Innovation & Tech Today – May 2019

62 INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | SUMMER 2019

and potentially astronautic careers.

“I love the fact there’s a female Asian

commander running things with empathy and

love,” Melvin said. “This whole thing about

representation matters. Through that

commander, more kids can see themselves being

the commander of a Mars mission, or being on a

Mars mission.

“We’re seeing more and more girls involved

with STEM, with STEAM, and looking at the

four components of STEM in making their

continuing education and career choices.

Everything from engineering to robotics,

geology to astronautics matters a lot, but so does

empowering students to feel like they can get us

to Mars – because the actual build-up and

manned mission to Mars will happen under

their watch, and these kids will be performing

jobs that don’t even exist yet.”

Most of all, Melvin lauded the way Howard,

Grazer, and the rest of the team dove deeply into

his and other advisors’ direct experiences and

threaded some of them into the shows.

Consequently, he feels MARS will serve as a

catalyst to further focus younger viewers on a

space component in their STEM-based careers.

“When I was in space, I experienced this shift

called the ‘overworld perspective’, which

happens to a lot of astronauts when they spend

considerable time in orbit, like I did — or who

explored a foreign body, like the Apollo

astronauts did fifty years ago,” he explained. “I

realized that to bring kids fully into the space

experience, we needed to match the science and

exploration with some form of entertainment –

and in MARS, we have it. We have edutainment,

where we have experts talk about it, but also this

dramatic show that entertains the kids, so they

can see what it might be like to live there. There

are babies, dogs, fighting, bars... but a lot of the

time, they don’t think astronauts working and

living in space is really like that.”

Leland Melvin looks a lot more like a retired

NFL receiver than one of the world’s greatest

STEM and STEAM influencers who holds five

honorary Ph.D.’s plus the doctorate he earned in

school. He’s big, powerful, an avid participant in

many sports, and a mover and shaker wherever

he goes. He finds time in his life for

photography, playing piano, reading, music,

cycling, tennis, and snowboarding. He

undertakes every mission like a player breaking

down film, whether an interview or writing a

book, and comes out having empowered adults

and students alike. It makes sense: he was a star

student and athlete in high school, the son of

teachers who emphasized developing diverse

interests, and deeply inspired by his personal

hero, the late tennis great Arthur Ashe.

“It was Arthur Ashe, what he had to put up

with to become a great tennis player, the issues

of race at the time, and how he maintained his

focus and his integrity that really inspired me,”

Melvin said. “I grew up wanting to be a great

tennis player like Arthur, to follow in his

footsteps, but life has a funny way of redirecting

us. I learned then that when it redirects you, and

the redirection feels right and leads to an

outcome you’d love to see, that you go in that

direction.”

His first redirection was onto the football field.

Melvin took his near-perfect high school

transcript, walked on at the University of

Richmond and became a fine wide receiver,

good enough to be drafted in the 7th round by

the Detroit Lions in 1986. The Lions were good

then, and he craved the opportunity to be on the

same field as their superstar running back, Barry

Sanders. “I felt like I had a chance,” Melvin

recalled, “but I injured my leg twice in a short

period of time, during camp, and if you’re a 7th

round draft choice with a blown-out leg, it’s not

going to work out.”

Disappointed but armed with vision,

determination, and an acute scientific and

creative mind, Melvin decided to try something

he’d never thought about as a kid: becoming an

astronaut. In 1989, NASA hired Melvin to work

in nondestructive testing, creating optical fiber

sensors for measuring damage in aerospace

vehicles. Twenty years later, Melvin flew two

shuttle missions on Atlantis in 2008 and 2009 as

Photo NASA/Bill Ingalls

Former presidential STEM advisor

Leland Melvin (second adult from

right) high-fives a space enthusiast

with fellow members of one of the two

Space Shuttle Endeavor missions that

he flew. Melvin was in space twice

over a two-year period.

tech
zone NASA

Leland Melvin’s Newest Mission