How can my son join NASA ?

Question

i wanted to fly out to space and invent some theory about the space, but finally I landed up being inventing light rays. My son has the same feelings, he wanted to be some one with NASA.
How can he join the space program ? we are in India and he is just 10 years old with a telescope who stares at the space.

Answer 1

Up until a year or two ago, your son could have taken backyard observations for NASA with his own telescope.
A network of 100 or so amateur astronomers around the globe used to observe the 4 Galilean moons of Jupiter, and record the time (to the nearest second) when each moon disappeared into Jupiter's shadow or reappeared from shadow. NASA would issue their best computer prediction of the timings of these events a year in advance and ask for volunteer observers. Sometimes you might be the only observer on Earth without cloud/rain above them.

These eclipses were readily viewable in even the smallest telescope (certainly doable with 2 inches diameter or more) and in light polluted areas.

The results were collected by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory each year (for over a decade or more by Jay Lieske) and were used to test and refine the E-2 ephemeris that calculates where the moons are predicted to be in the future. This is useful if you're firing spacecraft around Jupiter and don't want them to bump into anything unexpectedly.

I think visual observations stopped a year or two ago, but it was surprising that the predictions could be up to a minute or more wrong from what was observed, despite the computing power at NASA's disposal. Thus it was a modest way to contributing to NASA with your feet firmly on the ground.

There are other international organisations (such as IOTA) that will gladly take similar observations of star disappearances behind minor planets or our Moon, though they aren't NASA. It helps promote a fascination for science.

Answer 2

Generally one must be a military candidate, officer or NCO that gets into a warrant officer program (as in flight training), or have a high degree in certain special fields at a University (then apply to NASA or another agency). By the time your son is old enough, there will be a lot of civilian companies doing space work. Only the best need apply because this will be a field that will have a lot of people trying to get very few jobs.

Answer 3

The first thing is school. Your son will need a degree in a field that will qualify him to do space-related work.

That covers a lot of ground. Aerospace engineering, of course--but also a variety of other things. Materiels and electrical/cumputer engineering, several branches of medicine, biology, meterology, etc. That's jsut a few of the areas.

You (he) is not limited to NASA, by the way. India has a n active space program of its own--and is working on future manned space flight as well as launching unmanned spacecraft.

Whichever course your son chooses to take, a good education is the key that can open the doors. So that's what he needs to concentrate on to get where he wants to go.

Answer 4

Why not join the Indian space program?

Answer 5

Contact NASA. Write them a letter and ask.

Answer 6

Go to their web site. He will need to be a US citizen.