News — NASA

Dr. Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu is a robotics engineer at NASA, where he has served as the chief engineer and technical group leader for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which he joined in 1999. In addition to being a vital part of the JPL, Dr. Trebi-Ollennu was the lead engineer on the InSight Mission, the first deep interior mission on Mars, launched on May 5th, 2018.

Dr. Trebi-Ollennu was born in Accra, Ghana, and traveled to the United Kingdom, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in Avionic Engineering in 1991 from Queen Mary University of London. His lingering childhood fascination with planes encouraged him to continue his education at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Royal Military College of Science, Cranfield University in 1996, where he received a Ph.D. in Control Systems Engineering. Dr. Trebi-Ollennu was most fascinated by the science behind replacing human pilots with robots, thus inspiring the 2018 InSight mission in which the robotic arm his team built would go where no human has ever gone before, exploring the frozen water of Mars and deducing how planets form. His past projects on Mars include the Phoenix Mars Exploration Rover in 2003, which resulted in the discovery of water on Mars. In 2007, he worked on the Mars Lander, earning the NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal in 2008 for his contributions, the 2011 Mars Science Laboratory, and the InSight Mars Lander project in 2016.

Dr. Trebi-Ollennu is a fellow at the Institute of Engineering and Technology, the Royal Aeronautical Society, and the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. His research at these institutes and at NASA focuses on planetary rovers and their operations, mechatronics, reconfigurable robots, and man-machine interactions.

In 2011, Dr. Trebi-Ollennu founded a non-profit organization called the Ghana Robotics Academy Foundation with the vision of inspiring young Ghanaians in STEM. The organization works to motivate the next generation by facilitating robotics and science clubs in public and private schools, organizing yearly workshops and competitions, and advocating for robotics programs to be a regular part of the school curricula. With over ninety-five publications, Dr. Trebi-Ollennu is a highly accomplished engineer who has changed the field of STEM on an astronomical level, which has earned him several awards such as the IEEE Region 6 Outstanding Engineer Award in 2007, the 2010 Specialist Silver Award from the Royal Aeronautical Society, and the 21st Century Trailblazer Award in Systems Engineering from the U.S.A. National Society of Black Engineers.

Growing up, many of us had childhood ambitions but some of them changed along the way. That is not the case with Fadji Zaouna Maina, the first Nigerien scientist to work for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). She has had ambitions of alleviating water problems in her hometown since age 10. Now, she gets to tackle the world’s water crises with data from NASA.

The 29-year-old hydrologist from Zinder, Niger, joined NASA on August 27, amid congratulatory messages from Niger’s president and first lady and other high-profile members of her community. Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou referred to her as “a national pride, and a role model for the youth of Niger”.

Her response to the president was befitting and it summarised her entire journey. “I pushed the boundaries, I made it possible and I made a whole country proud,” she said. “The chances for a girl like me, born and raised in Zinder (Niger), to become a scientist at a well-known institution like NASA are almost zero.”

She acknowledges the fact that the water crisis in Niger is deteriorating due to climate change. As a girl child in Zinder, having tap water in her home gave her an edge over other children, especially girls who had to go in search of water from the lake or buy from neighbors.

“People think that the boys should go to school or go to work and the girls should find water and come back [to do] cooking and cleaning,” Maina told Share America in an interview in September.

“[Girls] don’t have time to go to school,” she said. “Girls’ education is one more problem that comes from climate change — I have seen that.”

This situation fuels her ambition to succeed and she is giving it her all.

“I have a responsibility on my shoulders because I believe I need to show the face of my country,” Maina said. “It’s like changing the image of Nigeriens and changing the image of the women generally.”

Maina, at age 16, completed her secondary education, having been skipped several times ahead of her peers. She has been an advocate for education and girl child empowerment since she was a teenager, and, at one point, served as a junior deputy in Niger’s National Youth Assembly.

Maina went to The University of Fes in Morocco to pursue a degree in geological engineering. She then proceeded to the University of Strasbourg for her master’s in engineering and environmental sciences.

In 2016, she earned her Ph.D. in Hydrology from the University of Strasbourg, a field she chose in order “to participate in improving the conditions of access to drinking water in Niger,” according to The Africa report.

On a quest to find tangible solutions to the global water crisis, Maina worked in highly acclaimed laboratories such as the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) before joining the Energy Geosciences Division of the University of Berkeley in the United States.

It was her work at Berkeley that caught the attention of Forbes, earning her a spot on the Forbes’ 30 Under 30 2020 Science.

Later, she saw a job opening online at NASA and went for it. Today, she works as a computational hydrologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center where she uses mathematical models and remote-sensing products to study the impact of climate change on water, according to the Nigerien US embassy.

“I will try to better understand the water cycle and the evolution of water resources in the context of climate change by using mathematical models and data from NASA satellites,” Maina explained.

She continues to support girl child education and the emancipation of women in Niger. The young female scientist also advises young girls who aspire to be like her to keep pushing.

“I will say to them to not give up to keep going because everyone would think people from Niger, or a young girl from Niger, would not be able to do this. But just believe in yourself and find an environment that will support you,” she told.

This past weekend, NASA celebrated a historic moment with the launch of the SpaceX Crew-1 mission and Victor J. Glover became the first Black astronaut to live on the international space station for an extended stay. The flight left on Sunday, Nov. 15 from the Kennedy Space Center based in Florida.

“It is something to be celebrated once we accomplish it, and, you know, I am honored to be in this position and to be a part of this great and experienced crew,” Glover said during a news conference on the new mission last week, according to Space.com. “And I look forward to getting up there and doing my best to make sure that, you know, we are worthy of all the work that’s been put into setting us up for this mission.”

The team for the first operational flight will also include NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Shannon Walker, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Soichi Noguchi in addition to the California native. The Navy veteran expressed excitement about the new milestone and embarking on the missions with his team.

“Listening to Shannon and Soichi and Mike talk about their Soyuz experience, their space shuttle experience, and their lives on the International Space Station, and how they managed their families and communication and keeping their things together, all of that has been so valuable to me and to top it all off,” Glover said in an interview with Spectrum News. “We have a great time.”

Glover also took to his own Twitter to celebrate the news of the mission with followers. “Crew-1 is complete with Dragon Rider training,” he wrote. “We’ve got our license to fly! Thank you to all that made this possible. We hope to make you proud!” NASA also shared a short video on Glover’s history with the organization and his work with the Crew-1 mission.

NASA posted a clip of the mission launch on Sunday on their Instagram page with the caption “At 7:27 p.m. EST the @SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and the Crew Dragon “Resilience” spacecraft launched from @NASAKennedy en route to the @ISS. Its precious cargo? @NASAastronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, @JAXAjp astronaut Soichi Noguchi, and more than 440 pounds of science experiments and supplies. This is the first official flight of the Commercial Crew Program, helping pave the way for the future of space exploration.”

NASA and SpaceX are sending an African-American astronaut on an extended trip for the first time into space. Victor J. Glover, who joined the astronaut corps in 2013 when he was still serving as a legislative fellow in the United States Senate, will now be the first Black crew member to spend an extended amount of time at the space station.

According to NY Times, Glover, 44, a Navy Commander, is making this unprecedented voyage with three other crew members; two Americans, crew commander Mike Hopkins, 51, Shannon Walker, 55 and one Japanese, Soichi Noguchi, 55.

The crew launched on Sunday on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule named Resilience and will spend about six months aboard the station. The four will stay in orbit until spring, till another SpaceX Dragon capsule brings their replacements.

The first African American to travel into space was Guion Bluford in 1983 and since then there have been many African Americans in space, some of whom helped build the International Space Station but none of them have been on prolonged missions or served as expedition members like Glover.

Out of 300 astronauts, NASA has only sent 14 Black Americans and Glover’s achievement is notable for NASA.

Black people in America have had waves of protests following the death of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor amid talks of racial injustice and police brutality. Glover is delighted to make history on the Dragon capsule, but he is not oblivious to the recent happenings including the pandemic.

“It is something to be celebrated once we accomplish it, and I am honored to be in this position and to be a part of this great and experienced crew,” he said. 

“And I look forward to getting up there and doing my best to make sure, you know, we are worthy of all the work that’s been put into setting us up for this mission. You know, unlike the election — that is in the past or receding in the past — this mission is still ahead of me. So, let’s get there, and I’ll talk to you after I get on board.”

Glover is a family man with four children married to Dionna Odom. The Pomona, California native got his bachelor’s in general engineering from California Polytechnic State University in 1999. Between 2007 and 2010, Glover earned three master’s degrees in flight test engineering, systems engineering and military operational art and science.

The former Navy Commander accumulated 3,000 flight hours in more than 40 aircraft, over 400 carrier arrested landings and 24 combat missions. His colleagues nicknamed him “Ike”, which means “I Know Everything.” His former commanding officer gave him that name for his stellar work ethics.

With this NASA mission, he told The Christian Chronicle, a publication of the Churches of Christ, that he wished Blacks had achieved this feat long ago and hopes he would not be the last.

“I’ve had some amazing colleagues before me that really could have done it, and there are some amazing folks that will go behind me,” Glover said. “I wish it would have already been done, but I try not to draw too much attention to it.”