I Met Frank Drake
Wow. One of the perks of being a NASA intern is that I get to /am required to (as if they have to force me) attend various presentations. These are usually pretty cool and are timed during lunch and have food, they're called "lunch talks". Today's talk was across the highway at the SETI Institute and it focused on the artificial meteorite-ness of the recently recovered Stardust probe. The Stardust was sent out to tail behind the commet 'Wild 2' and collect the dust that surrounds it (hence the name 'Stardust').
The presentation was pretty cool, but then somthing really cool happened: I met Frank Drake. That's right, the Frank Drake. Frank Drake of the Drake equation, the one that estimates the number of extraterrestrial civilizations that Humanity might encounter.
The meeting went kinda like this:
Me: Dude, is that Frank Drake?
Yale: I think so!
Me: Let's go meet him!
Yale: OK!!
Me: (Extending hand) Hi, I'm a big fan.
Drake: Hah, I don't play baseball or anything.
Me: *nervous laugh*
Drake: You guys are NASA interns? Who do you work for?
Us: *Insert our bosses names here* over at Air Traffic Control
Drake: Who?
Yeah. It was sweet.
Comments
Check out this link to a project that I never knew existed. A look at an atomic space ship. Cool.