Christoper Mason
Dr. Christopher E. Mason the co-founder of Onegevity Health, co-founder of Biotia, and is a geneticist and computational biologist who has been a Principal Investigator and Co-investigator of many NASA missions and projects. He is a Professor at Weill Cornell Medicine, with affiliate appointments at the Meyer Cancer Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the Information Society Project (ISP) at Yale Law School, and the Consortium for Space Genetics at Harvard Medical School. Mason is the author of The Next 500 Years: Engineering Life to Reach New Worlds.
3 words to describe Nature?
Beautiful. Responsive. Engineered
3 things Nature taught you?
Humility
Adaptation
Mutation
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Fernando de Noronha
Sanders Park
Lake Hillier
When you look at the OCEAN, it makes you feel...?
Open
When you see a FOREST, it makes you feel...?
Enraptured
When you see a VOLCANO, it makes you feel...?
Constructive
When you see a SUNRISE or SUNSET, it makes you feel...?
Ease
When you hear THUNDER, it makes you feel...?
Volition
When you hear the WIND HOWLING, it makes you feel...?
Excited
Are you an OCEAN, MOUNTAIN, FOREST, or DESERT person?
Forest
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
9
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
Standing in a Panama rainforest away from all other people, and hearing the breath of the forest itself as I could feel and sense it moving and living.
Dr. Sian Proctor
Dr. Sian Proctor is a geoscientist, explorer, space artist, and science communication specialist with a passion for space exploration. She was selected as the pilot on the SpaceX Crew Dragon mission Inspiration4, planned for late 2021.
She appeared on The Colony Season 2, which was aired on The Discovery Channel in 2010, in the 2016 PBS series Genius By Stephen Hawking on "Episode 2: Are We Alone?” and is currently featured on the science show Strange Evidence. On July 22, 2020, Dr Proctor was announced as one of the top-15 finalists of UAE Mars Shot contest. She was recently selected as one of The Explorer’s Club 50: Fifty People Changing the World.
She uses her AfronautSpace art to encourage conversations about women of color in the space industry. She’s an analog astronaut and has completed four analog missions including the all-female SENSORIA Mars 2020 mission at the Hawai’i Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) Habitat, the NASA funded 4-months Mars mission at HI-SEAS, a 2-weeks Mars mission at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), and a 2-weeks Moon mission in the LunAres Habitat.
Dr. Proctor was a finalist for the 2009 NASA Astronaut Program and got down to the Yes/No phone call which came from Astronaut Sunita Williams.
She has a TEDx talk called Eat Like a Martian and published the Meals for Mars Cookbook. Dr. Proctor is a continuing NASA Solar System Ambassador and serves on the Explore Mars Board of Directors, JustSpace Alliance Advisory Board, the Science in the Wild Advisory Board, the SEDS USA Advisory Board, and the National Science Teaching Association’s Aerospace Advisory Board.
In 2019, she was the science communication outreach officer on the JOIDES Resolution Expedition 383 and spent 2-months at sea with researchers investigating the Dynamics of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. She also participated in the 2-week faculty development seminar Exploring Urban Sustainability in India. She was a 2017 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Teacher at Sea, a 2016 Astronomy in Chile Educator Ambassador (ACEAP), and a 2014 PolarTREC Teacher investigating climate change in Barrow, Alaska. She is a Major in the Civil Air Patrol and serves as a member of the Arizona Wing Aerospace Education Officer.
3 words to describe Nature?
Transformative. Spiritual. Breathtaking
3 things Nature taught you?
Focus
Determination
Resiliency
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Standing by the ocean
Flying looking out the window
Standing on a mountain summit
When you look at the OCEAN, it makes you feel...?
Happy
When you see a FOREST, it makes you feel...?
Overwhelmed by life
When you see a VOLCANO, it makes you feel...?
In awe of the geologic time
When you see a SUNRISE or SUNSET, it makes you feel...?
Content
When you hear THUNDER, it makes you feel...?
Excited
When you hear the WIND HOWLING, it makes you feel...?
Lifted
Are you an OCEAN, MOUNTAIN, FOREST, or DESERT person?
All of them
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
I loved fishing in a small pond in New Hampshire. I would fish for hours every day all summer long - catch and release.
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.
Loretta Whitesides
Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides is a Founder Astronaut at Virgin Galactic, mother of two, wife to George T. Whitesides, and author of The New Right Stuff: Using Space to Bring out the Best in You. Loretta studied astrobiology at Stanford and Caltech, did research on plant life in the Canadian Arctic with NASA, dove to the bottom of the ocean with Titanic Director James Cameron, and has floated weightless hundreds of times as a Flight Director for Zero Gravity Corporation. She and her husband are the Co-Creators of Yuri's Night, the annual Worldwide Space Party celebrating the dual Russian and U.S. space anniversaries on April 12. She currently teaches leadership and personal development for the space community through her SpaceKind Training Program which evolved from the New Right Stuff training program she led at Virgin Galactic for five years.
3 words to describe Nature?
Elegant. Closed-loop. Soul-filling
3 things Nature taught you?
Trees are incredibly generous
You don't need to "waste" anything
We need natural systems to thrive
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Redwood forests
On a rock next to a mountain stream
On a mountain looking down on a fog bank
When you look at the OCEAN, it makes you feel...?
Fragile, insignificant, held (I believe the ocean holds are memories)
When you see a FOREST, it makes you feel...?
Calm, grounded, loved
When you see a VOLCANO, it makes you feel...?
Primal, powerful, grateful
When you see a SUNRISE or SUNSET, it makes you feel...?
Blessed, full-hearted, quiet
When you hear THUNDER, it makes you feel...? *
Excited, powerful, expansive
When you hear the WIND HOWLING, it makes you feel…?
Connected to my friend Andrew Hopping who loves the wind, hunkered down, humbled
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Mountains and forests
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 about 14, our girl's group at my summer camp was challenged to do a 24 solo- as though we were lost during a hike- just shorts and a t-shirt in Northern California. It was pretty demanding, alone, cold, hungry, but I survived and was SO PROUD of myself! I always push others to let kids do things that are hard and scary so they can have that experience that they can do more than they think.
Scott Parazynski
Dr. Scott Parazynski is a highly decorated physician, astronaut, and tech CEO recently inducted into the US Astronaut Hall of Fame. He is a widely sought-after keynote speaker on innovation, risk management, mentorship, and leadership under extreme adversity.
In 1992 he was selected to join NASA’s Astronaut Corps and eventually flew 5 Space Shuttle Missions and conducted 7 spacewalks. Mission highlights include a global ozone mapping flight; leading the first joint US-Russian spacewalk while docked to the Russian space station Mir; serving as Senator John Glenn’s crewmate and “personal physician”; and assembly of the Canadian-built space station robotic arm.
In October 2007, Scott led the spacewalking team on STS-120, during which he performed 4 EVAs. The final EVA is regarded by many as one of the most challenging and dangerous ever performed. The tremendous coordinated effort in orbit and on the ground by Mission Control has been likened to the Space Shuttle and Space Station era’s “Apollo 13 moment.”
On May 20, 2009, he became the first astronaut to stand on top of the world, the summit of Mount Everest. As a life-long explorer, he and a colleague recently set the first bootprints adjacent to the world’s youngest lava lake, inside the crater of Massaya Volcano in Nicaragua.
He is the Founder and CEO of Fluidity Technologies, focused on the development of revolutionary input devices powered by machine learning to intuitively move through physical and virtual space, and the author of Memoir: The Sky Below.
3 words to describe Nature?
Wonder. Fragility. Enormity
3 things Nature taught you?
Humility - the forces of nature far exceed our control and scale, and warrants our fullest respect
Appreciation - life is an unexplained gift that shouldn't ever be taken for granted
Preparation - going into the true wilds requires forethought, rigorous training, and teamwork
3 most treasured Nature spots?
One atmosphere down with a scuba tank on, face to face with a coral reef and all its residents
Outside on a spacewalk, flying through the Aurora Australis, eyes wide open
On the summit of Mount Everest at sunrise, seeing the world drop off in all directions around me, with a sunrise to beat all sunrises...
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
At peace - the calming views of our oceans from space, often with beautiful cloud cover and sunglint, helped me prepare to go to bed when I was up in space.
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Connected to our living, breathing planet...
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Awed and frightened - reminding me of our first descent adjacent to the lava lake of Masaya volcano in Nicaragua a few years ago.
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Joyful, and reminiscent of my views of orbital sunrises and sunsets up in space...
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Sorrow - I'm reminded of our late, great dog Mare, who would always jump on the bed in the midst of thunderstorms. Weighing in at 100 pounds, his unexpected visits were more alarming than the lightning storms outside!
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Small relative to the power of nature, like when I camped just below the jet stream, screaming across the summit of Everest
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
All of the above.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
The first time I dropped beneath the sea surface with tanks on my back - at age 11 - was an epiphany, being able to gracefully explore in three dimensions a world that I'd only seen in Jacques Cousteau's films. The overwhelming beauty of that dive and the unknown, possibly lurking danger still brings back wonderful memories to this day.
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.
Frank White
Frank White’s best-known book, The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution, is considered by many to be a seminal work in the field of space exploration.
A film called “Overview,” based largely on his work has had more than 8 million plays on Vimeo. Ron Garan appears in the film and he also participated in a panel at its premiere at Harvard University in 2012.
Frank conducted a series of interviews with astronauts at Johnson Space Center in June of 2019, which have now become the basis for NASA’s series called “Down to Earth,” available on YouTube and other NASA social media platforms.
In his latest book, The Cosma Hypothesis: Implications of the Overview Effect, (Multiverse Publishing 2019) Frank asks the fundamental question, “What is the purpose of human space exploration? Why has the evolutionary process brought humanity to the brink of becoming a spacefaring species?”
In Cosma, he also shares the idea of “the Human Space Program” as a central project that will engage all of us in the process of becoming “Citizens of the Universe.” The Human Space Program, Inc. is incorporated as a nonprofit in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and work has begun on the project.
Frank teaches at Harvard Extension School, Harvard Summer School, Boston University’s Metropolitan College, and Kepler Space Institute.
Frank and his wife Donna have an extended, blended family of five children and 10 grandchildren.
3 words to describe Nature?
Nurturing. Beautiful. Awe-inspiring
3 things Nature taught you?
Be prepared
Enjoy, respect, and protect the environment
Explore and evolve
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Black Forest, Germany
Cape Cod
Sanibel Island
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Calm, yet happy to be onshore!
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Inspired by the majesty of the trees and the community they create.
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Amazed
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Grateful to live on such a beautiful planet in such an amazing universe.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Strong
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Glad to be inside
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Space!
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
9
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
Growing up in the South of the United States, nature was always close and available to me. I enjoyed exploring the fields and woods near my home with my dog, fishing in a nearby lake or river, or just enjoying being outdoors. At night, I could clearly see the stars and I was inspired by the immensity of the universe.
Eric Whitacre
Grammy Award-winning composer and conductor, Eric Whitacre, is among today’s most popular musicians. His works are programmed worldwide and his ground-breaking Virtual Choirs have united singers from more than 145 countries. Born in Nevada in 1970, Eric is a graduate of the prestigious Juilliard School of Music (New York). He completed his second and final term as Artist in Residence with the Los Angeles Master Chorale in 2020 following five years as Composer in Residence at the University of Cambridge (UK).
His compositions have been widely recorded and his debut album as a conductor on Universal, Light, and Gold, went straight to the top of the charts, earning him a Grammy. As a guest conductor, he has drawn capacity audiences to concerts with many of the world’s leading orchestras and choirs in venues such as Carnegie Hall (New York), Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), the Royal Albert Hall, and Buckingham Palace (London). Insatiably curious and a lover of all types of music, Eric has worked with legendary Hollywood composers Hans Zimmer, John Powell, and Jeff Beal as well as British pop icons Laura Mvula, Imogen Heap, and Annie Lennox. Major classical commissions have been written for the BBC Proms, Minnesota Orchestra, Rundfunkchor Berlin, The Tallis Scholars, Chanticleer, Cincinnati Pops, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, National Children’s Chorus of America, and The King’s Singers.
In 2018 his composition for symphony orchestra and chorus, Deep Field, became the foundation for a collaboration with NASA, the Space Telescope Science Institute, Music Productions, and 59 Productions. The film was premiered at Kennedy Space Center (Cape Canaveral, Florida), has been seen at arts and science festivals across the world. Deep Field has been performed in concert on several continents, and with simultaneous film projection by the New World Symphony, New World Center (Miami), Brussels Philharmonic, Flagey (Brussels), Bergen Philharmonic, Grieghallen (Bergen) among other great orchestras. His long-form work for choir, cello, and piano, The Sacred Veil, is a profound meditation on love, life, and loss. It was premiered by the Los Angeles Master Chorale in Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2019, conducted by the composer, and will be released on Signum Records in 2020.
Widely considered to be the pioneer of Virtual Choirs, Eric created his first project as an experiment in social media and digital technology. Virtual Choir 1: Lux Aurumque was published in 2010 and featured 185 singers from 12 countries. Ten years-on in 2020, Virtual Choir 6: Sing Gently – written for the Virtual Choir during the global pandemic that shook the world, COVID-19 – featured 17,562 singers from 129 countries. Previous Virtual Choir projects include ‘Glow’ written for the Winter Dreams holiday show at Disneyland© Adventure Park, California, and the Virtual Youth Choir, a major fundraiser for UNICEF. To date, the Virtual Choirs have registered over 60 million views and have been seen on global TV.
A charismatic speaker, Eric Whitacre has given keynote addresses for many Fortune 500 companies, in education and global institutions from Apple and Google to the World Economic Forum in Davos and the United Nations Speaker’s Program. His mainstage talks at the influential TED conference in Long Beach CA received standing ovations. His collaboration with Spitfire Audio resulted in a trail-blazing vocal sample library, became an instant best-seller, and is used by composers the world over.
3 words to describe Nature?
Breathe. Connected. Right.
3 things Nature taught you?
Patience
Focus
Inevitability
3 most treasured Nature spots?
The high desert in Northern Nevada
Regent’s Park, London
Big Sur, California
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Open and alive
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Ancient, quiet
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Elemental
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
How small I truly am, and how vast is our universe
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Young
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Lonely
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Yes! I think I have all four of those places deep in my heart.
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 young I lived in the desert. Northern Nevada, high in the Sierras, my childhood filled with endless sky. I would spend my days outside, the natural world vibrating all around me, mystical, magical. I believed I could speak to falcons. I believed I could shape the wind. And I believed the veil between the real world and the dream world was just an illusion, that if I quieted myself enough I could slip freely between the two worlds. I think I still believe that.
Joel Sercel
Dr. Joel Sercel is the CTO and CEO of Trans Astronautica Corporation. TransAstra is a NewSpace company dedicated to accelerating the process of human exploration and industrialization of cislunar space and near Earth asteroids. Funded by a combination of private sector investment plus NASA grants and contracts, TransAstra is building the technology to provide in-space transportation and related services with a fleet of reusable space tugs supplied by propellant derived from asteroid and lunar resources.
Dr. Sercel has over 30 years of NASA, industrial, other government agency, and academic experience and education all of which is directly related to space technology development and innovation. Sercel’s professional experience includes a 14 year career at JPL; 12 years teaching, researching, and advising graduate students at Caltech in the area of space systems engineering; two years as a senior government official serving as the Chief Systems engineer of a $22B Air Force communications satellite network (TSAT) leading a team of 122 systems engineers and several years as a private technology and management consultant
Joel conceived and initiated the NSTAR project (the first deep space solar electric propulsion system) and served as the first Principal Technologist of the NSTAR project. He presently has patents pending in the area of space resources technology and is known as the inventor of Optical Mining™, a practical method for extracting the ingredients in rocket propellant from asteroids.
Dr. Sercel is a five time NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Fellowship awardee.
3 words to describe Nature?
Nature. Includes. Everything
3 things Nature taught you?
While we will never understand everything about nature, we have learned enough to know that nature follows laws that are understandable to the mind of Man.
When you discover a truth about the universe, it unlocks other truths and they all fit together.
When scientists think they have a mature theory that they understand, they are in for a big surprise.
3 most treasured Nature spots?
A kelp forest in the Channel islands
Looking across the Sierras at night at a thunderstorm on the next mountain
The night sky in the Arizona desert on a clear day
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel…?
Peace
When you see a forest, it makes you feel…?
Connected
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel…?
Wonder
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel…?
The flow of time
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel…?
Lucky
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel…?
Small
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
One part each, no preference. Love them all
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
As I am part of nature, that would be a 10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
The Milky Way galaxy spread across the night sky and the realization of the immensity of it all and the potential for an infinite future for humanity and our progeny coupled with a sense of awe that we exist.
http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLijoedlE2A
Mary Poffenroth
Whether through making original content for TEDed and Wiley & Sons, writing for Science & Forbes, or speaking to live audiences at TEDx & SXSW, Mary Poffenroth’s goals are the same: Make Science Accessible for All. A Salzburg Global Fellow and first generation college student, she holds two masters degrees, one in biology and the other in science communication from Imperial College London. She is the author of Write Present Create: Science Communication for Undergraduates and has taught nearly 20,000 students both in person and online since 2007. Her work has been featured in legacy media outlets such as Time magazine and National Geographic as well as garnering views in the millions with YouTube’s Mahalo. Mary began her research career in astrophysiology at NASA Ames Research Center Moffet Field in 1999 and now focuses her research on the intersection of fear science, communication, and personal/social change as STEM faculty for San Jose State University. Listen to a recent interview with Allie Ward about Fear here Part 1 & Part 2
3 words to describe Nature?
Cleansing. Terrifying. Balancing
3 things Nature taught you?
To be self reliant
To duck under a bush when being shot at
To not pee on your pants while being a lady peeing in the woods
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Muir woods
Big Sur
Any beach on the planet
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Like I’m Home
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Like adventure is afoot
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Exhilarated
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Sunrise = refreshed
Sunset = most likely a bit tipsy if I have taken the time to watch, I am most likely with friends drinking wine on a beach
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Ooohh when is the lightning gonna come
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Ready to jump into (faux) furry blankets with my puppy and a good audio book
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Ocean first, Mountain and forest are the same for me as an equal second, desert is a stark last place
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10… obvi
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
I was the outcast for loving nature in my family. My mother abhorred it unless it was tamed by a planter box. But i would find ways, big and small, to sneak into and onto the wild in an attempt to connect to something I did not have words for at the time.
Nicole Stott
Nicole Stott has explored from the heights of outer space to the depths of our oceans. In awe of what she experienced from these very special vantage points, she has dedicated her life to sharing the beauty of space ~ and Earth ~ with others. She believes that sharing these orbital and inner space perspectives has the power to increase everyone’s appreciation of and obligation to care for our home planet and each other.
A veteran NASA Astronaut, her experience includes two spaceflights and 104 days living and working in space on both the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS). She performed one spacewalk and was the first person to fly the robotic arm to capture the free flying HTV cargo vehicle. Nicole was the last crew member to fly to and from their ISS mission on a Space Shuttle. She was also a crew member of the final flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery, STS-133.
Stott is the first person to paint a watercolor in space, which is now on display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in DC.
As a NASA Aquanaut, in preparation for spaceflight and along with her NEEMO9 crew, Nicole lived and worked for 3 weeks on the Aquarius undersea habitat, the longest saturation mission to date.
Now retired from NASA, Nicole combines her artwork and spaceflight experience to inspire creative thinking about solutions to our planetary challenges, to raise awareness of the surprising interplay between science and art, and to promote the amazing work being done every day in space to improve life right here on Earth. She is the founder of the Space for Art Foundation and co-founder of Constellation.Earth.
She recently was featured in the National Geographic documentary series, hosted by Will Smith, about our planet called “One Strange Rock”, she is featured in the award-winning short film “Overview” by Planetary Collective, and she is a regular supporter of BBC radio and TV with a special focus on space exploration and our home planet.
3 words to describe Nature?
Peace. Life. Reflection
3 things Nature taught you?
Appreciation
Everything is connected
Respect
3 most treasured Nature spots?
On a space station in awe of the view of Earth from space.
Bari reef in Bonaire
My backyard
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
At one with something much bigger than myself.
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Chilly and wanting to look up and appreciate the majesty of the trees surrounding me.
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
A little bit of fear, total respect for the power and beauty and unpredictability, and like I should keep a very respectful distance.
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Relaxed and in awe and with an increased awareness of the fact that we live on a planet.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Like curling up on the couch with my dogs.
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Like a kid in Florida on the beach before a big rain.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
All of the above. If I had to pick it would be ocean (surrounded by mountains, forests and desert).
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
On the space station we are traveling at 17500 mph or 5 miles per second, so we orbit the Earth every 90 minutes, which means that every 45 minutes we are presented with a stunning sunrise or sunset out the window. I loved to watch the Earth during the 45 minutes of "night". The glinting lights below outlined where the people were in contrast to the deep darkness of the oceans that cover most of our planet. The ever-changing weather moved above it all. The lightening of a thunderstorm in Florida whipped its way around the planet, flashing light over it like neurons firing across a brain. It was like I was watching all the beautiful action below me with the mute button on. It reminded me of thunderstorms from my childhood when I was growing up in Florida, and how I had imagined that the thunderstorm was happening only over my town, and when it was gone, it was gone. It had never occurred to me that the storm was zooming around the world, like the nervous system of a planet that looked alive. From space, I saw that lightning never exists in one place. It’s constantly on the move. This revelation led me to understand the life-changing truth of the undeniable interconnectivity of everyone and everything on Earth and that whatever happens in one part of the planet affects the whole. The reality check that we live on a planet, we are all Earthlings, and the only border that matters is the thin blue line of atmosphere that protects us all.
Kevin Hainline
Kevin Hainline is an astronomer working on the science team for the NIRCam instrument on the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, NASA’s successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. His research looks at how galaxies change as the universe evolve, focusing on the relationship galaxies have with their central supermassive black holes. He has given hundreds of planetarium shows, spoke at countless elementary high schools and has travelled the world giving night sky shows, sharing his inspirational message about the connection we all have to the universe. He currently lives in a small pink house in Tucson, Arizona, with his wife Lara, a musician, and his cat J. Louisiana, a meower.
3 words to describe Nature?
Complexity. Truth. Entropy
3 things Nature taught you?
Everything is more complicated than it seems
There is a time for action, just as there is a time for inaction
Life is miraculous, given its inherent chaos
3 most treasured Nature spots?
The deserts of southern Arizona.
The beaches along the California coast.
The mountains along the southern Atacama desert of Chile.
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel…?
Overcome. The ocean tells us secrets about where we came from.
When you see a forest, it makes you feel…?
Nostalgic. Growing up in a city on the coasts meant trips to the forest were special growing up, and the smell of the woods is tied directly to these memories.
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel…?
Humbled. So much of change on the planet is gradual and incremental, and yet here are these volcanoes violently changing the landscape on human timescales.
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel…?
Eager. For an astronomer, a sunset brings with it the possibilities of the night, and the sunrise is the reminder of our own closest star.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel…?
Stirred. The thunderstorms in the southwest accompany powerful monsoons, and are unlike anywhere else in the world. You can feel the charge in the air, and the thunder is the pronouncement.
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel…?
Charged. The Santa Ana winds haunted me during the autumns my youth.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
I grew up as an ocean person, but I have recently discovered that I am a desert person. The desert gives back what you give it. It rewards patience, and observation, and endurance. Last week, it snowed about five or six inches. It was surreal, walking through snow-covered cacti and desert shrubs. The desert resists categorization.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10. Science is the imperfect human method of understanding nature. Without my relationship with nature, both nature as the universe, and nature as the manifestation of life on our planet, I don’t know who I would be. It is a constant companion, quiet and giving. My current research on NASA’s upcoming flagship space telescope has me excited for the future, because JWST will both help us answer longstanding questions about the history of the universe as well as introduce new fundamental questions. What more could we ask for?
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
One summer, my father bundled my brother up once and drove us up to Cajon Pass northeast of Los Angeles early in the morning to watch the Perseid meteor shower. My love for astronomy mostly came from reading books as a child, so while I was fascinated by space, it was still very foreign to me. Being able to lay out on the hood of a car, in the stillness of the very early morning, covered in blankets, and see so many stars, was revelatory. It felt less like I was under them but that I was laying in front of them, as a child I felt the push of the Earth through space, towards those meteors which glowed, incandescent, as they fell through the atmosphere.