When I was young I remember watching a man walk on the moon, and I remember the first shuttle flights when I was in high school. I always thought about how exciting it would be to be an astronaut. However I did not decide what career I would pursue until I was in college. I found I enjoyed both math and science in elementary school, but I continued to take classes in a wide range of subjects until my third year of college. At this time I decided based of my enjoyment of applying math to solve problems, I would become an engineer. After discussions with different engineers I chose Electrical Engineering.

I have two children (and another one on the way), my daughter is six years old and is thoroughly enjoying kindergarten and my son is three. I have brought them to work on several occasions and their curiosity has been inspiring. That curiosity of how things work in the world around us is a wonderful trait and it is something I hope to continually encourage in my children.

Now let me tell you a little about my job. As I said earlier, I am the Data Management Systems lead engineer. But what is the data management system? The data management system is the link by which all other systems or functions on HST communicate; it is also the system that processes commands, stores data and commands, and provides the timing for HST.

The responsibility of the Data Management Systems engineering team is divided into two areas, the first is Operational support and the second is Servicing Mission support. Operational support includes the continuous monitoring of our subsystem and the support of the weekly science schedule. Servicing Mission support includes the development of new hardware, and preparing for the Servicing Mission in which the astronauts replace certain components on HST.

Each area has some exciting work and some not so exciting work. In the operational area, the most exciting and often the most demanding work occurs when a problem is discovered. The problem may involve some hardware that has broken, software that has not executed properly, or a set of instructions that has not executed as expected. When this happens, a team of engineers is formed to identify the problem, find the cause, and find a solution. Depending on how serious the problem is, this can involve around the clock work until the problem is solved.

Servicing Mission work is also quite interesting. I get to work with those who support the astronauts and occasionally the astronauts themselves. The amount of work and the attention to detail that goes into a nine to eleven day mission is just unimaginable.

This work involves new challenges continually. Because the data management system communicates with all the other parts of HST, I get to see how each part of HST works together, and I am continually learning from each experience. I still remember the excitement and wonder I felt watching a man walk on the moon. While I have never been in space, I cannot describe to you how exciting it was to watch the astronauts use procedures I help develop during the launch of HST and especially during the First Servicing Mission. Being a part of that team will always be a memorable moment of my career.