Anna Gunn-Golkin
Future City 1996
John Carusi Middle School, Cherry Hill, New Jersey

EDUCATION: M.Sci., astronautical engineering, U.S. Air Force Academy

CURRENTLY: Launch systems engineer at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, 1st Air and Space Test Squadron, specializing in testing new launch systems.

I've recently finished my M.S. in astronautical engineering and I'm now working at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California as a Launch Systems Engineer for the 1st Air and Space Test Squadron.  My job (which I just began in mid-October) involves working with numerous new launch systems that are still in the test and development phase. 

My graduate research was on the structural analysis of the RIGEX payload.  RIGEX will fly in the space shuttle orbiter's payload bay in a Canister for All Payload Ejections (CAPE) and will test thermoplastic composite tubes.  These tubes may someday provide an inexpensive way to launch space structures, as they are launched in a compact folded configuration.  Once in orbit they are heated and inflated into their operational form.  Then, as they cool down, the tubes become rigid so a pressure is no longer needed to
maintain structural stiffness.

More information is available at http://exploration.nasa.gov/programs/station/RIGEX.html

My part time job during grad school was as a flight instructor at the Caesar Creek Soaring Club in Ohio.  I flew on the weekends and also served as an instructor at the Youth Soaring Camp where we taught numerous junior high and high school students the fundamentals of flight.

I’ve also had the honor of judging Future City Competitions in Philadelphia, Denver, and Columbus while at the Academy and then in grad school.