John Christian...
Hey! My name is John Christian and I'm a fifth year undergraduate
student at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech)
majoring in Aerospace Engineering. I completed my fourth undergraduate
co-op tour at JSC in August of 2004. When I return to JSC for
my fifth co-op tour in May of 2005, it will be as a graduate co-op.
The best place to start, I guess, is at the beginning. During
my younger years, my dad was in the Navy, so I've lived all up
and down the east coast (we somehow never made it to the west
coast- I’m still waiting to see the Pacific Ocean). From
elementary school on, however, I only lived in two places: Columbia,
SC and Lawrenceville, GA. During high school I participated in
everything from Mu Alpha Theta (president 1 year) to Technology
Student Association (president 3 consecutive years). When I got
to college in the fall of 2000, I tried to stay active. My freshman
year at Georgia Tech I was team lead for our AIAA Team Space Design
Competition team and later I was team lead for the 2003 Georgia
Tech Microgravity Team (also check out the RGSFOP
webpage- I highly recommend this program). During this time
I also worked at Philmont Scout Ranch (located in the Sangre de
Cristo range of the Rocky Mountains in northern New Mexico) in
the summers of 2000 and 2001. In the summer of 2000 I worked in
the CHQ dining hall, paying my dues at base camp in hopes of a
better assignment the following summer. This worked out as I had
hoped, and in the summer of 2001 I worked as a program counselor
at Ring Place, located in the Valle Vidal Unit of the Carson National
Forest. While at Ring Place, I served as an instructor in astronomy
and backcountry navigation.
I am currently (04-05 school year) president of the GT chapter
of Sigma Gamma Tau (AE honor society) and treasurer of the GT
chapter of the Mars Society. When I’m not working/studying
you can usually find me hanging out with friends, backpacking,
playing guitar, or watching my beloved 80’s movies. Just
remember, it’s not important what you do (or how much you
do) but how excited you are about it! Enthusiasm and energy are
the keys to success!
Now a little bit about my work experience here at JSC, where
I began as a co-op in the Spring of 2002. My first tour I worked
in the International Space Station (ISS) Trajectory and Operations
Office (DM33) of the Mission Operations Directorate. I was given
two major projects to complete during my tour here: 1) Analyze
tracking/trajectory data for the ISS and orbital debris to determine
the reliability of data used to make mission critical decisions,
and 2) Compare actual ISS/debris behavior with the predicted behavior
for the purposes of modifying data scaling factors and criteria.
In addition to these tasks, I was able to expand my knowledge
in a number of areas: I attended the Cross-Cultural Training Seminar,
the Understanding Space Seminar (and got a  really
cool text book), and took an introductory course in Russian.
During my second tour (Fall 2002) I worked in the Advanced Design
Office (EX15) in the Engineering Directorate, focusing my efforts
on two major projects. The first was developing technology roadmaps
and development schedules for possible Lunar/Mars missions based
on NASA Exploration Team (NEXT) project architectures. My second
project was to produce a study on the impacts of In-Situ Resource
Utilization (ISRU) on manned missions to the moon or Mars. During
my tour here I also had the opportunity to take an exceptional
course in Spreadsheet Aided Engineering at the San Jacinto College.
During my third tour (Summer 2003) I worked in the Hypervelocity
Impact Technology Facility (HITF) with the Orbital Debris Group
(SX2) in the Space and Life Sciences Directorate. While in the
HITF, I had one primary project- researching shielding strategies
to protect different conceptual vehicle against meteoroid and
orbital debris (M/OD) impacts. My research this tour led to my
first published paper.
During my fourth tour (Summer 2004), I went back to EX (where
I was my second tour). Although I returned to the same office,
the name had changed to the Exploration Analysis Office (EX2).
This tour I developed an analytic tool to assess figures of merit
(FOMs) for conceptual exploration architectures. Creating this
tool led me to also develop a method for quantitatively assessing
system evolvability. I am currently in the process of submitting
a paper on this topic for publication.
Enough about that boring work stuff… what else is there
to do as a co-op at JSC? There’s always plenty of stuff
going on; and whatever you want to do, you can find people to
do it with. A perfect example: I'm a HUGE movie fan, so Sundy
(another co-op from long ago) and I started 80's movie night!
WOO-HOO!!! You can find people to do just about anything: rock
climbing, fencing, camping, Chuck E. Cheese's, bowling, etc. The
sky's the limit…
Beyond that, there’s always stuff to do on-site as well.
During each tour there’s usually an extensive series of
tours and lectures (I co-chaired this committee in Spring ’02
with Jayleen Guttromson) where you can hear exciting speakers
(Chris Kraft, Gene Kranz, John Young, Franklin Chang-Diaz etc.)
and see interesting sites all around the center (Mission Control,
the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, the X-38, etc.). There are also
plenty of opportunities to get involved with community outreach.
Anyway, you've probably had enough of my senseless rambling.
I'd love to hear from you if you have any questions. Feel free
to drop me a line at either of the following email addresses:
School: gte230w@mail.gatech.edu
Work: john.a.christian@nasa.gov
"It's never to late to be what you might have been."
--George Eliot
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