![\"UWA](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/efd06d285903cedc5eaf04e5aafa50372975f52d.jpg\")
Camera IconUWA student Alaxandrea O’Brien at NASA JPL in California. Credit: Supplied<\/p>\nGrowing up in the Kimberley and Goldfields, Alaxandrea O\u2019Brien dreamed of one day making scientific discoveries to benefit humanity.<\/p>\n
A lofty ambition for anyone, but the sky\u2019s the limit for this proud Dulgubarra-Mamu and Jirrbal woman after becoming the first WA student to be selected in a pioneering space program that has taken her all the way to NASA.<\/p>\n
The University of WA environmental engineering student was selected for Monash University\u2019s National Indigenous Space Academy program, and is now among eight First Nations tertiary students headed to the US and UK for 10-week placements at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and RAL Space.<\/p>\n
Speaking to The Sunday Times from California, the third-year student said the opportunity meant \u201cthe absolute world\u201d to her.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowing up in the Kimberley . . . never did I ever think that my love for science and space would end up in me working on projects for the benefit of all humanity,\u201d O\u2019Brien says.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not an exaggeration. As part of the placement, O\u2019Brien has been paired with a scientist or engineer mentor at JPL, and has been working on real-life projects developed to contribute to current space missions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m essentially starting on a project to work with satellite data from some revolutionary spacecraft that we have up above in our outer atmosphere at the moment,\u201d O\u2019Brien explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking at seeing through dense vegetation to map our water dynamics, which is something extremely aligned with my degree.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith our changing climate, we have extreme flooding events and extreme droughts all of the time, so to be able to get knowledge as it\u2019s first being received ever, and then apply it, is definitely the best thing about this (experience) so far.\u201d<\/p>\n
Camera IconUWA student Alaxandrea O’Brien at NASA JPL in California. Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien will apply what she learns in an honours thesis next year, combining the cutting-edge environmental science being done at JPL with the deep wisdom accumulated by 60,000 years of Indigenous land management.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it\u2019s one and the same,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I look at in my degree is full-systems thinking and how everything is interconnected \u2014 from the waterways to the country, the land, to the health of the environment, the movement of our species, and then our own quality of life in relation to that.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd everything that I\u2019ve grown up getting taught by my own elders, and from elders in the communities in which I\u2019ve had the privilege of growing up on . . . so to be able to draw on and appreciate all of that, and bring it all together in my own degree and career pathway, I see it as just the culmination of that knowledge into the modern world.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no secret women are underrepresented in STEM, both as students and career scientists, let alone First Nations women, so O\u2019Brien takes her status as a role model seriously.<\/p>\n
And, as someone who readily admits science and maths were her worst subjects throughout high school, O\u2019Brien stresses the importance of holding onto those dreams.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m kind of envisioning younger me when I\u2019m thinking about this, but if you can dream it and you can see it, then you can do it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t let not knowing the final answer, or not knowing how to get there, stop you or get in the way, because you never know what opportunity will quite literally fall in your lap, and you never know what people will lift you up and empower you through different moments.<\/p>\n
\u201cNever let anyone tell you no, and don\u2019t be afraid of getting it wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Growing up in the Kimberley and Goldfields, Alaxandrea O\u2019Brien dreamed of one day making scientific discoveries to benefit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":915726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[64,63,128,285,105],"class_list":["post-915725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-space","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=915725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/915726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}