Tracy Drain

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Tracy Drain
Official NASA profile photograph, 2008
EducationMechanical Engineering, University of Kentucky
OccupationSystems Engineer
EmployerNASA
SpouseTed Drain (Married 2003 - present)

Tracy Drain is a flight systems engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She is the deputy chief engineer for the JUNO mission, which arrived at Jupiter in June 2016.

Education[edit]

Tracy Drain was born in Louisville, Kentucky.[1] She was always curious about space and the formation of our solar system, and decided to study mechanical engineering in 11th Grade while at Waggener High School.[2] Drain was a big fan of Star Trek, Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica.[3] Throughout high school she competed in mathematics competitions and insisted on watching space shuttle launches on television.[4] Drain received a bachelor's degree Mechanical Engineering from University of Kentucky in 1998 and a master's degree in mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2000.[5] She was the first person in her immediate family to receive a college degree.[6] Whilst studying at university, she spent two summers as an intern for NASA Langley.[7][2] She interviewed for several aerospace companies before settling on JPL, which she chose because she felt "that their mission was my mission: the robotic exploration of space".[2]

Juno in front of Jupiter

Career[edit]

Drain joined JPL immediately after graduating in 2000, working on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.[7] After the launch in 2005, Drain was promoted to lead systems engineer.[7] Drain joined the Kepler project in 2007 as the Missions Readiness Lead, hunting for Earth-like planets, staying until Kepler checked-out in 2009.[7] In 2009 she joined Juno, which is studying the gravity and magnetic fields of Jupiter.[1] She is Technical Group Supervisor for the Flight Systems Engineering group.[7] She has worked for NASA for more than 17 years.[6] Drain worked on the Psyche mission, studying the largest known metal asteroid in our solar system, launching in 2022.[3][8] Drain is currently the lead flight system systems engineer for NASA's Europa Clipper mission, set to launch in 2024 to the Jupiter system to study one of Jupiter's moons.[9]

Public engagement[edit]

Actor William Shatner with Drain at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Tracy Drain is involved with a range of activities to communicate her enthusiasm for engineering with the public.[10] She is an Exchange Consultant for the National Academy of Sciences, a program that connects the entertainment industry with scientists and engineers to create accurate science in both film and TV.[11][3] Drain was a Jury Member for the 2017 Sundance Festival.[12] She has spoken about women in film and engineering alongside Diane Kruger at the Sloan Film Summit.[13] She takes every opportunity to encourage girls and young people into STEM careers.[14][15][16] Drain was involved with the promotion of the 20th Century Fox movie "Hidden Figures", in a series of films entitled "Hidden Figures, Modern Figures", and took part in several panel discussions.[17][18][19] In 2017 Drain gave a TEDx talk at the ArtCentre College of Design, "Beauty of the Fall".[20][21]

Awards[edit]

2007 - NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal for exceptional performance in the development of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission's transition to Science Phase Activities[22]

2009 - NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal for exceptional achievement in guiding and managing the Kepler Launch, Commissioning and Science Operations readiness effort[23]

2015 - JPL Bruce Murray Award for exceptional support for the education of minority and female STEM students through community programs, distance learning and public events[24]

2015 - Women in Engineering ProActive Network Women in Engineering Champion Award[25]

Personal[edit]

Tracy Drain is married to fellow JPL engineer, Ted Drain.[26]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Tracy Drain and Danielle Nuding — NASA Engineers — Speaking Today". UKNow. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  2. ^ a b c "JASON Learning | Tracy Drain, Flight Systems Engineer". www.jason.org. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  3. ^ a b c "Scientist Spotlight: Tracy Drain – Exchange". scienceandentertainmentexchange.org. 15 November 2017. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  4. ^ "Tracy Drain | People - NASA Solar System Exploration". NASA Solar System Exploration. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  5. ^ "A Conversation with Tracy Drain: Highlighting Diversity at NASA". www.utdallas.edu. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  6. ^ a b "EPISODE 1: TRACY DRAIN". NASA. Archived from the original on 2017-09-26. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  7. ^ a b c d e "Tracy Drain Biography" (PDF). University of Washington. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  8. ^ "Psyche". www.jpl.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  9. ^ "Tracy Drain | Flight Systems Engineer". NASA Solar System Exploration. Retrieved 2022-03-29.
  10. ^ Design Squad Global (2013-06-11), Mission: Solar System - Tracy Drain, Flight Systems Engineer | Design Squad, retrieved 2018-01-11
  11. ^ "About the Program – Exchange". scienceandentertainmentexchange.org. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  12. ^ Desk, Movies News. "Jury Members Announced for 2017 Sundance Film Festival". Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  13. ^ Film Independent (2017-10-29), Women in Science and Film - Diane Kruger, Tracy Drain, Danijela Cabric | 2017 Sloan Film Summit, retrieved 2018-01-11
  14. ^ "Q&A with Engineer Tracy Drain: Women Leaders of Today by Origin Bank". Plaid for Women. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  15. ^ "Meet Tracy Drain". Black Girl Nerds. 2014-10-20. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  16. ^ "NASA engineer ignites passion for science". www.shine.cn. 24 November 2014. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  17. ^ 20th Century Fox (2016-11-30), Hidden Figures | Modern Figures: Tracy Drain | 20th Century FOX, retrieved 2018-01-11{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  18. ^ ""Hidden Figures" Wins Sloan Science in Cinema Prize". Women and Hollywood. 2016-12-09. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  19. ^ Wood, Beverly J.; Drain, Tracy D.; Mainzer, Amy; Valerino, Powtawche; Schroeder, Allison; Walker, Mandy; LeDoux, Chris; Barron, Craig; Piepol, Diane (2017). "The academy's science and technology council presents hidden figures in collaboration with NASA". ACM SIGGRAPH 2017 Panels. SIGGRAPH '17. New York, NY, USA: ACM. pp. 2:1. doi:10.1145/3084847.3110024. ISBN 9781450350105. S2CID 36433949.
  20. ^ TEDxACCD. "Tracy Drain". TEDxACCD 2017. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  21. ^ "TEDxACCD | TED". www.ted.com. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  22. ^ "Universe: NASA Honoring Achievement" (PDF). NASA JPL. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  23. ^ "2010 NASA Agency Honor Awards" (PDF). NASA. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  24. ^ "Tracy Drain - Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Public Understanding & Film Independent". Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Public Understanding & Film Independent. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  25. ^ "Past Award Winners - Women in Engineering ProActive Network, Inc". www.wepan.org. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  26. ^ "NASA engineer ignites passion for science". www.shine.cn. 24 November 2014. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
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