Not every summer opportunity for college students involves skydiving, scuba dive certification and wilderness expeditions; but those who are seeking those opportunities and more on their to-do list are submitting their applications now (click here) for the 2019 edition of the Department of Aerospace Engineering’s Spaceflight Operations Workshop™ (SOW) August 7-18. The application deadline is quickly approaching and will close at 11:59 p.m. February 17, 2019.
Coordinated by ISU Aerospace Engineering alumnus and retired NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson — also a senior lecturer in the department — the workshop immerses participants in a series of experiences and classroom activities that are a microcosm of the training NASA astronauts undergo to develop their ability to “think operationally,” a key skill, applicable to many professions, and critically necessary for space exploration.
“Spaceflight Operations is a concept – it’s a thought process,” says Anderson. “When you live and work as an astronaut, you think in an operational sense. The idea with this workshop is to change the students’ way of thinking – to open their eyes to a way to think more operationally.”
In a span of about two weeks scuba diving training (including certification), skydiving, aircraft flight simulation, wilderness preparedness training and more are on the agenda. “We put them in some extreme environments, which is exactly what space travel is all about,” says Anderson.
Hurry while there is still time to apply! Learn more about the Spaceflight Operations Workshop™ from an earlier news release here, and visit the SOW website here.