Nancy Roman’s curiosity about the cosmos began at a very young age and lasted until the day of her passing. His father, the geophysicist Irwin Roman, would answer his scientific questions and his mother, Georgia Smith Roman, would show him the stars, birds, and plants. “It was probably my parents who inspired me the most,” he said in an interview with NASA on one occasion. The society of the time dictated that “women should not be scientists.” The space captivated her since she was little and, although it was not easy for her to follow her passion, she never gave up.
She earned her BA in astronomy from Swarthmore College and later her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, where her thesis advisor ignored her for six months straight, in her own words. He eventually began working at the university’s Yerkes Observatory and subsequently joined NASA . It was precisely in the US space agency that she finally felt that men were treating her as an equal.
Your history with Hubble
The famous astronomer led the push to launch the Hubble Space Telescope, hence her nickname as ” Hubble’s mother .” Roman joined NASA headquarters shortly after the agency’s founding in 1958 and was the first chief of astronomy in NASA’s Office of Space Science and also the first woman to hold an executive position in that space agency. .
Astronomer Lyman Spitzer had previously proposed the idea of an optical space-based telescope in 1946, but the budget and technology required for such a project were not available. It would take a few more years for Roman to take steps in this direction in 1960 , three decades before the instrument was finally released. She directly supervised the planning and early development of what became the Hubble Space Telescope.
It was precisely in 1960 that he brought together some 30 astronomers and NASA engineers to discuss the idea of a large general-purpose space telescope that would cost 20 times the price of the largest ground-based telescope . The project was underway.
Throughout the 1980s, he helped plan and develop the telescope, learning what the scientific community needed and what kind of instrument would be most useful for astronomy. It struggled to finance its construction and launch, and despite some problems with its gyros, Hubble will outlive its ‘mother’.
Advocate for women in science
Throughout her career, Roman was a passionate advocate for women in science, teaching astronomy to elementary school children in the 1990s.
She has received many accolades throughout her life, including the Lifetime Achievement Award for Women in Aerospace and the NASA Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award. A pioneer of space.
Roman died on December 25, 2018 at the age of 93.
