Julie Mitchell...

Welcome to my little corner of the JSC Web! NASA is the best, and if you are
considering a co-op here I highly suggest you pursue it!

About me:

I was born and raised in Shreveport , LA. I'm currently in my fourth year at the University of Texas at Austin, double-majoring in aerospace engineering and geology. I'm a competitive cyclist and participate mostly track sprinting, but also road races and criteriums. I also enjoy other sports, including weight lifting, mountaineering, fencing, and racquetball. Riding my bike is the majority of what I do in my free time, but I also participate in a slew of aerospace organizations, including the AIAA's Rube Goldberg design team, Sigma Gamma Tau, and Kappa Theta Epsilon. I also study foreign languages (especially Japanese), and on my tour in Mission Operations I was able to take several classes in Russian!

What I do at work:

My first tour at JSC was in EC3, part of the Crew and Thermal Systems Division. If you are interested in life support systems or crew equipment, Crew and Thermal Systems is the place to work! The group I worked in specialized in Intra-Vehicular Activity and Flight Crew Equipment. Our task was to design, certify, and fabricate any of the "day-to-day" items that are used onboard Shuttle or the International Space Station. Our projects range from tool assemblies to crew clothing to personal hygiene kits to you-name-it-we-make-it! The great thing about Flight Crew Equipment is that the projects are short (usually a few months to a year long) and have an immediate impact on current flights. My projects included certifying iPods, a new fanny pack design, and a new emesis (vomit) bag for use on the Shuttle and Space Station. I saw almost all of my projects to completion, and even saw the fanny pack fly on STS-114!

My second tour was in DT46, the International Space Station Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) Training group. This is the group of folks who train astronauts, flight controllers, other trainers, and engineers on the various equipment used onboard ISS. ECLSS training also works on astronaut emergency training, where the life-sized mockups of space vehicles are sometimes filled with smoke to simulate a fire onboard! As a co-op I took a slew of Space Station lessons, Russian language classes (we train cosmonauts in addition to working with Russian life support equipment), and helped in the emergency training for future Space Station crews. Before I left I was able to certify (and teach!) two lessons, one on the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (the temporary module the Shuttle sometimes brings up to ISS) and another on the fire detection and ventilation systems on Station.

My third tour, where I am currently working, is in KA, the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) directorate. This is the group that is in charge of the curation of Apollo lunar rocks (among other things). I am working in the Astrobiology group, where folks are trying to a) determine if life exists on other planets and in what forms, and b) how to use organisms to harness the materials in lunar/Martian soils. I am working on BSEDS (the Biological Sample Extraction and Delivery System), a life-detection prototype that will (hopefully) one day be used to find life on other worlds. I am also investigating, via lab work and other experiments, how to use cyanobacteria (some of the oldest organisms on the planet) to harness the oxygen and other useful elements from both lunar and Martian soils.

A great thing about working for NASA is that you get to meet all kinds of incredible people—this includes the wonderful engineers and scientists you work with on a day-to-day basis. We've also met several astronauts, along with Gene Kranz, the famous flight director during Gemini and Apollo, Bill Parsons, the Space Shuttle Program manager, and Ginger Kerrick, a Space Station flight director here at JSC. There are also incredible tours of the JSC facilities including the Shuttle simulators, the food lab, and the Neutral Buoyancy Lab (the giant pool where astronauts train for EVA's), among others.

Also, there are a million things going on with the co-ops in Houston. Along with parties and get-togethers, I've gone skydiving, done a Houston-wide scavenger hunt, gone rock climbing and SCUBA diving! There are also lots of co-ops who play volleyball, tennis, softball, and a ton of other sports.

My Advice:

If you've read all of the bios on the co-op website (which I did when I discovered it) then you will get a good idea of the type of people NASA is looking for. Aside from the basic scholastic requirements, you should have lots of extra-curriculars, both in and beyond science and engineering. They are looking for people that are not only good students, but good at something else too (music, sports, volunteering, etc). The most important thing is to show your enthusiasm for the space program. After my interview, I found out that one of the things that made me stand out from the other Texas interviewers was that I knew about NASA—the names of the different divisions, what each center had to offer, and why I wanted to work at JSC in particular. You should do the research on NASA, not just for the interview but for your own benefit as well-and it makes for good reading!

I hope what I've written here will help you in your decision to participate in the co-op program. It really is the best career experience you can get as a college student. If you have any questions, comments, or just want to chat, feel free to call or send me an email!