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VAB Stories

Learn more about the people behind the work

How The Past May Inform Our Future on Venus, featuring Jannuel Cabrera

Other stories from the SACD team

Tim Lewis is both a strategic and systems thinker. He doesn’t make decisions about engineering or science, but he is responsible for building a consensus that enables those decisions to be made.
Aerospace engineer Eric McVay is working towards returning humans to the Moon and then getting them to Mars. Learn about how he makes sure the hundreds of people working towards this goal are aligned and moving in the same direction.
Several United States government agencies utilize space to achieve their organizational goals, but how do these different organizations achieve mutual cooperation in space? We discuss this and more with SMAB analyst Gregory Benjamin. Credits: NASA.
As the number of satellites in orbit grows, NASA needs to understand how they might collaborate to help answer big questions about space science. Aerospace engineer Ben Merrel talks about his work exploring the reliability and effectiveness of satellite constellations.
Chase Lynch is focused on helping to create crew timelines, particularly when it comes to maintaining the systems that make off-world living possible. Find out where he discovered a treasure-trove of maintenance data to help inform his work.
What does it take to send astronauts to and from Mars? We discuss the challenges of designing a crewed Mars mission with SMAB engineer Patrick Chai, the lead of NASA Langley Research Center’s Mars Architecture Team. Credits: NASA/Advanced Concepts Laboratory.
How could we use resources found in space to expand exploration? One method for enabling Moon to Mars missions that former SMAB analyst Alejandro Pensado considered was using lunar resources to create propellant.
Astronauts will be staying for longer periods of time on the Moon. Melanie Grande has imagined a sustainable way to keep them safe while they're living and working there.
Marie Ivanco, an aerospace engineer and decision science expert, explains how she tackles the challenges of designing new science mission architectures in a way that meets objectives from interested parties around the world. Credits: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
What’s the right orbit for a satellite to provide the best science possible? We talk with SMAB engineer Vianni Ricano Cadenas about her work aiding the NASA Earth Science Division. Credits: NASA Jet Propulsion Lab