Ask A Scientist© Astronomy Archive

Question:  We are 4th graders from Munhall School in St. Charles Illinois.  We
want to ask a question about building spaceships.  If a scientist can build a
spaceship, why can't a mechanic build one?

Answer 1:  Scientists don't build spaceships; mechanics do that kind of work.
Jlu

Answer 2:  A team of engineers would probably design the spaceship, and their
design would be communicated by blueprints, etc. to those who would actually
build it.  Scientists would be more involved in using any information that was
collected using the spaceship.  For example, consider the Hubble space telescope  or Voyager missions
that worked out basically as I describe above.  Scientists interpret the data
the "spaceship" sends back to earth.
Dan Koury