Susan G. Finley
Susan G. Finley | |
---|---|
Born | 1936 or 1937 (age 86–87)[1] |
Education | Scripps College (attended) |
Known for | Computing, engineering |
Children | Two sons |
Awards | NASA Group Achievement Award |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Engineering |
Institutions |
Susan G. Finley, a native Californian, has been an employee of
Life and education
Education
In 1955, Susan Finley began studying art and architecture at Scripps College, in Claremont, California, with the intention of becoming an architect. Her knowledge of engineering was vast because of her talents in mathematical and computing courses, so she attempted to learn art, but later realized that engineering was in her future.[4][5][6] After three years at Scripps College, Finley claimed she "couldn't learn art." During her college experience, she majored in the humanities which allowed her to be successful as a subsystem engineer. At the age of 21, she left Scripps College to become an engineer with a thermodynamics group at Convair in Pomona, California.[7]
Family life
At the beginning of her
Career
Finley dropped out of Scripps College, after three years of studying, and applied for a filing clerk position at
Between jobs, Susan Finley took a short course in FORTRAN in Riverside.
By the 1970s, teams of female programmers were integrated with male engineers of the same mission. Prior to the 1970s, they were kept apart. Susan Finley went on record as saying "the men always, from the very beginning, treated us as equals. We were doing something they couldn't do, and that they needed to go forward with what they were doing." Later, in the 1980s, Finley switched to software testing and subsystem engineering for the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN). A systems engineer in the context of NASA "encourages the use of tools and methods to better comprehend and manage complexity in systems". The DSN is used to track and communicate with every deep space probe sponsored by NASA as well as non-US space missions. They would communicate by sending commands to the probe, transmit software updates, as well as gather data. The research group tracked the Russian spacecraft Vega which carried a French balloon to Venus on its journey to Halley's comet. Although working with the Russians was difficult during this Cold War time period, her team was able to collaborate well with the French and they successfully delivered tracking data for the French balloon to route toward the comet. Finley's contribution was a program that automated the movements and translations of the platform's antenna. More specifically, the antenna had to be aligned with the spacecraft. Otherwise, no data would be received. Finley considers this project the most memorable of her many years at NASA.[2][18][19]
In the 1990s and 2000s, Finley contributed to JPL's further explorations of the solar system. Finley worked with the Mars Exploration Rover missions and developed technology in which musical tones were sent at differing phases of descent through the Martian atmosphere and were transmitted back to DSN. The program had the rover send musical tones back to the command center once each stage of the craft's descent. The engineers were then able to use this information to determine which landing stage the rocket was in at a given time.[20] This process was utilized in 1997 for the Pathfinder. However, the program was left out of the Climate Orbiter and Polar Lander Mars missions. Both the Climate Orbiter and the Polar Lander were lost in 1999. NASA attempted to find the causes for each of the failures. Fortunately for NASA, Finley's tones assisted in finding the issues with each of the two failed missions. The engineers used Finley's tones to update the whereabouts of the platforms in their last minutes. Finley was stationed at the Goldstone and Tidbinbilla stations while the landings were taking place and was the first to hear the tones that confirmed the landers survived their trip to Mars. Unfortunately, her work went unrecognized in the media because they reported from JPL's mission control only.[2] In 2004, Finley's tones returned to the Marian landing process of different components. Susan Finley explained that all of the Mars missions that carried the tones were a success. It was not until the Mars Polar Lander (MPL) mission failed where mission designers recognized the value of the tones Finley was responsible for.[21]
In 2008, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) reviewed their job listings and each of their employees pay. Finley was demoted from a salaried engineer to being paid by the hour. Finley was now an hourly engineering specialist. This was due to her lack of a Bachelor's Degree. Although Finley's overall pay did not change, she remained eligible for overtime. The only downside being she now had to clock in and clock out.[21]
She continues to work full-time for JPL and is involved in DSN support for NASA's recent unmanned missions, including the recent Pluto flyby by the New Horizons spacecraft and the Juno mission to Jupiter.[22][23] Susan Finley currently has no plans to retire.
Awards and honors
- 2013 - NASA Group Achievement Award, NASA (nine certificates awarded to Susan Finley)
- 2018 - NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal
Over the course of her career, Finley has won several NASA Group Achievement Awards.[7] This certificate is "awarded to any combination of government and/or non-government individuals for an outstanding group accomplishment that has contributed substantially to NASA's mission".[24]
In 2018, Finley was awarded a NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal[25] "This prestigious NASA medal is awarded to any non-Government individual or to an individual who was not a Government employee during the period in which the service was performed for sustained performance that embodies multiple contributions on NASA projects, programs, or initiatives."[26] Her years of dedication and service to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have made her the longest-serving woman in the space agency.[2] JPL is technically a division of Caltech,[27] so JPL employees don't qualify for governmental individual awards.
Publications
- 2004 "Tracking Capability for Entry, Descent and Landing and its support to NASA Mars Exploration Rovers," ResearchGate[28]
- 2009 "Receiver filters and records IF analog signals," National Aeronautics and Space Administration[29]
- 2012 "Spacecraft-to-earth communications for Juno and Mars Science Laboratory critical events," IEEE Xplore[30]
- 2013 "Improved spacecraft tracking and navigation using a Portable Radio Science Receiver," IEEE Xplore[31]
- 2013 "Sleuthing the MSL EDL performance from an X band carrier perspective," IEEE Xplore[32]
- 2014 "Design and implementation of a Deep Space Communications Complex downlink array," IEEE Xplore[33]
- 2016 "A comparison of atmospheric effects on differential phase for a two-element antenna array and nearby site test interferometer", IEEE Xplore[34]
See also
- Women in science
- Association for Women in Science
- List of organizations for women in science
- List of female scientists before the 20th century
External links
- Women at NASA JPL - Sue Finley on YouTube
References
- ^ Ahmed, Issam (July 16, 2019). "At 82, NASA pioneer Sue Finley still reaching for the stars". Phys.org.
- ^ a b c d e f g "NASA - NASA's 50 Year Men and Women". www.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2015-10-01.
- ISBN 978-0-316-33892-9.
- ^ a b c Finley, Susan (05 October 2015). Email with Rachel Lantz.
- ^ Finley, Susan (28 October 2015). Email with Rachel Lantz.
- ISBN 978-0-316-33892-9.
- ^ a b Whalen, Mark (November 2013). "'Computers' reunite" (PDF). Universe. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
- ^ "Scripps College Alumnae & Parent Engagement and The Scripps Fund". Scripps College. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
- ISBN 978-0-316-33892-9.
- ^ "NASA - NASA's 50 Year Men and Women". www.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2019-04-19.
- ^ "National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 (Unamended)". www.hq.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2019-04-19.
- ^ "National Aeronautics and Space Act", Wikipedia, 2019-02-15, retrieved 2019-04-19
- ^ Shavin, Naomi. "NASA's "Rocket Girls" Are No Longer Forgotten History". Smithsonian. Retrieved 2019-04-19.
- ^ "Women Made Early Inroads at JPL". NASA/JPL. Retrieved 2015-11-30.
- ^ "Pioneer 3". www.jpl.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2019-04-19.
- ISBN 978-0-316-33892-9.
- ISBN 978-0-316-33892-9.
- ISBN 978-0-316-33892-9.
- ^ Holland, Brynn. "Human Computers: The Women of NASA". HISTORY. Retrieved 2019-04-19.
- ^ Powers, Robert (2014-12-05). "Beacon eSpace at Jet Propulsion Laboratory". Jet Propulsion Laboratory. NASA. Archived from the original on 2010-05-27. Retrieved 2015-11-14.
- ^ a b Monsen, Lauren (2018-02-09). "At 81, NASA's Susan Finley is still exploring". ShareAmerica. Retrieved 2019-04-19.
- ISBN 978-0-316-33892-9.
- ^ Chang, Kenneth (July 3, 2016). "A Space Pioneer, 79, Is Ready to Track Juno for NASA". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
- ^ Mohon, Lee (2013-07-24). "2013 Agency Honor Awards". NASA. Retrieved 2015-12-02.
- ^ "Thomas Zurbuchen on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2018-09-06.
- ^ "NASAPeople". nasapeople.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2018-09-06.
- ^ "Jet Propulsion Laboratory | Caltech". The California Institute of Technology. Retrieved 2018-09-06.
- ^ "Tracking Capability for Entry, Descent and Landing and its support to NASA Mars Exploration Rovers". ResearchGate. Retrieved 2015-12-08.
- ^ "A Deep Space Network Portable Radio Science Receiver - Nasa Tech Briefs :: NASA Tech Briefs". www.techbriefs.com. Retrieved 2015-12-08.
- S2CID 25429936.
- S2CID 26448881.
- S2CID 42638632.
- S2CID 25349663.
- ISSN 0048-6604.