March 28, 2024

Space: The final frontier for careers?

Aug. 8, 2007
College students in search of a major might want to give a heads-up to the infinite potential of outer space, where career opportunities are literally firing up with a bang.
Astronomer Michael Foerster notes that the field of space is wide open to college students with opportunities at NASA and the private sector ranging from aeronautical engineering to space tourism and hotel management.
“There are a lot of space jobs out there,” he says. “Not just as astronauts on the shuttle, but with the tens of thousands of people on the ground who make the space missions possible.”
A “Solar System Ambassador” for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, Foerster, 45, is teaching three short courses at Northwestern Michigan College this August. He specializes in public education, boosting the space agency’s profile with ‘gee whiz’ topics like the search for life in the universe and the possibility of a mission to Mars.
His own interest in space began as a child, with the thrill of the first flights to the moon in 1969.
“It’s been 38 years since Apollo 11 (the first lunar mission), and 35 years since the last person walked on the moon,” he says. “When I was a kid, I never thought it would be decades before we’d go back. It strikes me as crazy that we got there and then walked away.”


FUTURE TENSE
But now, interest in space is heating up again. Although NASA’s space shuttle program is wrapping up in three years, the agency is developing a new Orion capsule which will be capable of taking six astronauts to the International Space Station, or four people to the moon.
The Space Station is also expanding, with 14 nations currently building on what the Russians started constructing in 1998. Currently, the Japanese are constructing a bus-sized module which will be launched from Texas to expand the size of the station.
And, although a manned mission to Mars is at least 15 years off, Foerster believes that much of the prep work will involve heading back to the moon. “Our return to the moon is going to be a lot like Apollo on steroids with the new Aries rocket,” he says.
“Once the shuttle’s replacement is ready, we’ll return to the moon to prove we can live long-term in space,” he adds. “There’s a great deal of concern about radiation in space and if we can survive it. On earth, we’re protected by the Van Allen Belts (a vast radiation-absorbing layer), but it will be a challenge to protect humans on a mission to Mars. In the worst case scenario, you’re only three days from the earth if you go to the moon, but Mars will require a seven-month trip at best, or up to two-and-a-half years of travel, depending on where the planet is in orbit.”
Job opportunities at NASA include everything from the need for aeronautical engineers to truck drivers needed to ferry billion-dollar rockets to the launch pad. Foerster has a friend who developed the wheel for the current Martian Phoenix lander, which was launched this week, and another friend who attached the wheel to the lander before it was launched into space.
“At the Jet Propulsion Lab where I work, we specialize in the robotic side of space,” Foerster adds. “We can send hundreds of robots to Mars for what it would cost to send a human mission, and there are many spin-off jobs.”

PRIVATE SECTOR
Many companies and foreign nations are also racing to launch their own space schemes. The British billionaire entrepreneur, Richard Branson, is preparing to launch two rockets for space tourism, while another company is completing work on a new orbiting space hotel, which should be ready for guests within a few years.
Meanwhile, Cincinnati is completing plans to construct a new spaceport and various nations are expanding their space programs. The European Union, for instance, is constructing a new space capsule called the Jules Verne, which will be capable of lifting tons of cargo to the International Space Station.
Foerster’s own career as an astronomer rocketed around in an eccentric orbit before taking off. A 1979 graduate of TC Central High, his early career was that of a “starving jazz musician” and radio announcer. Locally, he worked on WTCM and WNMC before finding work in public radio downstate. A midlife crisis led to studies in astronomy and his current PR gig with NASA.
He admits there aren’t many jobs in astronomy, which is tough to get into with stiff competition for few jobs. But if you make it, there are some interesting projects, including those Foerster’s agency is involved in: studying stars during their explosive supernova phase; and the search for life on other planets (see sidebar).
He notes that today’s “space race” is different than that of the ‘60s, and has a direct bearing on education in the U.S.
“The biggest area of concern for the United States today is not to get ahead anymore, but just to stay even with other nations,” he says. “In China, for instance, they have more honor students in their country than we have students in all of America. And they have eight times as many students studying engineering. It’s not a given that we’re going to keep ahead of the Chinese and other nations.”

Michael Foerster is teaching three non-credit short classes the third week in August, including “Are We Alone? The Search for Live in the Universe,” “Mysterious Mars,” and a kids’ class, “Welcome to the Universe.: Contact Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City at 231-995-1700 for information.


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