page_title: Tara Ruttley
section_title: NASA career
hierarchical_section_title: Tara Ruttley / NASA career
caption_attribution_description: English: The crew of NASA's NEEMO 6 underwater exploration mission (July 2004). Left to right: NASA astronaut John Herrington, NASA scientist Tara Ruttley, and NASA astronauts Nicholas Patrick and Douglas H. Wheelock. From http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/behindthescenes/training/html/jsc2004e28737.html. NASA photo in public domain.
context_page_description: Tara Melaine Ruttley is Associate Program Scientist for the International Space Station at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Until 2007, she was lead hardware engineer for the ISS Health Maintenance System, leading a team of engineers whose job was to provide reliable medical equipment that kept astronauts healthy in orbit. She subsequently served as the lead hardware engineer for the ISS Human Research Facility. She served as an aquanaut on the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations 6 crew in July 2004.
context_section_description: Ruttley received an offer to work for NASA's Biomedical Systems Division upon graduation.  She came to work for NASA in January 2001, where her first project was developing a detector for the presence of hydrazine on astronauts' space suits after EVAs from the ISS.  She went on to become a project engineer for the exercise bicycle currently on the ISS.  Ruttley subsequently served as lead hardware engineer for the ISS Human Research Facility, and later became Associate Program Scientist for the ISS.  In 2010, Ruttley responded to criticisms of the cost of the ISS, saying, "I think those who are naysayers haven't given us a chance — haven't given us enough time to show what we can do."  In a 2011 interview, Ruttley offered reassurance to scientists concerned that the end of the Space Shuttle program would interfere with ISS research projects, saying, "If you have an investigation you want to do on the space station, we will get you there."
  In July 2004, Ruttley became an aquanaut through her participation in the joint NASA-NOAA, NEEMO 6 (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations) project, an exploration research mission held in Aquarius, the world's only undersea research laboratory.  Ruttley and her crewmates lived and worked underwater for ten days.  During the NEEMO 6 mission, Ruttley represented the JSC Engineering Directorate as an Engineer/Aquanaut and was in charge of leading the hardware experiments.  A redesigned version of the CFREU was evaluated for potential spaceflight use during the NEEMO 6 mission.  On the final day of NEEMO 6, Ruttley wrote, "The physical and mental challenge for me was the best of my life."
  Ruttley teaches undergraduate courses in human physiology as an adjunct professor at University of Houston–Clear Lake.  In April 2008, she received the Graduate of the Last Decade (GOLD) Award from the Colorado State University College of Engineering.  Ruttley is working with the National Science Foundation on an inflatable Antarctic habitat that would serve as an analog for lunar or Martian habitats.
caption: The NEEMO 6 crew.  L-R: John Herrington, Ruttley, Nicholas Patrick, Douglas H. Wheelock.  Not pictured:  support crew members Craig B. Cooper and Joseph March.
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