By Shae Huisjen
Photo by Marty Huisjen
Dedicated to solving complex aerospace challenges, Marty Huisjen built a distinguished career as a systems engineer, helping NASA with discoveries and building some of the technology we use today. His engineering journey began during the Cold War when Russia launched Sputnik, our planet’s first satellite, thus initiating the space race. In
reaction, the American government needed “people who were good in math,” as he claimed, and Huisjen, an 8th grader at the time, said, “Hey, I’m good at math.” From there, he set his focus on an engineering career and worked full-time at Ball Aerospace for 30 years, then part-time during the following few years, learning new things and contributing to major projects throughout his whole journey.
Huisjen’s first project was with infrared technology during his grad school at Cornell University, where he worked on an infrared satellite, a spacecraft equipped with thermal-infrared sensors to measure heat and radiation. His next project was creating a large radar in the sky that could create images of clouds. He said it was so big that the antenna was around the size of a billboard. After that, he helped Ball, a major aerospace company, create the first shuttle halo, which had a similar antenna, and through this work, he learned more about antennas. Some of these projects he worked on that were breakthroughs at the time, and have now become the prototype for newer technology. For instance, SpaceX now has thousands of satellites that can connect with antennas, like the one Huisjen has at his cabin in the mountains. But arguably his most interesting work was the “Deep Impact project” in 2005. Essentially, a probe slammed into a comet so that a flyby spacecraft and telescope from Earth could analyze the interior. This project is known as one of the coolest space missions in history because a probe intentionally smashed into a moving comet during the 4th of July, providing a nice fireworks show and new knowledge about the origins of our solar system.
In 2009, Huisjen worked on a huge project called “Kepler”, where he was in charge of building a telescope to look for planets outside the solar system. The telescope was called a photometer, which looked for the dimming of a star to see if a planet would pass through the line of sight. According to him, it’s like looking at the Sun from far away, and if the Earth got in the line of sight, the Sun’s brightness would dim by one par of 10,000, so “instead of the brightness of 10,000, it would be the brightness of 9,999”. Basically, this telescope had to be good enough to detect the 1 par difference in lighting needed to find far-away planets. His hard work paid off, as thousands of planets were found, making it a major success.
Aside from “working with a lot of smart people”, the most rewarding part of Huisjen’s job was finding success in his projects. His work has helped expand our scientific knowledge; when NASA smashed that probe into the comet and found thousands of pieces of new information, or when planets were found, or even helped improve our internet access with his work on antennas. His work helped in discovering more about space and creating important technology. Not only is he an outstanding engineer, but Marty Huisjen is an incredible grandparent.
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