Meet Five Female Changemakers at Johnson

In honor of Women’s History Month, we are highlighting five notable female changemakers at NASA's Johnson Space Center. These outstanding women are managing everything, from developing Gateway simulations to carrying out Artemis I’s pre-flight avionics and enhancing our collection of tools for Artemis II mission support.

 

Read ahead to learn about the different projects they are currently working on! 

 

 

Brittany Pitcel

 

 

Brittany Pitcel is the Technical Integration Lead for the Mission Systems Operations Contract (MSOC) at the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility (SVMF). She is the liaison between NASA and the MSOC contract for managing the facility and overseeing the projects and training that goes on in the building. 

 

Between having impromptu conversations with crew members training in the building to being in the same room as Kamala Harris, Brittany finds the SVMF exciting every day.

 

For Brittany, the mockups are challenging and rewarding. A lot of work and planning goes into modifying and maintaining the mockups to meet program requirements. “Having a to-scale space station outside my window is not too bad of a view,” said Brittany. “Soon we will have more Gateway mockups to play with too."

 

“We are about to retrofit one of our mockups to act as part of both the Japanese Experiment Module and the U.S. LAB in our building. This involved months of planning with users and NASA to receive requirements and the design is about to begin. It will be interesting to see a fusion of the two modules and ensure we are improving training in the facility.” - Brittany Pitcel

 

Additionally, Brittany and her team are in the process of setting up a Gateway simulation that interfaces between SVMF, the Mission Training Center, and the Mission Control Center. This will include a lot of hardware development that will interface and respond to the simulation to train crew members for future Gateway missions.

 

Brittany’s motivation comes from the people in her life: family, friends, coworkers, etc. “I’m an extremely people-oriented person, and having a support system and trying to be a good support system helps with my career and overall happiness. I also have two cats, so I must keep a roof over their heads,” she adds.

 

During her free time, Brittany hosts trivia in downtown Houston. It’s her creative outlet to write the questions and themes and a fun way to stay social in the middle of the week. She also does spin class to stay active and enjoys hanging out with friends.

 

***

Tanya Peretyazhko

 

 

Tanya Peretyazhko is a Mars Research Scientist at the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division. She researches how minerals formed in Martian rocks and soils. Her work helps to understand past geochemical processes on Mars. Tanya is also a collaborator on the Mars Science Laboratory’s Curiosity rover and Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, and Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-Rex) science teams.

 

The never-ending process of learning something new about Mars and beyond is exciting for her and curiously is what motivates her. Tanya is currently working on a project about the formation of phyllosilicates and carbonates on Mars. “This study is important for understanding why carbonate minerals are scarce on Mars,” she said.

 

“Tanya is a brilliant, hardworking scientist and an exceptional mentor. Her curiosity seems to know no bounds, and her insights are always razor-sharp. Her guidance and example have set many young scientists on the path to success, including those around her,” says her team. 

 

Her favorite free time activities include learning Japanese, scuba diving, yoga, and riding her tandem bicycle with her husband around the world. 

 

 ***

Molly Mercer

 

 

Molly Mercer is the Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) and Space Launch System (SLS) Test Engineering and Integration Lead for NASA’s Orion Program. Her role includes supporting cross-program integration and testing in the various Orion labs. She also facilitates the integration of the launch vehicle emulators to support Orion’s ascent and abort test campaign.

Additionally, she executed the Artemis I pre-flight avionics and software testing for the Orion-EGS interface and the Orion-SLS interface. Molly integrated the EGS, Flight Operations Directorate, and Orion and SLS teams. She also acted as a test engineer to conduct dry runs and formal testing in Orion test labs. The successful completion of this mission testing objective was a key risk reduction activity for the Artemis I mission, and Ms. Mercer’s leadership was a key factor in making it happen. 

“The most exciting part about my job is that I am constantly learning. As a cross-program integrator for Orion, not only do I get to learn about our spacecraft, but I get to learn about the launch vehicle and ground software that it interfaces with. I get to work in the Orion Test Labs (OTL) supporting the testing and integration of ground and flight software to ensure a successful mission.” - Molly Mercer

Molly says she enjoys being in the lab, as it allows her to directly interface with the hardware and software that we’re sending around the Moon.

As her role is a little different every day, Molly is excited to show up to see what the next day holds and what is next for the Artemis program. After spending hundreds of hours in the OTL supporting EGS’s Artemis I pre-launch test campaign, the most exciting experience in her role so far was watching it all come together and seeing the rocket lift off from the Cape! 

 

Molly Mercer is motivated by overcoming challenging problems. She enjoys troubleshooting, investigating issues, and working to determine a resolution. “The reason we test is because things don’t usually work the first time. By doing this, we all learn together to ensure the safety of the astronauts who will be riding onboard Artemis II. Additionally, it’s pretty motivating to know that after all the hard work of countless individuals comes together, we’ll be sending the first woman to the moon!” she adds. 

 

Molly and her team are currently integrating the Artemis II upper-stage emulator into the OTL. Since she started this role, they have been planning for this emulator’s arrival and now they get to put those plans into practice. She is excited to see what they earn and is looking forward to the completion of the integration effort so that the emulator can be used to support Orion’s upcoming ascent and abort test campaign. 

***

Rebekah Reed

Rebekah Reed is the Associate Director of the Exploration Architecture, Integration, and Science (EAIS) Directorate at Johnson. EAIS is composed of a diverse team of scientists, engineers, integrators, mission planners, and program analysts that touch every part of NASA’s exploration mission. They work across programs, organizations, and disciplines to solve some of the agency’s toughest challenges. Their guiding principles are customer-oriented service, mission focus, team development, and technical excellence. 

 

Knowing that her team is directly contributing to NASA’s exploration mission is Rebekah’s favorite part about her job. “From curation and research on the Mars samples, to supporting program and mission integration and imagery analysis, to understanding the orbital debris environment excites me. Furthermore, planning future NASA and commercial missions to the Moon and Mars, my team touches every part of NASA’s Moon to Mars goals,” she says. Rebekah is motivated by NASA’s mission which represents the aspirations of humans to explore and push the bounds of what we know.

 

“When we push those boundaries, we create opportunities for people to be a part of something bigger than themselves. We create opportunities to think about ourselves as a human community—occupants of planet Earth—in a way that emphasizes our commonalities and the future challenges that bind us together rather than what divides us. On a more individual level, I love supporting my team and the people that I mentor as they grow and flourish.” - Rebekah Reed 

 

This year, Rebekah is excited about the return of the OSIRIS-Rex samples from the asteroid Bennu; those samples will arrive at Johnson in September. “We will also see the first CLPS landings on the Moon, which is a huge step forward for creating a low-cost commercial model for lunar transport,” she said. 

 

Looking into the future, Rebekah can't wait for the first crewed Artemis mission and their work supporting the agency’s Moon to Mars architecture for future missions. Additionally, she is looking forward to the Mars Sample Return Project which will receive and then study Mars samples. Rebekah is also working on setting up a new supervisor cohort that she and her team developed along with Human Resources to support their first-line supervisors’ growth and development.

 

In her free time, Rebekah’s priority is spending time with her daughter and partner. During COVID, they started spending time at the zoo, and that has become their favorite place. Rebekah and her partner love board games, cooking, and trying new restaurants.  

 

***

Janet E. Barzilla, Ph.D.

 

Janet Barzilla works with the Space Radiation Analysis Group (SRAG), which is tasked with mitigating crew impacts from space radiation through a variety of methods, including radiation monitoring, vehicle design evaluations, real-time console support, and space environment modeling. 

In her role at SRAG, Janet is a Space Environment Officer in Mission Control, where she monitors the space environment and works with the flight control team on crew actions when there is an increase in particle fluency. She also leads a project to improve our capabilities to model the likelihood of a solar particle event  for both space station and Artemis mission support.

“My job is never the same; I’ve been with this group since 2009, and the tasks I am working on have ranged from console operations to hardware assembly and measurements to mathematical modeling – I’m never bored.” - Janet Barzilla

Janet will tackle any problem you give her, and she will figure it out. If it means learning something new or even things that are outside her normal area of expertise, she learns and solves the problem.

A current project that she is looking forward to is improving the suite of tools for Artemis-II mission support. “What’s really motivating is when my family sees the work that we’re doing and tells me how cool it is,” said Janet. 

She likes running and baking in her free time!