Ahhh, space: truly the final frontier (and not just in Star Trek). From sending rovers to Mars to having astronauts living in a space station that orbits our world, we’ve come a long way in space exploration. But the beginning of the space age where humankind was just starting to find its (zero gravity) space legs was a truly amazing time. And the winner of our Space Age challenge, Santiago “Metalsan” Sarquis, perfectly captured the vibe of the time by celebrating the weird lookin’ little Satellite that started it all in 1957: Sputnik 1.
We talked to Santiago about space exploration, his favorite sci-fi movies and shows, and about winning two Threadless challenges in a row! Check out what he had to say!
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Oh hey! Back to back Threadless challenge wins, wow! How do you feel!
Hey! I think that achieving two challenge wins in a row is very difficult, so I am very happy and proud.
What attracted you to this challenge? Are you a big fan of the history of space exploration?
Yes, I would have liked to be born a few hundred years in the future. I know that we have evolved a lot in the last 70 years but I think the best is yet to come and I won’t be there to see it…It would be awesome if I had a cryogenic tube and I could freeze myself, like Fry from Futurama did.
Is this your favorite moment of the space age/space race? If not, what is?
Sputnik 1 is my favorite for what it represented and for its retro design. I find it curious that that nice sphere with 4 whiskers kicked off the space race and all that it implicated for the United States and the Soviet Union.
What are the names at the bottom of this design?
They are Russian scientists of the team that participated in the creation of Sputnik 1. I don’t know if I chose the most important names, but I tried to do my homework by researching on Wikipedia.
How did you go about creating this design?
I’d like to respond that with a gif, so I will:
Very cool! What are some of your favorite sci-fi movies, shows, and books?
A movie: 2001: A Space Odyssey: After I watched it I had to look for some answers on the internet to be able to understand it haha, and then I loved it.
A TV show: Westworld: It has robots, cowboys and Sir Anthony Hopkins.
A book: I, Robot: It’s a book of robots written in the ’40s, just imagine that…
What do you want to see happen next in space exploration?
I want us to find the monolith on the moon.
That’d be awesome. Would you ever go into space?
Yes of course! I’ve always wanted to drink some water on zero gravity, there is so much fun there.
Anything else you want to share?
A quote from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
“Since the dawn of time, roughly a hundred billion human beings have walked the planet Earth. Now this is an interesting number, for by a curious coincidence there are approximately a hundred billion stars in our local universe, the Milky Way. So for every man who has ever lived, in this Universe there shines a star.”
