Chris Davis bussed tables and worked at a gas station while a student at Damien in the early 1970s.

It was then that he used to read Isaac Asimov's "I Robot" and dreamed of working among the engineers and scientists who were making space travel a reality.

Yesterday, Davis returned to his alma mater to tell — and show — Damien students that dream can come true.

Davis is now a senior project manager at the Kennedy Space Center. He's a NASA troubleshooter who helped find the problem that killed the crew of the space shuttle Discovery in 2003. His work earned him the Space Flight Awareness Award, a coveted honor in the space shuttle program.

"You need to dream big," he said. "I regret the things that I haven't tried much more than the things I've tried and failed."

Davis graduated from the University of Hawai'i with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1983.

He told the students yesterday that he applied at NASA then, and was turned down.

But he refused to give up.

He picked up experience in aeronautical applications by working with the Navy on the P-3 aircraft, and joined the staff of NASA in 1990 while completing a masters degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Central Florida.

"Don't let yourself be limited by geography," he told the students. "If you want to work for NASA, this is a very doable thing for you."

Sixteen years of working at the space agency hasn't dulled Davis' appreciation for his dream job.

Although a little nervous about public speaking, the engineer leaves pre-speech butterflies behind when he describes a shuttle launch — the impact felt miles away, the way buildings shake and rattle, the massive billows of steam that help to dampen the incredible noise caused by the launch.

The excitement shows in his face when he talks about how he and his fellow engineers and scientists encounter a problem, and how a group of smart, strong individuals meld into a focused team.

"All the personalities, all the conflict — all of that goes away," he said.

Davis brought some of the foam used as insulation on the shuttle and described to the students how researchers conducted projectile tests to determine how a piece of foam breached Discovery shortly after takeoff, a disaster that caused the shuttle to disintegrate in February 2003, killing a crew of seven.

"It's foam like the foam in your surfboards," he said. "But if it is moving fast enough, it'll go through a concrete wall."

He left the foam for the students to study.

He also brought a space suit liner worn by astronaut Alan Bean, and showed the students how the boots were weighted to keep astronauts from bouncing while walking on the moon.

"If you can jump three feet on Earth, you can jump 15 feet on the moon," he said.

No, he said, in reply to a student's question, no basketball games have been played on the moon.

"But," he said, "maybe one day you will."

Reach Karen Blakeman at kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.