Nasa - Maven profiles - Sandra cauffman

[ Music ] [ Spanish ] My name is Sandra Cauffman, and I work for the MAVEN project at Goddard Space Flight Center. MAVEN is a mission that studies the upper atmosphere of Mars, the Red Planet, the ionosphere, and the interactions with the Sun and the solar wind. Scientists want to study how the Martian atmosphere has lost its volatile gasses to space, and see how this could have impacted life on Mars. One of the instruments that Goddard is producing is called NGIMS. This will measure the chemical composition of the Martian atmosphere, and the magnetometer will try to measure the magnetic field. In the history of Mars, we know that Mars lost its magnetic field, there isn't a magnetic field like there is on Earth. The atmosphere of Mars is very scarce as well, and NGIMS will measure what gases are present and at what concentrations. My job is to gather necessary information for the Project Director, in all aspects of the mission. I'm helping to help make sure that the mission is completed on time. The launch is in November 2013. If we don't launch, we'll have to wait twenty-six months for another opportunity to do so. My day is busy, very, very busy. I read many reports, attend many meetings, write presentations, write papers, respond to emails. There is a lot to do, and sometimes I can't catch up with everything in a single day because there is so much! There's not a day that I get up when I don't want to go to work. I like the people that I work with, I like the mission, I like everything that we do. From studying the Earth, to studying the cosmos, to studying the universe, and now I get to work on a mission that will go to study Mars. All of the experiences that I've had at NASA have been fabulous, and I'll take them with me for the rest of my life. [ Music fades ] [ Sound effect ]