In addition to being the first female private space explorer, Anousheh Ansari works to enable social entrepreneurs to bring about radical change globally with organizations such as the X Prize, Ashoka, and the PARSA Community Foundation. Here she talks to Ashoka Changemakers® about how her passion for space exploration drives her work to promote science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education.
In the fall of 2006, Ansari, a technology entrepreneur, earned a place in history as the first female private space explorer, the first astronaut of Iranian descent, and only the fourth private explorer to visit space. After completing a six-month training course in Russia and cross-training at the Johnson Space Center in Houston (including the same simulator, zero-g, and survival techniques training that astronauts receive), she joined the crew of a Soyuz mission to relieve one Russian and one NASA crew member on the International Space Station and spent eight days there before returning to Earth.
To help drive commercialization of the space industry, Ansari and her family provided title sponsorship for the Ansari X Prize, a $10 million cash award for the first non-governmental organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks. Ansari is a member of the X Prize Foundation’s Vision Circle, as well as its board of trustees. She is a life member in the Association of Space Explorers and on the advisory board of the Teachers in Space project.
Changemakers: Some have called you one of the first “space tourists,” but that’s not quite accurate, is it? What you did was more akin to being a non-professional astronaut.
Ansari: I use the example of people who climb Mount Everest — you would never call them “Everest tourists,” because it’s not a simple, ordinary flight where you go buy a ticket and a guidebook, and then get on a plane that goes out and comes back. With the technology that exists today, it’s a rigorous task.
You have to train for a long time. You really have to prepare by training mentally and physically for this type of activity. Space is more like climbing Mount Everest than getting on a plane and going to Paris to see the Eiffel tower.
Space tourism started out as a dream during the Apollo era — people said it was possible to travel to the Moon. You saw these advertisements and brochures about hotels on the Moon, and spaceships that were sort of like cruise ships, and space planes.
More recently, when the opportunity for private citizens who are not government employees, or what I call “professional astronauts,” started finding opportunities to fly to space — and especially when a business case was made for it — then everyone started calling it “space tourism,” because of that notion back then about space hotels and all these things.
But I do hope it becomes so simple and easy for everyone that you can call everyone a “space tourist” — why not?
Changemakers: Your love of space travel empowers you to encourage young people to pursue STEM learning.
Ansari: I do use space to bring that inspiration, because I love space.
But over time, space has been grasped and locked in by the government, to a degree that becoming an astronaut has become a really difficult, impossible dream. The chances of being selected as an astronaut by NASA are probably less than winning the lottery. Because of that, I think our youth and the public have sort of disassociated themselves from the space program.
It’s not something for them, it’s just something just for an elite group of people at NASA, and you have to be super smart, super human to get there. We are ordinary, so that’s not for us.
It’s a shame that because space has been so removed from the public, it hasn’t been used that much to inspire youth to get interested in these fields — to get them employed. Space can be such a big inspiration, especially for STEM education.
Changemakers: What makes space exploration such a powerful tool to promote STEM education?
Ansari: Whether it is space travel, living in space, or studying space and other planets, it uses all aspects of science: chemistry, biology, physics, math, computer science, you name it. All aspects of science and technology are used in the space program. It’s awe-inspiring when you start learning about it.
Now, my hope is that with the end of the Space Shuttle program, NASA has opened its door to partnerships with public companies. These partnerships can help bridge the gap we have for STEM educators and teachers.
For example, look at Google or Microsoft. They invest a lot in the university and educational institutions around their facilities because they are always hungry for good engineers, scientists, and programmers. They invest because they have these jobs that need to be filled, and they want to make sure that the educational institutions are generating or creating these good resources for them.
Changemakers: Why is this such a great opportunity for young people?
Ansari: I have seen a lot of activities and movement in the public sector to build companies and businesses around space exploration. All these companies are run by young entrepreneurs who are generating new jobs. And all of this will create a new excitement in the space industries for young people who are ready to go to college, or are considering new jobs.
None of these existed before: If you wanted to do something in space, you would go to NASA. Now there are about ten other companies that are exciting and hiring. Some of them are run by Silicon Valley tycoons like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. These things will get young people interested — I think that’s wonderful.
It’s an interesting fact that the average age of engineers at NASA during the Apollo space program was 25. The average age now is probably double that, so if you wanted to repeat what they did back then with the technology of today, NASA would not be able to do it — even with more money.
It is the young engineers, students, and scientists that are entrepreneurial, energetic, imaginative, and who bring another level of interesting activities to any business. That is what is exciting for me: to see these young students that are interested in finding the next generation of propulsion systems.
We have been riding rockets ever since the Chinese came up with the concept, so there are better, more energy efficient, and cheaper ways to do this. It’s out there, and the people who will find the solutions are those students who are now thinking about what to study when they go to college, and can now see a job opportunity for themselves to go and pursue these fields.
These entrepreneurs, with their success in the space industry, will also want to become more involved in the education side and partnerships with educational institution that can help them raise the level of education or training of students with skills needed for the type of jobs they are creating.
Changemakers: And are young people responding?
Ansari: I really focus on trying to get more girls interested, showing them that it is not what the media portrays. Everything they see on TV is that the cool people are the people who don’t know math, don’t want to know math, and don’t care about math or science.
The ones who are interested and good at math, and are good students, are all the people who are portrayed as nerds and outcasts, and no one wants to hang around with them. As long as this is what we teach our youth on TV programs, what do you expect? That’s what they think is the reality, and they don’t want to become that outcast nerd that they see on TV.
I get so frustrated. That is something that I am hoping to find some clever people who can start producing programs that would portray a different image. I am just starting to look at ways to get the media to change this perception for kids.
Changemakers: What other powerful influencers are you targeting?
Ansari: I collaborate with a lot of the organizations and institutions that are helping teachers that want to find ways to teach STEM subjects in an interesting and attractive manner — so they can recruit more students into this field. I try to be active in giving them the tools, training them, helping them find partnerships.
As you know, there are many areas that need help. For example, not enough students get interested in this field. They all perceive it to be difficult.
Girls especially shy away from it a lot. We need to remove these barriers to show students that it is not difficult, it can be fun, it’s relevant to everyday life, and it doesn’t completely ruin their social life.
The best person who can do that is a good teacher. A good teacher can change a student’s life forever. Sometimes you have good teachers, but they are constrained by the regulation that they have to work on the curriculum dictated to them. Or they just simply don’t have the material, they don’t know what to do, or what to teach, or how to do it.
Changemakers: What advice do you have for teachers who want to engage their students in STEM topics?
Ansari: I don’t think there is any more powerful position to be in than a teacher. They are so important, but sometimes they don’t even realize what a difference they make in someone’s life — not only by teaching them subjects, but by showing them that they care about the student, and about the subject they are teaching. Their enthusiasm for the subject and for the future of that student is what will attract the student to the topic.
They are in an amazing position to change the future, to change the life of one person who could become the next President or the next big scientist who comes up with a breakthrough that cures the worst diseases. They can have so much impact, it’s amazing, and I hope they realize it and use this power they have wisely.
I cannot imagine anyone teaching about something that they are passionate about and being able to give a boring lecture. They just can’t, because it is something they live, breathe, and speak every day. That will come through in any lecture or lesson. And that will attract students.
I like to tell teachers to think of themselves as God on the first day, creating the world where you have no limitations, no boundaries, nothing. What you create will basically last forever. It will evolve and last and change forever. What you put into it — the seed you plant — is what will determine how the future will be.
Changemakers: Like Ashoka Changemakers, you are tapping the power of competitions to promote STEM education. How are you doing that?
Ansari: I work with teachers to find ways to get them interested in the STEM area through competitions. We have a competition called the “What If” competition. It’s a middle school competition, and this is its third year.
We just opened it a few weeks ago and it’s doing well. We are learning and expanding it, and we just opened it up to more countries.
I believe middle school is the time when a lot of kids make decisions about what fields they go into. So if you can get them at that age, and plant a seed or get them interested in this subject, chances are they will pursue it as they go to high school and graduate school.
We partner with science teachers, and organizations that work with science teachers, to get students to register in the competition. Then we work with groups and companies that can provide the resources to be mentors for those students, for the competition.
Changemakers: Tell us something about your life story. How did you get so interested in space exploration?
Ansari: For me it was curiosity, because, at a young age, I always was curious to know: Why am I here? What am I doing here? How is everything working? How did I get to be who I am today, living where I was living, and where I was born? I was always curious about what was out there, and I always looked up to the stars for the answers.
This started my interest in space, stars, and astronomy. The more I read about how the universe was formed, about the stars, and the fact that we are all made of stardust and all that — it was just completely fascinating to me. The more I learned, the more I wanted to know. And the more I learned, the more I knew I didn’t know.
That is what started it for me. That sparked my interest in math, science, and physics. And it hasn’t stopped. I am still fascinated. Give me an interesting article about the latest discoveries in the universe — black holes, dark energy, and all these things — and I can sit for hours and read about it, or talk about it, and I never get tired.
Photo courtesy of AnoushehAnsari.com
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