John is my doppleganger. He works at NASA. That’s cool! He is an outer-space food packaging expert, a motocrosser, and an Arduino hacker. We all take packaging stuff for granted, but I can assure you that there are many challenging trade-offs. It’s great that someone as talented as John is working on these critical issues. I like the motocross and Arduino hobbies, too! I’m wondering if he’ll find a way to combine all those talents? I did hear that John has an Arduino project involving motocross. Good start! If only there was a way to get NASA involved with that project…
Here’s more about John:
John Glass received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering Technology in 2008 and an M.S. in Packaging Science in 2010 from the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY, and has been the Packaging Engineer for the Space Food Systems Laboratory at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX since October 2010.
During his time at RIT, he was a Research Assistant at the American Packaging Corporation’s Center for Packaging Innovation. There, he performed characterization testing on packaging materials as well as a number of advanced research projects. These included the development of the foam life support protection system for NASA’s Constellation class space suit in EVA configuration as well as his thesis (The Development of a low-cost Anoxic Enclosure for the Preservation of Daguerreotypes). In addition, Mr. Glass was an active member of the Powertrain Group on the RIT Formula SAE Racing Team.
Mr. Glass’ responsibilities at NASA include maintenance of the existing food packaging system for the International Space Station as well as the research and development of new packaging technologies for future long duration missions. His tasks include maintaining packaging equipment, collaborating with manufacturers to ensure sufficient stock of raw materials, and maintaining relevant engineering drawings. His research has so far included reviewing/evaluating potential ultra-high barrier packaging materials for NASA use and developing contingency food packaging systems for suited NASA crew.
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