• Question: what inspired you to become what you are now?

    Asked by Evie.G :) to Simon, Julia, Delma, Andrew, Alex on 5 Dec 2015. This question was also asked by Angel is FABULOUS, chloe, IsabellaH, Theobssessedfangirl:), Bob, rover101, Liam, 683nch25.
    • Photo: Andrew Winnard

      Andrew Winnard answered on 5 Dec 2015:

      When I was finishing my A-levels and doing my first degree, I didn’t really have much direction in life in that I was not sure what I wanted to do. I think it is really hard to decide what to do for the rest of your life when you are young! So I ended up simply following standard careers advise that said, your good at science so go and do biomedical science at university. This was an awesome degree, but it possibly wasn’t what I really wanted to do for the rest of my life. It was then that I realised you need to do things that you enjoy and are passionate about. For me, that had always been space flight, but up until starting my second degree and physio training I had never beleived I could ever work in space flight! I just thought I was thinking crazy that I could… At this point in my life though, I heard NASA astronaut Sunni Williams, live on the space station, saying that opportunities to work in space flight are out there for anyone and that if you follow your dreams they can come true. So from that day on I set out to try and do things in space flight. Now, nine year later, here I am, working as space scientist and I’ve worked directly with astronauts (and Tim!) at the European Astronaut Centre! The passion and enjoyment of working in this sort of career makes all the hard work worth while.

    • Photo: Alexander Finch

      Alexander Finch answered on 6 Dec 2015:

      For me, a blog by a guy called Mike who was living at the South Pole a few years ago. He described this amazing place he was living in. He said he worked on the Shuttle at NASA and that got me thinking that space engineers like me could also go to Antarctica. That idea grew in my mind, I applied and now here I am!

      For the satellite building, well, I always wanted to do something in space as far back as I can remember. Perhaps it was the (few) books I read when I was a child, or the wallpaper I had in my room with planets and galaxies on it. But yeah, I always knew I was going to do something connected to space!

    • Photo: Julia Attias

      Julia Attias answered on 7 Dec 2015:

      Hi @874nch28, @277nch28, @568nch28, @373nch28, @986nch28, @778nch28, @844nch28, @862nch28 and @638nch25,

      As I wrote in a previous question, I am very ambitious and love to be challenged. Working within the field of space science has endless challenges that we have to solve, so I like the prospect of always helping to find answers to questions that don’t currently have answers. Also, the thought of being part of a giant team of people from around the world helping to get astronauts to and from space healthily really motivates and excites me!

    • Photo: Delma Childers

      Delma Childers answered on 7 Dec 2015:

      For me, it goes back to sitting in the planetarium for my astronomy class, viewing the night sky, and thinking that this would be a pretty cool thing to do with my life. Then I sat down, decided what skills I needed to learn to get here, and learned them. My teachers and family were also incredibly supportive, which has been an aid and inspiration.

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