First 3 Days

These past three days have been incredibly exciting.  Where do I start?  We'll go with the beginning!  I have been applying to various NASA programs since I started at Mizzou in the fall of 2007.  This past summer I was interning at Leggett & Platt in Carthage, MO and had pretty much resigned to the fact that NASA had all their student employees lined up for the rest of the year.  I had already enrolled in all my classes for the fall semester of my senior year of college and was starting to think about moving back to Columbia.

Well it was late July and I was at work checking my email and noticed that there was an email from Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.  I read it immediately and was thrilled to find I had a phone interview for the Undergraduate Student Research Program (USRP).  As a side note, this blog will have lots of acronyms, it's NASA after all!  But as I was saying, I was basically stunned and couldn't wait for the interview.

The interview finally came on the morning of July 26th.  I was still working at Leggett & Platt so I had to duck into a conference room to do the interview.  The interview was an average length for a phone interview, about half an hour.  At the end they said they would have their decisions made by the end of the week.  The interview was on a Monday so I was afraid I would have to wait all week to find out.  That would have made for a long week.  Well my fears were eased because I received an email that same day telling me I got the job!

Now you'll find out a little about how NASA is organized.  NASA has 12 centers across the country and I am located at Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas.  At each of these centers, there are various groups called directorates.  The directorate I work in is Mission Operations Directorate (MOD).  Within each directorate there are divisions and my division is called DX which is EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity), Robotics and Crew Operations Division.  They work specifically for the International Space Station.  Within that my group is DX42 OSO/RAM.  OSO is Operations Support Officer which is a flight controller position (one of the guys who sit in mission control at the computer console during missions...just like in the movie Apollo 13) and RAM is Repair And Maintenance.  Basically RAM is training and simulations pre-launch and OSO is in charge of procedures and operations during the actual flight.

Let me summarize.

Johnson Space Center > Mission Operations > EVA, Robotics, and Crew Operations > DX43 OSO/RAM > Mechanisms and Maintenance

Understand?  Don't worry if you don't.  I've been a NASA nerd for as long as I can remember and it took me a couple days to figure it out.  Oh and I warned you there would be tons of acronyms...and I haven't even told you what I'm working on yet! 

Fast forward to Monday, August 30th, my first day on the job.  The first thing I have to do when I arrive on site at JSC is report to the badge office in building 110.  They give me my temp badge (I get my real one Friday) and then I go through the security gate.  Nobody gets on site without a badge!  Then I go to building 20 for orientation.  I'll save you from the boredom.  Even though it's NASA, orientation is still lame.  In short, the pat us on the back, tell us about the parking/driving rules, security, sexual harassment, equal opportunity, politics, etc.  Believe it or not that lasts until noon, at which point they take us to lunch at Fuddruckers.  Yep, NASA loves Fuddruckers.

When I get back from lunch I finally get to go meet my boss and get to know the buildings I'll be working in.  I get to my building and I meet my boss, Phil, I instantly find out he's a great guy.  He shows me my desk...take a look!

 Since I don't have computer access on the first day, he takes me to three awesome buildings that I'll be spending a lot of time in and shows me around.  The first place we go is SSTF the Space Station Training Facility where they test the software on the space station and train the astronauts to deal with possible critical situations, sorry no pictures right now, but I will have them later.

After that we go to building 9 which is the Mock up facility where they test the hardware and astronauts get a feel for how everything is laid out.

I'll be taking a lot of training classes in here that astronauts take as well.  Why you ask?  Well our office is responsible for training procedures and in flight maintenance so we better know what the astronauts have to do before and during the mission and how to do it.  So we learn too.  I'll be in 3 of these classes tomorrow.

The last place we visited was the one and only Mission Control Center, building 30!  There are four FCRs (pronounced ficker) or Flight Control Rooms.  FCR 1 is the space shuttle control room, FCR red is the ISS training/simulation control room, and FCR white is the real ISS control room which has been continuously staffed 24/7 for the past 10 years.  Why?  Because there have been astronauts on the space stations continuously since the year 2000.  I couldn't really explore those rooms just yet because they were all in use either for simulations or real time operations.

Did you notice I only listed 3 of the 4 FCRs I mentioned?  Well the fourth one is the historic Apollo mission control room.  That was the one they let me play around in!

I was instantly attracted to this particular console.

We spent most of the afternoon in these three buildings.  The last thing we did before we headed back to our building was stop by the supply room where I received my very own head set that I get to use during my time in Mission Control.

Day 2...in short, another morning of orientation, then an afternoon of meetings and brief introduction to my projects.

Day 3 (Today).  Luckily no more orientations.  A bonus about the program I'm working in is awesome tours and lectures.  This morning we were lucky enough to have an informal lecture/Q&A with the executive manager of the entire International Space Station, Mike Suffredini.  He shared his opinions and outlook for the space station, the changing priorities of NASA, and goals for the future of the program.

I haven't really touched yet on what exactly I'm doing.  Since this is becoming epically long, I will sum it up pretty simply.  I'm going to develop a quick reference for the OSO flight controller (remember, that's the person sitting in mission control) to use to communicate with the flight director.  It is a reference for the new PMM or Permanent Multi-purpose Module they are sending up to the space station on the shuttle flight scheduled for Nov. 1st.

I'm also responsible for creating a Jumbo Training Schematic (about the size of a bedroom wall) for the WHC on the space station.  The WHC is the Waste & Hygiene Compartment...that's right, the toilet and shower.  That means I have to take all the training lessons on how it works and how to use it (the same training the astronauts receive).

Finally, I have to develop a malfunction procedure for the PWD or Portable Water Dispenser.

The rest of my time will be taking all those training classes and doing OJT (on the job training) in the mission control room and support rooms during simulations and real time operations/missions.  It's going to be an amazing 15 weeks!

- Colin