Shortly after joining the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), she became the lead systems engineer on Team X—a crack team of engineers devoted to designing plans for innovative space missions. “We designed every kind of space vehicle you could think of, designed to go to every space destination out there,” she says. That led her to work on the Mars Curiosity Rover, as part of a group that “checked if everything was working, so we could hand the keys to the science team.” She’s now working on a similar rover that should land on Mars in 2020. “I had intended to be there to the end,” she says. But if her candidacy is successful, she’ll be abandoning Mars for Capitol Hill.

I spoke to Van Houten about her political ambitions. An edited transcript of our conversation follows.

Ed Yong: Why run for Congress?

Tracy Van Houten: It’s been several years in the making. I love my job at the JPL, but I’ve been feeling this calling, that something bigger was needed from me. I was hoping to make a run for the California state legislature in 2018 or 2020—and then Trump was elected. And his first weeks in office brought executive order after executive order, and horrendous cabinet nominee after horrendous cabinet nominee. When this special election opened up, I thought I must accelerate my plans and do this now. I’ve been very involved with my community and the Society of Women Engineers and public schools here. I realized that everything I’ve been doing in my life has been leading to this point.

Yong: Tell me more about that path. What was the first step?

Van Houten: I did an engineering elective in high school, and although I was one of just two girls out of 40, I had the highest grades in the class. I loved the design process, and I always had this infatuation with space. So when I was 15, I became singularly focused on getting to JPL. I decided that’s where I wanted to work. For the next several years, if I met anyone with any association with JPL, I would collect their business cards and write little notes saying: This person’s uncle’s boss’s niece knows someone who works at JPL. By my senior year in college, I had a notebook with 200 business cards, and I just carpet-bombed the network. And it worked.

Yong: So, you’re in the job you’ve worked toward for years, you help to explore other worlds, and you are literally a rocket scientist. And you’re given that up for a life in politics?

Van Houten: Everything I’ve done so far in my career has been to study the big questions about the universe. And right now, that doesn’t feel big enough. That contribution feels so pitiful when our rights and environment and families are on the line.

You need to have a seat at the table. The only way we’ll change Washington is if we change the people who we send there. Engineers make up less than 2 percent of Congress, and I believe that if I’m elected, I’d be the first ever woman engineer in Congress. It’s shocking to me that in 2017, that would be a novelty. So, part of this is about inspiring the next wave of young women, moms, and those with in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) backgrounds to run. I’ve been a mentor for a long time and I can see in the faces of my mentees how deeply this election has affected them. I feel that this is the right response.