Mars Exploration: Zip Code Mars

I was raised in Sunnyvale, Saratoga, and San Jose, California. In Westwood Elementary School my mother participated in a show and tell, and each year she would do a session on Space. I was also introduced to a computer – it was an Apple II.

At Piedmont Middle School I was introduced to programming – and started with logo. I enjoyed the computers so much I asked my parents if they would let me be ‘bussed across town’ to a school that had a computer program (in Pascal). The school had all these new computers (well, we started with Commodore 64’s, but moved our way on to IBM’s and Macintoshes) to attract white students to its predominately Latino campus. My parents permitted it, and I went to William C. Overfelt High School and had a great time.

After a few semesters at Cal jumping around with what I wanted to do with my life I returned to computer science. I also met my husband (Marcus) who double majored in physics and astronomy, further fueling my interest in space.

I joined JPL in 2000 working with a multi-mission group on the ground data systems. I write code, deploy and support the computer software that is on the ground (Earth). As such, I’ve had at various times the opportunity to work on MER, Cassini, Spitzer Space Telescope, Galileo and Voyager.

Contributions to Mars Exploration

For the Mars Exploration Rover Mission, I work on the MDOT (Mission Data Operations Team) – our team covers the data making it from the point it reaches JPL to the end engineers and scientists. If our stuff is not working – everybody notices! Our group also handles a lot of things – from rebooting workstations, to creating software tools, to handling questions. [more contributions ...]

Personal Reflections

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I like to travel (my most recent trip was to Thailand and Cambodia), read, and backpack (California wildernesses). [more personal reflections ...]