Chat Room Transcript - Chat Session, April 2, 2008 @ 7:00 pm

<Michele - NASA Mento> So I am here to answer questions you may have about NASA. I currently train astronauts and flight controllers on the International
   Space Station Communications system.

<Joy Ogunmuyiwa> what is the average work day like?

<Hao Pan> do astronauts have 2 go through centrifuge G training?

<Michele - NASA Mento> work day can vary usually i work from 8 to 5ish.  There are some months that i work odd hours to do simulator testing or training.

<Michele - NASA Mento> Astronauts do not have to go through centrifuge training

<Michele - NASA Mento> they don't go higher then i believe 2 Gs now.

<Tehreem Bilal> good news for me!

<Hao Pan> aw thats weak haha, f16 had 2 go through 7gs

<Shawn Juenger> so what frequency do the astronauts use to communicate with mission control?

<Michele - NASA Mento> The vehicle is limited to 2 or 3 Gs.  I think.

<Hao Pan> do i really have to have a 6-pack 2 be "fit" 4 astronaut candidate consideration?

<Michele - NASA Mento> The use an S-band system so it isn't a direct frequency like using Ham radio.

<Michele - NASA Mento> You don't have to have a six pack but you do have to be able to do there qualification stuff.

<Hao Pan> do u examine those, or do u just train them

<Tehreem Bilal> what do you do with flight controlloers

<Michele - NASA Mento> i don't do physical training

<Tehreem Bilal> sorry, typo

<Michele - NASA Mento> i do communications training

<Michele - NASA Mento> so technical information

<Michele - NASA Mento> i am an instructor

<Hao Pan> right okay

<Michele - NASA Mento> I run the simulator that simulates the real station.

<Hao Pan> oh, how many different languages do u hafto know?

<Michele - NASA Mento> i also teach lessons to allow them to learn about the comm system

<Michele - NASA Mento> English

<Hao Pan> thats it?

<Michele - NASA Mento> you can take other languages once you get hired

<Joy Ogunmuyiwa> will we be meeting you if we get chosen for the summer program

<Hao Pan> like the ISS controls wont be in russian or other languages?

<Michele - NASA Mento> i have taken russian classes while i have been here

<Shawn Juenger> how long do the astronauts have to do training usually in the huge pool (forgot the exact name)?

<Michele - NASA Mento> Prime language of ISS is English

<Saskia Versteeg> But wouldn't other languages be useful? What would you recommend?

<Hao Pan> sweet

<Michele - NASA Mento> they do have Russian writting in the russian segment but they have english next to them.

<Michele - NASA Mento> other languages are useful but not required.

<Hao Pan> kool, its like the restrooms here

<Hao Pan> haha

<Michele - NASA Mento> Huge pool = NBL

<Michele - NASA Mento> they start training in general about 1 year before flying

<Shawn Juenger> haha thanks

<Michele - NASA Mento> so they start doing runs in the NBL within that year

<Tehreem Bilal> how do the simulations work?

<Shawn Juenger> wow that sure is alot

<Hao Pan> neutral bouyancy lab?

<Michele - NASA Mento> right

<Joy Ogunmuyiwa> what are the simulations like?

<Michele - NASA Mento> the simulator is in one building with a mock of the station and we run the real flight software in hardware models.

<Hao Pan> haha i;ve been there

<Michele - NASA Mento> the flight controllers sit in MCC and we put malfunctions in that they have to react to

<Hao Pan> 30 mins from JSC

<Shawn Juenger> how long have you been working at nasa?

<Michele - NASA Mento> I was a coop for 4 years and i have been full time for 4 years

<Tehreem Bilal> do you ever have to go through a simulation yourself?

<Michele - NASA Mento> i usually do mentoring for the summer program but this year i am not going to be there

<Hao Pan> are there voice-active appliances on the ISS?? that would be awesome

<Michele - NASA Mento> i have to use my time for my honeymoon

<Saskia Versteeg> oh wow! congratulations :]

<Joy Ogunmuyiwa> what would you say was the best part of your job?

<Michele - NASA Mento> I don't usually sit on the flight controller side.  I am going to be doing that coming up this year to become a flight controller

<Michele - NASA Mento> No voice activated appliances

<Saskia Versteeg> What extra training did you have to do to become a flight controller?

<Michele - NASA Mento> I have to sit in MCC for simulations and learn some of there real flight console tools and talk to the flight director

<Shawn Juenger> how long do you have to train before becoming an astronaut?

<Michele - NASA Mento> Once you get through the selection process you pretty much start training.

<Saskia Versteeg> Were there people from other countries vying for the same job?

<Michele - NASA Mento> How are your lessons going?

<Saskia Versteeg> [I know it sounds strange, but for example, my dad sometimes writes programs for NASA, and he's certainly not American]

<Hao Pan> u dont hafto be american 2 work 4 nasa

<Saskia Versteeg> ^ noted ;]

<Michele - NASA Mento> we do have internationals that work at NASA

<Hao Pan> they just want the best minds around the world, am i right michele?

<Michele - NASA Mento> but you have to be a Citizen to be a civil servent

<Saskia Versteeg> How many, would you say? A large percentage?

<Hao Pan> YES! xD

<Michele - NASA Mento> most internationals work for contractors

<Michele - NASA Mento> i don't really know

<Saskia Versteeg> Yeah, my dad works for a research institute that NASA sometimes hires

<Hao Pan> kinda of topic, do we get a kool personal cellphone if we become an astronaut?

<Michele - NASA Mento> there is one in my group and another group has like 3

<Saskia Versteeg> thats awesome!

<Michele - NASA Mento> they have blackberry

<Hao Pan> OMG haha nice

<Saskia Versteeg> okay, no, that's even better :]

<Hao Pan> i wanna be an astronaut more now

<Hao Pan> haha

<Kara Ledbetter> Just for the blackberry?

<Michele - NASA Mento> LOL

<Hao Pan> yes ANYTHINg 4 the blackberry

<Hao Pan> jk

<Tehreem Bilal> :)

<Hao Pan> umm, are there alotta asian language speakers in nasa?

<Michele - NASA Mento> Well we just brought up our first JAXA piece so we have more japanese on site

<Hao Pan> diversity = good haha

<Michele - NASA Mento> Anyother questions?

<Michele - NASA Mento> how are the lessons going?

<Hao Pan> well, i gtg dinner. thanks 4 ur time michele! ttyl every1!

<Tehreem Bilal> whats JAXA?

<Michele - NASA Mento> bye Hoa

<Hao Pan> japanese aerospace exploration agency

<Michele - NASA Mento> Hao

<Hao Pan> k bye

<Michele - NASA Mento> right

<Michele - NASA Mento> We now have a the European Module and part of the Japanese module on ISS

<Michele - NASA Mento> we also just brought up our Dexterious Robot

<Tehreem Bilal> what does that do?

<Michele - NASA Mento> he can assist the EVAs

<Tehreem Bilal> cool
> when ISS is complete, how many counties will be represented with modules?

<Tehreem Bilal> how do you train astronauts in the communications systems?
> counries*
> countries*.

<Tehreem Bilal> :)

<Michele - NASA Mento> I can't remember the exact number but the major components will be 5 space agencies

<Michele - NASA Mento> the European Space agency is made up of several European countries

<Michele - NASA Mento> We have simulators that simulate the communications software and hardware and we teach them lessons and do simulations.

<Josh Soucie> HEY MARK!!
> hello josh

<Josh Soucie> (thats all i wanted to say, im listening now)

<Tehreem Bilal> what kind of simulations do you run with them? just how to use it, or what to do if there's a problem?

<Michele - NASA Mento> Both.

<Michele - NASA Mento> We start of with lessons that teach them nominal use and then we go into lessons where we through in malfunctions.
> are there any 'common' malfunctions?

<Michele - NASA Mento> We teach them both voice comm and video stuff

<Michele - NASA Mento> what do you mean by common?

<Michele - NASA Mento> like Multisystem malfunctions?

<Michele - NASA Mento> If there is a power failure then we loose comm equipment and the crew has to recover the station on there one.

<Tehreem Bilal> how would they do that?

<Michele - NASA Mento> We can also loose attitude control where we are moving out of our current location and they have to know how that effects them.

<Josh Soucie> If there is a power failure they would lose light as well right??
> stuff for which there is a pretty routine backup plan...like i know my PC will freeze at least once a week...so i just power cycle and move on

<Michele - NASA Mento> they have a bunch of procedures that they have to go through

<Michele - NASA Mento> Josh Correct

<Tehreem Bilal> thanks for asking that mark

<Michele - NASA Mento> For comm we have problems that occur all the time

<Josh Soucie> so then they have a flash light or other type of battery powered souce on which to rely??

<Tehreem Bilal> i was wondering about that too

<Josh Soucie> or is there a back-up power system??

<Michele - NASA Mento> We have problems with the equipment they call down through

<Michele - NASA Mento> it is a speack and microphone unit and one of ours has a sticky button

<Michele - NASA Mento> Josh Correct

<Josh Soucie> one of ours as in on the ground??

<Michele - NASA Mento> THere isn't back up power but they can pull power from different locations

<Josh Soucie> jsc?

<Michele - NASA Mento> on orbit

<Michele - NASA Mento> sorry

<Josh Soucie> oh ok

<Tehreem Bilal> hs that ever happened?

<Josh Soucie> so loss of communications power, not a station wide power failure

<Michele - NASA Mento> i am trying to think of any

<Michele - NASA Mento> there has been power problems where we have reduced capabilities and they have to do EVAs to fix them.

<Michele - NASA Mento> but to Comm specifically there hasn't been any i think

<Michele - NASA Mento> we mostly have problems with our equipment in side of it

<Josh Soucie> oh ok, so i dont mean to get off topic, what is the nature of this chat?

<Michele - NASA Mento> it is for you to ask me any NASA related questions

<Michele - NASA Mento> or about my job

<Tehreem Bilal> oh! what did you major to do what you do now?

<Michele - NASA Mento> so we are fine with the technical questions

<Josh Soucie> oh sorry. i meant the topic

<Michele - NASA Mento> You have to have a engineer, science or math bachelors degree

<Josh Soucie> but i looked it up, communications and tracking

<Tehreem Bilal> what did you find?

<Michele - NASA Mento> My title of my group is communications and tracking

<Michele - NASA Mento> tracking is one of the functions of my system

<Michele - NASA Mento> we can track the ISS with a signal from itself to the satellite network

<Hilary Walker> Hello  everyone!

<Josh Soucie> So what band does the ISS primarily use, since i understand there are several types of radio connections to the ground?? or are the different bands
   for different signal types, for instance, high bandwith signal for video as opposed to low bandwith for just voice??

<Michele - NASA Mento> My degree was Aerospace Engineering but you don't have to be an Aero to do this job

<Josh Soucie> awesome, im really sure thats wat i want to major in

<Tehreem Bilal> is that a common major among people who work at nasa?

<Michele - NASA Mento> Correct Josh. We use S-band for voice, telemetry and commands.

<Michele - NASA Mento> Ku-band for Video and file transfers such as email and video confrencing

<Michele - NASA Mento> Most are engineers of some sort

<Michele - NASA Mento> and depending on what you job is depends on who there are more off

<Michele - NASA Mento> of

<Tehreem Bilal> how does video conferencing work?

<Michele - NASA Mento> for my job a person with a degree in physics or electrical engineering would learn the material pretty easy.

<Michele - NASA Mento> I had to relearn all my electrical engineering stuff again to do communications training.

<Michele - NASA Mento> Oh we also use Ultra High Frequency when the Shuttle is docking to the Station or an EVA is going on.

<Michele - NASA Mento> Russia how ever uses VHF to talk to the ground

<Josh Soucie> oh ok

<Hilary Walker> What is VHF?

<Tehreem Bilal> why?

<Michele - NASA Mento> Similare to UHF but a stronger signal strength I think

<Hilary Walker> Okay

<Michele - NASA Mento> Russia doesn't have a communications satellite system

<Michele - NASA Mento> US does so we can use a system that provides more comm coverage

<Josh Soucie> so S-band is roughly the same as the cordless phone at my house?? correct?? just the one used to comm with the ISS is slightly (sarcastic) more
   powerful

<Tehreem Bilal> oh. also, why is different frequency used while docking or during an EVA?

<Michele - NASA Mento> Russia only has coverage when they can communication directly with the ground

<Josh Soucie> ultra high frequency is higher in frequency i believe

<Michele - NASA Mento> Actually your house one might be closer to UHF

<Josh Soucie> oh ok, i was just looking S and KU band up to check the frequencies so i thought it looked familiar

<Michele - NASA Mento> UHF is used for EVAs because it is better for closer range information

<Josh Soucie> UHF is 300 to 3000 MHz while VHF is 30-300 MHz

<Michele - NASA Mento> S-band and Ku-band need to travel long distance to the Satellites and then the ground so it is a smaller bandwith but stronger beam

<Josh Soucie> wouldnt the bandwith need to be very high for video though??

<Michele - NASA Mento> sorry i meant beamwidth

<Josh Soucie> hence the higher frequency (KU) becuase you can store more information in the side bands

<Michele - NASA Mento> smaller beamwidth stronger signal travel over farther distance

<Josh Soucie> oh ok

<Michele - NASA Mento> bandwith is greater for Ku

<Josh Soucie> right

<Tehreem Bilal> wait, storing information? what does that mean?

<Josh Soucie> so beamwidth regards??

<Michele - NASA Mento> storing more means transferring

<Tehreem Bilal> oh. right. i TOTALLY knew that. :D

<Michele - NASA Mento> We have 150 Mbps as apposed to S-band can only send 300 kbps

<Josh Soucie> 150 Mbps is KU??

<Tehreem Bilal> thats a lot, right?

<Michele - NASA Mento> that is how much information we can send

<Michele - NASA Mento> it isn't the frequency

<Josh Soucie> thats about the speed of your home internet

<Josh Soucie> (if you have dsl/cable...definately not dial up)

<Michele - NASA Mento> we used to only have 50

<Michele - NASA Mento> it isn't really spead with us it is more the amount of information we can downlink

<Hilary Walker> That includes data and stuff like that, right?

<Michele - NASA Mento> yup

<Josh Soucie> oh right, thats what i meant by speed, all info travels at the speed of light

<Michele - NASA Mento> right

<Michele - NASA Mento> We can downlink for channels of Video that is what you see on NASA TV

<Josh Soucie> niiice

<Hilary Walker> Is it a continuous video stream?

<Michele - NASA Mento> we also send email back and forth and also the can do video confrencing

<Michele - NASA Mento> it is continuous if we have comm

<Josh Soucie> how does weather affect comm??

<Josh Soucie> if at all

<Michele - NASA Mento> we are limited to being able to see the satellites

<Hilary Walker> What part of the ISS is the video in?

<Michele - NASA Mento> weather doesn't affect comm unless it takes out a ground station

<Josh Soucie> oh ok

<Audrey Katz> i have to go....THANKS SO MUCH MICHELE!!!!! =)

<Michele - NASA Mento> Bye Audrey

<Michele - NASA Mento> THere is a camcorder in the Lab

<Michele - NASA Mento> and then there are external cameras that look at the earth

<Hilary Walker> They must be amazing pictures!

<Michele - NASA Mento> they are pretty cool

<Michele - NASA Mento> any last minute questions?

<Michele - NASA Mento> were are getting close to the end

<Josh Soucie> aw dang, its almost 8

<Tehreem Bilal> urg. hang on, let me think...

<Hilary Walker> do you like your job a lot at NASA?

<Michele - NASA Mento> I really enjoy it

<Josh Soucie> the ISS is tracked by....US comm sat or gps??

<Michele - NASA Mento> it is unique and i don't have to do real engineering work

<Hilary Walker> How long have you been there?

<Josh Soucie> what do you mean  you dont have to do "real engineering work"??

<Michele - NASA Mento> Usually GPS

<Michele - NASA Mento> 4 years coop and 4 years full time

<Tehreem Bilal> what was your co-op like?

<Michele - NASA Mento> I don't do the design work or the things that most people associate with engineering

<Michele - NASA Mento> I get to interact with people and teach stuff

<Will Cover> what do you do then?

<Will Cover> oh

<Will Cover> thats cool

<Michele - NASA Mento> What i meant is i don't have the sterotypical enginnering job

<Josh Soucie> oh ok

<Hilary Walker> what college did you go to?

<Michele - NASA Mento> so if you like engineering thought process of solving problems but don't want to design there are options out there for work.

<Josh Soucie> so, you just have your bs?? what is the difference in that job career vs having you doctorate?

<Michele - NASA Mento> Co-oping was fun.  I got to try work in different areas to see what i liked

<Michele - NASA Mento> i definately recommend it when you are in college

<Michele - NASA Mento> University of Florida

<Will Cover> oh  thats a cool school

<Will Cover> i was lookin into it earlier

<Michele - NASA Mento> Unless you want to do research and work as a professor a docterate isn't necessary

<Josh Soucie> what chance do you think i have of coop having this program under my belt

<Josh Soucie> as well as another engin prog

<Michele - NASA Mento> it actually can limit you in some areas because of pay

<Josh Soucie> and being at rice?

<Michele - NASA Mento> Pretty good change

<Michele - NASA Mento> chance

<Josh Soucie> awesome, because i think im going to do that

<Michele - NASA Mento> i saw one student that i had in my week a few years back in the coop program

<Michele - NASA Mento> I have my BS and i am working on my MBA

<Tehreem Bilal> thats cool. do you get to work with that person at all?

<Michele - NASA Mento> no he is in another area cooping

<Will Cover> aw

<Michele - NASA Mento> he just happen to come into my cubical to talk to the coops there

<Josh Soucie> i heard that PhD's generall work in the...futuristic (cant think of the word) design, concept design

<Josh Soucie> true or false?

<Michele - NASA Mento> and recognized me

<Tehreem Bilal> cool

<Michele - NASA Mento> I am not sure but it sounds like that would be what they would like to do

<Michele - NASA Mento> the research part is why most people get their PHD w

<Michele - NASA Mento> we just hired a past coop that got here PHd and came back to do the training job

<Michele - NASA Mento> so it jsut varies as to how long you want to stay in school for

<Michele - NASA Mento> but you have to least get your BS

<Josh Soucie> right

<Michele - NASA Mento> It is 8 so any last things?

<Josh Soucie> ok, cause im usually thinking of what we can do...in the future, so i really want to do concept models and such.

<Josh Soucie> not from me

<Josh Soucie> THANK YOU MICHELE!!

<Saskia Versteeg> Not for me- but thanks for "donating" your time!

<Michele - NASA Mento> If not thanks for coming out ot the chat

<Tehreem Bilal> not really. thanks you so much!

<Will Cover> thanks so much

<Tehreem Bilal> that was awesome

<Hilary Walker> Thanks a bunch!!
> Thank you very much for your time and expertise tonight Michele!

<Michele - NASA Mento> THere is people the have there masters that do the concept design stuff here

<Michele - NASA Mento> and most have there BS

<Josh Soucie> Good night to all, and to all a good night!!

<Will Cover> ha

<Tehreem Bilal> :) ditto

<Michele - NASA Mento> Night

<Will Cover> bye

<Hilary Walker> Later

<Michele - NASA Mento> Good luck this summer

<Josh Soucie> THANK YOU!!

<Michele - NASA Mento> and getting there

<Will Cover> thanks

<Hilary Walker> Thanks!

<Michele - NASA Mento> bye

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