Our Student Community welcomed an incredible guest speaker from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab. Alice Bowman, The Mission Operations Manager (MOM) of the New Horizons Mission, joined students to talk about the historic mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt.
Alice went over the entirety of the mission. She gave students a sense of all of how a mission of this magnitude is managed and how much goes into preparing. Alice was also incredible at painting a picture of the joys that a project like this brings.
The launch of New Horizons happened in January 2006 and didn’t make its flyby of Pluto until July 2015. Waiting nine years for a flyby that lasts mere hours is an incredible accomplishment. It required calculations, course corrections, and a lot of patience and passion. Alice illustrated how important it was to her and how excited she is every day to learn more from the mission that continues to send data today.
What was probably one of the most enlightening moments of the event, a student asked if Alice ever moving on to a different mission after being on New Horizons for 17 years. It was an impactful question that made Alice smile.
“I’ve thought about moving on. But why would I do that when this project still brings me joy?” Alice responded.
The student reaction was immediate and warm. Hearing someone so accomplished talk about joy rather than the next objective was eye opening for students and gave them permission to search for the projects that speak to their passions.
It was a truly inspiring night in the Battelle Center! We are so happy and thankful to Alice Bowman for making the time to talk with our students and loved seeing how much our students relished the opportunity!
