NASA is currently focusing on building a better future using its biggest resource - its workforce. In a 2007 report titled, "Building a Better NASA Workforce" published in the National Academies Press, NASA officials point out that as much as 40% of its engineers and 66% of its scientists will be eligible to retire between now and 2011.
This huge wave of retirement in the next few years will open up hundreds of positions in NASA that the next generation of scientists and engineers can fill. NASA is realizing that it needs to attract and groom these future employees and one way it's accomplishing this is by offering research opportunities to students in science and engineering fields.
The Student Airborne Research Program
One of these opportunities, the Student Airborne Research Program, is a joint effort between NASA and the National Suborbital Education and Research Center. This program is recruiting advanced undergraduate and early graduate students in the fields of physics, chemistry, atmospheric science, computer science, geology, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and biology. The students will have the opportunity to engage in hands-on research using one of NASA's most valuable research facilities - the NASA DC-8 flying laboratory.
Airborne Science Research
The types of research activities planned for this program include atmospheric measurements with an air-sampling instrument on board the aircraft and land and ocean surface studies using multi-spectral remote sensing tools also on board the aircraft. Atmospheric measurements taken during the flight will be done with an instrument called the Whole Air Sampler (WAS) with guidance from Dr. Don Blake of the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Blake will show students how to use the WAS for measuring emissions from the large dairy operations in California's Central Valley and study how these emissions affect the atmosphere.
The multi-spectral instrument that will be used is called MASTER and is an aircraft instrument used in validating satellite-based measurements. The MASTER instrument, with guidance from Dr. Jeff Myers of the University of California, Santa Cruz, will be used to observe river delta processes of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and algae blooms in Monterey Bay.
Along with the flights and data collection, the students will also participate in lectures given by university faculty and NASA engineers and scientists currently involved in Earth science research. A keynote lecture will be given by Sherwood Rowland, who was awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the ozone hole.
Participating in this program will give students the opportunity to engage in the kind of research they would be doing as NASA employees. NASA hopes this will lead to a new generation of capable and energetic scientists and engineers to keep NASA at the forefront of groundbreaking and innovative Earth science research.
Source:
National Suborbital Education and Research Center
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