My Summer Lair Chapter #40: What Are Your Thoughts On Space?
Remember how newspapers used to have corrections…they’d type up a line like “The New York Times regrets the error?” Krys’ response to this interview: “Gah, I must have been nervous. It’s been 20 years since we found the first exoplanets, and there are 25 in the HABITABLE zone, but almost 3K confirmed. Sigh.” Heh…she regrets the error.
That’s the thing with space and why it is so exciting and inspiring! What we know has to be constantly updated and what we know seems like a lot but there is so much amazing universe out there. I was “over the moon” happy to sit down with Krys Blackwood at FITC to hear about her powerful work at NASA JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and NASA’s Deep Space Network and of course…Doctor Who.
As you’ll hear Krys refers to herself as an “Indiscriminate geek and a total dork.” Amazing. One of many unique aspect of JPL’s mandates is assisting science-fiction tv shows and movies: to help get the science right. Krys boils her complex work to “I make space software” however her bio is outstanding: “She’s now designing the future of deep space operations for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA.” Fresh!
(The JPL is open to the public!! If you have a chance next time you’re in Cali go on one of their tours; see what all these nice people are working on. Thanks Nice People.)
Sci-fi Krys Recommends:
The Expanse (TV Show)
Europa Report (Movie)
Doctor Who (her choice of Doctor is startlingly!)
All of this work is fascinating to me; I could have sat with Krys for hours peppering her with questions. This notion of heading to Mars…becoming a multi-planetary species; mapping the stars…space is inspiring as much as it’s intimidating. It’s hard to fathom the dangers that lurk in that darkness and I’m only partially talking about aliens.
We’ve lost many lives in perfecting our ability to get to space and yet here we are: an undaunted mankind determined to escape the limiting demands of gravity and to embrace an indescribable freedom.
The classic JFK lines: “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”
Or if you’re more inclined Captain Kirk’s marvelous Risk Is Our Business:
NASA JPL @ W • T • F
Host & Photography Sammy Younan
Recorded: Sunday April 23, 2017 at 11:30 am (at FITC)
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