New JPL Workers Shed Training Wheels for Rocket
Launch







Recent college grads who
work for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.,
successfully launched a sounding rocket 120 kilometers (75 miles) above
Earth's surface on Monday, Dec. 6, from the U.S. Army's White Sands
Missile Range in New Mexico. Image credit: White Sands Missile Range
›
Full image and caption












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December 06, 2010


Less than three years after obtaining college degrees, a group of
early-career employees at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
Calif., can now add "rocket launch" to their resumes.

Recent graduates who work for JPL launched a sounding rocket 120
kilometers (75 miles) above Earth's surface on Monday, Dec. 6. The
rocket flew from the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range in New
Mexico, with four cameras on board. The cameras recorded real-time
ground imagery throughout the flight, both after launch as the rocket
climbed beyond the atmosphere, and during its descent back to White
Sands. Those data will be compared with existing maps to develop
terrain-modeling algorithms. This project will improve precision landing
for future missions to Mars and other locations.

Members of the Phaeton group, a rapid-training program for early
career hires at JPL, submitted a proposal to NASA's Hands-on-Project
Experience. The program, created by NASA in November 2008, aims to give
rising engineers, scientists and others the opportunity to move a small
mission from concept to launch to post-flight analysis. In May 2009,
the Phaeton group was selected to move forward with their proposed
project, called Terrain Relative Navigation and Employee Development,
which they refer to as Trained.

"The best thing about the Phaeton program is taking a project from
the idea to launch and taking ownership of the decisions," said Elvis
Merida, the Trained mission assurance manager. "I'm always making a
conscious effort to educate myself, which is why I applied for the
Phaeton program." Merida, who received a bachelor's and master's degree
from California State University, Northridge, is currently working
toward a second master's degree, in electrical engineering, from
California State University, Los Angeles.

The Phaeton program consists of about 40 early career hires at JPL
working on three small-payload projects with a life cycle of about two
to three years. Each team member is matched with an experienced JPL
mentor to guide in technical and leadership development skills.

"The program was designed for early-career hires, but I'm actually
learning from it," said Johnny Kwok, who oversees the grads as Phaeton
program manager at JPL. "Through their eyes, I'm learning about what
they're experiencing, and they have the opportunity to touch all the
pieces of the life development process."

With the Dec. 6 launch, the Trained program participants have
completed this portion of the early-career hire experience and will move
on to other career opportunities at JPL. When asked if he feels a
sense of relief from completing such an important and demanding project,
Merida said, "I don't feel relief. I feel as though I'm just
beginning."

More information about the Trained project is online at: http://phaeton.jpl.nasa.gov/external/projects/terrain.cfm
.