Researcher, Phoenix Project – Missouri
“Get yourself out there. Don’t be afraid to try anything.”
Tabatha Heet, 21, is a senior undergraduate at Washington University in St. Louis, majoring in Earth and Planetary Sciences and minoring in Mathematics. Since her freshman year at Washington University, she has worked as a research assistant to Raymond Arvidson. Much of her work has focused on finding a landing site for the upcoming Phoenix mission to Mars. Now that a landing site has been chosen, she will act as mission documentarian and will aide in calibration and operation of the lander's robotic arm. After graduation she plans to attend graduate school and pursue a career in planetary science/remote sensing.
Tabatha earned her private pilot's license when she was seventeen and enjoys taking her friends flying in her free time. She is also addicted to rock climbing and loves a good book.
What is the Phoenix project?
The Phoenix project refers to the Mars lander that is going to be launched this August. There was a landing site that was already picked out about a year before I started working on the project, but then we started getting higher resolution images of the proposed landing site. It turns out that the chosen landing site was completely covered with boulders. The mission was on the verge of being cancelled because the odds of landing safely in a boulder field are very slim, so we were scrambling to find a new site. My job was to search the Northern Polar region of Mars for a new landing site – one that wasn’t covered with rocks. I started in the fall of my junior year and we didn’t have an actual landing site until shortly after Christmas, with the launch only about 6 months away.
How did you become interested and involved in the Phoenix project?
I actually went to Washington University with the plan to major in writing. I took one class and became very interested in Earth and Planetary sciences. It’s always been something that I’ve found interesting, but in high school I didn’t get very much exposure to things like geology.
What obstacles have you faced?
I got to go to a meeting in Pasadena and it was really weird because I was by far the youngest person there – everyone was in their 40s and 50s. I counted the number of women present and there were only 6 out of about 50. When I was at the meeting, there were members of an automated rock counting team who questioned my work and methods. It was a challenge to stand up to these seasoned NASA scientists and argue that my work was credible.
How has your experience been shaped by being a woman?
I feel like women are taking a bigger role in the field – it’s just that in the past women were not present in the field at all, so we need to catch up in order to get positions of leadership. But we are making great progress. I do feel that positions are scarce, so there is more pressure to be especially good at what I do.
What lessons have you learned from your experience?
I have definitely learned to have a lot of patience – counting rocks is very tedious work.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I am debating that question right now because I am a senior. I haven’t decided completely, but I think it would be great to continue to work with NASA.
What advice would you give to young girls?
It is very important to get involved and to get yourself out there. Don’t be afraid to try anything. When I started college, I had no intention of working as a planetary scientist, but now I get to be part of a mission to Mars and I enjoy every minute of it.
