Asia Quince...
Me in a Nutshell:
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Here’s
me inside of the shuttle simulator.
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Hi! My name is Asia Quince and I’m senior at the University of Washington.
I was born in Seattle and have lived most of my life right next to it in the
city of Bellevue. Bellevue just so happens to be the city that Bill Gates lives
in - the main difference being that he’s obscenely rich and I’m a
poor, starving college student. I’ve lived in the greater Seattle area
all of my life and for the record, it does not rain nearly as much as anyone
says.
In 2004, I graduated from Sammamish High School and Bellevue Community College
and went on to pursue my Bachelor’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics
engineering at the University of Washington. Making the decision to attend
the University of Washington was a cake walk. It’s ranked in the top
twenty universities in the world and is well-known for its engineering programs,
not to mention it was essentially in my backyard.
Becoming a Co-op:
I had never considered doing a co-op during college before this school year (2005-2006).
My plan was to gain as much work experience as I could by doing summer internships
and getting involved with student projects on campus, so that I could still graduate
early. That was what I had been doing for two years. However, an opportunity
at NASA was not something I could pass up, especially since this is the place
that I’ve wanted to work since I was a middle school student. So, I made
my usual rounds my university’s engineering career fair where I had the
pleasure of speaking with Anne Roemer who offered me an interview and here I
am today.
My Work:
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Mike Coats (the
Director of JSC) and I. Exciting!
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I worked for a year in the Energy Systems Division with both the propulsion
and energy conversion branches. I’ve had the amazing opportunity of designing
a hydrogen reactor that extracts oxygen from simulated lunar soil. Aside, from
it just being really cool to say that I worked on a reactor, the knowledge I’ve
gained from this project is phenomenal. It was extremely valuable to be able
to participate in a project from conception into testing. I got to do a little
bit of everything. I helped design, build and test the reactor system. I also
created applications to perform heat transfer and particle fluidization analysis.
Furthermore, a reactor such as this is essential to the future of space exploration.
Making oxygen on the moon means that astronauts get to breathe (pretty important),
make water, and make liquid oxygen which is a key player in rocket propellant.
I can’t think of a better way to kick off terraforming. Plus, let’s
face it, the Earth isn’t going to last forever.
My last tour has been in vehicle systems engineering and integration. During
my tour here I have been helping out on an inflatable habitat project, which
is a precursor to an inflatable lunar habitat. In particular, I’m working
on instrumentation selection, testing, and integration. I’ve designed
and constructed a frame of the habitat used for testing instrumentation communication
and mounting location. I have also designed and constructed an RF cage used
to test wireless sensor communication through the habitat material. It’s
been a great experience and my term isn’t even over yet. The habitat
with all of its instrumentation will be tested in Antarctica in the February
time frame of 2008. I had my parka ready, but unfortunately the only two people
going on the trip for my group were selected before I even arrived. Oh well,
you can’t have your cake and eat it too, right?
The Life of a Co-op:
While I was really excited about working for NASA, I was not so thrilled about moving down to "the South" along with leaving my friends and family behind for the first time being 18 years of age. Now that I'm down here, I've discovered that Houston isn't as bad as I expected. The only thing I really dislike about Houston is the weather. When I arrived in January, it was already 75 degrees and at 90% humidity, which wasn't the winter I was really used to in Washington. Another concern of mine was social activities. Fortunately, the co-ops are a very lively group of people and there is always something going on from movie nights to rock climbing.
Working at NASA has been the best experience of my life. This is where I've always
wanted to work where I'm among the best and brightest of our country. It's really
refreshing to see people work somewhere because they are passionate about what
they do and not because it's a high-paying job.
If you have any questions and would like to contact me my email address is: asiaq@u.washington.edu
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