Powtawche Valerino facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Powtawche Valerino
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Valerino in 2017
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| Nationality | Mississippi Choctaw, American |
| Alma mater | Rice University Stanford University |
| Occupation | Engineer |
| Known for | mechanical engineering community outreach |
| Awards | National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Education Award (2016) |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
| Thesis | Optimizing Interplanetary Trajectories to Mars via Electrical Propulsion (2005) |
Powtawche N. Valerino is an amazing American engineer who works at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She helps design and guide spacecraft. She was a navigation engineer for the famous Cassini mission to Saturn.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Powtawche Valerino was born to a Mississippi Choctaw mother and an African-American father. She grew up on the Mississippi Choctaw reservation. She is still a member of the tribe today.
When she was ten, her family moved to New Orleans. A few years later, she saw the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion on TV. This event made her very interested in science.
Valerino started playing the cello when she was twelve. She still plays in the Pasadena Community Orchestra. In high school, she worked as an intern at NASA. This program let smart students work with NASA experts.
College and Graduate School
She earned her first degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. Later, she got her master's and doctoral degrees from Rice University. Her special area was aero-astronautics, which is about flying in space.
During her summer breaks in graduate school, Valerino interned at NASA centers. She worked on the X-38 vehicle, which was like a lifeboat for the International Space Station. In 2005, she finished her PhD paper about sending spacecraft to Mars. She was the first Native American to earn a PhD in engineering from Rice University.
Space Missions and Research
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Valerino joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2005. She first worked on a plan for a mission to Jupiter's icy moons. Then, she moved to the Cassini mission.
The Cassini Mission
On the Cassini mission, she was a navigator. Her team helped guide the spacecraft and plan its movements. The Cassini mission was supposed to last four years, but engineers like Valerino helped it last for thirteen years!
During the Cassini mission, Valerino often shared updates with the public. She told people about the spacecraft's status and what it was discovering.
Parker Solar Probe
Her most recent big project was the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft. It launched on August 12, 2018. This probe became the first satellite to fly very close to the Sun.
Inspiring Others
Valerino works hard to encourage more people to join science and engineering. She especially wants to help groups that are not always represented in these fields.
She has worked with famous people like Soledad O'Brien. They encouraged young Black and Latina women to study STEM subjects. In 2016, she won an award for her outreach work.
In 2017, Valerino helped promote the movie Hidden Figures. This film tells the true story of amazing African-American mathematicians and scientists at NASA.
Valerino also loves comic books! She has even talked about strong women characters in graphic novels on podcasts.
Images for kids
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Valerino in 2017
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Cassini-Huygens lifted off with a Titan 4(01)B from Launch Complex 40.
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Valerino at the site of NASA's Space Launch System program.
See also
In Spanish: Powtawche Valerino para niños
