one hell of a post-doc

[nibot]

Somehow I sort of assumed that the Apollo astronauts were selected for their skills as pilots and their success in the military. It turns out that they were wicked smart too.

Case in point: Buzz Aldrin, who, after graduating from West Point and serving in the Korean War, earned a PhD in astronautics from MIT. His thesis is titled "Line-of-sight guidance techniques for manned orbital rendezvous". Its dedication reads:

In the hopes that this work may in some way contribute to their exploration of space, this is dedicated to the crew members of this country's present and future manned space programs. If only I could join them in their exciting endeavors!

Six and a half years later, he walked on the moon.

Comments

[grey-ghost.livejournal.com]

wow. now i want to write a mathematics paper and dedicate it to the fields medal committee .. (-;

[eigenvalue.livejournal.com]

i thought it was well-known that it's essentially impossible to become an astronaut: you have to be impossibly smart, quick, strong, fit, brave, ambitious, basically almost perfect in every possible way.

[eigenvalue.livejournal.com]

for example this is basically one of the primary bases for the entire plot of the movie "gattaca"