Kawhe and kōrero with NASA

Have you ever had morning tea with an astronaut? Petra Fisher has.

For Petra, meeting an astronaut was particularly inspiring because she has been honing an interest in space science during her last two summer projects.

Petra is a fourth year BSc tauira, double majoring in Physics and Computer Science, with a minor in Maths.

“Last summer I worked with Professor Craig Rodger collecting space weather data to assess the time difference between space weather events recorded at satellites and at magnetometers in New Zealand and the Chatham Islands.

Professor Rodger describes his work on space weather as examining how “energy flows from the Sun and how it impacts the environment on and around the Earth”.

“The summer before I worked with Robert Van Gorder using applied mathematics and astrophysics to make basic models for stars,” Petra says.

"I'm very grateful for the opportunity to have worked on two summer research projects during my degree. The projects allowed me to apply what I'd learnt in my papers to real problems in applied mathematics, astrophysics, and space science."

She is hoping to build on these foundations to pursue a space science-related Honours project at Otago in 2024, after her internship with RocketLab - an open access end-to-end space technology company in Auckland - this summer.

Petra met Captain Stefanyshyn-Piper in the University Staff Club in September for an exciting morning tea with other members of AeroSpace South - a group of space-related professionals, researchers and enthusiasts.

Captain Stefanyshyn-Piper is a retired US astronaut who has spent a total of 27 days in space, she was a USA Navy diver prior to being selected as an astronaut candidate in 1996 and was the seventh American woman to perform a spacewalk.

She was in Dunedin as part of a tour of Aotearoa, during which she spoke to students about the importance of representation in STEM and at NASA, and about NASA internships that are now open to New Zealand applicants.

She also spoke at several panels at the New Zealand Aerospace Summit.

Meeting Captain Stefanyshyn-Piper was a dream come true for Petra, who described the former astronaut as “a very practical and capable person, someone who just came across as so onto it”.

“The morning tea was an amazing opportunity for some of Otago’s young women in STEM to meet someone who has had such an exciting and inspiring career both in the Navy and at NASA, especially because women are often underrepresented in those fields.”

Petra is looking forward to embarking on Honours next year and is sure she wants to keep space science at the centre of her world.