Casual Space

THIS WEEK, in the news from Space.com: Nuclear-powered spaceships for fast trips to Mars may now be one step closer to reality.

"NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) have teamed up to fund three design concepts for reactors that could become part of a nuclear thermal propulsion system, a next-generation technology that could make the exploration of deep space faster and more efficient."

On this episode, learn how Dr. Paolo Venneri and his team help provide hardware and services for reliable energy anywhere – on Earth and in Space by providing design, licensing, and technology capabilities to develop nuclear power systems for advanced applications, including; Transportable Power Units, Nuclear Thermal Propulsion and Lunar Surface Power systems.

About Dr. Paolo Venneri

Dr. Paolo Venneri is the Executive Vice President of the USNC Advanced Technologies division, where he is responsible for setting company direction, managing multiple projects, and building new business and growth opportunities. He has overseen multiple successful Phase I and Phase II NASA SBIRs and leads projects related to developing fuel and reactor designs for nuclear thermal propulsion, nuclear electric propulsion, and surface fission power. His technical background includes researching the development of thermal spectrum Low-Enriched Uranium Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (LEU-NTP) systems for the past five years. He was the first to publish on LEU-NTP systems' neutronic design and is involved in the development of the LEU graphite composite, tungsten cermet, and various advanced NTP systems.

More about Ultra Safe Nuclear: https://usnc.com/space/

This is the story of one amazing woman who is taking her expertise of space systems and implementing changes that will benefit us all- like making life support technologies easily accessible and affordable for terrestrial humanity. Clean and accessible water. Better air quality. And leaving the world a better place than when you found it.

Brittany Zimmerman is the CEO and Chief of Innovation at Yummet, a company she's built herself from asking the big questions, including how each of us can be a catalyst for positive change. Before she built Yummet, Brittany served as Principal Investigator and Aerospace Systems Engineer developing life support systems for long-duration spaceflight and habitation.

Brittany Zimmerman

Brittany has spent 30 years working on expanding her breadth of skills to build a synergy of competencies to achieve her lifetime goal: organizational success through bettering the conditions of humanity.

Read more about Brittany's work here:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittany-zimmerman/

And learn more about Yummet at: https://www.yummet.com/

Today on the podcast…. Beth welcomes back Chris Carberry to help introduce Space Drinks Association, a new organization comprised of diverse and unique collection of brewers, distillers, space exploration professionals, farmers, medical professionals, inventors, hospitality professionals, enthusiasts and futurists who are actively advancing the production and consumption of alcohol in space!

Listen as Chris and Beth say "cheers" to the holiday weekend, and to all of the great potential benefits (and potential challenge) that the SDA plans to create for mission success: "To work to encourage, promote and celebrate achievements made in the space science and beverage industries."

http://spacedrinks.space/

Chris Carberry

Carberry is President of the Space Drinks Association and CEO of Explore Mars, Inc. Prior tohis tenure with Explore Mars, Carberry served as Executive Director of The Mars Society.Carberry is the author of Alcohol in Space: Past, Present, Future was released by McFarlandPublishers in 2019 and has published over 100 articles in publications around the world,including in USA Today, US News and World Report, Huffington Post, The Washington Post,San Jose Mercury Times, Foxnews.com, Houston Chronicle, The Hill, The Telegram(UK), The Boston Herald, and many others. Carberry has also been interviewed hundreds oftimes for print and online publications: local, national, and international radio and televisionincluding CNN, NBC News, Fox News, BBC International, and many others.Carberry has testified extensive political and policy outreach experience with the United StatesCongress and Executive branch and has testified to both the United States Senate and House ofRepresentatives.Prior to joining the space exploration community, Carberry worked as an historical researcherand archivist.

And learn more about Explore Mars at https://www.exploremars.org/

There are *billions* of dollars' worth of invaluable imagery, information, and data available, for free from NASA, NOAA, ESA, and more but unfortunately, sometimes it can be hard to get to… and hard to use. The folks at Element 84, a software development firm specializing in large scale geospatial data systems and remote sensing believe that the more they can help make that data accessible and usable, the more we can learn about our planet and how it's changing.

"How hard can it be?" is a question Dan Pilone often asks his team. As the CEO & CTO of Dan oversees the architecture, design, and development for Element 84's commercial and government data clients including NASA, USGS, Stanford University School of Medicine, and Capella Space. "

About Element 84 "We are impatient optimists."

"It's not magic, but it can *feel* like that - you can literally *see* the world changing, see storms, progress of wildfires, patterns of burning and growth, how to plan for changing water levels, how to help people impacted by disasters, or even just see some fantastic images of leaves changing in the fall.... Space gives us an incredible view of the planet we live on- and we want as many people to be able to take advantage of that unique view as possible." – Dan Pilone

More at: www.element84.com

Dan mentions:

FunCube: https://amsat-uk.org/funcube/funcube-cubesat/

More about Dan Pilone:

​Dan has supported NASA's Earth Observing System for over 15 years; currently acting as Chief Technologist for the NASA EOSDIS Evolution and Development contract. He has supported transitioning NASA's Petabyte scale archive to the cloud, contributed to metadata standards, led multiple working groups on data services and cloud architectures, authored studies on architecture and transition plans for cloud-native data management solutions, and helped shape software development processes for both government and commercial clients. Mr. Pilone has authored multiple books on software development and taught Software Engineering at Catholic University in Washington DC.

"How might we prepare today's students for humanities multi-planet future?" -Mark Wagner, Casual Space Podcast

How will we go to school in space? What will we need to learn? What do the "classrooms" look like? And who will be our "teachers?" Mark and the team at ARES Learning have thought about these questions and have come up with some very inspiring solutions!

About ARES Learning

At ARES Learning, cadets build the knowledge, skills and mindsets necessary to navigate the great challenges of the future - on this planet or any other. ARES cadets emerge from their experience prepared for jobs that don't yet exist, to use technology that hasn't been invented, and to solve enormous problems we can't foresee. ARES prepares young people to become the designers, builders, philosophers and explorers of tomorrow.

https://www.areslearning.com/

About Mark Wagner, Ph.D.​

​Originally a high school English teacher, Dr. Mark Wagner also served as an educational technology coordinator at the site, district, and county levels. For fourteen years, he then served as CEO of EdTechTeam, a California Benefit Corporation and global network of educational technologists which provides professional development to fifty thousand teachers a year. In this capacity he helped lead the Google Certified Innovator Program since 2006, led a series of conference-style summits featuring Google for Education since 2011, and helped launch Future Ready Schools in 2014. Over this time he also founded or helped lead six influential non-profit organizations.

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As co-founder of ARES Learning, Dr. Wagner now unites his early love of space exploration (he originally studied Astronautical Engineering as an undergrad) with his career in education technology. He brings a unique combination of experience with constructivist learning theory, school transformation, and space science education. He focuses on student agency, inspiring and empowering students to generate their own solutions to the problems they are most passionate about.

Mark Wagner has a Ph.D. in Educational Technology and a master's degree in cross-cultural education. His doctoral research focused on the use of video games in education, and specifically on the potential applications of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) as constructivist learning environments. He is the author of More Now: A Message from The Future for The Educators of Today (2018). Dr. Wagner is currently engaged in original research for graduate certificates in Space Education and Space Philosophy at the Kepler Space Institute, with expected completion in 2021.

People often ask me what it was like as a "NASA" insider. On this episode of Casual Space, one of the very best of the best, Michael Ciannilli joins me to share highlights and lessons learned from more than 25 years at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Michael "Mike" Ciannilli is NASA's manager of the Apollo, Challenger, Columbia Lessons Learned Program, where he helps innovatively and effectively share NASA's lessons of the past to help ensure future success.

Inspired by Mike and his work? Check out these videos from NASA EDGE, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvOHNIbVBRI and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtowgLH-HyA

And read more about Mike here:

As manager of this agency level program, Ciannilli oversees the Columbia Research and Preservation Office, which preserves all Columbia artifacts, as well as the loan program, which loans out Columbia artifacts for research and academic purposes. In addition, this role involves giving lessons learned tours for NASA engineers, scientists, interns, executives, commercial partners and others. During these tours, he uses the stories of Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia to share what has been learned from these past mishaps to prevent reoccurrence in future applications. Ciannilli also does lessons learned events at Kennedy Space Center where he works to bring these past experiences and the emotions behind the accidents alive through multimedia and storytelling; these events will be expanding across the agency. In addition to his main activities supporting the agency, Ciannilli also collaborates with outside media organizations like National Geographic to share these lessons learned with a wider audience. Prior to his current role, Ciannilli was the lead of the Columbia Research and Preservation Office, a position that is now encompassed in his new role. He also led the creation and development of the Forever Remembered project for Columbia and Challenger at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Previously, he served nine years as NASA Test Director for the Space Shuttle Program at Kennedy, responsible for processing oversight of the space shuttle orbiters and ground support systems including launch and landing facilities. In addition, this responsibility included leading the launch team through launch countdown activities. He also was the Landing Recovery Director during that time, responsible for leading contingency operations during launch countdown and landing activities, including flight crew recovery. In 2003, during the Columbia accident recovery, Ciannilli flew extensively onboard helicopters across Texas supporting air search operations and Columbia artifact recovery.Before joining NASA in 2005, Ciannilli was a contractor for the United Space Alliance where he spent eight years as a Test Project Engineer, leading the testing and engineering integration during processing of the shuttles and launch operations, and before that he was the lead of the Launch Countdown Simulation Team, which developed simulations to train the launch team. As the simulation lead for the Mission Management Team, he also trained the leadership of the Space Shuttle Program. Prior to this he worked as a fuel cell systems engineer assigned to Columbia. He also worked as an intern for Pan Am World Services at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base and taught high school.

He has received numerous awards throughout his career, including the astronauts' Silver Snoopy, NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal, NASA Program Leadership Award, Launch and Landing Leadership Award, Launch Countdown Simulation Contingency Leadership Award, NASA Quest Outreach Award and a Columbia Recovery Team Award, among many others.

Ciannilli has a Bachelor of Science in space science from the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida. Ciannilli grew up in Syracuse, New York. He enjoys spending time with his family, surfing, swimming, boating, sailing, hiking, skiing and film production.

"Everything in a NASA mission patch exists for a purpose. Every part is deliberate and important." -KSCArtist Tim Gagnon, from Casual Space Podcast

Have you ever really looked at a mission patch? Every detail was designed and put in place specifically for a reason. Artist Tim Gagnon has "had the honor and privilege" to have been selected by several NASA Flight Crews to design their mission patches. Perhaps you have seen several of his patch designs (Tim has designed many for both space shuttle missions and International Space Station missions)?

On this episode, Beth asks Tim about his work as an artist, and how he was first commissioned to work with the NASA crews, and reviews several specific patch designs with Beth.

Beth and Tim reference several specific mission patches. You can see them here, along with all of Tim's work: https://www.kscartist.com/

More about Tim, in his own words: "A self-taught artist since 1974, I enjoy painting portraits and graphically designing commemorative emblems for various organizations. I especially enjoy the challenge of relating a mission objective in a four inch square canvas.

I have had the great honor and privilege to work with a number of NASA Flight Crews on their mission patches. To see my work orbiting the Earth is the ultimate compliment.

I am always looking for new challenges and to assist organizations that promote space-science education. I strive every day to do the same with my modest talents. Only you, the viewer, can decide if I have succeeded."

What does art do for space, and vice versa?

"You know how you have color commentators for sports? They often fill in the details and help humanize the people playing and so forth? What art does for space is to humanize the mission and the goal for all the people involved [in that mission]. It's why patches have lasted this long, and I suspect a couple of hundred years of now, someone will do a search on a mission and understand what the mission was about, and help to understand something that I was involved in." -Tim Gagnon from Casual Space Podcast

Beth asks Tim about several specific NASA patches:

• STS 127,
• STS 129,
• Expedition 29, and
• Expedition 55

Enjoy Tim's gallery and work at www.kscartist.com

What happens when we integrate multi-media art with space, science, and technology? Neuroscientist Jancy McPhee is the founder and executive director of SciArt Exchange, an organization providing science and art fusion programs and celebrations of creative innovations.

Jancy McPhee works as a Multidisciplinary Program Scientist in the NASA Human Research Program's Chief Scientist's Office and works with Aerospace Human Exploration and Space Flight scientific research with STEM/STEAM education programs.

"Space exploration has made an evolution to make sure that the human could survive…For short missions, and when we are sticking our toes in the waters of the universe, that was really what was needed. Now, when we're talking about being gone for 1, 2, 3 years, now we're talking about not just surviving, but thriving. That's where there's more room for the exchange between science and art. It's really about being human in space. Human beings need to do more than just breathe their air.'"

-Jancy McPhee on Casual Space Podcast

About Jancy:

Jancy McPhee wasn't quite sure what she wanted to be when she grew up. She loved science and exploring, but all her hobbies were related to music and theater and reading about how other humans think, feel, create and move. Hoping to combine her interests, she became a neuroscientist, a person who examines the science behind these human capabilities. Formally, Dr. McPhee has a B.A. in Neurobiology and Behavior from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in Biophysics from Brandeis University. She was a cellular and molecular neuroscience researcher in academia for 17 years before joining the National Space Biomedical Research Association and later the Universities Space Research Association to manage various aspects of NASA's domestic and international space life sciences research programs. Since 2010, she has been implementing motivating and novel ways to enhance space education and science and technology innovation and to promote global collaboration in human space exploration. She created the international Humans in Space Art Program and has been working to establish SciArt Exchange.

About SciArt Exchange:

SciArt Exchange is a 501(c)(3) non-profit formed to continue and expand the international Humans in Space Art Program and to develop new science-and-art fusion programs. SciArt Exchange focuses on issues related to space, science, and technology and aim to provide an interdisciplinary framework for more effective dialogue, education, and innovation. https://www.sciartex.net/

Can an artist's work help to forecast the future? Can art in different forms (infographics, etc.) help decision makers within the industry? Is the ISS beautiful?

With more than 20+ years of work in space exploration industry, Phil Smith brings a strong sense of experience and foundation to his work as an analyst and artist. Phil joins Beth on the podcast to explain how his unique role can bring understanding and inspiration to space companies and clients who are looking to peer into the future with a little help from a visionary expert.

Phil Smith has an incredible job- listen as Phil shares incredible examples like the time when NASA asks Phil and his team to "produce a map of the universe in a way that had never been seen before…a socio-economic map that reflects how NASA impacts our view of the universe and potential use of its future within our solar system."

"Space on the one hand is relatively simple to understand but the way we use it in art and the relationship is very complex, like it is when you ask, 'What is your relationship with the Earth?'" -Phil Smith on Casual Space Podcast

About Phil, in his own words:

I have a tendency to see nature through an artistic lens, despite not believing some higher power created the wonders around us. Like most people, I have the capacity to assign meaning to things and to see beauty in the great and small. I also suffer from the relentless desire to create order where there is none. I'm fascinated by the workings of the universe and use traditional and digital media to represent what I feel are its most magnificent aspects. Though I think of myself as an artist, I make my living as a space industry analyst. This liberates me financially to pursue my art yet also informs my creative work.

I've worked in the space industry for over 20 years (now at BryceTech), building on a technical foundation of graduate-level education and military experience. I also leverage my artistic skills wherever and whenever possible. My background includes space industry analysis and market forecasting, astroculture, astrofuturism, aerospace history, nuclear weapons technology, industrial hygiene, clinical laboratory studies, and policy analysis. In addition to conducting research, analyzing the results, and drafting written materials, I translate this work into high-quality documents, briefings, wall charts, and infographics using various publishing tools, bringing a mix of analytical skills and artistic talent to provide customers with a diversity of approaches in problem solving, from conceptualization to final delivery. I've also been a tour guide for the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum since 2003. I've been interviewed or quoted by SpaceNews, Satellite Today, Via Satellite, The Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg News, Associated Press, United Press International, Houston Chronicle, Agence France-Presse, The Moscow Times, Sputnik, CNN International, CNBC, Nightly Business Report, Newsy, and The Diane Rehm Show.

Where to find Phil & his work:

Phil's website: www.astrazoic.comContact Phil: [email protected]

And here are some of Phil's work he referenced that you won't want to miss:

NASM Udvar-Hazy Center: https://airandspace.si.edu/udvar-hazy-center

"The map" produced for NASA is here: https://brycetech.com/reports/report-documents/solar_system_map

What are lava tubes? What can they tell us about the rest of the solar system? Could lava tubes harbor life deep inside them on other planets? Ph.D. student Gavin Tolometti believes the best way to understand the surfaces of planetary bodies like the Moon, Mars, Io, and Venus is to study features like lava tubes on own planet Earth.

"I study lava flows. In particular, I want to understand how we can infer how lava flows on Earth and on the Moon and Mars using remote data sets – in particular using radar, because it's a type of data set that's used on a lot of planetary bodies- and compare what we see in remote data sets (radar) and what we see on the ground (in the field) to confirm what's predicted against what we see. They are very unique features and I learn a lot every time I study them." -Gavin Tolometti on Casual Space Podcast

About Gavin:

Originally from the UK, Gavin received his bachelors of science in geology at the University of St. Andrews. His father was in the royal air force when Gavin was a kid, so he lived in five different countries. With an appreciation of different cultures and backgrounds during his time moving, it also opened his eyes to the potential of studying abroad. Currently, Gavin is preparing to complete his PhD at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. He enjoys cooking and trying new recipes.

Where to find Gavin & his work:

Twitter and Instagram: @GavinOnTheMoonResearch: https://gavintolometti.wixsite.com/gavinonthemoon Podcast Twitter: @DiariesofSpacePodcast Instagram: @diariesofspaceexplorers

And enjoy Gavin's podcast, Diaries of Space at https://diariesofspace.podbean.com/