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Clare Luckey, an engineer at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston, has been named one of Forbes\u2019 30 under 30 Class of 2024. The other NASA honoree is Katie Konans, audio and podcasting lead at the agency\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.<\/p>\n
Forbes\u2019 30 Under 30 list is a selection of young, creative, and bold minds the magazine\u2019s experts consider revolutionaries, changing the course of business and society. Forbes evaluated more than 20,000 nominees to decide on 600 business and industry figures, with 30 selected in each of 20 industries.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honored with such an award is truly humbling,\u201d Luckey said. \u201cThis is a list of insanely talented people who are shaping the future, and I\u2019m fortunate to be a part of it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Clare Luckey is the co-lead of crew transit operations within the Mars Architecture Team, which is working on the first crewed mission to Mars. In addition to her work on Mars missions, she regularly does outreach in underserved communities to encourage students to pursue careers in STEM and space.<\/p>\n
Clare began her NASA career as an intern in Johnson\u2019s Center Operations Directorate, then was hired full-time as an integration lead for cargo resupply flights to the International Space Station.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Luckey grew up in Southfield, Michigan. She earned her Bachelor of Science in space weather engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 2017, and her Master\u2019s in space architecture from the University of Houston in 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of my earliest STEM memories was in middle school, when a group of my friends and I participated in a Future Cities competition to design a city on Mars,\u201d Luckey said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t win \u2013 not even close \u2013 but it challenged us to think critically and creatively. I\u2019m extremely fortunate that\u2019s essentially what I get to do that in real life now! I think all kids deserve to have experiences like that, that inspire them to imagine a future beyond themselves. My parents worked hard to ensure that I\u2019d have opportunities like that, especially coming from a place where not many people end up in engineering, let alone at NASA. I\u2019m grateful to them for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo that end, I think it\u2019s important to have a support system of people cheering you on,\u201d she continued. \u201cI don\u2019t know where I\u2019d be without the many people who have mentored, encouraged, and pushed me since I started as an intern in 2018. I hope to do that for others someday.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n