TOP NASA ENGINEER APPLIES TO EARN PHD AT HER ALMA MATER IN CALGARY
Lucier has sent commands into space, but she’s still striving to reach new goals
They were the brilliant minds whose precise formulas helped launch astronaut heroes like John Glenn and Neil Armstrong into space and return them home safely.
Like millions around the world, Laura Lucier saw Hidden Figures, the acclaimed 2016 film about the black American women whose contribution to space exploration went unheralded for more than half a century.
“They had a private screening for us on one of those big IMAX screens,” Lucier says, “before it opened to the public.”
The former Calgarian and her colleagues got an advance pass because they’re the modern-day brains behind much of what goes on at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, best known as NASA.
Lucier is one of its top engineers, serving as robotics officer in mission control at its headquarters in Houston, Texas. The graduate from the University of Calgary’s Schulich School of Engineering has a crucial, life-and-death job: making sure the robots at the International Space Station, orbiting at about 400 kilometres from Earth, do their jobs to a degree of precision that would make the heads of most mathematicians spin.
Hundreds of hours go into preparing for a robotics operation, with Lucier and her team ensuring the robots are able to do everything from delivering supplies to performing science experiments and aiding spacewalks conducted by the astronauts living there.
“My job is about integrating, co-ordinating and communicating,” Lucier says. “Another big job is training the astronauts on how to work with the robots.”
Recently, Lucier decided she wanted a bit more upgrading herself. She signed up at her alma mater to get her PhD in mechanical engineering.
“The University of Calgary continues to be a school that cares about its students, striving to provide these kinds of opportunities,” says Lucier, named in 2004 the U of C’s Graduate of the Last Decade. “It’s an unfinished goal.”
Following through on goals and dreams, after all, is in Lucier’s DNA. She remembers being a toddler when she toured places like the Ontario Science Centre with her teacher mom Janet Wombwell. By age six, she was telling her parents and neighbours, “I was going to work at NASA.”
She chose the University of Calgary for her bachelor’s degree because it was her second home.
“My parents split up when I was young and my dad moved to Calgary,” she says.
Her father is Greg Lucier, a U of C neuroscience professor emeritus.
“When people ask me where I’m from, I say London, Ontario and Calgary, because that’s where each of my parents live.”
After receiving her master’s degree in aerospace engineering from McGill University, Lucier was first at the Canadian Space Agency and then at NASA’s Houston headquarters, where she’s been for 13 years.
While it’s a dream job, it’s not without its perils. When all seven crew members died after Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere in 2003, it was a tragedy shared by all at NASA.
“These are people you have trained, worked with, seen in the cafeterias,” she says, adding one of the Columbia astronauts who died was her neighbour. “They are your friends.”
Being an astronaut, though, is her one unfulfilled dream. In 2009, Lucier, who goes by the call sign ROBO, made the top 40 out of 5,300 applicants for the Canadian space program. Last month, she made the top 400 out of 18,000 applicants in the U.S. program before being eliminated.
“I’m starting to push the age limits,” the 41-year-old says. “I might have one more chance to apply on the U.S. side.”
When she’s not analyzing data in mission control, Lucier, a commercially licensed pilot, unwinds high in the clouds with her husband Steve Wulf, a fellow NASA engineer working on the software for the Orion spacecraft.
“We like to stop at diners in little towns,” she says.
Despite her sky-high accomplishments, Lucier remains refreshingly grounded and grateful.
“Sometimes,” she says, “I have to pinch myself and remember, I really did just send a command up into space.”
The University of Calgary continues to be a school that cares about its students, striving to provide these kinds of opportunities.