Recent Posts

• Journey to Palomar
• A Hands-On Approach to Workforce Development
• Who Owns the Moon?
• Kennedy vs. Obama on Space
• Partnering with NASA
• Calling all Aerospace Industry Professionals
• NASA to the Rescue!
• Will an Asteroid Hit the Earth?
• Industry Tour #2
• Industry Tours

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Journey to Palomar

September 23rd, 2008   By Matt   Filed Under Meeting Space, Student Space  

There is a new documentary about the events leading up to the creation of the observatory at Palomar Mountain in San Diego County.  Astronomers were the first space explorers, and this documentary covers the work by George Hale and others on creating the first of the telescopes that started to give us the kind of data that changed our understanding of the universe.  If this doesn’t immediately strike you as an interesting story, it may help to note that Palomar was the biggest telescope in the world at the time and that it took over twenty years to complete it, starting one year before the beginning of the great depression.  The mirror itself took 11 years to finish, and moving it to its final location at the observatory was national news at the time.

Their will be a webcast for students and educators to take place on Wednesday, October 8, 2008 at 11:00 a.m. Pacific time.  Participants in the interactive session will have the opportunity to ask questions directly to a panel of leading scientists inlcuding Nobel Laureate Dr. John Mather, Science Director for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope; Carnegie Observatories Director, Dr. Wendy Freedman on the Giant Magellan Telescope; and Caltech Optical Observatories Director Emeritus, Dr. Richard Ellis on the Thirty-Meter Telescope.  The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Derrick Pitts, television personality and Chief Astronomer at the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia.  This will be a great opportunity for any young student interested in space science or astronomy.

A Hands-On Approach to Workforce Development

September 19th, 2008   By Matt   Filed Under Your Work Space  

I attended the Space 2008 Conference last week in San Diego to present some of our recent work on workforce development (including this blog), and found that the workforce issue was a major topic of discussion.  Lieutenant Governor Garamendi spent a significant portion of his time addressing the audience on this topic, along with others.

Also presenting at Space 2008 on the workforce topic was Richard Rieber, a young engineer at JPL who has been working on a program called Phaeton that struck me as a brilliant meshing of the conflicting requirements that are typically put forth by the incoming workforce and some of the typical needs of management specific to the space community.  The program is centered around providing short term (~3 years) rapid development and prototyping projects that require new hires at JPL to apply their skills to the full cycle of a project, while providing access to their more experienced co-workers.  While the missions under Phaeton are mostly not focused on creating flight hardware, they are intended to provide useful technology development back to JPL, for instance, raising the TRL of a new technology so that it can become eligible for incorporation into future NASA missions.  In the mean time, the participants have developed skills and experience that will benefit their future assignments.

As with most things, the key to effectiveness is in the details.  The projects under Phaeton are conducted in a lab dedicated to these projects.  This allows for the work environment to be set up in a very “Millennial” way.  Reconfigurable common workspaces, combined with a slightly more casual area and an “engineering bullpen”.  Documentation is completed via wiki, and the IT infrastructure is set up to allow for most of the work to be done via laptops.  The engineering workstations and other equipment are clustered together and common to all of the projects.  The overall effect is that space and time are made flexible and team work is enabled through the physical arrangement of the lab and through the collaboration oriented knowledge management setup.

The program is staffed in such a way that about half of the young professionals’ time is dedicated to Phaeton activity, while the rest of their time goes to their “regular” duties.  The mentors are staffed to provide guidance on an as needed basis.  Other experienced engineers contribute to technical oversite and project milestone reviews.

The most interesting aspect of this program to me is the fact that Phaeton was started by young scientists and engineers at JPL.  Rieber and his team are working to bring the program up to full capacity (approximately three concurrent and phase staggered projects).  It will be interesting to see how the program progresses.  I am sure their work will encourage other young talent to follow in their footsteps.

But what does this mean in the context of the space enterprise community?  Could the Phaeton model be the beginning of a trend for the aerospace community?  As space companies, government agencies, and research facilities are required to compete with companies like Google for top engineering talent, will they begin to adopt more and more of their workspace practices?  A trend towards the “Googleization” of the aerospace work environment would be an interesting development.

How many other organizations in the space community are doing something similar with their work environments?  Answer in the comments!

Who Owns the Moon?

August 7th, 2008   By _randall   Filed Under Babble Space, Meeting Space  

*WHAT:* The eleventh Luna Philosophie will feature Steve Durst from the Board
of Directors of the International Lunar Observatory Association and Dr.
William Marshal of NASA Ames.  The two will share various views on Space
Property Rights from industry, United Nations, and the US Government.

*WHO OWNS THE MOON?*
With a boom of countries and commercial entities looking to go to the moon,
who can claim land on it?  There are websites one can go to and purchase
land on the moon, but if someone lands their spacecraft here, do they owe
rent?  Come hear the various points of view including the several UN
resolutions on the topic, why they might not be binding, and suggest a new
plan to move forward.

Some topics to discuss include:
- Can someone own land on the moon?
- Do non-government groups have to respect the resolutions of the United
Nations on this topic?
- Can one sell the resources gathered from the moon in a mining operation?

*WHEN:* Tuesday, August 5, 2008 from 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
6:00 - 6:30 PM Socializing
6:30 - 7:00 PM Presentation by Steve Durst and William Marshal
7:00 - 7:30 PM Discussion
7:30 - 8:00 PM Socializing

*WHERE:* Yahoo! Brickhouse, 500 3rd St, in San Francisco
([http://upcoming.yahoo.com/venue/59350/])
WHO: All are welcome!

For more information on Luna Philosophie, visit:
[http://colab.arc.nasa.gov/luna]

Kennedy vs. Obama on Space

July 30th, 2008   By _randall   Filed Under Political Space  

While Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has been compared to John F. Kennedy, Obama has been far less supportive of human spaceflight today than Kennedy was nearly 50 years ago. Michael Huang makes the case for Obama to change course. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1171/1 to view the article.

Partnering with NASA

July 30th, 2008   By _randall   Filed Under Babble Space, Meeting Space  

August 5, 2008

WHAT: The tenth Luna Philosophie will feature Doug Comstock, who directs NASA’s
Innovative Partnerships Program (IPP).  He will speak on some of the
technological breakthroughs that have come through partnering with NASA.

PARTNERING WITH NASA:  INNOVATION THROUGH COLLABORATION
Come learn about how NASA works with external organizations to bring space
technology down toEarth, and bring new technologies from outside of NASA into
the organization.  Part of the talk will focus on IPP’s Centennial Challenges
Program, NASA’s ‘citizen inventor’ program, with an upcoming event in Santa Rosa
for a “Green Prize” for aviation transportation.

Some topics to discuss include:
*  How do you successfully foster innovation in large organizations?
*  How do partnerships factor into the future of NASA?
*  What are some of the most surprising benefits of space technology to the
general public?

WHEN:  Tuesday, August 5, 2008 from 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
6:00 – 6:30 PM Socializing
6:30 – 7:00 PM Presentation by Doug Comstock
7:00 – 7:30 PM Discussion
7:30 – 8:00 PM Socializing

WHERE: Yahoo! Brickhouse, 500 3rd St, in San Francisco
([http://upcoming.yahoo.com/venue/59350/])

WHO: All are welcome!

RSVP: at upcoming.org

For more information on Luna Philosophie, visit:
[http://colab.arc.nasa.gov/luna]

Calling all Aerospace Industry Professionals

July 10th, 2008   By Thend   Filed Under Industry Space, Student Space  

The California Space Education & Workforce Institute would like to personally invite you to participate in our new virtual mentoring program!!!

Our goal is to encourage current university students to choose a career path in aerospace, and to offer them guidance on their pathway to success from an industry professional.
We have partnered with an organization called Icouldbe.org to bring you a virtual mentoring website that will provide you with a CONVENIENT yet effective way to make a positive impact on a university student’s life.  You can mentor a university student via email- requiring up to only 1 hour of your time per week.

STEP 1

Please register as a CSEWI MENTOR through our secure website below:
www.icouldbe.org/csewi

NASA to the Rescue!

July 9th, 2008   By _randall   Filed Under Babble Space, Big Idea Space, Factoid Space  

NASA is providing the Ikhana Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) in support of the California fires. Ikhana is a Predator B modified to perform multiple civil research roles and capable of collecting data for up to 30 hours. The Ikhana aircraft position as well as all the geo- and terrain-registered data from the AMS-Wildfire instrument can be observed using the CDE linkages. On July 8, 2008 the Ikhana flew on a 10-hour mission over the most active California wildfires to collect data in both northern and southern California.

Will an Asteroid Hit the Earth?

July 8th, 2008   By _randall   Filed Under Meeting Space  

July 23, 2008: Luna Philosophie

*WHAT:*  The ninth Luna Philosophie will feature Rusty Schweickart, Apollo 9
Astronaut, of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE).  Rusty will give a
presentation about the threat of “Near Earth Objects (NEO).”

————WILL AN ASTEROID HIT THE EARTH?————

It has happened in the past, more often than most people think.  Rusty is the
chair of the ASE’s Standing Committee on NEOs which is currently working on
both international policy for the decision process of how to handle a potential
impact as well as the technology for how to prevent an impact.  After a
presentation by Rusty there will be open discussion about the policy decision
process and technical challenges of preventing potential impacts from NEOs.

Some Topics for discussion:
- Who is financially responsible for preventing an impact?
- Who is responsible for making a decision to prevent an impact?
- What information should be public?

Space is limited, so please RSVP as indicated at Upcoming

*WHEN:* Wednesday, July 23st, 2008 from 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
6:00 – 6:30 PM Socializing
6:30 – 7:00 PM Presentation by Randy Kim and Patrick Hogan
7:00 – 7:30 PM Discussion
7:30 – 8:00 PM Socializing

*WHERE:* Yahoo! Brickhouse, 500 3rd St, in San Francisco
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/venue/59350/

*WHO:* All are welcome!

*RSVP:* http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/593639/?ps=6

 

 

 

Industry Tour #2

June 26th, 2008   By Thend   Filed Under Student Space  

11 students from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona visited Kelly Space & Technology in San Bernardino and received a tour from the Program Managers there. The tour was held from 3:00pm-5:00pm on Friday May 23, 2008.

In spite of the rainy weather, the students, accompanied by the Director of Maximizing Engineering Potential (MEP) at Cal Poly Pomona, were there with lots of questions for the program managers. In fact, they remained after the tour ended asking questions and listening to the experiences and stories of the engineers there. The group consisted of the full range of students from freshmen to graduating seniors. For less than half of these students this was a 1st time visit to an aerospace company. Every student stated that the tour was excellent and sparked their interest even further in the aerospace industry. When asked what they gained from the tour the following were some of their responses:

“Good insight into how a real aerospace company works & what to look for in my first job”

“I experienced a work environment”

“Enlightening towards idea of what engineering is really about”

“Showed me how propulsion and rocket testing worked which was something I’ve always considered”

“Interesting look at R&D”

“I obtained a better understanding of an engineer’s duties and responsibilities. Also, I received advice on what types of education to pursue”

“Very real information and experience from engineers and life stories that were very beneficial to my career choices”

“I received very helpful insight to what direction I will take in the next few years in school as well as my career”

Industry Tours

June 26th, 2008   By Thend   Filed Under Student Space  

On May 23, 2008 CSEWI set up innovation tours at 2 aerospace companies for university students from Cal Poly Pomona University and University of California, Irvine to encourage them to seek a career in the Aerospace Industry.

5 students from UC Irvine visited Northrop Grumman Space Technology and received a tour from the University Relations & Recruiting Manager there. The tour was held from 11:00am-12:30pm on a very rainy day. In spite of the weather the students, accompanied by the Director of the Center for Opportunities and Diversity in Engineering (CODE) at UCI, were there on time and excited to see what Northrop Grumman had to offer.

The group consisted of a couple sophomores, one senior and a couple of juniors. For one of the students this was a 1st time visit to an aerospace company. All five of them agreed that the tour sparked their interest even further in the aerospace industry. When asked what they gained from the tour the following were a couple of the responses:

“Acquired knowledge of past/present/future outer space technology & its objectives”

“It gave me a perspective on the diverse opportunities offered at this company”

“Showed different applications for my chosen degree/career path”