 Live from Houston, Texas. It's theCUBE, covering Grace Hopper's celebration of women in computing. Welcome back to theCUBE's coverage of the Grace Hopper Conference here in Houston, Texas. I am your host, Rebecca Knight. We have a great panel today. Three distinguished guests, Jeanette Epps, an aerospace astronaut and engineer at NASA. Mimi Valdez, a executive producer on the film Hidden Figures. And Christina Dioja, who is a, I want to call her a rocket scientist. She will not let me. She's an electrical engineer at NASA. Thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for having us. Jeanette, I want to start with you. Recently, President Obama has said, we're going to put men on Mars, and women, men and women on Mars. How realistic is that? I mean, it's exciting for the rest of us non-astronauts to hear this. Is it realistic? It is realistic. And one of the things I love that he did that was that it gives a national initiative to go back to Mars. And so that means that people will get more involved in STEM careers, especially girls will get more involved. And it's kind of like, you know, what JFK did back in the 60s to give us that pushed a goal, an end goal to do something great. And do you think that, you know, he said it by 2030. It's not very long from now. I mean, is it going to, I mean, what's? Well, right now what NASA's working on is we have the NASA Orion program. And it's a Apollo-like capsule that will be launched off of one of the largest rockets, bigger than the Saturn V, or as big. And so that, the mission of NASA Orion is to take us beyond low-Earth orbit and go deeper into space. So we're looking at NASA Orion potentially maybe being the ship that will go to Mars. And, you know, maybe we have more work to do, but all of getting the nation on board with going to Mars will inspire a new generation to do great things that will help us to get to Mars even. Obama has said he loves science as a kid. It was his favorite subject in school. And do you think that it will have this galvanizing effect of, as you said, making sure more little boys and girls are studying STEM? Well, I've seen it already with some of the tweets and different things, questions that kids ask me nowadays. I think every kid has in their heart this goal to go to Mars now. And I can't go to a conference or anywhere without some young child asking about Mars and how are we going to get there? When are we going to get there? And, you know, I think one of my jobs is to inspire them to get involved in STEM and help us to get to Mars. There's a lot of technology that we need to develop and produce so that we can get astronauts to live longer away from the Earth's surface. We have the propulsion system that can get them there faster and bring them back home. How long will it take? Well, it depends on the propulsion system that we develop. So there's a number of things that we're working on to make sure that what President Obama has said will get us to Mars in the 2030s. If it's pushed out to a little later, that's fine. We're working on it and we're going forward with that. Okay, okay. Mimi, I want to talk to you now about the film Hidden Figures. We'll be out in some theaters in Christmas, wide release in January. It is the story of black women mathematicians working in the 1960s at NASA. How did you find out about this story? Well, I give credit to Donna Jalotti, one of the producers on the film who optioned the book when it was a book proposal. So before the book was even written, she optioned this story. And it's just this amazing story that the world doesn't even know about. We all know about John Glenn's mission. He came back a national hero. It was a moment in history that galvanized the world, America winning the space race, but we don't know the story of all these brilliant mathematicians, all these women who actually were really responsible. Catherine Johnson specifically, who hand calculated those numbers for his trajectory. I mean, it's just such an amazing thing to do. And again, we just don't know her story. And as well as Dorothy Vaughn and Mary Jackson, I mean, so many women that worked at NASA that were just, they were hidden. We just don't know their stories. So the film tells their story. It tells their, it tells what they did, how they helped John Glenn. And did John Glenn appreciate that? I mean, is that- John Glenn actually would not go into space unless Catherine double checked the numbers. Like he wanted her to actually, he trusted her because this is when the IBM computers were first coming into NASA. So they had started to sort of use that. And he was like, any Catherine to check the numbers before I go up into space. So they were friends, professional colleagues. Well, no, I mean, he just knew, you know, obviously she was really responsible in sort of that whole mission. And for him, it was just sort of like, these computers thing, this was like a new thing at NASA. He's like, I need a human to make sure that these numbers are right, yeah. So we're excited about the film. Who's in it? Teraji P. Henson plays Catherine Johnson. Octavia Spencer plays Dorothy Vaughn and Janelle Monet. She's a musician. This is sort of her first really big role and she plays Mary Jackson. Kevin Costner is the head of the space station. We have really great actors. But I think what was really important to everyone who participated in the film was everyone understood the importance of the story and wanted to make sure that we got it right. And also, you know, movies are supposed to be entertaining, but when they can be also inspirational and educate in some way. The fact that some young girl somewhere may see this movie and decide to pursue a career in math or science or any of the STEM careers is really gratifying to us because that's what we would love to accomplish, you know? Christina, you have been at NASA for nine years. Tell me about your story, how you got to NASA in the first place. So I've always loved space since I was a young child. I was in fifth grade when I told my parents that I wanted to work for NASA. So really, since that point, that was my dream. And so I pursued the math and science. Those were some of my favorite subjects. Luckily, I had some supportive parents who really like saw that desire in me and kind of nurtured and encouraged me to, hey, if that's what you want to do, then you go for it. We'll do whatever we can. And then I came across some NASA opportunities in high school. And one of the programs was the high school aerospace scholars program. And in that program, I kind of got a glimpse into what it was like to be an engineer, to work at NASA. I got to speak with, you know, flight directors and flight controllers. And there's so many people who contribute to the space program. And that experience really solidified my desire to pursue STEM. So I studied electrical engineering, and then from there, you know, did the internship at NASA. And I've enjoyed my career so far. It's been a great experience. And so you work on the jet propulsion system of spaceships. Lehmann would call them spaceships. I work on the power systems. Oh, okay, the power systems. Yes. Okay, so you're, what do you do? So as an electrical engineer on power systems, I work on the design of the power system, testing. Basically everything on the spacecraft is going to need power. So I'm responsible for how, I need to provide power, how much. When we talk about going to Mars, that's a long duration mission. And power is something that you have to budget for. So we need to advance that technology to support these missions that our administration has said we want to go there. How are y'all going to accomplish this? So there's a lot of design hands-on work and it's, you know, it's a challenge, but I mean, together as a team, we can, I believe that we'll, you know, meet that goal and be able to deliver a power system that will take us to Mars. So this is a question for really all of you. You're an astronaut, you were working on NASA, you just made a movie to encourage young women to get into the STEM field. Why isn't NASA recruiting here at Grace Hopper and should it be? Jeanette, do you want to take this? Well that's a good question. It's not that I'm NASA, I don't, it's not that I don't think NASA has a desire to recruit here. I think there's recruiting times where people come out and do that. But I think one of the things that we do in the astronaut corps is we try to go out and attend conferences like that and try to inspire students to be interested in NASA, to understand what NASA's doing, to understand that, you know, the shuttle retired, but we're still flying. In fact, when I fly to space and hopefully in 2018, I'll fly with the Russians, but in the meantime, NASA's building two shuttles that will take astronauts to the International Space Station and NASA Orion that'll take us deeper into space. So we want to try to inspire with our stories and get people interested in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and now even the arts. The arts play a big part of this. The arts play a big part of this. Well yeah, I think as a scientist and looking at patterns and things like that, there's a lot of people who begin to work in the arts, even if it's building things with their hands and making sculpting things, painting things. And so there's a lot of artwork that comes into play in science. That's really refreshing, exciting, counter-intuitive. I mean, what would you say are the ways? We've talked about getting them interested through film, talking about Obama making this grand announcement and dream. What are some other ways that we can get the next generation into this field? Well, representation is obviously important. I think when people get to see images in the media of these different fields and all the possibilities, I mean, every kid on this planet is obsessed with their phone, maybe not realizing the importance of these STEM careers that make these phones even possible or even exist. And I think the more that we can expose these careers and all these possibilities, I think it will just be more beneficial just for humanity in general. I mean, as we know, nothing in this world can exist without math, nothing. So the more that we can sort of encourage young people to see what an incredible career this is and all the possibilities that go into it, I just think will be better off as a nation and as a, you know, just globally as a world. Jeanette, I mean, do you have any thoughts about how what you would advise someone? I mean, you started at NASA nine years ago. So, I mean, as an engineer, I feel like, I mean, I am making some contribution, but really the way I feel like I have more impact is through mentoring and, you know, participating in those outreach type of activities for younger students like K through 12 and then also, you know, undergraduate, like where they're really like trying to figure out what are the career options in STEM? And so that's how I feel I can have an impact there. And these movies help because there's a surge of like, like it's inspirational for young students to see this and be like, oh, I never knew that that was an option. So we get outreach to NASA or request to, you know, interact with local schools and communities and kind of, you know, do online lessons or just teaching with them, just talking about kind of like what the career is like. So, I mean, I hoping that I can contribute in that way for younger people. Jeanette, you are an impressive astronaut, but you are also known as a black woman astronaut. Do you bristle at that or do you embrace it? What's the responsibility there? Oh, I totally embrace it. You know, young ladies always ask me, did you have a problem being a black woman and engineering? And I always tell them that I don't have a problem with being a black woman and if other people do then that's their problem. I'm totally embrace it because one of the things that I didn't realize was that there's still a need to have positive role models and images of yourself. You know, growing up, my mom never taught my twin sister and I that you couldn't do something because you were a female or brown, but there are a lot of young ladies that actually do experience that. And so having a positive role model that show them that, hey, look, if I can do this, you can do this too. There's no reason you shouldn't be doing this right now, yourself, so. So you are a role model and how do you then also make sure that it's active role modeling and not just sort of standing on a pedestal of? One of the things I like to do is like Catherine Johnson and these great ladies that, without them I wouldn't be here is you have to do well and you have to perform well. You have to do the same work that your colleagues are doing and don't do less and don't accept less either. And when it comes to the hard work, put in the time, do the work, complete the tasks and make sure you're representing yourself and your group well. And you don't want to be accounted as, well, she's the one we got to help and we got to do this. But you want to be a contributing member to every group that you're a part of and completing the tasks, doing the same work, if not better. I like to say, do better work. But you want to be a part of the group. Yeah, but that puts so much pressure too because it's being a contributor, but also don't mess up because you are under a microscope to some degree. Because you are. That does happen, but messing up isn't, failure should never be, if it's unintentional, that's okay because you always learn from your mistakes and you have to forgive yourself and keep moving forward. If you stop right there because of failure, you wouldn't go anywhere. We all fell and it's how you respond to it that matters. Yeah, every failure is an opportunity to learn. And I think, yeah, you can't be scared. I mean, the first and foremost is just doing a good job. Because once, if you're just dedicated and focused on that, then I think great things can happen. And then failure is really a buzzword in Silicon Valley too right now, it's a fail fast. And this idea as you were talking about that it's your response to failure that makes the difference. Yeah, NASA, I became familiar with this phrase of failing forward, meaning that yes, you're going to encounter problems, but if you are learning from that, if you're making improvements, you can design something better. So we call it failing forward. And that concept has, I've embraced that concept and it's, you know, I've encountered many failures. I mean, designing new hardware, it's not going to, you know, work right off the box and kind of embracing that idea that it's a learning experience. As long as you don't give up, if you're applying what you learned, then that is not a failure. Christina, this is great. Christina, Dioja, Mimi Valdez, Jeanette Epps, thank you so much for joining us today. This has been such a treat to be here. I'm not worthy. Thank you. This has been Rebecca Knight, live coverage of the Grace Hopper Conference here in Houston, Texas. We'll be back after this break. Was a...