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Sally Ride went down in posterity not only for being the first American astronaut, but for having starred in one of NASA’s most embarrassing episodes. Yes, the one with the tampons. She was the one who was packaged with 100 tampons tied by string like sausages for the six-day STS-7 space mission in 1983, something that—she responded angrily—they might as well have halved. But menstruation was something completely foreign among the country’s most prestigious scientists: until then, few had questioned how gravity would not increase women’s bleeding. Many fewer imagined that space could be explored by them. So why make custom suits for her or talk about periods?
This anecdote is for many space engineers and scientists a reminder that no institution escapes machismo and how not so long ago they were barely taken into account. Much less to the Latinas. The heritage remains fresh in the memory of Katherinne Herrera-Jordán, Clara O’Farrell and Sandra Cauffman, three Latin American women who dreamed of exploring space when they were children and whose studies have contributed to understanding it a little better.
Although the path seems to be somewhat clearer for women, they say that imposter syndrome never goes away and that they continue to be explained things that they already know. For this reason, when Herrera-Jordán is asked how much people think about them in space, she answers ironically: “Just as little as on Earth.” But feminism is also making an impact and they all agree that they leave a less hostile terrain for those who follow them and that today astronauts can talk to the press about space shuttle flights and not about how they will comb their hair in space, as happened to them. to the Russian Elana Serova.
The Guatemalan who wants to take native beans to space
Katherinne Herrera-Jordán didn’t know she liked science until she discovered that the questions she asked herself as a child were solved by physics or chemistry. As a child, her parents turned to scientific articles and the MythBusters (Mythbusters) to answer them. Now the answers to his doubts – which are still many – are sought in the laboratory. The first opportunity to do so was in a Biochemistry and Microbiology degree project. The goal set was ambitious: to understand how certain microorganisms behave in space. The resources for it? “None,” says this 26-year-old Guatemalan, laughing.
Allied with the doctor Luis Zeaa rockstar in Guatemalan aerospace, and with Fredy España, a classmate who was studying mechatronic engineering, he set out to create his own microgravity simulator, a device that is used to subject laboratory samples to conditions similar to those of space, and that in the market costs almost $30,000. Three months and 31 dollars later they had achieved it; His little contraption made from recycled appliances had paid off. “I never thought about getting rich with this, but I started selling them at more affordable prices.” [entre 500 y 5.000 dólares] because it is designed so that we can all do science,” says the founder of Verne Technologies. “It feels ugly that Latin Americans do not have the same access to the space sector. “This is a tool for us to investigate from here, not just from the United States.”
Thanks to the team he developed, Herrera-Jordán supports research such as the project developed by the Guatemalan Association of Engineering and Space Sciences (Agice), which has to do with a seed he grew up eating: native beans. He already discovered that if they were cultivated Phaseolus acutifolius In space, they would germinate faster and have the ability to absorb more nutrients. Now he is wondering what to do with it: it could be anything from using it to alleviate child malnutrition in his country to feeding astronauts or planting it on the Moon. “There are many institutions that are designing the technology for when there are communities living there. I hope the Guatemalan beans arrive.”
The Costa Rican who controls 1.5 billion dollars from NASA
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Trying to compile Sandra Cauffman’s resume is a difficult task. In the almost four decades she has worked for NASA, she has worked in virtually every position since she started as a contractor “putting glasses” on the Hubble telescope in 1991, which had a mirror failure, to today as deputy director of the division. of Astrophysics at NASA from the Directorate of Science. However, this 62-year-old Costa Rican remembers perfectly every step up to her current position, in which she controls a budget of 1.5 billion dollars. “My job has always been to understand what scientists want and build it,” says this engineer who fell in love with science by reading Jules Verne.
Cauffman recognizes that, in such a masculinized sector, female leadership is a challenge. “Several colleagues have told me that they were more prepared than me. It is not easy to answer, but I learned that they had the problem.” That is why she tries to “leave the door open” for those who come behind: “We have to get the girls to put themselves in our shoes and see that it is possible. The space is also for us and we have a lot to contribute.”
The Maven mission is one of his most precious memories, the first time a NASA probe went to Mars to measure its upper atmosphere and analyze how the loss of volatile compounds such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and water occurred. It was an expedition to understand how climate change occurred on the red planet. His conclusions are clear: “The Earth is our lifeboat. Although there are more than 10,000 exoplanets, on no other planet will we be able to live like here,” he says.
The Argentine jellyfish expert who develops supersonic parachutes
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Clara O’Farrell dedicated four years of her life to studying the behavior and movement of jellyfish in the sea, thinking about creating autonomous robots that would collect underwater information. She never thought that knowledge could be used to build supersonic parachutes that would land on Mars. But, when she got a call from NASA, she said yes without thinking twice. Without realizing it, she united her two great passions: marine biology and space engineering, two modalities that have more to do with each other than one would imagine.
Space science has been looking at flora and fauna for almost two decades to learn from their movements and tissues: propellers that imitate the wings of birds; equipment that optimizes space, inspired by the brains of insects. Through bioengineering, this 38-year-old Argentinean managed to shape the largest and most resistant supersonic parachute that NASA has ever created, in the operation that she sought to resolve if there was life on Mars. More than 21 meters in diameter and deploying at almost twice the speed of sound, the Perseverance landed on the red planet on February 18, 2021 to bring answers: “Organic compounds were found mixed with very particular minerals that indicate that at some point there was life,” he says.
But, as usually happens when one resolves a doubt, more arose. As was? Was she similar to ours? “That is the next mission and it will be the most complicated thing we have done,” he says. Now, from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, he continues to develop new parachutes; stronger and larger. “If you want to bring back samples from Mars or carry out manned missions, we will need to land heavier things. There is a lot of work,” she says excitedly.
O’Farrell also feels the responsibility of attracting more girls and young people to the opportunities that are opening up in the region: “The numbers show that what happened to me was something extraordinary; I am the exception. And that has to stop being like that.”
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