Animation is the perfect medium for stories on space. Through scientific visualization, scientists can better pitch their missions and provide early concepts for how a spacecraft will conduct its science. While many payloads and spacecraft do include cameras, it’s not like we can easily capture the birth of a black hole or show how a planet’s magnetic field protect it from CMEs from the Sun. Through animation, I’ve hypothesized how the plumes of Europa might appear and what really happened during the Younger Dryas period on Earth, more than 10,000 years ago.

For general audiences, it helps to explain visually how Voyager’s Golden Record geolocates where we are in the universe or how we can say Mars may have once resembled Earth. My time working as an artist for NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has shown me that as much as I love working on general science animation, space will always be one of those special interests of mine.