Day27 to day 31: Scrubbed over so many reasons, but still having fun!
Wow, I do not even knowwhere to start. Last week I mentioned that our first science flight wascancelled due to bad weather. Well, this week we did not have too much luckeither. Our flight for Tuesday was cancelled for communication problems, andthe one re-scheduled for Wednesday was moved to the next day due to transponderissues. On Thursday we tried one more time, but now, we had synchronizationproblems between the aircraft and the ground station. By mid-morning theycalled the flight cancelled. Fortunately, this problem was solved after fewhours. So, the same afternoon, we came back to the operation center to set allour instrument computers, but just to find out that we would not be able totransit from Edwards Air Force to the Pacific Oceanon time…so yes! We were double scrubbed (and on the same day!!! just a newrecord!). Under this circumstance we decided to hold our first Science flightand schedule it for next Tuesday, Feb 5.
In the mean time, weare taking this bad patch with humor and doing something really cool! We wereshooting videos for the ATTREX Education and Public Outreach. Our film crew hasbeen wonderful with us. They are the most dedicated and enthusiastic people Iever met. Honestly, they have been really patient, especially with me, since Ihave to repeat my video many times! I bet the results will be extraordinary. Ifyou have not seen the video they already made for us, take a look… you will beamazed!
http://espo.nasa.gov/missions/attrex-epo/content/ATTREX_Video
OurINCREDIBLE film crew (Diego Beltran and Rafael Mendez) and one of our Scientist(and model) Dr. Jasna Pittman
Film Crew in action!
Day32: ATTREX Student Visit (A day to remember!)
Without a doubt one ofthe BEST DAYS of my life!!!…How nice is it to share your experience withthose who are interested in your work!
Today, I had the amazingopportunity to talk about ATTREX with kids from the IndependenceHigh School (SanJose, CA) and El Camino HighSchool (South San Francisco).Our conversation was very casual. I talked about my experience as part of theATTREX team, tried to give them some advice about how to become a scientist;and the kids came out with interested questions about how to become part of us.In my opinion these kids have an enormous potential. They are smart, creative,and very eager to learn. I hope my talk gave them the motivation to keepchasing their dreams, be achievers and find success.
Here are some picturesfrom that day… Thanks for coming Chicos!
Some of the students from the IndependenceHigh School (SanJose, CA) and El Camino HighSchool (South San Francisco)
The students next to the Global Hawk