Space Nerd

Are You a Space Nerd?

The New Cool of Being a Space Nerd

First, computer entrepreneurs became billionaires. It was a great day for geeks when the founder of Microsoft, a fellow geek, began making more money than the highest paid athletes. Many of these computer gurus became as well known as rock stars. Then, "Napolean Dynamite" hit the big screen and gave nerdiness a cool that not even the "Revenge of the Nerds" movies could.

Years before the personal computer revolution brought the "magic box" into everyone's home, there were other signs that a person was a nerd; they were smart, they played in the band, they were into "ham" radio, they liked science, especially astronomy...

Now, some of today's techie nerds are turning their attention to space.

Maybe that's why being a space nerd is cool now, as well.

It is a special time we are living in for space nerds. We're sending probes out into the universe and exploring Mars, looking for life and finding evidence of water, at least. Astronauts are again being thought of as daring adventurers rather than routine work-a-day technicians. Every day brings us closer to the privatization of space exploration and the possibility of normal people traveling to space. And, scientists have just discovered a previously unknown planet in our own solar system. It's a great time to be a space nerd.