Space Explr

Trey Henderson talks about rocket engineering, space photography, fusion energy, plasma physics, and much more. He is a graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University with experience designing rocket engines and high-field plasma fusion devices, Trey is an avid landscape and astrophotographer who started his journey with astronomy about 4 years ago.

Bailey talks about aerospace engineering, future space missions, becoming an astronaut and much, much more. She is an Aerospace Systems Engineer at Paragon Space working on the life support for the next lunar lander. She is also a master's student in Space Resources. Bailey also hopes to be an astronaut one day, doing plenty of work to prepare herself such as g-force training, microgravity, and living a simulated moon base for two weeks at HI-SEAS as an analog astronaut. Her goal is to be the first person to solve a Rubik's cube in space.

Dr. Agata Kołodziejczyk talks about analog astronaut training, chronobiology, science innovations, and much, much more. She is a neurobiologist with a space mission, she obtained her doctorate at the University of Stockholm, she is a co-founder of Space Garden and Analog Astronaut Training Center, the main originator and creator of analog bases for simulating space missions in Poland, organizer of 26 lunar and Martian analog space missions, mentor of 85 analog astronauts. She worked at the European Space Agency in the Advanced Concepts Team in the Netherlands.

Author of numerous educational and scientific publications on chronobiology, space biology, and neurobiology. A three-time laureate of the international competition Global Space Balloon Challenge in the category of "The best science experiment" and "The best educational project". Honored with many research scholarships, incl. by the Foundation for Polish Science. Member of advisory groups of organizations such as International Astronautical Federation, Euro Moon-Mars, ILEWG, Valles Marineris - International Space Agency, European Geosciences Union, Astronomia Nova Association, Polish Astrobiological Society, and Polish Rocket Society.

Derek talks about astronomy, fossils, photography, planetarium work, life in the universe, and much, much more. Ever since Derek could remember, he has been looking to the stars. Derek began working at the Emil Buehler Planetarium at Seminole State College of Florida in 2003 while a Physics and Technical Education student. By 2007, Derek was offered the position of planetarium director, and immediately began the process of writing and producing new shows, including a complete series of presentations that explore the astronomy and history of numerous cultures from around the world.   

Over much of the last decade, his passion for teaching people about the wonders of the universe has earned him accolades and recognition from the planetarium industry, his peers, and the community. Derek enjoys promoting science beyond the planetarium with his work as an astrophotographer which earned him pictures seen on NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day website, which is viewed by millions of people around the world. Derek also enjoys giving talks to venues such as astronomy festivals, local libraries, serving as observing chair for the Central Florida Astronomical Society, and simply setting up a telescope at local venues to give the public a truly "out-of-this-world" experience.

Danielle talks about astronomy, exoplanets, telescopes, pursuing your career in science, and much more. She is a Resident Astronomer and Telescope Operator at Blackrock Castle Observatory in Cork, Ireland. She is also the coordinator for Space Week Ireland and runs space events across the country. She does a lot of Astronomy outreach events with the public and is involved in bringing space directly into the classroom. 

Her passion is telescopes, where her favorite part of her job is getting to run a 16" Meade LX200R research telescope at the observatory. She works alongside their co-founder and resident Astrophysicist to gather images. The main research is on exoplanets and supermassive black holes. Lastly, she is the owner of a Meade LXD75 N6 that I call Eleanor and she's her pride and joy.

Jonathan Hill talks about buying your astrophotography equipment and capturing the beauty of space. He is a 21-year-old amateur astrophotographer and mechanical engineering student based in Alabama in the United States. He has loved space for as long as he can remember but didn't get into astronomical imaging and astronomy until the summer of 2017 when he bought his Nikon DSLR camera. He hopes that those who see his images can experience the same wonder and beauty of space that has made such a huge impact on him.

Gernot Groemer talks about astrophysics, analog missions, spacesuit simulations, TV science show, and much more. He is an astrophysicist with a Ph.D. in Astrobiology, he serves as the Director of the Austrian Space Forum, where he leads the development team for a Mars spacesuit simulator. Besides that, he is the TV host of the prime-time science show on Austrian and German television “PM Wissen”.  

He is an active analog astronaut, logging 30min of weightlessness and currently 113 hours of simulated spacewalks. So far, Dr. Groemer leads 12 international Mars simulations in Mars-like locations on Earth: from the Utah Badlands, hundreds of meters below the surface in ice caves to the northern Sahara and the deserts of southern Oman.  

CONNECT WITH GERNOT: 

Website: https://www.oewf.org​

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gernot.groemer/

Gitika Gorthi talks about space medicine and igniting future generations to pursue careers in space. She is the Founder and CEO of IgnitedThinkers and is currently a junior at Chantilly High School in Virginia, USA. Gitika developed IgnitedThinkers, a non-profit organization to spread space education to students across the world regardless of their age, gender-identification, ethnicity, and economic status, in 8th grade and has ever since then worked to spread space to all.   

Gitika conducts free webinars, workshops, space champion interviews on the IgnitedThinkers youtube channel, collaborates with other space organizations, and is working to incorporate space into school curriculums. Gitika hopes to go into space medicine and become a space doctor in the future helping advance human spaceflight, as well as help, find cures to many diseases/conditions here on Earth and ones developed in space. As a student, entrepreneur, and space enthusiast, Gitika hopes to inspire future generations to follow their space dreams, because the space industry has space for all.  

CONNECT WITH GITIKA: 

https://twitter.com/GitikaGorthi​ 

https://twitter.com/IgnitedThinkers​ 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/GitikaGorthi​ 

https://www.ignitedthinkers.org/

Jason Michaud and Jawad El Houssine talk about how VR training technology benefits the space industry, Jason is an experienced Chief Executive Officer with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology, aerospace, and services industry. Mr. Michaud is a strong business development professional, with a passion for entrepreneurship and the business marketing world. Jason is also a youth entrepreneur at the age of 29 and has been the Chief Executive Officer, President, and Founder of Stardust Technologies and Tech Galaxy with over 10 years of entrepreneurship and business development in Northern Ontario, Canada. Jason studied at Collège Boréal in Computer Engineering and is also a Certified Practitioner for CyberSecurity. Mr. Michaud as also been very active in the community of Cochrane Ontario, by being a Director on the Cochrane Board of Trade and the Centre de Formation for many years.  

Jawad El Houssine is a recognized, awarded Entrepreneur, 3D Artist and Software engineer who's been working in several industries such as the entertainment with Disney America, Tencent China(League of Legends, HelloTalk), Kirarito Inc Japan. He got an international award from One Reeler of Los Angeles in 2018 for the animated sci-fi short-film "Beyond Polaris", Awarded by Artstation Canada in 2018 for being in the best art "FILM/VFX Characters renders". He also worked in the modeling industries and got international recognition by the prestigious Forbes Magazine in 2020 for "being among the 12 best virtual influencers in the world" with Serah Reikka a virtual and AI model he designed. Jawad is now working as a Chief Technology Officer at Stardust Technologies and he is responsible for the development of the Eden project a psychological experience for the aerospace industry and he is in charge of the XRE Mining Software for the Mining industries. Jawad graduated as an IT computer science a Master of Science Degree in the "Université de Franche-Comté" in Belfort-Montbéliard - France.

CONNECT WITH JASON & JAWAD:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-michaud-027b1660/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jawad-el-houssine/

https://twitter.com/StardustTech

https://www.facebook.com/StardustTech

Alex talks about astronomy, space photography, science, the future of our planet, and much more. He is a 17-year-old astronomer/astrophotographer from the cloudy skies of Seattle.  

CONNECT WITH ALEX: 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexmccphoto/