Comments on: So You Want My Job: Rocket Scientist

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 13:49:29 +0000

Crappy working conditions aside, I still think I’d rather fly it than build it. Mamas don’t let your babies grow up to be pilots.

By: dario

dario — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:09:23 +0000

i am 13 years old and i love roketry and yes im a nerd when i grow up i want to invent a rocket that gose th speed of light

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 06:54:19 +0000

The private sector is likely to boom very soon with this ‘new direction’. As a NASA contractor employee myself I foresee a large out flux of people from NASA/its main contractors to these other private corporations (i.e.: SpaceX, Orbital, etc.) due to this new NASA direction and the retirement of Shuttle. However, as with all politics, a lot can and will happen in the next 6 months…

By: Logan

Logan — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 04:01:02 +0000

@ Aaron: Thanks for the information, those are some questions I have been wondering about for a while, and your take on the industry was a big help. When I said “private sector,” what I meant was probably more along the lines of “Is the presence of NASA and government direction in space going to decrease, while commercial space becomes more common?” but your response covered that and more. Thanks again.

By: Scott W

Scott W — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:34:18 +0000

Great look at a great profession. I have have a buddy that is in this field and I’d commend the accurate portrayal between boring reports and exhilarating firing tests and launches.

I also commend Davy for not biting on the political antagonism in the introduction. This is about a profession, not politics. It doesn’t take a ‘computer scientist’ to know our country faces financial difficulties, and it certainly isn’t the first time that projects at NASA have been on the chopping block. Perhaps we could have another one of these installments on congressmen / women.

Scott West

By: george

george — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 05:45:20 +0000

I do not want his job because I actually used to have it. Manned space flight is an embarassment as well as a huge waste of money. We are closer to the stone age than to inter-stellar travel. The Aries X-1 looks an awful lot like a space shuttle solid rocket booster the program I used to work on. The author is probably not old enough to remember why we went to the moon. It would have been far too crass for President John Kennedy to say we need to put hydrogen bombs the size of school busses into red square. So instead he said we will go to the moon in 10 years. When we got to the moon it was just as scientists had predicted a dead rock with no scientific value. However we did get the payload, propulsion and guidance technology required to put those bombs where we wanted them to go. Nixon knew it was a facade and cancelled the remaining moon missions. I was a prime contractor after the shuttle blew up and Congress directed NASA to put the Saturn V back in production (higher weight payload into a higher earth orbit than the STS disaster). NASA said we can’t becuase we threw away both the tooling and plans for the Saturn V and the INS deported the Porject Manager for the propgram Arthur Rudolph. Remember what Werner Von Braun said ‘I shoot for the stars but sometimes I hit London’ probably the last truth from the manned space flight mission, a sinkhole for the taxpayers money.

As Doug Bandow said ‘you could not have come up with a more expensive launch capability if you tried’. Clearly the author does not remember when the STS was advertised as putting payload into orbit that would be too cheap to measure, but in reality is somewhere between $100,000 and $1,000,000 per pound into low earth orbit.

The Saturn V cost only 10,000,000 USD in the 60′s which even allowing for inflation is way cheaper. It was killed for a reason, it was too cost effective and too low tech. Thanks NASA you lying theives.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 17:13:22 +0000

@Logan: I recently got my master’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering, and am working in the rocket industry. Here are my responses to your questions.

As a new graduate, I would not expect to be able to telecommute without being able to come into the office at least occasionally. Also, I wouldn’t recommend doing it even if you can, because there is so much to be gained from conversations you can have, or even over-hear, in the office that you would miss out on if you are telecommuting. With that said, the internet allows companies to have offices in various locations around the country all working on the same things. For example, where I work our main location is in Maryland, but we have satellite offices in California and Florida. We conduct a lot of teleconferences and share a lot of information across the internet. So there is more freedom for companies to go where the people are, but I would be prepared to go where you can find a job. I moved about as far as I could to take my job, and I don’t regret it. However, I know of several companies with large presences is Northern California (since you are going to UC Davis I assume that is where you would be looking) including NASA and Lockheed Martin to name two.

What do you mean by ‘private sector’? Most of the work in aerospace is done by corporations, even for DOD and NASA programs. NASA’s new direction may eliminate some jobs at NASA and the contractors working on the Constellation program, but it will also create jobs with the companies that build whatever will replace it. Also, that may be some of the same companies. I guess the idea is to create more overlap between civil space and commercial space, much like military aviation often overlaps commercial aviation. The bottom line is that while the private sector may play a larger role in the future, most Aerospace Engineers don’t work for the government to begin with.

If there is someone with more experience, please feel free to correct any mistakes I may have made, but that is how I see it.

By: Chris Kavanaugh

Chris Kavanaugh — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:35:03 +0000

I grew up in the shadow of Rocketdyne between Simi Valley and the San Fernando Valley in California. Feeling,hearing and seeing the exaust plume of a Saturn rocket test and then seeing the then unknown Manson gang rummaging in trash was ‘unique.’ I believe in the program. But knowing now we were exposed to dangerous carcinogenic chemicals and the site is now a candidate for superfund cleanup is disheartening. If we cannot keep our one home safe and clean we have no business exploring others with the same cavalier atitude.

By: walter daniels

walter daniels — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:52:45 +0000

I grew up in the shadow od the space program (Melbourne FL), and knew more than a few “Rocket scientists.” Sadly, once again stupidity is at work. We suffered an enormous loss in 1969-70, when they almost completely shut down our space program. Now, the short sighted idiots are doing it again. It’s like we’re living in a house made of eggs, and hoping nothing happens. If we don’t make progress on space exploration and colonization, we will die off.

By: Tommy C

Tommy C — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:39:34 +0000

@Guido
If you ever get a chance, a launch is worth crossing oceans. I caught a shuttle launch last summer, and it was one of the most powerful events I have ever seen.