A Brief Pause From The Ordinary..., Demographics time--please just humor me Options

[deglr6328]

I am 24 and work as a technician on what is currently the world's largest ultraviolet laser fusion facility. (lab for laser energetics) I have always been interested in spaceflight, especially the unmanned variety and the treats we've been afforded lately (MER, huygens, stardust etc.) are just ...well....indescribably beautiful to me. It's great to see so many of the varied backgrounds of other users here. I thought I was probably the only one here under 30 but I guess not!! That's great to see IMHO. BTW I love your icon PaleBlueDot!! I'm a huge fan of Carl Sagan too! This site seems to have the most perfect blend of levelheaded skepticism and wide eyed wonder/optimism about the MER mission I've seen anywhere. Really a great place and I hope it can stay this way.

[arccos]

I am almost 30 and I work as a programmer. My disadvantage in this forum is English. My posts are often crude nad full of errors.
I'm from the Czech republic (former Czechoslovakia).
(nazdar Borku

[dvandorn]

As of the last post, the median age was 34 and the mean 35.  There is quite a cluster of us in our mid-30s (birthdates 1968-1974).  I wonder if being exposed to the Vikings and Voyagers at a young age had a lasting impact, or if it was something else.  But none of us is old enough to remember the Apollo missions.

It does bring up the possibility that one or more of those in the middle range were either conceived or born while Apollo astronauts were actually on the surface of the Moon, though... talk about a lunar influence, eh?

-the other Doug

[remcook]

hey there! another Dutch guy here. I'm 23 at the moment, did an MSc in aerospace engineering and now living in the UK to look at Titan with data from CIRS (and enjoying every bit of it!)

I always had a large interest in planetary space exploration, but unfortunately, there's no planetary science opportunities in Holland (except maybe ESA ESTEC in Noordwijk, but since the Dutch government only contributes a tiny amount to ESA's budget... sigh). Anyway, there was no planetary science education, so I did the next best thing, aerospace engineering (I don't like stars and clusters, etc that much). Turned out to be a little disappointing, expecially the first 3 years, since it was mostly aeronautics, and I don't really care a lot about airplanes...But I'm glad I did it (although I wouldn't have minded some more 'real' science) and I'm glad I'm doing what I am doing now.

That's my life story so far

[TheChemist]

Nice meeting you all !
38 year old chemist here. I presently teach and do research at a university. Mainly working with NMR spectroscopy applications in analytical and food chemistry now, did a lot of polymers in my early days too.

[chris]

I'm 43, and yet another software developer. I live just outside London and currently work for a small software house in Soho square, right in the middle of London, doing Java and webapp stuff. I'm keen on XP and agile development methods.

Originally, however, I studied biochemistry. Did a PhD, then decided it wasn't for me. Been interested in space stuff for years.

Chris

[wyogold]

As of the last post, the median age was 34 and the mean 35.  There is quite a cluster of us in our mid-30s (birthdates 1968-1974).  I wonder if being exposed to the Vikings and Voyagers at a young age had a lasting impact, or if it was something else.  But none of us is old enough to remember the Apollo missions.

It does bring up the possibility that one or more of those in the middle range were either conceived or born while Apollo astronauts were actually on the surface of the Moon, though... talk about a lunar influence, eh?

-the other Doug

interesting..

[babakm]

41 year-old investment banker with a computer science background (don't ask). Hobbies still include programming and aerospace. 6" refelecting telescope.

[john_s]

One final comment, to echo what RedSky said – I attended a number of the Lunar and Planetary Science conferences in Houston in the 70’s.  One of them was the 1979 meeting, which happened a few weeks after Voyager 1 flew past Jupiter.  The poster sessions were the first chance that many of us had to see better photos of the planet and satellites than the grainy half-tone images in the newspapers. 

Hey Pete B., was it you I was talking to about this exact topic at LPSC last month? I too got my fiirst good look at the Voyager Jupiter images, including the mind-boggling Io plume pictures, at the 1979 LPSC poster sessions- something I'll never forget.

I too am amazed at the wealth of talent on this board- folks with such a wide range of "day jobs" rivaling JPL in their image processing virtuosity. There have been talented amateur astronomers for centuries, but I think the generosity of the Athena team in making their raw data available to the public, and the Cassini project's decision to follow suite, is giving birth to a new breed, right here- the amateur planetary scientist. These are indeed exciting times!

John Spencer

[MahFL]

I am 42, living in the USA, I am British though. I operate an old Unisys Mainframe, and we will shortly be moving over to an Enterprise Server. I saw Armstrong step onto the Moon and have been interested in Space ever since. My father in law actually worked at Stennis Space Center, testing Apollo and Shuttle Main Engine's.

[aldo12xu]

I actually vaguely remember watching a lunar landing as a 8-10 year old kid, but I can't be sure if it was the first landing. In high school I was right on top of the Viking landings, writing to NASA for photos and waiting 2 months to finally get the 8 x 10s. And then there was Pioneer -- remember the little craft before Voyager that kept on going and going and going? Astronomy, Sky & Telescope magazines were the sources back then (I still have a lot of those issues), plus NASA directly and certain companies that released slides of the mission photos (still have those somewhere as well).

We've come a long way, baby!

[azstrummer]

I'm a 51 year old programmer/analyst living in Litchfield Park, Arizona. My first foray into science and high tech, other than being a space nut in my childhood, was nuclear power training in the Navy where I was schooled in math, physics, thermodynamics, and electronics. I'm also a musician in my lack of spare time and am writing a political novel. I've just received an Associate's Degree and am going on to finish a bachelor's degree with ASU. It'd be very tempting to go for one in planetary geology and get intimately involved with the Mars programs but their westside campus does not offer that major and Tempe is far from my home.

Great divergence of people on here.

Art Martin

[argv]

43, electrical engineer, design high speed computer chips. grew up in florida and watched many launches from my parent's front yard.

[ElkGroveDan]

OK..

44, 5 kids, grew up in Los Angeles now living near Sacramento. Mechanical engineer who never worked in the field. Left college and decided to pursue other career avenues. Worked as an account excec for a medical manufacturer and then went into politics, been at it 15 years now. Now work in California's capitol as Communications Director for a Senator.

[Pete B.]

Hey Pete B., was it you I was talking to about this exact topic at LPSC last month? I too got my fiirst good look at the Voyager Jupiter images, including the mind-boggling Io plume pictures, at the 1979 LPSC poster sessions- something I'll never forget.

Yeah, that was me. As I said in Houston, I recognized the similarity of my experience with your reaction as decribed in your chapter in the book Our Worlds. The electricity in the air for those sessions was just incredible. Since you had recently posted on this thread a bit earlier, I tossed in the bit about having to fly.

A similar, but less dramatic, experience was going to the AAS meeting in DC several weeks after verification that the first Hubble servicing mission repairs had worked and seeing a number of the new images, also in a poster session.