Christopher E. Gerty

Gerty was born on Long Island in East Moriches, New York. His father was an insurance underwriter for Metropolitan Life. Gerty has one younger sister. Gerty's interest in spaceflight and NASA began at Gatelot Elementary in Lake Ronkonkoma, New York. His fifth-grade teacher led his class through the investigation of the Challenger accident in 1986. Gerty's class learned not only about the causes of the accident, but what the Space Shuttle did and why humans traveled in space. To the ten-year-old Gerty, spaceflight seemed like a necessary and noble thing for humans to do, even if there were some risks. After that experience in elementary school Gerty dreamed of being an astronaut when he grew up. Gerty attended Hilton High School near Rochester, New York, from 1989 to 1990 and New Paltz High School, New Paltz, New York, from 1991 to 1993. He took up skiing while in Rochester and floor and roller hockey in New Paltz. Gerty attended Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York, earning a B.S. in Computer Engineering in 1997. He played intramural ice hockey while at Clarkson. During his college years Gerty realized that flying in space was not his real goal, but rather helping humans explore and extend their sphere of influence to other worlds. One of the reasons he had chosen Clarkson was that it was part of a Space Grant Consortium that received grants from NASA. Gerty knew that this program only affected graduate students, but that an undergraduate from any school could participate in a NASA cooperative education program. Through Clarkson's career center he applied for and attained a cooperative education program position at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, where he worked with programmers, pilots and spaceflight procedure writers. When Gerty finished several co-op tours and graduated, he knew he wanted to work for NASA, and accepted a job offer at JSC as a flight controller. == NASA career ==

, Gerty; front: Satoshi Furukawa, Richard R. Arnold. Gerty's NASA experience includes positions as Robotics Division Engineering Co-op from 1996 to 1998; Aircraft Operations Co-op Engineer at Ellington Field in 1997; and Payloads Flight Controller from 1998 to 2001. He served as Extravehicular Activity (EVA or spacewalk) Flight Controller and Crew Trainer in the EVA Systems group in Mission Operations from 2001 to 2006. In that position he taught astronauts how to keep themselves alive and comfortable enough to perform their tasks while doing a spacewalk, or EVA. As part of this job he performed a simulated EVA in a NASA spacesuit at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. After "spacewalking" underwater, he had a new appreciation for the difficulty of the construction of the International Space Station (ISS) and the skills of the astronauts who performed ISS construction. Gerty wrote: Spacewalks are very analogous to diving in the ocean. In both situations you need a supply of oxygen to breathe, relative control of pressure and temperature, a means of moving around in a three-dimensional environment, and protection from the hazards ... The results [of NEEMO 13] will be used to make us more prepared when it is time to put a few more footprints and tire tracks on the moon, and eventually realize the goal of extending the human race to other planets! Since 2010, Gerty has been an Open Government Analyst at NASA. He has a blog located at http://open.nasa.gov/blog/author/cgerty/. == Personal life ==

Gerty is married to Maureen (Smith) Gerty of Saratoga Springs, New York, a chemical engineer whom he met while in college. They have two German Shepherds and a cat. Gerty's hobbies include bicycling, photography, computers, ice hockey, astronomy, camping and traveling. == References ==