How does a science loving kid grow up into a real rocket scientist? I had the fantastic chance to interview Dr. Marc Rayman, NASA's Chief Propulsion Engineer and found out.

Among his accomplishments is Deep Space 1. As Project Manager, he headed a team who launched the probe on October 24, 1998. Its primary mission was to test 12 advanced high-risk technologies. The probe completed its mission with flying colors, but also did something extra to boot. It rendezvoused with Comet Borrelly and returned the best imagery and data ever collected on a comet.
 
Perhaps his most high profile contribution to science meeting science fiction pop culture, was in the documentary How William Shatner Changed The World. This was a fun look at how the television series Star Trek influenced real life science, impacted technology and inspired the keen minds of scientists like Marc Rayman.
 
When did you first know you were destined to be a scientist helping further space knowledge? What was the turning point?
 
When I was about 4 years old, I saw a meteor. I was quite afraid of witches at that age, and I thought I was watching one streak through the sky. When my parents told me it was a meteor, something from outer space burning up in our atmosphere, I was captivated. That's my earliest *specific* memory of being interested in science or space exploration, but I suspect my interest began even before that.
 
I bought a cheap, used telescope when I was in the seventh grade and throughout the years I was in junior high school and high school spent a few nights a week enjoying celestial sites with the telescope and with my naked eyes. The attraction of the stars has never waned.
 
Who was your science idol as a boy? What was your greatest influence to become a scientist?
 
I loved reading Isaac Asimov's science books. I was not interested in his science fiction, but I read as many of his articles and books about science fact, on all scientific topics, as I could. I thought of him as a brilliant scientist when I was a boy, although now I would consider him a writer instead. I also greatly admired Albert Einstein (nothing very surprising there), Paul Dirac, Murray Gell-Mann, Edwin Hubble, Isaac Newton, and many other scientists.
 
I don't know what influenced me to become a scientist. Somehow the passion for science has burned brightly within me for essentially my whole life.
 
Granted it's a broad area, but since space exploration began, what's the single greatest achievement and why? Was it as something as awe inspiring as the moon landing? Or relatively simple as putting the first satellite into earth orbit?
 
This certainly is a broad question! I could offer justifications for many achievements as being the greatest, with each of them inspiring great awe. In fact, I typed a list of many such missions, but then I reconsidered. As in so many human endeavors, progress depends on building on the work of others, both successes and failures. Given that, it's hard to justify any mission other than the first as being the single greatest achievement. Sputnik 1, while perhaps appearing simple, represented the culmination of an enormous amount of work spanning decades to begin the exploration of the cosmos.
 
Regarding How William Shatner Changed The World, what's more plausible - Warp Drive of Star Trek or Hyper Drive of Star Wars ? They're theoretical "faster than light" modes of travel, but which strikes you as being "practical"? Or are they flashy names for purely theoretical modes of super fast space fight?
 
Neither is a flashy name for a purely theoretical mode of faster than light travel, because there are no scientific theories supporting these systems. Rather, both are cool names for systems that propel the stories, not the ships. The *names* are taken from concepts based in science, but the application to the starships in these wonderfully entertaining stories can't really be claimed to be in the same universe as the word "practical." If humans ever find a way to circumvent the barrier of the speed of light, there is no reason whatsoever to believe it will bear any similarity to the systems in Star Trek or Star Wars. Any resemblance would be no more than completely superficial (such as some of the words) or coincidental.
 
We gave the world Star Trek, Star Wars - plus more real space achievements than any nation save for the former Soviet Union/Russia. Now we lag behind in hard sciences as studies report. How do you suggest educators spur more space interest in schools?
 
I am not an educator, and this is an area in which I am not very knowledgeable. But my personal opinion is that we live in a culture that seems to be increasingly ignorant of science or unwilling to accept what science has discerned about the universe (including our little corner of it). I'm very concerned about this problem. I don't know how educators can spur more interest in space or science, but our society could do so by recognizing, acknowledging, and accepting the successful results of science. What educators do, while of great importance, is less important than what students -- and others -- learn from the rest of society, including parents, elected leaders, the news media, other influential people.
 
Will China soon eclipse us in "space savvy"? Politics aside: Is it incumbent upon us to ally on missions, as their resources and ambitions start to match or even go beyond our own?
 
While China is making impressive progress, our knowledge far exceeds theirs. I have been an avid follower and supporter of space missions from other countries for many years. My car's license plate is SOYUZ, and I was investigated by the FBI when I was a graduate student for my private contacts with organizations in the USSR and China to learn about their space programs. I don't believe it is incumbent upon us to ally on missions, but I think it would be an excellent idea.
 
Do you think the moon's potential Helium 3 reserves are true energy bounty as many claim? Is the way to exploit it properly going the route of an international project alliance?
 
I do not believe that helium 3 from the moon represents a meaningful solution for the foreseeable future to our serious energy problems.
 
If you chose, would alien intelligence come ala SETI as in Carl Sagan's Contact- an actual ship landing ala The Day The Earth Stood Still or physical evidence or a meeting ala Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey?
 
Radio communication is overwhelmingly more likely (although I certainly wouldn't credit Carl Sagan with such an idea). But we are so technologically primitive and thoroughly ignorant of the ways of other intelligent species that we can't know what to expect.
 
Cell blue tooth, Blackberries, GPS etc. Are we becoming Borg? Does it worry you at all? Is there a downside about being "wired" all the time?
 
I don't think these modern conveniences are making us Borg -- I don't see us losing any aspect of our essential humanity because of these technological conveniences. All of these are tools, not fundamentally different from sharpened flint (or, as fans of the original Star Trek series might appreciate, not fundamentally different from stone knives and bear skins). I see no similarity to the Borg nor any reason whatsoever for worry. Being "wired" all the time creates the well known problem of making it hard to escape the stress of work for many people, but that's an extension of telegraph, telephone, and fax.
 
What gadgets in Star Trek or Star Wars would you "tweak" to make more scientifically plausible? In the same spirit, what's your favorite sci-fi gadget of all time?
 
There are so many cool gadgets, but my favorite, which really isn't a very inspired choice, is interstellar travel in short times. To be able to visit distant worlds easily -- what could be more exciting!