首席天体材料管理工程师萨尔瓦多·马丁内斯三世
“My parents came here from Mexico with the vision of giving us a better life than they had but, times were tough. When I was young, there were many days and nights where we had to get by with what we had. My dad worked his way up in the fabrication industry in Houston and when an opportunity came for him to start his own business, he took it. It was “now or never”. Shortly after, things changed. By the time I was in 5thgrade, our lives took a turn for the better, and going to college all of a sudden became a possibility. But even then, working at NASA felt like it could happen in a dream.
“Growing up here in Houston, you visit Space Center and you look at JSC , and you think, ‘Man, it must be incredible to be a part of NASA and to be a part of one of those amazing missions where you accomplish impossible things and maybe even discover something new about our universe’. I would have never guessed, never predicted, that I would be here. Throughout my career, I just continued to do the best I could and kept learning, striving to get better.
“It took years but it felt like all of the sudden, I was here and everything, the entire time, was preparing me for my role on the OSIRIS-REx mission. Now, I share a place in history next to a Curation team full of the most talented, intelligent and hard-working individuals in the world and all that we have accomplished is, and will be, a part of NASA forever. I can’t even begin to describe what that means to not only me, but for my family, who did everything they could so that this could even be a possibility. For all of us, it is a dream come true.”
—Salvador Martinez III, Lead Astromaterial Curation Engineer, Jacobs Technology, NASA’s Johnson Space Center
Image Credit: NASA/James Blair
Interviewer: NASA/Thalia Patrinos
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“我的父母从墨西哥来到这里，本想让我们过上比他们更好的生活，但时局艰难。在我小时候，很多时候我们只能靠手头的东西勉强度日。我父亲在休斯顿的制造业中打拼，当他有机会创业时，他抓住了这个机会。当时的想法是 “机不可失，时不再来”。不久之后，情况发生了变化。到我上五年级时，我们的生活开始好转，上大学突然成为可能。但即便如此，能够在NASA工作仍像是一场梦。
“在休斯顿长大，你会参观太空中心，看到约翰逊航天中心，你会想，‘天哪，成为NASA的一员，参与那些不可思议的任务，完成那些看似不可能的事情，甚至可能发现宇宙的新奥秘，该是多么了不起啊’。我从来没想过，也从未预料到，我会来到这里。在我的职业生涯中，我只是不断地尽我所能，持续学习，努力变得更好。
“虽然花了很多年，，但感觉好像一瞬间我就来到了这里，而这段旅程中的每一刻，都在为我在OSIRIS-REx任务中的角色做准备。现在，我和世界上最有才华、最聪明、最勤奋的团队成员一起，成为了历史的一部分，而我们所取得的成就，已经且将永远成为NASA的一部分。我甚至无法形容这对我意味着什么，不仅是对我，还有对我的家人，他们竭尽全力让这一切成为可能。对我们所有人来说，这真的是梦想成真。”
——萨尔瓦多·马丁内斯三世，NASA约翰逊航天中心，雅各布斯科技公司首席宇航材料管理工程师
图片来源: NASA/James Blair
采访者: NASA/Thalia Patrinos