Memories: Deep Impact Mission inside Comet Tempel 1 #TBT
Posted By RichC on January 22, 2015
My wife has been busy cleaning out our closets and getting rid of “old stuff.” One the the items dates back in 2003 and brought back memories of my “space girl.”
My daughter Katelyn was inspired by science and particularly by an adventurous NASA, space exploration and astronomy. In part, her interest could have been our sending her to Space Camp when she was young, but also like many sponge-brained youngsters, exploration and space is an excellent way to inspire … and is a great educational tool too. Besides pursuing the sciences at school, she also saved her own money to buy a high quality telescope. She spent many evenings (early morning too) blanketed up in the backyard looking up (the times I was will her are treasured as well). Brenda also found the homemade red-lens flashlight for reading and writing in order to protect her night vision while the dark. Another “old stuff” item 
was the Deep Impact Mission certificate when NASA planned (2003) and succeeded a couple years later (July 4, 2005) to impact the Comet Tempel 1. (See Deep Impact PDF)
Besides Katelyn heading to Space Camp and having aspirations to be a NASA Flight Surgeon, she also spent a high school summer at the University of New Mexico in the NASA Sharp (Summer High School Apprenticeship Research Program) working on Immunosensors … fortunately it was just before the program’s (and NASA’s) demise. We were fortunate to still have such educational internships available. I wonder just what will inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, doctors and explorers? We as a nation need to inspire and challenged our youth “for good” … I for one wouldn’t mind seeing some national pride and incentives that cause us to dream big.
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