User:Dayaperez/Christina Hernandez/Bibliography

Chistina Hernández is a Mexican-American aerospace engineer. She was involved in STEM programs that led her to a career in NASA. Her contribution to aerospace involved adding safety within spacecraft.

Early Life and Background
Hernández's cultural identity is Mexican-American. Her birthday is on March 10. She grew up in Los Angeles, California. She continues to reside in California, USA. Hernández has always been interested in anything space-related from a young age. When she was younger, she would do her own research on anything that was related to space. She told We Are Mitú how she suffered from imposter syndrome when she worked with NASA. Hernández advocated for Latinas in STEM. Hernández's interest in space was first introduced while she was at a local library looking at pages about the planet Saturn. She spent her time in libraries on a regular basis.

Education
Hernández was enrolled at a magnet high school in Carson, California called "California Academy of Mathematics and Science" which had a STEM program that she participated in. While she was in high school, she joined the robotics team. She participated in an aerospace and defense technology-based internship. During her internship, she challenged herself to ask for help. Hernández received her Master's degree in aerospace engineering at California Polytechnic State Universit y.

Career
Hernández is a Systems Engineer for NASA in their Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. When first starting out with NASA, she was part of their Natural Space Environments group, Hernández worked as a micrometeoroid and orbital debris specialist. Hernández also worked with STABLE which is the Subarcsecond Telescope and BaLloon Experiment as a mission assurance manager. She then joined the Mars team after her work with STABLE, working on the Mars Perseverance Rover’s payload development and delivery team. She is on the team of system engineers developing and testing the newest rover for their Mars exploration. Hernández has also worked on three of the seven science instruments, which are MEDA (weather station), RIMFAX (radar), and PIXL (spectrometer), where she was able to get them through different phases of development and testing.

Hernandez wrote an article for the New York Times where she talks about a series, called Turning Points. In her reflection, she stated how a scientific gadget that was named Perseverance landed on Mars in February 18, 2021.

Contributions
Hernández’s work as a micrometeoroid and orbital debris specialist was essential to the safety of spacecraft in relation to orbital debris and other obstacles such as radiation through many analyses and assessments. During Hernánandez’s time with STABLE, she completed a project called Comet Sliding Spring which led Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Odyssey, and MAVEN safely in the comet event. This led Hernánandez to work with the Mars team for their mission. Hernandez is essential to the Mars team because she helps ensure the safety of the instruments being built and tested along with making sure they perform properly when put on Mars.