In the mid-1970s in Puerto Rico, a high school student attended talks about science careers at the university.
She wouldn’t have considered it, but her maths teacher, seeing her potential, encouraged her to go.
And when one student started talking, she was instantly captivated by a field of knowledge she had never heard of: engineering.
At that moment, he felt something he had never felt before.
“I heard my wings open. I actually heard that pop, pop: that’s it! It was just an instant, but it was exactly like that.”
Years later, that Puerto Rican student would face a challenge that would make it possible for nothing less than the International Space Station (ISS) to remain in orbit, and other wonders.
The ISS, that large floating laboratory currently housing 7 people, has been orbiting the planet 16 times a day since 1998.
But the idea of some kind of permanent base in space was thought of in the 1940s and 1950s.
And one of the reasons that project didn’t take off for so long was the limits of battery power.
The fact that the ISS is floating above us right now is thanks to the incredible mind of Olga González Sanabria and her team of NASA engineers.
From the Caribbean to Cleveland
After that school trip that opened her eyes to the world of engineering, Olga knew that was exactly what she wanted to do.
So when the time came, she enrolled in university in Puerto Rico, at a time when it was very rare for a woman to study engineering.
Although she was one of only five women, she did not feel she was treated much differently than her male colleagues. But there was one thing she found difficult.
“The first class we took was drawing and I couldn’t draw 2 straight lines. I was very, very frustrated because I tried to take drawing in high school and they told me that girls weren’t allowed to take it because it was for boys.”
Having to work harder to master basic concepts due to not having the necessary preparation since high school did not affect his career: he ended up at NASA.
Olga almost didn’t apply when recruiters came to her campus because she didn’t think she was good enough, but luckily her friend had a different opinion.
“He told me: the worst that can happen is that they don’t hire you and that it serves as a rehearsal for other interviews in the future. And I signed up.”
The interview was a success.
Olga left her home island of Puerto Rico and flew to Cleveland, to NASA’s Glenn Research Center.
He joined the electrochemistry branch of the Solar and Electrochemistry Division, the department that develops hardware to power different aerospace missions.
The move was difficult, but they gave him a very warm welcome.
“I had never been to Cleveland. I didn’t know anyone except the recruiter. When I arrived, there were 12, 15 people waiting for me with balloons and music.
“5 or 6 guys picked me up at the airport and I still call them my angels because they were the ones who helped me get through the change.
“The support system they gave me helped me adjust.”
The challenge
Olga arrived when the department was facing problems with its nickel-hydrogen space batteries.
One of the great benefits of these batteries was their stability: they can operate from -40°C to 60°C.
The problem was another.
The probes are in space with unobstructed access to the Sun, and use solar energy to charge the batteries that power the spacecraft and all satellites.
So if the battery only has a short lifespan, the satellite’s battery will also have a short lifespan.
The cost of replacing those batteries is, by all accounts, astronomical.
When Olga joined NASA, these batteries only lasted about 3 years, which is not enough for space science, especially when you think about something like a more permanent structure in space.
So his team was given the challenging mission of extending the life of the batteries.
The goal was “15 years, without being able to change them, replace them or update them… nothing.”
In other words, quintuple your longevity.
For Olga, this type of problem is the fun side of being an engineer: “Solving any problem that needs to be solved, and that needs your knowledge and experience to come up with a solution that no one else thought of before.”
Luckily, she knew chemistry, and based on this, the team modified some things in the battery design.
“Because it’s hydrogen and oxygen, you get little explosions between the electrodes that burn everything up and then short-circuit the battery, reducing the lifespan.”
Basically what they did was coat the inside of the battery with a catalyst.
So instead of these little explosions happening inside the battery and damaging it, there was a surface for this to happen on without damaging it.
And that wasn’t all.
“We started looking at different concentrations of electrolytes. And it turned out that if you lowered the concentration, the batteries lasted longer.”
The changes were not big, but they had an impact.
The goal was 15 years.
With these design changes, the battery life was extended to 30 years, twice as long as expected.
“That’s what happens with most NASA projects, because we can’t afford to fail.”
The testing and development of these long-cycle nickel-hydrogen batteries coincided with an announcement by then-US President Ronald Reagan.
“Tonight I am directing NASA to develop a permanently manned space station and to do so within a decade,” he declared in January 1984.
Batteries were critical to this, powering the core components of the ISS, which runs on 48 batteries.
They were also used in space probes such as Mars Odyssey and the Hubble Space Telescope.
Olga’s work advanced our knowledge of the cosmos.
As with most areas of science, there have been developments with battery technology.
Between 2016 and 2021, all nickel-hydrogen batteries were replaced with new lithium-ion units, which are much lighter, more energy-efficient and cheaper to manufacture.
But without these innovations in the 1980s, it would have been very difficult to make the floating laboratory that is the ISS a reality.
The right questions
Olga worked for 32 years at NASA, but she did not stay in the same unit, as she has a mantra about the way she approaches life and her career.
“I consider myself an agent of change. I can’t go to a place and do things as usual.
“I move every four or five years in my career, which is about the time it takes to come to a decision: either you stick with it, keep doing what you’re doing and learn more about it, or you look for another opportunity or another place to grow.”
During his time at NASA, he worked in the department that designed experiments that required testing in space.
Then in 1995 he moved into management and worked in many different departments.
She was the first Latina to work in the Office of Systems Administration and in 2004, she became the Director of Engineering and Technical Services.
However, the initial step into management as a woman was very difficult.
“They don’t listen to you. That’s the most difficult situation to deal with.”
“You say something and they act like nobody said anything. And you say it three times and nobody reacts.
“So I learned to tell it to someone else, and as soon as she said it, the response was, ‘What a great idea. Let’s do that.’
“So you get really angry. Why is this happening?”
However, even in this situation, he managed to find something positive.
“You show that you are the one who actually has the ideas. And that person knows it and says: ‘Olga said it.’ And so you start little by little until they listen to you.”
Over time, he gained the respect he obviously deserved.
And she received many awards for her work, including the R&D 100 in 1988, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 1993, and the Women in Technology Career Achievement Award in 2000.
In 2003 she was inducted into the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame. In 2006 she received a Presidential Rank Award.
There are many more recognitions.
But for her, her greatest achievement came when she wanted to make NASA a more inclusive place to work.
She and a few other employees managed to open a daycare center, which still operates today.
Olga retired from NASA in 2011.
She now owns her own company and mentors young people interested in science and engineering, something she loves to do.
She moved back to Puerto Rico, where she has “a small place where I plant and grow fruits and vegetables, and last year I started painting,” as well as “different priorities and different opportunities to continue enjoying.”
He points out that there are those who think he was lucky.
“But it’s not really a matter of luck. And I keep telling kids that luck is the intersection of preparation and opportunity.
“When I moved into engineering, I knew enough to ask the right questions.
“I didn’t know the answers, but if you know enough to ask the right questions and are willing to put in the effort, you will succeed.”
Continue reading:
* Astronauts trapped in space, with no date to return to Earth
* Former Apollo 8 astronaut Williams Anders who took photo of Earth rising over the Moon dies in plane crash
* Hispanic astronaut finally returned to Earth after a record stay of more than a year in space
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