March 2024 – PACE Mission

Dennis Henry Captures the People – and Hardware – of PACE

Dennis Henry is the PACE project photographer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

A man wearing a white clean room suit is seen from the shoulders up. He is facing away from the camera, arms outstretched and holding onto a large piece of a scientific instrument. The instrument is circular shaped. There is a circle in the center that is surrounded by another ring of a black circle. The center circle reflects the face of the man, who has a mask that covers his nose and mouth. — One of Denny’s favorite images that he took of PACE. Senior Engineer George Hilton adjusts a polarizer during GSE testing of the Ocean Color Instrument Engineering Test Unit at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center on December 10th, 2020. Image Credit: Dennis Henry

What is your background and what do you do for PACE?

I’ve been at NASA for about four years, but before that I was a freelance photographer, and a long time before that I wanted to be an aerospace engineer. I studied engineering for about a year and a half before I realized that it wasn’t what I actually wanted to do. So, I switched to photography! I came to NASA specifically to photograph PACE and Ocean Color Instrument. I feel like coming here brought me back to my previous space interests, and I was able to feed that interest while doing what I’m good at.

Two men and a woman stand together on a grassy surface near a body of water. The man to the left in the image is wearing brown pants, a red shirt, and a zip-up jacket. He is leaning slightly to the right. The man in the middle is kneeling down and holding a camera on a tripod. He is wearing jeans and a black jacket. The woman is standing to the right. She is — Denny Henry, Mike Guinto, and Katie Mellos setting up a remote camera to photograph the PACE launch next to SLC-40 at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Image Credit: Desiree Stover

What was your favorite part of launch?

The whole photography team was there, but none of us had ever photographed a launch before. We set up a bunch of remote cameras, which we’ve never done before, and borrowed some really long lenses to photograph it. It was a learning experience, in a good way. We had a lot of fun learning how to capture this very specific event, and it was great to see all those years of hard work blasted off into the sky.

What is your favorite color and why?

My favorite color is green. I’m not sure why it’s my favorite color. I have some green shoes, and also I feel like it’s just not as common of a color for some things to be.

A man stands centered in the image wearing glasses, a green crewneck sweatshirt, and a baseball cap. He holds four woodworking tools - clamps - in his left hand. In his right hand he has another clamp which is resting on his shoulder and extends behind his head. The clamps are orange, black, and silver colored in their pieces. — Denny Henry with a bunch of woodworking clamps. Image Credit: Jackie Henry

What is a fun fact about yourself?

I do a bit of woodworking. I usually make small things like cutting boards and small boxes. My big pandemic project – that is still ongoing – is to totally redo our kitchen. I have rebuilt all the cabinets from scratch. I think I maybe bit off a bit more than I can chew with that project, since it’s been a couple of years and I’m probably only 50% of the way at this point.

What advice would you give to aspiring students looking to get where you are today?

Photography is a tough career. There’s a lot of people who want to do it, and there are not that many jobs. How well they do and where they end up is not a reflection on the quality of a photographer. In saying that, you have to love doing it.

The image primarily is focused on the sky, which is dark and cloudy at night. There is a streak of light that starts near the bottom left corner and rises up to the center top of the image. The clouds surrounding this streak glow a brighter white than those that aren't illuminated by the light. The light is also reflected off of the ocean, which is seen in a small strip at the bottom of the image. — Another of Denny’s favorite images that he took of PACE. A long exposure photograph of NASA’s PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) spacecraft, atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, as it successfully lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 1:33 a.m. EST Thursday, Feb. 8. Image Credit: Dennis Henry

Header image caption: Denny Henry posing in front of the PACE spacecraft in the cleanroom at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. Image credit: Katie Mellos

By Erica McNamee, Science Writer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

People of PACE: Inia Soto Ramos Studies Data from the Sea and Space

Inia M. Soto Ramos is an associate researcher and one of PACE’s data validation leads at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

A woman is seen underwater, giving the entire picture a blue hue. She is wearing a scuba mask and has a respirator in her mouth, connected to a tank on her back with several tubes. She is wearing flippers and a wet suit. Her dark hair is floating all around her head as she looks up at the camera. Behind her is a coral reef and sand at the bottom of the ocean can be seen to the right of the image too. — Soto Ramos diving in the West Coast of Puerto Rico. Courtesy of Inia Soto Ramos

What is your favorite atmospheric or ocean related book or movie?

I will go with “The Silent World” (1953) by Jacques Cousteau and Frédéric Dumas. It’s a book but was later made into a documentary. I’m a diver, so it’s really cool to see the advancements of diving over time. Back in that day, divers were attached to a cord back to the surface that provided air. Then came along the Aqua-Lung technology so they no longer needed the cord and swam free to explore. It opened our eyes to the wonders of the ocean, and it started sparking more research and more curiosity. It was risky and exciting.

What is your background?

I’ve used ocean color imagery since 2005, when I started doing my PhD. It helped me study coral reefs and the connectivity among different coral reef communities, and how river plumes can go from one reef area to another reef area. Then, I moved into studying phytoplankton from space and creating algorithms to detect harmful algal blooms.

What do you do for PACE?

A woman stands to the right of the image, facing the left side. She is wearing a black baseball cap with her dark hair tied up. She also has on a teal shirt and black pants. She is holding a small instrument in her hands and is looking at it closely. Behind her are the blue green colors of the ocean, flat without waves. The woman is standing at the edge of a boat with a blue container in front of her. — Soto Ramos taking optical measurements during a Harmful Algal Blooms off the coast of Campeche, Mexico. Courtesy of Inia Soto Ramos

PACE data is compared with similar measurements collected in the ocean and atmosphere to make sure they agree; and that process is called satellite validation. In addition to being a part of the science team, I help the validation team by making sure we have enough field data to validate PACE data. This process allows us to know how good the data is and whether there any issues that need to be resolved. Once we know the data is good, we can use it to create algorithm to derive satellite products that are meaningful to the public and scientific community, such as water and air quality products. I am part of the SeaWiFS Bio-optical Archive and Storage System (SeaBASS) Team that archives data from scientists all around the world, which are then used to either validate the ocean color sensor data or to create algorithms. That will be the main database for PACE, so I make sure the data that is gathered goes into the system and is used for PACE validation.

What was your favorite part of watching launch?

I was at launch with my little one, so it was very exciting to be with him and to show him where the actual launch was from. The funniest thing he said to me was “no, PACE is not in space”, and I asked why, and he said it was too big to fit on the capsule! I had to explain to him that the capsule was bigger but that we were so far from it, that it looked much smaller than what it is! It was also great to see some of my long-time friends and colleagues and share this one-in a lifetime experience with them.

What are you most looking forward to once data starts coming in?

A woman stands to the left of the image, facing the right side, inside a small room and next to a countertop and sink. On the counter are several containers, bottles, and tubing. The woman, wearing a dark blue shirt and black pants, is holding a graduated cylinder out in front of her. There is a window on the back wall in the image, which is casting a bright glow into the room. — Soto Ramos filtering water for optical measurements in the Lagoa dos Patos, Brazil. Courtesy of Inia Soto Ramos

The first thing will be seeing how the PACE data matches up with the field data. Then, I’m excited to start getting some information about different types of phytoplankton and comparing that data to more advanced types of classifications of phytoplankton.

What is your favorite color and why?

I don’t have a favorite color. I have quite a bit of a flamboyant personality. I usually wear a lot of colors and I like to mix them, it’s hard for me to decide on the one color itself. You’ll see me with something red, something blue, something pink – I like them all!

A woman with dark hair sits on a moss covered rock with a small boy sitting between her legs. They are centered in the image and smiling at the camera. Behind them are several other moss covered boulders and lots of leaves and foliage. Much of the image is a bright green color because of the greenery. — Soto Ramos and her son hiking in the Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. Courtesy of Inia Soto Ramos

What’s a fun fact about yourself?

Centered in the image is a brown and black colored beetle. The beetle is facing the bottom right corner of the image. On the head of the beetle are two block spots that look like large eyes. The beetle is resting on the black fabric of pant legs which extends across the image from the top left corner to the bottom right corner. The background is red wooded planks of wood. — One cool finding during a hike Soto Ramos took with her son. It is an Eastern Eyed Click Beetle! Courtesy of Inia Soto Ramos

I like exploring and being active. Before I had my child I used to go diving, I did acro-yoga. After my son, I’ve slowed down a little bit, but we like to go hiking a lot and every year we try to go camping in a different place. We like gardening together and looking for bugs, which was not something I thought was going to be part of motherhood. We love going out and searching for bugs and creatures. Once he gets bigger, maybe we’ll go back to the more adventurous activities like diving.

What advice would you give to aspiring scientists or engineers or technicians who are looking to get where you are today?

I think persistence is the key! Even when we know what we want, life can’t be taken as a straight path and in a hurry. One of the mistakes that we do sometimes is that we think we need to go to college, we need to finish in four years, we need to keep going to the next step and finish as fast as we can. But little detours along my path helped me really find what I wanted to do, and also gave me the skills to find a job. So, I think those little detours, those opportunities, are the key to success. I strongly encourage internships and REU programs, study abroad programs, go and present at scientific meetings, participate in field campaigns, and go out of the traditional classroom!

Also, always have something to enjoy a little bit outside of work. Have a hobby to go do things that make you happy. You need something else also to keep you going, and when you’re happy you’re successful.

What is a catch all statement that you would want the public to know about the importance of PACE?

PACE is going to make an impact on communities. The science that is going to come out of PACE is really going to impact our quality of life and our enjoyment of our resources like the oceans and the air.

PACE will open our eyes about the wonders of the ocean, new things that we haven’t explored, new things that we don’t understand. I really encourage teachers and parents to use some of the resources from PACE, because young people are the ones that need to be fascinated by the ocean – those are the future generations that are going to take care of our resources.

Header image caption: Soto Ramos hiking in the Connemara National Park, Ireland. Courtesy of Inia Soto Ramos

By Erica McNamee, Science Writer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

People of PACE: Marsha Gosselin Keeps PACE with the Budget

Marsha Gosselin is the financial specialist for PACE at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

What do you do for PACE?

I’m the financial specialist for PACE. I started on the project in early 2015 and worked on it continually through now. I managed all the budgets from all the engineers including helping them to create and take responsibility for their subsystem budget. One of my responsibilities was to ensure we maintained enough money in the overall budget and monitored their funds. I worked closely with all the engineers on the project and the scientists, to make sure everybody was on the same page with their budgets. I’m just the money lady!

What was your experience with watching PACE launch?

I watched it on my iPad. I am sure it wasn’t as exciting as being at the launch in person, but I loved it! I was anxiously waiting to make sure everything occurred on time and that it was a success.

What are you most looking forward to once data starts coming in?

I’m excited to see how they’re going to use it. Everyone talking about phytoplankton has been so interesting, so that’s what I’m curious about seeing.

What is your favorite color and why?

I would say yellow because it’s bright and sunny!

What’s a fun fact about yourself that a lot of people might not know about you?

I like to exercise, it’s my favorite thing to do since it makes me feel good. I often work out very early in the morning. I like to go on long walks at a very fast pace. People often can’t keep up with me!

What advice would you give to aspiring students who are looking to get where you are today?

Always ask questions and know that perseverance is very important if you don’t get answers right away. Take training when it is available. It’s also good to get on some committees to get your name known, especially when working in the finance discipline. Once you people get to know you it becomes easier for you to move up the ladder.

Header image caption: Gosselin working on all things PACE finance with her teleworking set up. Courtesy of Marsha Gosselin.

By Erica McNamee, Science Writer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center