Lombard astronaut shares stellar career with students
Nearly 85 students skipped school Thursday, but they still spent the day learning about zero gravity, rockets and how to make one stellar career choice.
Children of employees at AAR, an international aircraft parts supplier in Wood Dale, shadowed their parents for the 20th annual "Take Your Daughters and Sons to Work Day."
As part of the event, Lombard native and NASA astronaut Dan Tani shared how his career choices took him all the way to the International Space Station.
"I want to show you what it's like to fly in space, live in space and have fun in space ... so maybe you'll think 'I want to do that, too,'" Tani said, dressed in a blue NASA jumpsuit.
"But the first thing you need to do is learn to add and subtract. You may look at your homework and think 'Why do I have to do these again?' Because you have to get good at it. It has to become second nature. They say the first person who will walk on Mars is in fifth or sixth grade right now, so maybe it's one of you in here."
Tani earned his bachelor's of science in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, then went to work for an aircraft corporation in California. He returned to MIT for his master's in the same discipline, worked in several engineering positions, and was first chosen as an astronaut candidate in 1996 - one of 35 selected from among more than 3,000 candidates, Tani said.
But it took two years of training and evaluation before he even qualified for an assignment, and three years after that before he headed on his first space mission in 2001, logging 12 days to travel to the International Space Station.
In 2007, he spent 120 days at the International Space Station as part of a three-man crew.
Tani took students on a trip around the world Thursday, sharing some of 14,000 photos and videos he took while living in space.
They gasped watching a lightning storm firing over the southern states, saw how tiny Egypt's pyramids look from space, and marveled at seeing their own precise location on Tani's photos.
Science notions also were tested, as students learned lessons about zero gravity, including that hair clippers must be vacuum powered so clippings don't fly all over the space station.
Naperville fourth-grader Kevin O'Connell bobbed in and out of his seat throughout the program, trying to get the closest look he could at Tani and his stunning photos.
When Tani took questions, Kevin's hand shot in the air and he asked if the astronaut had ever been to the moon. (Answer: No. While the space shuttle may travel 17,500 mph, it is made for low-Earth orbit and can't go to the moon.)
"The whole presentation really interested me," Kevin said. "Being an astronaut would be really hard to do, but I think I could be good at it someday."
Tani said stirring such notions is precisely the point.
"We get to do this cool stuff and we feel a responsibility to go and share that with as many people as possible," Tani said. "There is a real problem with getting kids excited about STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education. It's a daunting tunnel, with SATs, ACTs, advanced placement classes and multiple degrees. But they need to know at the end you can build rockets or fly an aircraft.
"When I was young, nobody ever told me what an engineer does, that you get to build stuff and break stuff. So when kids like to work with their hands, they need to know there are jobs our there like engineering that let them build and break stuff," he said.