Unlikely Connections Formed Over Meteors and Margaritas at Brains In A Bar

With Cinco de Mayo happening on a Friday this year, we thought it was the perfect occasion to host a Brains In A Bar event, where select community members are invited to a secret location to discuss a specific topic with other like-minded individuals over a complimentary cocktail – but only after they correctly solve a puzzle!

Aptly titled “Meteors and Margaritas,” we asked participants to complete the following puzzle from The Astronaut Selection Test Book:

Sixteen Tech Square ATL (TSQATL) members accepted the mission and only three answered incorrectly:

So that Friday afternoon, attendees launched into a deep discussion regarding various interests and relationships to space, historical triumphs of the past, and where they think the future of space exploration lies. Throughout the conversations, we also uncovered some interesting similarities amongst our community members:

Parker Laue, Technology Strategy and Advisory Consultant at Accenture, shared that his grandparents worked for NASA and he got to tour their facilities and see launches when he was younger. His uncle also worked on the James Webb Space Telescope, which launched in December 2021.
Caroline Dunn, VP of Marketing at Wahsega, revealed that her boss' daughter-in-law is a current NASA astronaut.

The unlikely connection between two community members who were strangers prior to this event only further showcases how our focus of bringing like-minded individuals together is fruitful, and how you just might have more in common with someone you pass in the halls than you think!

DID YOU KNOW?

The James Webb Space Telescope is essentially a giant mirror consisting of 18 hexagonal gold-coated segments, each 4.3 feet (1.32 meters) in diameter. Because of this, the telescope needed to be folded up to fit inside a spacecraft for launch, and took nearly 30 days to unfold.

What should our next Brains In A Bar topic be? Let us know in the comments below.