MichSpace

Last Friday, the University of Michigan had the privilege to host Anousheh Ansari, the first Muslim woman in space as well as entrepreneur extraordinaire. I was lucky enough to get invited to lunch with her and fifteen or so other young ambitious females. There was a sprinkling of males there as well. (I suppose that's the advantage of being so deeply involved in the space community at UM.)

Ms. Ansari talked about entrepreneurship, how she got her name on the Ansari-X prize, and how she went about getting launched into space. Born in Iran, Ansari came to the US when she was sixteen years old. After getting a degree in electrical engineering, she and her husband opened a telecommunications company which they later sold. I'm not quite aware of the whole story, but it ends in success. Ms. Ansari has always had a deep interest in space her whole life and when the opportunity to get involved occurred, she took it.

The lunch was casual and very open. We asked her several questions and she was not hesitant at all to share her experiences. It was one of those things where you just sat there in awe, and simply listened, because you were too dumbfounded to contribute anything to the conversation except words that would encourage her to speak more. She was a very calm, collected, and educated woman. At the end of the day I was very honored to be able to take part in her visit to UM. Hopefully, there are more to come.

Video of her speech is available here.