Shaker High School brought in a NASA astronaut recently to talk to students about the importance of physics and engineering and the future of space exploration after the U.S. abandoned its space shuttle program.
NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps stopped at Shaker High School, Tuesday, Feb. 25, to discuss her career path from CIA agent to astronaut and what kind of future students can make for themselves with a physics or engineering degree.
A lot of children go through a phase where they want to be an astronaut, but Epps actually followed through with her plan.
“I think many kids really want to become an astronaut, and you just hear it and it sounds so cool. So when I was 9 years old, I thought, ‘OK, I would love to become an astronaut,’” said Epps.
Farhan Gandhi, a professor of aerospace engineering at RPI, was instrumental in bringing Epps to the school. He said astronauts have the experience that helps students become interested in science programs.
“I think that these people are the elite few in the nation, and the opportunity to learn from someone like them could be inspiring,” said Gandhi.
In 2002, Epps began working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as a technical intelligence officer, and, in 2009, was selected as one of 14 members to the 20th NASA Astronaut Class.
Epps earned her bachelor’s degree in physics from LeMoyne College then went on to earn a masters and doctorate from the University of Maryland in aerospace engineering.
She said NASA scientists and astronauts do much more than just study stars and planets in outer space. A great deal of research is conducted on everything from cancer cells to robotics.
Gandhi said that even though there is a lot of money to be made on Wall Street, it’s not doing much good for our society, and a science career can benefit humankind in much bigger ways.
“If you look at progress in humanity, where we have advanced as a people, you fly in planes, you use iPhones, computers and medical advancements — all that comes from science and engineering,” said Gandhi. “Science makes our lives better.”
Epps talked to the students about some of the studies being conducted in space and how the lack of gravity in the International Space Station enables scientist to look at cells differently.
“The salmonella bacteria actually become virulent in space, and they couldn’t figure out what happened to it. As it turns out, when you take away gravity it can change the cell structure and cause certain genetic properties to turn on and in some cases even turn off,” said Epps.
What this means is that scientist can look at cells differently and also understand how the human body reacts to the lack of gravity. Other studies are being conducted on cancer that looks at different ways to attack individual tumors. Technology from a Canadian robotic arm that is used to work outside the space station is also being used to perform surgery.
“This is an interesting use of the technology used to develop the Canadian robotic arm. They used the technology for that robotic arm along with MRI to develop a system to remove a tumor from a lady’s brain. This is just showing us that technologies developed on earth can be used on earth or in space,” said Epps.
With all the recent changes in the space program and the United States no longer having a way to transport our own astronauts into space, it is even more important to get young adults interested in science and technology so NASA can be preserved, Epps said.
“We try to encourage you (high school students) to go in to science, technology, engineering, mathematics and try to regain that interest that was developed in space exploration back in 1969 with the first Apollo astronauts,” said Epps.