At the beginning of my NASA internship, there was undoubtedly a feeling of imposter syndrome. If I was going to be at a place defined by its science, how would I find my place without taking any higher math than precalculus? Well, (*spoiler alert*), not everyone who works at NASA has a background in STEM.
When faced with the task of research on a topic of my choice within an enormous field I admittedly knew little about, I was again intimidated. This is where my mentor came in and freed me from my lack of faith in myself and showed me how I could be successful working in the History Office. I had no need to understand in depth the science behind the topic I chose, only enough to be able to talk about it.
In the end, I chose to research orbital debris. Once I established a working knowledge, I used my research skills and my historical brain dived in! The research question I worked from was: “Have major orbital debris events had an impact on public opinion of spaceflight in the U.S.?” To find out, I looked for public opinion polls that might give me an indication of the sentiments surrounding events like Skylab’s plunging return to Earth in 1979 and the Iridium-Cosmos collision in-orbit in 2009. I also looked for newspaper articles that discussed these occurrences and others; I wanted to see what people were actually saying. Were they condemning spaceflight, urging the end of the space program? Were they barreling on, claiming that the events I researched were but small prices to pay in exchange for the answers to what’s out there?
I was shocked to find that in the limited sources I got to look at, not a single person called for the complete stop of space exploration, despite the fact that orbital debris is created each time something launches. I saw many calls to action from people looking to mitigate the problems presented by floating space trash or even proposals to fetch the most dangerous items. While my research didn’t conclude with a research paper, I gained a lot of valuable insight not only into space, research, and debris, but also into the pioneering human spirit that continues seeking answers in space.
I did, however, get the opportunity to present my ongoing research at the Maryland Space Grant’s Student Research Symposium. As the only humanities student in a room of actual rocket scientists, I was nervous, but ended up learning a lot from the other student researchers. Below, you can see a photo of me standing with my poster at the symposium. Note the title: I was extremely proud of that!
For my last post, I’ll focus on major takeaways and reflections from my time at NASA.
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