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Megan McArthur has always dreamed of space
Growing up on a California Naval base that shared space with a NASA research center, McArthur thought of becoming an astronaut as a career goal. Last year, she achieved that goal by joining the most recent crew to service and repair to Hubble Space Telescope. “I would see [astronauts] coming and going and thought that looked like a pretty fun job,” McArthur said. “That was around the age that people start asking you what you would like to do, so I started looking at college majors...with that interest in aviation and that interest in space.”
McArthur, the niece of biology professor and premedical program director Dr. Robert Kearns, visited UD Thursday, Jan. 14 to meet with several student groups and give a presentation to the public on her experiences in space.
McArthur attended UCLA for her undergraduate degree, studying aerospace engineering. She planned on pursuing her dream of being hired by NASA after graduation. But during her junior and senior years at UCLA, McArthur was involved with a project building human-powered submarines and racing them, which sparked her interest in ocean engineering. The project made McArthur reevaluate her future plans, and she turned to Kathy Sullivan, an astronaut and the first woman to walk in space, for help. Sullivan stressed to McArthur to choose a career path she enjoyed.
“You have to choose something you love to do and excel at that regardless of whether NASA will ever hire you because the chances are they won’t,” McArthur said, explaining the advice Sullivan gave her. “And so pick the thing that you love to do and go after it, and if NASA offers you a job then they do, but otherwise you still have this job that you love.”
This propelled McArthur to attend UC San Diego and earn a Ph.D. in oceanography, still keeping NASA in the back of her mind. McArthur then applied to NASA, where she and 16 others were chosen to join and train to become astronauts.
Once she was hired as mission specialist, McArthur was trained in robotics and spacewalking, as well as general space shuttle training, before being chosen as the flight engineer for the Hubble Space Telescope mission. In May 2009, McArthur and six others were launched into space to repair and service the Hubble.
“Once we were on orbit, my primary task was to be the robotic arm operator,” McArthur said. “The first task that I had to do was to use the robotic arm to capture the Hubble space telescope. We fly the space shuttle up to it, basically underneath it, and it sort of maturates so when you look out the window it looks like you’re both stationary even thought you’re going around the Earth really fast.”
During their 13 days in space, McArthur helped move the Hubble into different positions, and also aided spacewalkers place themselves on the telescope to do repairs. The crew’s experiences will be featured in an IMAX movie that premieres in March.
While on Earth, McArthur works as a Capsule Communicator, the person who relays information from different flight controllers on the ground to those on missions in space. McArthur has ultimately been happy with her career choice, and encourages today’s students to pursue their goals as well.
“You might thing it’s an outlandish dream that you have and maybe you’re embarrassed to tell people about it but when you tell people about it, they want to help you,” McArthur said. “I would say share your goal with people – find mentors and people that can help you, shepherd you along that path… and figure out what it is that you love to do and go after it.”