Origins Hubble a view to the edge of space   people ideas tools
place  hubble's crew     Why are people interested in astronomy?
Monique Ramos Science Instruments Flight Controller  Monique
gets a thrill when Hubble is pointed in the wrong direction.
That's when her work is most interesting. It's Monique's job to
attend to the health and safety of the instruments on board the
telescope, and to make sure that Hubble is pointed so that it
can precisely gather the images that researchers want. When it's
off kilter, "we have procedures that we have to go through to
get it pointing in the right direction, which actually is kind
of fun," she says. "And," she adds, "I like doing the hard
stuff."  Monique works in the control room.  It was the
electronics kit Monique's father bought her when she was a kid
that led her into a life of science. She recently graduated from
college with a degree in physics, and thinks about going to
graduate school for more. When she tells people what she does,
sometimes they don't eve