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Careers at NASA

Life Support

    The main job of the life support group is the safety of the crew. The life support group makes all of the equipment that will make the crew safer. When NASA is about to launch a research flight, the life support group will be involved in making clothing and equipment for the flight. The life support group also tests the equipment they made or replaced and fix the old ones.

Machine Shop

             The machine shop is a group of people who are engineer technicians.  They create parts of an aircraft or spacecraft. These parts have their own specific job. They build parts from the smallest microchip to the largest wing. They also build many things that are in between these sizes. The machine shop crew gets their work from people who requested to have this part built for their needs. They will do all they need to complete the part until it is ready to be given to the requester.

 Sheet Metal Shop

             The sheet metal shop has one main job, to create exterior skins for aircraft, or fix parts that are related to metal. They use all different kinds of metals that  come in different forms as well. They have a wide variety of machines that they will need to use to create these metal parts. They get different requests but most of them are related to adding an addition part to an aircraft or to fix parts of aircraft.

Fluid System Lab

             The fluid system lab will complete jobs that are related to the fluids of an aircraft. They handle all kinds of chemicals and fluids. The fluids are all under high pressures. There are many things that the fluid system must fix on an aircraft. Requests for the fluid system lab are usually from different people. Once the fluid system lab is finished, the system is checked to see if it is maintaining fluid properly.

Controls and Dynamics Engineers

             The controls and dynamics engineers test systems that are made for an aircraft. They also test things and make things that will make a flight much easier. They design or change aircraft parts. The control and dynamics engineers are responsible for things that go with the parts that they are making.

Aerodynamics Engineer

        These engineers are responsible for the flight research missions and also the research conclusions from these missions. These engineers study all there is to know about aerodynamics. They will need this information when they are asked to create and review the equipment for the new  aircrafts.

Propulsion Engineer

             This group of engineers is always trying to update parts for the aircraft. They will make the aircraft safer, reliable, and better so that the crew aboard will be able work better than before. Many aircrafts needs this group to make them work more efficiently. They work on engines from different types of aircraft.

 Instrumental Engineer

             The instrumental engineer checks the performance of aircrafts. They also create instruments that will make research flights collect more information. They make instruments so that they can send back information to the mission control room. The engineers create many different kinds so of sensors to collect information. The sensors that the engineers create do not only collect information, they also can do many other things that will aid a research flight.

NASA Research Pilot

             NASA research pilot are pilots that are assigned to conduct research on flights.  The research pilot receives rewards very often for their contributions. The pilots also train in  simulators to get ready for the real flight. Also, a simulator decreased the chance of accidents and casualties. These pilots solve problems that they think they will encounter before the flight.

Engineering Mission Planner

             The engineer mission planner always has contact with the pilot. They also make preparations for the next flight. The engineer mission planner has to keep record of things that have to do with the flight project. They are responsible for making a flight plan. There will be cards written for each mission. If the pilot disagrees with what the engineers say, then the engineer mission planners must make changes so the pilot agrees.

Flight System Engineers

             The flight system engineers help make and test new made instruments or equipment. They work together with other groups to complete tasks. They do most of the things that are the most important to the aircraft. They check if information is correct for their current flight. 

Structural Analysis Routines

    The job of the structural analysis group is they check the safety of the aircraft. This is a very important job in NASA. They can check for problems with aircraft and also have to fix them. They use a simulator to tests aircraft models and their efficiently on both air and ground. They check for many things that might concern flight crew members.

Test Information Engineers

    The job of the test information engineers are to see that the information sent form the research flight is accurately sent to the control center. These people are very busy since they have many responsibilities. They have to be very hard workers to make sure that everything is correct. If the information is not correct than they will take full blame for it.

Sources:

    http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Education/Educator/OnlineEducation/Careers/index.html

Image From:

    http://ic.arc.nasa.gov/destination/mars/images/h_rez/wds_f.jpg