Women in Space: Ask a NASA Scientist

Star Trek TOS stated its mission as “To boldly go where no man has gone before …“ That may be so, but plenty of women are well on their way to the stars; at least, their handy work is.

NASA and Reddit.com are hosting a Q&A with women working on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the successor to the famous Hubble Space Telescope, which may be in its last year of operation.  

The JWST is set to launch in 2018. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt is managing the telescope's development.

According to NASA, the telescope will look further into space than any other telescope. Since light travels at a finite speed, looking farther away means looking further back in time–in the case of the JWST, back to some of the first galaxies formed.

More than two dozen women will be available for the Reddit Q&A, on Thursday, Sept. 26 at 2 p.m. in Reddit’s twoXchromosomes subreddit, a forum for “thoughtful content - serious or silly - related to gender, and intended for women's perspectives,” according to the website.

The scientists come from backgrounds from photographer to astrophysicist to Legislative Affairs Specialist and will answer questions about working on NASA’s “premier observatory of the next decade.”

Scientists participating: 

•  Allison Barto: Program Manager, previously Webb optical systems engineer
•  Christine Chen: Associate Astronomer, Webb MIRI Instrument Scientist
•  Pam Harris: Senior Resource Analyst
•  Stephanie Hopkins, Project Support Specialist
•  Amy Lo: Webb Alignments Thread Lead
•  Maggie Masetti: Webb social media/website lead
•  Stefanie Milam: Planetary Scientist
•  Nikki Rawlings: Senior Resources Analyst
•  Marcia Rieke: Professor of Astronomy & NIRCam Principal Investigator
•  Desiree Stover: Photographer
•  Amber Straughn: Astrophysicist
•  Shannon Valley: Legislative Affairs Specialist
•  Julie Van Campen: Webb ISIM Deputy Systems Engineer
•  Tracy Vogel: Editor/Writer