Everyone is curious about Space Studies!

[melsmarsh]

Katy, you were correct. There always is a lot of curiosity about Space Studies!

I answer similar questions all the time, so I am going to create this entry so I don't have to type it a million times.

Comments

[stellar_dust]

Actually, the two questions I get most often are "what do you like about the program" and "what *don't* you like about the program." d-: And of course, along with those, "would you recommend it." And then there's "what's it like living in ND," but that wouldn't apply to you.

If I think of any others I'll let you know.

[melsmarsh]

Thanks, I just added those.

[lethargicmayfly]

I have a question:
After you graduate, you're going back to school. But after some of your classmates graduate, what will they do? What will a Master's of Space Studies on it's own let you do?

[melsmarsh]

Good question!

Most of my classmates are already working in the aerospace industry or in the military so they continue those jobs when they graduate. We have several classmates from HSS, Boeing, JPL, and NASA.

Those who did not have the aerospace background are still being recruited by NASA to work in certain areas, for example in space history.

Others have gone on to be the founders/editors of peer reviewed journals. Others become teachers. There is at least one or two that are interested in persuing medicine.

[lethargicmayfly]

That's really cool!
Are they mostly engineers and such? I'm really wondering about the need for anthropological-type people in NASA.
Although my aunt theorizes that they might need social scientists to help with cultural issues when astronauts work with cosmonauts and such. Not sure if that's within NASA's budget, though. It seems a little frivolous.

[melsmarsh]

Some of my classmates are engineers, some are in their support staff, some are medical, some are administration. Heck some are accounting.

Actually there *should* be a high need for most types of anthropologists. And there have been several anthropologists who were consultants to NASA (Margaret Mead was one of them). I don't know why more anthropologists don't express an interest in the subject. There have also been sociological books written about NASA culture.

Currently I am providing advice to my advisor to incorporate into his Human Factors class on cross-cultural issues. Its amusing, he is the only Russian (he emigrated in 1998 from Russia) in the program and every time I hear from him he usually ends up apologising for something.