IAC in Korea

As many of you know, I spent last week at the International Astronautical Congress in Daejeon, Korea. This was an amazing experience culturally and professionally. I had the opportunity to have conversations with the current NASA Administrator, Charles Bolden, two of the Associate Administrators, many astronauts, and several big wigs in large aerospace companies. I, also, saw the President of Korea speak and had dinner with the Vice Mayor of Daejeon. In addition, the organizers provided many opportunities to experience the culture of Korea. While I must admit that I wasn't crazy about all of the food, the entertainment was great! Unfortunately, I was using my point-and-shoot camera and the lighting was rarely good so I don't have much in the way of pictures. That said, here are a few pictures and a video.

Shuttle Fly Over

Today the shuttle flew right over our house on the back of a 747 on it's way back to Florida from California. It was a great site to see, and may be one of the last opportunities we have. Since I was home with Jackson today, I was able to get a few pictures.

Working in Hawaii

Ross is still planning to do a post about his trip, but here's an article about what he did. It even includes a quote from him!

Ross has also posted some pictures in the album. He really did spend the majority of his time working really hard, but he was able to get some amazing pitcures during his time off. Here's one of my favorites.

Back to Work

We survived my first week back to work. I'm so glad it was only a 4 day week because I don't know if I could have made it another day. I am exhausted. The first day Ross and I dropped Jackson off at day care together. I got emotional, but I was able to hold it together. I did pretty well until I called the day care and found out he wasn't sleeping well. Then I made sure to keep myself busy until I could leave for the day. When I picked him up he cried the whole way home. Then he ate and went to sleep only waking up to eat. That's how most of the week went, which meant we didn't get to see much of him this week, so I'm really looking forward to the weekend. I'm exhausted because I tried to get everything I was doing while on leave done in the evenings, which meant I stayed up too late. Then Jackson would wake me up around 2 to eat. I have a hard time getting back to sleep, so I only got about an hour of sleep after that feeding before it was time to get started for the day. I'm going to have to change my habits so I can keep going. It's hard not to want to try to do everything, but it's just not possible.

We think Jackson isn't sleeping well at day care because he's not used to the noise and the bright lights. Hopefully he will adjust quickly. The teachers have been great so far. They are great at communicating. I really feel like I still know what his day is like even though I'm not there. I think the week went about as well as it could. We just both need to work on getting more sleep!

A Week in Arlington, TX

Ross, Jackson, and I spent last week in Arlington, TX. Ross was there for a workshop on autonomous vehicle systems, so Jackson and I joined him for the week. We spent a lot of time in the hotel room, but fortunately we got a suite, which made life in a hotel with a baby a lot easier!

My mom made her way over at the end of the week for a visit. She kept Jackson for us so we could enjoy an evening out just the two of us, which was nice. Here's a picture of the two of them enjoying some time together. There are more pics in the album too.

Today we went to church, and Jackson went to the nursery for the first time. He was the only baby today, so he got a lot of attention. The lady keeping him said he did great. I'm so glad we decided to start taking him to the nursery because it allowed me to really focus on God during the service instead of worrying about whether or not Jackson was about to start crying. I think it will also help me get used to the idea of taking him to day care. Of course, one hour is a lot different than eight.

Carnegie Mellon Trip

I took a trip to Pittsburgh last week for work. I am working on a project with the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute on a lunar rover called Scarab. It is a pretty cool rover that carries a drill for sample collection as well as the equipment for processing. Anyway, Neptec is providing our TriDAR sensor for drill site selection, drill site inspection, and navigation. I was there with a coworker, Adam, to do some testing and observe some of CMU's testing.

As an added bonus, I got to ride on an offroad Segway! It was pretty fun. Here is a picture of me on the Segway next to the rover and there are a few more in the album.

Travel Tip - SideStep

Today, I was looking at flights for a business trip and I thought I would share my favorite travel site: SideStep.com. It searches multiple travel sites to help you find the best deal, but it is really the interface that makes me like it so much. I've never used another site that lets you adjust so many preferences (layover time, layover airport, etc) but it also shows you the effect of your preference on price before you make it and updates your results in real time. You, also, can get results for nearby airports and flexible dates. I think you may need to register for some of the features, but it is worth it.

Final Shift...

Today was my last shift as an ODIN (Onboard Data Interfaces and Networks) Officer for the International Space Station (ISS) supporting a shuttle flight. It was bitter-sweet. The timing of my move out of the world of flight control was definitely right with a baby on the way and a desire to focus on other things in my life, but it’s a hard world to leave. Fortunately, I’ll still be supporting the ODIN console as needed during increment operations, which is the time between shuttle flights, so they haven’t completely gotten rid of me yet.

This flight was a special one to me for many reasons. I was the Lead ODIN for this mission, so I have spent several years planning and training for it. It was the mission where our European Space Agency (ESA) partners attached their first module, Columbus, to the ISS. They have been a privilege to work with, and I have been very proud of their performance as flight controllers. This mission did not exactly go according to plan, especially for the ODIN system. During the activation of the Columbus computer systems, the US computers encountered a software problem that brought the activation of this new module to a halt. The teams worked together beautifully to resolve this and other computer problems that occurred in both the US and ESA systems. Once resolved, the module was activated, and the teams were able to celebrate briefly before getting back to work.

This mission also became more important to me after attending International Space University’s Summer Session Program in 2006. I spent the summer working with several members of the ESA team and people from countries all over the world. With the activation of the ESA Columbus module and the JAXA module that is planned to be launched in April, the ISS is finally coming together and bringing people all over the world together as a result.

Finally, as the ODIN lead for this flight I had the opportunity to work with a great group of people internally at NASA. I couldn’t have hoped for a better team. To top that off, this mission turned out to be the last one for my lead Flight Director, Sally Davis, as well. Sally celebrated her 400th shift as an ISS Flight Director during this mission, but she has worked over 1000 shifts throughout her career. She is not leaving NASA but moving on to a different role. She has commanded great respect throughout the time I have known her, and I am proud to have worked under her guidance.

It’s been quite a mission!

Flying the Shuttle!

Today I got to go for a ride in the motion based simulator of the shuttle with a few other folks that I work with. It was so much fun! We started with a launch. The simulator actually puts you on your back so you get the feeling of 1G in your chest. In a real launch scenario, the astronauts feel 3G, but this is how they train. The ride up wasn't nearly as rough as I expected it to be. The instructor actually compared it to riding down a cobblestone road. I'm not sure if that's realistic or not for a real launch.

A few minutes into the launch, we simulated a main engine failure, which meant we would return to the launch site for a landing. The ride back to the ground was interesting. We went from our backs to a seated position to our backs and to a seated position again during the different stages of RTLS (return to launch site). The instructor landed the shuttle the first time to show us what to do, but then we each got to take a turn landing. We all managed to land the shuttle successfully, which is quite an accomplishment from what I understand.

It was an awesome experience. It probably would have been even better for me if I hadn't been sick. I have a bad cold, so being on my back for that long just made me feel even more congested. It was worth it though!

Neptec Christmas Party

Last night was Neptec's Christmas Party at Cafe Annie. We have a pretty big social budget but the only thing we ever do is the Christmas party so it is always at some fancy restaurant and we get dressed up and have a good time. Last night was no different. We had a private room which happened to be the wine room. We shared many appetizers including sea scallops with grilled applewood bacon, 'chicken fried' gulf shrimp with lobster cabbage slaw, tostada of gulf crab meat with avocado relish, wood grilled quail with white cheddar ancho chile relleno, and salad of seared rare tuna with roasted beets and frisee. Wow! This stuff was incredible!

For our dinners, E had wood grilled lamb chops with smoked almond and cocoa recado and I had wood grilled salmon with BBQ quajillo chile sauce. Mine was a perfectly cooked piece of fish (which I ordered medium) and E's was the best lamb I've ever had (also medium). We finished off with pound cake and chocolate cobbler for dessert. Talk about a great meal. Throw in some great service, great company, great wine, and a great atmosphere and you can't ask for much more.

Congratulations Neptec!

Tonight, we went to a STS-118 Post-Flight Debrief where Neptec received a Flight Crew and Flight Director Team Award for our work analyzing the damage on STS-118. Andrew Montpool, the Neptec LCS Operations Team Lead, accepted the award from JSC Center Director Mike Coats and STS-118 Mission Commander Scott Kelly. After the team and individual awards, the astronauts and lead flight directors received medals for their work and then we watched a video of the mission while the astronauts narrated. It was fun to see the recap and hear the astronauts' take on things. The night was wrapped up with a question and answer period. Below, is Andrew, myself, Vic, and Cheryl Kokosz.

E's New Gig!

For those that haven't heard, Elizabeth has been accepted as the new Technical Assistant for Management Integration for the Expedition Vehicle Division of NASA. I really think this job is going to be right up her alley. She'll get to show off her organizational skills and apply some of her Industrial Engineering training. I can't say much else about the job (because it's still a little vague to me) but maybe she'll post an update at some point. Also, for now, she'll still have to support the ODIN group and finish out some of her commitments. Hopefully she won't get overloaded. Anyway, I hope you will join me in giving her congratulations!

You rock, babe!

AUVSI Show

So this post is a little late considering that E already posted something about the shuttle mission but it has, after all, been a busy couple of weeks. Anyway, right after we got back from St. Lucia (that same weekend), I left for another business trip to Washington, DC. This time I was attending the 2007 Association for Unmanned Systems International Annual Conference and Exhibit. It was a pretty cool show with all kinds of unmanned vehicles.

To be clear, 'unmanned' does not necessarily mean automated but some of them actually do have a fairly high level of automation. The first day of the show was an all day outdoor demonstration of the systems so I got to see quite a few in action. I'd post videos but they are really pretty boring but you can see a few of the more interesting looking vehicles in the album. There were big trucks, tiny helicopters, weaponized bots, fast planes, retrofit vehicles, and several futurist looking vehicles among others.

2 More KSC Trips (Continued)

The first part of this entry really contains most of the story. The rest of the time was pretty uneventful although I did see some other cool stuff so I'll share some of that now. When we went out to the launch pad to work, the Crawler was at one of our stops so I got a picture next to it (below). Unfortunately, it was dark so I didn't get any really good pictures but you can see how huge it is.

Speaking of huge, I took some pictures of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) with some workers on it to give a sense of scale. You can see the series of pictures in the album or on Zooomr. Zooomr lets you add 'portals' on pictures so that when you hover over or click on a part of the image, you see the more detailed image. Sorry IE users, I couldn't get it to work in IE earlier but maybe you'll have more luck.

The other place I did some work this time was the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF). This is where Station components are stored and worked on before being launched. There are pictures of most of the components in the album. Elizabeth was most interested in Columbus because she is the lead for her group for that flight. Lastly, Andrew and I were led to the Mercury launch pad where John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth. Again it wasn't in great shape, but there were some cool monuments like the one below and the astronauts' parking spots are still there.

I also put the pictures of the Mercury Monument on Zooomr with the same click zoom coolness!

2 More KSC Trips

Over the last 2 weeks, I've made 2 more trips out to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. These trips were much more relaxed than my last one so I got to do some more sight seeing. I've updated the KSC album with a bunch of pictures from the trips. The first trip included some work at the launch pad again and both trips included some work at the Space Station Processing Facility so there are pictures from both of these places. However, I think the coolest part of my trips was driving around the Cape Canaveral Air Force Base to see some of the old spaceflight memorabilia.

Andrew, my coworker and friend, and I decided to go see the Apollo I launch pad, where three astronauts tragically lost their lives in 1967. However, neither of us knew where it was and there were no signs pointing us in the right direction so we ended up on an interesting journey around the base. First, we visited a missile and space museum that a sign led us to. It was interesting, especially the fact that it was open but no one was there and the lights were off. I guess you can do that when badges are required just to get to it. We turned the lights on and had a look around (there are quite a few pictures in the album). Next, we stumbled upon the old lighthouse and a couple of Delta rockets on their launch pads (pic). At this point we had driven quite a bit and needed to go to the space center for some work.

We continued our quest the next day with some vague guidance. We ended up at a back entrance to the Shuttle Pad and also passed "The Beach House" which is one of the places crews hang out before launches. The guard at the Pad gate gave us some more directions and we eventually stumbled upon the Apollo I Pad. In fact, we realized after we got there that there was a direct route that ended on the complete opposite side of the pad. I thought our meandering was so funny that I made a Google My Map documenting the journey (I know I'm a nerd).

So, there really isn't that much at the Apollo I Pad to see but I like the picture above (and there are others in the album) and it is cool to see where it happened. There is more to talk about but this is getting long and I am getting tired so it will have to wait. TO BE CONTINUED...

Successful Atlantis Launch!

The Shuttle successfully launched Friday evening which is both good and bad. Of course, we would never wish for a launch delay but it does mean that E and I both have to work tough hours. You might notice the time of this post (~3AM). I am currently working midnight to 9AM and E is working 4AM to 1PM. It's not too bad though; at least we aren't working opposite shifts.

Whirlwind Trip to KSC

This weekend, I took a trip to NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) for work. It was a quick trip, but an exciting one. For every Shuttle flight, we make a couple of trips to KSC for equipment testing. The reason I titled this "Whirlwind Trip to KSC" is because I left Houston at 8:50 am on Friday, spent ~12 hours at KSC that day and got back to Houston at 4:00 pm on Saturday. For this trip, we were on the launch pad so I got to see the Shuttle in its vertical position and we worked in the payload bay area. Check out the pictures in the photo album including a couple of me in my bunny suit. You'll probably notice some spots on the external tank that are lighter in color. This is where they repaired the hail damage that originally delayed the launch.

Washington, DC

A couple weekends ago, I had to go to Washington, DC on business so Elizabeth joined me for the weekend. We had a great time going to the air and space museum, the modern art museum, and the holocaust museum. Actually, the holocaust museum was a little depressing but definitely worth a visit. We also spent some time just walking around seeing the sights. There are quite a few pictures in the album. Most of the pictures are from the air and space museum but my favorite is the one you see here of E outside the modern art museum. As you can tell from her dress, it was freakishly cold while we were there but it was fun anyway.

While we were there, one of my coworkers hooked us up with some tickets to go see a show at the Kennedy Center. Turns out his brother is the technical director there so he was able to get us tickets to the sold out show. However, when we got there, the tickets were no where to be found. It seems that the Kennedy Center lost the tickets which really sucks since he had actually paid for them. I assume he got his money back but it was a little disappointing to get there and then get turned away. Can't feel too bad though since we didn't have to pay for them and we weren't expecting to go in the beginning because it was sold out. Anyway, we spent the rest of that day shopping in Georgetown and then ate at a great Indian restaurant. Overall, a pretty good trip!