The astrophysicist will work with NASA to study the moon’s surface in Oct.

Like lots of youngsters, Jed Rembold dreamed of becoming an astronaut.

Then, suddenly, those dreams were sullied.

He got his first pair of glasses.

“I can’t really be an astronaut now,” Jed recalls thinking when he was 8 or 9. “I have terrible eyes.”

Jed forgot about journeys into space.

Like lots of youngsters, Jed Rembold dreamed of becoming an astronaut.

Then, suddenly, those dreams were sullied.

He got his first pair of glasses.

“I can’t really be an astronaut now,” Jed recalls thinking when he was 8 or 9. “I have terrible eyes.”

Jed forgot about journeys into space.

But about a decade and a half later, Jed, now 24, has found his way into the vast expanse of the stars and moon.

And he didn’t need a spaceship or a fancy suit to get there.

A 2003 Baker High School graduate who’s now a doctoral student at New Mexico Tech, Jed the astrophysicist has the rare opportunity to work with NASA on the agency’s current mission, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite.

The LCROSS mission strives to enhance the data NASA has about the moon’s surface and uncover additional points for future human exploration.

Jed’s role comes into play a bit later this year.

In October an unmanned probe will deliberately collide with the moon, creating an enormous plume that three telescopes in orbit and several observatories around the United States will study.

This is where Jed, whose mother, Ginger Rembold, calls a “big-picture” thinker, factors in to the equation.

Using a 2.4-meter telescope at Magdalena Ridge Observatory in Socorro, N.M., Jed will spearhead New Mexico Tech’s efforts to monitor the lunar impact.

“We’ll be looking at the plume, and how big and bright it is,” he said.

The task isn’t quite as simple as he makes it sound, but that’s because Jed is an expert.

Analyzing the lunar impact will be similar to some of the work he’s doing for his doctoral thesis.

Jed has been using a 14-inch telescope equipped with a camera to capture video of various debris colliding with the moon.

A special program then searches the video and finds flash points that indicate when a collision has happened. This allows Jed to study video segments without watching hours of inactivity.

Correlating nicely with his studies, he said the deliberate lunar impact will act “as a really nice control.”

Since he knows the size of the NASA probe colliding with the moon, the plume should give him an idea of how large the debris is that he has been studying.

Jed has seen more than a handful of the less significant flashes that fester when debris collides with the moon, but the size of these pieces has always been a mystery.

Comparing them to the size of the plume and the brightness of the flash when NASA’s controlled collision occurs in October should help shed some light on that particular mystery.

His research has two primary goals.

“It will give an idea of how much space debris is flying around,” Jed said. “And how long you might expect a man-made device to survive in orbit.”

Jed said the second goal should provide engineers with some insight into what sorts of materials to use to ensure space-bound objects can withstand blows from the debris in orbit.

In terms of assisting NASA, Jed said one of the biggest areas of assessment will come from using spectrometers to analyze the plume’s chemical makeup for traces of water vapors.

Determining whether there is water on the moon during this mission is a chief priority for NASA.

For Jed, working with NASA is a nice way to lead into his third year at New Mexico Tech.

After graduating from Linfield College in McMinnville with his bachelor’s degree in math and physics, Jed headed south to study astrophysics in the desert.

Jed said he receives an array of responses when he tells others that he is an astrophysicist.

Some are quite humorous.

“Some people say, ‘Man, that’s deep,’ ” Jed said with a laugh.

Even his mother wrestles with the complex concepts he tries to explain to her.

“I just laugh and say, ‘OK, Jed, give me the dumbed-down version,’ ” Ginger said. “He sent some of his notes once and I said, ‘You understand all this?’ “

Ginger describes her son as being somewhat reserved with a “dry, quiet wit.”

Jed has always been self-motivated, she said, and she recalls one particular anecdote that illustrates his personality.

When Jed was a freshman at BHS, Ginger remembers that he received a “B” on his report card during his last quarter, the first time he had to juggle his studies with playing on the tennis team.

He was dissatisfied with this and made sure it was not repeated, circling the grade and pinning the report card to his bedroom wall.

“He put that up there to remember that it takes some work,” Ginger said.

When he graduated, that was indeed the only “B” that marred his academic record.

A few years later, during his senior year of high school, Jed took his first physics class.

Although it was sort of a late start for physics, he had an inkling that with his aptitude for math and science he would enjoy the subject.

He was right.

“I knew immediately that I loved it,” Jed said.

With a few more years at New Mexico Tech remaining on the docket, Jed said ideally he will become a physics professor after obtaining his doctorate.

Ending up in a classroom is hardly a surprise for anyone who knows Jed.

And finding his way into space was no surprise to Ginger, who recalls hearing this Jed-created rendition when he was a star-obsessed toddler:

“Twinkle, twinkle, little star. How I wonder what you’re doing up there.”

Now he no longer needs to wonder.