224: Leading for Impact
In space…and here on Earth.
“As a leader, I try to put myself in somebody else’s shoes. I know the type of leader that I would flourish under, which is somebody that would have confidence in me, somebody that would give me the chance to make mistakes. And somebody that would inspire and motivate me.”
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A program note: A program note before we start: Michelle talks in the interview about the value of acknowledging that mistakes occasionally happen and then learning from them.
So, in that spirit, let me confess that I made a mistake during our conversation when I said that the spacecraft was traveling at 6000 kilometers per second or 3500 miles per hour when it crashed into the asteroid. It was actually traveling at about 6 kilometers per second — which is what Michelle said — or 3.9 miles per second.
What did I learn: best to leave the science to the scientists.
Why this conversation matters
On July 20, 1969, I watched Neil Armstrong take “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” The picture was grainy; made more so because I watched it on an old black and white TV. But it didn’t matter. We had landed on the moon, and now we were walking on it. I was one of the millions worldwide watching history unfold more than 230,000 miles away.
It was my summer of coming of age before starting college, flexing my muscles in a lumber mill in Polson, Montana — my first adventure away from the comforts and security of my parent’s home.
And so, too, was the nation flexing its muscles and coming of age in a new and consequential adventure: The Space Race. Our adversary in that race was the Soviet Union, and the finish line was the Moon. The “Mercury,” “Gemini,” and “Apollo” space programs, with their legion of astronauts, engineers, scientists, contractors, and sub-contractors, were our contestants. At stake was nothing less than national honor.
Which nation had the talent to pull it off — to lend men on the moon and return them safely to Earth?
Which nation’s leaders and form of government would best pave the way?
This was a battle for the hearts and minds of the world’s citizens.
Ever since they moved away from the safety and warmth of the cave entrance, humans have always been curious explorers. So, my pulse quickens whenever we leap into the unknown of space, be it with the aforementioned space programs, the 2015 New Horizons flyby of Pluto, or the launch of the new James Webb telescope on December 25, 2021.
And so, I felt that same rush when the D.A.R.T. spacecraft designed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory for NASA was intentionally slammed into a tiny asteroid at some 14,000 miles per hour after traveling for more than 10 months and 7 million miles.
Michelle Chen, team lead for the project’s SMART navigation system. (SMART is short for “Small-body Maneuvering Autonomous Real-Time Navigation.”)
My guest
“Intentionally slammed into a tiny asteroid” is the operative phrase here. Let’s find out why that was done from one of the critical minds on the project, Michelle Chen, an engineer with the Johns Hopkins APL who led the team that developed the spacecraft’s SMART navigation system.
Takeaways
√ The D.A.R.T. mission — D.A.R.T. stands for Double Asteroid Redirection Test — was undertaken to see if we could nudge an asteroid out of an orbit that could potentially be on a path of hitting Earth.
√ The D.A.R.T. spacecraft flew on its own for the last 40 minutes or so of the mission, courtesy of the autonomous navigation system that Michelle and her team built. The spacecraft had to be capable of maneuvering independently, given the speed at which it was flying and the distance between the craft and the APL team.
√ Michelle judged the quality of her team, in part, by the quality of the questions they asked.
√ As a leader, Michelle believes in giving her team members room to explore and make mistakes.
√ Michelle leads as she would like to be led.
√ Curiosity will help to define our future innovations.
√ What would you tell your younger self? Stay true to who you are, and ask questions.
Meet Michelle Chen and understand her critical role in the D.A.R.T. mission. “I love pushing boundaries, and I love the application of math into real-world problems.”
Links
References/Resources
New York Times: NASA Smashes Into an Asteroid, Completing a Mission to Save a Future Day
Watch as DART impacts the Dimorphos, an asteroid only some 500 feet in diameter.
Hello, World!
