What makes your job at NASA exciting or unique?
My job as a Flight Dynamics engineer is to provide navigation and trajectory design support to flight projects. We get to design the orbital trajectories for the satellites in order to meet science objectives, from Earth-orbiting satellites, to missions to the Moon and beyond. And after launch, we provide navigation support to the missions so we know where the satellites are and design the maneuvers to get the satellites to where they need to go.
How does your job contribute to the Artemis missions and beyond?
I have had the opportunity to be involved in a number of technology development projects with the goal of improving our spacecraft navigation capabilities. One of those projects has proven that the Global Positioning System (GPS) can be used for navigating spacecraft even on the Moon!
What was your inspiration growing up?
I didn’t have a lot of exposure to STEM role models in my youth, but I found strong female role models through my love of history. Eleanor of Aquitaine always fascinated me. She was one of the most powerful women in Europe in the middle ages as Queen of France, then England, and Duchess of Aquitaine by birth. She was purportedly a fiercely independent and influential woman for her time.
What’s your favorite thing about working for NASA?
The science! Whenever my day-to-day work is frustrating or tedious, I can take a step back and get inspired about the work we do all over again. On my project, one single Roman Space Telescope image will hold the equivalent detail of 100 pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope. I can’t wait to see those images come back to Earth after we launch.