Last month the students at Freeport Public School's Bayview Avenue School of Arts and Sciences learned how an education in the arts and a passion for science can merge into a successful, exciting and rewarding career. Jason Achilles a professional musician and the principal investigator for the NASA grant-awarded Lunar ExoCam project, virtually visited fourth grade students and spoke to them about his career as a musician, and his lifelong passion for science and space.
"I can remember from the time I was young always being fascinated by space and science," said Achilles to the students signed into the event. "While I developed a career as a musician, I never lost that fascination."
During his presentation, Achilles explained how he, as an established, professional musician, was able to utilize his creativity to start his own company, Zandef Deksit, Inc. and develop and launch a microphone into space inside NASA's Perseverance rover to capture the sounds of Mars.
"I went to college and studied music, and only started working as a scientist in the last five years," Achilles told the students. "This is a bit strange because you would think science is something you would have to work on all your life, but as it turns out you can change your mind and try new things and be successful."
Prior to the webinar, the students viewed the videos of the Lunar ExoCam testing which took place earlier this year and Achilles, who continues to make music, explained how his company went through the process of developing their camera and microphones for space. Beginning with the drawing stage through to prototypes and testing.
Closing the webinar, Principal Mary Gargiulo thanked Achilles for sharing his experiences and engaging with the Bayview students and inspiring them to pursue their goals in the arts and sciences.
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