Meet Bridget Landry:
a Rocket Scientist at JPL

Hi! I'm Bridget, and I work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. My official title is Deputy Uplink Systems Engineer, but what I really do is teach the computers on the ground to speak the same language as the space craft. What I like best about my job is the excitement of seeing and working on something that will be going to another planet, and of being on the spot, or know the folks who are, when new discoveries are made.

So, How'd You Get To Do It?

I've always wanted to work in the space program, ever since I was a little girl watching the moon landing. In college, as a graduate and undergraduate student, I studied chemistry and planetary science. I did research experiments into the reactions of gases caused by exposure to sparks, and analyzed pictures (from the Mariner 9 mission) of Mars' south pole to study it's polar cap. I sort of fell into working on missions when I got a job working on the Hubble Space Telescope for one of my old teachers. Then, I worked on an oceanographic satellite called Topex, which is collecting buckets of data about ocean currents that will help make weather forecasting more accurate. On Topex, I built the sequences; on Pathfinder, I've moved up the line, working on building the sorts of tools that I used on Topex.

So, What Does a Deputy Uplink Engineer Do?

That means taking a very complex, but general computer program and make it understand all the commands that our spacecraft knows. The people on the science and instrument teams then use this tool to build sets of commands called sequences. These sequences tell the Pathfinder spacecraft to accomplish specific tasks: like take pictures of this area around the lander, turn this instrument on for this long and at this setting, that sort of thing. I also teach people to use this tool, update it as changes to the command set are made, and, after launch, help coordinate all the sequences that need to be sent in a specific time period, so we don't use too much power, or try to point the camera in two directions at once, etc. (Other people will be checking these things too, but having several people on it means we're much more sure we won't do something wrong.)

What Were You Like When You Were a Girl?

I enjoyed reading, particularly science fiction, as a kid. I went to many science fiction conventions, where I learned about science and science fiction side by side, in a relaxed and stimulating atmosphere. I also took theater classes and ballet, and was in many performances, which I enjoyed quite a lot. The theater classes included all the backstage duties as well as performing, so I learned a lot about working together and how different teams working on different portions of a project come together to make something really neat. This is very similar to how a spacecraft is run, so that training has come in handy. If you wanted to aim for working on mission operations, learning teamwork and problem solving skills would be a good start.

Something that meant a lot to me when I was a kid was when a friend of my father, who was in the Navy, brought me a chip off the heat shield of one of the Apollo capsules. This man didn't work on a ship, but he knew how interested I was in space and found someone who was on one of the recovery ships and got that flake of paint for me. That was really special.

I had a few role models as a girl. I remember wanting to be as smart as Miss Dunkle (my 9th grade science teacher) when I grew up. And Mr. Hamilton, my high school chemistry teacher, taught me that if I didn't know how to answer the question, put down what I did know, then try to work forward from the beginning and backwards from what was wanted, until I could fill in the middle. That has helped a great deal, both in college classes and in learning new jobs.

What's Your Life Like as a Grownup?

I live in Los Angeles, am married and my husband's name is Bruce Briant. We have no children, but two cats, Butterball (yellow and white with long hair) and Shortstop (a calico), who are brother and sister. I'm the youngest of seven children, and have three neices, three nephews, and one nephew-in-law. When we all get together, it makes quite a crowd!

One thing Bruce and I like to do is to make and wear costumes. We make historical costumes, which we wear to dances, about one per month, and to things like Renassance faires. (Depending on what part of the country you live in, you may know of Civil War groups, or Revolutionary war groups or medieval groups that do these sorts of things.) We also make science fiction costumes, which we wear to science fiction conventions, sometimes on stage, sometimes just to walk around in.

The historical costumes require a lot of research, because we like to make them as close as possible to what people actually wore hundreds of years ago. The science fiction costumes require a lot of imagination and creativity (How would you make a dress for a wedding in zero-g? What would a warrior from a planet with gravity three times ours look like and wear?) I'm always learning (or inventing!) new techniques in sewing or hat making or shoe making or make-up. It's really a lot of fun.

What's in the Future for You?

I hope one day to be a mission specialist on a shuttle mission. And I still take ballet and I still read science fiction......

Bridget's Journal --Launching Pathfinder

Find out more about Bridget Landry! Read the journal she kept while working on the Pathfinder project for JPL. Everything she was thinking, feeling, worried about, working hard on is right here! Check it out at:

Bridget's Journal

Author! Author!

Thanks to Bridget Landry, of California, for sharing her thoughts on her career, and Meg for editing and coding it.

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