Ali Guarneros Luna readied small satellites for space flights.
Luna lives her dream, and surpasses it.
As a young girl growing up in Mexico, she read about the space shuttle missions in an encyclopedia and knew she wanted to study Aerospace Engineering.
By 2013, she had received both her BS and MS degrees in Aerospace Engineering from San Jose State University and had been hired by NASA Ames Research Center.
Guaneros Luna currently works with the Office of System Safety & Mission Assurance. Previously, she was as a Deputy Project Manager/Test Engineer in the Small Spacecraft Technology Program. It develops Nodes small satellites. Check them out here.
She was also a technical authority for Nodes development and payloads heading to the International Space Station, and has received internal NASA awards.
The surprise of her work life she says has been that it is “so diverse that it can be applied to almost every aspect of engineering and science and that I will never stop learning.”
Guaneros Luna’s geekiest attribute is that she is an Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) Expert. That means she has ESD experience making her a technical authority to regulate how the circuits, hardware, spacecrafts, or flight hardware is handled during development, building, testing, and shipping.
The amateur radio operator also builds non-NASA amateur rockets. Her non-geeky interests include a love of art, playing piano, interior designer, playing sports, cross-stitching, and making stained glass.
Previously, Guaneros Luna was as a NASA Ames Deputy Project Manager/Test Engineer in the Small Spacecraft Technology Program. It develops Nodes small satellites and the TechEdSat Series.
Favorite:
Apps: Google Maps, Mindjet: a visual organizer.
Books: The Martian by Andy Weir, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond: PBS Show and book, The Sky Detective: A Memoir by Azadeh Tabazadeh, TV Series: BBC Space Race complete six-part series on YouTube.
Movies: The Martian, any movie with Robert Downey Jr., Contact, Star Wars, Braveheart,Apocalypto, Dancing with Wolves, and The Free State of Jones
See The True Story of the ‘Free State of Jones’ | History | Smithsonian
-Musical artist/group/song: Café Tacvba, Ricardo Arjona, Alejandro Fernandez, Luis Miguel, Juan Gabriel, Shakira, Maroon 5, Maria Carey, Sia, Tiziano Ferro, Gwen Stefani, Pablo Albertan.
Podcasts: NPR Fresh Air, Latino USA, and NPR Politics Podcast
Twitter feed: @NASA
-Web sites: Rachel Maddow Show, NASA, Kepler NASA.
Dream job: To be an aerospace engineer.
