Stay up to date with all of the Blue Marble Space news and happenings here.
How does an experiment bound for the International Space Station go from laboratory to launch? Join Dr. Sanjoy Som as he writes about his experiences preparing for the maiden voyage of NASA’s Fruit Fly Lab, which is scheduled to launch this month! [read the blog on NASA.gov]
Read moreA new episode of the Wow! Signal Podcast features an interview with our own Betul Kacar about her astrobiological research and educational outreach. The Wow! Signal Podcast series features speculative science conversations that explore the past, present, and future of sentient beings in the universe, and this episode features discussions with Steven Dick (Library of Congress chair in astrobiology) and Betul Kacar about their own perspectives on the nature of intelligent life in the universe. Betul’s segment begins 29 minutes […]
Read moreThe quarterly newsletter of the NASA Postdoctoral Program features our own Dr. Rika Anderson in a “First Impressions” article about her NPP fellowship. Her time as a fellow of the NASA Astrobiology Institute will be split across the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, the University of Washington, and Yellowstone National Park–all in pursuit of studying Archaea and their highly-evolved suitability to extreme environments. [Read the article in the NASA NPP newsletter]
Read moreIs Mars colonization doomed from the start? Our own Haritina Mogosanu discusses the limitations of such efforts in an interview with Radio New Zealand National. With her personal expertise in horticulture, Mogosanu discusses the implications of a recent study that critiques the Mars One projects as technologically premature. Food production provides one of the key limiting factors, and the new study suggests that colonists would start dying after only a few months of residence on the red planet. Mogosanu concurs […]
Read moreHelp support the crowdfunding campaign for a new short film called Seclusion. The story focuses on the final moment between a couple as one of them prepares for space mission launch. But as they say goodbye, we realize something about her mission that changes everything. Vivian Tse, a fellow SAGANet member and science enthusiast, has been working on a feature-length film about this idea for a quite some time. She and her team finally decided to make a short companion […]
Read moreOur “Beer with BMSIS” podcast for July features a conversation with Dr. Abel Méndez of the University of Puerto Rico about his research on “Habitabily Metrics for Astrobiology“. Habitability is often defined as the ability of a planet to have liquid water on its surface, but can one planet be “more habitable” than another? Is Earth at optimal habitable conditions? Dr. Abel Méndez raises such questions in his efforts to quantify habitability using analytical tools borrowed from ecology. He describes […]
Read moreThis month we feature Mrina Nikrad, a research scientist with a specialty in marine sciences and microbial ecology who recently joined our team. BMSIS: Please tell us a little about yourself. Mrina: I’m a postdoctoral researcher at Rutgers University, studying microbial biogeochemical cycling of carbon and nitrogen in polar ecosystems. My training and background span from ecology and evolution to biomedical science, but my passion is studying microbes that live in extreme climates, especially because of relevance to astrobiology and […]
Read moreOur “Beer with BMSIS” podcast for June features a conversation with our own Dr. Craig Hardgrove about current progress in Mars rover exploration titled “Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Mission Update: The Road to Mt. Sharp“. Missions to Mars require careful management by a team of coordinated experts to accomplish science goals, maintain the integrity of the technology, and keep focus on the long-term timeline. Dr. Craig Hardgrove gives us an insider’s perspective on the daily communication between scientists, engineers, and […]
Read moreHow do engineers design the scientific experiments that fly on the International Space Station? In a new Spark 101 video, Dr. Sanjoy Som gives us a guided tour of the engineering processes at the NASA Ames research center for the soon-to-launch fruit fly observation system. A free educational video suitable for a range of classroom ages, Dr. Som concludes by providing some valuable advice for students who wish to pursue science or engineering or who dream of someday working at […]
Read moreThis month we feature Steve Hsu, a research scientist with a medical background who recently joined our team. BMSIS: Please tell us a little about yourself. Steve: I was born in 1963 in Taiwan, where I was raised by my paternal grandparents, who were the first western-trained doctor and nurse in my family. Growing up watching my grandfather mixing medications in his own formulary and the antiseptic smell of the clinic are vivid memories. It wasn’t until I was older […]
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