“For me, I picked up an interest for engineering through drawing. When I was young, I was really big into art. Like most science-drawn younger kids, I would draw Pokémon, I would draw Dragon Ball Z, things like that. I guess my passion for art and drawing helped me to get into CAD (Computer Aided Design) modeling — things like 3D modeling and 3D printing. And with CAD modeling, you need to learn how to figure out the dimensions of things, what material they’re made out of, xyz. So that got me deeper into engineering.
“There’s definitely an artistic component to science. You can just look at James Webb [Space Telescope]. It looks artistic. If you look at the beveled mirrors, or how the bat wings on the side fold out, I would argue that that is artistic in a sense. But it also matches perfectly with its scientific functions. So not only does it need to fit into the rocket, but it also needs these beveled mirrors to reflect light at a specific angle. So, I think art and science blend pretty well.”
— Kenneth Harris II, Senior Satellite Engineer, Goddard Space Flight Center
Image Credit: NASA / Joel Kowsky
Interviewer: NASA / Thalia Patrinos