Jessica Chapman...

Who I am:

Howdy! My name is Jessica Chapman, and I am a mechanical engineering student from Texas A&M University (Whoop!). I have wanted to work for NASA since I was in the fifth grade and finally that dream has come true.

How I got here:

Like I said, I've wanted to work for NASA for a very long time. I first found out about the co-op program when I participated in NASA's Texas Aerospace Scholars program in high school. So when I entered college, I worked hard from the start always keeping the goal of a NASA co-op as my motivation. I also went to the engineering career fairs every semester and spoke to the NASA representatives. Even if you have nothing in particular to say, go anyways! Persistence is definitely the key, and sometimes that will outweigh other things like lower GPAs (it did for me). So anyways, I finally got an interview and got chosen to be a co-op!

What I do here:

I was assigned my first tour in the Mission Operations Directorate (MOD), specifically in the Cargo Integration and Operations (CIO) branch. CIO is a flight controller position in Mission Control for the International Space Station (ISS). CIO deals with several things, including portable payloads (such as laptops, power supplies, etc.) and stowage on the ISS. While I was in this branch, I worked on several projects. I wrote a few sections for two different handbooks to be used by the CIO flight controllers. This may not seem too glamorous, but you really learn a lot from writing for these books. In particular, I learned a lot about the Japanese Experiment Module that will hopefully be a part of the ISS in the next few years. I also helped to create some PCS displays for the Japanese Transfer Vehicle (HTV), a vehicle being designed by JAXA to carry supplies to the ISS one day. Due to my JAXA-related projects, I also had the opportunity to take a beginner's Japanese language class at JSC. Konnichiwa!

SCUBA Diving

My second tour was in the Engineering Directorate in the Flight Program Support branch. This branch works on life support-related projects for the ISS. My primary project was to create a CSCS tool. CSCS stands for Contingency Shuttle Crew Support. CSCS happens in the event that the shuttle crew must stay aboard the ISS for an extended time due to the orbiter not being unable to return to earth for some reason. So it was my job to create a tool that would tell the user how long a crew of x amount of people could stay aboard the ISS in different situations. Aside from this project, I also got to work with JAXA in updating a couple documents concerning the HTV. It just amazes me that NASA would let a 21 year old student communicate with their international partners half-way across the world!

I am currently on my third tour at JSC. I am back in the Mission Operations Directorate working with the Mechanical, Maintenance, Arm, & Crew Systems (MMACS) group. This is a flight control group that specializes in the space shuttle's mechanical systems. While on this tour, I have been training to be a Mech II flight controller, one of the backroom positions for MMACS. This has been exciting because I get to go to Mission Control all the time to do on the job training. This has gotten me very familiar with MCC consoles and has given me good Mech II practice. I have also gotten to participate in a few interesting classes while in MMACS including one where I was used as the model for the launch and entry suit!

Outside of work:

Me in an Ascent/Re-entry Space Suit

There are quite a few things you can do outside of work. One exciting thing I did while here was get scuba certified with several other co-ops. I also went to Florida to see the STS-121 shuttle launch, which was definitely something I will never forget! I also got pretty involved with a church down here and met some neat people through that as well.

Overall this co-op experience has been great. I can still hardly believe I'm down here! If you ever get the chance to co-op with NASA, do it! And if you haven't gotten the chance yet but it's a dream of yours, just be persistent!! If it's where God wants you to be, it'll happen.

If you have any questions about the co-op program at NASA or anything, just shoot me an e-mail at got2flyjc@neo.tamu.edu. God bless!