Hiring intern for NASA spacewalk operations department | Hacker News Reader

Hiring intern for NASA spacewalk operations department

10 pointsjamesmontalvo311 comments

First, apologies for this not being in a "who's hiring" post. The powers that be are hoping to fill this position before February, so it can't wait for the next one.

Second, I'm not involved with hiring...I just want to give the college students of HN an opportunity to apply for this cool opening. If you get the position you will work with me a lot, so feel free to ask me anything about what I do.

Okay, here's the semi-official job req:

Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies in Houston, TX is offering an internship where you will get to work at the NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL)[1] and Mission Control Center (MCC)[2] working within the Mission Operations group at Johnson Space Center in charge of Extravehicular Activities (spacewalks)[3]. This group plans on-orbit activities, trains astronauts to perform spacewalks (at the NBL and other facilities), and assists astronauts with execution of missions from MCC.

The chosen applicant would be involved with all of these planning, training and execution activities. Additionally, they would be working on a project to improve the EVA Wiki (EVA's knowledge managment system using MediaWiki [4]). The extent of this project depends upon the chosen applicant's interests and skills. Applicants proficient in software development could help improve existing software or developing their own extensions. Other applicants could work on improving the content within the wiki.

Applicants must be graduate students or undergraduate juniors or seniors. Graduate students work 30-40 hours per week. Undergraduates work 16-28 hours per week. Application is open to all students, but goes through San Jacinto College. To apply please contact Linda Drobnich at Linda.Drobnich AT sjcd DOT edu.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_Buoyancy_Laboratory [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_C._Kraft_Jr._Mission_Control_Center [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extravehicular_activity [4] http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki

The out of band advertisement [Who is Hiring was less than two weeks ago] doesn't suggest a company that has its shit together [there's nothing intrinsically wrong with that]. But out of band means out of band. And the mores of Who is Hiring are not applicable.

Working on the project Wiki is the only specific task listed. That's a red-flag in regard to gaining professional Computer science/engineering/programming experience. It's secretarial work [not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with that] not an extension of the CS classroom.

NASA in the headline is also a bit misleading outside the jobs thread, since this is just another contractor [not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with that], but in that industry there are companies that will take interns and give them work that extends the classroom.

I am not saying that this isn't an opportunity for work experience or an entry into the world of government contracting or that there's anything wrong with that industry. But it isn't a job at NASA and working on the Wiki is not the kind of experience that leads to the skill sets NASA seeks for software developers. They need hard computer science ~ they want people who can work with the Peter Norvigs and Margret Hamiltons of the world.

I'll do my best to respond to your points. Your post has made me realize I didn't do a very good job explaining...thanks for pointing it out.

First: this post has nothing to do with the company and whether it does or does not have its shit together. I posted this as an individual because I was excited that I was told we were getting an intern and they'd be working with me...which is something that's never happened to me before.

Whether or not the wiki aspect is secretarial work is entirely dependent upon the intern. If we end up getting someone with no CS background then yes, that aspect of their work will likely be secretarial. If we get someone with a strong CS background then I'd give them a list of things we've considered building and tell them to go for whichever one they want (or come up with their own). Some examples of projects off the top of my head: bi-directional syncing of ground-based versions of our wiki with a version aboard the ISS, building web services to communicate between various databases and mission critical tools, working on methods to suggest content to people who may not be aware of it, etc.

The NASA headline is not intended to be misleading. The intern would work onsite at Johnson Space Center, not at a contractor offsite. Within our group the fact that some badges say "contractor" and others say "civil servant" is irrelevant; we all work on the same stuff. And, quite frankly, what we work on is pretty awesome: developing EVAs, responding to on-orbit failures (think the "square-peg-into-round-hole" scene from Apollo 13 [1]), SCUBA diving and working in the space suit in the NBL...and on top of that, and because I've found a niche for myself, developing software to smartly fix our knowledge management problems. I don't know anyone with a job cooler than mine, except the astronauts I work with daily.

I'm sure there are lots of companies that give interns work that extends the classroom. This is not one of them. There are two reasons for this: (1) there are no classrooms teaching EVA, and (2) our group does not focus on software development. If a rockstar developer ended up getting this internship then they would have a lot of freedom to work on projects of their choosing, but they would not get oversight from Peter Norvig. That is probably a deal-breaker for some; it probably sounds awesome to others.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2YZnTL596Q

Yes, EVA is cool. Space in general is cool. I have a brother-in-law who went from subcontractor to Boeing to Boeing employee while working on ISS. But there have been long career stretches of flights to El Paso for two weeks at White Sands. That's a career in aerospace. So, I appreciate what where you're coming from so let me clarify my point about fecal cohesion:

In regards to this internship there's no evidence of planning. No projects suitable for completion within the duration of the internship have been prepared.

Because the internship is not viewed as an extension of the classroom, there's a fundamental misunderstanding of what an internship is supposed to be. An internship is not just a part time entry level job.

It's normal to throw an entry level employee at a pile of work that's considered beneath the senior staff. But again, that's not a meaningful internship.

The idea that the less domain relevant background a person has the more likely they are to be writing the documentation upon which people may have to rely suggests that the Wiki is a waterfall style contractual obligation. There's nothing wrong with over the transom requirements and back over the transom fulfilment of them. There are even valuable lessons in waterfall development to be gleaned from that process.

But if that's what the person will experience, then make a plan around that decision so that the internship has maximum value.

If the goal is to develop software to sync ground and orbital resources, then make a plan around that and select a candidate who can complete it in the time alloted...or don't do it.

Decide what your time commitment is as a field instructor. Make your decisions based on your responsibility as an educator. Take the internship seriously from an academic standpoint. Professionalism means not wasting other people's time.

Good luck.

Hi, I'm new this website, so please excuse me commenting here, as opposed to the original post. I have interviewed with Ms. Drobnich about this position, and afterwards, she said that she would send my resume to SGT. She also said that I should expect an email from SGT to schedule an interview over the phone. She said the email would be sent within a week of our interview, which was on 01/16.

To this date, I haven't received any email from SGT. So, I was wondering if SGT went forward with another candidate, or if SGT hasn't gotten around to hiring anyone. I know you aren't involved with hiring, but any insight would be helpful.

And by the way, this internship sounds awesome. I'm getting that hyped-up feeling that you get when you buy a lotto ticket after applying to this. I don't know how often you visit this website, but I hope that you see this.

I have not been notified that anyone has been selected. I'm not sure if they're going to ask my opinions at all on the candidates (I hope they do).

Seeing as this thread seems mostly dead, if you'd like to talk more about the position feel free to email me at my HN username -AT- GMAIL -DOT- COM.

I believe also adding a link to the position listing would help expedite this process.

Unfortunately at this time there isn't one. Instead I've provided an email address for the person in charge of the program.

Does the position have any nationality requirement?

I'm not certain. However, given that the intern would have access to NASA IT systems they would have to pass a background check which can take a long time for non-US citizens. The internship may be over by the time the background check cleared.

I would be extremely interested but I am European (Italy), basically non chance, right ?

It can't hurt to inquire. It may not be possible for this particular opening but perhaps you can set yourself up for future openings. If you get more information please post it back here afterwards. Thanks, and good luck.

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