We are currently working on the Fedora 43 Wallpaper and wanted to update the community while also looking for contributors!

Each wallpaper is inspired by someone in STEM in history with the letter in the alphabet we’re on. We are currently on the letter R, and voted here with the winner resulting in Sally Ride.

Who is Sally Ride?

Sally Ride (May 26, 1951 – July 23, 2012) was a physicist and astronaut, who became the first American woman in space on June 18, 1983. The third woman ever!

Once her training at Nasa was finished, she served as the ground-based CapCom for the second and third Space Shuttle flights. She helped develop the Space Shuttle’s robotic arm which helped her get a spot on the STS-7 mission in June 1983. Two communication satellites were deployed, including the first Shuttle pallet satellite (SPAS-1). Ride operated the robotic arm to deploy and retrieve SPAS-1, which carried ten experiments to study the formation of metal alloys in microgravity. 

Ride then became the president and CEO of ‘Sally Ride Science’. Sally Ride Science created entertaining science programs and publications for upper elementary and middle school students, focusing largely on female students.

Ride and her life long partner O’Shaughnessy co-wrote six books on space aimed at children, to encourage children to study science. Ride remarked, “Everywhere I go I meet girls and boys who want to be astronauts and explore space, or they love the ocean and want to be oceanographers, or they love animals and want to be zoologists, or they love designing things and want to be engineers. I want to see those same stars in their eyes in 10 years and know they are on their way.” It was after her death it was revealed she was the first LGBT astronaut in space.

Brainstorming

The design team held a separate meeting from our usual time to dedicate an hour of time to gathering visuals that were related somehow to Ride’s work. From visuals of space that were used in the books she created,

Possible Themes to Develop:

  1. Space Mid Century Modern Graphics
    • This is probably my personal preference! Mid century modern is categorized with clean lines, bold saturated colors, and organic forms in nature. It was most popular from the late 1940s-1960s, extending to when the space race first started to lay its roots.
    • Going down this route would result in a colorful wallpaper, although not overwhelming since it would be limited to a small color palette. The idea was sparked by Ride’s dedication to education and teaching- as these types of graphics would often pop up in schools as informative posters.
  2. Blueprint of Space
    • A dark background with planets and white details to show information just like a blueprint would. Also sparked by the type of graphics you would find in a school. The only problem that might arise is too much detail. Wallpapers on the whole are supposed to be quite simple so the user can have a calm experience. Too many details that might make it look like a blueprint, might make it too busy. However I’m sure there could be a balance of both.
  3. Colorful Space
    • We have several space themed wallpapers that show the stars or planets, so this would be a nod to them (see F33,F24, F10, F9) as well as a nod to the most well known part of Ride’s career. Including some of the colors from Fedora’s color palette, like Freedom Purple, Friends Magenta, Features Orange, and First Green, into the galaxy or planetary visuals would be a great option. But not too bright and electric that it irritates the viewer when they look at it.

The link to the ticket is here. If you want to help develop the wallpaper or any other design tickets, join us at 14:30 UTC Monday in #fedora-design on Matrix or at the meeting room on jitsi.