Steve Wilson.
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Due to the intimate size of the
Agency, my good friend NASA Administrator Michael Griffin and I are
separated by only 4 levels
of organizational
hierarchy. Thus, I’m only five degrees differentiated from his
boss, the President.
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Vitals~
Major: Finance / Statistics
University: Oklahoma
Hometown/College Town: Norman, OK
Tour Occupation: Cost Estimating for the Constellation Program's Crew Exploration Vehicle [That's
to the moon, Alice.]
Pre-NASA~
I have performed financial, petroleum, and statistics research, acted
as an accountant for many student organizations, performed in operas, interned
at Boeing [Seattle]
and an Oklahoma investment firm [Altus], attended both Rice University and OU,
owned five Dachshunds and one Tivo. and this list goes on. My path to NASA was
varied and unconventional; however, the constant throughout my life and the lives
of all JSC coops (science, engineering, or business) has been a fascination with
the infinity of space and the spawning of technology aimed at excavating its
mysteries.
NASA Work~
In Sanskrit, 'NASA' means roughly: 'Bunch of really smart people gathered in
one place for the purpose of collaborating on many amazing projects simultaneously.' A
tour at JSC amounts to a semester-long science fair... no. science
extravaganza, complete with exactly the sort sci-fi-esque design and experimentation
you'd expect from an organization that spends most of its earthly time pursuing
otherworldly discovery. Thus, understandably, whatever
your project, whether it's
~Training astronauts [yes, some coops train astronauts]
~Creating the best way to extract oxygen from the moon's desolate surface [my
roommate is doing that]
~Studying for a future seat in Mission Control
~Researching nanotechnology's scientific and applied potential
~Modeling which critical factors drive the CEV's cost [that's me]
~Designing the most advanced robot anywhere ever
.you will work. You will work hard. You will work hard for a long time. You will work hard for a long time and love every second of the contribution that you're making to the strongest space effort in the galaxy, as far as we are aware (we're
researching this claim).
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After advising NASA Chief Engineer Christopher Scolese on the merits
of hypergolic mentos/diet coke propulsion systems, I was granted a picture
opportunity. |
NASA Family~
At Boeing, I was one of six anonymous people assigned to predict the costs of
the new 787's wings. Within a week of my first tour in the JSC Cost Estimating Office, I alone had been tasked by NASA's top official [see above picture] with the enterprise of creating an independent cost analysis of the entire CEV Crew Module. Whoa. This most unprecedented and provident opportunity came by way of the Agency's
cultural uniqueness: Despite its array of extraterrestrial aspirations, NASA
houses a small community. Tiny. Itty bitty. With so few getting their space on,
one can simply not avoid scrawling sizably on the complexion of space exploration
history.
Two weeks ago, I spoke with most of Apollo 16 about how to reduce costs of the
new moon mission. Whoa. Concomitant with JSC's small size, there are literally astronauts everywhere--- along with Apollo-, Shuttle-, and ISS-era engineers, businesspeople, and scientists. Here, coops are deluged by stories of inspiration, lessons learned, and technical expertise you'd
have to travel to Vulcan to match. I consider myself a student in a classroom
with 3,000 teachers. This place boils with applied knowledge.
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Definition
of Irony: “Hey, wouldn’t it be cute to watch Apollo
13 in Mission Control?” Done. From the spot on which the girl in
the white is standing, Gene Krantz safely directed the Odyssey home. |
NASA Coops~
Other coop bios hint at the health of the coop social scene. Sometimes the coop
core needs a bit of prodding to execute a big group activity, but once we endeavour to
get together, it's mister toad's wild ride: Softball, volleyball, soccer,
tennis, broomball, dodgeball, dodgebroomball, curling (that's
right), movie watching, Bayou touring, Moody
Gardening, beach partying, video
gaming,
sky diving, Houstoning, Mardi Grasing, 'ponging,
volunteering, road tripping, board gaming, Astros baseballing, arts patronizing,
biking, site touring, cooking, gathering, living, loving, being.
Boredom is not an option.
YOU are 'Go' for Launch~
NASA impossibly fuses the practicality of walking shoes, the mystique of Atlantis,
and the artistry of
Van Gogh. This experience is precisely as complete and amazing as advertised.
Being a JSC coop has revolutionized my life -
Inspired to apply? - Mission accomplished.
Fire out some questions, comments, and 30 page essay regarding the dispersions
of error involved in low earth orbit rendezvous trajectories to:
Email: 3@ou.edu / steve@alumni.rice.edu / steve.m.wilson@nasa.gov
AIM: whatyouwLLL
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