Kristen Painting...

About Me

I am a Mechanical Engineering major and a member of the class of 2007 at Valparaiso University. (We're a pretty small school in Indiana.) Keep reading and I'll tell you how I ended up here!

Where I Come From

While I was in highschool and thinking about what I wanted to major in, I started thinking that working for NASA would be pretty exciting. I decided on mechanical engineering and then proceeded to choose my school of about 4000 students. I wasn't sure how it was going to work out for me to come to NASA when I was going to a smaller name school, but it seemed like I could figure that out later. As it turned out, in my first semester at Valpo I met two students who currently were co-ops here at JSC! I spoke with them about their experiences multiple times and they got me pretty excited about the program. I began my application process, and four resume send-outs, constant phone calls, multiple e-mails, and one interview later, I had the job! (Nothing to it, right?)

On console in the Mission Control Center

My First Tour

Before I came to Texas, I was curious about which directorate I was going to be in. I asked, and received an e-mail in response that said nothing more than: DF53/OSO followed by a few short descriptions of my projects for the semester that I didn't really understand. .I'll admit I was a little nervous! (I had no idea what any of it meant!) As it turned out, I ended up with a great group! With the OSO (Operational Support Officers) group I had the chance to sit on console in Mission Control, and I developed multiple web-pages for a photo database that will be used during real time flight controller operations. On top of all this, I took astronaut and flight controller training classes and even became certified to teach one of those classes. My coworkers were all great mentors, making my first tour here incredibly smooth.

My Second Tour

For my second tour I transferred over to the Thermal Systems and Engineering Support Group. There I developed testing for a radiator project. With that project I had the opportunity to research everything from composite materials to solar wind and it's effects on a material's optical properties. I also worked with some testing on a sublimator, which is another cooling unit for space applications. Again, I worked with great people who were all incredibly helpful and enjoyable to work with. This group gave me a chance to learn so much more about thermal systems than I would have learned just in the classroom.

My Third Tour

I worked astronaut and flight controller training for my third tour. Basically, all of the astronauts and flight controllers have a ton of information they need to know before a mission begins, and we provided them that information. I taught a class on the ISS thermal control system, and how to send commands to the hardware if there is a problem while on Station. I also worked a little with the sim backroom. Basically, as part of the training for astronauts and flight controllers, simulations of the missions are constantly performed. My group wrote the malfunctions and scenarios for those sims.

Diving at the Aquarius habitat

I also had the amazing opportunity to be involved with a project called NEEMO (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations). With this project, crews are sent live in a habitat (Aquarius) 45 feet underwater where they perform operations just as would be needed in space exploration on the moon or mars. There are so many similarities between living underwater and living in space, from the dangers of the environment to the procedures necessary just to leave the habitat, that Aquarius provides the perfect analog to test space exploration operations. I became the center "expert" on diver navigation hardware and then trained the crew for their mission. I had the opportunity to support the NEEMO team during the training week and the first week of the mission down in Florida! When I returned to Houston, I worked in the control center for NEEMO, providing support to the aquanauts during their exploration dives, working to accomplish dive objectives, and troubleshooting my hardware. This project gave me the opportunity to see all of the work that goes into a space mission, but on a smaller scale. (Click here to see the NEEMO 9 mission overview and team bios!)

My Overall Co-Op Experience

Throughout both of my work tours the co-ops have organized some really exciting JSC tours and lectures. I have seen the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL = giant training pool), landed the shuttle motion based simulator, and seen the NASA training aircraft out at Ellington Field. Lectures from astronauts, flight directors, and other inspirational people have also helped me learn so much about NASA and it's history. My experience has been everything I hoped for!

Training at the NBL	Camping in east Texas

And Finally For You .

Chances are, if you read this, you are interested in being a co-op or are accepted to the program and want to know more. If you have any question, e-mail me at Kristen.M.Painting@nasa.gov or at Kristen.Painting@valpo.edu. I'd love to help you out! Otherwise, get in touch with Anne Roemer, the co-op director, or Shelia Collins to apply. I can't wait to see some of you here in Houston