Getting a job in Astronomy

[nexius]

Hey, I am a kid in highschool and I really want to go into Aeronautical Research once getting out of college and such. I just was wondering for all the people who actaully do this for a living go about achieving this career pathway. Any recommendations on what to take in highschool and college? Where can I go to learn more about space engineering and such? I am really interested so any information is helpful. <br /><br />Thanks<br />-Ben

 

[Saiph]

well, in highschool, math, math, math, any/all science classes you can get your hands on too.<br /><br />Anything you do with computers, the better.<br /><br />Same goes in college.<br /><br />Iowa State has a pretty good Aeronautical program IIRC.<br /><br />In college, find a prof you can work with on a project you're interested in. If it isn't exactly what you want (and nobody there has it), go for it anyway. For instance, if you wanted to go into astronomy, but there was no astronomy dept you should still work in a physics dept. laboratory.<br /><br />Any research experience is good research experience. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p align="center"><font color="#c0c0c0"><br /></font></p><p align="center"><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">----</font></em></font><font color="#666699">SaiphMOD@gmail.com </font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">-------------------</font></em></font></p><p><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">"This is my Timey Wimey Detector.  Goes "bing" when there's stuff.  It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually.  I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- </font></em></font><font size="1" color="#999999">The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

<br />MW moved post to PM <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[jschaef5]

Well you could go into Aerospace engineering which is broken into 2 smaller fields: Aeronautical and Astronautical. Aero is aircraft design and things that go through air while astro deals with things that work in space. I am currently going to Purdue for a degree in Aerospace, I plan to focus on aeronautics. Other schools that I looked at were MIT, Georgia Tech, Cal polytech and Michigan. All 5 of these schools have good programs and there are many other schools that have good aerospace programs also. But once you are in college you can look at doing internship or coops with various companies and agencies like NASA, Boeing, ect.... I have a coop at NASA which means i get to take everyother semester off to go work and gain some great experience. But while in high school i would recommend taking as much math and physics as possible. My senior year in HS i took it kind of easy and skipped school almost every other day for a few months to get my pilot's license <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> Definitely worth it if you like airplanes and aeronautics.<br /><br />Anyways, If you have any questions about anything specific or anything at all just ask, there are quite a few aerospace engineers around these boards with all different backgrounds in the field. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[nexius]

Thanks guys for all the support hopefully I will beable to make it thew all that math you all were talking about. I plan to atleast take Physics 1 and Pre-Calc or Calculus 1 before I graduate and move on to college. Defintily not going to be an easy road tho I gotta get the will to study study study

 

[erioladastra]

Um do you want aeronautics or astronomy? Two very different things. Similar answer: math and science as much as you can. But after that - depends a lot on what you really mean.

 

[nexius]

Well, I think working on ground control, monitoring are Voyager Satelites, Finding new planets or like working to build new spacecraft would be cool. I'm sure everything has its own seperate field. I'm not to sure what exactly I want to do i dont really know the diffrent types of space jobs their are.

 

[erioladastra]

To build - you would have to be aero (or some form of engineering). Some aero folks end up controlling probes, and some are astronomers! If you really want astronomy and ground control then stop at the BS. Once you go beyond that you tend to end up in research and harder to do space ops. Of course no golden rule. At Mission Control, operators are biologists, astronomers, writers, chem, math, psychology, engineeering (civil, mech, EE, aero) - just about anything. You just need to be BRIGHT, DEDICATED and HARD WORKING! <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />