This is for engineers who work at NASA or people who know engineers who work at NASA?

I work for a company that subcontracts to the major aerospace players and sometimes for NASA, directly. I am an electrical engineer, but I know enough of what our mechanical engineers do to answer your question. The mechanicals, here, design housings for space avionics (some of them directly for NASA). The housings are designed to withstand high-gee vibration for space launch. They are also designed to conduct heat away from the electronic components in vacuum, because convection is not an option in a vacuum, nor is radiation a good method of getting the heat out of a printed circuit board. The mechanicals also design printed circuit board page frames and other mechanical components of these very high reliability boards. They must analyze the thermal characteristics of the components, boards, and modules. They must analyze the components, boards, and materials for the gasses they would produce in vacuum. They must analyze the structural integrity and strength of all the components, boards, and modules. There are other analyses to be completed, as well. I rely on their thermal analyses as a starting point for my own analyses of electrical stress, reliability, and failure modes. As for what we went through to get this job: A bachelor's of science degree in (mechanical) engineering is a minimum. Is it worth it? I can't answer for the others, but for me it is close to my 'dream job' to be designing space hardware for NASA. With the coming of the new Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), Orion, Ares, and all the programs that come with it, NASA will be looking to hire more engineers directly, or adding lots of work to the major aerospace 'players' (Boeing, Lockheed, Ball, others). Your future looks promising. If you have any other questions; e-mail. .