristen Bell,

Big Day In Space: NASA Co-Op #3 Week 12

Spacewalk

An International Space Station spacewalk with a runaway micrometeorite shield and SpaceX landing of a rocket which has already flown in space marks a busy week in space exploration.

American NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson conducted her eight spacewalk March 30th, 2017. Logging an accumulative 59 spacewalk hours, Peggy has surpassed the current record of female spacewalk hours. Peggy is now the third most experience spacewalker behind Anatoly Solovyev (68 hours) and former astronaut Mike Lopez-Alegria (67 hours). Accompanying Peggy on the spacewalk was current Space Station commander Shane Kimbrough.

The goals of the spacewalk included reconnecting cables and electrical connections to PMA3 on the Harmony node. Peggy and Shane also installed an upgraded computer relay box on Space Station's truss and installed shields to PMA3 and common berthing mechanism.

During the spacewalk, one of the shields was inadvertently lost. Fortunately, the shield floated away safely and does not pose a threat to Space Station nor the crew. However, the device missing a shield still needed to be protected. Mission Control engineers jumped into action with an Apollo 13-esque energy to solve how to replace the cover. They devised a plan for the astronauts to finish covering the port with the PMA-3 cover Whitson removed earlier in the day.

Leading this effort from the ground included  light Director Emily Nelson and Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM)/Astronaut Anne McClain. Below you can see circled in green CAPCOM McClain & circled in purple Flight Director Nelson. 

SpaceX Reusable Rocket

Falcon 9 rocket will delivered a commercial communications satellite to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO). SpaceX is on the road to full and rapid reusability as the world’s first reflight of an orbital class rocket, whereas NASA's Shuttle was a human transport between Earth and Space Station.  Falcon 9’s first stage was previously supported a mission in April of 2016.

Rewatch the launch and landing broadcast here.

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED

Science Friday featured NASA Robotics and exploring the galaxy

Apply to be a NASA Intern

Accomplishments this week at NASA

NASA panelists at a Women History Month event

Launch your Aerospace Career

More pictures from the spacewalk...

NASA Co-Op Week 10: Rocket Science Is Hard

I get frustrated with NASA asking “Why don’t we just build a rocket and go?”, looking and sounding like a doofus in a horse head. NASA Johnson and Kennedy interns met up at Cape Canaveral to watch the Atlas V launch. Visiting Kennedy Space Center reminded me about how much goes into a rocket launch, sending humans or satellites into space. Of course budget and the ability to set and maintain ten year plus political space exploration goals would speed up the process. Those variables aside I want to share what goes into a rocket launch.

Fishing For Rockets Surprisingly NASA does indeed reuse rocket parts, I thought this idea was unique to SpaceX but has been in the works for decades. Following shuttle era launches skirts of rockets and other parts were retrieved from the ocean. They would be inspected, refurbished and reused. Shuttle rocket parts will be used on the new Space Launch System (SLS). Signs labeled parts that will be used for the EM-1 Orion launch. Protective materials preventing heat damage often get reapplied to these parts. Parts of the rocket get so hot it reaches 6000 degrees Fahrenheit while others get so cold ice forms. The technology used to mix these epoxies in mid air is the same technology that coats M&Ms and Doritos. Talk about spin off technologies!

Monster Tank So you made rocket parts. Great, but how do you expect to assemble and transport something so huge? This was a problem my robotics team ran into as well. We had to make sure the robot we built would fit through the door. Once you have all the rocket parts they will be assembled in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), the tallest one story building in the world at 526 feet. It takes 45 minutes for the main door to be opened. Clouds have been known to form inside the VAB and rain has fallen too. Despite how big the VAB may be when transporting one of the rockets into an assembly segment it needed to be tilted at a 45 degree angle. Upgrades are currently being made for the massive SLS. Once the rocket is assembled it is transported on the Crawler-transporter moving at a back breaking speed of one mile per hour. This transporter insures the rocket reaches the launch pad safely limiting the movement of rocket to less than a diameter of a basketball.

Blast Off Wave goodbye to your creation because it will soon launch, release its payload, tumble into the sea repeating the cycle. A successful launch is dependent of many variables including launch pad hardware, windspeed, humidity, weather, and simply fishing boats in the line of debris reentry. If launch is a go bolts the size of your lower leg explode freeing the beast from the ground. If the bolts do not successfully release the rocket don’t care, it will continue to lift off and tear its restraints off like King Kong.

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED Consider touring Kennedy Space Center. While Johnson Space is the home of the human aspect of space flight Kennedy is in charge of getting is up there: https://www.kennedyspacecenter.com/

Write your congress members and senators encouraging them to support space exploration: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

Discover accomplishments made this week at NASA: http://youtu.be/_a9og3pAqxY

Watch highlights from the latest launch by United Launch Alliance of AtlasV carrying a GPS into orbit: https://www.youtube.com/embed/NPcRziWDigQ

Defrag 2014 Wrap Up

Defrag's Predictions for the Future of Tech

So what is in and growing in the world of technology? For sure containers, clouds and APIs. Containers allow developers to run more applications simultaneously and currently Docker is the king of containers. Docker provides open source application deployment through containers creating an additional layer of abstraction and replaces virtual machines. Google has developed Kubernetes, an open source container cluster manager to manage your Dock containers. IBM recently launched Bluemix, a platform that enables developers to launch applications on a cloud and scale up to handle increases of traffic. Personally I will be playing with Bluemix because a representative of IBM shared how Bluemix was used at a hackathon to quickly deploy an app. APIs (Application Programming Interface) are a set of tools used to build software applications. Each layer of APIs abstract from machine code, make interfacing with the machine easier by using more human language, and become more relevant to the application being designed. Managing APIs makes sense for developers especially because those in computing value abstraction and code reuse. Platforms for sharing, storing, and developing APIs are popular since developers will not have to reinvent the wheel to get an application running. Many companies need the same kinds of applications. Pools of APIs provide an interface for these generic needs.

Philosophy of Defrag

Nerd Nite is an event where science meets good times. Individuals present about their tech passion while the crowd enjoys a drink. Presentations from Nerd Nites have been memorable to me due to the pure energy driving the presentation and the motivation behind the presenter to simply share their ideas. There has been presentations about Star Wars, creating a to scale replica of the Big Dipper, and our Mayor's take on the method of choosing political delegates. Defrag is like Nerd Nite on crack. It is two days of back to back Nerd Nite-ish presentations topped with an evening of networking. Defrag's philosophy is to provide a conference for people to share their ideas while attendees to enjoy without being bored by sales pitches. Sure speakers are a part of a company but the focus of their presentations are bigger ideas. Defrag did such a good job implementing this philosophy that I felt uncomfortable when a speaker tried to make a plug for their product. It was like they were tarnishing Defrag's pure intent to simply share ideas. As I am sure many other Defraggers agree, it was refreshing to hear the tech industry is still human.

What I Learned

As a sophomore in college I'm sure what I got out of this conference was pretty different than the majority of attendees working in industry. I could talk to you all day about new applications/technologies I learned about, but mostly I felt relieved about the kind of environment, although still not ideal, tech industry will provide in my career. IBM's Most Prolific Female Inventor, Lisa Seacat DeLuca, presented about her daily life patenting, inventing, and raising two awesome kids. She is the proof of concept of work life balance; pursuing your personal and career goals. In tech industry, getting eight hours of sleep and having a social life is possible! Author Jane Miller wrote this kick butt book debunking stereotypes in the workplace, "Sleep Your Way to the Top", after someone in her workplace questioned if her current position in the company was not due to her ability alone. While flipping through my copy I see great tips on how to handle awkward situations in the workplace, how to defend yourself in industry, and how leaders in these companies can be good leaders. Miller's advice to the audience is "give honest feedback, don't be a jerk, and mentor". At Defrag I saw people aware of the change needed in industry to make work environment more female friendly, as well as more friendly in general, and an attitude to make that change.

Experience at the conference confirmed my decision to study what I am and motivated me to continue pursuing what I love. I enjoyed representing NCWIT as an Aspirations in Computing Award winner, representing University of Minnesota Duluth for the first time at a tech event and meeting others with similar passions in technology. Defrag you rock!

Links to Check Out (Basically what I will be doing, reading, and playing with over winter break)

"We'll do it live!!" Bluemix where I will be making apps this winter: https://console.ng.bluemix.net/

Docker/ Container Links: https://www.docker.com/ http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docker_(software)

NCWIT National Center for Women in Information Technology go to for Women in Tech stats and proven ways to close the gender gap in tech: http://www.ncwit.org/

SKYNET IS REAL bow down: http://developer.octoblu.com/

Robots that forecast weather: http://understoryweather.com/

Defrag Conference: http://www.defragcon.com/2014/

Early lunar lander prototype at Johnson Space Center #JSC #NASAIntern

NASA Co-Op Week 4: Meeting Martians

Stars from the Martian movie visited Johnson Space Center including Sebastian Stan (who plays an astronaut and was also the Winter Solider in an Avengers Captain America Movie) and Mackenzie Davis (who plays a flight operator in mission control that discovers Mark Watney is alive). Ellen Ochoa the center head hosted a Q&A so Sebastian and Mackenzie could ask astronaut Mike Hopper, a real Mission Control Operator, head of science, and head of engineering Kirk Shireman questions and visa versa. The Martian actors challenged the NASA employees wit asking how they would survive on Mars. Sebastian, who plays an astronaut that has a crush on a fellow space explorer, asked if there was ever crushes on the international space station!  I shared with Mackenzie that my role as a Mission Control Co-Op is similar to her character's role in the movie. KHOU a Houston local news station interviewed me about the clash of science at NASA and science fiction in Hollywood.

Here is the full Q&A with Sebastian Stan & Mackenzie Davis from The Martian  

Scott Kelly celebrated halfway to a year in space! This year long mission reveals data key to ensuring a longer duration flight to Mars and beyond can be done safely. Data that has been collected includes bone density, muscle mass, eyesight, key organ functions, and effects of radiation. Kelly Skyped down to ground to celebrate with Johnson Space Center.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED Learn about the real martians and NASA's Journey to Mars See how already long duration space flight has effected Scott Kelly Tune into a video series by Time Magazine following the Year Long Mission Subscribe to NASA on YouTube for mission and spacecraft updates Hear producer, astronauts, NASA folk and Author Andy Weir talk about the Martian at Comic-Con Watch The Martian movie coming out October 1st Read The Martian by Andy Weir Intern with NASA | Launch your Aerospace Career | Get Excited about STEM Work for NASA

Defrag tech swag.

Watch live! Astronaut Kate Rubins and Jeff Williams spacewalk around the International Space Station! They are retracting a thermal radiator which is part of the space station cooling system. Thought this picture was neat because you could see one of their reflections in a device. http://www.ustream.tv/nasahdtv