[1] She has more recently been working on a way to gather and accumulate orbital debris, through a large balloon that will return to Earth once full.
Both her mother and father were supportive of her love for science and supplied her with telescopes, microscopes, or anything she had an interest in.
[4] Jeanne began acquiring her college degree at the University of Texas with a major in Aerospace engineering.
Jeanne was one of ten engineering freshman who was invited to take a physical chemistry course with graduate students.
[4] Jeanne created the hyper velocity laboratory where her work was focused on protecting Spacecraft and satellites from impacts from space debris and meteoroids.
[5][6] It was evident by now that when a spacecraft collides with even minuscule pieces of space debris, which are traveling at orbital speeds, the damage and impact could be severe,[1] and even life-threatening.
After multiple tests, Jeanne soon realized that the aluminum that is used normally to build spacecraft was especially vulnerable to debris collisions.
[8] The solution she thought of was a shield comprising "multiple layers of ceramic fabric, open-cell foam and other materials.
Donald K. Slayton told Jeanne she should not be photographed because they did not want anyone thinking that there was a woman astronaut.
Her design is a very large balloon, between 1 and 10 km in diameter, made of ceramic fabric that will "shock whatever has struck the craft so much that is vaporized.
"[1] Once the balloon is full, it is returned to Earth Throughout Jeanne's years at NASA, she was an engineer, contract monitor, and a researcher at Space and Life Sciences.
In 1990, Jeanne was awarded a Patent For the multi-shock shield along with her co-inventor Burton G. Cour- Palais.