I know many of you who read my posts frequently are either students in a science-related field, or work as scientists yourself. Chances are therefore good that you have been writing a paper or a thesis and thought to yourself “who the hell is going to read this crap anyway?!?” I certainly have had that experience, more than once. Writing a good paper or thesis takes a lot of time and is something one often puts all of one's creativity, heart and soul, into writing. Nothing then seems more pointless than the idea that nobody, outside of your tutor and your mum, will actually end up reading it. I bet most of you steemians who write high-quality posts or make great art can relate to this as well.
The Book: “Mission to Mars, My Vision for Space Exploration” by Buzz Aldrin
Anyways, during my stay at the International Space Univerity in 2012, I co-wrote a paper called “Space – One giant leap for education”. The paper is one of the final outputs of our Team project aimed to address the question of how Space, with its innate ability to inspire young minds, and the way in which it covers practically all the different “stem” disciplines, could be better used to improve the quality of, and interest in, stem-education globally (stem is short for science, technology, engineering and mathematics). The paper was a collective effort by 34 space professionals and students from 18 different countries during the ISU Space Studies Program 2012. I was proud to be the one to make the final presentation of our findings and recommendations at the very end of the program.
The project went really well, and the presentation kicked ass. I have always done a lot better with oral presentations than in written examinations, so the fact that there were a lot of people watching the stream, and some famous names in the space sector sitting in the audience, did not put me off! Anyhow, the feedback we got was great, and the team behind the report were happy and satisfied. So now what? Having put a lot of effort into discussing, planning, researching, writing and presenting our work, we could of course, present our findings at some relevant conferences and events. But with the programme coming to an end, most participants were going back to their jobs or to finish their degrees, and while some of us wanted to stay in touch to see if we could do some follow-up work in the future, we had no direct plans going forward.
Group photo of "TP STEM" the team working on the topic of space for education during the ISU Space Studies Programme in 2012
It was only a year later that things really got cool, when Buzz Aldrin published his book “Mission to Mars, My vision for Space Exploration” (a great book by the way!). Buzz is of course known worldwide for being one of the first two men to walk on the Moon together with Neil Armstrong with the Apollo 11 mission. Buzz is still very active in promoting space exploration and is considered one of the most influential voices on the topic of human spaceflight and the prospect of sending humans to Mars. It was therefore very special to be messaged by a friend who was in the same project, telling me that our work had been mentioned in his new book! Needless to say I bought the book immediately. I was surprised to see that Buzz had spent no less than 3 pages quoting and discussing our work. A demonstration of the ego that lies in us all perhaps, I was most proud when I saw that one of the parts he had chosen to site and discuss was something that I had written and also said in my presentation. A small chapter, called "STEAM Power", highlighted how collectively going to Mars could also have worldwide impacts on education and inspire a new generation of students to become scientists and engineers.
I'm still curious about how Buzz came across our report. It's also fun to think about how someone like Buzz, who is continuously asked to attend conferences or give his opinion on this or that, found the time to sit down and read something that we wrote, let alone be inspired to include some of it in his book.
me presenting our findings in a Jetson style uniform. Expected to be very trendy in 2040!
So perhaps you can keep this little story in mind the next time you’re putting in that last piece of effort to finish a paper or a thesis, or indeed a post on steemit, and you wonder if it will make any difference, or if it will even reach the eyes of anyone. It can be worth remembering that you never know where it might end up (especially when put on the blockchain!), and thus find that extra bit of motivation to push yourself over the finishing line. Telling this to myself and thus pushing up my standards for what I want to leave my name on has certainly helped me a lot at times!
Long story short: Steem on :)
You can read our final report here: Space - One Giant Leap for Education