5 ms·

Hiring intern for NASA spacewalk operations department

10 points by jamesmontalvo3 12y ago

First, apologies for this not being in a "who's hiring" post. The powers that be are hoping to fill this position before February, so it can't wait for the next one. Second, I'm not involved with hiring...I just want to give the college students of HN an opportunity to apply for this cool opening. If you get the position you will work with me a lot, so feel free to ask me anything about what I do. Okay, here's the semi-official job req: Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies in Houston, TX is offering an internship where you will get to work at the NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL)[1] and Mission Control Center (MCC)[2] working within the Mission Operations group at Johnson Space Center in charge of Extravehicular Activities (spacewalks)[3]. This group plans on-orbit activities, trains astronauts to perform spacewalks (at the NBL and other facilities), and assists astronauts with execution of missions from MCC. The chosen applicant would be involved with all of these planning, training and execution activities. Additionally, they would be working on a project to improve the EVA Wiki (EVA's knowledge managment system using MediaWiki [4]). The extent of this project depends upon the chosen applicant's interests and skills. Applicants proficient in software development could help improve existing software or developing their own extensions. Other applicants could work on improving the content within the wiki. Applicants must be graduate students or undergraduate juniors or seniors. Graduate students work 30-40 hours per week. Undergraduates work 16-28 hours per week. Application is open to all students, but goes through San Jacinto College. To apply please contact Linda Drobnich at Linda.Drobnich AT sjcd DOT edu. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_Buoyancy_Laboratory [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_C._Kraft_Jr._Mission_Control_Center [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extravehicular_activity [4] http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki

gus_massa 12y ago
Does the position have any nationality requirement?
- jamesmontalvo3 12y ago
  I'm not certain. However, given that the intern would have access to NASA IT systems they would have to pass a background check which can take a long time for non-US citizens. The internship may be over by the time the background check cleared.
  - siscia 12y ago
    I would be extremely interested but I am European (Italy), basically non chance, right ?
    - jamesmontalvo3 12y ago
      It can't hurt to inquire. It may not be possible for this particular opening but perhaps you can set yourself up for future openings. If you get more information please post it back here afterwards. Thanks, and good luck.
monkcoder 12y ago
I believe also adding a link to the position listing would help expedite this process.
- jamesmontalvo3 12y ago
  Unfortunately at this time there isn't one. Instead I've provided an email address for the person in charge of the program.
brudgers 12y ago
The out of band advertisement [Who is Hiring was less than two weeks ago] doesn't suggest a company that has its shit together [there's nothing intrinsically wrong with that]. But out of band means out of band. And the mores of Who is Hiring are not applicable. Working on the project Wiki is the only specific task listed. That's a red-flag in regard to gaining professional Computer science/engineering/programming experience. It's secretarial work [not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with that] not an extension of the CS classroom. NASA in the headline is also a bit misleading outside the jobs thread, since this is just another contractor [not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with that], but in that industry there are companies that will take interns and give them work that extends the classroom. I am not saying that this isn't an opportunity for work experience or an entry into the world of government contracting or that there's anything wrong with that industry. But it isn't a job at NASA and working on the Wiki is not the kind of experience that leads to the skill sets NASA seeks for software developers. They need hard computer science ~ they want people who can work with the Peter Norvigs and Margret Hamiltons of the world.
- jamesmontalvo3 12y ago
  I'll do my best to respond to your points. Your post has made me realize I didn't do a very good job explaining...thanks for pointing it out. First: this post has nothing to do with the company and whether it does or does not have its shit together. I posted this as an individual because I was excited that I was told we were getting an intern and they'd be working with me...which is something that's never happened to me before. Whether or not the wiki aspect is secretarial work is entirely dependent upon the intern. If we end up getting someone with no CS background then yes, that aspect of their work will likely be secretarial. If we get someone with a strong CS background then I'd give them a list of things we've considered building and tell them to go for whichever one they want (or come up with their own). Some examples of projects off the top of my head: bi-directional syncing of ground-based versions of our wiki with a version aboard the ISS, building web services to communicate between various databases and mission critical tools, working on methods to suggest content to people who may not be aware of it, etc. The NASA headline is not intended to be misleading. The intern would work onsite at Johnson Space Center, not at a contractor offsite. Within our group the fact that some badges say "contractor" and others say "civil servant" is irrelevant; we all work on the same stuff. And, quite frankly, what we work on is pretty awesome: developing EVAs, responding to on-orbit failures (think the "square-peg-into-round-hole" scene from Apollo 13 [1]), SCUBA diving and working in the space suit in the NBL...and on top of that, and because I've found a niche for myself, developing software to smartly fix our knowledge management problems. I don't know anyone with a job cooler than mine, except the astronauts I work with daily. I'm sure there are lots of companies that give interns work that extends the classroom. This is not one of them. There are two reasons for this: (1) there are no classrooms teaching EVA, and (2) our group does not focus on software development. If a rockstar developer ended up getting this internship then they would have a lot of freedom to work on projects of their choosing, but they would not get oversight from Peter Norvig. That is probably a deal-breaker for some; it probably sounds awesome to others. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2YZnTL596Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2YZnTL596Q

gus_massa 12y ago

Does the position have any nationality requirement?

jamesmontalvo3 12y ago
I'm not certain. However, given that the intern would have access to NASA IT systems they would have to pass a background check which can take a long time for non-US citizens. The internship may be over by the time the background check cleared.
- siscia 12y ago
  I would be extremely interested but I am European (Italy), basically non chance, right ?
  - jamesmontalvo3 12y ago
    It can't hurt to inquire. It may not be possible for this particular opening but perhaps you can set yourself up for future openings. If you get more information please post it back here afterwards. Thanks, and good luck.

monkcoder 12y ago

I believe also adding a link to the position listing would help expedite this process.

jamesmontalvo3 12y ago
Unfortunately at this time there isn't one. Instead I've provided an email address for the person in charge of the program.

brudgers 12y ago

The out of band advertisement [Who is Hiring was less than two weeks ago] doesn't suggest a company that has its shit together [there's nothing intrinsically wrong with that]. But out of band means out of band. And the mores of Who is Hiring are not applicable. Working on the project Wiki is the only specific task listed. That's a red-flag in regard to gaining professional Computer science/engineering/programming experience. It's secretarial work [not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with that] not an extension of the CS classroom. NASA in the headline is also a bit misleading outside the jobs thread, since this is just another contractor [not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with that], but in that industry there are companies that will take interns and give them work that extends the classroom. I am not saying that this isn't an opportunity for work experience or an entry into the world of government contracting or that there's anything wrong with that industry. But it isn't a job at NASA and working on the Wiki is not the kind of experience that leads to the skill sets NASA seeks for software developers. They need hard computer science ~ they want people who can work with the Peter Norvigs and Margret Hamiltons of the world.

jamesmontalvo3 12y ago
I'll do my best to respond to your points. Your post has made me realize I didn't do a very good job explaining...thanks for pointing it out. First: this post has nothing to do with the company and whether it does or does not have its shit together. I posted this as an individual because I was excited that I was told we were getting an intern and they'd be working with me...which is something that's never happened to me before. Whether or not the wiki aspect is secretarial work is entirely dependent upon the intern. If we end up getting someone with no CS background then yes, that aspect of their work will likely be secretarial. If we get someone with a strong CS background then I'd give them a list of things we've considered building and tell them to go for whichever one they want (or come up with their own). Some examples of projects off the top of my head: bi-directional syncing of ground-based versions of our wiki with a version aboard the ISS, building web services to communicate between various databases and mission critical tools, working on methods to suggest content to people who may not be aware of it, etc. The NASA headline is not intended to be misleading. The intern would work onsite at Johnson Space Center, not at a contractor offsite. Within our group the fact that some badges say "contractor" and others say "civil servant" is irrelevant; we all work on the same stuff. And, quite frankly, what we work on is pretty awesome: developing EVAs, responding to on-orbit failures (think the "square-peg-into-round-hole" scene from Apollo 13 [1]), SCUBA diving and working in the space suit in the NBL...and on top of that, and because I've found a niche for myself, developing software to smartly fix our knowledge management problems. I don't know anyone with a job cooler than mine, except the astronauts I work with daily. I'm sure there are lots of companies that give interns work that extends the classroom. This is not one of them. There are two reasons for this: (1) there are no classrooms teaching EVA, and (2) our group does not focus on software development. If a rockstar developer ended up getting this internship then they would have a lot of freedom to work on projects of their choosing, but they would not get oversight from Peter Norvig. That is probably a deal-breaker for some; it probably sounds awesome to others. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2YZnTL596Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2YZnTL596Q