Post here if you do work for NASA!

[Bill McBlueState]

From earlier posts today, I can see that not all DUers fully appreciate what NASA spends its money on. So, I'm asking anyone who is paid either directly or indirectly by NASA to tell us about the work they do.

I'll start.

I'm a PhD student in astronomy. For the past several years, I've had a research assistantship that is funded by a NASA grant to my faculty advisor. That's one of the things NASA spends its money on: grants to investigators at colleges and universities. We write a proposal that addresses one of NASA's research goals, showing how we plan to solve a specific problem in astronomy and asking for money to pay our salaries and research expenses while we work on the problem.

In my case, the grant is from NASA's Origins program. Broadly, the Origins program funds research into the formation and evolution of stars, planets, and life. Specifically, my advisor and I study very young stars in the constellations of Taurus, Orion, and Auriga. These stars have about the same mass as the sun, so by studying them, we can determine how our own solar system might have evolved.

Determining where we came from is a different type of problem than making sure everyone has enough to eat, but the search for new knowledge has always been part of the human experience. If we have the political will to solve both types of problems, we can easily come up with the money for both.

[Warpy]

1. NASA was my first crap job out of high school

many many years ago, more than I care to admit. The place I worked in sold declassified NASA research into everything from ceramics to alloys to propulsion fuels to microcircuitry to private industries. Computer searches produced abstracts of files and companies would select which files to purchase from the abstracts.

I read EVERYTHING. It was fascinating. The only downside was one microfiche machine the size of a Volkswagen that used to catch on fire a lot. They made me wear a Suzy Secretary dress to work to crawl inside the damn thing and put out the fires.

NASA has produced more useful research than any war research ever has, hands down. I'm a direct witness to that part.

[shireen]

2. Despite it's flaws, NASA spends its money far better than most other gov agencies!

No one's perfect. But NASA does a damned good job with its allocated resources!

Hey McBluestate! I'm at Hubble science central in Baltimore (STScI). :P
I'm a data analyst working on WFPC2 calibration, and also helping a bit with the upcoming ACS repair support during the servicing mission (Aug 28 liftoff!). I don't do any research, but I support y'all with the calibration work and love the results!

More about our Hubble at http://hubblesite.org/ :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[Bill McBlueState]

8. cool

I'm at UMass. We have a couple new faculty who came from STScI, Daniela Calzetti and Mauro Giavalisco. And a couple weeks ago, Antonella Nota came up to give a colloquium.

[shireen]

10. tell them I said "hi"

:hi:

if you have a link to your research, please pm it to me.

[bryant69]

3. My dad was a contractor for NASA for the last part of his life.

Logistics. Helped pay for my college.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Duppers]

4. hey, Bill, where are you matriculating?

My hubby has been in materials research at NASA-LRC for 30+ yrs. He has 400+ peer-reviewed, archival journal publications and 30+ patents. He certainly doesn't sit of his thumbs and waste taxpayers' money.

[Bill McBlueState]

9. I'm at UMass

Wow, 400+ papers. That's pretty sweet!

[chixydix]

5. I did some contract work for them back in the early 1980s...

built a couple of prototype machines (proof of concept, actually) to generate odd-shaped toric lenses to minimize
distortion in some kind of viewport. Don't know if they ever adapted or used them, though. (It was done through
Vanderbilt University)

[Forkboy]

6. If it was up to me I'd give them even more money.

[shireen]

11. send me a check, anytime!

:rofl:

[Forkboy]

12. oh snap!

:D

[johnnie]

7. My father worked there as a CS for over 35 years

I am trying to get in there as a contractor right now. I've had many talks with my father about the work he did and what NASA is responsible for and all I can say is they are under-funded and should be given more.

Raygun almost closed this one down and a local Dem had to step in and fight for it to stay in operation.

I wish I could answer your op, but I just wanted to jump in for support of NASA.