During the quarantine I check out this show on Apple TV out of boredom and curiosity called “For All Mankind” and now I think being an astronaut would be the coolest thing ever.
I didn’t realize how exciting real space exploration was.
I also didn’t realize how interesting the history of spaceflight and space exploration was. Immediately after finishing the first season I watched any astronaut themed movie and show I could find. “Apollo 13”, “Hidden Figures”, “The Right Stuff”, “Gravity”, “Interstellar”, “The Martian”, and “First Man”. I even got a Russian movie on Itunes called “Salyut 7”. I also watched the anime “Planetes”. I loved HBO’s “From the Earth to the Moon” and the Discovery Channel’s “When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions”.
I wish I had never lost my interest in space. When I was in middle school the early 2010s an astrophysicist named “Neil Degrasse Tyson” got me interested in science and space exploration. I got my parents to buy me an astronomy book from Barnes & Noble. When I was a high school student a couple of years ago the “Mass Effect” trilogy gave me a sense of wonder of what might be out there in space but by the time I was entered college a year ago I lost interest. I became more interested in getting a high paying office job that would have been able to give vacations to Disney World every year.
During that time I heard “The Martian” was good but I was hesitant to check it out because my friends were more into superhero movies. I still enjoy those type of movies but astronaut themed movies seem to interest me more nowadays.
I wish I hadn’t gotten so vapid. I wish I would have gotten into engineering instead.
I hear about all the problems we are having with infrastructure and some parts of the space program. The Boeing Starliner fiasco is an embarrassment. I now consider getting into engineering a civic duty. I find it sad that much of society is turned off from math and science.
Could just one show have that much of an impact? I heard some astronauts were inspired by a show called “Star Trek”.
Did you ever knew someone who radically changed as much as me?
What is your current situation? Are you already in university? If so, what year and what approximately have you already taken?
Engineering is a field where there are courses that depend upon previous courses that depend upon other previous courses. It is hard to jump into it part way through without it taking longer to graduate university. Having it take more that four years to graduate university runs into three problems: (i) You need to be able to pay for it; (ii) In many cases financial aid will end after four years; (iii) You have to want to do it.
However, if you want to do it, and if you can afford it, then changing majors late is not necessarily a problem. Life is not a race.
I know quite a few people who have been very successful. Many of these were engineering or computer science majors. Many (probably most) of us took a few years longer than the shortest possible path to get from wherever we started to wherever we ended up.
People change majors and career interests all the time. Be glad you’re figuring it out now and not in 10 years. It will take you extra time to finish your degree, but if you don’t mind and you’re motivated (and have the money), there’s no reason not to do it.
Keep in mind that most of what you’ll be doing will have nothing with rockets, at least for a while. It’ll be a lot of math and physics.
What’s your current major? What level of math have you taken already?
Does your university offer Engineering? If so, the best choice if you want to work with engines and rockets, etc, is mechanical engineering, then aerospatial engineering at the master’s level.
If your parents can afford it, it means you’ll be able to keep all your gen eds (ABET accredited Engineering has a set of requirements in Humanities and Social Sciences) and thus will be able to focus on your Engineering requirements.
I knew a lot of them and most of them were happier after the change, it’s a big decision and if you want something more than what you already have it’s worth changing
