Patten was selected to potentially become the first Irish person in space as part of a mission on board Virgin Galactic's second generation of spacecraft.
She attended St. Mary's Secondary School, and has been fascinated by space since visiting NASA's Glenn Research Centre in Cleveland, Ohio when she was 11 years old.
[3] Patten completed a work placement at Boeing during her undergraduate degree program and continued her education at the University of Limerick, where she obtained a doctorate in Aerodynamics in 2011.
Patten initiated and managed "The Only Way is Up"[4] project, which sent Ireland's first student experiment to the International Space Station in 2014, through a commercial agreement with NanoRacks.
[13] Patten created "Planet Zebunar", a STEM product for children that is she has described as "inclusive, non-gender specific and offer[ing] an immersive experience" using both "offline and online technologies", including augmented reality.