Spotlight: UI’s very own rocket scientist
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Randall McEntaffer is, in simple terms, a rocket scientist.
An assistant professor of astronomy and physics at his alma mater, the University of Iowa, his laboratory is hidden next to the stairwell in the basement of Van Allen Hall.
Parts of rockets — rockets that have already been launched and rockets that are in the preparation process — sit on tables. In the back of the room is a dust-free enclosure in which the researchers perform experiments to test sensitive optics that could improve the images the suborbital rockets capture in their six minutes of observation time in space.
The road to this lab was not necessarily a direct one. McEntaffer started college as a biology major on track for medical school for the first three years, and he had almost completed the degree when an astronomy class for non-majors piqued his interest in the stars — and everything that comes with them.
“I want to ask whatever question I can about a certain field and go explore it myself,” he said. “In medicine, that’s more difficult to do; in astronomy, you have the entire universe to go probe.”
After three more years of college, he had attained both a degree in physics and astronomy, leading the way for his almost eight-year stint at the University of Colorado-Boulder, where he completed a Ph.D. in astrophysics.
“I was lucky enough to be able to propose, build, design, fly, and analyze my own rocket during graduate school,” McEntaffer said. “My adviser realized that the best way to train a new person is not constant overlooking or delegating small, menial tasks — it’s actually giving them the reins and letting them take control of the project … and seeing it through fruition.”
During his time in Colorado, he met Ted Schultz, who became his best friend and came with him to Iowa to work as an engineer in his lab when McEntaffer was offered the position of assistant professor two years ago.
“[McEntaffer] brings a really fun, young energy to the program,” Schultz said. “He grew up in Iowa, and he has that Midwestern friendliness. But man, he’s sharp as a tack.”
A determination, too, to learn more, whether it is about the galaxy or improved rocket technology, drives everyone in the lab. One graduate student, Brennan Gantner, who is visiting from the University of Colorado-Boulder, said that in the three months before a February deadline, he worked on his rocket every day for around 15 hours a day — like McEntaffer had as a graduate student — taking Christmas Day as his only day off.
And now McEntaffer, working on his biggest project yet, a joint effort among NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, has less free time than ever. He returned home June 23 from England after a three-week business trip and left this weekend for California, then the Netherlands.
During these trips, he is advocating his and his collaborators’ design for a high-resolution X-ray spectrometer that will fly with the International X-ray Observatory, an expedition they hope to launch in 2021.
McEntaffer said that with two small children and a wife, the constant travel without them is one of the worst aspects of his job, although he tries to bring his family with him as often as possible. When he is in town, they catch up on lost time by going fishing as a family on the lake at Kent Park.
“My daughter always out-fishes me,” he said. “She catches more fish than anyone in the boat. Her little Disney fishing rod — the fish love it.”
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