Retired NASA astronaut Col. Jerry Ross visited the Westville campus on Dec. 4 to conclude the 63rd season of PNW’s Sinai Forum. Presenting in the Dssac, Ross spoke about his experience and gave an assessment of the present and future state of space exploration.

Ross, a 1966 graduate of Crown Point High School and Purdue alumnus, shares the record for most space flights (seven with fellow retired NASA astronaut Franklin Chang Diaz).

Ross assisted with the construction of the International Space Station.Ross, orbiting the Earth at 5 miles per second, described how the view of Earth’s atmosphere from space created a sense of smallness and gave him a desire to protect the atmosphere for future generations.

The space station is still being used for research and experiments, with travel to and from the station being developed by private companies rather than government-funded agencies like NASA. The space station will continue to operate through at least 2024 while engineers develop the capability to further explore Mars. Ross believes an international collaboration could send a manned-mission to Mars with current technology, but the mission comes with many challenges and it would take over three years to return to Earth after launching.

Ross spoke alongside a video of his seventh and final space flight, which launched on April 8, 2002. On the 12th day of his final flight, Ross and his crew fired the shuttle’s rocket engines and 30 minutes later slammed back into the Earth’s atmosphere at 25 times the speed of sound.

In addition to his autobiography, “Spacewalker: My Journey in Space and Faith as NASA’s Record-Setting Frequent Flyer,” Ross signed copies of his children’s book, “Becoming a Spacewalker: My Journey to the Stars.” Ross said his goal was for his children’s book to be used in the classroom, so he was very grateful when the School of Education at Purdue University provided every fourth-grade teacher in Indiana with a copy of the book.

“The intent of this book is to try to get young people excited about what they are going to do,” Ross said. “I wasn’t any superstar as a kid. I didn’t get straight A’s. I was just a normal kid, but I had a dream, and that dream was something that was important to me. It caused me to work hard and study hard and that’s something I want young people to try to emulate.”