Most of the time, one's senior project or master's thesis or even dissertation is a long paper ranging somewhere in length between a short story, novella, and maybe even a novel. Sometimes, such projects lead to something greater. Author Jonathan Safran Foer's Princeton thesis eventually became the best-selling novel, "Everything is Illuminated," which was converted to a movie. Rarer is when one's final collegiate work is the something greater, like David Ruck's masters thesis NASA documentary, "I Want To Be An Astronaut."
Ruck's film was made in response to massive budget cuts felt by NASA in 2011, CNN reported. His film focuses on the cut and the current state of NASA's program. Where it is said to succeed most, however, are the parts when it follows then 17 year-old high school senior Blair Mason on his journey to become an astronaut. Mason has had the dream since he was three years old. Today, he's majoring in aerospace engineering and computer science at Navy, which has graduated more astronauts than any other educational institution in the United States.
The point of splicing Mason's story with facts and figures about NASA is to demonstrate the importance of STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) in today's education. Mason was active in FIRST (for inspiration and recognition of the sciences and technology) Robotics competitions, which are still sponsored by NASA.
Even considering all the preparations he's made, Mason admitted (in the film) that a career at NASA would be "a long and complicated process, and I don't know what I'm going to encounter along the way." Still, he added: "I don't think I'll ever lose that dream."
Ruck will show clips of his film at the International Space Development Conference in Los Angeles -- the same conference where Buzz Aldrin, who along with Neil Armstrong became the first humans on the moon. The film will premier sometime this spring or summer at a film festival.
