Anyone itching to blow this popsicle stand that is planet Earth can count on Dava Newman to figure out how and where to go.
Newman, former deputy administrator of NASA, spoke to a packed Macky Auditorium on the University of Colorado’s Boulder campus on Monday morning, delivering the keynote speech that launched the Conference on World Affairs into its first day.
The current Apollo Program professor of astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology served in the Obama administration through Jan. 20. She is best known for designing and developing advanced space suits utilizing a “hybrid-human biosuit design” that works like a second skin.
Maggie Mildenberger, 17, was one of the first people in line to hear Newman’s planetary insights. The student from Thornton’s Horizon High School was on a field trip with her world issues class and watched wide-eyed as the line to get into the coveted keynote speech grew behind her.
“This is great world experience,” she said. “You hear about the energy and the student life in Boulder, and this is it right here.”
Newman made a point of engaging young audience members, who she calls “the Mars generation.”
“They’re the ones who are going to get there,” she said. “We’re planning for it, but they’re going to be there.”
The 2020s, she said, will be about the journey to Mars, while the 2030s will mark the human exploration phase. To get there will require some ingenuity and major cooperation.
Throughout her presentation, Newman kept returning to themes of global unity and inclusivity.
“Everyone’s success is our success,” she said, listing off countries also making space strides. “We’re really in this together.”
Drawing murmurs of wonderment from the crowd that included university students and attendees young and old, Newman talked about a dozen planets scientists currently are investigating in the “Goldilocks zone” — not too hot and not too cold — that humans could habitate.
“All of this exploring is not for the faint of heart,” she said. “But we have to keep exploring.”
Closing out her cosmic speech, Newman turned her attention to those who aren’t as science-minded. Instead of pushing for only the science, technology, engineering and math minds that make up the STEM group, she urged people to focus on STEAM, adding a category for artists.
“Guess what, artists and historians and journalists? You paint the pictures. You write the words. You tell the history. I need you,” she said.
In high school, when kids are filtered out of higher-level math and science classes, Newman said this does a disservice to her industry and students who can contribute to science in new, creative ways.
“Filtering people out?” she asked. “We got it wrong. It’s on us. We need to start filtering everybody in.”
Mildenberger walked out of the panel with a renewed excitement.
Pointing to herself, she said, “I’m going to be a STEM major. I want to be a math teacher, and the language she used about including everybody was huge and important. We need everybody.”
Elizabeth Hernandez: 303-473-1106, hernandeze@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/ehernandez
