Her father’s chance meeting with an astronaut on a plane set Beth Jens on a journey that began in Torquay, passed through Stanford University and may, in time, lead to Mars
student — was hooked.
“I thought here I am seeing this guy standing metres in front of me showing pictures of his time on the moon. It seemed so much more real. I thought, why not me?,” Dr Jens said.
More than two decades later, Dr Jens, now aged 32, is, in many ways, living her dream. The Torquay-born, Sacred Heart-schooled engineer spends her days at NASA’s jet propulsion lab (JPL) — splitting her time working on the 2020 Mars Rover mission and developing a hybrid rocket motor for a small-scale interplanetary mission.
“The cold gas system is going to be supporting science on the next Mars mission — basically it will be puffing gas on the surface of samples so that we can clear dust off and they can be imaged and analysed,” Dr Jens said.
“From the science side (this work) is very important — the next Mars rover is trying to do basic science to understand if there could be life on Mars or if there was life on mars.”
But for someone so interested in environment. To me, what I think is most interesting is that by going off and learning about other planets we have a real opportunity to import our understanding of our own planet and improve our lives,” Dr Jens said.
Travelling to space requires a lot resources and food are all finite.
“It is challenging because for every kilogram of resources, that’s a kilogram of science (that you cannot take) so you have to try and push to see how you can better recycle water.”
Dr Jens said many of these projects — like water recycling — developed for space could be used on Earth.
“One guy who I work with created this little bag that you can pee in and it can turn it into water. He was surprised when he went hiking and his daughters didn’t want to drink it.”
Dr Jens’ ultimate dream is to go to space, but because of her love for Earth she is adamant she would never go on a one-way mission.
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