SOFIA
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2019 1:48 amSo, this is how things happen. My adviser in Leiden, besides being a stand up individual, also happens to be the PI for an instrument on SOFIA. Which is, for those not in the lingo, the NASA plane where they fly with an infrared telescope on the side. The reason for this is in infrared if you fly you are above 99% of the atmospheric contamination, so crazy as it is to fly around at night in an old Pan-Am 747 with a telescope on the side of it, it's cheaper than actually launching an instrument!
With that, one of those side things in the back of my mind for the last year or so was that it would be cool to fly on SOFIA, because one of my astronomy camp counselor peers did so last year as a high school educator (they have a program for that). Somehow when I met my Leiden adviser in January we were discussing SOFIA, and he promised "if you submit your PhD thesis by June, I will arrange for you to fly on SOFIA." Which, in June/July flies out of Christchurch, NZ to see all the southern hemisphere stuff, and we had a long-standing promise to see friends, so why not combine the two?
So yeah, one thing led to another, and I'm flying on SOFIA nominally to write an article for Scientific American's website about SOFIA (which will involve discussion of the adviser's instrument, of course). It was even arranged for my bf to come along as my photographer, which is super cool that we get to have that experience together! Well it's not 100%, as they don't always fly due to weather (they can't de-ice the plane if it's snowing for example), but we still get to tour it and stuff and fly around on a 10 hour flight that potentially goes as far as the Antarctic Circle, so still pretty flippin' cool in my book. Should be June 20, with the backup date of June 21.
If anyone asks, I'm billing it as my first NASA mission.
Fingers crossed that we go!
With that, one of those side things in the back of my mind for the last year or so was that it would be cool to fly on SOFIA, because one of my astronomy camp counselor peers did so last year as a high school educator (they have a program for that). Somehow when I met my Leiden adviser in January we were discussing SOFIA, and he promised "if you submit your PhD thesis by June, I will arrange for you to fly on SOFIA." Which, in June/July flies out of Christchurch, NZ to see all the southern hemisphere stuff, and we had a long-standing promise to see friends, so why not combine the two?
So yeah, one thing led to another, and I'm flying on SOFIA nominally to write an article for Scientific American's website about SOFIA (which will involve discussion of the adviser's instrument, of course). It was even arranged for my bf to come along as my photographer, which is super cool that we get to have that experience together! Well it's not 100%, as they don't always fly due to weather (they can't de-ice the plane if it's snowing for example), but we still get to tour it and stuff and fly around on a 10 hour flight that potentially goes as far as the Antarctic Circle, so still pretty flippin' cool in my book. Should be June 20, with the backup date of June 21.
If anyone asks, I'm billing it as my first NASA mission.
Fingers crossed that we go!
