Casual Space

Try to keep up with Laura Forczyk! At the time of this conversation, Laura has a new NEW baby, a new business and just a few new multiple things that she's working on. All at the same time. You may want to sit down and buckle in- because Laura and Beth have a LOT to discuss together in this episode, including space camp, working for NASA, writing books, getting women to the Moon, hiring talented people for jobs in the space industry, *whew* (let's pause for a baby snuggle) work-life balance and more…

About Laura: Laura Forczyk is the owner of space consulting firm Astralytical specializing in space science, industry, and policy, offering space career coaching services, and publishing industry reports.

Learn more about Astralytical here: https://www.astralytical.com/about

She is the author of Rise of the Space Age Millennials (2020) and Becoming Off-Worldly (2022). She runs the private online community Becoming Off-Worldly Together.

She serves as an advisor for Cislunar Space Development Company and For All Moonkind. She is the VP of Research and Analytics for the Beyond Earth Institute. She serves as a mentor for the Brooke Owens Fellowship program. She is a NASA Subject Matter Expert for astrophysics and planetary science missions.

Prior to forming her own company, she ran the Florida office of international startup working to establish parabolic and suborbital flight at Kennedy Space Center and globally. She has also worked as a scientific analyst for a nonprofit facilitating over 50 experiments on the International Space Station for the benefit of life on Earth.

She has researched astrophysics and planetary science at three NASA centers, flown two parabolic "Zero G" campaigns, conducted geological research in a meteor crater, and earned National Aerospace Training and Research (NASTAR) suborbital astronaut wings in ground training. She is a six-time U.S. Space Camp alumna, a NASA Academy alumna, a former NASA Student Ambassador, and a previous NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program fellow.

She earned a bachelor of science degree in astrophysics from Florida Institute of Technology. She earned a master of science degree in astrophysics from the University of Alabama in Huntsville researching high-energy emission from gamma-ray bursts. She conducted doctoral studies in planetary science at the University of Central Florida researching low-energy impacts and regolith (dust) dynamics on the Moon, Mars, and asteroids.

Find Laura's Books here: Becoming Off-Worldly: Learning from Astronauts to Prepare for Your Spaceflight Journey

And

Rise of the Space Age Millennials: The Space Aspirations of a Rising Generation

https://www.amazon.com/Laura-Forczyk/e/B083XQS24C%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

Last March, family and friends learned of Dr. Sian Proctor's selection for the SpaceX Inspiration 4 mission and were able to join her along many parts of her incredible journey to space. On this episode, Chris and Brian join Beth to reminisce-and share wonderful moments from this recent adventure- from hearing the exciting news to watching the launch and landing. Here are the personal stories and sincere impressions from Sian's support team!

About Chris: Chris Proctor and his wife Pattie and live outside of Phoenix, AZ. Chris has worked for Progressive Insurance for 28 years! Chris has two sons (Chase 21, & Maverick 18) and 2 stepdaughters (Alex 32, & Nicole 27). Chris loves spending time with his family, hiking, golfing, and traveling. Chris and his entire family enjoyed Sian's extraordinary adventure to space and the opportunity to reunite with old friends and to meet many new friends, too!

About Brian: Mr. Riehle has 35 years' experience in computer systems, including 21 years in Air Traffic Control (ATC) automation systems with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of which 13 years were in a management position. Prior to entering the Federal Civil Service, he was a field engineer with Sperry Univac, and worked on the ARTS 3 Terminal Automation program. While employed with Sperry Univac, he worked in the ARTS 3 development labs in St. Paul, MN, and installed the ARTS 3 systems at Detroit, Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis and the FAA Technical Center (FAATC). Before going to Sperry Univac, he worked for the Bendix Field Engineering Corporation on the NASA Manned Space Flight Network, and supported 5 Apollo lunar missions as the computer supervisor and data systems supervisor at the Guam and Corpus Christi, TX, Apollo tracking stations. Before that, he was employed by North American Rockwell and worked on the development of the Navy Tactical Data Systems (NTDS). He has held numerous FAA technical management positions in Airway Facilities including the positions of Branch Manager, Assistant Division Manager, Division Manager, and Deputy Director of the Operational Support Program.

Don't forget to listen to previous episodes featuring Sian and Brian!

Sian Episode #108 https://www.bethmund.com/casual-space-podcast/2021/2/11/108-mund-on-mars-6

Brian Episode #144 https://www.bethmund.com/casual-space-podcast/20211111/144-brian-riehle

The folks at Kepler are on a mission to build the Internet in space.

Diane Burchett always loved math and science and was curious about how things worked. From taking apart the family vacuum to materials engineering, and watching sci-fi shows featuring bioengineering, they've all be a part of her journey towards working in the space industry- along with a Summer Session Program at International Space University in 2003, and her qualification and application of additive manufacturing in space. Today, Diane is the Vice President of Engineering at Kepler Communications! On this episode, Diane chats with Beth about the people, inspiration and adventures she's come to find along the way, and what the future brings for all of us on Earth and in space…

About Kepler: Kepler Communications are on a mission to build the internet in space. They are working to provide real-time communication to other satellites, space stations, launch vehicles, habitats and any other space-borne assets. They are actively building what will be known as the ÆTHER network and currently have 19 satellited in orbit. To learn more about Kepler, check them out here: https://kepler.space/about-us/

Jobs and Internships at Kepler! https://kepler.space/careers/

UPDATE! Since this posting, the New York Times has reported that Pete Davidson may NOT be going to space, after all:

Pete Davidson, the "Saturday Night Live" comedian and actor, will no longer travel to the edge of space on the next Blue Origin spaceflight, the company said late Thursday.

The company had announced this week that its New Shepard rocket would launch on Wednesday, March 23, with Mr. Davidson and five other passengers. But the launch, the company's fourth with human passengers, has now been rescheduled for March 29, Blue Origin said on Twitter.

The company, founded by Jeff Bezos, said that Mr. Davidson, 28, was "no longer able to join" the mission and that a replacement sixth crew member would be announced soon. No further details were given.

Pete Davidson is heading to space. The Saturday Night Live star is among the six passengers on the next launch of Jeff Bezos' space travel venture Blue Origin, the company announced Monday. The launch is scheduled for March 23, and Davidson will be the third celebrity on a Blue Origin flight. Beth didn't tell her friends Chris and Char about this podcast topic discussion until they (willingly?) sat down with Beth and Chad to chat about Pete, and some other fun questions together, including,

"Who gets to go to space?" "Should the first private space explorers be required to have a charitable component tied to their mission?" "What can Pete Davidson bring to a space mission," and "Which celebrity would YOU like to see fly in space?" Answers to all of these questions and more casual conversation on episode #155 of the Casual Space Podcast!

About the mission: From the New York Times reporter, Johnny Diaz: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/14/science/pete-davidson-blue-origin.html

About Pete Davidson:

Peter Michael Davidson (born November 16, 1993) is an American comedian and actor. He has been a cast member on the NBC late-night sketch comedy Saturday Night Live since 2014. Davidson has also appeared on the MTV shows Guy Code, Wild 'n Out, and Failosophy.[1][2] He has performed stand-up comedy on Adam DeVine's House Party, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and Comedy Underground with Dave Attell, and guest-starred in Brooklyn Nine-Nine.[3] In 2020, he co-wrote and starred in the semi-autobiographical comedy-drama film The King of Staten Island.

You're going to want to watch this:

Saturday Night Live Skit featuring "Chad" aka Pete Davidson

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

As more and more people head into the great frontier of space, it's going to take a community of passionate people finding new approaches to look at problems and discovering solutions to fuel the growing space economy. Working in space will need EVERYONE. That's where Spacely comes in- and today, CEO Tom Cooke joins Beth to explain how Spacely helps match talent and companies with projects within the aerospace industry, all in the pursuit of "Getting Space Work. Done."

About Tom Cooke

Tom was a member of the United States Air Force for 24 years- flying in everything from gliders to jets- working in space systems development and operations for 16 of those 24 years. "Having this incredible opportunity and experience has resulted in me looking at the sky differently. When you get to be part of the sky in your own unique way, you start to believe you belong up there in some way." – Tom Cooke, CEO and Co-Founder of Spacely

About Spacely https://www.spacely.work/home

From the website~ Spacely is a social networking platform and opportunity marketplace for those passionate about space. Our mission is to connect those passionate about space regionally and globally while enabling them to be more productive and successful. To achieve our mission, we provide services to help communities find and connect with other like-minded communities and/or affiliated businesses, promote community interaction by allowing users to release news, exchange ideas, identify opportunities, maintain photo galleries, calendars, events and invitations using public or private settings.

The Spacely platform allows members to discover and connect with one another through a shared interest in space and our vertical communities enable further engagement around specific subjects or activities. We provide an interest-based platform that encourages meaningful new relationships, relevant conversations and promotes opportunities for our members and partners to be successful in these endeavors.

Other Items of Note:

• Spacely is a subcontractor to Tech7 on the NASA Open Innovation Contract (NOIS2) where NASA utilizes expertise from open talent marketplaces like ours at Spacely to support crowdsourcing, challenges and now microtasks and micropurchasing to gain access to talent, skills and solutions that exist outside of NASA's organizational boundaries
• The MIT article Tom referenced on breaking roles down into tasks reframes the talent problem from one of supply to one of demand: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/cant-fill-jobs-deconstruct-them/

Normal people can and should be able to fly to space. Deborah Sass and Thomas Reemer have set out to prove this in a very unique and entertaining way. Today on the Casual Space Podcast, Beth talks with Deborah and Thomas from Space Hero; the world's first-ever global competition series where contestants compete for a $55-million, 10-day trip to Space; the biggest prize ever awarded on TV. The competition for this once-in-a-lifetime journey will open to anyone over 18 who speaks English. This is the remarkable journey of heroes from all over the World to be elected by the global public as their representative of humankind in Space.

About Deborah Sass, Co-CEO Space Hero

Deborah is a seasoned entertainment industry executive with a unique global perspective on doing business in today's ever-interconnected world. Throughout the years she has worked with some of media and technology's biggest names, TV & Radio channels in Australia. After returning back to the UK she secured roles working in Digital & Entertainment with clients such as Amazon, iTunes, Shazam, and Spotify. Deborah has structured many international strategic partnerships with global brands. Deborah is also the founder of Five Hundred Female Founders.

About Thomas Reemer, Co-CEO Space Hero

Thomas is a leader in the information technology and media industries with over 25 years of experience. Initially, as a music manager and event organizer, he then moved on to work as an entrepreneur for artists such as Prince and George Clinton, as well as clients such as Sony and Universal. He was a co-founder and CEO at the first e-commerce platform for musicians, Artists First. With 88tc88 he created the first legal distribution platform for digital media publishers and labels in China.

Learn more about Space Hero and apply at www.spacehero.org or https://tdgaholdings.com/

The Planetary Society has been on a mission: To empower the world's citizens to advance space science and exploration. It's the place for people who want to be involved in space exploration by sharing their passion with other like-minded people. Chief Development Officer of the Planetary Society, Richard Chute, joins Beth today on the podcast and explains how a hobby became a full-time job(s), and how enabling citizens of planet Earth to explore space together is one of the most remarkable adventures ever imagined- first by Planetary Society founders Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray, and Louis Friedman, and continues today with Bill Nye and Richard Chute! Throughout this episode, you'll be INVITED to become a member of the Planetary Society! So don't wait, join now! https://www.planetary.org/about/our-story

More About Richard Chute:

"The decade ahead promises to be the greatest decade for space exploration since the Apollo era--but only if we all work to make it so through our actions and support."

An interest in science and astronomy, bolstered by a love for science fiction, began at an early age for Richard Chute, the Chief Development Officer for the Planetary Society. From watching Star Trek in its original run on TV, seeing Saturn through a telescope for the first time in 5th grade, joining the rocketry club in 6th grade, getting a first-edition copy of Star Wars for Christmas, to watching Cosmos as a young college student, Richard has always been fascinated by space exploration.

Richard seeks to make a difference by creating effective fundraising programs for causes and organizations that support his passions.

"When I began, I thought I was going to be asking people for something. What I found through the course of my career is that instead, it's about giving people opportunities to be connected to something that they already love and want to be involved with." -Richard Chute, Casual Space Podcast

Contact Richard at [email protected] and find him on LinkedIn

More about the Planetary Society: www.planetary.org

From the Planetary Society website:

"Our story begins with an observation. Planetary Society founders Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray, and Louis Friedman saw that people of all walks of life are fascinated by the cosmos—yet space exploration budgets waned. This disconnect sparked the idea for a movement that would unite and represent people from around the world in support of space science and exploration.

This is how The Planetary Society came to be.

For over 4 decades, our members have made strides in advancing planetary exploration, planetary defense, and the search for life beyond Earth. We have delivered tens of thousands of petitions to the United States Congress. We have funded groundbreaking technological advancements in solar sailing. We have united researchers from around the world to work together on asteroid defense. Today we are the world's largest and most influential independent space-interest organization."

Emily Carney is an award-winning writer, editor, and public speaker specializing in spaceflight history. She's also the co-host of the Space & Things podcast, and she's the founder of the Space Hipsters Facebook group. Today on the show, Beth asks Emily how her love for space and talents as a writer began, how and when she's most effective at writing, and what advice she may have for future space writers. AND, Emily shares a couple of classic astronaut adventures, too.

About Emily: Emily Carney is a spaceflight enthusiast and author hailing from Saint Petersburg, Florida. Her first vivid space memory was seeing Columbia launch in late 1981 (STS-2). Even though she was very young (three years old) and the launch was 140 miles away from where she stood, she'll never forget it. From then on, she was obsessed with the space shuttle, and spaceflight in general. In 1997, Carney enlisted in the United States Navy, and at one point worked as a nuclear propulsion mechanical operator aboard the USS George Washington (CVN 73). When she was honorably discharged in 2003, she went back to college and earned a degree in education. She only taught for a brief time, but after she left the education field, her passion for spaceflight was reignited.

Carney worked as a freelance writer from 2008 to 2011, and during that time she started a spaceflight blog, This Space Available (accessible via https://space.nss.org/category/this-space-available/). Fun fact: the late Gene Cernan (Gemini 9A, Apollo 10, and Apollo 17 astronaut, also known as "The Last Man on the Moon") once asked her, "What the hell is a space blog?"

Read and enjoy Emily's work

• Emily has written for online and print publications including AmericaSpace, Ars Technica, Quest magazine, The Space Review, and the National Space Society's Ad Astra magazine.
• Emily's articles with National Space Society: https://space.nss.org/category/this-space-available/
• Space Hipsters Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/spacehipsters
• The Space and Things Podcast https://spaceandthingspodcast.com/

In 2011, Carney wanted to start a Facebook group for space enthusiasts, but was struggling to find a good name. Her husband, Steve, suggested "Space Hipsters" as sort of a sarcastic placeholder, but the name stuck. The group grew more quickly than she could imagine, and at present time it totals over 27,800 members. Space Hipsters boasts members from all around the world, and includes space enthusiasts, writers, artists, scientists, engineers, aspiring astronauts, and even a few actual astronauts.

"There is no Earth vs Space. They live together." Daniel Fox is the author and photographer of FEEL THE WILD, founder of THE FUTURE OF SPACE, and SPACE 100.10. Daniel believes that it is nature's goal to venture into space.

This episode of Casual Space is one filled with wisdom, as Daniel reflects on how nature lives within us, around us, and beyond us- in space.

"We are ambassadors for life and it is our responsibility to share Earth's knowledge and gift so that we can support the Universe's goal to connect." – Daniel Fox

FIND Daniel here: https://danielfox.co/about/ and at

www.danielfox.co

https://www.instagram.com/thewildimage/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/spaceape/

I've really enjoyed reading Daniel's new series, The Future of Space, a weekly dose of space thinking, interviews and reflections- and you can find it here: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/the-future-of-space-6882171911019868160/

You may want to bookmark this website for updates on Daniel's new project, Space 100.10 https://space10010.com/

Books:

Order Daniel's Book, FEEL THE WILD here- https://danielfox.co/book/

And during the commercial, I mentioned Dr. Sian Proctor's New Book, Space2inspire: The Art of Inspiration and you can get it here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1733765417/

On Christmas morning, NASA presented (launched) an incredible gift people of the WOLRD will be able to enjoy …The James Webb Space Telescope.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope launched at 7:20 a.m. EST Saturday, December 25 on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana, South America. On this episode of Casual Space, Beth and (resident space expert) Dean geek out on all things JWST!

The world's largest and most complex space science observatory will now begin six months of commissioning in space! At the end of commissioning, Webb will deliver its first images. Webb carries four state-of-the-art science instruments with highly sensitive infrared detectors of unprecedented resolution. Webb will study infrared light from celestial objects with much greater clarity than ever before. The premier mission is the scientific successor to NASA's iconic Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, built to complement and further the scientific discoveries of these and other missions.

About James Webb Space Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope's revolutionary technology will study every phase of cosmic history—from within our solar system to the most distant observable galaxies in the early universe.

Webb's infrared telescope will explore a wide range of science questions to help us understand the origins of the universe and our place in it. Webb will directly observe a part of space and time never seen before. Webb will gaze into the epoch when the very first stars and galaxies formed, over 13.5 billion years ago. Ultraviolet and visible light emitted by the very first luminous objects has been stretched or "redshifted" by the universe's continual expansion and arrives today as infrared light. Webb is designed to "see" this infrared light with unprecedented resolution and sensitivity.

Webb will also be a powerful tool for studying the nearby universe. Scientists will use Webb to study planets and other bodies in our solar system to determine their origin and evolution and compare them with exoplanets, planets that orbit other stars. Webb will also observe exoplanets located in their stars' habitable zones, the regions where a planet could harbor liquid water on its surface, and can determine if and where signatures of habitability may be present.

Using a technique called transmission spectroscopy, the observatory will examine starlight filtered through planetary atmospheres to learn about their chemical compositions.

ALL THE JWST Resources: https://webb.nasa.gov/index.html

And at the end of the show, we talked about LIGO. Here's a great explanation of what LIGO is: https://fb.watch/aOmq7h_PkW/

About Dean

• BS Technical Photography

• MS Astrophysics

• NASA MER Mars program

• NASA Public Relations

• Astronomy instructor & lecturer

Where to find Dean:

• www.TritionCollege.edu/Cernan

• www.HarperCollege.edu

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/dean-mikolajczyk-63125389/