© NASA/Brandon Hancock Alinda Mashiku, NASA engineer and eminent scientist, during a technical presentation. INTERVIEW | Girls’ space dreams can come true Women
The Artemis 2 mission, with Christina Cook on board, sent a message to millions of girls around the world: space is open to women. Dr. Alinda Machiku, program manager for orbital collision risk analysis at the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), told UN News Service’s Assumpta Massoi.
“For the younger generation, this is proof that dreams can come true. If a person can figure out how to leave Earth and come back, then nothing is impossible,” she said.
In a world where women continue to be underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, stories like these break stereotypes and break new ground. Mashiku knows the barriers from her own experience: as a woman of African descent in the aerospace industry, she often had to prove her competence.Machiku’s own story shatters stereotypes. She grew up in Tanzania and was not a “kid genius” at math. But she had something that often turns out to be even more important – support.
Her father, a teacher at a technical institute, worked with the children every day: he checked assignments, gave dozens of problems for the holidays. “He believed in us as if he saw something that we ourselves could not see then,” she recalls.
She had the dream of becoming an astronaut as a child. Then it seemed almost impossible – there was no infrastructure, no role models nearby. But her parents did not limit her ambitions. “Don’t give up on a dream just because it seems unattainable,” says Mashiku.
She didn’t become an astronaut, but she did get a PhD in aerospace engineering and today works for NASA.
Her work remains behind the scenes, but it is on such specialists that it depends on whether the astronauts will return home safely. Mashiku is a navigation specialist: her team ensures that orbitals do not pose a threat to manned missions. On the scale of the Artemis 2 project, this is only a “small contribution,” but in the complex system of space flight there are no trifles. often resorts to an image that everyone understands – gravity. “Gravity affects everyone. But people still fly,” she says. A rocket, she says, is a “controlled explosion” designed to overcome one of nature’s most powerful limitations. overcome.”
Creating opportunities for othersх
Mashiku’s desire to help others is confirmed not only by words. Her ExcelliSpace project provides students with free educational materials, practical tools, and access to mentorship to help them navigate careers in science and engineering. Particular attention is paid to young people.
Dr.Alinda Mashiku
As lunar exploration enters a new era, Machiku hopes that the main legacy of such missions will be not only technological advances, but also the hope they give to people. For her, this is a story about the courage to dream, about unity and about the limitless possibilities of the human mind.
Machiku hopes that the new achievements will be a reminder to girls, especially girls in Africa, that they can find themselves in the sciences, they can work in mission control centers and, perhaps, one day fly into space.