For the Love of Space

MA-9 "Faith 7" Mercury capsule flown by Gordon Cooper
May 15, 1963 on display at the Johnson Space Center.
Photo by Lizz Clements

I had originally thought an introductory post for this blog wasn't necessary, but as you can see, I changed my mind!  This blog is meant to be an expression of my personal experience as a space nerd, and so I imagine that getting to know the person behind it a little bit would be a good thing.

First off, I'm not a scientist, engineer, professor, or any sort of space science professional.  I'm not even a writer. I'm an artist, and not even the cool kind.  I'm the behind the scenes kind of artist nobody thinks about, who gets paid very little, considering a bachelors degree is needed to get a job.

What I also am, is a huge nerd.  Not just the kind of nerd who can tell you the company that produced the TIE Fighter (and what TIE stands for), but can also tell you about the company that produces the Falcon 9 rocket. In school I wasn't very interested in science and hated math. I did enjoy my Physical Science class my freshman year, but was so disgusted by Biology my sophomore year that I dropped science altogether. I had to take Algebra 1 twice in school to get through it, and took Accounting to avoid Geometry and still get enough math credits to graduate.



So what business do I have being a space nerd? I was raised an Air Force brat.  My dad was a career NCO, and I grew up on and around Air Force bases.  Living under an airport that consisted of hot fighter jets and impressively massive cargo planes was just a part of life. Sonic booms that rattled the windows were rare enough to still be cool, but not so rare that a nine year old girl didn't know what that was. I was happily immersed in Air Force culture, where Santa Claus flies an A-10 Warthog, there was no person on Earth cooler than an astronaut, and there was no vehicle on Earth cooler than the Space Shuttle.

And so it was when I was in junior high that I became interested in Astronomy. My dad took out an old reflector telescope to show me a Lunar Eclipse.  I remember it was white, the tubing was made of cardboard, and it was the best thing ever! Sure, all you could really use it for was for looking at the moon, but that was quite enough for me. The moon was amazing! His telescope became my new favorite toy, much to his chagrin.

This led to me getting my own telescope, a red, aluminium tubed refractor with an equatorial mount that I never figured out how to use. In addition, I had a big picture book with information and pictures of the plants from the Pioneer missions and an Audubon Society Guide to the Night Sky, which I mostly used to just look at the pictures of galaxies featured in the glossy middle pages. This is also the time that I lost my religion.  Or perhaps you could say I had found a new one.  And I don't even remember seeing Cosmos. I'll blog about Sagan later.

Anyway, as things tend to do, my interest in space science waned as I got older. It was replaced by Star Wars, Nine Inch Nails, and cinema. I went to art college for four years to learn how to make movies, decided it entailed too much gambling with your own money and future, and after graduating joined the Army to instead work with missiles.  (ROCKETS! YEAH!)  Training was fun, but the missiles were a huge disappointment.  I got myself honorably discharged and came home confused. I've been getting by as an artist, but still feel like I don't know what I want to be when I grow up even though I'm thirty-four.

Me happily posing in front of a small portion
of the Saturn V  rocket on display at
Johnson Space Center.Photo by Lizz Clements

Last year for my birthday, I decided what I wanted was to visit the Johnson Space Center in Houston. My mom and girlfriend accompanied me, and I not only had a great time, but my interest in space blossomed into a full bore obsession. Since last September I've been soaking up science like a sponge. Using all the free resources I can find on the internet to learn everything I can about Astrophysics and space exploration, I feel like I'm becoming quite the smarty-pants, and only wish that I had known how awesome this stuff was when I was younger and could have made a career of it.

With this blog I plan to write about whatever comes to mind, be it a book or website review, recommendations for places to learn things about space, and generally about my experiences being a space nerd. I'd like to share this stuff not as a vanity project, but to encourage others who love space and don't have a Phd to educate themselves, to keep on lovin' it, and to share that love with others.