Casual Space

Casual Space Podcast is BACK in a BIG way, so let's celebrate! Beth is joining Tim Bailey to extend YOUR personal invitation to celebrate space exploration with Yuri's Night!

Yuri's Night is a World Space Party. Every year on or around April 12th, Yuri's Night activities and parties celebrate all that humanity brings with us as we explore the cosmos: music, art, science, culture, and each other! Yuri's Night uses space to bring the world together, to empower the greatest parts of who we are, and give vision to where we are going. Today on the podcast, Executive Director of Yuri's Night Tim Bailey joins Beth to invite the WORLD (and you- yes, YOU) to this exciting space celebration!

You're going to want to sign up to join us and find everything Yuri's Night here: https://yurisnight.net/

Once you're signed up to celebrate, check out the silent auction to help support the Cosmic Odyssey Scholarship here: https://yurisnight.net/silent-auction/

-Where to find Tim Bailey and pretty much everything he's doing: www.NovaBailey.com

Tim Bailey is space enthusiast, an Eagle Scout, a former counselor for Space Camp Florida, and a graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Tim never thought he'd be a Flight Attendant on his way to becoming an Astronaut, yet he's celebrated 18 years on the job and is still loving it! In addition to his part-time work with Zero Gravity Corporation, Tim is the Executive Director for Yuri's Night, a nonprofit best known for the self-named annual world space parties in April. I've done an assortment of other project management jobs for organizations including NSS, Space Generation Advisory Council to the UN, Kennedy Space Center, the Department of Energy, the US Marine Corps, and DARPA. Want to learn more about Tim and his work? Check out his website at www.NovaBailey.com

Beth Carr is a formally trained performer and brand communications designer, who became passionately obsessed with figuring out how she could elevate storytelling for a brand creating authentic, long-lasting relationships with their ideal audiences and how that could be expressed through all their design, branding, messaging, and marketing.

And when it comes to telling the story about space, Beth Carr has professionally and personally helped me build a StoryBrand framework that has allowed me to serve you, Casual Space Podcast listeners!

Please enjoy this last episode of 2022! Don't forget- you can send a story to space over the holiday break at www.storiesofspace.com, so don't miss this last opportunity before the submission deadline closes- and for Casual Space Podcast listeners only, the deadline is extended to January 5th!!!!

Happy New Year to you and your families, colleagues and space explorers- from Beth Mund and the Casual Space Podcast!

See you in 2023!

Find Beth Carr, and her work as a Certified StoryBrand Guide at Fortified Branding

Fortified Brandingwww.fortifiedbranding.com [email protected] @fortifiedbranding on IG

Joyce Hirai and Beth Mund experience turbulence in two very different ways.

Joyce is an Air Force Hurricane Hunter and Flight Meteorologist! She, along with her team of experts from the Air Force Reserves fly WC-130Js into tropical storms and hurricanes to take atmospheric measurements that are then fed into weather models. These models then help forecasters make predictions about locations and severity of the storms that local governments can reference to implement emergency plans or issue evacuation notices. During the winter, her team will fly into atmospheric rivers to help better predict precipitation events that occur on the west coast of the U.S. When she's not flying into storms, Joyce works at NASA's Johnson Space Center managing the astronaut's schedules while they're onboard the International Space Station. Joyce is also a SPACE CAMP alumni and counselor, and loves to crochet! Please welcome this week's guest (and future astronaut, IMHO) Joyce Hirai!

Learn More about the U.S. Air Force Hurricane Hunters on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at "AF Reserve Hurricane Hunters"

You can follow Joyce's flights during hurricane season at : www.tropicaltidbits.com then click on "aircraft recon"

Check out The National Hurricane Center website at www.nhc.noaa.gov

And read more about Joyce and her team here, https://www.403wg.afrc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2980914/reservist-part-time-hurricane-hunter-full-time-mission-planner-for-internationa/

Amanda Gutierrez knows the exact moment she fell in love with space. She was in 2nd grade. That moment, along with others since, have made such a strong impression on Amanda that she's already defined her career goal- to become an aerospace engineer and ultimately go to space. Since she's a junior in high school, she'll have to go to college first, but she won't have to wait for college to get to space- her stories are already going. Amanda is THE NASA award winner for the Artemis Moon Pod Essay Contest! Her story is currently on NASA's Artemis 1 mission circling the moon! AND, Amanda is an official STORIES of Space Project Ambassador, where her story will ALSO be traveling to the International Space Station (along with all other STORIES of Space submissions) on a scheduled launch in June of 2023. Good news, you don't have to go to space to hear Amanda's story- you can hear it right here on this week's episode of Casual Space!

About Amanda:

Amanda Gutierrez is a junior at Pius X High School in Lincoln, Nebraska. She was selected as the winner (high school division) of the NASA and Future Engineers Artemis Moon Pod Essay Contest from over 14,000 entries. Amanda is actively involved in Million Girls Moonshot, a national organization that works to engage one million girls in STEM learning opportunities across the United States. She is a member of the Nebraska Million Girls Moonshot board through the Nebraska Children and Families Foundation, and is part of the national MGM Flight Crew. She has spoken as panelist at the SXSW EDU 2022 Conference, and co-hosted the national 2022 Afterschool Alliance "Lights on Afterschool" town hall event. She is also a youth speaker for NASA's Office of STEM Engagement, and has been featured on Space.com, NPR's Blue Dot, and other local and national media. Amanda plans to study aerospace engineering in college and someday become an astronaut. Amanda also dances competitively.

Here's the direct link to Amanda's award-winning essay: https://www.futureengineers.org/artemismoonpodessay/gallery/42918

Videos

Your heart will melt with these NASA Essay Finalists shared in these videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8sR4Mt3f9k

NASA Astronaut Interview and Semifinalist Announcement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w4v5tyMYcE

A continuous source of nutritious food is essential for long-duration exploration missions, and the typical pre-packaged astronaut diet will need to be supplemented by fresh foods produced in space. Researchers at NASA have been testing a plant growth unit on the International Space Station known as Veggie and have successfully grown a variety of leafy greens. Veg-05, the next step in that work, focuses on growing red dwarf tomatoes! Today on the show, Beth is joined by NASA Life Sciences project scientist and VEG-05 principal investigator Dr. Gioia Massa. She and her team are testing tomatoes, looking at the impacts of light spectrum on how well the crop grows, how delicious and nutritious the tomatoes are, and the microbial activity on the fruit and plants! The Veg-05 experiment will help provide valuable data for future space exploration, and examines the overall effect of growing, tending, and eating crops on crew behavioral health. There's lots to learn in this episode of Casual Space Podcast with Dr. Gioia Massa!

Oh, and check out this competition for kids to create the next Veggie Mission patch! https://fairchildgarden.org/science-and-education/learn/the-fairchild-challenge/national-challenge-main-page-nasa-patch/

A great article from NASA highlighting the details regarding the various experiments launching to the International Space Station on the SpaceX CRS-26 mission: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/spacex-26-science-highlights/

About Gioia Massa – Project Scientist, Kennedy Space Center… in her own words:

"When I was 12, I decided I wanted to grow plants in space. It only took, well, a while to get there, but it was an interesting journey. I have always liked plants – both my mother and grandmother taught me to love gardening. As a kid, however, I was horse-crazy, and when I had the opportunity to take an agriculture class in 7th grade and join the horse judging team in FFA, I was thrilled. Well, I was an awful judge of horses – I just picked the pretty ones with nice manners, and I had no sense of good form. Happily, I also tried horticulture judging and plant identification, and I loved it. I was lucky enough that my agriculture teacher was selected to participate in a workshop at KSC and EPCOT center called "energize the green machine"; it was all about NASA's research toward growing food in space. He captured 40 hours of video on space plant growth and I sat mesmerized throughout. I was hooked.

And I persisted, doing hydroponic projects in high school (DeLand, FL) and college (Cornell), working in plant labs, participating in the Space Life Sciences Training Program at KSC (both as a student and as a counselor), going to graduate school (Penn State) to study plant responses to gravity, participating in a student shuttle flight experiment, doing a postdoc on bioregenerative food production (Purdue) in advanced life support systems, and spending way too much time in rooms with strange purple lights. A few stubborn decades of gradual progress later, after fantastic mentors helped me at every level, I began at KSC, first as a NASA postdoctoral fellow and then as a NASA Project Scientist in ISS Ground Processing and Research. My postdoctoral work at KSC focused on the Veggie plant growth system, and since joining NASA I have been leading the science team to test the Veggie hardware on ISS.

My research with Veggie and other systems focuses on addressing the questions of which plant production techniques and technologies will be effective at producing quality, tasty food to supplement packaged diets in the near term, and to play a larger role in bioregenerative life support in the long term. Plants can be a source of food for the crew, and also can be involved in recycling the atmosphere and water processing. Plants can also have psychological benefits for the crew. But there are a number of challenges in microgravity and planetary habitats that need to be worked out before we can safely and efficiently produce fresh vegetables for the crew; those are what I research. The behavior of fluids, gasses, and thermal gradients make growing plants in microgravity challenging. Reducing the energy needs for electric lighting and increasing crop productivity are very important factors for long-duration growth, and testing emerging technologies can provide novel solutions. Ensuring microbiologically safe food that also has high levels of specific nutrients and tastes good at the same time requires a lot of testing, time, and resources. Since plants are so dependent on their environment, the number of potential variations is infinite, so narrowing of scope can also provide a challenge.

My research is designed to give residents at a habitat on Mars in the future a better quality of life in that extreme environment. They will not only have fresh, nutritious food to eat, but they will also be able to enjoy the sight, smell, and taste of green plants. Those plants will produce food for the crew, recycle their atmosphere, and possibly even help with cleaning their water. My research will help to enable NASA's grand challenge of space colonization as humanity transitions from a planet-bound to a spacefaring civilization. I am honored to be a part of the NASA team working toward this dream."

How can we help others find their path to success in the space exploration industry?

Because of your help and support, the Casual Space Podcast is on its way toward our 200th episode! So on this week's show, allow me to recognize some fine folks who have not only contributed to the success of the show (#2 in Space Podcasts that are Out of this World, according to We Edit Podcast), but to the career I've been able to pursue and enjoy. So let's get into a few fun stories, and some ideas on how we can help others succeed in the space exploration industry. It's Thanksgiving, and I'm sharing my feeling of gratitude on this episode of Casual Space.

Oh, and here is the site where you can find more amazing artwork and commemorative space patches from Tim Gagnon! https://www.kscartist.com/

A sincere thank you to all of the Casual Space listeners and supporters of the show!

Happy Thanksgiving!

From a young age, Time would gaze at the Moon from his window, and dreamed of to becoming an astronomer but lost courage due to his visual impairment- Tim is legally blind. One day, Tim's wife bought him a telescope to "help get him out of the house." While stargazing with a group from the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC), Tim discovered his superpower: the ability to see in part UV light as well as having better night vision than anyone else! With his new found superpower, he would build an observatory and begin his mission to share the night sky with anyone, and everyone! In 2014 I moved back home to Quinan, NS, and started an astrotourism business & Starlight Tourist Destination (in South West Nova), and started what would become the Starlight Development Society, group that pursues the ideals of the Starlight Foundation to protect the night sky from light pollution, teach astronomy in our schools, and promote and help develop astrotourism products in South West Nova Scotia.Tim believes that through education and awareness of the universe, the world can become a better place.

"We are all made from stardust. We are all connected. If we lose our connection to the universe, by not being able to observe it, we become disconnected from each other. I believe that by sharing the night sky the world can become a better place. By giving people a new perspective on space and its vastness, and showing them how special we really are as a planet and a species. I hope that people might appreciate Earth a bit more..." -Tim Doucette About Tim:Tim believes that through education and awareness of the universe, the world can become a better place. Through his passion for Astronomy and his photography, Tim shows us the beauty of the heavens. In 2016 he opened the Deep Sky Eye Observatory in Quinan, Nova Scotia, which provides a unique stargazing experience to tourists from around the world. He is the chair of the Starlight Development Society and sits on the board of directors of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (Halifax Centre). Born and raised in Quinan, a small rural village in southwestern Nova Scotia, he graduated from The College of Geographic Sciences. He then received a Bachelor of Computer Science from Dalhousie University. He continues his career as a software developer to this day.Where you can find Tim and his work:Web: http://deepskyeye.comFacebook: http://facebook.com/deepskyeye Instagram: http://instagram.com/deepskyeye And Check out Tim on CNN The Great Big Storyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82seHPdYAo8

This band is on a mission: To boldly go where no star band has gone before, mixing pop culture with rock-n-roll theater, comedy, and sci-fi awesomeness to unite and entertain multiple generations of fans throughout the nerd-o-sphere. Insert Star Trek voice-over voice: Casual Space Podcast formally invites you to experience the artful and entertaining parodies of the classic movies, tv scores, pop rock classics that are recreated by the incredible band members who make up The Roddenberries! This band of like-minded friends have been playing together for over a decade- each influenced by the possibilities of space exploration from watching Star Trek as kids.

"Through music and performance, we can express the ideas of Star Trek and of Gene Roddenberry's vision of a brighter, more united and inclusive tomorrow. With a generous helping of comedy thrown in." – The Roddenberries Band

On this episode of Casual Space, Beth and Chad join band members Bill Tayoun and Beth Kellner to learn their origin story, how they write and shape their clever lyrics into the best songs, and how they found time during COVID to create some of the best videos and performances we've ever seen.

The Roddenberries are THE galaxy's premier sci-fi party band, and you're going to want to enjoy them ASAP! Listen & Enjoy the Roddenberries! Website: www.theroddenberries.comEmail: [email protected]Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theroddenberries/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRoddenberries Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3MVXBUlYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheRoddenberries

This is the story of Andromeda Wright. Planet PA-99-N2. The war between the planet of fire and the planet of snow, and the only heroine who would be able to stop the war and change the way people think of stars.,, it's all part of the VERY FIRST story that's been selected from the submitted STORIES of Space Project!

I'm reading it on the podcast this week, as I will each and every week from now until the end of the year… in addition, I'll be sharing with you some of the very interesting items that will be sent to the moon as part of NASA's official flight kit- including patches, pins, stickers and (wait for it…) STORIES!!!! It's a lovely run through this week you'll be inspired to look into more, so here are the links for you to follow along, and then learn how to send your story to me to read on the podcast, and then send it to space:

The STORIES of Space Project: www.storiesofspace.com

NASA Artemis Official Flight Kit https://www.nasa.gov/feature/artemis-i-becomes-cultural-educational-time-capsule-for-trip-around-moon

More About the STORIES of Space Project, and how to get YOUR story read on the podcast: https://www.storiesofspace.com/about

Stories of Space™ (The STORIES Project) is an open-source project available to a global community of storytellers who wish to connect people to space. Driven by a team of scientists, researchers, communicators, and writers, The Stories of Space Project™ believes that a story-YOUR story-can change the way we explore space.

Helping to create a JEDI space – a Just, Equity, Diverse, and Inclusive space – Stories of Space™ is a worldwide project. Everyone – from space enthusiasts to space professionals – can launch a piece of their on-Earth experience into a true outer-space adventure.

Selected Stories of Space™ submissions will be cataloged on SD cards (secure digital cards or a tiny flash memory card designed for high-capacity memory and various portable devices) scheduled to fly in 2023. The SD cards are part of a payload test project flown by NASA on a MISSE satellite carrier, provided by Aegis Aerospace, a major small satellite carrier and approved NASA contractor. MISSE is a highly flexible, commercial facility owned and operated by Aegis Aerospace that is permanently installed on the external ISS truss near the solar arrays.

After the return flight, stories will be shared on the Casual Space Podcast, hosted by Space Communicator, Beth Mund.

The worlds of music, art and science can symbiotically exist and share center stage together to offer a sense of awe, wonder and inspiration about moons of the solar system, and ultimately about our home planet. Award winning composer and pianist Amanda Lee Falkenberg has created THE MOONS SYMPHONY- a project 5-years in the making, consulting with planetary scientists from NASA's JPL to ensure the science was anchored in scientific accuracy. Listen to hear not only the most beautiful and incredible music, but to hear directly from Amanda how science influenced each of the moons within the symphony.

THE MOONS SYMPHONY Album is available here: https://lnk.to/TheMoonsSymphony

Enjoy learning more about Amanda's journey in creating this masterpiece here: https://www.moons-symphony.com/blog

About Amanda Lee Falkenberg: International award-winning composer and pianist Australian born Amanda Lee Falkenberg began her journey into composition through years spent in ballet studios as an accompanist, including the Australian Ballet company in 2000. She wrote over 120 pieces to accompany ballet dancers as they trained, which led to her Moving With Music album series.

In 2003 her first full-length orchestral ballet was commissioned, Edge of the World, and performed by the International Barossa Music Festival Orchestra with the prestigious Leigh Warren and Dancers, which received glowing reviews from the national press.

Inspired by visual imagery, Falkenberg's natural progression led her to write for film and TV, stage plays, documentaries, animation series and feature films, including her cinematic soundtrack to the screen adaption of Wilfred Thesiger's Arabian Sands.

In 2017, she conducted the world premiere of her orchestral suite Sea Trilogy with the London Film Music Orchestra at their Gala Concert. Later that year, she completed her Arabian inspired concerto for piano and orchestra, Crossing of the Crescent Moon, after which she began her next large scale project, THE MOONS SYMPHONY.

Described by The Beauty of Space Art Authors Jon Ramer and Ron Miller as

"…one of the most extraordinary achievements in space-inspired music, and perhaps the first to be accomplished in direct collaboration with astronomers and scientists",

Falkenberg has presented the work and its scientific inspiration to global audiences including the NASA/JPL, Caltech, the Planetary Society of Los Angeles live radio show in Imperial College London 2022, the London Science Museum, COP26 in Glasgow, 2021, the Dubai Expo in 2021, the Euro Planet Science Congress EPSC in Geneva, 2019, and the TEDx Youth Conference, 2018.

Falkenberg has received many nominations and won multiple international contests, including the Great American Song Contest, Marvin Hamlisch emerging film composer contest in New York, the International Composition Competition in Italy, Hollywood Music in Media Awards (HMMA), and the Los Angeles Music Awards.

​Falkenberg is an artist member of the International Association of Astronomical Artists (IAAA) who organized an elaborate multimedia/visual art project in in coordination with THE MOONS SYMPHONY"

More about the MOONS SYMPHONY's PERFORMANCES:

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗥𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗼 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗟𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗻 - 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗢𝗢𝗡𝗦 𝗦𝗬𝗠𝗣𝗛𝗢𝗡𝗬 (𝗠𝗮𝘆 𝟮𝟯, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟮)

The Planetary Radio Live in London was held to celebrate the historic recording of THE MOONS SYMPHONY co-hosted by the Imperial College of London and The Planetary Society. This event occurred a day after the recording was made for The Moons Symphony by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marin Alsop.

Host and producer Mat Kaplan of the planetary Society celebrated the intersection of Art and Science through THE MOONS SYMPHONY with a panel of VIP scientists. Together Dr Linda Spilker, Dr Ashley Davies from NASA | JPL, Professor Mark Sephton of Imperial College, and Amanda Lee Falkenberg discussed the symphony's science and the inspirational data they are collecting from moons of our outer Solar System.

𝐒𝐎𝐇𝐎 𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐨𝐥𝐛𝐲 𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐑𝐨𝐨𝐦 (𝐎𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟓, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟐)

An exclusive Launch party is held for Amanda Lee Falkenberg's "The Moons Symphony" in advance of the Album's release on October 7. An evening to experience the symphony in Dolby Atmos surround sound followed by a Q and A with Amanda and British Astronaut Helen Sharman OBE.

𝐋𝐔𝐍𝐀𝐑 𝐒𝐲𝐦𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜 𝐎𝐮𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭 (𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐜.𝟐, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟐)

ＬＵＮＡＲ (Learning Under New Artistic Regimes) a new education series that forms part of Falkenberg's "Companion Guide to the moons symphony" which takes inspiration from MOONS of our outer solar system.

A new education platform designed to enthral, engage and inspire. This co-pilot event is a collaboration between THE MOONS SYMPHONY and IMPERIAL COLLEGE for students to experience a new way of learning through a symphonic lens the scientific stories of moons of our outer solar system. They are communicated through a dynamic musical canvas to evoke awe and wonder and ignite curiosity to capture the imaginations of the next generation of space explorers.

Amanda recommends we check out David W. Brown - author of THE MISSION: A true story.

https://www.amazon.com/Mission-True-Story-David-Brown/dp/006265442X

A brilliant book that shares the evolution of THE EUROPA CLIPPER —NASA's flagship mission which is sending a Spacecraft to investigate the icy moon of Jupiter "Europa" that contains an ocean two and a half times the size of all of Earths oceans combined and could hold the right conditions to support microbial life.

www.moons-symphony.com