HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Dr. Adam Steltzner was the speaker at this morning’s Dillon Lecture Series. He spoke with journalism students and the media before the event and told of skipping school during high school, but then becoming interested in learning why the stars move. He told us that while driving home from music gigs at night, he noticed how the position of the constellation Orion was in a different place than before. This fascinated him, so he decided to take an astronomy class at College of Marin.
He then quit music to concentrate on his education and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering at the University of California, Davis, a master of science degree in applied mechanics at California Institute of Technology, and a PhD in engineering mechanics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He eventually got a job with NASA at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory where he worked for about ten years designing, testing and building the sky crane landing system for the Curiosity rover
He says in this time of budget cuts, he sees the work he’s done as worth it. And in consideration of the overall national budget, what NASA gets isn’t that much. He says the project cost $2.5 billion, but says it’s not like they hurl all that money into space. He says it added jobs in 37 states and called it a kind of stimulus to the economy.
So whats next? He says he would like to see them go to an ice moon of Jupiter called Europa. Steltzner’s speech is the last Dillon Lecture Series scheduled this year.
He came to Hutchinson dressed like he still has Rock-n-Roll roots and talked with a good crowd in attendance at the Hutchinson Sports Arena.