AD Stories: Sabinije von Gaffke and Childlike Wonder
AD Stories: Sabinije von Gaffke and Childlike Wonder https://asteroidday-uploads.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/11034738/IMG_3258-%C2%A9-Sabinije-von-Gaffke.jpg 3021 2022 Asteroid Day https://asteroidday-uploads.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/11034738/IMG_3258-%C2%A9-Sabinije-von-Gaffke.jpg
In our ongoing AD stories series on our Asteroid Day LIVE panel participants’ personal tales and relationships to asteroids, we turn to one of our hosts, Sabinije von Gaffke. The founder of the Game Changer Global Initiative and Communications Expert has been fascinated by space since she was 5 and brought a couple of especially meaningful items along with her to Luxembourg.
Sabinije von Gaffke
Sabinije has been collecting stones since the age of 5, but two of the more recent additions to her collection hold a very special place. Among her favourites is a pendant that she wears as a necklace and the other is a ring, both made from the Muonionalusta meteorite that was found in Northern Sweden, her country of birth. She also owns a much cherished and frequently used Fisher Space Pen My Fisher Space Pen – famous for being able to write upside down, under water and in all other imaginable conditions, and used aboard the Apollo 7 mission in space in 1968.
But one article that truly shaped her view on the world and which she recently re-discovered after having originally read it as a kid, is Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, about a little prince stranded in the Sahara desert after visiting many different asteroids, looking to return to B612, the asteroid he calls home. The book became the initial spark that lit her fascination for space and asteroids. But although the book already fascinated her as a kid, it was only during her re-read as an adult that she discovered the deeply philosophical undertones that elevate the book beyond the mere children’s tale it is often perceived as. The childlike wonder and fascination of the little Prince is one that she believes humanity as a whole still holds towards space and its exploration.
(Image credits: © Sabinije von Gaffke)
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Read Mark Boslough’s story here.
Read Rusty Schweickart’s story here.
Read Patrick Michel’s story here.
Read Alan Fitzsimmons’s story here.
Read Mario Jurić’s story here.
