Kavya Manyapu facts for kids

Kavya K. Manyapu is an amazing engineer and scientist from India and America. She works at NASA, helping with missions to the Moon, like the Artemis program. Her job is to make sure astronauts are safe when they explore space.

Before NASA, she spent almost 10 years at Boeing. There, she helped create the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft. This spacecraft is designed to carry astronauts to space. Kavya also invented a special technology for space suits. These suits can clean themselves using tiny carbon nanotubes. This helps keep dust off the suits during future trips to the Moon and Mars.

Early Life and Space Career

Kavya Manyapu grew up in Hyderabad, India. When she was 16, her family moved to the United States. She loved learning about space!

She earned her first degree in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in 2006. Later, in 2010, she got a master's degree in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT. She also has a special diploma in performing arts from Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University.

Kavya has even been a crew member on pretend missions to Mars. These "analog missions" help scientists learn what it's like to live and work on another planet.

In 2010, she started working at Boeing. She helped build the Boeing CST-100 Starliner, a spacecraft that takes people to the ISS. She had many important jobs on this project. She was in charge of the spacesuits, helped test flights, and even directed flight tests.

Inventing Smart Space Suits

Kavya earned her PhD in 2017 from the University of North Dakota. She was the very first person to get a PhD in space studies from that university!

For her PhD, she invented something super cool: a smart fabric for space suits. During the Apollo program missions to the Moon, lunar dust was a big problem. It stuck to everything! Kavya's new fabric helps solve this. It has tiny carbon nanotubes inside. When a small electric current goes through them, they push the dust away.

She has seven patents for this amazing technology. Some early versions of her special fabric were even sent into space in 2019 to be tested! In 2019, Kavya also became a professor at the University of North Dakota.

Awards and Recognition

Kavya Manyapu has won many awards for her important work.

• In 2014, she received the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement Stellar Award.
• In 2016, she was one of nine people to win a Future Space Leader award.
• In 2020, she was listed in "40 under 40" by Georgia State University.
• In 2022, she was again recognized in "40 under 40" by Georgia Institute of Technology.

Personal Life

Kavya Manyapu is not just a brilliant scientist; she has many interesting hobbies! She is a certified scuba diver, which means she can explore underwater worlds. She also has a pilot's license, so she can fly planes!

She is a talented Indian classical dancer. She even received an award from the President of India and the title 'Balashree' for her amazing dance skills. Kavya also loves climbing mountains and going on long hikes.

See also

In Spanish: Kavya Manyapu para niños