I think you are underestimating your ability to contribute and also putting NASA on too much of a pedestal.

I'd argue your background is extremely valuable, but not easily traversible to NASA at the moment.

If you are deeply interested in the space, working with the newer startups in geospatial/hyperspectral imaging (be it climate or defense usecases) or CV space.

In a lot of cases, NASA is basically just acting as a coordinator between multiple vendors who are doing "the cool stuff" with less bureaucratic minutiae and stress from what's going on in DC.

Lots of interesting players in the ClimateTech and DefenseTech space who would like your background, and indirectly or directly they all work with NASA anyhow.

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hellojesus 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Thanks. I did find a space jobs site last week, and some jobs looked like they aligned closely. That's probably why I was surprised the nasa reqs weren't as broad.

I wasn't really looking for a change; I have 1 and 3 year olds and am fully remote, and the flexibility with sicknesses is really a benefit. I think it was mostly a shock to my system that I may never do anything "cool" with my life.

	▲	jmalicki an hour ago \| parent [-]
		One way of viewing this is that to a moderate degree, NASA has largely been outsourced to SpaceX.