SSP 2019!

"Every new experience brings its own maturity and greater clarity of vision."

- Indira Gandhi

In 2019, the International Space University held it's annual Space Studies Program in Strasbourg, France where the central campus is located. Strasbourg is a mesmerizing place. No one ever thinks of visiting Strasbourg when they think of France, but thanks to ISU, I was able to visit and stay in this beautiful location for around 3 months, enjoying the food, the culture and the laid back lifestyle. While I will write more about Strasbourg in another blog, this blog is dedicated to ISU's SSP19!

Hosted by the Eurometropolis of Strasbourg, the nine-week program complemented the development of the region’s digital economy through space-based data, technologies and business support.

Now, I was working on my masters degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in the United States at the Illinois Institute of Technology and had just completed a semester. While the program only starts in the end of June, the preparations, however, start a long time before. It was during January when I received an email from Samantha Coras, an acquaintance I had made while I was working as a teaching associate for the SSP-18 program. She was a passionate, cheerful and kind person. She was at that time working at AECOM, in the Applied Research and Sustainable Buildings Group and was very much involved with ISU.

She has a lot of experience in fluid dynamic, energy and carbon modeling related to sustainable design. Prior to AECOM, Samantha was working and studying with the Hypersonics Group at the University of Queensland, and was involved in the scramjet launches, HyShot III and IV, in the Australian desert. She is also the founder of Seneca - an Australian based company. Over the years, she has gathered more accomplishments!

Coming back to what I was saying, we had some really interesting conversations the week she was at the program and I assisted her during her super interesting workshops on Spaceship Earth and Rapid Prototyping, Decision Making and Lean Principles. And that was it!

In 2019, she was involved in the initial preparations for the Space Humanities department for the program. While she was looking for a teaching associate for her department, she thought of me and reached out. I worked out the details with my school and the international center to make sure I can go to France for the summer and be back to continue studying and I was ready!

Samantha introduced me to Norah Patten, the chair of the Space Humanities Department for SSP-19. I had heard so much about Norah during SSP18, but didn't get a chance to talk to her then. We had set up a few skype calls to go over the department activities and little did I know then how Norah would become an inspiration and a mentor to me. (more about Norah a little later)

Weeks and months rolled by and before I knew it, I was in Strasbourg. The initial week was full on preparations for the weeks to come.

From briefings, workshops and lectures, to brunches and dinners, the first two weeks were packed with events and activities for the participants and staff. ISU couldn’t get enough of astronauts as we kicked off July with the International Astronaut Panel hosted at the Strasbourg City Hall.

The panel featured Italian Astronaut Paolo Nespoli, French Astronaut Jean-Francois Clervoy, and wait for it… Buzz Aldrin. We also had Korean Astronaut Soyeon Yi, and American Astronaut Nicole Stott joining the session via videos. Popular topics at the panel this year included, exciting parabolic flight experiments from Jean-Francois, wishful places to travel in the solar system from Buzz, and a perspective on space food from Paolo.

Not only was this a legendary opening but as the 50th anniversary of humans landing on the moon, a spirit of inspiration filled the room full of SSP participants and the Strasbourg general public. Now would be the best time to mention, I possess a certificate signed by Buzz Aldrin himself and took a picture seated next to him.

As the intense program kept the participants and staff busy, without us realizing it was time for the department activities to start. Enter Norah Patten, a truly amazing and inspiring person. Norah is a speaker, author, aeronautical engineer, a citizen scientist-astronaut candidate, a public figure and my dear friend. You can read more about Norah here: Norah Patten - Wikipedia and here: Space | Norah Patten

A snippet of what I think about Norah and my LinkedIn recommendation for her:

Dr. Norah Patten is truly an inspiration and I am very lucky to have her as one of my mentors. I enjoyed working with her at the International Space University’s Space Studies Program in 2019. She is a remarkable person who is extremely knowledgeable, kind and helpful.  Norah’s level of self-organization influenced the entire departmental phase of the program. She has a unique ability to organize the working process in a way that anyone who works with her can demonstrate the full extent of their professional skills. She is genuinely invested in her team’s growth and development. A wonderful sense of humor in combination with deep empathy enabled her to lift my spirits in exceptionally stressful situations. Though we only worked together for a short time, I have learned from her more than I could ever expect. I strongly recommend Norah as an effective manager, mentor and a natural leader.

The department phase of SSP-19 was one of the best ever! The team was amazing, the participants were really fun and we had so many cool activities workshops and events. I only made two videos during this time (attached here!). You can see how much fun we had!

We went on a hike to Col Du Donon, visited and filmed at the European Astronaut Center, was the only department with an activity at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Apart from meeting some amazing lecturers like Katherine Denning, William Kramer, Jancy McPhee, Kerrie Dougherty, Loretta Whitesides, the participants also had a chance to try their hand on spray paint art with the famous Shane Sutton (Shane Sutton Art). We even had our own art display show. To the left is a picture of the art I made.

For the final day of the department phase, Norah and I arranged for a picnic and a swimming day out! It was a lot of fun and was the perfect way to have ended the three weeks of hard work!

And before I knew it, the end was near. With only two weeks left, the participants worked hard on their team projects. Each TP had their own sets of goals that they had to achieve by the end of the week with the 4 final report deliverables being the common goal. These reports would go on to serve as a testament of the research and hard-work undertaken by each TP group for the space industry and their sponsors to look at. Some of which would also be presented at the International Astronautical Congress later that year. Towards the end of the week, we were able to see the participants in a daze, frantically typing on their computers, collating their work into a spectacular report deliverable

After meeting the deadline, the participants resorted to partying and celebrating the end of writing an epic report proving that the harder the process, the more glorious is the ending. Work never ends in SSP. After submitting the reports, the participants began working on their final presentations. With an uprising of the red shirts and the flying drones by the participants of TP Swarms, we were able to also spot other participants resting at random nooks of the library and the student lounge.

After the final presentations, we had the closing ceremony where the participants received their certificates and the ISU pin. The SSP19 participants then spent their final night celebrating their achievements with laughter, dancing and saying their final goodbyes. The saddest part of the program will always be the day when the participants are all homebound as quickly as they came.

SSP19 was an awesome program! I had a lot of fun, throughout the weeks I stayed there I had made several impromptu trips (definitely on another blog), met up with old friends and forged friendships that will last a lifetime! I am still in touch with many I met during this program. Norah still remains to be one of my favorite mentors. A huge shoutout to ISU and the wonderful experiences! Like Indira Gandhi said, it does bring its own maturity and greater clarity of vision.

#SSP19 #ISU #SpaceOptimist #IndianGirlAbroad