Category Archives: Work
It’s like baseball
I would think everyone would want to drive a Mars rover if given the chance, but that’s not entirely the case. One of the questions I often get from colleagues outside of operations is along the lines of, “Don’t you get bored basically doing the same thing all the time?” I get where they’re coming…
Cognitive Bias
I’ve received all sorts of technical training on how to drive a Mars rover, but very little on all the psychological biases that influence our decision making. There’s confirmation bias (am I only seeing information that supports the ideas I’ve already committed to in my head?), groupthink (am I going along with this only because…
Composite joints
My last couple of projects at JPL have involved bonded composite joints and I’ve learned a few things about the topic: 1. Every design requires an engineering development effort. Composites and bonded joints are highly workmanship dependent, hard to analyze, and will likely break in the most unique way possible. 2. A picture is worth…
Vacation time
I recently took two weeks off from work. I didn’t answer any emails, nor did I turn on my work phone once. No one pressured me to work more, or to come in on one of the days I marked off. All this despite the fact that my project’s critical design review occurred halfway through…
Slow is steady
Driving a Mars rover takes something of a unique mindset. There are the technical skills of course, but I found a big part of my training was learning how to operate in high-stress environments. It’s not uncommon for a room full of colleagues to be waiting on you to figure something out, and if you…