GRETCHEN THOMAS

Gretchen Thomas is a NASA engineer assigned to the Space Suit Systems Branch at Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas where she is currently the Lead Engineer for Portable Life Support Systems development for the Constellation Exploration Program.  Her expertise is in the areas of ventilation and thermal control, as well as life support integration and packaging.  Her hometown is Deer Park, Texas where she graduated as salutatorian of the Deer Park High School class of 1985.  She has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Houston (1991) and a M.S. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota (2000).  In support of the Desert RATS activity, Gretchen will be supporting the educational events by providing background information on space suits and life support systems, giving a closer look at parts of the space suit, and describing technology development activities NASA is pursuing to make these systems better for the future.