• Question: If you could would u rather work as an engineer for NASA or USSR?

    Asked by Alexm96 to Rumman, Petros, Peppe, Greg, Fran on 13 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Petros Papapanagiotou

      Petros Papapanagiotou answered on 13 Nov 2017:

      I have actually met and talked to people from NASA. They are quite nice! They are also committed to benefiting the public, so I wouldn’t mind working for them. I have no idea what it would be like to work for the USSR (I was too young when it dissolved) so I can’t really tell.

    • Photo: Fran Zuch

      Fran Zuch answered on 13 Nov 2017:

      Uuh, that is a good question. I think both Russia and the US have great space programmes and I wouldn’t need to learn Russian if I chose the NASA. I suppose it would depend on the opportunity offered and then I would decide. I wouldn’t mind either to be fair 🙂

    • Photo: Greg Chance

      Greg Chance answered on 14 Nov 2017:

      Nasa could be a cool place to work as I speak the language! The science in Russia would be interesting but I might struggle with the culture.

    • Photo: Giuseppe Cotugno

      Giuseppe Cotugno answered on 15 Nov 2017:

      Nice question. US and USSR were both competing to achieve something which was a mutual interest (and indeed it worked well in this case). I assume just participating in the “space race” on either side at the time would have been more than satisfactory, since this challenge goes beyond ideology (although it was used also for each other’s propaganda).

      I will try to take a side anyway. I know only few things on how was used to be life in USSR so I won’t give you a fully informed opinion. If I could hypothetically decide where to go independently of the travel limitations of the time, I would pick the country that would guarantee a proportionate salary, access to affordable and quality education and healthcare, possibility to own a house suitable for my family and something that is not too distant from home. As Riga (my wife’s hometown) was used to be part of the USSR and the local hub for robotics, and the above mentioned requirements were used to be (on paper) the features USSR was so proud of, USSR plays at an advantage. However the endemic corruption of USSR, the punishment of free speech and freedom of opinion and the limitations on the freedom of self organisation (i.e. you won’t be able to get anything bigger than a corner shop) make the USA a more viable alternative, despite the distance from home and the weaker social security.

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