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We Are Artemis: NASA Ames Artemis Experts Prepare for First Launch

Artists’ concept of Artemis I, the first integrated flight test of NASA’s deep space exploration system: the Orion spacecraft, Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, and the ground systems at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I will be an uncrewed flight that will provide a foundation for human deep space exploration.
NASA/

NASA’s journey to the Moon with the launch of Artemis I, an uncrewed flight test of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, is a major milestone on the agency’s path to extending human presence to the Moon and eventually Mars. The flight test is made possible by the working people of the agency, who have spent years on the projects that will make this mission happen.

Meet Rita Eick, Parul Agrawal, Jeremy Vander Kam, and Sergio Santa Maria from NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. They are four of the people whose contributions to the NASA mission will make Artemis I a reality. 

What is your role at NASA and in support of Artemis?   

Sergio R Santa Maria: I am currently the lead scientist for NASA’s BioSentinel mission, the first long-duration biology experiment beyond low-Earth orbit. My primary role is to ensure that the biology inside BioSentinel is able to survive the trip to deep space and that the instrument is able to provide support to the biology experiment. BioSentinel is a CubeSat, or small satellite, that will ride to space on the Space Launch System rocket and be deployed after the Orion spacecraft is flying on its own toward the Moon.

Parul Agrawal: I am a project manager and the lead for Orion operations at Ames. Our role is to build a series of spacecraft to transport astronauts and cargo to lunar orbit and provide their safe return to Earth, including carrying with them lunar samples they will collect on the Moon’s surface. Our key contributions to Orion include heat shield development, aerothermodynamics, and aerodynamic modeling. My role is to ensure that our team is meeting their milestones and they have sufficient resources and budget to support the project.

Jeremy Vander Kam: I am the deputy system manager for the Orion spacecraft’s thermal protection system (TPS) and am responsible for leading the Ames team that has developed Orion’s heat shield and thermal tiles. I will also go out to sea for Orion’s recovery and perform the first vehicle inspections on the recovery ship.

Rita Eick: I am a test engineer at the NASA Ames Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel. I manage and execute wind tunnel tests for industry, NASA, and other government customers who need to study how their designs for aircraft or spacecraft will behave in flight.

A person stands in front of a screen showing computer simulations of Orion launch abort system.
Parul Agrawal stands in front of an Orion Launch Abort System Ascent Abort 2 flight test simulation showing complex shock structures and interactions.
NASA/Dominic Hart

What is your hometown?   

Santa Maria: I was born and raised in Lima, Peru, and moved to the United States to pursue my doctoral degree in Texas, then New York, and now in California since 2014.
 
Agrawal: My childhood was spent in Allahabad, a mid-sized remote town in Northern India. While growing up I faced many challenges because my aspiration to study science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) subjects did not conform to society’s expectations for a North Indian girl.
Vander Kam: Sunnyvale, California.
Eick: I was born in Baghdad, Iraq, and moved to the United States when I was 8 years old. I grew up in Encinitas, California, a small beach town near San Diego.
 

What led you to work to support Artemis?  

Santa Maria: During my doctoral and postdoctoral studies, I worked with model biological organisms to study how they respond to damaging agents like ultraviolet light or ionizing radiation, similar to the radiation found in space. When I was completing my postdoctoral program in New York City, an opportunity to join the BioSentinel team at Ames Research Center appeared, and I immediately applied. After a few interviews, I got the job and moved to California. I was not fully aware of it at the time, but the fact that this mission is going to deep space made all those years studying worth it!
Agrawal: Since early childhood I have been inspired by the complexity of mother nature and vastness of the universe. After I completed my PhD in aeronautics and astronautics, my goal was to work at NASA so I could be at the forefront of space exploration. I was ecstatic when I was offered a scientist position at Ames to support heat shield analysis for crewed spacecraft. For 10 years, I worked on projects that supported spacecraft heat shield development and entry systems. Orion was the first project I was given the responsibility to manage, due to my technical expertise.

People stand with a model Space Launch System.
Rita Eick, second from the left, is joined by other wind tunnel test engineers, with a model Space Launch System.
NASA/Dominic Hart

Vander Kam: I started working on the Orion program in 2006, when it began, because it was an opportunity to be a part of an extremely exciting team effort to return humans to the Moon. I was excited about doing something that involved real space hardware.
Eick: At the wind tunnel where I work, the Space Launch System team is one of our customers, and I have supported many tests of the rocket throughout my six-year career at Ames. These are aerodynamic tests using a scale model of SLS that measure how much the rocket vibrates, which parts are most affected, how much pressure it will experience in flight, and more. In general, our wind tunnel testing complements computer simulations of the same aircraft or spacecraft design. When the two agree, a design team knows they can move forward with building the real thing.
 

What does Artemis mean to you? How does it feel to see Artemis I launching after working on it for so long?

Santa Maria: It will be the end of a very fulfilling journey, having learned a lot about how to fly a mission to deep space and knowing the amount of effort and the many people that took to make this work. We, of course, hope that the mission is successful, but, most importantly, that it paves the way for future biological missions to deep space.
Agrawal: When I first learned about Artemis – a very forward-looking, all-encompassing plan towards human space exploration – it filled me with hope and a sense of purpose. We are fortunate to have a great vision and support for the Artemis program. With the Artemis I launch, we will meet the first major milestone of that vision and demonstrate the dedication, technical knowledge, and passion of the people at NASA.
Vander Kam: Artemis has been my career for a long time at NASA. It’s really a climax to a lot of hard work over many years and I’m really excited to see it fly!
Eick: I have not worked on it as long as many others who have dedicated their time to the mission, but Artemis, to me, means “passion.” All the people who have directly and indirectly supported the mission are passionate about their work and it clearly shows.

A person in a white lab coat and gloves loads a fluidic card with yeast, similar to the cards used in the BioSentinel science payload.n
Sergio Santa Maria loads a fluidic card with yeast, similar to the cards used in the BioSentinel science payload.
NASA/Dominic Hart

What would surprise people the most about your job?

Santa Maria: I would say that a lot of what I have been doing for the last couple of years is more related to engineering and planning than biology. I got to learn a lot from our engineering teams and about how a project works, something I did not have to worry about during my time in academia.
Agrawal: I come from a town in India where even now, after several decades, most girls don’t dream of working at places like NASA and managing flight projects. I hope my story will encourage more children to dream big and have the courage to not let any barrier come in the way of achieving their dreams.
Vander Kam: Folks might be surprised about how much of my job is coordination and communication. I spend a lot of time on the phone with our teammates at Johnson Space Center in Houston, at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and other places.
Eick: It takes a lot of effort to explain to others what I do, so that, in itself, is a surprise to people. Basically, I help test new aircraft and spacecraft designs by simulating their flight inside a giant wind tunnel. Those that have come to the facility for tours are surprised by the size of it. It’s massive and requires a tremendous amount of support to operate and maintenance to keep it running.
 

Jeremy Vander Kam - Burn to Shine: Experiences and Lessons from the Orion Heat Shield
Jeremy Vander Kam gives a talk about experiences and lessons working on the Orion heat shield at NASA Ames.
NASA

Through Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon paving the way for a long-term lunar presence and serving as a steppingstone to send astronauts to Mars. Would you like to share any reflections on that milestone?

Vander Kam: I think this is a great milestone to achieve for humanity. It’s been a long road of discouraging social behavior here on Earth, and I think that this milestone is important to remind us all to aspire to greater unity.
Agrawal: The Artemis program is forward-looking, not only in terms of the technological advancement for deep space exploration but also in the sense that it is all-inclusive and it belongs to everyone. We all could proudly proclaim that we are the Artemis Generation. To me, this is a big leap for Artemis compared to its predecessors.
Eick: It’s about time a woman and/or person of color will have the opportunity to be the face of the mission. It will be one giant leap for humankind.
 

From tests on the ground long before launch to scientific expertise in space biology, each has had a role in the next step towards NASA’s return to the Moon and future journey to Mars.