Space gamer reaches for stars
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A GEEK has landed his dream job at the US space agency Nasa thanks to his favourite video game.
Arsenio Menendez, 23, got hooked on flight simulator Kerbal Space Program when he was growing up.
He said: “It was this little game that had such character to it.
“Within the first day I had logged a ridiculous amount of hours on it.
“As more and more parts came out, I had logged about 500 hours in this game. You can learn literal orbital mechanics from Kerbal Space Program.
“Your brain hits a flow state and suddenly things start making sense. You start doing things by a gut feel.” Arsenio, inset, grew even more fascinated by space travel after watching a rocket launch in 2013. He said: “It’s indescribable. It’s remarkable because you feel your entire skeleton shaking. “I was like, ‘I know exactly what I want to do…I want to do that.’”
Arsenio failed to get good grades at school and was turned down by colleges. But months later he started posting about space travel on social media and his luck changed. Nasa offered him an interview and bosses were so impressed that they gave him a job on the spot.
Arsenio went on to create a laser heterodyne radiometer, which was sent into space last December.
The lad, from US state Virginia, said of the launch: “It’s totally different when you have something you worked on that’s on board. I was jittery and the nerves set in.
“Then when it got off the pad I was crying. And then I was just giddy. I wake up in the morning, blink and think, ‘Hey, I still work at Nasa!’”
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