space — ASTRONAUT MANJU

The Journey to Space

Kalpana Chawla was the first person I vividly remember who took me from wanting to go to space to believing I — as a brown girl — could actually do it.

When I got the news that I’d been accepted to Project PoSSUM’s Scientist-Astronaut Program, it felt like twenty years of hope had come to fruition. Acceptance and completion of the training doesn’t guarantee me a spot on a rocket, but it does get me one step closer.

This all wouldn’t be possible without the village (or two) that’s raised me, supported me, and cheered me on 100% of the way.

Keep reading to learn more about my journey.

NASA and the White House

I worked at NASA five times as an intern at both Marshall Space Flight Center and Johnson Space Center. I also worked for President Obama in 2016 in the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

At MSFC, I worked on the economics of in-space propulsion, which you can read about here.

At JSC, I worked in the Astronaut Office in the Rapid Prototyping Lab on the cockpit displays of the Orion spacecraft.

I can’t state this enough: It is not easy to get a job at NASA. I applied over 100 times and got rejected every time but once. If you’re in a similar situation, please don’t give up.

Research

During my sophomore year of college, I conducted research in soft matter physics.

I then spent my senior year of college researching the politics of space travel — how we choose what form of propulsion we take to Mars and the political implications of our decision. The paper is not public, but I will say, I have a strong bias towards Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP).

I have such a strong bias that I wrote for Esquire about why I think it’s probably the right choice.

I plan on eventually conducting more research on NEP and its viability.