Hello Chris! I have been working from home for most of the past year. Currently, I am analyzing data from NASA satellites like the Van Allen Probes and Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) and writing papers for a scientific journal. As long as I have a laptop and access to a good Internet connection for downloading data and logging into my Linux workstation, I can do my data analysis and writing at home. Interacting with my co-workers has been a little difficult, but we still have e-mail, and can talk on the phone and text message, or do a Zoom chat. A big part of every scientist's work is attending departmental seminars and scientific conferences. Over the last year, these seminars and conferences have moved online to Zoom, WebEx, or Google Meet due to the pandemic, and some meetings have added discussions on Slack. While some conferences are still charging a registration fee for their online meetings, others are not. This has allowed me to participate in some meetings I would not have had funding to attend in person during a normal year, and interact with new groups of space scientists. As Christina mentioned, if someone is currently building instruments that will be launched on a sounding rocket or satellite, or doing plasma experiments or instrument calibrations in a vacuum chamber, they most likely will be working in a laboratory for at least part of their time. However, some tests and experiments can be automated using LabView or other software, so they can be started and left to run on their own without human intervention. Several years ago, I helped calibrate instruments for a sounding rocket. After putting the instrument in the vacuum chamber, it took several hours to pump out the air before I could start the tests, so I could work on other things or go home while I was waiting. When I came back, I would usually start the tests running in LabView, and then would have to wait several more hours for them to run, so I could leave again. There also aren't any issues with using PPE while working on instruments - in some cases, such as work done in clean rooms, people already used some form of PPE even before the pandemic. Kris P.S. I am enjoying the variations of the name "Chris" or "Kris" in this thread!
|