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By NASA
In her six years working with NASA, Miranda Peters has filled a variety of roles. She trained in flight control for the International Space Station, worked as a safety engineer in the station’s program office, and served as a project engineer working on next-generation spacesuit assembly and testing.
She has also embraced an unofficial duty: speaking openly and honestly about her neurodivergence.
“I used to hide it or avoid talking about it. I used to only see it as an impediment, but now I see how I can also do things or think about things in a unique way because of my disability,” she said. Peters said that when her neurodivergence impacts her ability to do something, she is honest about it and seeks help from her colleagues. “My hope is that when I talk about it openly, I am creating an environment where others with disabilities also feel comfortable being their true selves, in addition to humanizing the disabled community for those who are not a part of it.”
Miranda Peters stands inside one of Johnson Space Center’s testing chambers in Houston with an Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU) in the background.NASA Over time, Peters has also shifted her self-perception. “I’m an anxious person and was made to feel self-conscious about that in the past, but that anxiety also makes me transparent about what I’m doing and where the gaps in my knowledge are, which has earned praise from team leadership,” she said. Similarly, while Peters once saw her sensitivity as a weakness, she learned to appreciate her ability to empathize with and anticipate the needs of others. “That makes me a good mentor and leader,” she said.
Learning to filter feedback has been another important lesson. “Advice and criticism are both useful tools, but not all of the time,” she explained. “I found myself tightly holding on to all of the criticism I received. It was easier to determine which advice didn’t work for me.” When Peters stopped to ask herself if she would take advice from the same person who was critiquing her, it became easier to take their feedback “with a pinch of salt.”
Miranda Peters (center) with the SxEMU Chamber C testing team.NASA Peters applies these lessons learned as a design verification and test hardware lead within the Spacesuit and Crew Survival Systems Branch at Johnson Space Center in Houston. She currently supports tests of the Portable Life Support System (xPLSS) that will be integrated into the new spacesuits worn by astronauts on future missions to explore the lunar surface. She is responsible for assembling and disassembling test units, making hardware and software updates, and integrating the xPLSS with various components of the spacesuit, known as the xEMU.
Peters’ most recent prior position was assembly and integration engineer within the same branch. She had an opportunity to serve as the interim xPLSS hardware lead when a colleague went on leave for several months, and suddenly found herself managing a major project. “We got a lot done in a short amount of time without loss of procedural integrity, even when we encountered unexpected changes in schedule,” she said. “I also used this large amount of lab work as an opportunity to train new hires and interns in assembly processes.” When the colleague returned, Peters was promoted to the newly created role overseeing design verification and testing.
“I really love how universal spacesuits are in their ability to excite and draw wonder from across the human spaceflight community and the general public,” she said. “Working on the xEMU project has affirmed for me that human surface mobility is the field that I want to make my career.” That realization inspired Peters to pursue a graduate degree in space architecture from the University of Houston, which she expects to complete in May 2026.
Miranda Peters (center) with members of the Portable Life Support System team during an assembly activity in 2021.Miranda Peters Peters looks forward to a future where NASA’s astronaut classes include individuals with different abilities. She encourages agency leaders, contractors, and others to have open conversations about workplace accommodations early in their hiring and performance review processes. “I think if we provide the opportunity to talk about accommodations and how to request them, employees would be more empowered to ask for what they need to be successful,” she said. Educating managers about available accommodations and allocating resources to expand the accessibility of those accommodations would also be helpful.
Peters hopes to pass that feeling of empowerment on to the Artemis Generation. “Empowerment to be themselves, to do the hard things, and to not limit themselves,” she said. “We need to take advantage of all the opportunities we can, and not let the fear of failure or not being ‘good enough’ stop us from going where we want to.”
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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
This video shows IPEx in the digital simulation environment.Credit: Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben/Beverly Jensen Space is hard, but it’s not all hardware.
The new Lunar Autonomy Challenge invites teams of students from U.S. colleges and universities to test their software development skills. Working entirely in virtual simulations of the Moon’s surface, teams will develop an autonomous agent using software that can accomplish pre-defined tasks without help from humans. These agents will be used to navigate a digital twin of NASA’s ISRU Pilot Excavator (IPEx) and map specified locations in the digital environment. The IPEx is an autonomous mobility robot engineered to efficiently collect and transport lunar regolith, the loose rocky material on the Moon’s surface.
Autonomous systems allow spacecraft, rovers, and robots to operate without relying on constant contact with astronauts or mission control. Before hardware is trusted to operate independently on location, which for Artemis missions includes the Moon, it must be tested virtually. High-fidelity virtual simulations allow NASA to anticipate and improve how systems, both software and hardware, will function in the physical world. Testing in virtual simulations also allows technologists to explore different mission scenarios, observe potential outcomes, and reduce risks.
In the Lunar Autonomy Challenge, students will develop their knowledge of autonomous systems by working with the same simulation tools created in-house by Caterpillar Inc. of Irving, Texas, over decades of research and development. Teams will need to utilize the IPEx digital twin’s cameras and orientation sensors to accurately map surface elevation and identify obstacles. Like with real lunar missions, teams must also manage their energy usage and consider the Moon’s harsh terrain and low-light conditions. Through the competition, participants will learn more about autonomous robotic operation, surface mapping, localization, orientation, path planning, and hazard detection.
Eligibility
Teams must be comprised of at least four undergraduate and/or graduate students and a faculty advisor at a U.S. college or university.
Challenge Timeline & Structure
The challenge will take place between November 2024 and May 2025 and will include both a qualifying round and a final round. Interested teams must apply by Thursday, Nov. 7.
Round 1: Selected teams will develop and train their agent using provided virtual environments. Teams will have three opportunities to submit their agent to run in a qualification environment. For each submission, their agent will be scored based on performance.
The top scoring teams will be invited to continue. Round 2: Teams will work to further refine the agents. Teams will have multiple opportunities in total to submit their agents to the competition environment. The top three teams will be named challenge winners. Challenge Guidelines
Interested teams should carefully review the Challenge Guidelines and the Lunar Autonomy Challenge site for more details, including proposal requirements, FAQs, and additional technical guidance.
Prizes
The top three highest-scoring teams on the leaderboard in the finals will be awarded cash prizes:
First Place: $10,000
Second Place: $5,000
Third Place: $3,000
Application Submissions
Applications must be submitted to NASA STEM Gateway by Nov. 7, 2024.
Learn more about the challenge: https://lunar-autonomy-challenge.jhuapl.edu
The Lunar Autonomy Challenge is a collaboration between NASA, The Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), Caterpillar Inc., and Embodied AI. APL is managing the challenge for NASA.
NASA’s ISRU Pilot Excavator (IPEx) during a flight-like demonstration at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center’s Swamp Works testing facility. Credit: NASA Authored by: Stephanie Yeldell, Education Integration Lead
Space Technology Mission Directorate
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By NASA
Throughout the life cycles of missions, Goddard engineer Noosha Haghani has championed problem-solving and decision-making to get to flight-ready projects.
Name: Noosha Haghani
Title: Plankton Aerosol Clouds and Ecosystem (PACE) Deputy Mission Systems Engineer
Formal Job Classification: Electrical engineer
Organization: Engineering and Technology Directorate, Mission Systems Engineering Branch (Code 599)
Noosha Haghani is a systems engineer for the Plankton Aerosol Clouds and Ecosystem (PACE) mission at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Credit: NASA What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard?
As the PACE deputy mission systems engineer, we solve problems every day, all day long. An advantage I have is that I have been on this project from the beginning.
Why did you become an engineer? What is your educational background?
I was always very good at math and science. Both of my parents are engineers. I loved building with Legos and solving puzzles. Becoming an engineer was a natural progression for me.
I have a BS in electrical engineering and a master’s in reliability engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park. I had completed all my course work for my Ph.D. as well but never finished due to family obligations.
How did you come to Goddard?
As a freshman in college, I interned at Goddard. After graduation, I worked in industry for a few years. In 2002, I returned to Goddard because I realized that what we do at Goddard is so much more unique and exciting to me.
My mother also works at Goddard as a software engineer, so I am a second-generation Goddard employee. Early on in my career, my mother and I met for lunch occasionally. Now I am just too busy to even schedule lunch.
Describe the advantages you have in understanding a system which you have worked on from the original design through build and testing?
I came to the PACE project as the architect of an avionics system called MUSTANG, a set of hardware electronics that performs the function of the avionics of the mission including command and data handling, power, attitude control, and more. As the MUSTANG lead, I proposed an architecture for the PACE spacecraft which the PACE manager accepted, so MUSTANG is the core architecture for the PACE spacecraft. I led the team in building the initial hardware and then moved into my current systems engineering role.
Knowing the history of a project is an advantage in that it teaches me how the system works. Understanding the rationale of the decision making we made over the years helps me to better appreciate why we built the system way we did.
How would you describe your problem-solving techniques?
A problem always manifests as some incorrect reading or some failure in a test, which I refer to as evidence of the problem. Problem solving is basically looking at the evidence and figuring out what is causing the problem. You go through certain paths to determine if your theory matches the evidence. It requires a certain level of understanding of the system we have built. There are many components to the observatory including hardware and software that could be implicated. We compartmentalize the problem and try to figure out the root cause systematically. Sometimes we must do more testing to get the problem to recreate itself and provide more evidence.
As a team lead, how do you create and assign an investigation plan?
As a leader, I divide up the responsibilities of the troubleshooting investigation. We are a very large team. Each individual has different roles and responsibilities. I am the second-highest ranking technical authority for the mission, so I can be leading several groups of people on any given day, depending on the issue.
The evidence presented to us for the problem will usually implicate a few subsystems. We pull in the leads for these subsystems and associated personnel and we discuss the problem. We brainstorm. We decide on investigation and mitigation strategies. We then ask the Integration and Test team to help carry out our investigation plan.
As a systems engineer, how do you lead individuals who do not report to you or through your chain of command?
I am responsible for the technical integrity of the mission. As a systems engineer, these individuals do not work for me. They themselves answer to a line manager who is not in my chain of command. I lead them through influencing them.
I use leadership personality and mutual respect to guide the team and convince them that the method we have chosen to solve the problem is the best method. Because I have a long history with the project, and was with this system from the drawing board, I generally understand how the system works. This helps me guide the team to finding the root cause of any problem.
How do you lead your team to reach consensus?
Everything is a team effort. We would be no where without the team. I want to give full credit to all the teams.
You must respect members of your team, and each team member must respect you as a leader. I first try to gather and learn as much as possible about the work, what it takes to do the work, understanding the technical aspects of the work and basically understanding the technical requirements of the hardware. I know a little about all the subsystems, but I rely on my subsystem team leads who are the subject matter experts.
The decision on how to build the system falls on the Systems Team. The subject matter experts provide several options and define risks associated with each. We then make a decision based on the best technical solution for the project that falls within the cost/schedule and risk posture.
If my subject matter experts and I do not agree, we go back and forth and work together as a team to come to a consensus on how to proceed. Often we all ask many questions to help guide out path. The team is built on mutual respect and good communication. When we finally reach a decision, almost everyone agrees because of our collaboration, negotiation and sometimes compromise.
What is your favorite saying?
Better is the enemy of good enough. You must balance perfectionism with reality.
How do you balance perfectionism with reality to make a decision?
Goddard has a lot of perfectionists. I am not a perfectionist, but I have high expectations. Goddard has a lot of conservatism, but conservatism alone will not bring a project to fruition.
There is a level of idealism in design that says that you can always improve on a design. Perfection is idealistic. You can analyze something on paper forever. Ultimately, even though I am responsible for the technical aspects only, we still as a mission must maintain cost and schedule. We could improve a design forever but that would take time and money away from other projects. We need to know when we have built something that is good enough, although maybe not perfect.
In the end, something on paper is great, but building and testing hardware is fundamental in order to proceed. Occasionally the decisions we make take some calculated risk. We do not always have all the facts and furthermore we do not always have the time to wait for all the facts. We must at some point make a decision based on the data we have.
Ultimately a team lead has to make a judgement call. The answer is not in doing bare minimum or cutting corners to get the job done, but rather realizing what level of effort is the right amount to move forward.
Why is the ability to make a decision one of your best leadership qualities?
There is a certain level of skill in being able to make a decision. If you do not make a decision, at some point that inability to make a decision becomes a decision. You have lost time and nothing gets built.
My team knows that if they come to me, I will give them a path forward to execute. No one likes to be stuck in limbo, running in circles. A lot of people in a project want direction so that they can go forward and implement that decision. The systems team must be able to make decisions so that the team can end up with a finished, launchable project.
One of my main jobs is to access risk. Is it risky to move on? Or do I need to investigate further? We have a day-by-day risk assessment decision making process which decides whether or not we will move on with the activities of that day.
As an informal mentor, what is the most important advice you give?
Do not give up. Everything will eventually all click together.
What do you like most about your job?
I love problem solving. I thrive in organized chaos. Every day we push forward, complete tasks. Every day is a reward because we are progressing towards our launch date.
Who inspires you?
The team inspires me. They make me want to come to work every day and do a little bit better. My job is very stressful. I work a lot of hours. What motivates me to continue is that there are other people doing the same thing, they are amazing. I respect each of them so much.
What do you do for fun?
I like to go to the gym and I love watching my son play sports. I enjoy travel and I love getting immersed in a city of a different country.
By Elizabeth M. Jarrell
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Conversations With Goddard is a collection of Q&A profiles highlighting the breadth and depth of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s talented and diverse workforce. The Conversations have been published twice a month on average since May 2011. Read past editions on Goddard’s “Our People” webpage.
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Last Updated Oct 08, 2024 EditorMadison OlsonContactRob Garnerrob.garner@nasa.govLocationGoddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
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By NASA
Learn Home GLOBE Eclipse and Civil Air… Earth Science Overview Learning Resources Science Activation Teams SME Map Opportunities More Science Activation Stories Citizen Science 3 min read
GLOBE Eclipse and Civil Air Patrol: An Astronomical Collaboration
The Civil Air Patrol (CAP) is a volunteer organization that serves as the official civilian auxiliary of the United States Air Force. The organization has an award-winning aerospace education program that promotes Science, Technology Engineering, & Mathematics (STEM)-related careers and activities. The total solar eclipse on 8 April 2024 was a unique opportunity to design a mission for cadets, senior members, and educators to collect atmospheric data in contribution the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program’s GLOBE Eclipse protocol, for which a temporary tool in the GLOBE Observer app made it possible for volunteer observers to document and submit air temperature and cloud data during the eclipse.
For the first time ever, the CAP had cadets and senior members participating in a mission from every wing (US state), in addition to two US territories and 2 Canadian provinces. Over 400 teams with over 3,000 cadets and over 1,000 senior members collected air temperature, clouds, wind, and precipitation for a total of 4 hours before, during, and after the eclipse. This work was led by Capt. Shannon Babb who organized the mission with the aerospace education team led from the Rocky Mountain Region.
The collaboration between GLOBE Eclipse and CAP gave cadets the opportunity to do real, hands-on Earth science and be part of a mission alongside senior members. It also brought in over 40,000 students and more than 600 educators through the Civil Air Patrol’s education sites involving K-12 formal and informal educators at schools, youth organizations, museums and libraries. This unique collaboration was so successful, the CAP wants to continue doing missions alongside citizen science programs at NASA and the GLOBE Program. A 2025 mission is being formulated, focused on contrail formation using the strengths of the CAP in aeronautics and unique cloud observations made using the GLOBE Observer app. Results and announcements of 2025 mission plans were presented at the Civil Air Patrol National Conference on 16-17 August 2024 in San Antonio, Texas, USA.
GLOBE Observer is part of the NASA Earth Science Education Collaborative (NESEC), which is led by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) and supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AE28A. NESEC is part of NASA’s Science Activation Portfolio. Learn more about how Science Activation connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond: https://science.nasa.gov/learn
https://www.gocivilairpatrol.com/programs/aerospace-education/curriculum/2024-solar-eclipse
Civil Air Patrol Cadet observing the 8 April 2024 total solar eclipse. Civil Air Patrol Civil Air Patrol Cadets making atmospheric measurements during the 8 April 2024 total solar eclipse. Civil Air Patrol Civil Air Patrol Cadets making atmospheric measurements during the 8 April 2024 total solar eclipse. Civil Air Patrol Civil Air Patrol Cadet observing the 8 April 2024 total solar eclipse. Civil Air Patrol Civil Air Patrol Cadet observing the 8 April 2024 total solar eclipse. Civil Air Patrol Share
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Last Updated Oct 07, 2024 Editor NASA Science Editorial Team Related Terms
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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Students celebrate after a successful performance in the 2024 Student Launch competition at Bragg Farms in Toney, Alabama.NASA NASA has selected 71 teams from across the U.S. to participate in its 25th annual Student Launch Challenge, one of the agency’s Artemis Student Challenges. The competition is aimed at inspiring Artemis Generation students to explore science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) for the benefit of humanity.
As part of the challenge, teams will design, build, and fly a high-powered amateur rocket and scientific payload. They also must meet documentation milestones and undergo detailed reviews throughout the school year.
The nine-month-long challenge will culminate with on-site events starting on April 30, 2025. Final launches are scheduled for May 3, at Bragg Farms in Toney, Alabama, just minutes north of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Teams are not required to travel for their final launch, having the option to launch from a qualified site. Details are outlined in the Student Launch Handbook.
Each year, NASA updates the university payload challenge to reflect current scientific and exploration missions. For the 2025 season, the payload challenge will again take inspiration from the Artemis missions, which seek to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, and pave the way for future human exploration of Mars.
As Student Launch celebrates its 25th anniversary, the payload challenge will include reports from STEMnauts, non-living objects representing astronauts. The STEMnaut crew must relay real-time data to the student team’s mission control via radio frequency, simulating the communication that will be required when the Artemis crew achieves its lunar landing.
University and college teams are required to meet the 2025 payload requirements set by NASA, but middle and high school teams have the option to tackle the same challenge or design their own payload experiment.
Student teams will undergo detailed reviews by NASA personnel to ensure the safety and feasibility of their rocket and payload designs. The team closest to their target will win the Altitude Award, one of multiple awards presented to teams at the end of the competition. Other awards include overall winner, vehicle design, experiment design, and social media presence.
In addition to the engineering and science objectives of the challenge, students must also participate in outreach efforts such as engaging with local schools and maintaining active social media accounts. Student Launch is an all-encompassing challenge and aims to prepare the next generation for the professional world of space exploration.
The Student Launch Challenge is managed by Marshall’s Office of STEM Engagement (OSTEM). Additional funding and support are provided by NASA’s OSTEM via the Next Gen STEM project, NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, Northrup Grumman, National Space Club Huntsville, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Association of Rocketry, Relativity Space, and Bastion Technologies.
For more information about Student Launch, visit:
Student Launch Website Taylor Goodwin
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256.544.0034
taylor.goodwin@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Oct 04, 2024 EditorBeth RidgewayLocationMarshall Space Flight Center Related Terms
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