Real life astronaut visits learners
Highly decorated USA Fighter Pilot and NASA Astronaut, Ron Garan, gave an attention-grabbing presentation about his profession at Mondeor High School to the Grade 10 and 11 Science class on October 8.
JOHANNESBURG – As part of the many citizen science programmes that this dynamic astronaut is involved in, Ron, who is also an Entrepreneur and Humanitarian, captured the young audience with the success story of International Space Programmes that he has been part of, in an effort to inspire learners to play a role in improving life on planet earth.
“I want to encourage people to leave the world a little bit better than we found it,” said Ron. “Every great accomplishment starts with a great idea but ideas have to be implemented.”
The presentation showed a number of photos that were taken by Ron and his team during their exploration of outer space. “As the space station drew closer over the Bahamas, I took a photo from above, as it gave us an amazing view.”
A long reddish orange line that learners at one point thought was the Great Wall of China but Ron explained that the long illuminated line was actually a manmade illuminated border through India to other countries.
“This really caught my eye. It is truly moving to see the planet from space; we could actually look down from our orbital perspective and have empathy for what goes on our earth.” Also telling of how tranquil the earth is from deep space.
Ron’s space adventures had learner’s fascinated as he told of the life changing experiences that blew his mind as he explored the uncharted territory of outer space.
“Every space moment that I had was spent with my face plastered on the window of the space craft looking at our earth,” he added.
His presentation got more interesting as the Science class got a chance to ask questions, and boy did they let loose asking Ron about his other achievements to how much he earns a month. “Wow this guy is loaded,” buzzed the room of learners in excitement when they were informed that a NASA astronaut gets a minimum salary of at least US$800 000.
He effectively uses his social media platforms to tell of the programmes that he is involved in with NASA and an initiative he started called Fragile Oasis to use the “Orbital Perspective” to inspire his large number of followers on his social media accounts to make a difference to the well-being of the earth.
Working in partnership with the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Ron is leading an effort called Unity Node to develop a universal, open source, collaborative platform to enable humanitarian organizations around the world to work together toward their common goals and is also leading an effort to establish the Applied Research Projects Agency for Development (ARPA-D) programme for USAID.
Outside of his work with the US government, Ron has also founded multiple business enterprises and social-impact focused start-ups including Manna Energy Ltd which was created to leverage the $120 billion a year Carbon Market, to finance humanitarian projects in developing countries.
