Dr. Roedolph Opperman: God’s Awesome Universe
Author: David Markopoulos | Living Education
These summaries are written to give our audience an idea of the special forum messages our students have access to as part of the Living Education-Charlotte program.
Dr. Roedolph Opperman is a lead systems engineer with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and advanced degrees in Aerospace Engineering from MIT. He has worked on the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover with NASA, and has a great deal of experience in the engineering field. In a recent forum to the Living Education-Charlotte students, Dr. Opperman talked about space travel and the beauty of God’s creation.
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To the Moon
Throughout history, 12 men have had the distinction of walking on the moon. Dr. Opperman mentioned that NASA has been planning to send people back to the moon – a notable feat of human achievement. However, it is important to keep in mind that sending humans to space is dangerous, difficult, and expensive. For the past several years, NASA’s space exploration work has occurred through the work of several smaller companies receiving funding.
Dr. Opperman worked as a fault protection engineer on the Perseverance Rover, and described his job as helping to minimize issues. The rover had to be tested repeatedly to ensure it would function properly and to account for every situation. Anyone working on the rover had to wear protective suits so as to prevent anything from going into space that wasn’t supposed to – no human DNA was supposed to travel along with the rover.
The Future
Dr. Opperman also addressed Elon Musk’s ongoing endeavors to colonize Mars. Recent rocket launches and testing of SpaceX’s propulsion systems are leading to further advancements in this area, and it is Musk’s hope to begin colonizing the stars before long.
However, Dr. Opperman pointed out that human beings are not designed for space travel. Astronauts have to undergo physical training to be prepared to enter space, and are trained for the zero-gravity environment by floating in water tanks. Space travel takes a physical toll on the human body and immune system, and the strain it causes shows how underprepared we are as a species to begin taking on the cosmos.
We can look forward to the time when our physical forms are changed into spirit, and we have the opportunity as God’s begotten children to experience creation from His perspective when that change occurs. When Jesus returns and creation is liberated, we will be able to explore the beauty of the stars without the limitations of our current technology or the dangers that threaten our physical bodies. We will have the chance to appreciate and experience the beauty of creation in a way we never have before.
David Markopoulos is a Living Education alumnus from the 2023-2025 school years. Originally hailing from Chicago, he currently works for the Living Education program.
