Skype Chat with Ecuadorian NASA Engineer, Ms. Juniper (By B.A. and A.J.)

(B.A) It was interesting Skype chatting with Ms. Juniper because we were talking to a NASA engineer, and an engineer is someone who builds things. Ms. Juniper builds parts for the International Space Station (ISS)! I got to ask her why she chose her job, and she told me that since she was a baby she liked to build things, and she likes to scuba dive in the big tank at the Johnson Space Center. It's a big pool, and inside is a model of the ISS. When I grow up I want to build things too, but I want to build SUPER  big buildings. I went to New York City once and saw the Empire State Building, and that's the kind of engineering that I want to do!

(A.J.) I thought that meeting Ms. Juniper was super cool, because it was my first time meeting an engineer. I got to ask her if the astronaut space suit, that she uses under the water, was comfortable and she said, not so much...it could be better. Ms. Juniper said that it's more comfortable in space because it's not so heavy when there isn't gravity. On Earth it weighs around 300 pounds! If I were to design a new space suit and oxygen tank, I would make it out of aluminum so that the sun would bounce off of it, and then I would put cloth on top to protect it. This would make the suit much lighter. This chat was even more special because Ms. Juniper is also Ecuadorian!