My Journey To JWST
James Webb Space Telescope was behind me!
On this very special Christmas Day at 4:20 AM PST, hubby watched (virtually) the launch of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana (South America)! I watched the recorded video after I woke up. This is thirty one years after the launch of the famous Hubble Space Telescope; JWST is now the largest and most powerful space telescope ever launched. On its 29 days journey, nearly 1.6 million km from Earth to Lagrange point 2 (L2), it is traveling at a speed of 35,405 km per hour. For a sense of distance, the Moon is 384,400 km away from Earth (L2 is 4x the distance!). Click this link for JWST’s exciting missions and facts. This phenomenal launch of JWST and ingenious human beings invention totally spiced up our life because each of us is living in this part of the history!
It was such a blessing that hubby and I saw JWST four years ago when it was being assembled and tested at NASA Goddard Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. To me, seeing JWST with my own eyes was like the second best to be able to visit the space in my lifetime, especially this space telescope I saw is now traveling into the deep space! I feel a sense of pride of my long arduous journey to meet JWST…
Once upon a time, in my distant childhood, 14,000 km away, I was that 5 years old village girl standing on the street of a third world country, dirty hands and feet, huge eyes with this innocent curious gaze at the photographer. I was asked what do I want to become when I grow up. Without knowing the distinction between what was possible or not possible, I imagined the coolest dream ever and said, " I want to be an astronaut”! As a kid, I fascinated about traveling to space.
After I immigrated to US, I graduated from a prestigious university. I learned on the job how to develop 3D computer graphics software. My passion in the art of computer graphics led me to apply for a job at Pixar. I stayed resilient after being rejected over and over again in the course of 10 years. I finally got a dream job at Pixar! I worked with a team that made the world’s most beautiful computer graphics renderer, Pixar’s RenderMan. During a computer graphics convention (Siggraph), I met my RenderMan customers: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS) group. This is one of the most talented groups, with highly respectful humility and professionalism, I have ever met in my career. They use Pixar’s RenderMan beyond one’s imagination to create the visualization to educate the world. I was so fortunate to get an invitation to visit NASA Goddard Flight Center for onsite customer support. During my visit, the SVS group greeted me with the best hospitality. It was a very heartwarming and unforgettable experience. I didn’t expect to meet my first astronaut! It was Piers Sellers. Despite of his battle with stage-4 pancreatic cancer, he was still very friendly, working very hard, energetic, standing strong, and so down to earth to help others. I still remember vividly on that day when I met Piers. He had many things to do, but he still made time to stop by the SVS group to meet my colleague James and I. He thanked us for helping the SVS group and escalating the renderer requests back to our RenderMan team at Pixar. He was one of the few heroic human beings I have ever met in my life. His spirit is in my heart forever.
A few months later after my first visit to NASA Goddard Flight Center, I hosted the SVS group’s visit at the Pixar Campus and the presentation of their remarkable work to the Pixar technology group. Following the presentation, to my huge surprise, the SVS group invited me to present “How Pixar propelled the evolution of computer generated imagery” at IS&T Colloquium. I was so flattered and yet internally frightened because I had never done any public speaking before and knew I would be presenting to the real rocket scientists. That little shy girl inside me was still alive! I was going to decline, but after seeing hubby’s very sad and disappointed face that I was going to forfeit the once a life time opportunity, I chinned up to meet this nerve-racking challenge.
Hubby helped me to find the original Pixar building in Point Richmond, CA, where the world famous first “Toy Story” was created. I learned a lot about the Pixar history. During my research, I learned that “Pixar” was actually the name of a computer. We drove to Mountain View (CA) to see the actual computer in Computer History Museum. I used my own time after work (over 60 hours) to prepare for the presentation. I became so intrigued in learning about Pixar’s groundbreaking contributions to the evolution of computer graphics in feature films. I worked till past 1 am each night. When I left for Maryland, my 8 years old nephew (who was shy and quiet) gave me a hug and whispered to my ears: “Good luck on your NASA presentation”. His genuine encouragement meant a whole world to me in addition to hubby and the SVS group who believe that I could do it (while myself still had doubts). At the presentation, the SVS group all sat on the front row. Their smiles, their energy, and their encouragement completely removed my stage fear. Huge thanks to the sound engineer. Everything was perfect. My passion in presenting the topic completely overshadowed my stage fright. About 169 people attended including the rocket scientists.
So I did it! My debut of public speaking as well as using Keynote to make slide shows for the first time. I created the contents and came up with my own presentation style using very simple and to the point appealing visual slides to satisfy different levels of audience. At the end of my presentation, there was a long silence (In my mind, I was thinking uh-oh. Was my presentation that boring?). Then someone in the audience broke the ice with the first question: “Any suggestions on how my teenage girl apply for a job at Pixar?” My answer: “Pixar is actually hosting Girls Who Code program on campus this Summer. Please apply online!” I was delighted to get more questions from different people in the audience. Fortunately, I was able to answer all the questions on-the-spot. My IS&T Colloquium Bio Page is still online 😊.
As a bonus, I was also so jazzed to learn about the dinosaur foot print that was found at the NASA Goddard Flight Center! How cool is that! Unfortunately, it was covered with a huge cloth during my visit though I saw its profile. It was huge!
Last but not least, my path with JWST finally crossed! Both hubby and I got a personal tour by the SVS group to visit JWST. We feel so lucky to see JWST. All my years of hard work preceding to this meeting was totally worth it. Wow!!! My picture below of JWST is worth a thousand words of how I felt.
The little girl inside me was so happy!!!
Hubby took a picture of me taking a picture of JWST!
My closeup picture of JWST at NASA Goddard Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland