Mach 30 – It’s Not Just for Engineers

A question that’s been coming up a lot is this – “Do I have to be an engineer or rocket scientist to be a part of Mach 30?” The answer is no! And by “no” I mean it’s critical that we have the help of non-engineers. And by “critical” I mean that it will literally take the combination of all kinds of skills to accomplish Mach 30’s mission. Don’t let the rocket science facade fool you, we’re an organization that thrives on the talents of graphic designers, organizers, non-profit specialists, authors, teachers, artists, makers, and anyone else who wants to see space become a regular part of our daily lives. Below is a partial list of some things that we need help with that don’t require a PhD in Space Systems Engineering.

Donations

This is a great way to help us out, especially if you don’t have lots of free time to give. Whether it’s one dollar or a thousand, everything counts and it encourages us to know that we’re not alone in the mission to secure our spacefaring future.  Donate now and you can become a member of the 2013 Catalyst Club! Joining the Catalyst Club makes you eligible for some special perks that are our way of saying “Thank You”.

Advocacy

We need people to spread the word about our mission, and about the fact that space is worth striving for. We’ve even made business cards for you to make it easy to share Mach 30 with everyone.

Follow, Like, Add, Friend, +1, Circle, and Subscribe

Mach 30 is on Facebook, Google+, YouTube, and Twitter. Join us there! To get updates on our recent activities, subscribe to receive our monthly newsletter called The Launchpad. Here is the archive of past issues. If you trust us with your email, it will never be given to anyone else without your permission, ever. Period.

Event Planning

We love to do events like Yuri’s Night and the impromptu Curiosity landing party, and we’d love to do even more. We’ve even talked about holding some type of open source spaceflight conference. To make these events happen we need event planners and coordinators.

Documentation

It’s hard to keep up on project documentation, and we could always use more help on this. Documentation is not just about CAD drafts and engineering analyses. There’s a lot of documentation to be done, and things like operating manuals can be even better when they’re written by a non-engineer.

Legal Consultation

We’re in a critical time right now where we have to navigate the deep waters of export controls. We need legal counsel to help us through this, and even beyond export controls there’s the day-to-day legal issues that an organization like Mach 30 encounters.

Project Management

Not every Mach 30 project has to be technical in nature. For example, we’ve recently launched the Mach 30 Book Club which is designed to allow everyone to participate. Have a look at our Mach 30 Drawing Board to see if there are any projects which you’d be interested in starting and managing. If there aren’t any, why not propose your own?

Marketing

If you can market Mach 30 to a broader audience, we want your help too. The more people that know about us and support us, the larger our impact will be. Remember, the goal here is to move humankind to become a spacefaring civilization. We want everyone around the world to know about and support our mission.

Education

Mach 30 is focused on education and outreach as part of our mission. We love the idea of helping to train and inspire the next generation of explorers. If you’re a teacher who wants to introduce your students to rocket science in a safe and fun way, an educator who wants to develop school room curriculum for our hardware projects, or just someone who wants to help us reach students from age 5 to 105, we’re looking for you too.

Fundraising

This is an area that our current Board of Directors has found challenging. Not only can we not develop the cool spaceflight projects we want without money, we also can’t do things like travel to meet interesting people like you. Every dollar that you can help us raise allows us to build the relationships and infrastructure needed to complete our mission.

Testing and Feedback

Almost every project has users, but most of them never report anything back to the project managers. Are you an Open Design Engine user who’s noticed a bug? Did you build a Shepard Test Stand and notice a mistake in one of the drawings? Were you browsing the Mach 30 website and noticed a mispelling? It would be great to have your feedback.

Graphic Design

The Board of Directors is lucky to have it’s very own mercinary art ninja, Bekah McGrady, but she’s always on the lookout for help from other graphic designers. We like our projects to look as good as they work, and you can be a part of that. Can you help us design mission patches for each of our projects? How about helping us to create merit or skill badges for people to earn as they learn new skills? These are just a couple of the ideas that are being talked about that would need graphic design.

Gamification/Skills Advancement

Mach 30 wants to work with other organizations all around the world to create a skills advancement system that would allow people to be rewarded for the hands-on skills they learn. If you want to be part of this educational frontier and help us train the innovators of the future, we have a spot for you.

Insert Your Interest Here

Did I miss what you’re interested in? No problem, there’s a really good chance that you’ll fit right in somewhere at Mach 30. We’re looking for all skill levels and interests to help us accomplish our mission. Contact Us to let us know how you want to get involved.

So, still think that Mach 30 is just for engineers and rocket scientists? I’m an engineer by profession, and some would say by personality as well, and I can say that in my experience Mach 30 has a place for everyone who loves space and wants to go there someday. Come, join us and help shape the future.

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One thought on “Mach 30 – It’s Not Just for Engineers

  1. Pingback: 2013 Recap | Mach 30

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