Blue Marble Space Featured in Inc. Magazine

Inc. magazine recently featured an interview with Sanjoy Som about Blue Marble Space in an article titled “How Space Travel Will Save the World (And the People Living on It).” A tall order indeed, but we are grateful for the support we continually receive from other scientists, educators, and journalists who share our vision of using space exploration to improve our home on Earth. [read the article at Inc.]

Read more

First Short Story Collection Released

We are pleased to announce that the first volume of the Blue Marble Space Short Story Collection is now available! This volume, titled Tales From Spaceship Earth, includes stories from six of our scientists and is the first in an ongoing series of science-informed fiction. This collection of stories reflects an intersection of each author’s knowledge of science and vision of the future. These unique perspectives range from the near-term evolution of the space station program, to the beginnings of […]

Read more

Fruit Fly Lab: Engineer’s Blog

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 more

Spark 101: Fruit Fly Surveillance

How 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 more

Podcast: Why Explore Space?

Our “Beer with BMSIS” podcast for May features a discussion between Dr. Sanjoy Som and Dr. Jacob Haqq-Misra about the philosophical question “Why explore space?“. One of the questions raised by skeptics of space exploration is the particular value that this enterprise adds to human civilization. The auxiliary discoveries of space exploration often are cited as the reasons for public investment, such as technologies that resulted from investment in space exploration but now benefit everyday consumers. Other reasons for valuing […]

Read more

Iceland Photoblog

Join Dr. Sanjoy Som on a recollection of his field work in Iceland from this past June. Follow along on his SAGANet.org blog as he shares photos, memories, and strategies from exploring the basaltic rock systems in Iceland and discusses possible research applications for his collected data. [read the blog on SAGANet.org]

Read more

BlueSciCon Episode 29: Why explore space?

Dr. Sanjoy Som and Dr. Jacob Haqq-Misra Beverage: Irish Death (United States – Washington) Listen: [mp3 download] [ca_audio url=”http://beerwith.bmsis.org/BwBMSIS_29_MAY2014.mp3″ width=”500″ height=”27″ css_class=”codeart-google-mp3-player”]

Read more

Dr. Sanjoy Som Receives Lewis and Clark Award

BMSIS research scientist Dr. Sanjoy Som was selected for a 2013 Lewis and Clark Award to support field research in astrobiology. Dr. Som will be using his award to support his research in Iceland on “Hydrogen Production in Basalt-Hosted Hydrothermal Systems”. The goal of this fieldwork is to understand the suitability of basaltic rock systems for supporting life. In particular, water reacts with basaltic rocks to release hydrogen gas through many processes on Earth. This production of hydrogen gas from […]

Read more