• Question: Would you rather be an astronaut or a scientist?

    Asked by louisehtdd to Amy, Grant, Martin, Shawn, Usman on 13 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Martin Archer

      Martin Archer answered on 13 Mar 2013:

      A lot of astronauts are actually scientists as well, or engineers. Some are pilots. Basically, they don’t have to be separate. I’d love to be an astronaut at some point, but it probably won’t happen for me. Maybe you’ll get to go to space!

    • Photo: Shawn Domagal-Goldman

      Shawn Domagal-Goldman answered on 13 Mar 2013:

      That’s a TOUGH call! I actually applied to be an astronaut, but withdrew my application because I got a really great job as a scientist where I currently live (Washington, DC) and didn’t want to move my family to Houston, Texas… which is what I’d have to do if I wanted to be an astronaut. If I could be an astronaut and train where my family lives, I’d probably pick that.

      The good news is it can be both! Many of my bosses at NASA are scientists that have flown in the Space Shuttle and done experiments on the International Space Station. One of them is an Earth Scientist that studies climate change by watching Earth from space. Another is an astronomer that helped fix the Hubble Space Telescope.

      So if you think you might want to be an astronaut or scientist, that’s great! Keep studying math and science, and you could do either. If you’re super-awesome, you might be able to do both!

    • Photo: Grant Kennedy

      Grant Kennedy answered on 13 Mar 2013:

      I’d rather be a scientist for my day job, but be an astronaut once so I could go into space just once to check it out!
      g

    • Photo: Amy Tyndall

      Amy Tyndall answered on 14 Mar 2013:

      Can I be an astronaut, and then do some science in space?? If someone asked me: “do you want to go up on the shuttle tomorrow?”, I wouldn’t hesitate 🙂

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