By the fifth grade, Wright knew she wanted to become an engineer. Nowadays, she designs and tests spacecraft hardware to protect it from the extreme temperatures in space. Wright is a mentor at local schools, sharing the wonders of engineering. Here at JPL, the primary goal of thermal engineers is to ensure that all of the items on a spacecraft are maintained within allowable flight temperature limits while making minimal use of spacecraft resources. My job is to gather, maintain and present information regarding thermal hardware such as heaters, thermostats and the heat rejection system.
Thermal control is critical to mission success.
For instance, if an instrument's temperature range is not properly controlled, it may be unable to perform the task for which it was intended. I was in the fifth grade when I decided I wanted to be an engineer. As an undergraduate student, I particularly enjoyed my thermodynamics and heat transfer classes and decided to purse graduate work in that area. You do a lot of community work with kids. Kids are so enthusiastic.