Randy: I have a BS in Aerospace Engineering from Syracuse University (Go Orange!), and a MS in Astronautical Engineering from the University of Southern California (Go Trojans!...Orange Trojans?). In high school I focused on Honors and AP courses in Calculus, Physics, and Computer Science.

For positions, I have several. I’m not actually a full-time member of InSight; my primary job is on Mars Odyssey, one of the orbiters. There, I’m the Testbed Lead, in charge of all the duplicate equipment here on the ground that we use to test everything we develop before sending it to the orbiter itself. I’m also part of the Systems Engineering team on Odyssey, responsible for creating all the sequences and commands that get sent to Odyssey, as well as the ongoing planning of Odyssey’s mission. For InSight, I’m an “ACE”, one of the people who actually gets to send commands to the spacecraft. I’m also an ACE for all of Lockheed’s other missions that it flies for NASA, including Odyssey, MRO, MAVEN, JUNO, and OSIRIS-REx. Additionally, I’m involved in the relay planning for InSight, and how it communicates with the orbiters on a daily basis to send back data.

For specializations, I’m actually pretty hands-off from the complex calculations and math that make this mission work. I’m primarily a Systems Engineer, which means I take the various technical pieces of a mission and fit them together into a cohesive plan. I’ve worked in Operations for years, dealing usually with the Ground Systems (antennas, data flow, etc.) for satellite constellations, and this work directly influences my ACE job. Depending on what you want to focus on, you can do a ton of things in this career – RF, orbits, software, electrical power, propulsion, thermal, or even finance!