Rising up in Detroit with a digital camera in her hand, Sophia Roberts — now an award-winning astrophysics science video producer—by no means imagined that sooner or later her path would wind via clear rooms, vacuum chambers, and even a beryllium mine. However framing the ultimate frontier typically requires touring via a few of Earth’s less-explored corners.
Sophia acquired her first digital camera from her father, a pictures fanatic, when she was simply 5 or 6 years previous. “I’ve principally been snapping away ever since!” she says.
With a pure curiosity and enthusiasm for science, Sophia pursued a level in biology at Oberlin School in Ohio. There, she found that she may mix her two passions.
“I usually lingered in lab classes, to not end an experiment however to {photograph} it,” Sophia says. “I had an epiphany at the start of sophistication sooner or later, which at all times opened with clips from BBC nature documentaries. I made a decision proper then that I’d be one of many individuals who make these movies sooner or later.”
She initially thought that meant wildlife filmmaking—perched in a blind on a mountainside, ready hours for an animal to seem. That dream led her to Montana State College, the place she discovered to mix scientific rigor with visible storytelling via their science and pure historical past filmmaking grasp’s program.
Whereas finishing her diploma, Sophia labored as a touring presenter for the Montana Area Grant Consortium. “I used to be primarily giving displays about NASA missions and displaying children lovely photographs of area,” she says. “That was my first true introduction to NASA. I beloved with the ability to watch the youngsters’s eyes gentle up once they noticed what’s on the market in area.”
Sophia then accomplished an internship on the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Museum of Pure Historical past whereas finishing her thesis. As soon as she graduated, she landed a year-long fellowship at NASA’s Goddard Area Flight Heart in Greenbelt, Maryland, as an Earth science information fellow. On this position, she targeted on packaging up tales via satellite tv for pc imagery and explanations.
She leaned into her videography abilities in her subsequent position, as a part of NASA’s James Webb Area Telescope workforce.
“Webb is considered one of my nice loves in life,” she says. “I discovered to barter with engineers for the right shot, navigate NASA’s protocols, and work with mission companions. I solely spent 5 years on Webb, but it surely feels prefer it was half my life. Nonetheless—it was the whole lot.”
That mission took her to some unforgettable locations, like a mine in Delta, Utah, the place uncooked materials for Webb’s mirrors was unearthed. “It was this large, spiral pit the place they had been mining beryllium at simply 0.02% focus,” Sophia says. The method was as otherworldly as the situation.
She additionally documented thermal vacuum testing at NASA’s Johnson Area Heart in Houston in a large pill-shaped chamber with a 40-foot spherical door. “I needed to take confined area coaching to crawl round within the space beneath the chamber,” she says. “It felt like spelunking.”
As soon as Webb launched, Sophia pivoted to overlaying lots of NASA’s smaller astrophysics missions together with the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Area Telescope. As of late, she will usually be discovered gowned up in a “bunny swimsuit” within the largest clear room at Goddard to doc area telescope meeting, or in a studio recording science explanations.
“I really like capturing the visible tales and serving to fill within the gaps to assist folks perceive NASA analysis,” Sophia says. “I attempt to give attention to the issues that can get folks excited concerning the science so that they’ll cease scrolling to seek out out extra.”
For Sophia, the method is commonly as exhilarating because the outcome. “I really like venturing out to distant locations the place science is being accomplished,” she says. “I’d like to movie a balloon launch in Antarctica sometime!”
To others who dream of pursuing the same profession, Sophia recommends diving in headfirst. “With cameras available and free on-line platforms, it’s by no means been simpler to get into the media,” she says. “You simply must watch out to analysis your matter and sources, ensuring you actually know what you’re sharing and perceive that science is at all times evolving as we be taught extra.” And Sophia emphasizes how essential storytelling is for conveying info, particularly when it’s as advanced as astrophysics. “Finding out science is fantastic, however I additionally assume serving to folks visualize it’s magical.”
By Ashley Balzer
NASA’s Goddard Area Flight Heart in Greenbelt, Md.