Space Jobs

[SemiaCloud]

What would be the associated jobs at any space agency or company (preferably American companies/NASA) with the following things, and what degrees would be required, and the salarys:

The guy who draws blueprints, and designs new rockets from scratch.

The guy who navigates the spacecraft, plots orbital trajectories, etc.

The guy who tests components and systems.

[UmbralRaptor]

My limited understanding is that unless you're going towards instrument design, you want an engineering focus rather than a science one if you want to touch hardware. The pay's probably better, too.

Generating the prints would probably be a designer/drafter/engineering technician They typically would have an associate's degree, though sometimes a BSc in an engineering field or just experience. Pay would be rather less than the people doing the actual design work. Those ones would have various engineering degrees. Expect a mix of BSc and MS in mechanical, electrical, and aerospace, though exact details vary with the company. Rocket design would be entirely outside engineering firms. Spacecraft and instrument design is more varied, possibly involving the space agency, one or more universities, and/or various research institutions. See above on engineers/technicians, but there would also be some scientists Exact degrees will vary (especially depending on what the mission goals are), but Physics is common and they will be basically all PhDs. Testing would be all of the above plus more technicians (exact degree greatly, equipment familiarity/skills/experience trumps all)

I'm not familiar enough with how navigation is handled to say how people at those jobs got there. For near-earth, a substantial fraction is handled by the US Air Force.

[Nibb31]

The guy who draws blueprints, and designs new rockets from scratch.

Nobody uses blueprints any more and nobody designs rockets from scratch.

Typically drafters do the drawing part on CAD/CAM systems with input from engineering team followed by multiple reviews. Nobody designs the whole rocket. There are teams in charge of high level design and teams in charge of system design. A single aerospace engineer will only have a small subsystem to design, and even then, there are different tasks done by different people: design, testing, validation, manufacturing, sourcing...

The guy who navigates the spacecraft, plots orbital trajectories, etc.

Again aerospace engineers, and they also work in teams within a mission control center. This doesn't only concern wizzbang space probes. There are mission control centers for GEO comsats or ISS modules too. Navigational decisions aren't usually made by one person, and they are usually done after several weeks of simulation and meetings.

The guy who tests components and systems.

Not one guy. In most projects, testing and validation is part of the design process, as well as drafting, prototyping, manufacturing, sourcing, etc...

[fredinno]

My limited understanding is that unless you're going towards instrument design, you want an engineering focus rather than a science one if you want to touch hardware. The pay's probably better, too.

Generating the prints would probably be a designer/drafter/engineering technician They typically would have an associate's degree, though sometimes a BSc in an engineering field or just experience. Pay would be rather less than the people doing the actual design work. Those ones would have various engineering degrees. Expect a mix of BSc and MS in mechanical, electrical, and aerospace, though exact details vary with the company. Rocket design would be entirely outside engineering firms. Spacecraft and instrument design is more varied, possibly involving the space agency, one or more universities, and/or various research institutions. See above on engineers/technicians, but there would also be some scientists Exact degrees will vary (especially depending on what the mission goals are), but Physics is common and they will be basically all PhDs. Testing would be all of the above plus more technicians (exact degree greatly, equipment familiarity/skills/experience trumps all)

I'm not familiar enough with how navigation is handled to say how people at those jobs got there. For near-earth, a substantial fraction is handled by the US Air Force.

TL;DR. Ask NASA, not KSP game players ;-)

[Streetwind]

The guy who draws blueprints, and designs new rockets from scratch.

The guy who navigates the spacecraft, plots orbital trajectories, etc.

The guy who tests components and systems.

Some keywords for you:

1. Computer Aided Design (CAD), information technology & programming, physics (particularly aero- and fluid dynamics, material sciences, mechanics), mathematics, aerospace engineering. As others have said, you'll need to specialize on some specific part of the process.

2. The subfield is specifically named "astrodynamics". Aside from that: physics, mathematics, information technology & programming.

3. Quality Assurance (QA), process design, aerospace engineering, information technology & programming, physics, mathematics.

[JetJaguar]

What would be the associated jobs at any space agency or company (preferably American companies/NASA) with the following things, and what degrees would be required, and the salarys:

The guy who draws blueprints, and designs new rockets from scratch.

Well, the guys who draw what passes as blueprints these days are CAD/CAM techs. They don't do the actual design work though. That would be the engineers. As mentioned, this is a very large team made up of specialists for each particular system, no one individual designs a complete rocket by themselves.

The people with the most influence on the overall design would be the program directors and the lead systems architects. They are more like managers at the big-picture level that direct teams of engineers underneath them to do the design work. In my experience, they typically have advanced degrees in a technical field (usually some sort of engineering), often PhDs, and this is a position you have to work up to over the span of your career. I also find that in the aerospace industry at least, they frequently were officers in the military - the leadership experience they gain in the service helps. Salary for them are in the $150K/yr range, plus or minus.

The guy who navigates the spacecraft, plots orbital trajectories, etc.

Not sure about this one, but probably people with some sort of physics degree.

The guy who tests components and systems.

This would be a test engineer. Now, there's no such degree (that I'm aware of, anyway) that's called "Test Engineer", it's more of a role category. They would typically have an engineering degree of some sort and specialize in testing things that apply to their particular area - a software guy would be the one that makes sure all the various computers are able to talk to each other, for example. Salary for them would probably run in the $60-80K/yr range.

[Mazon Del]

To this day, I regret not using one of my free "take with no risk" class slots at WPI on taking the "Orbital Infrastructure Design" class. Basically a civil engineering class based around designing space stations and such.

[Camacha]

It looks like everything goes through usajobs.gov, which is very well laid out with requirements for each position. You'd probably start as an intern, or low-level button pusher, until you build up a good resume.

It does not matter where you are, you always have to work your way up. Even with a good education, you need to show you are worth your salt and, honestly, probably need to make some friends too. Love it or hate it, your network is important in any line of work.

[WinkAllKerb'']

people who don't like you are always in your neuronal network even if they hate it you know that cama ? xD

Edited November 6, 2015 by WinkAllKerb''
(jk and poking around)

[Camacha]

people who don't like you are always in your neuronal network even if they hate it you know that cama ? xD

I am not sure that helps your career a lot, though

[WinkAllKerb'']

hehe your so right ; ) but things are how they are ; ) and career not always what you expect it to be for most so ; ) a way or another you always made your own ; )