NASA Ames has picked San Quentin for an important training program to manufacture a platform that will enable hundreds of science projects on a single launch vehicle during space flights.
Acting Warden Michael Martel joined NASA Ames administrators on a tour of San Quentin’s vocational machine shop. Included were Charles “Chuck” Duff, Ames Center deputy director; Adriana Cardenas, associate director of engineering who is the liaison to San Quentin, Gary Martin, director of partnerships, and John Yembrick, public affairs director.
The shop’s lead man, Duane Butler, guided the guests around the shop, explaining how students become familiarized, and learn a range of complex machines used in the fabrication of various products. The NASA Ames directors said they were amazed by the assortment of equipment prisoners had on hand to teach them the finer aspects of machining.
Michael Villanueva, who is in charge of shop safety, explained the monthly training and meetings held for students in order to receive information about hazardous materials and shop safety procedures.
“Every student has to pass the safety test specific for a particular machine before operating it,” he said, “An 80-hour orientation safety program is given to each student.”
There was a signing ceremony authorizing the partnership/training program, punctuated by prisoners’ applause.
Prisoners will be taught “work that is directly germane to what this county needs done” in order to continue a cost-effective space program, said Duff.
In a recent San Quentin visit, the State Undersecretary for California Prisons, Scott Kernan, discussed such projects. He said California is working to improve partnerships with outside organizations and businesses to help fill the training void created by budget cuts. The NASA project is an example of that initiative, he said.
San Quentin’s machine shop is the only one in the California prison system with the capability of manufacturing metal projects right from the casting stage.
Machine shop instructor Richard Saenz said NASA learned of the San Quentin potential after its students won a top prize in a 2008 state fair competition for manufacturing a magnetic wave machine, Saenz commented, “The association with NASA will allow me to train the students for today’s standards. It’s about providing opportunities for the students. I want to see them succeed. I would like to see them in society doing positive things.”
“There are a maximum of 27 students enrolled in the machine shop training, and there is always a waiting list,” Saenz said.
NASA Ames offers to teach prisoners highly technical and marketable skills while manufacturing the P-Pod at San Quentin. “You need to build prototypes – you need to check size and fit. These tools do an awful lot to make more possible in a shorter time frame at a much lower cost. That’s important to us,” said Duff.
The P-Pod is a space-based scientific testing platform. Although the P-Pod program at San Quentin will not produce space flight hardware, San Quentin’s P-Pod will be used for testing and accuracy of the final product.
When asked specifically about making this training available to some of the most disenfranchised people in society, Duff said that NASA Ames is trying to reverse this trend beginning at San Quentin. Duff said that the objective is to find people who want to be in this hightech field and to provide them with an opportunity to gain skills that will enhance their employability. The P-Pod training program will allow prisoners to do this.
“The skills that you’re developing are useful around a wide array of employment opportunities. It’s not about where you’ve been; it’s about where we’re trying to go. This is an opportunity for people wanting to be together and going together. I got a good feeling about this,” Duff said.
NASA Ames officials said they are looking forward to coming back to San Quentin to get the program started.
Ames, Aeronautical Laboratory was established in 1939. It is located at Moffett Field on the border of Sunnyvale and Mountain View, south of San Francisco. NASA Ames head is Pete Worden.
—Juan Haines contributed to this story.
