BRUCE A. WIELICKI
Posted by Mariah Walters
Scientists are often pictured as quiet introverts sitting at computers pondering the mysteries of the universe. Not many in NASA follow that route.
NASA’s mission is to carry science into Earth orbit and beyond. The efforts require serious delayed gratification, often a decade or more.
We work in groups of scientists, engineers and organizations reaching beyond NASA into universities, other agencies, aerospace contractors and often to international team members. The debates are strenuous and long — debates over how to accomplish what has never been done before, on the first attempt, and to have it work without maintenance in a harsh space environment for years.
The stakes are high not only for science but also for national objectives that transcend science. Those might be as simple as inspiring the next generation of scientific discoverers, or as complicated as understanding global climate change, how to reduce it and how to adapt to it — all the while trying to explain to the public, Congress and your next door neighbor why this “rocket science†is important to the nation and the world.
Many times, you get lost in the struggles, the challenges, the budgets, the schedules, the strong and driven personalities.
But then the spacecraft launches, its solar panels open like a butterfly from a cocoon, the instrument turns on, and data starts to flow. Those are great days. In almost 30 years, I’ve seen seven launches.
But more meaningful are the days following years of data collection when you finally start to see the bigger picture: how part of something as complex as the Earth’s climate system works.
Those are the best days. You share them with the many researchers and engineers that you struggled beside. And you know that what you accomplished as a group exceeds what any individual could do.
Priceless.
Wielicki is senior Earth scientist at NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.