Star Trek Science Adviser Sciences Trek and Treks Science at the Goddard Space Flight Center
Images: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Angeles Miron/David Powell.
SEPTEMBER 1, 2023 – In the season two finale of Star Trek: Lower Decks, when everyone yells at Kayshon for suggesting they warp to the Archimedes, you can hear Shaxs bellow "DR. ERIN SAYS WE CAN'T DO THAT!"
That’s Dr. Erin Macdonald, astrophysicist and Star Trek’s science adviser, a role she has filled since 2019. Her job is to navigate the space between good storytelling and accurate science, and she had an opportunity recently to talk to her scientific peers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center about how science informs Star Trek, and how Star Trek inspires science and exploration.
NASA recounts Macdonald’s visit and lecture, which was entitled, "From Warp Drives to Tachyons: Physics in Star Trek," in which she discussed how using Star Trek as a cultural reference point, one can teach a lot of complex scientific concepts. And rather than just saying, “You can’t do that” when advising writers and other creatives, she says she takes "a ‘yes, and’ approach. It’s important to find ways to integrate actual science when it’s appropriate “and being able to bend the rules and say, ‘Let’s just not explain it,’ when we can. The main rule for me is to make sure nothing is said in the show that is explicitly wrong.”
In addition to delivering her lecture, which was part of Goddard’s Engineering Colloquium series, she was able to tour the Center and get a first hand look at the work being done there, including the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, an infrared space telescope named for Dr. Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first female executive and first Chief of Astronomy.
Macdonald is the latest in a long line of Star Trek personalities to have visited Goddard, and she says, “I'm honored to play a small role in continuing that relationship and hope to do so for many years in the future! Where I have had a great experience is my continued relationship with peers who work at NASA and other organizations, who reach out to tell me about a new, interesting discovery, or even more, a new ‘unknown’ that has been uncovered. Here we can find ways to integrate those into the stories going forward.”
For more on Dr. Erin Macdonald’s visit to the Goddard Space Flight Center, head over to NASA.
David is a contributing writer for Daily Star Trek News on the Roddenberry Podcast Network. He is a librarian, baseball fan, and book and movie buff. He has also written for American Libraries and Skeptical Inquirer. David also enjoys diverse music, but leans toward classical and jazz. He plays a mean radio.
