The First Woman of Color in Space
Soror Mae Jemison continues to move upward like the ivy vine in the realm of scientific discovery as she leads an initiative to launch humans to another star a century from now, a program known as 100 Year Starship. Originally announced in January 2012, funding has just been recently secured for the project.
The Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence has been to receive seed funding to form an independent, non-governmental, long-term initiative which will ensure that the capabilities for human interstellar flight exist as soon as possible, and definitely within the next 100 years.
In the press release celebrating this grant award, Soror Jemison states:
“Yes, it can be done. 100 Year Starship is about building the tools we need to travel to another star system in the next hundred years. We’re embarking on a journey across time and space. If my language is dramatic, it is because this project is monumental.”
SororJemison was the first women of color to travel into space in 1992. When speaking about space exploration. Soror Jemison says:
“When I was growing up in the 60’s on the south-side of Chicago, I remember being so excited about space exploration — I wanted to be involved, but so many of us were left out the vision for what space exploration was. There were no women in the astronaut program, there were no African-Americans or Asians; there was just one type of person, and even though as a country we could rally and root for the space program, it left out the public who weren’t ‘rocket scientists.'”
A 100 Year Starship Public Symposium will be held in Houston September 13-16, 2012, inaugurating what will be an annual event open to scientific papers engineering challenges, philosophical and socio-cultural considerations, economic incentives, application of space technologies to improve life on earth, imaginative exploration of the stumbling blocks and opportunities to the stars, and broad public involvement. To learn more about the project, please visit http://100yss.org/
Congratulations soror! Keep creating new opportunities for all!
I Love My AKA 