Luca Parmitano
Luca Parmitano is an Italian astronaut in the European Astronaut Corps for the European Space Agency (ESA) with 366 days in space, more than any ESA astronaut in history. He is the youngest non-Russian astronaut to undertake a long-duration mission and first-ever Italian International Space Station commander. Luca was awarded a Silver Medal to the Aeronautical Valour by the President of the Italian Republic in 2007 and was recognized a ‘Commendatore al Merito della Repubblica’ by the President of the Italian Republic in 2013. On August 13, 2019, Parmitano became the first DJ in space when he played a set of electronic music from the ISS for a music festival audience in Ibiza.
3 words to describe Nature?
Life. Water. Energy
3 things Nature taught you?
Resilience
Humility
Compassion
3 most treasured Nature spots?
The rocky beaches in Sicily
The wooded area in my parent's land, up on mount Etna
The 'Stagno of San Teodoro'
When you look at the OCEAN, it makes you feel...?
Alive
When you see a FOREST, it makes you feel...?
Happy
When you see a VOLCANO, it makes you feel...?
Home
When you see a SUNRISE or SUNSET, it makes you feel...?
Pensive
When you hear THUNDER, it makes you feel...?
Energetic
When you hear the WIND HOWLING, it makes you feel...?
Like reading a book
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Ocean
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
When I was a child, my father would dive in apnea to collect sea urchins, because my mother loved the rich, orange meat inside. I never cared too much for their taste, but as soon as I learned to hold my breath long enough to dive with my father, I would go with him... not to hunt, but to share that silent time and space with him, underwater, where this infinitely strange world would be ours only.
Ron Garan
Former NASA astronaut and highly decorated combat fighter Ron Garan racked up 178 days in space and more than 71 million miles in 2,842 orbits between between tours on the International Space Station, flying on both the US Space Shuttle and a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. During his time in space Ron conducted four spacewalks in support of ISS construction and maintenance. Prior to those space journeys, he lived and conducted research on the bottom of the ocean in the world’s only undersea research lab, Aquarius. Before reaching the summit of his career, Ron, a former test pilot and graduate of the US Naval Test Pilot School, taught hundreds of elite pilots how to fly at the prestigious USAF Fighter Weapons School, the Air Force version of Top Gun. He is the author of the critically acclaimed book, The Orbital Perspective and the upcoming books, Floating in Darkness – A Journey of Evolution and Railroad to the Moon. Today, Ron is celebrated for his research in space and for his humanitarian contribution to life on Earth.
3 words to describe Nature?
Implicit. Natural. Wholeness
3 things Nature taught you?
To be still
To be quiet
To be grateful
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Boulder Flatirons
Zion National Park
Rain forests of Costa Rica
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Interdependent
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
One with the biosphere
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
The certainty that I am part of a much bigger picture.
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
As if I am watching life's expression that it's grateful to be alive
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Connected to the primordial
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Energized
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
I am a person who strives to keep the focus on the continuum that links all those ecosystems and more
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10.5
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
I have fond memories of trading a day-to-day life in the city to camping with the Boy Scouts in the NY Adirondacks.
