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Space science

Space science involves a whole range of activities. You can be a researcher exploring the nature of planets and stars and the shape of our universe, you can build space ships, satellites or space probes and - most glamorous of all - you can be an astronaut and venture into space yourself. All of these require a background in physics or engineering, which ultimately boil down to maths. As you can see from the profiles below, maths provides a perfect entry-point into the field.

The image above shows an astronaut servicing the Hubble space telescope and appears courtesy NASA.

Career Profiles

Haley, Lecturer in Astrophysics

Career profiles from NASA

Terrence Wilcutt, NASA manager

Terry Virts, NASA pilot

Randolph Bresnik, NASA pilot

Robert Kimbrough, NASA mission specialist

Linda Godwin, NASA management assistant

Robert Cabana, Deputy Director, Johnson Space Center

John Phillips, International Space Station engineer

Chris Cassidy, NASA mission specialist

Lee Morin, NASA mission specialist

George Zamka, NASA pilot

Biographies of all NASA astronauts

Career profiles from the American Mathematical Society

Kathryn E. Brenan, The Aerospace Corporation

A career profile from the American Mathematical Society complete with details on the type of maths used.

Jerry Cline, McDonnell Douglas Corporation

A career profile from the American Mathematical Society, complete with details on the kind of maths used.

Stephen Hobbs, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center

A career profile from the American Mathematical Society, complete with details on the kind of maths used.

Jim Phillips, Boeing Information and Support Services

A career profile from the American Mathematical Society, complete with details on the kind of maths used.

Candace K. Sleeman, Gorca Systems, Inc

A career profile from the American Mathematical society, complete with details on the kind of maths used.

Career information from the American Mathematical Society

Space science from Plus magazine

Plus magazine career interview, astronomer

The right spin

This article is based on an interview with NASA astronaut Michael Foale, who was onboard the space station Mir when it suffered a near-fatal accident. It was maths that saved his life.

DOWNLOADS

The Maths inside...THE STEREO MISSION
A team from Imperial College London, University College London, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory et al sent satellites to produce pictures of the sun's activity from two angles to create three dimensional images. | Acrobat Document | 75Kb

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