NASA\u2019s Earth-observing satellite missions track dozens of features of a changing planet \u2014 aerosols, sea levels, land cover, cloud cover \u2014 over years and decades. Sustaining that record for the scientific and operational communities who depend on it requires more than engineering talent. It requires planning for an uncertain future: anticipating where a mission delay or on-orbit event might create a gap in the data those communities rely on.<\/p>\n
Lindsey Jacobson\u2019s work helps NASA anticipate those disruptions before they happen and gives senior leaders options for managing them.
A Pathways intern in engineering, Jacobson supports NASA\u2019s Earth Science Division through the NASA Earth Science Strategic Integration Environment (NESSIE) team within the Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate (SACD) at NASA\u2019s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. <\/p>\n
NASA\u2019s Pathways program connects undergraduate and graduate students with NASA centers through internships that, with satisfactory performance, can lead to full-time civil service positions. Jacobson has returned to NASA Langley every summer since 2022, splitting her time between the center and finishing her mechanical engineering dissertation at North Carolina State University.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way we do Earth science is changing<\/strong>.\u201c<\/strong><\/p>\n Jacobson and the NESSIE team support the Earth science satellite portfolio \u2014 dozens of missions, each measuring specific features of the planet, from clouds to sea surface temperature to land use. The goal is providing end user communities with the data products they depend on. The challenge is the unknown.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s uncertainty about mission lifetimes and what could happen on orbit, and about schedules,\u201d Jacobson explains. The team\u2019s work gives NASA\u2019s senior leadership a way to navigate that uncertainty: understanding where a gap in coverage might emerge and identifying options to mitigate or hedge against it. By providing alternative pathways for meeting end-user needs, this work supports senior leaders in managing a complex, interdependent portfolio.<\/p>\n Within that effort, Jacobson\u2019s focus is building analysis tools that give the team what she calls a \u201cforesight ability.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the ability to anticipate different things that might happen \u2014 changes that might occur across the portfolio of Earth-observing missions \u2014 and to have strategies in mind for how to respond, so we can keep delivering data to end users,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Not every change is bad news. Missions sometimes operate well beyond their planned lifespan, creating room to extend their value. But whether an adjustment is welcome or not, the principle is the same: know the options before anything happens.<\/p>\n Jacobson compares it to preparing for hurricane season. \u201cYou get the storm shutters, you buy the sandbags, and you have them pre-positioned,\u201d she says. \u201cThen when the warning comes, you\u2019re not scrambling, and you\u2019re not at risk of the store selling out. You already have what you need in place.\u201d NESSIE\u2019s work follows the same logic for the Earth-observing portfolio by understanding ahead of time what a disruption might mean and having a set of responses ready before anything happens.<\/p>\n \u201cWe proactively suggest the strategies and alternatives that could be enacted if there\u2019s a change,\u201d Jacobson says. \u201cWe do that ahead of time, so people understand what options might exist.\u201d<\/p>\n Her approach carries echoes of her graduate research, which examines how complex systems \u2014 infrastructure that can\u2019t simply be torn down and rebuilt, like the electric grid \u2014 must evolve deliberately instead. \u201cWe designed a grid, and now we live with that grid forever,\u201d she says. \u201cWe can\u2019t tear it down and build a new one. What we can do is modify, expand, and improve upon what we have.\u201d It\u2019s the same instinct for working with what exists, rather than starting from scratch, that shapes how she approaches her work at NASA.<\/p>\n Engineers arriving at NASA for the first time might expect the hardest part of the job to be technical. Jacobson found something else: the landscape itself is what demands the most adaptability.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way we do Earth science is changing,\u201d she says. Commercial companies are increasingly contributing data alongside government agencies. New space agencies are entering the field. Innovative technologies and architectures are emerging all the time. Keeping pace with that shift \u2014 understanding how NASA\u2019s own capabilities are evolving and how to best serve the communities that depend on the data \u2014 is as much a part of the job as any calculation.<\/p>\n Some of that adaptability shows up in smaller ways too, like the growing role of AI tools in her team\u2019s own workflow. \u201cLangley has done a lot of firsts,\u201d Jacobson says, echoing something she heard recently from Trina Dyal, NASA Langley\u2019s director, at an intern event. \u201cAnd we want to continue to be the first. That means learning new things and figuring out how to bring them into how we work.\u201d<\/p>\n The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut<\/p>\n Jacobson received this novel in high school, let it sit on her shelf for years, and finally picked it up during the pandemic.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was very special. It touches a lot on the meaning of life, and that connects to some of the reasons I was motivated by space in the first place. The idea that space exploration can bring humanity together. That cosmic perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n