What One NASA Executive Believes Is the Future of Space Innovation

In honor of Women's History Month, we're celebrating the women today who are at the forefront of their fields and developing the future of tomorrow. It's possible that there's nothing more futuristic than space exploration, and leading that frontier is Ezinne Uzo-Okoro, Program Executive at NASA, who has contributed to more than 60 spaceflight programs in just 16 years. With her programs, Ezinne is focused on developing science and technology innovations that'll build a complete economy in cislunar space — one that can include on-orbit robotic assembly of satellites, food production in space, and new equatorial spaceports. Read on to learn how Ezinne sees our future:

Chief: What is the problem you are solving for tomorrow?

EU: We are advancing space manufacturing by using robots to assemble spacecraft in the same way robots assemble the car you drive — both here on earth and in space.

Chief: What is the next frontier to conquer in your industry?

EU: We are also growing food in undesirable locations to help us learn how to produce food in space efficiently, while helping to make a dent in food insecurity. When we reframe our view of space as an interdisciplinary phenomenon, we see how advances in robotics and manufacturing leads to space habitats, efficiencies in food production in space, and a host of other sectors.

Chief: What is the biggest challenge preventing more women to enter or excel in your field, and how do we change that for the future?

EU: Three key things: The first is increased sponsorship by leaders at the top. Second, reframing definitions and visual representations of stereotypes (a nerd, math geek, engineer, introvert, etc.) would be helpful to those who have the skillset to enter the field but are disinterested in the culture. We have engineers, who haven't seen Star Trek or Star Wars, and spend their spare time belly dancing or having intellectual debates about Italian streetwear. Lastly, highlighting respected and dangerously competent womxn leaders and changemakers in the aerospace sector is important. We don't want to wait until they are in wheelchairs to make movies about our trailblazers.