Space is for everyone
In 2022, Sharon Hagle and her husband Marc Hagle became the first married couple to fly to space together on Blue Origin’s New Sheppard spacecraft.
“Once we got up in space, it was overwhelming. When you look back on Earth, and you see how fragile our planet is, and how thin that atmosphere is, it takes your breath away,” Hagle said.
Hagle is preparing to launch once again, but with a special audience. She is the founder of SpaceKids Global, an organization that seeks to educate and inspire the youth to be excited about space and stem education and hopefully find careers in the space industry.
“What we tell our students is that every career we have down here, we're going to need up there,” Hagle said. “Do you know the first thing that the elementary school kids tell me is they think the only job in the space industry is an astronaut, we've got to change that message. Like I said, space is for everyone. And what we have here, we're going to need up there.”
The upcoming contest from SpaceKids Global will choose eight lucky kids to watch the upcoming New Sheppard launch from the control room, and act as a press squad by interviewing engineers, astronauts, spacecraft managers and more.
The contest is open now, and kids between the ages of 8 and 12 are encouraged to apply. More information on deadlines and submissions can be found on the SpaceKids Global website.
Hagle said the best part about her organization is being able to inspire others, and the mission behind this upcoming contest is to connect with students on a deeper level.
“Our goal is to really get to know these kids and be interviewing them at the time to find out what they think a launch is like,” Hagle said. “And there'll be interviewing each other. And like I said, workers at Blue Origin, us as astronauts. But at the end of the day, how did it change their life because they are part of the mission? And more importantly, they now know somebody that's up in the capsule, which changes your whole perspective.”
Exploring the hottest planet in our solar system
It’s been almost 40 years since a robotic spacecraft has visited the planet, Venus. The last mission to soft land on the planet was back in 1985.
That was set to change this decade with a new mission to Venus, but those plans were to revisit were derailed by Congressional funding issues.
Darby Dyar is a professor of astronomy at Mount Holyoke College and a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute. She fought for the funding to make this mission possible and after 106 visits to Congressional leaders, that mission is now back on track.
“I bounced in the office and said 'Hi, I'm Darby Dyar, I'm a Venus scientist, I want you to fund our mission," Dyar said. “It was very gratifying to see that, ultimately, in the appropriations language for both the House and the Senate. They put the exact language that we had lobbied for. So, it was worth the loss of shoe leather, for me, to feel like I had made a contribution to helping us get funded.”
The team will be looking at the geological landscape of Venus and studying unlike ever before. With the evidence, scientists will be able to see how many similarities there are between our planet and Venus.
“I'm most excited about making a true geologic map of the surface of Venus which will have accurate topography, and on it superimposed chemical information that will inform the rock type,” Dyar said. “I cannot wait to do that.”
Dyar said she hopes the mission will stay on track with the launch aimed for 2031. She said getting that data and the mission launched is her dream.
“I'm 66 years old, and I'm going around telling people I'm taking my vitamins and working out every day,” Dyar said. “I'm a rower. And I'm going to keep doing that I want to I want to stay in here until I get the data back.”
