Last Friday, I got to do something I have wanted to do for a long time, and that was to see the Earth from space! Well, in an immersive experience and through VR goggles – but it was still incredible! The exhibition is called Space Explorers: THE INFINITE; its creators are based in Montreal (proud to say as that is where I live), as is the event-experience currently – although they have traveled through many US cities. Here is what the experience was like once you got a moment to adjust to no longer seeing with your own eyes what is in front of you and where you are walking but through goggles, and a whole new world… That world is Space. Some of the first sights within the experience are the people standing around you, but they’re an avatar-like of sparkles. And if you wave your own hands in front of you, they are a sparkling shape of a hand. That alone is a dream-like state; weird, yet magical, and so un-worldly – but fun! There is darkness all around you. But the lights come through stars up above, some planets, the Milky Way, and when looking down, you can make up cities through their lights of a nighttime-lit Earth. It’s still dark all around you – you’re in space after all – but you can clearly see the Space Station; inside, its cluttered interior, and outside, all the outdoor modules and names written on them like Japan, NASA, SpaceX, Canada, and its red flag/logo on the top of the last “a” of “Canada”! Yes, you can clearly see the long robotic Canadarm “hanging” out there in space, extended from the Space Station. The overwhelming sight of the huge solar arrays that power the ISS (International Space Station or just Space Station), as well as the SpaceX capsule Dragon docked at the station, (and more!) – it is a lot to take-in. But you do. You look up, down, through … And it’s just captivating and fascinating! You “enter” the ISS and you get to experience the ceremonial welcoming of a new crew to the station. You listen-in to various conversations, sometimes between astronauts, sometimes explaining to you how things are done. You have ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Luca Parmitano standing (well, floating but his feet under a rod anchoring him in place), and talking directly to you. You watch Christina Koch and Jessica Meir maneuvering inside the station a huge lithium battery and getting ready for the historic all-female spacewalk. To see the two women interact there in space and doing something that is so hard in weightlessness and so high-risk in the vacuum of space, is an inspiring and proud thing to witness (for me as a woman, but hopefully for anyone seeing it). Even though this was the 221st spacewalk performed in support of the space station assembly, it was Jessica Meir’s very first spacewalk, the 15th woman overall and 14th U.S. woman to spacewalk. You can learn more here: Friday's All-Woman Spacewalk: The Basics | NASA. There “with” us, were astronaut David Saint-Jacques from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and US astronauts Nick Hague, Andrew Morgan, and as mentioned just above, Christina Koch, Jessica Meir, and Luca Parmitano from the ESA. But then it came. Then you saw the Earth! You saw the curvature of the Earth against the darkness of space; you saw sunsets and sunrises from up above, and continents that were in between darkness and sun-lit. You saw masses of lands and oceans, and the thin blue veil of an atmosphere, the one circling the whole globe that is our planet. Sun light, a protective atmosphere, and the waters that make our planet a blue marble is what is our world; what nurtures us and gives us life, you, me, all creatures, and all of nature. The breathtaking views were just stunning and mesmerizing and with such a unique way of experiencing it. I’ve seen the Earth from space from my laptop and even phone from many past captured footages by astronauts and cameras on spacecrafts, and it’s always so beautiful to see. But what astronauts see with their own eyes is a unique and profound experience for humans, and so few humans have experienced it. I was not actually in space, and I was also not looking at space from some device, but I was “there”, albeit in this immersive experience. And it really was breathtaking. If you know anything about astronauts experiencing space, you have heard of the term Overview Effect. It’s literally what the word says “overview” but in the context of being above the Earth, and the “effect” is how the experience changes you in a profound way; with the unique views of the Earth and its delicate nature and how all you’ve ever known is born on that planet, and surrounding you is darkness and emptiness and lifeless, you instantly develop a new perspective of how precious and delicate life on Earth is. I will not state that I really experienced the Overview Effect; something about wearing this heavy headset, hearing other people around me talk, and having to walk a little clumsily around with the goggles (and not being weightless)… But my goodness, the views were just spectacular! In fact, I would sometimes look at a seen of the Earth and I would cover my mouth because it was wide open in a “wow” expression (or jaw-dropping) as to not make the staff standing nearby giggle, catching me in that moment. Or I tried not to get teary-eyed because I knew I couldn’t wipe my tears due to the goggles I was wearing. At one point, we got to sit down and look at a spacewalk being conducted, and you can see the astronauts doing their thing, you can see the Space Station and some of its modules – all stunning. But as a backdrop, or rather, to me, as the main scene, was the Earth; its curvature, and all the blue, brown and clouds seen from above. That's the only thing I could look at. It was truly magnificent! “As we got further and further away, it [the Earth] diminished in size. Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful you can imagine. That beautiful, warm, living object looked so fragile, so delicate, that if you touched it with a finger it would crumble and fall apart. Seeing this has to change a man.” - James B. Irwin, Astronaut, Apollo Program We can't all go to space (at least, not yet), but if you get a chance to experience something similar to this experience, go do it!! "For those who have seen the Earth from space, and for the hundreds and perhaps thousands more who will, the experience most certainly changes your perspective. The things that we share in our world are far more valuable than those which divide us." Donald Williams, NASA astronaut

September 21 was International Peace Day, or simply World Peace Day. That was yesterday, but frankly, in this stage of our existence, Peace Day should be every day. Peace means different things to different people, all depending where one lives and what is lacking in terms of freedom, safety, equal opportunity, and yes, a peaceful life. I’m blessed, I live in Canada, one of the safest and most peaceful places on Earth. I don’t take it for granted, and I can also recognize how the world, far and near to me, is far from perfect. I want to make the correlation here between two drastically different subjects: Peace and Space. What could those two possibly have in common? Not much really, expect what one could teach us about the other. Space is a harsh and not so unfriendly environment for humans, at least, not in the way we’re used to being here on Earth, and for now anyway, not a place for humanity to venture out for long. Our planet, on the other hand, is lush, nurturing and provides us, humans, all living species, and all natural ecosystems, everything we need, from water, to all the resources for life as we know it, and even a thin delicate atmosphere, to protect us from the Sun. If this planet is our only home (for now anyway), why aren’t we more understanding and kind to Mother Earth? Why do we continue to take her for granted with our intelligence as a human specie (on: how pollution can be dangerous for water, air, and land, how the planet is warming, how feeding a growing global population is putting a great toll on the resources and quality of our food supplies)? So, we take our planet for granted unintentionally as we go about our days, sure. But how can we be reminded more frequently on the fragility of the Earth so we can continuously try to do good? Here’s another (admittedly very indirect) correlation between peace and space, or rather, a very important lesson space can teach us: We are currently in a very active Space Race/Space Era where so many branches within the space industry have evolved and are now blooming, and where the industry is simply booming. With one branch of the space sector, that of spaceflight, and where there are currently more people, (to be sure, teeny tiny, still), that are experiencing space and seeing the Earth from above, and who are coming back with images, story-telling of their views, and even ambassadors for all-things environmentalism, is doing a bit of help in reminding us of the fragility and beauty of the Earth (that is referred to the Overview Effect). The industry of suborbital or even flights to the space station is just at its infancy, but with a continuously growing industry, one that is always inspiring and trending on social media and the web, I believe is doing a bit of good in the cause and advocacy and awareness of working in making the world better, and more sustainable for future generations. Also, within the space industry, satellites are a huge piece of that pie, and with satellites, we can track, measure and be aware of so much that is happening here on Earth, from helping farmers, to monitoring droughts, floods, and even watch out for illegal hunting and fishing – and help prevent it! Finally, space inspires! The space era began with the first satellite launched by the Soviet Union in 1957 – and that inspired people to look up and dream of what more we can do with space innovation. Then there were the Apollo missions, the space station, Hubble, and now the James Webb Telescope, the upcoming Artemis missions and so much in between! Focusing on space innovation (or any technology for good here on Earth) is good for humanity and is inspiring. We have been in wars and conflict for centuries – and sadly it continues in some parts of the world – and to me, space innovation, and STEM inspiration/education, are the opposite of the mindset of war and destruction. Also from the space industry, it’s about collaboration between organizations and nations. And with more women in the industry, and the first woman to walk on the Moon within this decade, it’s about diversity, inclusion, and that inspires! Global Peace Day has been celebrated for a little over 40 years now, and although it’s a day to acknowledge all things encompassing the meaning of peace, every year has a theme. The 2023 theme for the International Day of Peace is "Action for peace: Our ambition for the Global Goals. The “Global Goals” are 17 global goals world leaders agreed to in 2015 towards making the world better – also called the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The space sector seems to easily branch out and contribute to many of the SDGs. And that's where space meets peace. “When I orbited the Earth in a spaceship, I saw for the first time how beautiful our planet is. Mankind, let us preserve and increase this beauty, and not destroy it!” ~ Yuri Gagarin, First human in outer space, 9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968 (Article also shared on Medium. Link here: What Space Can Teach us on ‘World Peace Day’ and Every Day | by Iris Fisher | Sep, 2023 | Medium)

We are in the Space Age – an era that began on October 1957 with the launch of Sputnik 1; an era that went through the Space Race of the ‘60s and is ongoing today in the 21st century. The Space Race of the '60s was between the United States and the Soviet Union, and who had the better spaceflight capabilities - and could get to the Moon first. The "New Space" [Race], currently ongoing, is not so much the continuation of what was once, but an evolution of the industry due to new technologies, exponential innovations, the startup-type businesses, powerful, visionary players, and the mindset of commercialization of the industry – and all this globally (but there is not one specific definition to the term). There are of course big names that are almost like pop stars (specially to space geeks, but to fellow entrepreneurs who look at them with respect and admiration), and yes, mainly in the US, like SpaceX at the very top (and Elon Musk’s very name), and other huge world-known companies like Blue Origin (with Jeff Bezos), Virgin Galactic (with Richard Branson). Lately Axiom Space is showing to be superstars with their latest (May 21, 2023) crewed-launch to the Space Station – and with two Saudi astronauts, one being a woman, a first! The technologies that these companies have innovated, and build would be mind-blowing to think of back in President Kennedy’s days, 60 years ago. The Space Industry has changed so much in our very lifetimes (whether you were alive in the 60s, or someone as young as in their 20s); it’s really that different from back then, and evolving so rapidly right now. We’re in the Space Age still, but it’s not what it was once in the 60s! There are however parallels from the old Space Race phase and the New Space mindset and drive of today, and one of which can be found from this paragraph of the address before the 18th General Assembly to the United Nations, delivered by President Kennedy in September 20, 1963: “[...] in a field where the United States and the Soviet Union have a special capacity--in the field of space--there is room for new cooperation, for further joint efforts in the regulation and exploration of space. I include among these possibilities a joint expedition to the moon. Space offers no problems of sovereignty; by resolution of this Assembly, the members of the United Nations have foresworn any claim to territorial rights in outer space or on celestial bodies, and declared that international law and the United Nations Charter will apply. Why, therefore, should man's first flight to the moon be a matter of national competition? Why should the United States and the Soviet Union, in preparing for such expeditions, become involved in immense duplications of research, construction, and expenditure? Surely we should explore whether the scientists and astronauts of our two countries--indeed of all the world--cannot work together in the conquest of space, sending someday in this decade to the moon not the representatives of a single nation, but the representatives of all of our countries." Even in the days of the Cold War and all that was going on then, including the Space Race, President Kennedy spoke of unity, collaboration, and how space exploration should be a global endeavor, i.e. we’re all in this together. Just a few days ago (May 19) it was announced that Blue Origin won a $3.4 billion NASA contract to build an Artemis lunar lander. In Kennedy's presidency, and the Apollo program of the day – and decades later – it was unheard of a private company helping such a big governmental space mission! But what a huge win for Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin company! True that Blue Origin, along with SpaceX and the others I mentioned are all American companies and contradicting the inspiring message above by Kennedy of global collaboration, nevertheless, in this link here you can find the full list of private spaceflight companies and what they’re all up to (and this list is changing so fast, and not even fully updated). On 31 December 2100, a new century will begin and will be the end of the 21st Century. How will children born today live like then? Will they be travelling to the Moon? Mars? Will space exploration go beyond that? What will all our global collaborative efforts of today's Space Era bring to a future 22nd Century (spacefaring?) generation?

Happy Earth Day fellow Earthlings! Earth Day is celebrated yearly on April 22 (and the whole week prior) as a show of support for environmental issues and to promote protecting our planet. Earth Day began in 1970 and the issues discussed since have been anything from pollution on the planet, the health of our waters and of the air, global warning, climate change, and more... Earth Day 2023’s theme is “Invest in Our Planet”. How appropriate. Just recently I watched an old George Carlin comedy act on the folks wanting to protect our planet, and he jokes how those people are just selfish and only want to live in a beautiful place themselves but they don’t actually care about the planet. And, that the planet doesn’t need us to protect it – it can and will heal itself on its own, millennials after we’re all gone. Then he proceeds to say that if it’s true that plastic doesn’t decompose, and that eventually we’ll all have plastic within us, maybe that was the Earth’s master plan, to have humans, and with time, have them invent and produce plastics from the very ingredients of the Earth, just for Earth's desire, and then rid of us, humans. All silliness, of course, it was a comedy act to poke fun at us humans and how irresponsible we are toward our planet. The reality is, plastic really is a problem, especially if we look at the overwhelming accumulation in landfills and ocean floors (and now beaches too). To the right is a video of the amazing work of cleaning a beach in Guatemala by 4ocean crew. Another amazing organization that does similar work is The Ocean Cleanup. You can learn more about these two by clicking on the links to their Twitter accounts. Avoiding the issue as it’s not part of the earth’s area where we live, is just not being responsible, for us and future generations (not to mention all the species in the oceans). Every single time you use some plastic object, especially a single-use plastic product and the convenience of carrying your liquids or chunk of food, (and depending on the type of plastic), that very single-use plastic product will just be tossed away and be part of the earth for literally thousands of years – it just does not get decomposed easily nor does it biodegrade with time. A similar thorny problem is now arousing with accumulated debris, this time in space. The parallels of the junk we throw in landfills and oceans is also what is happening with debris circling our planet. Space debris (also known as space junk, space pollution, space waste, space trash, space garbage, or cosmic debris, from Wikipedia) is a serious problem. The “New Space" era, happening currently, with all the new innovations of the space industry, mainly satellites and their launch vehicles, and all the “leftovers” from previous launches, which have either broken up, no longer in use, basically just defunct human-made objects in LEO (Low Earth Orbit), is what is causing this space debris – and will just worsen in the next few years. From NASA’s website: LEO is an orbital space junk yard. There are millions of pieces of space junk flying in LEO. Most orbital debris comprises human-generated objects, such as pieces of space craft, tiny flecks of paint from a spacecraft, parts of rockets, satellites that are no longer working, or explosions of objects in orbit flying around in space at high speeds. Most “space junk” is moving very fast and can reach speeds of 18,000 miles per hour, almost seven times faster than a bullet. Due to the rate of speed and volume of debris in LEO, current and future space-based services, explorations, and operations pose a safety risk to people and property in space and on Earth. Do we ever learn from our mistakes? Individually, we can't drastically change the world, but each of us can make a difference. Here's a post a shared a few years ago that perfectly explains that (except now we're 8+ Billion people in the world...). As a Montrealer, I’m proud of my city for the recent ban of single-use plastics and polystyrene (no. 6), and not allowing plastic bags. It’s certainly a start! As I travel a lot in the US, I do notice a big difference between the states; Colorado having more eco-friendly items in their cafes and restaurants, including paper straws. Places like Texas, not as environment conscious, as an example, offering straws with every drink like they were candies! To end, here are beautiful words I just heard by former NASA astronaut Jeff Hoffman: his Overview Effect, more importantly, his powerful message: “You’re out there in a spacecraft, you look through the window and realize that on the other side of the window is a vacuum. And most of the Universe is like that; it’s totally hostile to life. We never sense that here on Earth. I mean, the Earth is friendly to life. But we take it for granted. But you go out there and you’re in the middle of this hostile environment, which is almost all of the Universe and then you look down at our planet, and truly appreciate, in a visceral sense, emotionally, how our planet has given birth to life and protects life, and in return, we better protect or planet because right now, it’s all we’ve got!” Spaceship Earth is the only place we’ve got. You and I individually cannot change the world, but collectively, we really can all make a difference! Happy Earth Day [every day!]!

International Women’s Day (IWD) has been celebrated since the early 1900s, but it was in 1977 that the United Nations officially marked 8 March as Women’s Day – it is now celebrated yearly, and globally (more about why on that date specifically, the movement and history, HERE.) Every IWD has a theme, and when researching about 2023’s theme, the International Women’s Day website showed #EmbraceEquity as theme. Then later, I learned the UN Women’s theme was: “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”, and with “#PowerOn” to be used on social media. My focus on this Women’s Day is, “Women in STEM & Space”, and originally with “equity” in mind. But as I found out the UN Women, as part of their theme, have “innovation and technology for gender equality”, it clearly also pertains to my blog’s theme. The word “equity” is defined simply as: “the quality of being fair and impartial; freedom from bias or favoritism” (of gender, color of skin, religious background, and more). The space industry is booming and thriving like never before, and startups and companies of a varied expertise are now intermingling in the space sector as it is now possible – in an unprecedented way – for a diversity of tech companies to become players in the “New Space” ecosystem, and ultimately, the economy – one which is predicted to become a trillion-dollar industry by 2040! Women are now part of this New Space industry (and economy) like never before – quite literally! In the first “Space Race” of the 1960s, women were so few, we can almost count them with two hands, and names of the heroines of the time, like Margaret Hamilton, Judy Sullivan, Frances “Poppy” Northcutt, or Katherine Johnson are still recognized and celebrated today – rightly so! It is not precisely a new Space Race we are in (as the Space Race of the 60s was of which nation would be first to the Moon), but there is definitely a massive boom in the industry, from developing sustainable rocketry, including the rocket that will bring humanity (and women specifically) back to the Moon, to sending a range of satellites to help matters here on Earth (like Global Warming, understanding forest fires, etc.), to building new spacecrafts and telescopes for the fields of astronomy and cosmology, and everything in between, really. That is what the Space Industry is about, and these days, it is not only big players with space agencies like NASA; it is thousands of new players of all types and sizes – and globally! But the focus here is Women’s Day, “Equity” and “innovation and technology for gender equality”. The world of engineering and many technology-related fields and industries are still male dominated (including in education of those fields), but that is beyond the scope of this piece. There are however innumerable women who are indeed in the space industry holding a wide range of positions, from engineering to flight controller, to astronauts (more on that later), and everything in between. I don’t know each’s personal story and background, and how they got to be where they are today, but that they succeeded, and in innovation and technology, that is their story of “equity”. Here are a few power women with executive positions specifically from NASA (all photos taken from their Twitter/LinkedIn or public domain accounts). From top left and clockwise: - Nicola Fox, the newly appointed NASA’s Associate Administrator of the Science Mission Directorate - Vanessa Wyche, Director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center - Pam Melroy, NASA’s Deputy Administrator - Kathy Lueders, Associate Administrator of the Space Operations Mission Directorate - Laurie Leshin, Director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab - Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, launch director for NASA's Exploration Ground Systems Program Outside of NASA, here are more women in high roles within the Space Industry: - Gwynne Shotwell, President and COO at SpaceX (right) - Flavia Tata Nardini, CEO at Fleet Space Technologies in Australia (top) - Vanessa Clark CEO at Atomos Space (bottom) (There are clearly many more, but I only selected a few to showcase here.) From the science side of the Space Industry, there are so many female scientists, I can’t possibly begin to even pick a few to name, and from all the many branches of the sciences. As for astronauts, “As of March 2023, 72 women have flown in space” - taken from this thoroughly detailed article: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/womens-history-month-2023-celebrating-women-astronauts/ The article speaks of all the first female astronauts, from all nations, all cultural backgrounds, and all the firsts that ever happened for women astronauts. Along with those professional female astronauts (trained by NASA or other space agency), there is a relatively new form of astronauts: the private citizens who have flown on a suborbital flight. These women and men (although, my focus here is with women specifically), have been inspiring the world over in just the last couple of years with these types of flights made possible by companies like Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic (and more variation of suborbital or near-space vehicles coming soon!) Here is a montage of all these women: From Blue Origin, from left to right: - Wally Funk - Audrey Powers - Laura Shepard Churchley - Sharon Hagle - Katya Echazarreta - Vanessa O’Brien - Sara Sabry (Both Katya Echazarreta and Sara Sabry were selected with the Citizen Astronaut Program by the non-profit organization Space for Humanity. ) **See bonus posts at the end of this blog about Katya Echazarreta and Sara Sabry.** From Virgin Galactic: Beth Moses (left) and Sirisha Bandla (right) Then there are Hayley Arceneaux and Sian Proctor (seen below), also private citizens, but who have gone beyond suborbital, to low Earth orbit (LEO), in a SpaceX capsule called Dragon, that mission was Inspiration4. And THAT inspires young people looking on. THAT is the path for future generation! Because… “You can’t be what you can’t see” – Marian Wright Edelman “More women should demand to be involved. It’s our right. This is one area where women can get in on the ground floor and possibly help to direct where space exploration will go in the future. – Mae Jemison “Astronauts don’t have to be either very feminine or very masculine women, or very superhuman males, or any other color or anything. It’s about people in space. – Judith Resnik See more below about Katya and Sara from Space for Humanity. You can follow Katya on Twitter and Instagram at @katvoltage, and Sara Sabry on Instagram at @astrosarasabry. Above is a video with Sara Sabry shared by Frank White (of the Overview Effect) speaking at an event earlier this month in Colorado. The attached video is filmed by me. Frank White's speech was of course on the Overview Effect. Happy Women International Day 2023!

From 1966 to the just-celebrated New Year 2023, for 50+ years and for more than a generation now, we have seen breathtaking images of our home, the Earth, taken from space, and it was – and still is – awe-inspiring to see, so much so that it has even been the catalyst for the environmental movement and the yearly Earth Day celebration. We can't seem to get enough of these images, and those who have ventured out to space (in a spaceflight or on the Space Station) come back to Earth with a whole new perspective of life and a new comprehension of the fragility of it all (often referred to as the Overview Effect) – the scene of our blue planet against the darkness and vastness of space never gets old and inspires new generations! Just within the first days of this new year, a new spacecraft, one from South Korea, showed us breathtaking photos of Earth from a lunar orbit with the Moon within the frame of the image (photo and details a little later in the blog). We have entered a new space era, a supercharged, fast-moving, innovative, and exponentially increasing momentum in the space sector, one that is diverging from the old ways of doing things, and springing to life a whole new industry with many players. Most of it will fuel the so-called Space Economy, creating new jobs, new fields, more start-ups, and capital specific for the industry. That is a given. But there is more to the Space sector and all activities pertaining to it: Space inspires (young and old), and it promotes an innovative culture, STEM education, and the ultimate mission to venture out to space – far and near. And at the chore, that is to help sustain life on Earth as we know it, and for the betterment of the future of the planet and all its inhabitants. Last year was special for spectacular cosmic images as the James Webb Telescope, (launched on Christmas Day the previous year, 2021), was fully functioning, sending back stunning, never-before seen images, and proved to be a great success. One of those images is the “Cosmic Cliffs” of the Corina Nebula (here below), and that photo alone went completely viral (I have seen Christmas cards and envelopes, and even plastic cups with that very image). Image Description: The image is divided horizontally by an undulating line between a cloudscape forming a nebula along the bottom portion and a comparatively clear upper portion. Speckled across both portions is a starfield, showing innumerable stars of many sizes. The smallest of these are small, distant, and faint points of light. The largest of these appear larger, closer, brighter, and more fully resolved with 8-point diffraction spikes. The upper portion of the image is blueish and has wispy translucent cloud-like streaks rising from the nebula below. The orangish cloudy formation in the bottom half varies in density and ranges from translucent to opaque. The stars vary in color, the majority of which have a blue or orange hue. The cloud-like structure of the nebula contains ridges, peaks, and valleys – an appearance very similar to a mountain range. Three long diffraction spikes from the top right edge of the image suggest the presence of a large star just out of view. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI Also last year, several missions closer to home, the Earth, had spacecrafts orbiting either Earth, the Moon or both, with sharp and precise cameras, and as they journeyed through space, they too delivered incredible, breathtaking images. Below is a series of those images from our “neighborhood”, and more specifically, of the Earth seen from space: Beginning with the Korean spacecraft mentioned above with its January 2023 image and going back in time, all the way to missions from the ‘60s. Every human on this planet should look at the image of the Earth seen from space regularly, as a reminder of our preciousness and fragility, for how the Earth is nurturing and stunningly beautiful, especially against the darkness of space, and be humbled by it all. There are no words about the Earth from space more profound and wise that those of Carl Sagan of the “Pale Blue Dot”, and although that quote comes from seeing the Earth from very far away in space as just a dot “on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam”, here are his famous words – words to reflect on daily: "That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there." Here are the series of images of the Earth seen from space. The first is of the monochromatic image provided by the spacecraft "Danuri" of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), taken on January 2, 2023! "Danuri" (launched in August of last year via SpaceX) is officially known as Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, and is a first for South Korea and KARI. Danuri is orbiting the Moon as a scientific mission with goals of returning to the Moon with a lander. Credit: Korea Aerospace Research Institute At the end of last year, in mid-December, a similar mission gave us an amazing image, this time it's from ispace, a privately owned Japanese startup. The HAKUTO-R mission's spacecraft – a lunar orbiter-lander – is a partnership (in scientific instruments) with the UAE, and Canada, and it's CANADENSY, a Canadian company, that provided the image to the right. Still again in December of last year, but earlier in the month, it was the Artemis 1 mission that made so many headlines and delivered so many spectacular images, including this one below, once again of the Earth, with part of the Orion spacecraft within the image. The mission was un-crewed, however the following Artemis 2 and 3 will have a crew, and will continue where Apollo left of; this time with the mission of having a female astronaut, and the first person of color to walk on the Moon. 50 years exactly prior to the Artemis mission mentioned above, the crew of Apollo 17, on December 7, 1972, captured the now-iconic and one of the most distributed photos of all time, The Blue Marble, seen here below. The header photo at the very top of the blog is of "Earthrise", taken by the crew of Apollo 8, the first "manned mission to the Moon", on December 24, 1968 – a historic moment for all humankind because of both, the mission and that stunning, one-of-a-kind photo shared world-wide. Jim Lovell, Command Module Pilot of that mission, said the following in a live broadcast from lunar orbit: "The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth." "Earthrise" was still not the first; two years before that, in 1966, the first photo of the Earth from space with another astronomical object (the Moon) was from the Lunar Orbiter 1, (one of a five-series in the program), and that was with the purpose to search for the selection of landing sites for the eventual Apollo missions. (Very first photo of the Earth alone was in fact in 1946 by the V-2 rocket.) With those images in mind, happy New Year 2023. Make it a great year, for the Earth and for us all on it!

It’s a New Space Era, and its beginning is coinciding in dates with the end of the Apollo program – with exactly 50-years gap in between! Yesterday, 11 December, NASA’s new mission to the Moon – Artemis – had their uncrewed capsule “Orion” splash back to Earth successfully, after having traveled 1.4 million miles through space, orbited the Moon, and brought in images, data and basically, was a test for the future Artemis crewed mission to be going to the Moon. ("Artemis" being the twin sister of "Apollo" in Greek mythology could not be more fitting as a mission name, especially with the goal of not only landing on the Moon again in the near future, but to have a female astronaut do so for the first time in history.) Exactly 50 years ago, this very week, the crew of Apollo 17 were in space and on the Moon (December 7-19, 1972), and it was on the very first day of that mission, on 7 December, when one of the most iconic and globally-distributed photo was taken, entitled: "Blue Marble". It was taken from 29,000 kilometers (18,000 miles) from Earth. It is still considered to be a very unique photograph due to the location and distance of the spacecraft in relation to the Earth. With the Artemis mission, also on their first day in flight, they too took an iconic photo of the Earth, this time with cameras mounted outside of the Orion spacecraft, a selfie (a word that did not exist 50 years ago) of us all, and this time, from 92,000 kilometers (57,000 miles) from Earth – the Blue Marble from afar. (Photo below.) The day that picture was taken, Sandra Jones, from NASA Communications read the following during the live coverage of the testing of the imagery at mission control in Houston: "This view of Earth captured from a human rated spacecraft not seen since 1972 during the final Apollo mission some 50 year ago. The views of the blue marble in the blackness of space now capturing the imagination of a new generation; the Artemis generation." The serendipity and the parallels between Apollo and Artemis are fun to observe, but the New Space Era is without a doubt here! Yesterday (11 December) alone, these are the events that took place: 1) Artemis mission’s Orion capsule successfully splashed down on Earth after +25 days in space and orbiting the Moon and giving us magnificent photos! And what a stunning photo this one here is just seconds before the splashdown! NASA spokesperson Rob Navias said during the agency's livestream of the event on Sunday: "Splashdown! From Tranquility Base to Taurus-Littrow to the tranquil waters of the Pacific, the latest chapter of NASA's journey to the moon comes to a close: Orion back on Earth." (Tranquility Base and Taurus-Littrow were the landing sites of Apollo 11 and Apollo 17, the first and final Apollo moon landing missions, respectively.) 2) Japan's ispace (a privately owned startup) had their HAKUTO-R mission 1 (more missions to come) launched towards the Moon in the morning of the 11th (won’t be there for months), via a SpaceX rocket, and with payloads by: -NASA (USA): a "Lunar Flashlight" -United Arab Emirates: "Rashid" the rover -Canada: an AI System by Mission Control, and lunar cameras by Canadensys a collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency. Photo from the SpaceX launch with ispace's HUKUTO-R mission seen here traveling through space. (If the HUKUTO-R mission succeeds in landing on the lunar surface, Japan and the UAE with their rover Rashid, will be the new nations to do so, after only the US, Russia and China that have successfully landed a robot on the Moon.) And just to add to this date, but exactly one year ago today, BLUE ORIGIN had their NS-19 (New Shepard) launch with a crew of six, including Laura Shepard, daughter of Alan Shepard, the first American man to go to space, and whose namesake is of the Blue Origin spaceflight program "New Shepard". On that flight were also: Evan Dick, Dylan Taylor, Michael Strahan, and the first father-son duo, Lane Bess and Cameron (who is also the first publicly pansexual person in suborbital space). Photo to the right is about an hour after the launch, where crew members, their guests, New Origin employees, and Jeff Bezos himself (seen here with Laura Shepard), gather in celebration of the successful launch, by the standing booster rocket which has landed vertically and as designed to do so. (Photo taken by me.) The Boom of the Space Industry is definitely here! The New Space era, comprising of privately own companies, startups, and actors from various industries but with space-based missions, and innovations that didn’t exist back in the 60s, are the combined elements that are now showing exponential changes in the future of the Space Sector, hence the New Space Era of our time.

Today, 15 November 2022, the global population has officially reached 8 billion, according to the United Nations (UN). Also from that same source, it took 12 years for the global population to go from 7 billion to 8 billion. (The numbers are projected to reach 9 billion in 15 years, and that is with the prediction that the current rapid grow will slow down in the next decade). In the past several years, I remember often using the reference of “7 billion” and later “7+ billion” in terms of the global population – and now it hit a whole 8 billion! The great news on that is that in general, babies survive their infancies, childhood, and live to be adults, and adults tend to die at a much older age, and that many past diseases either have remedies or can be entirely avoided (often with vaccines). In other words, globally, we now live longer than ever – and that’s a great thing! The somber news is that the increase in global population is affecting the Earth (and us in it) in terms of the scarcity or overstretching of some of our natural resources. The other major consequence of the combined over-population and the scarcity of resources is how it impacts global warming and continues to put pressure on the “climate crisis”. Over-population is a global challenge that presses on many systems from the economy, to housing, to the health system, even social issues …, Not to mention, how this scarcity is affecting mostly developing countries already struggling. And there is another important element to all this: and that is pollution – air, water, and land pollution, are mostly caused by humans, and the more people there are, the more pollution we cause. Pollution can directly affect our quality of life and that of many of Earth’s species. And if there is anything harmful enough (in the air, water, or land) it can bring on more diseases, affect those with weaker systems or with health conditions, and even cause death. The terms “climate change” or “global warming” are issues we hear about daily, but when I was young in school the main term was “pollution”, and we learned about the “Three Rs”: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle – that speaks mainly to water and land pollution, and especially to the situation in landfills and of garbage dumped in oceans. But just recently I read about a new three “Rs”, and they are the: “solutions that aim not only to ‘Reduce’, but also to ‘Repair’ and ‘Restore’ a sense of balance in the Earths’ natural environment”, and that call to action was written by Richard Garriott in the Summer 2022 edition of the Explorers Journal (the official quarterly of the Explorers Club). What a wonderful and important message that is and by the influential members of the Explorers Club, and although a sentiment many governments agree on world-wide, we need to put these three Rs into action and work very hard at them – now! We can say that solving the now 8-billion-over-population global issue is to have less babies, but the truth of the matter is that it’s an environmental issue and that is one that needs to be dealt with right now. Indirectly, there are many industries that are working on the issue: from within the food industry, such as Solar Foods, a biotechnology in Finland that are “Creating the future of sustainable food with an unlimited diversity of proteins”, to the global boom in the New Space sector, with countless start-ups researching and innovating on long-term crewed spaceflights and the human expansion in the solar system, and for us to be a “multiplanetary species”, a term mostly coined with Elon Musk. In the history of our existence, and only just relatively recently, we, humans, began journeying outside of Earth, and even that, not all that far, and not all that many (approximately 600 people went to space) – this, in contrast to the eight billion currently with their feet on the Earth. A lot of those who did experience spaceflight also experienced a cognitive shift of sort, the Overview Effect, and that is of seeing the Earth from a different perspective, from above, and realizing the preciousness of our planet. They learned a great lesson with their spaceflight, but we don’t all get to go to space. We are still very much Earthlings, and whether we get to venture outside of our nurturing planet in the future is just that, the future. For now, Earth is our home, and all its various ecosystems need to be protected and sustained for how nature intended it to be, so we can keep up and even thrive with a global population of eight-billion-and-counting. It can (and must) be done! “Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase. This is as true of humans as it is of gas molecules in a sealed flask. The human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who so survive.” ― Frank Herbert, Dune

Today, November 9, would have been Carl Sagan’s birthday. Sagan inspired so many of us, and although he sadly died in 1996 (he would have been 88 today), he continues to inspire a young generation of scientists and readers of all kinds with his popular science book – one of the most popular science books ever! – entitled: “Cosmos”, and many other books he's written. This is my copy of the book of Cosmos; I could have practically placed a sticky bookmark on every page! Sagan had a way of educating about the universe in a such an inspiring yet poetic way; there hasn’t really been any science communicator since able to teach with his voice and style of writing. Sagan has done so much in his career, and so much has been written about him that I will simply share the first paragraph from his Wiki page to introduce him: “[Carl Sagan was] an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on extraterrestrial life, including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by radiation. Sagan assembled the first physical messages sent into space, the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record, universal messages that could potentially be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find them. Sagan argued the hypothesis, accepted since, that the high surface temperatures of Venus can be attributed to, and calculated using, the greenhouse effect." Apart from highly recommending reading his books, I can only really share a few of his own quotes. There are so many to choose from and so many tug at the heart (how did he do that by merely speaking about science!), but these here are the three I will share, for the importance of their message and how powerful they are - today more than ever. “The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.” “What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic." And the last one is a lot more than a quote, but one of his most shared pieces of writing, and one that goes with the photo here below, about the “Pale Blue Dot”: Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, Apart from hd to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.” A happy birthday to this wonderful human who keeps inspiring us, Carl Sagan.

At 90 years (and 205 days old, to be exact), William Shatner went to space and became the oldest person (male) in space. His experience left him, well, let's just say the opposite of speechless; upon landing from his suborbital flight with Blue Origin, he could not stop gushing about his experience up in space (to the Karman Line) to Jeff Bezos, founder of Blue Origin. Shatner's words were heartfelt, passionate and emotional, including: "I hope I never recover, that I can maintain what I feel now. I don't want to lose it ... I am overwhelmed. I had no idea." "I’m so filled with emotion about what just happened. It’s extraordinary, extraordinary." The full video here below. But just recently, with a new biography out by the Canadian actor, Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder, excerpts from his book became headlines and almost statements of contradictions to what he expressed just a year ago following his Blue Origin flight, with almost negative-sounding recollections of his experience in space, including: “It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered. The contrast between the vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below filled me with overwhelming sadness.” “My trip to space was supposed to be a celebration; instead, it felt like a funeral.” What happened in that year on Earth since William Shatner experienced his flight to Space? Photo to the left: Earthrise (1968). Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders recalled, "When I looked up and saw the Earth coming up on this very stark, beat-up Moon horizon, I was immediately almost overcome with the thought, 'Here we came all this way to the Moon, and yet the most significant thing we’re seeing is our own home planet, the Earth.'" Men and women who go to space often experience the Overview Effect which is explained as: "The overwhelmingly beautiful sight of our Earth triggers a profound emotional response in most astronauts, leading to a cognitive shift, making them realize the global interconnectedness of all life and feel responsibility for the future of our planet... This experience has the attributes of self-transcendence and awe and is a remarkable example of a transformative experience." That's what William Shatner seemed to have experienced initially upon landing back on Earth, but why does he speak of "sadness" and "funeral" now a year later? Shatner includes these words in his biography: “I discovered that the beauty isn’t out there, it’s down here, with all of us. Leaving that behind made my connection to our tiny planet even more profound.” And so, I believe that that is exactly what Shatner continues to speak of: the Overview Effect! Yes, Space is vicious, empty and cold, but also, yes, out tiny planet is very, very special, and the only home we've got! Shatner himself adds that [the space trip]: "...reinforced tenfold my own view on the power of our beautiful, mysterious collective human entanglement, and eventually, it returned a feeling of hope to my heart." I have not read Shatner's book, and I have not been to space myself, so I can't speak for him, but I do sense his profound and powerful message, and ultimately, no matter how he saw Space (we would probably all see it differently), he did see Earth as a marvelously, beautiful, lively, nurturing planet - and that's the whole point: The Overview Effect. Maybe if more of us experienced such an overwhelming sense of being surrounded by the darkness and emptiness of Space, maybe we would all care and do more for each other, and our home: the Earth.