Richard Rhodes...

So, if you are interested in being a co-op, then read this to learn all of the secrets about becoming a co-op and more importantly how to succeed as a co-op.

First, About Me:

I was born in Las Cruces, NM, but grew up most of my life in Salt Lake City, UT. If you've never been out to Utah, then I suggest that you go. Utah is a beautiful state with opportunities to do tons of outdoor stuff. I moved to Texas when I was 17, and I am currently a Mechanical Engineering Student at the University of Texas at Austin, Hook'em Horns! Ever since I was a kid and I wanted to be an astronaut, just like millions of kids, I've been interested in NASA and space flight in general, but I didn't realize how much other stuff NASA did. NASA's goal is "to improve life here, to extend life to there [and] to find life beyond." There have been thousands of commercial products and technologies that started at NASA. Some examples are cell phones, hand held tools, and of course the temperpedic mattress. You can read all about that in the annual Spinoff book or at:
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/technologies/spinoffs_index.html.

Becoming a Co-op:

The co-op recruiting staff tour the country to attend engineering career fairs at many major colleges, so look for them at yours. The way that I first got my foot in the door was by just going up to the booth and talking to the recruiter for about 15-20 minutes and giving him my resume. Remember to relax and just be yourself because they like people with good personalities who are easy to talk with, not just the people with the highest grades. I got really lucky because the co-op office called me a couple of weeks later to set up a phone interview. If you give the co-op office your resume and don't hear from them for about a week, give them a call. It is important to show that you are interested and excited about the job, so keep hounding them until they hire you, it'll work.

Working at NASA

1st Work Tour: I was absolutely terrified on the first day, I'd had a lot of jobs at pizza places and water parks, but never at a place like NASA; it's pretty intimidating and pretty competitive. The first half of the day is pretty much just an orientation where you fill out all of your security and clearance forms. After lunch, you go meet your mentor, supervisor, and the group that you will be working with. Don't be nervous or shy with the new co-ops or your new group. You will be spending a lot of time with the other co-ops and most of your group mates have been there before. In my experience it is also better to try to keep the atmosphere light and fun at work; definitely be professional and work hard, but have some fun; your group will like you more and ultimately they'll want you to work with them in the future.

Skydiving

My first tour I was assigned to the MMACS group, which is the flight controller group that is responsible for all of the mechanical systems on the space shuttle. At first I was slightly apprehensive about the job because it requires a lot of studying and learning about the different systems on the shuttle. However, it turned out to be an amazing job and work tour in general. The job of a flight controller is exciting and intense; they have to learn to make life and death decisions quickly and accurately. A shuttle has thousands of sensors on it that relay information from the shuttle to Mission Control. The sensors could be anything from the position of a switch to the temperature and pressure of hydraulic lines. You have to know what each sensor reads, what it is supposed to read, what it isn't supposed to read, and what to do if there is a failure or a problem. In order to train for the job they run through simulations where a simulation controller will throw different problems at you and you have to learn to react quickly. During the tour I was able to train on console in mission control during simulations and I was able to watch a flight from mission control. It was exciting and interesting.

Work Tour #2: Since my first work tour was in mission operations, I wanted to work in engineering for my second tour to see how the two jobs compared. On your first tour, you are assigned to work in a division, but on each tour after that you actually go interview different divisions to see if that is the group that you want to work with. I looked around and decided to work in Engineering Robotics for my second tour. So again I showed up to work on my first day went and talked to my mentor and kind of told him my goals for the semester and he gave me the opportunity to work on a very exciting project called Mini-AERcam. Mini-AERcam was a soccer sized robot that could be remotely controlled to fly around in space and collect data and pictures. However, a few years ago the budget got cut for the project and it was left partially assembled. My mentor then asked me to redesign the largest part of the docking system, create a CAM (computer aided machining) code to manufacture the part, and then work with a machinist to make the part. You will learn very quickly when you're here that there is a big difference between school, where you learn about strengths and stresses, and the workplace, where you actually design and manufacture a part. I created the part, put the assembly together, and presented it to my supervisor and Branch Chief. I learned a lot about actual hands-on work that I couldn't of gotten at school or anywhere else other than NASA.

Sitting in a T-38

Work Tour #3: On this tour I decided to go work for the Spacesuit Systems group. I am currently working in that group and we are doing a lot of exciting and innovative work with the future of the spacesuit. I have been assigned to develop two new concepts for air lock chambers and create full-size mock-ups of these concepts. Both are designed to alleviate the problem with dust on the moon and Mars. One is an Air-shower chamber and the other is a suit-lock chamber. I am still working out these concepts, and I will update you after they are built.

If you have any questions about the co-op program or if you just want to hear more about what I have worked on and what I am currently working on, don't hesitate to shoot me an email at any time, Richard.a.rhodes/@/nasa.gov, or rhodes720/@/gmail.com. Just take out the slashes.