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Author: Ryan Faricelli

The Doctor Is In

Written by Ryan Faricelli on . Posted in Alumni, Mission Updates. No Comments on The Doctor Is In

Four-time Space Camper (And U.S. Space and Rocket Center Education Foundation Board Chair) Dr. Gretchen Green is no regular Space Camp® alumna, having received education at Harvard, Yale, and Brown on her way to practicing as a radiologist in North Carolina. 

A clear leader in her field and expert in her scientific craft, Dr. Green recently came on the Dare to Explore podcast, and she was quick to give credit to the power of mentorship for helping her along her journey in the medical field.

“Meeting a mentor along the way really helped,” said Dr. Gretchen Green. “My mentor [asked me about a specific medical situation], and I rattled off about 13 different things as an answer to his question. Upon responding, he looked at me and said, ‘You’re not an ER doctor – you’re a radiologist.” 

Green had her doubts, explaining her desire to become an ER doctor, but according to her, her mentor looked at her and simply said, “No, that’s not how you think.”

“It took someone like that with that perspective to call me out and say from an educator’s standpoint that my mind was meant to do something else,” said Dr. Green. “When I got to the ER, I put it together, and I thought right I can’t think 13 different things here, I have to make a quick decision and move forward.”

This moment encouraged Green to really look inward and determine who she was and discover herself and how she thought. Upon this self-examination, she knew that radiology was the path she was supposed to take. 

This story from Dr. Gretchen Green may, on the surface, speak to career-paths but the wisdom is far-reaching. Whatever your mission is, whatever you seek to discover in life, it is valuable to find trusted mentors who have walked that path ahead of you, who are willing to look back and point out the way. It’s truly astounding what we often learn about ourselves by looking at the lessons of those around us.

Learn more about Dr. Green and other scientists, engineers, and professionals from the space and aeronautics field by subscribing to “Dare to Explore,” the official podcast of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center Foundation. “Dare to Explore” can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere else you listen.

Chips with a Hint of Space

Written by Ryan Faricelli on . Posted in Alumni, Mission Updates. No Comments on Chips with a Hint of Space

Space Camp Hall-of-Famer Danny Jaques is a teacher, leader, and lover of space … but what you may know him from most is his one-of-a-kind salsa. 

The creator of Danny’s Rocket Ranch Space Salsa, Jaques mixes every single bag of salsa himself, producing 250-300 bags of salsa a day by “doing it the old-fashioned way.”

“You may have heard of tennis elbow, I like to tell people that making this salsa has given me salsa shoulder,” laughed Jaques.

During his time with us on the Dare to Explore Podcast, Danny Jaques even shared a bit about what makes his Space Salsa so special – down to the tomato. 

“Freeze-dried tomato, when it stays in the fridge overnight, ends up having a stronger taste and more robust flavor,” explained Jaques. “In fact, the flavor ends up being great, not just on chips, but that taste allows it to be mixed with ground beef, ground pork, and so on.”

His favorite recipe? Believe it or not, it’s one of the simplest in the world – even for a salsa that is anything but simple. 

“Take a three-pound pork loin, put it in a crock-pot, and mix in a couple of bags of the Space Salsa … cover it up, and then put it on slow-cook for about five hours. At the end of the five hours, you pull the pork apart, let it absorb the liquids, and you’ve got the best pulled pork EVER. It’s just fantastic.” said the Space Salsa creator. 

Learn more about Jaques and other scientists, engineers, and professionals from the space and aeronautics field by subscribing to “Dare to Explore,” the official podcast of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center Foundation. “Dare to Explore” can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere else you listen.

The Sound of Space…

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Drummer for Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson, Rock & Roll Hall-of-Fame inductee, Grammy Award winner and friend of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center Education Foundation.

Chris Vrenna’s career has been anything but standard mission protocol. 

Vrenna joined our podcast Dare to Explore to talk about music, space, and how a meaningful, committed mission can bridge the gap between industries, between dreams, and even build another stop at the intersection of arts and science. 

Even with this incredible, far-reaching career, Vrenna wanted to talk to us most about the things he says he can’t do. 

“One of the movies that’s been on cable constantly for years is The Martian, and it’s all rooted in very real technology,” said Vrenna. “It’s crazy how in it he goes and finds the old Mars Rover and fires it up, simply because the batteries have died, which is really one of the only ways they stop functioning, and through that figures out how to communicate back to Earth.”

“It’s so cool to me that we have this technology,” continued Vrenna. “I’m fascinated by things I don’t understand and things I can’t do, and [communication through space] is the biggest one of them all. When James Webb started sending pictures, didn’t we all just sit there looking at the first images? It looked like a poster straight out of the 70s – just phenomenal. 

Vrenna showed this love of discovery and learning when he talked to us about education. He spoke on the virtue of knowledge, and how knowledge is worth acquiring for the sake of knowledge. That knowledge doesn’t need a reason. 

“Sometimes, learning is just about learning,” said Vrenna. “If we don’t support that, how are we supposed to have a productive society.” 

This passion for education is perhaps most shown off in Vrenna’s newest mission: teaching. After a second torn rotator cuff from his music career, Vrenna knew it was time to lean into his other life-long love – discovery. Since 2018, he has been a professor right here in Huntsville, Alabama, helping to show the next generation of artists, scientists and citizens that sometimes, you don’t have to choose one path or another. Sometimes, it’s okay to discover them all. 

Learn more about Vrenna and other scientists, engineers, and professionals from the space and aeronautics field by subscribing to “Dare to Explore,” the official podcast of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center Foundation. “Dare to Explore” can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere else you listen.

Star Trek display from the Rocket Center

Space to Input

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Husband and wife duo Michael and Denise Okuda have worked in science fiction television for more than three decades as graphic designers, artists and technical consultants. Together, they have worked on six Star Trek films, as well as Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, Picard, and even writing the Star Trek Encyclopedia.

Michael has also designed several NASA mission patches, including the STS-125 mission of Space Shuttle Atlantis, which repaired the Hubble Space Telescope. He and his wife are currently technical advisors for the Netflix series Space Force and the Apple TV series For All Mankind.

“We review scripts and rough cuts,” said Denise of their work on For All Mankind. “When needed we go into the studio to be there on set to help the actors push the right button in the LEM, and also be there for the director and the writers if there are any other questions.”

“A writer would say, ‘at this point, we want this to break,” explained Michael about the role of a technical consultant for Star Trek. “How can we do that so that it can’t be fixed until the fourth act? You work with the writers and try to help them tell the story in a way that’s as interesting as possible.”

Michael is perhaps most famous for a design that many television viewers may not realize is his work. Star Trek: The Next Generation features a bold, purple and orange graphic style on the spaceship computer displays and controls. These were designed by Michael.

“They’re what’s become known as the LCARS style,” Michael notes. “It became part of the look of the era, and I’m very proud of that.”

“We all took a lot of pride in doing the work as professionally as we could, but also enjoying it” added Denise about their television work. “Thinking about all those twelve-year-old kids out there and what the shows that we were working on would mean to them – as much as when Mike and I were kids and we were watching [Star Trek] the original series.

Learn more about the Okudas and other professionals, scientists, and engineers from  space and aeronautics history by subscribing to “Dare to Explore,” the official podcast of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center Foundation. “Dare to Explore” can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere else you listen.

Transportation to the Stars

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Suzanne Saltz was a First Assistant Director and Director on the hit television program NCIS Los Angeles. She’s worked on shows such as Six Feet Under, Bones and Pushing Daisies. Suzanne is an active member of the Director’s Guild of America, Alliance of Women Directors, and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. 

Though she ended up in Hollywood, Suzanne began her journey dreaming of space, having attended Space Camp® as a teenager. Attending Space Camp in August of 1985 was pivotal to her future because the movie, Space Camp, was being filmed during her time at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center.

Saltz’ first experience in Hollywood was on the early 1990’s hit television show, Beverly Hills 90210, where she worked as a Directors Guild of America trainee. There, she encountered a bit of starstruck awe.

“The worst part about that was, I was a huge fan of the show,” Saltz recalled. “This was something I had watched all the time. I showed up on my first day and was like, Oh my gosh, I’m talking to Jason Priestley and Tori Spelling. As soon as I walked on set, [Priestley] knew I was green, and he said that he was going to help me out.”

Luckily for Saltz, Priestley lived up to his promise.

At one point during the day, Saltz was escorting Priestley to the filming location. He followed her, but she wasn’t sure of where she was supposed to go. Seeing all the production vans driving off in one direction, that was the direction she began to lead the actor.

After a few minutes of awkward walking, Priestley asked her if she knew where they were going. She had to admit she didn’t and told him she was just following the vans. Priestley laughed, and asked the humorously obvious question: “Why aren’t we in a van?”

Priestley kindly told Saltz she needed to contact the transportation department, and he explained how she could do that over the walkie-talkie she had been carrying. Eventually, a van picked them up and took them to the set.

“That was pretty much how my first week went,” remembered Saltz, laughing. “Jason was telling me everything I needed to know.”

Learn more about Suzanne Saltz and other professionals, scientists, and engineers influenced by attending Space Camp by subscribing to “Dare to Explore,” the official podcast of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center Foundation. “Dare to Explore” can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere else you listen.

Margrit von Braun Margrit von Braun

An Animated Childhood

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Margrit von Braun is an environmental engineer specializing in hazardous waste management and risk assessment. She was one of the first women to join the University of Idaho College of Engineering faculty in 1980,and served as their Dean of the College of Graduate Studies.

Margrit’s father was Dr. Wernher von Braun, the first director of the Marshall Space Flight Center who led the development of the Saturn V rocket that sent the Apollo astronauts to the moon. Dr. von Braun was also instrumental in the public relations efforts to convince the American people that efforts in space were possible and important. To do so, he partnered with Walt Disney and appeared on several episodes of The Wonderful World of Disney.

“My sister and I each got to meet Disney,” Margrit shared. “He was such a creative guy, and he was very interested in space and interested in helping my father figure out how to tell the story with animation and with models in ways that had not been done before. That was a great collaboration.”

Though the effects of Dr. von Braun’s celebrity status did impact Margrit’s life growing up, her parents always made sure their family life felt like any other family’s circumstances.

Margrit recalls learning to roller skate down the long, empty hallways at Marshall Space Flight Center on the weekends when her father had work to do there.

“I think I grew up pretty normally,” remembered Margrit. “I guess it wasn’t until much later that I realized that having astronauts at your dinner table wasn’t something everybody did. As a kid, I don’t think you really notice that, and we weren’t really encouraged to feel special.”

Learn more about Margrit von Braun and other professionals, scientists, and engineers from aeronautic and space history by subscribing to “Dare to Explore,” the official podcast of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center Foundation. “Dare to Explore” can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere else you listen.