Unshakable faith at heart of teen's astronaut dream
Published February 5, 2003
chicagotribune.com
After the ceremony of mourning at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, after the bell tolled seven times and after the jets flew over in the missing man formation, after the weeping, in that profound quiet Tuesday, a TV newscaster piped up.
Anxious, perhaps soothing himself with the unguent of his own voice, he broke the silence and asked:
"Who are these people who take these risks?" he said, not expecting an answer. "Where do they come from in this great country of ours?"
How about a place like Springville, Iowa? It is a small town a few miles outside Cedar Rapids, along a highway that splits the stubby February cornfields.
"The biggest news," said Vickie Weber, who teaches English at Springville High, "is that a new restaurant has opened, called Downtown Dining, and their specialty is hot roast beef and potatoes. There isn't much going on.
"But someday, people might say that Nathan Munsterman lived here."
Nate Munsterman, 17, is a straight-A student. He plays sports, he's on the speech team, and Weber tells me that he knows his Shakespeare.
Since he was 8 years old, he's had a single-minded goal, and to chase it he's shaped his life, attending space camps, harnessing an interest in mathematics, astronomy and physics. His bedroom is an altar to space flight. And his dream is to become a NASA astronaut and perhaps be the first to step foot on Mars.
Given the mourning for the seven lost astronauts of the space shuttle Columbia, and as nitpickers question the validity of sending humans into space, I thought you might like to know about Nate.
He doesn't think space flight is an art form, or a metaphor, or something it is not. He thinks it is space flight, and he's willing to put his skin in the game and fly into that darkness.
His father, Ronn, a senior programmer analyst for Quaker Oats Co., sent me an e-mail after he read Sunday's column about the Columbia disaster and how vital it is that human beings continue space exploration. He wrote:
"Your article had special meaning to me as my son Nate, now a high school senior, has planned to be an astronaut since he was eight. Everything he has done, everything he is, has been guided by his passion for space. In the fall he will continue striving for that goal when he begins studying physics at the University of Iowa, with the goal of earning his PhD. Following that, he will apply for astronaut candidacy.
"On Saturday, after the terrible news of the Columbia disaster, one of Nate's friends asked him whether he still wanted to be an astronaut. Nate's reply? `Are you kidding? Of course I do!'
"As a father, am I frightened at a time like this? Are you kidding? Of course I am. Can I tell Nate he shouldn't follow his dream? Are you nuts? Of course not.
"Is it possible that someday I will regret that choice? Yes. But we can't live in fear of what might happen. If we did, no one would leave home. Thank you. With regards from Iowa, Ronn Munsterman."
So I asked Ronn about his watching the news with Nate on Saturday, watching the images of the space shuttle burning in the sky.
"It's hard to talk about," Ronn told me over the phone. "I can write it down. But I can hardly speak it. I'm proud. And I'm worried. But it's what he wants to do. I'd like to find eloquent words. But all I can think of is that the work must be continued. You encourage your children to follow their dreams, and good things can happen for the world."
Nate told me that he got the space bug at an astronomy camp at Missouri Western State College in St. Joseph and other space camps in Kansas. He's also pestered defense contractors in Cedar Rapids to let him pick the brains of their top scientists.
In 2001 his high school teachers invited Iowa-born astronaut Jim Kelly--a pilot aboard the space shuttle Discovery--to visit the school.
"I even got to spend a few minutes with him alone, after his talk," Nate said. "I can't tell you how great that was, to meet him, and he encouraged me to pursue my dream. He said to make sure to take a lot of pictures."
And the Columbia burning won't stop that urgency in him.
"NASA takes applications every other year, and they select 20 people out of 2,000 or more," Nate said. "And I plan to be one of them. What worries me is that Americans will now worry so much about safety that they won't want to send people into space. If we don't risk, we don't learn. I have this dream about Mars."
Though our need for heroes is intense, that is no reason to send humans into the dangerous void. The reason to send them is because we belong out there, and because we're compelled by our human destiny, for the same reason that sailors signed on to cross the never-ending sea more than 500 years ago.
Follow that dream, Nate, for yourself and the rest of us. Let us know how it turns out. |
