Sara Blatz...

About Me

Experiencing zero g onboard NASA's C-9.

Born and raised in the heart of the midwest- Dubuque, Iowa, I am a senior at Iowa State University majoring in Aerospace Engineering. I am a proud member of the Iowa State University Cyclone Football "Varsity" Marching Band (Bet you can't say that all in one breath!) and the women's basketball pep band. I also worked on a Pico-satellite project called CySat and its controls testbed CyCADET II with Iowa State's Spacecraft Systems and Operations Lab. Last July, I flew with the team on the C-9, NASA's reduced gravity plane, and experienced zero g to test CyCADET II! There are many other organizations on campus and I am involved in Tau Beta Sigma, Tau Beta Pi, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE), and The Engineering Ambassador Mentor program (TEAM). In the spare time I have left, I like to study Russian which I can continue to study here at JSC through their language learning center.

Getting to NASA

Working at NASA has been a life long dream. During the fall semester of my sophomore year, the NASA JSC co-op recruiters came to our bi-annual engineering career fair at Iowa State. I stopped by and talked with them, later received an interview, and then waited. In the mean time I kept in contact with the recruiter through email asking more questions about the program and making sure he understood how much I would love to work for NASA. About three weeks later I received a phone call from NASA offering me a co-op, and now, here I am.

Work

Getting a tour of the crew module inside Endeavour.

Fall 2005

For my first tour I joined the Structural Engineering's Materials and Processes branch where what I call pure engineering happens. I worked with the Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) team and the NanoMaterial Applications team. NDE is basically what it sounds like; we find flaws and damage in things without destroying them by using ultrasound, x-rays, thermal imaging, and things of that nature. With the NDE team, I went to Kennedy Space Center during my second week on the job to do post-flight analysis on Discovery when STS-114 returned from space. How cool is that! Not many people get to see the orbiter up close, and I am very fortunate to be one of the few. I also got to go inside Endeavor, bunny suit and all! The Nano team conducts research of carbon nanotubes to be used in future space exploration. An example would be using nanotubes in fuel cells to make them more efficient and cost effective.

Summer 2006

At work as the Mech II position in the MPSR of MCC.

My second tour was in the Mechanical Systems group which contains the MMACS flight control position for shuttle and other support positions in the backroom. I spent the summer training to become an Ascent/Entry Mech II, the entry level position. I attended sims and classes and did a lot of self studying to learn about the mechanical operations MMACS is in charge of- APUs, hydraulic systems, landing gear and decel, payload bay doors, ET doors, and docking mechanisms. During my tour, I was able to gain real-time flight experience with the STS-121 mission launching on the 4th of July. I OJT'd (On the Job Training) for the many different phases of the mission related to the mechanical systems. It was an amazing experience to be in Mission Control for an actual launch! I was also assigned the project of regenerating the carpet plots for the Improved Main Landing Gear Wheel and Tire Assembly on the orbiters. (aka the orbiters got new tires.) The plots provide the MMACS flight control team with the minimum tire pressure allowable based on the weight and center of gravity of the orbiter predicted for landing. With new tires, meant new tire pressure requirements.

Spring 2007

Enjoying the scenery at Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend National Park

My third tour took place in the Applied Aeroscience and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) branch of the Aeroscience and Flight Mechanics division. This branch is responsible for the aerodynamic and aero thermal environments of the space vehicles. Anything from CFD, to experimental work, to the theoretical results are covered in this branch. Think of a big aero lab report in school with all the data collection and analysis methods. My main project worked with CFD simulations of thrusters firing in supersonic and subsonic flow fields. My work was used to determine if a current CFD code was accurate enough to use for abort motor CFD simulation. I also got to work with the aero thermal team on their analysis of CFD and wind tunnel data for transition analysis of the CEV on entry. And before shuttle is phased out, I made improvements to a tool used to determine the local flow environment properties around a hole if it were to occur on the shuttle. In addition, I also participated in a wind tunnel test of the Orion Launch Abort Vehicle and did data analysis for that test. This branch does pure aero work and it's an aerospace engineer's haven!

Also at work, the co-ops take time to tour various places on site like the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, a big pool where the astronauts train for EVA's. We also have lectures given by NASA legacies such as Gene Kranz, and figure heads like Flight Director Paul Dye.

Summer 2007

Well it’s been an awesome experience co-oping with NASA JSC. And now it’s time for my fourth and final tour. Since I had just spent the previous spring in the Aeroscience group, I wanted to broaden my knowledge in the Aeroscience and Flight Mechanics division, so I switched branches into the Integrated Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) Analysis branch. Some of the work this branch does involves the products of my previous branch and I was really looking to see how the two branches are connected. Little did I know I would love working with this group too. My projects centered around stability analysis for the Orion Launch Abort Vehicle (LAV). I had previously worked on the aerodynamics side of this, so it was a perfect fit for me. I updated a linearized equations of motion program to be used for LAV stability analysis and also created a simulation for the non-linear side of stability analysis. Another project came up during my tour and I worked on an aerodynamics sensitivity study of the aero database that my previous group produces. Basically, the aero team makes a database of aero coefficients at certain increments in the LAV’s flight. The GNC team uses the database to evaluate performance and stability of the vehicle. From the study, I was able to give feedback to the aero team on what we, the GNC team, needed to know better. This helps the aero team to design their future CFD and wind tunnel tests. So all in all, this was definitely a rewarding experience to get to connect my two tours!

Social Life

ISU vs. Texas A&M

Just because we work for NASA doesn't mean we're a bunch of nerds! We are by far one of the most social groups I have ever been in. Every night of the week, including weekdays, there is something going on: a trip to the dog tracks or movie night, to weekend trips to the beach or camping. This past tour I was able to go an amazing camping trip to Big Bend National Park! It was awesome! You don't get opportunities like that in Iowa. I also have had the opportunity to play many sports on the intramural teams the co-ops have. Let's face it; we all want to be astronauts, so we all want to stay active!

Co-oping at NASA JSC has been a dream come true and I hope it will be for you too! The program here is amazing and there are many opportunities available to the co-ops. It’s been an amazing adventure and I’m grateful to all my mentors and co-workers who have helped me have one of the greatest experiences of my life! If you have any questions about NASA or co-oping in general, feel free to email me at sblatz@iastate.edu.