OK, I know this will come as a shock to most of you, but I am a bit of a nerd. Oh, don’t protest, I accept that I am nerd-ish. I’m not quite the dashing free spirit you likely imagined from my dashing and free-spirited columns (Ed: um… not so much). Part of my nerdy side manifests itself in a life-long passion for science in general and for astronomy in particular. Should you ever visit my home, you likely will notice the two big telescopes I have sitting there, waiting for clear skies and warmer weather. I love looking up at the night sky and I’m a huge space program booster. My first tour of duty as an Air Force officer was as an ICBM “finger on the button” guy up at FE Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, and as I type these words, in front of me is a small replica of an instrument panel that flew on the Apollo missions to the Moon. Yup, very nerdy. And there is good news about being a nerd in Colorado. There are lots and lots of opportunities to work in aerospace here in the Centennial State.

Which, of course, brings me to my old buddy, Bruce.

I met Bruce years ago through the local astronomy club (told you I was a nerd). Bruce is a really smart guy who teaches physics and astronomy part time, but it is his full-time job that is really cool and special for Colorado. Bruce runs a local office of the high-tech firm Peraton, which is likely a company you have never heard of, unless you work in the defense or aerospace industry. Peraton is one of over 400 companies in Colorado that work in the areas of space and planetary science, according to the governor’s aerospace team, making our lovely state the second largest aerospace economy in the country.

A while back, Bruce invited me to come visit his workplace to let me see something really extraordinary (if you are a nerd). Bruce oversees the manufacture of an incredibly special type of what can awkwardly be described as foam padding. Bruce had me glove up and then handed me a very nondescript roughly rectangular hunk of the stuff, which felt a bit like a Styrofoam cooler. It was about the size of a slice of bread. Bruce told me what I was holding was going someplace out of this world, literally. It was headed for Mars.

As I type these words on the afternoon of Thursday the 18th, we are waiting for the arrival of the NASA Perseverance rover on the surface of Mars. Launched back in July, when the planets were lined up just right, the Perseverance mission is about to land after seven months of zooming through space. As you read these words, you know if the landing went well or not (fingers crossed!), but if it goes well, that hunk of Colorado foam, and a bunch more like it, will have done a very important job. 

You see, this Colorado company figured out how to manufacture this foam as an insulating material that will protect the Mars rover from the incredible heat it feels when it smacks into the Martian upper atmosphere at about 47,000 mph. This foam must protect the spacecraft, while also remaining in place, while also being transparent to radio waves (as it covers an important Earth-transmitting antenna), which sounds simple, but I assure you it is not. Peraton figured out how to make this stuff, and it is used widely in the defense and space industrial landscape. 

And that Colorado foam I touched is about to land on Mars! 

As I noted above, Colorado is packed full of really cool companies doing really cool things. This is yet another reason our state is so remarkable. And that is also why our state government has such a significant space ops program. Whether you want to get an advanced degree and get hired to calculate orbital mechanics, or if you just want to be one of those people manufacturing cool stuff like space foam and other hardware, Colorado is the place to be. 

And it appears that view is shared internationally. Just a few days ago, a small spacecraft named the “Mars Hope Probe” entered orbit of the Red Planet. This craft was built in Boulder for the United Arab Emirates’ space program (who knew they had one? Well, folks in Boulder knew).  And that bit of Boulder is now orbiting Mars.

So, when next you look at the night sky, take a moment to look to the southwest for the bright red dot, and you’ll be looking at Mars, and take some state pride that Colorado stuff is there. Nice job, Bruce.