This is a pretty reasonable goal. I suggest you also consider learning FORTRAN (starting with 77) and a solid scripting language like Python or the more niche IDL (used extensively in space research)
You can get your foot in the door with some more high level programs doing things like data processing and visualizations, and once you are there you will be able to find the opportunity to get your hands dirty with space code.
I worked in a group doing solar physics research and although my code didn't get pushed to a satellite, I did get to do a lot of awesome analysis on data sent back from the satellite.
The Science Engineering and Support/Technical staff positions are often open to people without a PhD and offer a great opportunity to work on space science.
As an aside: How are you selecting your man pages? Do you have a specific group in your sights, or will you pick day by day?
Thank you for the advice, you've definitely given me some stuff to thing about, and I'm glad to hear from somebody who's worked in a field similar to what I'd like to get into.
As for the man pages, I'm starting off with 'man', then will move onto my most commonly used commands for general Linux use and server administration. After that, I'll be using a shell script to give me a random man page.
Comments
This is a pretty reasonable goal. I suggest you also consider learning FORTRAN (starting with 77) and a solid scripting language like Python or the more niche IDL (used extensively in space research)
You can get your foot in the door with some more high level programs doing things like data processing and visualizations, and once you are there you will be able to find the opportunity to get your hands dirty with space code.
I worked in a group doing solar physics research and although my code didn't get pushed to a satellite, I did get to do a lot of awesome analysis on data sent back from the satellite.
You should browse sites like the AAS Job Register as well: http://jobregister.aas.org/
The Science Engineering and Support/Technical staff positions are often open to people without a PhD and offer a great opportunity to work on space science.
As an aside: How are you selecting your man pages? Do you have a specific group in your sights, or will you pick day by day?
Thank you for the advice, you've definitely given me some stuff to thing about, and I'm glad to hear from somebody who's worked in a field similar to what I'd like to get into.
As for the man pages, I'm starting off with 'man', then will move onto my most commonly used commands for general Linux use and server administration. After that, I'll be using a shell script to give me a random man page.
Hah, very meta, good idea to start with man's manpage, then work your way from there. Best of luck to you.