Kim Lichtenberg spends her days sampling Martian soil and rocks

RocketSTEM magazine spoke with Dr. Kimberly Lichtenberg, a scientist and engineer who works on NASA’s Mars rover missions at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., in conjunction with our “Women in Aerospace” series.

We spoke about her career at NASA, role models, education and how she became interested in space exploration. Indeed she’s been in love with space virtually her entire life. Her father, Byron Lichtenberg was a Space Shuttle astronaut and an inspiration.

Kim’s current project is NASA’s newest Mars surface mission, the Curiosity Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover which touched down on the Red Planet on Aug. 6, 2012.

Q: People are very interested in what you’re doing at NASA and on the Mars missions, in particular as a woman in aerospace. I’d like to start a little bit on your background. What got you excited and motivated about space and to study science and engineering?

Kim: I’m actually a little bit of both. My undergrad is in engineering. My Master’s and Doctorate are in science. I have kind of one foot in one area and one foot in the other.

Q: Tell us please about where did you grow up and your father?

Kim: I grew up in New England. I spent my formative years up through college between Massachusetts and Virginia, along the Mid-Atlantic East Coast up inside the New England area. As I mentioned, my dad, Byron Lichtenberg, was an astronaut. He went up on STS-9 and STS-45 in 1983 and 1992, respectively.

Q: Who were your role models growing up?

Kim: I had a bunch of female role models in high school in general because I went to an all-girls high school. But they were not necessarily specifically in the sciences and engineering.

I actually particularly like Queen Latifah. It sounds really funny but she is just … She just seems like a good, strong overall female role model. She’s a rapper and an actress.

Q: I would never have guessed that. Queen Latifah. Why is that?

Kim: She seems really confident and very sure of herself but not in an overbearing way, if that makes sense.

Q: How about any other astronauts?

Kim: I think in general astronauts as a whole were definitely there. But in particular Sally Ride is just fantastic.

Valentina Tereshkova is possibly even more important than Sally Ride because I actually got to meet her when I was in high school. That was pretty amazing.

Q: Met her in high school. Was that because of your dad or some other reason?

Kim: My dad took me as a tagalong to a conference he went to in DC. I got to meet her and talk to her. She spoke English, not all that well. But I was able to communicate with her. She’s a formidable woman!

Please continue reading the remainder of the article, written by Ken Kremer, by visiting:
http://www.rocketstem.org/2014/03/12/kimberly-lichtenberg-spends-her-days-sampling-martian-soil-and-rocks/