X-treme Facts: Space Jobs

X-treme Facts: Space Jobs — page 1 — Help Wanted Outer space is pretty amazing right There are planets moons and trillions of stars Who knows what else might be out there Maybe someday it’ll be your job to find out From astronauts to robotics engineers lots of people are working in many different jobs to help us learn more about our solar system and the rest of the universe Let’s look at some of the coolest space jobs Aerospace engineers build machines that travel into space IT’S A BIG JOB BUT SOMEONE’S GOTTA DO IT It takes a lot of people to launch a spacecraft and keep it running Many of them do their jobs from Earth GOING TO SPACE STARTS RIGHT HERE ON THE GROUND WOW YOU’RE SO DOWN-TO-EARTH 4

X-treme Facts: Space Jobs — page 2 — Before astronauts travel to space they scuba dive on Earth as part of their training WAIT DOES THIS MEAN I HAVE TO GET MY SPACESUIT WET Astronomers use powerful telescopes to discover stars planets and more Robotics engineers have designed vehicles that drive around on Mars and send information about the planet back to Earth Robotics engineers also make it possible to control unmanned spacecraft billions of miles from Earth YES MA’AM NOW MOVE TO THE LEFT 5

X-treme Facts: Space Jobs — page 3 — Awesome Astronomers Do you look up at the night sky and wonder what lies beyond Earth Do you want to know more about how the universe was created If so a job as an astronomer might be for you Astronomers are scientists who study outer space using telescopes cameras and computers They track things in space such as planets moons stars and galaxies to see how they move and change Astronomers have been studying the night sky for thousands of years That makes astronomy the oldest space job WHOA HOW DO I UPGRADE MY TELESCOPE TO MATCH THE BIG ONES OH PLEASE WE USED TO LOOK AT STARS WITH OUR BARE EYES AND WE WERE JUST FINE 6

X-treme Facts: Space Jobs — page 4 — Astronomers study space using huge telescopes at buildings called observatories The Keck Observatory in Hawaii has twin telescopes that are each 33 feet 10 m wide Some astronomers use computers to make models that explain how things happen in outer space Astronomers use math to measure the huge distances between things that are very far away in space In 1543 astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus discovered that Earth moves around the sun Before this people thought Earth was the center of the universe COPERNICUS ARE YOU SURE EARTH MOVES AROUND THE SUN SERIOUSLY TRUST HIM ON THIS ONE YES IT SAYS IT RIGHT HERE 7

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