Corrections appended
School of Communication alumnus and filmmaker David Ruck explored the importance of continuing space exploration in his documentary “I Want to be an Astronaut.” Ruck held a screening of his film accompanied by a panel discussion in Weschler Theater at AU’s Mary Graydon Center on Jan. 16.
“I Want to be an Astronaut” follows Blair Mason, a high school senior from Chantilly, Va., who dreamed of becoming an astronaut since the age of five. The documentary highlights how driven and innovative youth like Mason can benefit from the space flight programs.
“If you’re investing in programs that keep your economy, job force and your level of innovation constantly on the cutting edge, I would like to think that those are the types of jobs that will be very difficult to export,” Ruck said.
The film also expanded beyond the topic of space exploration in support of teaching science and technology in schools. By following Mason as he led his high school robotics team, “I Want to be an Astronaut” also showed extracurricular activities like the FIRST Robotics competition bring necessary lessons on understanding science and technology.
“I think it’s necessary to bring back STEM into our public education,” engineer and FIRST Robotics mentor Dave Masters said. “We’re filled with technology, but we’re actually losing our edge on how that technology works.”
In spite of the setbacks in policies that promote science in schools and space exploration, members of the panel iterated that the future is brimming with hope and opportunity.
Ruck said he was inspired to work on the documentary upon hearing astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson discuss cuts to NASA’s funding in 2011. Tyson observed billions of dollars being spent on bank bailouts over the span of a few years, the equivalent of NASA’s funding for 50 years.
“I came into this project not really giving a darn,” Ruck said. “I’ve been converted.”
Ruck’s film also underlined the economic and practical opportunities that space programs present.
“If there’s one thing that I would ask that people remember from this, it’s that human space flight is not dead,” Dan Hendrickson, Director, Space Systems at the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) said. “We’re just now retooling for the future.”
thescene@theeagleonline.com
A former version of this article misspelled Dave Masters’ name and did not fully spell out Dan Hendrickson’s name and title. These mistakes have been corrected.
