Many children fall asleep under glow-in-the-dark star stickers, fill their rooms with scenes of outer space and visit space camp, but few grow up to make a career out of their childhood dreams.

Elizabeth Robertson is one of the few.

Robertson has been a liquid propulsion systems engineer at NASA’s Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Ala., for 11 years.

The Natchez native is the head of the advanced manufacturing demonstration engine project, which recently won an award for its work in 3-D printing and testing engine parts, also known as additive manufacturing technology.

“We are trying to apply 3-D printing to rocket engines,” Robertson said. “Traditionally, each individual part could cost millions of dollars, but additive manufacturing changes that to tens of thousands of dollars.”

Robertson’s team is working to print metal parts with a 3-D printer. This form of printing is a little different than what most people associate with 3-D printing, but it still uses the same idea of building something from the bottom up.

To 3-D print with metal, a layer of metal powder is spread into the bottom of the printer, and a laser is used to melt the powder together in the shape of the part being printed. The process is then repeated until the part is completed.

The printed parts undergo testing in hydrogen to make sure they are capable of being used in a rocket engine, which Robertson described as a hostile environment due to heat and vibrations produced while the engine is running. For now, the 3-D printed parts cannot substitute traditional engine parts.

“Traditionally we have a lot of data on how strong the materials are,” Robertson said. “We know exactly how to manufacture things out of stainless steel, but with additives, because you’re taking a powder and fusing it together, we don’t have a history that can tell us it will hold up. There are a lot of questions about whether it is as strong as what we would normally use.”

However Robertson said she thinks the technology she is working with is a possible replacement for expensive engine parts.

“We are trying to prove that this manufacturing technique will be viable, or not be viable,” Robertson said. “I think it is. I think you can design for any shortcomings in additive manufacturing.”

Robertson has won a couple of awards during her time at NASA. Her team won the outstanding achievement award in liquid propulsion systems for their work in 3-D printing, and Robertson herself was awarded the Silver Snoopy award in 2010 while working with the shuttle program.

Astronauts award a Silver Snoopy lapel pin to someone who contributed to making their mission is successful.

With several achievements under her belt, her father, John Holleman, said he could not be happier with her accomplishments.

“We are so proud of her,” Holleman said. “It’s hard to describe really. It’s a wonderful program and she loves her work. She really loves her job.”

Robertson attended high school in Natchez and graduated from Trinity in 1997.

She then received a degree in business from Washington and Lee University before attending Louisiana State University for a degree in mechanical engineering.

She is a mother of two boys, James Wilton Robertson and Thomas Patterson Robertson, and is married to Wes Robertson.

Her parents, Betsy and John Holleman, live in Natchez. She is the granddaughter of Pat and Billy Dale of Natchez and the late Eleanor and Tom Holleman.