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By NASA
The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 were a national tragedy that resulted in a staggering loss of life and a significant change in American culture. Each year, we pause and remember. Beyond honoring the Americans who died that day, NASA also assisted FEMA in New York in the days afterward, and remembered the victims by providing flags flown aboard the Space Shuttle to their families.
NASA astronaut Jessica Meir photographed the New York City area from the International Space Station in March 2020. Credits: NASA European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet photographed the city Washington D.C. and the surrounding area on April 11, 2017, from his vantage point aboard the International Space Station. Credits: ESA/NASA Astronaut Frank Culbertson – The Only American Off the Planet
Expedition 3 Commander Frank Culbertson was aboard the International Space Station at the time of the attacks, and the only American on the crew. As soon as he learned of the attacks, he began documenting the event in photographs because the station was flying over the New York City area. He captured incredible images in the minutes and hours following the event. From his unique vantage point in space, he recorded his thoughts of the world changing beneath him.
Watch Video: Culbertson Remembers 9/11
The following day, he posted a public letter that captured his initial thoughts of the events as they unfolded. “The world changed today. What I say or do is very minor compared to the significance of what happened to our country today when it was attacked.”
Upon further reflection, Culbertson said, “It’s horrible to see smoke pouring from wounds in your own country from such a fantastic vantage point. The dichotomy of being on a spacecraft dedicated to improving life on the earth and watching life being destroyed by such willful, terrible acts is jolting to the psyche, no matter who you are.”
Read Culbertson’s Full Letter
Video: Station Astronauts Honor 9/11 Victims
Visible from space, a smoke plume rises from the Manhattan area after two planes crashed into the towers of the World Trade Center. This photo was taken of metropolitan New York City (and other parts of New York as well as New Jersey) the morning of September 11, 2001. Credits: NASA NASA Science Programs Monitor the Air
NASA science programs were called into action after Sept. 11, 2001, as the agency worked with FEMA to fly sensors over the affected areas on aircraft looking for aerial contaminants and used satellite resources to monitor from above.
Flags for Heroes and Families
View of New York City from orbit on Sept. 11, 2001. Credit: NASA/Frank Culbertson NASA flew nearly 6,000 4 by 6 inch flags on Endeavour’s flight during STS-108 to honor the victims of the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania. Students working at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas assembled the commemorative packages, including the U.S. flags flown in space, to be presented to relatives of the victims. Distribution began on June 14, 2002, National Flag Day, at a ceremony held at the American Museum of Natural History’s Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York.
“The ‘Flags for Heroes and Families’ campaign is a way for us to honor and show our support for the thousands of brave men and women who have selflessly contributed to the relief and recovery efforts,” said then-NASA Administrator Dan Goldin. “The American flags are a patriotic symbol of our strength and solidarity, and our Nation’s resolve to prevail.”
“NASA wanted to come up with an appropriate tribute to the people who lost their lives in the tragic events of September 11,” added Goldin. “America’s space program has a long history of carrying items into space to commemorate historic events, acts of courage and dramatic achievements. ‘Flags for Heroes and Families’ is a natural extension of this ongoing outreach project.”
Read More About ‘Flags for Heroes and Families’→
Commemoration Goes to Mars
View of New York City from orbit on Sept. 11, 2001. Credit: NASA/Frank Culbertson In September 2001, Honeybee Robotics employees in lower Manhattan were building a pair of tools for grinding weathered rinds off rocks on Mars, so that scientific instruments on NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity could inspect the rocks’ interiors.
That month’s attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Center, less than a mile away, shook the lives of the employees and millions of others.
Work on the rock abrasion tools needed to meet a tight schedule to allow thorough testing before launch dates governed by the motions of the planets. The people building the tools could not spend much time helping at shelters or in other ways to cope with the life-changing tragedy of Sept. 11. However, they did find a special way to pay tribute to the thousands of victims who perished in the attack.
An aluminum cuff serving as a cable shield on each of the rock abrasion tools on Mars was made from aluminum recovered from the destroyed World Trade Center towers. The metal bears the image of an American flag and fills a renewed purpose as part of solar system exploration.
One day, both rovers will be silent. In the cold, dry environments where they have worked on Mars, the onboard memorials to victims of the Sept. 11 attack could remain in good condition for millions of years.
Read More About the Rovers’ 9/11 Tribute
NASA Kennedy Adds Florida Touch to Sept. 11 Flag
The contributions of NASA and Kennedy Space Center were stitched into the fabric of one of the nation’s most recognizable symbols, when flags from Florida’s Spaceport were sewn into an American Flag recovered near ground zero following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The National 9/11 Flag was raised over the Rocket Garden at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex after Florida’s contribution was added. Credits: NASA/Kim Shiflett “A few days after the collapse of the World Trade Center this flag was hanging on a scaffolding at 90 West Street, which was a building directly south of the World Trade Center that was heavily damaged when the south tower collapsed,” said Jeff Parness, director, founder and chairman of the “New York Says Thank You Foundation.”
The flag went on to become one of the most enduring symbols of the recovery from the attack. “The National 9/11 Flag” is a permanent part of the collection of the National September 11 Memorial Museum at the World Trade Center site. There, America’s flag can evoke a sense of pride, unity and hunger to keep achieving greatness, just as the nation’s space program has for more than half a century.
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Video: Kennedy Adds Florida Touch to 9/11 Flag
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By NASA
5 Min Read 9 Phenomena NASA Astronauts Will Encounter at Moon’s South Pole
An artist’s rendering of an Artemis astronaut working on the Moon’s surface. Credits:
NASA NASA’s Artemis campaign will send the first woman and the first person of color to the Moon’s south polar region, marking humanity’s first return to the lunar surface in more than 50 years.
Here are some out-of-this-world phenomena Artemis astronauts will experience:
1. A Hovering Sun and Giant Shadows
This visualization shows the motions of Earth and the Sun as viewed from the South Pole of the Moon.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Near the Moon’s South Pole, astronauts will see dramatic shadows that are 25 to 50 times longer than the objects casting them. Why? Because the Sun strikes the surface there at a low angle, hanging just a few degrees above the horizon. As a result, astronauts won’t see the Sun rise and set. Instead, they’ll watch it hover near the horizon as it moves horizontally across the sky.
2. Sticky, Razor-Sharp Dust …
This dust particle came from a lunar regolith sample brought to Earth in 1969 by Apollo 11 astronauts. The particle is about 25 microns across, less than the width of an average human hair. The image was taken with a scanning electron microscope. The lunar dust, called regolith, that coats the Moon’s surface looks fine and soft like baking powder. But looks can be deceiving. Lunar regolith is formed when meteoroids hit the Moon’s surface, melting and shattering rocks into tiny, sharp pieces. The Moon doesn’t have moving water or wind to smooth out the regolith grains, so they stay sharp and scratchy, posing a risk to astronauts and their equipment.
3. … That’s Charged with Static Electricity
Astronaut Eugene Cernan, commander of Apollo 17, inside the lunar module on the Moon after his second moonwalk of the mission in 1972. His spacesuit and face are covered in lunar dust. Because the Moon has no atmosphere to speak of, its surface is exposed to plasma and radiation from the Sun. As a result, static electricity builds up on the surface, as it does when you shuffle your feet against a carpeted floor. When you then touch something, you transfer that charge via a small shock. On the Moon, this transfer can short-circuit electronics. Moon dust also can make its way into astronaut living quarters, as the static electricity causes it to easily stick to spacesuits. NASA has developed methods to keep the dust at bay using resistant textiles, filters, and a shield that employs an electric field to remove dust from surfaces.
4. A New Sense of Lightness
In 1972, Apollo 16 astronaut Charles Duke hammered a core tube into the Moon’s surface until it met a rock and wouldn’t go any farther. Then the hammer flew from his hand. He made four attempts to pick it up by bending down and leaning to reach for it. He gave up and returned to the rover to get tongs to finally pick up the hammer successfully.
NASA’s Johnson Space Center Artemis moonwalkers will have a bounce to their step as they traverse the lunar surface. This is because gravity won’t pull them down as forcefully as it does on Earth. The Moon is only a quarter of Earth’s size, with six times less gravity. Simple activities, like swinging a rock hammer to chip off samples, will feel different. While a hammer will feel lighter to hold, its inertia won’t change, leading to a strange sensation for astronauts. Lower gravity has perks, too. Astronauts won’t be weighed down by their hefty spacesuits as much as they would be on Earth. Plus, bouncing on the Moon is just plain fun.
5. A Waxing Crescent … Earth?
This animated image features a person holding a stick with a sphere on top that represents the Moon. The person is demonstrating an activity that helps people learn about the phases of the Moon by acting them out. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory When Artemis astronauts look at the sky from the Moon, they’ll see their home planet shining back at them. Just like Earthlings see different phases of the Moon throughout a month, astronauts will see an ever-shifting Earth. Earth phases occur opposite to Moon phases: When Earth experiences a new Moon, a full Earth is visible from the Moon.
6. An Itty-Bitty Horizon
A view from the Apollo 11 spacecraft in July 1969 shows Earth rising above the Moon’s horizon. NASA Because the Moon is smaller than Earth, its horizon will look shorter and closer. To someone standing on a level Earth surface, the horizon is 3 miles away, but to astronauts on the Moon, it’ll be only 1.5 miles away, making their surroundings seem confined.
7. Out-of-This-World Temperatures
This graphic shows maximum summer and winter temperatures near the lunar South Pole. Purple, blue, and green identify cold regions, while yellow to red signify warmer ones. The graphic incorporates 10 years of data from NASA’s LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter), which has been orbiting the Moon since 2009.
NASA/LRO Diviner Seasonal Polar Data Because sunlight at the Moon’s South Pole skims the surface horizontally, it brushes crater rims, but doesn’t always reach their floors. Some deep craters haven’t seen the light of day for billions of years, so temperatures there can dip to minus 334 F. That’s nearly three times colder than the lowest temperature recorded in Antarctica. At the other extreme, areas in direct sunlight, such as crater rims, can reach temperatures of 130 F.
8. An Inky-Black Sky
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An animated view of Earth emerging below the horizon as seen from the Moon’s South Pole. This visual was created using a digital elevation map from LRO’s laser altimeter, LOLA. NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio The Moon, unlike Earth, doesn’t have a thick atmosphere to scatter blue light, so the daytime sky is black. Astronauts will see a stark contrast between the dark sky and the bright ground.
9. A Rugged Terrain
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An overhead view of the Moon, beginning with a natural color from a distance and changing to color-coded elevation as the camera comes closer. The visual captures the rugged terrain of the lunar South Pole area. It includes a color key and animated scale bar. This visual was created using a digital elevation map from NASA LRO’s laser altimeter, LOLA. NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio Artemis moonwalkers will find a rugged landscape that takes skill to traverse. The Moon has mountains, valleys, and canyons, but its most notable feature for astronauts on the surface may be its millions of craters. Near the South Pole, gaping craters and long shadows will make it difficult for astronauts to navigate. But, with training and special gear, astronauts will be prepared to meet the challenge.
By Avery Truman
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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Last Updated Sep 11, 2024 Related Terms
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By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Tests on Earth appear to confirm how the Red Planet’s spider-shaped geologic formations are carved by carbon dioxide.
Spider-shaped features called araneiform terrain are found in the southern hemisphere of Mars, carved into the landscape by carbon dioxide gas. This 2009 image taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows several of these distinctive formations within an area three-quarters of a mile (1.2 kilometers) wide. NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona Dark splotches seen in this example of araneiform terrain captured by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2018 are believed to be soil ejected from the surface by carbon dioxide gas plumes. A set of experiments at JPL has sought to re-create these spider-like formations in a lab. NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona Since discovering them in 2003 via images from orbiters, scientists have marveled at spider-like shapes sprawled across the southern hemisphere of Mars. No one is entirely sure how these geologic features are created. Each branched formation can stretch more than a half-mile (1 kilometer) from end to end and include hundreds of spindly “legs.” Called araneiform terrain, these features are often found in clusters, giving the surface a wrinkled appearance.
The leading theory is that the spiders are created by processes involving carbon dioxide ice, which doesn’t occur naturally on Earth. Thanks to experiments detailed in a new paper published in The Planetary Science Journal, scientists have, for the first time, re-created those formation processes in simulated Martian temperatures and air pressure.
Here’s a look inside of JPL’s DUSTIE, a wine barrel-size chamber used to simulate the temperatures and air pressure of other planets – in this case, the carbon dioxide ice found on Mars’ south pole. Experiments conducted in the chamber confirmed how Martian formations known as “spiders” are created.NASA/JPL-Caltech “The spiders are strange, beautiful geologic features in their own right,” said Lauren Mc Keown of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “These experiments will help tune our models for how they form.”
The study confirms several formation processes described by what’s called the Kieffer model: Sunlight heats the soil when it shines through transparent slabs of carbon dioxide ice that built up on the Martian surface each winter. Being darker than the ice above it, the soil absorbs the heat and causes the ice closest to it to turn directly into carbon dioxide gas — without turning to liquid first — in a process called sublimation (the same process that sends clouds of “smoke” billowing up from dry ice). As the gas builds in pressure, the Martian ice cracks, allowing the gas to escape. As it seeps upward, the gas takes with it a stream of dark dust and sand from the soil that lands on the surface of the ice.
When winter turns to spring and the remaining ice sublimates, according to the theory, the spiderlike scars from those small eruptions are what’s left behind.
These formations similar to the Red Planet’s “spiders” appeared within Martian soil simulant during experiments in JPL’s DUSTIE chamber. Carbon dioxide ice frozen within the simulant was warmed by a heater below, turning it back into gas that eventually cracked through the frozen top layer and formed a plume.NASA/JPL-Caltech Re-Creating Mars in the Lab
For Mc Keown and her co-authors, the hardest part of conducting these experiments was re-creating conditions found on the Martian polar surface: extremely low air pressure and temperatures as low as minus 301 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 185 degrees Celsius). To do that, Mc Keown used a liquid-nitrogen-cooled test chamber at JPL, the Dirty Under-vacuum Simulation Testbed for Icy Environments, or DUSTIE.
“I love DUSTIE. It’s historic,” Mc Keown said, noting that the wine barrel-size chamber was used to test a prototype of a rasping tool designed for NASA’s Mars Phoenix lander. The tool was used to break water ice, which the spacecraft scooped up and analyzed near the planet’s north pole.
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This video shows Martian soil simulant erupting in a plume during a JPL lab experiment that was designed to replicate the process believed to form Martian features called “spiders.” When a researcher who had tried for years to re-create these conditions spotted this plume, she was ecstatic. NASA/JPL-Caltech For this experiment, the researchers chilled Martian soil simulant in a container submerged within a liquid nitrogen bath. They placed it in the DUSTIE chamber, where the air pressure was reduced to be similar to that of Mars’ southern hemisphere. Carbon dioxide gas then flowed into the chamber and condensed from gas to ice over the course of three to five hours. It took many tries before Mc Keown found just the right conditions for the ice to become thick and translucent enough for the experiments to work.
Once they got ice with the right properties, they placed a heater inside the chamber below the simulant to warm it up and crack the ice. Mc Keown was ecstatic when she finally saw a plume of carbon dioxide gas erupting from within the powdery simulant.
“It was late on a Friday evening and the lab manager burst in after hearing me shrieking,” said Mc Keown, who had been working to make a plume like this for five years. “She thought there had been an accident.”
The dark plumes opened holes in the simulant as they streamed out, spewing simulant for as long as 10 minutes before all the pressurized gas was expelled.
The experiments included a surprise that wasn’t reflected in the Kieffer model: Ice formed between the grains of the simulant, then cracked it open. This alternative process might explain why spiders have a more “cracked” appearance. Whether this happens or not seems dependent on the size of soil grains and how embedded water ice is underground.
“It’s one of those details that show that nature is a little messier than the textbook image,” said Serina Diniega of JPL, a co-author of the paper.
What’s Next for Plume Testing
Now that the conditions have been found for plumes to form, the next step is to try the same experiments with simulated sunlight from above, rather than using a heater below. That could help scientists narrow down the range of conditions under which the plumes and ejection of soil might occur.
There are still many questions about the spiders that can’t be answered in a lab. Why have they formed in some places on Mars but not others? Since they appear to result from seasonal changes that are still occurring, why don’t they seem to be growing in number or size over time? It’s possible that they’re left over from long ago, when the climate was different on Mars— and could therefore provide a unique window into the planet’s past.
For the time being, lab experiments will be as close to the spiders as scientists can get. Both the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers are exploring the Red Planet far from the southern hemisphere, which is where these formations appear (and where no spacecraft has ever landed). The Phoenix mission, which landed in the northern hemisphere, lasted only a few months before succumbing to the intense polar cold and limited sunlight.
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Last Updated Sep 11, 2024 Related Terms
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By NASA
NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, announced Wednesday it will continue its historic in-space autonomous systems payload mission aboard an orbiting satellite through a follow-on agreement with Sidus Space, Inc.
“We are excited to report the historic ASTRA (Autonomous Satellite Technology for Resilient Applications) mission will continue,” said Chris Carmichael, chief, Stennis Autonomous Systems Laboratory (ASL) branch at NASA Stennis. “We look forward to working with Sidus Space to demonstrate the capabilities of the NASA Stennis payload and our autonomous systems team.”
With this new agreement, the ASTRA payload will be used to collect onboard data on satellite systems and support management of the satellite’s Electrical Power System (EPS). The NASA Stennis ASTRA system will monitor and autonomously optimize the satellite’s battery system, ensuring the satellite continues to operate as needed for the course of its remaining mission lifetime. The ASTRA EPS management capability provides a new, innovative level of adaptability and efficiency for monitoring the satellite’s ongoing operations.
Developed by NASA Stennis to fly and demonstrate an autonomous systems hardware/software payload, ASTRA is the on-orbit mission. The NASA Stennis ASTRA technology demonstrator is a payload rider aboard the Sidus Space LizzieSat-1 (LS-1) small satellite. Partner Sidus Space is responsible for all LS-1 mission operations, including launch and satellite activation.
The LS-1 small satellite launched into space on the SpaceX Transporter 10 rideshare mission March 4 and deployed the same day. Following payload activation by Sidus Space, the NASA Stennis team worked with the company to establish a telemetry link to send and receive data in the ASTRA Payload Operation Command Center located at the NASA site. The ASL team continued to checkout and verify operation of ASTRA, confirming in early July that ASTRA primary mission objectives were successful.
The team is now focused on demonstrating autonomous system management as part of the LS-1 satellite’s planned four-year mission. “We are excited about the opportunity to continue this unprecedented mission,” Carmichael said. “Every step helps advance our autonomous systems work and lays a foundation for continued development and success.”
The NASA Stennis ASL team works to create safe-by-design autonomous systems. NASA’s ASTRA demonstrates technology that is required by NASA and industry for upcoming space missions. The ASTRA computer on the satellite runs a digital twin of key satellite systems, which identifies anomalies, and autonomously generates plans to resolve those issues.
The ongoing success of the ASTRA mission comes as NASA Stennis moves forward with strategic plans to design autonomous systems that will help accelerate development of intelligent aerospace systems and services for government and industry.
For information about NASA’s Stennis Space Center, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/stennis
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By NASA
Linette Boisvert turned a childhood love of snow into a career as a sea ice scientist studying climate change.
Name: Linette Boisvert
Title: Assistant Lab Chief, Cryospheric Sciences Branch, and Deputy Project Scientist for the Aqua Satellite
Formal Job Classification: Sea Ice Scientist
Organization: Cryospheric Science Branch, Science Directorate (Code 615)
“When it snowed, school was cancelled so I loved winter weather, and I was fascinated how weather could impact our daily lives,” said Linette. “One of my undergraduate classes had a guest lecturer talk about the Arctic and that is when decided that I wanted to become an Arctic scientist.”Photo credit: NASA/Kyle Krabill What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard?
As a sea ice scientist, I study interactions between the sea ice and the atmosphere. I’m interested in how the changing sea ice conditions and loss of Arctic ice are affecting the atmospheric conditions in the Artic.
Why did you become a sea ice scientist? What is your educational background?
I grew up in Maryland. When it snowed, school was cancelled so I loved winter weather, and I was fascinated how weather could impact our daily lives. One of my undergraduate classes had a guest lecturer talk about the Arctic and that is when decided that I wanted to become an Arctic scientist. This also coincided with the Arctic sea ice minimum in 2007, at the time, a record low.
In 2008, I got a B.S. in environmental science with a minor in math from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). I received my master’s and, in 2013, got a Ph.D. in atmospheric and oceanic sciences from the University of Maryland, College Park.
How did you come to Goddard?
My doctorate advisor worked at Goddard. In 2009, he brought me into Goddard’s lab to do my Ph.D. research. I became a post-doctorate in 2013, an assistant research scientist in 2016 (employed by UMD/ESSIC) and, in 2018, a civil servant.
Dr. Linette Boisvert is a sea ice scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Photo credit: NASA/Jeremy Harbeck What is the most interesting field work you do as the assistant lab chief of Goddard’s Cryospheric Sciences Branch?
From 2018 to 2020, I was the deputy project scientist for NASA’s largest and longest running airborne campaign, Operation IceBridge. This involved flying aircraft with scientific instruments over both land ice and sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic. Every spring, we would set up a base camp in a U.S. Air Force base in Greenland and fly over parts of the sea ice over Greenland and the Arctic, and in the fall we would base out of places like Punta Arenas, Chile, and Hobart, Australia, to fly over the Antarctic.
We would fly low, at 1,500 feet above the surface. It is very, very cool to see the ice firsthand. It is so pretty, so vast, and complex. We would spend 12 hours a day on a plane just surveying the ice.
Being based out of Greenland is very remote. Everything is white. Everything looks like it is closer than it is. You do not have a point of reference for any perspective. It is very quiet. There is no background ambient noise. You do not hear bugs, birds, or cars, just quiet.
Our team was about 20 people. Other people live at the base. The campaigns lasted six to eight weeks. I was there about three to four weeks each time. Many of the group had been doing these campaigns for a decade. I felt like I had joined a family. In the evenings, we would often cook dinner together and play games. On days we could not fly, we would go on adventures together like visiting a glacier or hiking. We saw musk ox, Arctic fox, Arctic hares, and seals.
How did it feel to become the deputy project scientist for the Aqua satellite, which provided most of the data you used for your doctorate and publications?
In January 2023, I became the deputy project scientist for the Aqua satellite, which launched in 2002. Aqua measures the Earth’s atmospheric temperature, humidity, and trace gases. Most of my doctorate and publications used data from Aqua to look at how the sea ice loss in the Arctic is allowing for excess heat and moisture from the ocean to move into the atmosphere resulting in a warmer and wetter Arctic.
I am honored. I feel like I have come full circle. The team welcomed me into the mission and taught me a lot of things. I am grateful to be working with such a brilliant, hardworking team.
Who is your science hero?
My father encouraged me to get a doctorate in science. My father has a doctorate in computer science and math. He works at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. I wanted to be like him when I was growing up. I came close, working at NASA, another part of the federal government. My mother, a French pastry chef, always kept me well fed.
“We would fly low, at 1,500 feet above the surface,” said Linette. “It is very, very cool to see the ice firsthand. It is so pretty, so vast, and complex. We would spend 12 hours a day on a plane just surveying the ice.”Photo credit: NASA/John Sonntag My father is very proud of me. He thinks I am more of a superstar than he was at my age, but I do not believe it. My mother is also proud and continues to keep me well fed.
Who is your Goddard mentor?
Claire Parkinson, now an emeritus, was the project scientist for Aqua since its inception. When she retired, she encouraged me to apply for the deputy position. She had confidence in me which gave me the confidence to apply for the position. She is still always available to answer any questions. I am very thankful that she has been there for me throughout my career.
What advice do you give to those you mentor?
I recently began advising young scientists; one undergraduate student, two graduate students, and one post-doctoral scientist. We meet weekly as a group and have one-on-one meetings when appropriate. They share their progress on their work. Sometimes we practice presentations they are about to give.
It is sometimes hard starting out to think that you are smart because Goddard is full of so many smart people. I tell them that they are just as capable when it comes to their research topic. I tell them that they fit in well with the Goddard community. I want to create a comfortable, respectful, and inclusive environment so that they remain in science.
What do you do for fun?
I enjoy running and paddle boarding with my dog Remi, my long-haired dachshund. I enjoy reading. I love to travel and be around friends and family. But I do not enjoy cooking, so I do not bake French pastries like my mom.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
I hope to continue doing research including field work. It would be great if some of my students finished their studies and joined my lab. I hope that I am still making people proud of me.
What is your “six-word memoir”? A six-word memoir describes something in just six words.
Hard-working. Smart. Inquisitive. Adventurous. Kind. Happy.
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 Sep 10, 2024 EditorMadison OlsonContactRob Garnerrob.garner@nasa.govLocationGoddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
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