Chat Room Transcript - Chat Session, April 1, 2008 @ 7:00 pm

<Marah Perez> what kind of schooling did you have to have to be
   where you are now Mr. Smith?

<Jason Smith - NASA> Marah - yes, to move the vehicle to the left,
   we would have to push on the right side of the vehicle. We would
   do this by firing jets on the right side.

<Marah Perez> kool

<Larry Hoelscher> Is there a proper angle for re-entry, or does it
   depend on the correlation of the shuttle to the earth?

<Jason Smith - NASA> Marah - The minimum requirement is a four
   year degree in a science or engineering discipline.

<Jason Smith - NASA> I personally studied mechanical engineering
   as an undergraduate. I also did a masters degree in aeronautics and
   astronautics.

<Jason Smith - NASA> However, the people I work with in Mission
   Control have a wide variety of engineering and science
   backgrounds, so it really depends on your interests.

<Jason Smith - NASA> Larry - Good question. As you suspect, the
   angle at reentry is very important.

<Jason Smith - NASA> If it is too steep, heat will build up too quickly
   and the shuttle could burn up.

<Jason Smith - NASA> If it is too shallow, the shuttle could skip out
   of the atmosphere and would not re-enter. Or would re-enter in the
   wrong location.

<Marah Perez> Do you also have to have any experience to go along
   with your degrees?

<Jason Smith - NASA> The actual angle is dependent on the mission
   and it calculated using computers.

<Larry Hoelscher> Thanks

<Jason Smith - NASA> Marah - I think if you are asking about prior
   full-time work experience, it is not technically a requirement, but it
   could help.

<Tehreem Bilal> how long have you been working with nasa?

<Jason Smith - NASA> Also, many people start out working as
   co-ops while they are still in college.

<Marah Perez> ok..kool!

<Jason Smith - NASA> Although I did not do this, I know a lot of
   people who did. I am sure you will have a chance to learn more
   about the co-op program this summer.

<Jason Smith - NASA> Tehreem - I have been here for four years.

<Marah Perez> Great!

<Jason Smith - NASA> Other questions. Did I miss someone's
   question above?

<Tehreem Bilal> what else do you as flight control?

<Jason Smith - NASA> Good question. I have basically three parts to
   my job.

<Jason Smith - NASA> First, when the shuttle is actually flying, we
   have to support in Mission Control 24/7.

<Jason Smith - NASA> We do this basically as shift work.

<Jason Smith - NASA> So, we have 3 teams of people who work 8
   hours each. The bad news is that this means I may have to work
   during the night.

<Jason Smith - NASA> The good news is, it is a lot of fun to see the
   shuttle fly. They do some really amazing things in space, particularly
   now as they are assembling the space station.

<Jason Smith - NASA> The second part of my job is simulations.

<Jason Smith - NASA> This happens when the shuttle is not flying.

<Jason Smith - NASA> Simulations are like practice.

<Marah Perez> like under water simulation! lol

<Jason Smith - NASA> We sit in the control center, and folks in
   other rooms use computers to pretend that the shuttle is flying.

<Jason Smith - NASA> They can also pretend that things break. The
   flight control team then has to respond to fix the problem

<Marah Perez> That must be funny to see..that reminds me of owen
   wilson goes into the control room on Armagedon

<Tehreem Bilal> what kind of problems do you come across?

<Jason Smith - NASA> These simulations can be very difficult, as
   the people training us work hard to make us think.

<Jason Smith - NASA> The good news is that we can learn a lot
   during these events, but the bad news is that they can be very
   stressful.

<Jason Smith - NASA> The third part of my job is office work.

<Jason Smith - NASA> This is when we do not have a mission or a
   simulation that is going on.

<Jason Smith - NASA> Office work includes glamourous things like
   answering email, attending meetings, and writing reports.

<Jason Smith - NASA> The good news is that every once in a while,
   I can do other fun stuff, like chatting with all of you.

<Tehreem Bilal> o-la-la! :)

<Marah Perez> lol!

<Jason Smith - NASA> Tehreem - the list is endless.

<Jason Smith - NASA> There can be very minor trivial problems, like
   a sensor that fails.

<Jason Smith - NASA> Or there can be very serious problems, like a
   fire or loss of cabin pressure.

<Jason Smith - NASA> The point is to train the team to work through
   whatever possible thing could happen during a real mission.

<Jason Smith - NASA> Fortunately, during most missions, nothing
   major goes wrong.

<Jason Smith - NASA> But every once in a while the flight
   controllers are asked to work a big problem, and they need to be
   prepared if that time comes.

<Tehreem Bilal> cool

<Jason Smith - NASA> Anything else?

<Tehreem Bilal> even with the boring stuff, do you enjoy what you
   do?

<Jason Smith - NASA> Tehreem - I consider myself very lucky in
   that I can honestly say that I love my job.

<Jason Smith - NASA> Unfortunately, many people are not so lucky.

<Marah Perez> Your luck is similar to our luck sir...

<Tehreem Bilal> yup

<Jason Smith - NASA> I am a big believer that you must love what
   you do. No amount of money can compensate for not liking your
   job.

<Marah Perez> If you do something you don't enjoy, you will waste
   your life
> We have about 8 minutes left on this session. Any last questions?

<Tehreem Bilal> i'm good. thanks so much for your time Mr. Smith!

<Marah Perez> Thanks Muchos!
> Our next guest should be here in just a minute. Does anyone have
   any questions about the program?

<Jason Smith - NASA> Thanks everyone. I wish you all the best of
   luck and hopefully I will get to meet some of you this summer.
> Hi Amanda!

<Marah Perez> You said that the students will be chosen this month,
   is there gonna be 360 chosen still?
> Thanks Jason
> yes. that is the plan.
> Amanda is our next speaker

<Marah Perez> ok...SwEeT!

<Tehreem Bilal> that was fun too look at :)

<Tehreem Bilal> ***to

<Amanda Coots - NASA> Hi

<Tehreem Bilal> welcome back!

<Amanda Coots - NASA> I'll wait a few minutes to introduce
   myself, since I think I'm a little early.

<Amanda Coots - NASA> Jessica, are you going to continue to
   moderate?
> For now. You can go ahead and get started

<Amanda Coots - NASA> Okay. Welcome everybody. I'm excited
   to get the chance to talk to y'all.

<Amanda Coots - NASA> I work at JSC as flight controller.

<Amanda Coots - NASA> I work in the Data Processing Systems
   group which means I monitor the computer systems on the shuttle.

<Amanda Coots - NASA> I have been working at NASA fulltime for
   about a year, but before that, I was a co-op.

<Amanda Coots - NASA> And before that, I was a Highschool
   Aerospace Scholar

<Victor Lopez> W007! HAS :)

<Victor Lopez> How busy are you during flights?

<Amanda Coots - NASA> Usually, not very, because the computer
   systems are very reliable.

<Amanda Coots - NASA> But if something were to go wrong, we
   would be very busy very quickly.

<Victor Lopez> So are you in the mission control room? or in a
   different area

<Amanda Coots - NASA> We do work in the mission control room,
   although since I am fairly new, I'm currently only certified to work
   in what we call the Backroom.

<Amanda Coots - NASA> It's part of the Mission Control Center, but
   not what you see on TV.

<Amanda Coots - NASA> Every position in the frontroom (what you
   called the Mission Control room) has one or more backroom
   positions

<Amanda Coots - NASA> When we start, we certify to work in the
   backroom first, then in the frontroom.

<Victor Lopez> i see.. very cool! I am terribly sorry but I have to
   catch up on some homework so I am going to leave you now...
   Thank you for coming!

<Jake Ogle> So what do you do when you aren't doing anything? Or
   are you still just monitoring?

<Amanda Coots - NASA> We only monitor during the missions, in
   between, we are primarily training, but we are also responsible for
   maintaining the procedures that we use during mission,

<Amanda Coots - NASA> for handling issues with the software we
   use in the control center

<Amanda Coots - NASA> and preparing for the upcoming missions.

<Amanda Coots - NASA> The station flight controllers do monitor
   24/7/365 though.

<Jake Ogle> does your job ever seem, or get slightly monotonous or is
   it kinda fun?

<Amanda Coots - NASA> Some of both. Sometimes its really fun,
   but there are times when its a bit monotonous.

<Torrey Denson> Amanda, how does your day begin?

<Amanda Coots - NASA> It depends a lot on the particular day.
   Some days, it starts at my desk checking my email.

<Amanda Coots - NASA> Others it starts on console, getting a
   handover from the previous team, and setting up my console.

<Kylie Schott> I wish I could stay and listen longer but I have to go
   eat dinner.....thank you for talking with us!!!

<Amanda Coots - NASA> The console is what we call the
   computers that receive, process, and display the data coming from
   the shuttle.

<Amanda Coots - NASA> and our general workspace around those
   computers.

<Torrey Denson> Do you watch a number of crews at a time? or just
   one?

<Amanda Coots - NASA> Just the current shuttle crew. And most of
   the time, only the commander and pilot, because they are most
   trained on the computer systems.

<Torrey Denson> What is your favorite moment working with
   NASA?

<Amanda Coots - NASA> Well, it wasn't actually part of my job, per
   say, but while I was co-oping I had the opportunity to land the
   motion-based simulator, and that was very cool.

<Amanda Coots - NASA> Also, recently I visited KSC and go into
   the shuttle in the processing facility to see the computer systems.

<Amanda Coots - NASA> *and got to go into

<Amanda Coots - NASA> jets, cooling loops, fans, pumps, all sorts of things.

<Amanda Coots - NASA> All of the devices that the other flight controllers have to worry about.

<William KH> How often are there problems during shuttle flights?

<Amanda Coots - NASA> Big problems, not very often, little problems, occasionally. During this last mission, we had one very
   minor problem.

<Amanda Coots - NASA> A timer that the crew uses to view the current time went out.

<Jake Ogle> I know all of the systems work together for optimum performance but what would you say is the most important
   system? (exculding life suport)

<Amanda Coots - NASA> The computers of course.

<Torrey Denson> Are you able to tell us your next mission?

<Amanda Coots - NASA> Actually, from our systems perspective, all of the missions are pretty similar, so I actually don't
   know exactly what the next mission entails.

<Amanda Coots - NASA> I do know its a station assembly mission.

<Amanda Coots - NASA> We are taking a Japanese module up to be added to the ISS.

<Torrey Denson> I have to go. Thank you for your time.

<Amanda Coots - NASA> Jake - I say the computers are most important, not just because they are my system, but also
   because they are central to all of the other systems.

<Jake Ogle> i could see that, without computers you don't have much else do you...

<Amanda Coots - NASA> The computers are what the other disciplines use to monitor and control their devices.

<Amanda Coots - NASA> Without the computers, we can't even land, thats why there is so much redundancy.

<Jake Ogle> there isn't a manual landing method?

<Jake Ogle> incase of system failure...

<Amanda Coots - NASA> Its not like a car, where the steering wheel directly impacts the wheels. On the shuttle, the
   astronauts control goes directly to the computers which compute what all of the external surfaces need to be doing.

<Jake Ogle> ok...i fly small pipers and i just assumed it was like them

<Amanda Coots - NASA> It wouldn't be a single, or even two failures that would take out all of the computers.

<Jake Ogle> are there many back ups?

<Amanda Coots - NASA> Even a "generic" software problem is accounted for by having two different sets of completely
   independent software.

<Amanda Coots - NASA> There are 5 computers.

<Amanda Coots - NASA> 4 running the primary software, 1 running the backup software

<Amanda Coots - NASA> The two sets of software were developed by two different companies so its extremely unlikely
   there would be a common problem

<Amanda Coots - NASA> I don't know anything about small planes unfortunatly...

<Jake Ogle> so it would take a real catostrophic failure to take em out...nothing short of a EMP it sounds like

<Amanda Coots - NASA> EMP?

<Jake Ogle> sorry Electro magnetic pulse

<Amanda Coots - NASA> Actually, I'm not sure even that would do it... these are computers that were designed for the early
   bombers and are pretty heavily shielded.

<Jake Ogle> well thats interesting

<Amanda Coots - NASA> Plus, if its not in a dynamic timeframe, we can restore the memory from an external drive and try
   to recover.

<Jake Ogle> how quickly.  a couple minutes, seconds, etc.

<Amanda Coots - NASA> At the quickest several minutes.

<Tehreem Bilal> how likely is it that something like that could happen?

<Amanda Coots - NASA> To what specifically?

<Jake Ogle> ever had any "outsiders" try to hack into the systems wireless connection?

<Amanda Coots - NASA> Not that I've heard of.  I believe the communication lines are secure.

<Amanda Coots - NASA> Plus the coding is all in an obsolete language.

<Amanda Coots - NASA> And its not running windows...

<Nick Melton> what does it run?

<Amanda Coots - NASA> When I mentioned the primary software and the backup software, these each have their own
   integrated operating system, which is called the system software

<Amanda Coots - NASA> the primary sw is called PASS - primary avionics software system

<Amanda Coots - NASA> and the backup sw is called BFS - Backup Flight Software

<Amanda Coots - NASA> it was designed specifically for the shuttle computers

<Amanda Coots - NASA> actually, they were designed
Amanda Coots - NASA> It looks like our time is coming to an end. I don't mind sticking around if y'all have more questions
   though.

<Jake Ogle> well i would hate to hold you up.

<Amanda Coots - NASA> Or if you think of something later, feel free to email me: amanda.b.coots@nasa.gov

<Jake Ogle> ok thanks
> Thank you Amanda for your time and insight.

<Tehreem Bilal> thank you so much!

<Tehreem Bilal> i have really learned a lot from you.

<William KH> ya thank you.

<Amanda Coots - NASA> I'm glad to have the opportunity to talk to y'all.

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