Clayming Space

In this episode we talk to Brent Ryan Bellamy, a writer, editor, and instructor of science fiction studies, American literature and culture, energy humanities at Trent University.

Brent is most fulfilled by helping students and collaborators achieve their visions in a collective way. He loves teaching a university-level course on worldbuilding, for instance. He is also the managing editor of Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies and author of several scholarly articles and book chapters about science fiction, energy regimes, and how to imagine a better future.

Brent lives in Toronto, the traditional territory of many nations including 
the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the  Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples. The city is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples.

*** Please Note: There are video demos in this episode which sound like long pauses in the audio***

Adeene Denton is a scientist and historian approaching future planetary exploration from a humanistic perspective. She is a Ph.D. student in planetary geology at Purdue University. She holds undergraduate degrees in geophysics and history from Rice University and a Masters in planetary geology from Brown University. Her thesis work focuses on the geologic history of prominent destinations for human and robotic exploration, including the mid-latitudes of Mars and the icy satellites, as the geologic history of these bodies is a crucial aspect controlling resource distribution and accessibility. As a graduate student, she has been active in developing a support network for underrepresented students both within the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Science at Purdue and across the planetary science community through her work with the Women in Space conference. She is an avid writer, dancer, and choreographer, creating work focused on the sociopolitical implications of space exploration.

The vision of the Ethics and Human Rights in the Space Sector project group for the SGAC, is to identify how space technology can best contribute to the realization of the United Nations objectives on Human Rights and the Sustainable Development Goals. At the same time, the project group will be a platform for empowerment and justice from the perspective of the diverse peoples who make up the modern space sector in order to help shape its development to be representative of all humanity.

If you’d like to contact Adeene, please refer to the links below:

Sarah is a real-life rocket woman based in Auckland, New Zealand. After starting out making cardboard rockets, Sarah now spends her days helping to build the real thing at Rocket Lab. She also volunteers for Rocket Women, an international organization working to inspire the next generation of young women to pursue careers in STEM. In addition, Sarah is one of two National Points of Contact in New Zealand for the Space Generation Advisory Council, a global non-profit organization and network which aims to represent university students and young space professionals to the United Nations, space agencies, industry, and academia. Sarah is a graduate of the University of Auckland in Engineering and Commerce and the International Space University in Space Studies.

After her undergraduate degree, Sarah worked as an engineer in the energy industry before deciding to transition her career to the space industry by completing a master’s degree in France. After several years abroad, Sarah is pleased to be back home in New Zealand and is excited to be part of the growing space sector. In her spare time, you’ll likely find her at the beach kitesurfing, out training for her next marathon, or hiking up a mountain somewhere.

The Space Generation Advisory Council in Support of the United Nations Programme on Space Applications is a global non-governmental, non-profit (US 501(c)3) organisation and network which aims to represent university students and young space professionals ages 18–35 to the United Nations, space agencies, industry, and academia. Headquartered in Vienna, Austria, the SGAC network of members, volunteers and alumni has grown to more than 15 000 members representing more than 150 countries.

If you’d like to contact Sarah, please refer to the links below:

Erika Nesvold has a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and has conducted astrophysics research at NASA Goddard and the Carnegie Institute of Washington. She currently works as an Astrophysics Engineer on the Universe Sandbox astrophysics simulator. Nesvold created the podcast miniseries Making New Worlds in 2017 about the ethical issues of settling in space. In 2018, she co-found a nonprofit called the JustSpace Alliance, along with Lucianne Walkowicz, to advocate for a more ethical and inclusive future in space.

The mission of the JustSpace Alliance is to advocate for a more inclusive and ethical future in space, and to harness visions of tomorrow for a more just and equitable world today.

If you’d like to contact and/or listen to Erika’s limited podcast series, please refer to the links below:

Aditya is a Junior Research Analyst with the Takshashila Institution and a gold medalist graduate in Journalism and Mass Communication. At Takhsashila, he works on issues relating to strategic affairs and foreign policy. His current areas of focus include subsurface maritime strategy, Russia-Japan relations and space militarization.

The Takshashila Institution is an independent center for research and education in public policy, situated in Bengaluru, India. It is a non-partisan, non-profit organization that advocates the values of freedom, openness, tolerance, pluralism and responsible citizenship. The Takshashila Institution seeks to transform India through better public policies, bridging the governance gap by developing better public servants, civil society leaders, professionals and informed citizens.

If you’d like to contact and/or learn more about Aditya Pareek’s work, please refer to the links below:

Dr. Aaron is a research engineer and scientist in Space Sciences and Technology with 15+ years of experience in the field. He has designed and 
built two experiments that were launched to the International Space Station to study how fluids behave in low gravity. Currently, Dr. Persad is CTO 
and co-founder of Mission: Space Food. He is also Director of Bioastronautics at the International Institute of Astronautical Sciences, where he leads spacesuit validation/verification testing in microgravity. Dr. Persad is also a Research Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is developing novel membrane-based separation/filtration systems. Previously, he was manager for reduced gravity parabolic flight campaigns for the Canadian Space Agency.

As humans inevitably start looking into their long-term future as a spacefaring civilization. One of the pillars of human life — eating — becomes an increasingly important field of multidisciplinary innovation to be able to support life outside of Earth. At the same time, humans have woken up to the fact that the current food systems on Earth are deeply flawed, becoming the primary contributors to the increased rate of climate change and ecosystem degradation, putting all life under existential risk.

With an increased interest and investment into going back to the Moon, settling on Mars, and the rise of Space Tourism, the International Space Station (ISS) serves as a platform to prototype the most efficient food systems and meals in microgravity that are both delicious, resource-efficient, nutritious, and sustainable. By re-imagining astronaut food on the ISS, Mission: Space Food creates eating experiences to address the public health and ecological constraints on earth, seeding the eating rituals and flavors for centuries to come.

Mission Space Food are a commercial space startup re-imaging space food systems, by combining space sciences and experiential design to fuel your exploration, starting with multivitamin supplements.

If you’d like to learn more about Mission Space Food and Dr. Persad’s work, please refer to the links below:

Dr. Walkowicz is an astronomer at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, 
and co-Founder of the JustSpace Alliance. The mission of The JustSpace Alliance is to advocate for a more inclusive and ethical future in space, and to harness visions of tomorrow for a more just and equitable world today.

Walkowicz studies the ethics of Mars exploration, stellar magnetic activity, how stars influence a planet’s suitability as a host for alien life, and how to use advanced computing to discover unusual events in large astronomical data sets. Walkowicz was the 2017–2018 Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/LOC Chair in Astrobiology at the Library of Congress, and is the founding director of the LSSTC Data Science Fellowship Program.

Walkowicz holds a BS in Physics and Astronomy from Johns Hopkins University, an MS and PhD in Astronomy from the University of Washington, and held postdoctoral fellowships at UC Berkeley and Princeton prior to joining the Adler Planetarium.

If you’d like to learn more about The JustSpace Alliance and Dr. Walkowicz’s work, please refer to the links below:

Donna is a Co-Founder and Principal at Azimuth Advisory and is a member of the International Institute of Space Lawyers. She is an experienced commercial lawyer specializing in complex transactions involving space activities. Over almost twenty years in the space industry she has been an advisor to a range of commercial space organizations, including operators of geo-stationary and low earth orbit satellite constellations, spaceport operators and launch services providers. In particular, she has had key involvement in the build, launch and insurance programmes for six geostationary satellites on behalf of Optus and its parent company SingTel. These include the Optus C1 satellite, which is a hybrid civilian and military spacecraft, jointly owned by Optus and the Australian Defence Forces.

Her involvement in space-related programmes has also included the sale and purchase of satellite capacity, securing the use of orbital slots, advising on risk, liability and insurance issues and negotiating other civilian and military satellite and launch related contracts. Prior to co-founding Azimuth Advisory, Donna served as Assistant General Counsel for Optus Satellite, an Australian satellite operator. She has also practiced technology and telecommunications law at Baker & McKenzie in Hong Kong and Minter Ellison in Sydney.

Donna has published joint papers on Space Law topics internationally and has been a presenter on commercial Space Law topics in Australia (including the International Space University’s Southern Hemisphere Space Program), Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, South Africa, Taiwan and the United States.

If you would like to get in touch with Donna and/or learn more about Azimuth Advisory, please note the details below:

Stefan holds a Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from Delft University of Technology, and a MSc. in Industrial Engineering from Ghent University. As an aerospace engineer, Stefan has fulfilled a variety of roles.

During his time at the European Space Agency, he did research on 3d printing for in-space manufacturing with high performance thermoplastics and assessed the use of these 3D printing materials for radiation shielding. He did this while being part of the leadership team of an innovation team called Spaceship EAC, at the European Astronaut Centre.

Currently he is working at Valispace as systems engineer and marketing manager. Valispace is a browser-based software that enables engineers to collaboratively design better satellites, rockets and other complex hardware products. Since then, organisations such as Airbus, Gomspace, DLR, LuxSpace, Momentus and others have become their customers.

 The practice of engineering today is limited by its tools. Tools designed for a different time and era especially when it comes to the space community where compartmentalisation is a common feature. This feature has limitations when it comes to collaboration when engineering complex systems. The more complex a product becomes, the more engineers need to work together.

Valispace allows engineers to collaboratively develop better complex hardware products, including rockets and satellites. It serves as a Single Source of Truth and allows engineers to store and collaborate along the engineering life-cycle, all the way from requirements, through detailed design up to verification and testing.

Valispace reduces hardware development costs by >20%, by digitising non-CAD data, using browser-based collaboration and complementary integrations to common engineering tools. It supports interdisciplinary teams throughout the engineering lifecycle, from requirements management, through detailed design up to automatic verification.

In short: it is Github for Hardware.

Valispace has been named in Forbes as one of Germany’s 100 most innovative Startups in 2018, featured in Wired and Techcrunch and has won multiple startup awards.

If you would like to get in touch with Stefan or Valispace to collaborate and learn more about their platform, please note the details below:

In this episode we talk to Vered Cohen Barzilay.

An Israeli-born social entrepreneur and tenacious advocate for aviation, space, and science education. She is the Founder Director of "Out of the Box", a Social Enterprise to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in education. Vered serves as a mentor at Space 4 Women, a project of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) to promote women's empowerment in space. She also serves as a mentor at the Starburst Accelerator at IAI, at the 8200 Impact Accelerators and is currently a glider pilot student. Vered was elected by the US Department of State for the #FacesofExchange initiative that highlights 80 accomplished alumni, their lives, and the impact their exchange program brought to the global community.

Her flagship program, the Science Accelerator received special recognition by the senator of California, The Ministry of education and the municipality of Givatayim in Israel as "A pioneering program, original and visionary in the subject of space education". Vered is also the founder of Novel Rights - a Human Rights Literature global movement. She is the Founder and former director of Women's Media Center Israel - a hub for gender equality and social justice in the media industry. She is the Co-Founder of Chamber of Women Journalists and was elected 5th out of a 100 most influential in the Israeli Media in 2014. Vered was a board member for Arts for Amnesty, a global project which encourages artists to become involved in the efforts to raise awareness for human rights issues. Arts for Amnesty members (such as U2, YOKO ONO, etc) lend their voices for Amnesty International campaigns around the World.

"Out of the Box"'s purpose is to spark passion in the future generation for working in the aerospace industry and to provide them with the know-how and skills they need to succeed in this future working market. They put a special focus on attracting young women and girls to the programs and to empower female facilitators. They provide opportunities for students to gain experience in an international arena through peer-to-peer learning. Out of the Box acknowledges the importance of creating and leading a diverse and equal society on Earth and beyond and therefore are committed to the mission to make space accessible for everyone and to dream and dare!

If you'd like to get in touch with Vered to collaborate and learn more about Out of the Box, please note the details below:

Professor Alice is from Flinders University South Australia, is recognized as one of the world’s foremost scholars in the cutting-edge field of space archaeology. Her research focuses on the archaeology and heritage of space exploration, including space junk, space stations, planetary landing sites, off-earth mining, rocket launch pads and antennas. She is a Senior Member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a former Deputy Chair of the Space Industry Association of Australia. In 2020 she was appointed to the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs Space4Women Mentor Network, to further the goal of Sustainable Development Goal 5, Gender Equality. Her multi-award-winning book Dr Space Junk vs the Universe: Archaeology and the Future was published in 2019. She often tweets as @drspacejunk and blogs at Space Age Archaeology. Her vision is to make space truly accessible for all, and to connect people to space through their cultural heritage.

If you would like to get in touch with Professor Alice Gorman and/or check out some of her work as well as the references made in the episode, the links below will help you get there.

On her work:

In this episode we talk to Michelle L.D. Hanlon, Co-Founder and President of For All Moonkind Inc.

Michelle is Co-Director of the Air and Space Law Program at the University of Mississippi School of Law and its Center for Air and Space Law. She is also a Co-Founder and President of For All Moonkind, Inc., a nonprofit corporation that is the only organization in the world focused on protecting human cultural heritage in outer space. For All Moonkind has been recognized by the United Nations as a Permanent Observer to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

Michelle Chairs the International Committee of the National Space Society and is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Space Law, the world’s oldest law journal dedicated to the legal problems arising out of human activities in outer space. She received her B.A. in Political Science from Yale College and her J.D. magna cum laude from the Georgetown University Law Center. Michelle earned her LLM in Air and Space Law from McGill University where the focus of her research was commercial space and the intersection of commerce and public law.

Prior to focusing on space law, Michelle was engaged in a private business law practice. Her legal career commenced with the restructuring of sovereign debt for several South and Latin American countries and evolved into the negotiation and implementation of cross-border technology mergers and acquisitions. Her subsequent solo practice advised entrepreneurs across four continents on all aspects of bringing their innovative ideas to market: from basic corporate formation to financing and buyouts.

If you would like to get in touch with Michelle and/or check out For All Moonkind’s work, the links below will help you get there:

Holistically questioning our pursuit into new frontiers

The world is going crazy! “Strong men leaders” that we thought died with the dark ages, cyber-hacks everywhere, social media and internet giants going bonkers with data privacy and contributing to demise of the democratic process, the wealthy getting wealthier with wider societal inequity (and some changing their tune as a form of self-preservation), admissions scams at “top universities” by the wealthy, countries trying to assert their dominance in their neighboring regions, to slavery and colonialism existing in the modern-day!!! Where do we look for hope?