Niamh urges us all to ‘dream big’ in her new book
Dundalk woman Dr. Niamh Shaw has reached another landmark with the launch of her new book ‘Dream Big: An Irish Woman’s Space Odyssey.’
Dr Shaw is a performer, science communicator and STEM ambassador with two degrees in engineering, and a PhD in science.
Since she was a child growing up in Dundalk Niamh wanted to go to outer space, but with no role model to look up to, she felt that was an impossible dream. Instead, she pursued a career in academia.
This mission to become Ireland’s first person into space is chronicled in her new book where she says: ‘What do you do with an impossible dream, do you let them go?’
In the book, Niamh explains that she ‘always felt that something was missing.’
‘I realised now was the time to pursue my dream or I would spend the rest of her life regretting that I had given up.’
And so, this 40-year-old woman from Louth began a journey she insists that she is determined to finish.
The book explores her journey so far, including thew exciting nine week spell at the International Space University’s annual Space Studies Programme in Ohio in partnership with NASA. She met and worked with over 120 people from all over the world who shared her passion for space.
Niamh also spent over two weeks on a Simulated Mars mission at the Mars Desert Research Station in the Utah desert, and was invited to Star City in Moscow, where she visited the Cosmonaut Training Facility where she went on a Zero Gravity flight. Currently, Niamh is pursuing more simulated missions, including a 28-day lunar mission where the selected crew members will experience what a working day and what life would be like if they were living on the moon!
The Dundalk woman will shortly be announcing the details of her mission – Walking Slowly to Space, which she believes ‘will be the mission to earn her the right to get to space.’ When space agencies revisit the idea of bringing a citizen to space, Niamh is candidate. She will be the communicator in space chosen based on the many years of her work achieved on the ground.