202: Exploring Antarctica with Tara Sweeney

Casual Space

Tara Sweeney is a United States Air Force Academy graduate, a Space Camp Hall of Fame inductee, a corporate leader in advanced technology test and evaluation events, a former crew member on parabolic research flights, a private pilot, and a graduate of SpaceKind training. She has been instrumental in establishing and executing the Cosmic Odyssey Scholarship as a mentor to Niko Blanks. In addition to being a proven leader, entrepreneur, and STEM mentor to many organizations, individuals, and students, Tara is a field geologist who recently returned from a 102-day Antarctic science expedition to McMurdo Station, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, Thwaites Glacier, and the McMurdo Dry Valleys. She is currently working on PhD research related to rocket seismology, impact cratering, and field techniques and technology in preparation for extravehicular activity on the lunar surface. As a matter of fact, Tara Sweeny and her team laid out the largest number of seismometers in the history of Antarctic exploration and scientific achievement (deploying 457 seismometers)! Why is this important to Tara? In her current research as a Ph. D candidate, she’s investigating using a similar seismic array on the Moon, on Mars, to understand the human influences of our presence on other planetary bodies and here at home. We discuss how seismometers work, Antarctica adventures, Moonquakes, Earthquakes, and Marsquakes, milkshakes and being wicked awesome!

Where to find Tara

On Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/sweeneytl

On LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/taralsweeney/

More Wicked Awesomeness about Tara

Tara Sweeney has been inspiring children and adults to see the wonder of space exploration and the importance of the STEM fields that make it possible for nearly four decades. She has served as CEO, President, Interim Executive Director, COO, CSO, and Vice President, of technology test and evaluation organizations focused on operations in austere and hazardous environments for national defense, homeland security, and intelligence community projects. Tara is a retired United States Air Force Special Operations Command Officer. She has engaged in both military and civilian aviation activities, including as a single-engine aircraft pilot, a glider student pilot, a helicopter maintenance officer, a parabolic flight coach, and a parabolic flight attendant. Tara has accumulated approximately five hours in microgravity while conducting space-based research experiments and training participants how to experience reduced gravity. She previously served as the leader of the world-renowned STEM education program, Space Camp, at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center and was inducted into the Space Camp Hall of Fame in 2018. Tara holds degrees from the United States Air Force Academy, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Regis University. She is currently pursuing her doctorate at the University of Texas at El Paso. Tara is from Fitchburg, Massachusetts, and has twice been inducted into the Fitchburg High School Athletic Hall of Fame as an Individual Inductee and as a Team Inductee. She presently lives in El Paso, Texas, with her wife, Dr. Jennifer Bishop, and their dog, Sylvia.