how to reach NASA?

 

Hai friends…how are we?

hope all of you are singing, enjoying the life and rocking!...at least, I wish, you are not like the TV serial characters or like our parents whose definition of living is ‘worrying’…definition of responsibility is ‘worrying’ ‘remaining serious’ etc...No wonder, they land up with all sorts of life style diseases like Hypertension, heart and blood vessel problems, high cholesterol, diabetes, organ failures or functioning with less efficiency!!!

Can anyone like or love or live with ‘TV character’ like suffocating personalities?

A girl or a boy at 20 is all full of love, happiness, positives, fun…so he or she is loved by the opposite sex…they get married…at 40 they change to ‘no love’, anger, frustration, shouting, no smiles, serious, no fun…obviously they hate each other…they become different and they are no longer the same people loved by the other person at 20. Now the relationship becomes boring, suffocating and frustrating. One among the reasons is ‘feeling aged’ and ‘feeling that ‘I should only display age related behaviours!’ to get respect from society!’…but the same person exhibits ’20 behaviours’ moment he or she meets a college classmate, irrespective of whether he or she is 40 or 80!...but to their spouse they exhibit ‘age related behaviours!’

Wofff…we can not change people who want to die everyday...let us leave them and come to the subject…

I was born and brought up in an area where poor people live…in a room of 10ft x 8ft where six of us lived. Amidst children of ‘rotten’ languages…playing all country games…the common language used by the angry mothers or ladies those days to call or address naughty boys like us was “Naasamaa ponavaney! Yengeyaachhum poi tholaiya vendiyathu thane!”…meaning “you spoiled brat!!!...get lost from here!”…after I grew up and joined BSc (App Sc) at PSG Tech, when I was spending my days and nights in labs, dwelling in my own world in space, thinking about stars or planets or astrophysics etc, whenever I heard these neighboring mothers saying ‘Naasamaa ponavane!”, I used to hear it as “NASA ponavane!”, meaning “one who became a scientist at NASA”!!!....the issue is, neither I became the first version nor the second!!!

This old incident came to my mind when a boy and his father landed up at my home yesterday saying “He wants to go to NASA. Please guide him sir!”.

The boy is a first year BE aerospace student at SRM university with 9.3 cgpa.

Though I have not gone to NASA, I just told him whatever came to my mind (though I have not gone to NASA, I have been to such nearly equivalent places elsewhere and had the opportunity to speak to some old engineers and scientists).

In case it is sounding right, then you can tell others about it and the blog. If wrong, please don’t forget to correct me, for the benefit of many.

Here we go….to NASAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

Every human being, male or female, feels “How nice if am flying (in) this aeroplane!” at least once in his or her life, when she or he looks at an aeroplane.

Similarly every person involved in science wants to be a scientist at NASA! This feeling comes at least once in the life time.

Has every one gone to NASA?...NO!...why?...is it that they don’t have the intelligence?

I feel (my opinion!) it is not the intelligence!...it is because of following factors:-

1.Not converting the dream into action

2.Not knowing whom to ask and how to go about

3.No perseverance…losing interest and loss of sensitivity after some time

4.Lack of guidance

5.Compromises and sacrifices in life

6.Not ready to put in hard work

7.No support and encouragement from people around at home, college, among friends and relatives. Laughs and ridicules from others.

8.Fear of shame if the dream is not materialized

9.Fear of landing nowhere if not reaching NASA

10. They felt it is a very big goal and not possible to achieve

11. May be felt it is only for ‘Einstein’like people or ‘Americans only’

I think, with proper guidance, it is reachable. It may not be possible to fly like kalpana chawla or sunitha williams, as medical fitness is important in such missions, at least we can become a scientist or in some way a contributor to NASA, as an engineer or contractor or a supplier or designer or professor or scientist from outside institutions etc…

So, a student, who breathes NASA, eats NASA, drinks NASA, dreams NASA, converts the dream into action, who is self driven, who feels that it is an achievable goal, bull headed and focused in achieving the goal, continuously tries to find out the ways and means to go there, never loses the perseverance and sensitivity, has correct guidance, does not make any compromises and sacrifices in life with respect to achieving the goal, puts in his best hard work, gets all support and motivation from people at home, society, organizations, relatives and friends, who converts the discourages, ridicules and laughs in to positive driving force towards reaching his goal, does not feel anxious about not reaching there, does not think about ‘what society will think if I don’t reach there!’ and who is convinced that ‘average intelligence and hard work’ is enough to reach there and it is not required to be an Einstein or Edison to be there, will certainly reach NASA one day!!!

What is to be done?

One has to visit the website of NASA. Find out the details of educational qualifications and experiences required to join there. Their subjects of interest. Current projects. Any student projects, competitions announced. Problem areas being studied. Any possibility of entering there. Keep visiting the site often and finding out oppurtunities.

If possible find out the R&D organizations, Professional institutions, corporate organizations, contractors…in short PEOPLE or ORGANISATIONS who are associated with NASA.

No one can enter NASA without a Post graduation or PhD in engg or science or medicine or life sciences or astronomy etc. So, it is better to find out the institutions in US which are the best for your subject for MS or PhD. May be good universities from other countries which are generally acceptable to NASA may also be explored…GRE, TOEFL scores required, other criteria required to join there, costs involved to prepare for the financial planning, possibility of aids, concessions in fees, coaching centers with proven record (for GRE and TOEFL), agencies which can provide all the information about foreign universities and help to get all info from admission to visa.

Best way is to team up with the classmates or college mates or friends or relatives who are of the same age group and preparing for MS, GRE, TOEFL etc. This is an excellent methods as even if we lose interest, they will pull us up.

Communication in English is the first and most important. Fluency in English can be achieved by talking in English with everyone. At least with the person with whom we talk more in a day. Beggars have not gone to schools to learn the language they speak! Writing skills come by writing more. Public speaking skills come by addressing gatherings often. Take class to your classmates, to weak students or juniors in classrooms or hostels or under trees in campus. Participate in project or paper presentations and other skill development programmes.

Join with classmates who speak English.

Keep googling every day to find out the organizations, institutions and people who are associated with NASA.

No organization or person associated with NASA will show interest towards us unless we have ‘the stuff’ in us. How to get that ‘stuff’?

We have to identify the challenging subjects or problems in ‘space sciences and technology’…we cannot become masters in all the subjects related to space sciences, engg and technology…no one can become…so, we have to select one subject that interests us…it could be related to non electron or electron subjects…I think remote sensing, communication, image processing, digital signal processing could be broad electron subjects related to space sciences for ever…non electron subjects of broader in nature could be propulsion, structures, thermodynamics, fluid dynamics etc…or even life sciences, medicine etc…

We have to read, read and read books, research articles etc on these subjects and narrow down further to specific subjects/ topics which are real challenges in space studies…

We should have a laptop with all the time connectivity to internet so that we can keep moving towards NASA inch by inch every second. Climbing a hill temple is all about ‘moving up step by step’. No average human being can reach the top in one jump or one step. Even physically disabled can climb and reach the top. He might take more time. So, what? No one lives up to 100 years. ‘When’ we reach the top does not matter, only reaching matters. Climbing Everest is also ‘step by step’and no leaps.

We should organize our data on lap top properly so that we can reach the information needed instantly. It can have folders like ‘institutions’, ‘organisations’, ‘people’…’subject’etc…

Inside the main folders we can have sub-folders, sub-sub folders like ‘country wise institutions’ which can have details of all educational institutions in the world who deal with space engineering, maybe we can start googling from the top countries in space engg, US, Russia etc.

This can also give the details of labs, research facilities, courses, current researches, projects and people involved with their contact details…we can capture all these data.

In another series of folders, sub-folders and sub-sub folders we can store the googled data on design and research organizations / institutions involved in space engg…country wise…here again we can note the projects, subjects, problem areas being addressed, people involved…

Another folder with manufacturers, contractors, areas of work, etc…

Relatives and friends or ‘friends of friends and relatives’ who are in USA can be of good help to get details and contacts of all organizations, people etc.

So, to get the ‘stuff’ in us, we have to read, read and read…to get ‘identified’ by world community is to ‘publish research articles’…

‘stuff’ and ‘identity’are important to make ‘people’ and ‘organisations’ related to NASA to look at us…show interest towards us.

Best way is to publish a review paper on the subject of interest…review paper is all about ‘what has been done so far by researches in the world’…as we narrow down to topics in subjects also we can publish review papers e.g various techniques or tools used by different researchers to solve a particular problem.

Discuss with experienced and educated people on the subject…develop ideas and creative solutions to problems…improve skills and knowledge on creativity, intelligence etc through special interventions….visit famous institutions nearby on your own or through your college…in india one can visit IITs, IISc, MIT, IIIST (TVM), ISRO labs, DRDO labs, TIFR labs, VSSC, Private organizations who develop components, structural members, supply materials, provide lab facilities for testing etc to these organizations…

Visit the facilities there…talk to scientists, engineers, professors, phd scholars, ME students…develop contacts…

Once you publish papers, others will show interest on you…will be ready to collaborate with you…will take you for their projects and researches…

While in college participate in paper presentations…do mini and mega projects…every project can turn into many research papers...all related to your subject of interest you have chosen to go to NASA…at the end of your BTech, you should have at least one or two papers published in national space journals…one or two international journals…few mini projects…at least one mega project…preferably at VSSC or DRDO or ISRO or IITs or IISc etc…

With these achievements in your kit, you should go to US and do your MS. Being in US at a university ‘close to NASA’ in projects, recruitments etc will help to plan your projects, research and papers.

I think this way, one can certainly reach NASA or to an organization which supports NASA.

This article is not only to ‘reach NASA’….it can be extended to reach any organization in the world…to work, or research or study…

the dream could be to work at NASA or be a researcher at any of the labs in any part of the world or a professor at any educational institution or an academic administrator or a surgeon etc etc...

i think this is the route to reach the destination!

any comments or suggestions or improvements to this idea?

ok guys and girls...keep rocking...keep rocketing towards yours dream goals!...remember, never COMPROMISE or SACRIFICE...!!

rams

,_.___

.

__,_._,___

-->