Kelly Fast

Fast grew up in California.[1][2] As a child, she could see the Griffith Observatory from her bedroom window.[1] She had a telescope in her window, and spent her evenings exploring the skies above Los Angeles.[1] Fast was an undergraduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles. She moved to the University of Maryland, College Park for graduate studies. Her doctoral research considered measurements of ozone in Martian atmospheres using ground-based telescopes.[1]

Fast worked as a research astronomer at the Goddard Space Flight Center,[1][2] where she developed high-resolution infrared instrumentation, such as the Heterodyne Instrument for Planetary Wind and Composition (HIPWAC). These systems were capable of characterizing planetary atmospheres. She specialized in the atmospheric chemistry of Mars and Titan. She was also interested in how the stratosphere of Jupiter was impacted by small body impacts.[1] During this position she regularly visited the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility.[1] She was eventually appointed to the working group for the IRTF. In 2003 the main belt asteroid 115434 was named Kellyfast in honour of her contributions to science.

Fast moved to the NASA Headquarters in 2011.[3] She was bade in the planetary Science Division, where she was part of the Planetary Atmospheres program. She was also responsible for the MAVEN Mars orbiter.[4] 

Fast is responsible for near Earth object observations in the Planetary Defense Coordination Office.[5][6] In this capacity, she searches for near Earth asteroids and comets.[2][5] She is involved with various planetary surveys, including Pan-STARRS and the Catalina Sky Survey.[5] In 2021, she was part of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, which looks to redirect potentially hazardous asteroids away from Earth.[7][8]

• Kostiuk, Theodor; Fast, Kelly E.; Livengood, Timothy A.; Hewagama, Tilak; Goldstein, Jeffrey J.; Espenak, Fred; Buhl, David (2001-06-15). "Direct measurement of winds on Titan". Geophysical Research Letters. 28 (12): 2361–2364. Bibcode:2001GeoRL..28.2361K. doi:10.1029/2000gl012617. ISSN 0094-8276.
• Kostiuk, T.; Livengood, T. A.; Hewagama, T.; Sonnabend, G.; Fast, K. E.; Murakawa, K.; Tokunaga, A. T.; Annen, J.; Buhl, D.; Schmülling, F. (2005). "Titan's stratospheric zonal wind, temperature, and ethane abundance a year prior to Huygens insertion". Geophysical Research Letters. 32 (22): n/a. Bibcode:2005GeoRL..3222205K. doi:10.1029/2005gl023897. ISSN 0094-8276.
• Sonnabend, G.; Sornig, M.; Krötz, P. J.; Schieder, R. T.; Fast, K. E. (2006). "High spatial resolution mapping of Mars mesospheric zonal winds by infrared heterodyne spectroscopy of CO2". Geophysical Research Letters. 33 (18): n/a. Bibcode:2006GeoRL..3318201S. doi:10.1029/2006gl026900. ISSN 0094-8276.

Fast is a Ham radio operator.[1] She played a small role in the film Asteroid Hunters.[2]