Naia Butler-Craig

Last updated
Naia Butler-Craig
Born
Orlando, Florida [1]
Alma mater Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University
Scientific career
Fields Aerospace engineering
Institutions Georgia Institute of Technology

Naia Butler-Craig is a science communicator and an American aerospace engineer.

Contents

Early life and education

As of 2022, she is a NASA Space Technology Graduate Research fellow in the High-Power Electric Propulsion Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology. [2] She joined Georgia Tech to pursue her doctoral research on electric propulsion after graduating from Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University and working in the Space and Science Technology Systems Branch at NASA Glenn Research Center. [3] [4]

Advocacy

While in high school, Butler-Craig participated in the Tech Sassy Girlz camp, and was highlighted in a later article about fundraising for the project. [5] She is the founder of Black Girls in STEM—an initiative to promote Black girls and women to serve as role models for younger scientists—and serves as the Head of Chapters for the Society of Women in Space Exploration. [6]

As an advocate to overcome racism in science, Butler-Craig has been highlighted by NowThis News in a 2021 video, [7] and has spoken with the media including articles by The Atlantic, [8] Space.com, [9] [10] and the All Things Aviation podcast about the day the Perseverance rover landed on Mars. [11] The Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals interviewed her in a 2021 publications sharing careers in aerospace [12] and shared a video of her discussing her career in their Girls Launch program. [13] Butler-Craig has also discussed space propulsion on NPR's Short Wave podcast [14]

Awards and honors

Butler-Craig was named “Executive Member of the Year” by the National Society of Black Engineers, Region III in 2018. [3] In 2019 the Mars Generation program named her on their space award winners. [15] In 2020 she received the Modern-Day Technology Leader Award, part of the Black Engineer of the Year Awards, [16] and Popular Mechanic named her one of ten women to follow on Twitter. [17] She was featured in the 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Science for her contribution to advancing diversity in STEM. [18] [19]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jet Propulsion Laboratory</span> Research and development center and NASA field center in California, United States

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by Caltech researchers, the laboratory is now owned and sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and administered and managed by the California Institute of Technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mars sample-return mission</span> Mars mission to collect rock and dust samples

A Mars sample-return (MSR) mission is a proposed mission to collect rock and dust samples on Mars and return them to Earth. Such a mission would allow more extensive analysis than that allowed by onboard sensors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jezero (crater)</span> Crater on Mars

Jezero is a crater on Mars in the Syrtis Major quadrangle, about 45.0 km (28.0 mi) in diameter. Thought to have once been flooded with water, the crater contains a fan-delta deposit rich in clays. The lake in the crater was present when valley networks were forming on Mars. Besides having a delta, the crater shows point bars and inverted channels. From a study of the delta and channels, it was concluded that the lake inside the crater probably formed during a period in which there was continual surface runoff.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donna Shirley</span> American aerospace engineer (born 1941)

Donna Lee Shirley is a former manager of Mars Exploration at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She is the author of the book Managing Martians: The Extraordinary Story of a Woman's Lifelong Quest to Get to Mars—and of the Team Behind the Space Robot That Has Captured the Imagination of the World.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mars 2020</span> Astrobiology Mars rover mission by NASA

Mars 2020 is a NASA mission that includes the rover Perseverance, the now-retired small robotic helicopter Ingenuity, and associated delivery systems, as part of the Mars Exploration Program. Mars 2020 was launched on an Atlas V rocket at 11:50:01 UTC on July 30, 2020, and landed in the Martian crater Jezero on February 18, 2021, with confirmation received at 20:55 UTC. On March 5, 2021, NASA named the landing site Octavia E. Butler Landing. As of 20 July 2024, Perseverance has been on Mars for 1214 sols. Ingenuity operated on Mars for 1042 sols before sustaining serious damage to its rotor blades, possibly all four, causing NASA to retire the craft on January 25, 2024.

<i>Ingenuity</i> (helicopter) Retired NASA helicopter on the Mars 2020 mission

Ingenuity, nicknamed Ginny, is an autonomous NASA helicopter that operated on Mars from 2021 to 2024 as part of the Mars 2020 mission. Ingenuity made its first flight on April 19, 2021, demonstrating that flight is possible in the extremely thin atmosphere of Mars, and becoming the first aircraft to conduct a powered and controlled extra-terrestrial flight. It was designed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in collaboration with AeroVironment, NASA's Ames Research Center and Langley Research Center with some components supplied by Lockheed Martin Space, Qualcomm, and SolAero.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aisha Bowe</span> Bahamian-American aerospace engineer

Aisha Bowe is a Bahamian-American aerospace engineer, founder, STEM advocate, and entrepreneur. She is the founder of CEO of STEMBoard, a technology company, and LINGO, an educational tech company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diana Trujillo</span> Colombian-American aerospace engineer

Lady Diana Trujillo Pomerantz is a Colombian-American aerospace engineer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She currently leads the engineering team at JPL responsible for the robotic arm of the Perseverance rover. On February 18, 2021, Trujillo hosted the first ever Spanish-language NASA transmission of a planetary landing, for the Perseverance rover landing on Mars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Milkovich</span> Scientist

Sarah Milkovich is lead of Science Operations for the Mars 2020 rover at Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She was investigation scientist for the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Farah Alibay</span> Canadian systems engineer

Farah Alibay is a Canadian systems engineer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory who has worked on the InSight, Mars Cube One, and Mars 2020 missions.

<i>Perseverance</i> (rover) NASA Mars rover deployed in 2021

Perseverance, nicknamed Percy, is a car-sized Mars rover designed to explore the Jezero crater on Mars as part of NASA's Mars 2020 mission. It was manufactured by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and launched on July 30, 2020, at 11:50 UTC. Confirmation that the rover successfully landed on Mars was received on February 18, 2021, at 20:55 UTC. As of 20 July 2024, Perseverance has been active on Mars for 1214 sols since its landing. Following the rover's arrival, NASA named the landing site Octavia E. Butler Landing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swati Mohan</span> American aerospace engineer

Swati Mohan is an Indian-American aerospace engineer and was the Guidance and Controls Operations Lead on the NASA Mars 2020 mission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allen Chen</span> American aerospace engineer

Allen "Al" Chen is an American aerospace engineer. He was the Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) Operations Lead on the Mars Science Laboratory mission and the EDL Lead for the Mars 2020 mission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Octavia E. Butler Landing</span> Landing site of Mars Perseverance rover

Octavia E. Butler Landing is the February 18, 2021, landing site of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover within Jezero crater on planet Mars. On March 5, 2021, NASA named the site for the renowned American science fiction author, Octavia E. Butler, who died on February 24, 2006. The Mars landing took place nearly 15 years to the day after her death. The coordinates of the landing site on Mars are 18.44°N 77.45°E

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maya Nasr</span> Lebanese Astronautics Researcher

Maya Nasr is a Lebanese postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University. She previously received her BS'18, MS'21, and PhD'23 in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research areas include aerospace engineering and international space law, policy, and politics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timothy Canham</span> American software engineer

Timothy Canham is an American software engineer. He works at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where he is the operations lead and former software lead for the Mars helicopter Ingenuity. He resides in Santa Clarita, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return</span> Proposed Mars sample return mission

The NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return is a proposed Flagship-class Mars sample return (MSR) mission to collect Martian rock and soil samples in 43 small, cylindrical, pencil-sized, titanium tubes and return them to Earth around 2033.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clara O'Farrell</span> American aerospace engineer

Clara O'Farrell is a guidance and control engineer for the Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) group at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab who is known for her work on the Mars Perseverance Rover Mission. Her education and research in aerospace engineering focused in propulsion and fluid dynamics, leading her to work for NASA.

Christina Hernández is a Mexican-American systems engineer at NASA. She was involved in STEM programs, which led her to a career in NASA where she has worked on the Mars Perseverance Rover, along with being a micrometeoroid and orbital debris specialist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Her contribution to aerospace involved adding safety within spacecraft. Also as an advocate for Latinas in STEM, Hernandez was a recipient of the Hispanic Heritage Foundation awards in 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Harris Trosper</span> American aerospace engineer

Jennifer Harris Trosper is an American aerospace engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. During her 30-year career at JPL, Trosper has occupied crucial positions in engineering management pertaining to every spacecraft that has traversed the Martian surface. Because of her leadership and engineering expertise, Trosper has appeared on broadcast media outlets as an authority in development and execution of missions to Mars.

References

  1. ↑ "Meet Naia Butler-Craig". VoyageATL. September 18, 2019. Retrieved 2020-12-12.
  2. ↑ "Naia Butler-Craig Selected for 2020 NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Grant". Georgia Institute of Technology. 2020-04-13. Archived from the original on 2020-10-21. Retrieved 2020-12-12.
  3. 1 2 VanguardSTEM (2018-05-02). "Naia Butler-Craig". Medium. Retrieved 2020-12-12.
  4. ↑ Leman, Jennifer (2020-02-11). "These 10 Women Are Changing the Way We Talk About Science". Popular Mechanics. Retrieved 2020-12-12.
  5. ↑ Santos, Christa (2016-03-24). "STEM & Tech Sassy Girlz". FORWARD Florida. Retrieved 2022-02-12.
  6. ↑ Nayak, Anika (2020-03-20). "These Gen Z "STEMinists" Are Here To Close The STEM Gender Gap". Elite Daily. Archived from the original on 2020-03-21. Retrieved 2020-12-12.
  7. ↑ "Seen: This Aerospace Engineer Is Pushing for More Diversity in the STEM Industry". NowThis News. August 3, 2021. Retrieved 2022-02-12.
  8. ↑ Koren, Marina (2020-06-03). "The False Hope of an American Rocket Launch". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
  9. ↑ Gohd, Chelsea (2020-01-14). "Billionaire hosts girlfriend contest for 'first woman to the moon' and (shocker) people hate it". Space.com. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
  10. ↑ Gohd, Chelsea (2020-07-08). "Space has a diversity problem — and big institutions like universities can do something about it". Space.com. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
  11. ↑ All Things Aviation & Aerospace (January 3, 2022). "Remember when the Perseverance Mars Rover first landed on Mars? Hear what the guys in the trenches were saying just before it touched". audible.com (Podcast). Event occurs at 00:24:50.
  12. ↑ "Naia Butler-Craig Dream Chasing to Become an Astronaut" (PDF). Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals. February 2021. pp. 14–15.
  13. ↑ "GirlsLaunch Digital Library". Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals.
  14. ↑ "Happy Science Fiction Week, Earthlings! : Short Wave". NPR.org. December 20, 2021. Retrieved 2022-02-12.
  15. ↑ "The Mars Generation Announces 24 Under 24 Leaders and Innovators in STEAM and Space Award Winners for 2019". The Mars Generation®. 2019-04-23. Retrieved 2022-02-12.
  16. ↑ "Modern-Day Technology Leaders". US Black Engineer and Information Technology. 44 (1): 60–69. 2020. ISSN   1088-3444. JSTOR   26924602.
  17. ↑ Leman, Jennifer (2020-02-11). "These 10 Women Are Changing the Way We Talk About Science". Popular Mechanics. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
  18. ↑ "Forbes 30 under 30: Science, Naia Butler-Craig". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2022-02-12. Retrieved 2020-12-12.
  19. ↑ Jewett, Rachel (2020-12-02). "Space Scientists Naia Butler-Craig and Hannah Kerner Make Forbes' Under 30 List". Via Satellite. Archived from the original on 2020-12-04. Retrieved 2020-12-12.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.