Yeah. I’m half-drunk but the first thing that I thought was, “I could use some gyros. Preferably with a buttload of tzatziki”. (The video is about gyroscopes though. Also cool. But not edible.)
Except of course, when it’s cloudy. The only eclipse that ever happened where I lived in my lifetime was a total disappointment because you couldn’t see anything.
A half dozen years ago, or thereabouts, I entered the Canadian version of this competition, just to see how I’d fare, and to look at the process. Made it through the first couple levels of screening (from 3200 applicants, I was still in the hunt at 300 remaining) but then got filtered.
Some interesting bullet points if you’re thinking of applying, assuming the NASA questions are similar to the CSA ones:
(1) ham radio, morse code, or other amateur radio operator experience is an asset.
(2) Anything aviation or amateur rocketry is an asset, but in particular a pilot’s license. Anything aviation adjacent is still useful.
(3) Russian language (this might be changing in the current political environment)
(4) Experience in an “operational environment” – I suspect this is military jargon, but if you’d don’t field research as a scientist out of wilderness camps, or anything like that where you’re in a small group for work/adventure might apply here.
(5) Medical degrees, or advanced science degrees.
(6) Physical fitness and perfect vision
When I applied, my Russian sucked, my aviation experience was tangential (but copious), and I was a grad school dropout (from a planetary science program), so I didn’t float to the top. But it was enough to make it through the first layers.
There person who ended up winning was a medical-degree air force pilot. Hard to compete haha.
Haha, not my title, the article’s. I don’t change them too often because it disrupts my flow going through my RSS feeds while I select things I want to get into in depth myself, and I know publishers make these decisions for a reason. The text is pretty ok though. Feel free to downvote them.
Prior to Trump’s orders, NASA was named as one of the best employees in the U.S. for diversity in 2023. NASA’s workforce is composed of approximately 35% women and 30% minorities, according to a 2021 report by NASA’s Office of Inspector General. Still, the agency had more work to do to improve inclusion amongst its workforce. A 2024 report concluded that “despite support from Agency leaders and multiple initiatives to increase diversity, we found NASA has made little progress in increasing the representation of women and minorities in its civilian workforce or leadership ranks,” NASA’s Office of Inspector General wrote. “Specifically, over the past decade NASA’s overall workforce demographics have stayed roughly the same, with small increases (1 or 2 percent) for some groups.”
After decades of improvement, our strategies were stalling and starting to either hit diminishing returns or backfire. Instead of reflecting and listening and learning how to bridge the final gaps, we are going to forget and eliminate all progress made so we have to do it again and start from scratch.
Those numbers are interesting but what is the result of this? eg. because NASA has approximately 35% women and 30% minorities, it has what level of increased productivity? what has actually come out of this?
New perspectives and ideas and life experiences to draw from when a creative solution is needed. Diversity of experience yields creative solution-space possibilities. The more diverse your input space, the more potentially diverse your output space, depending on the function.
NASA is an organization whose activities push the boundaries of possible future technologies. We need people from all parts of society dreaming of and contributing to the future if we want a future society that is considerate of the needs of all parts of society. NASA’s wonder changes the world. The more people who are different and who are wondering in different directions, the more possibilities can unfold for the future.
Maybe short-term productivity benefits from a monoculture of people who are currently “the best” and all know how to work together seamlessly because they come from the same culture. Such a monoculture will not be adaptable as the landscape of technology changes the metrics by which “the best” get measured. It will not have the diverse foundation required for creative solutions. Being adaptable to a changing world requires creative solutions. Diversity is an investment of current productivity into future resilience. Diversity is extending the promise of contributing to grand societal projects like space travel to anyone who is capable. Diversity is building a future that can support all of us.
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