2011: My Top 10 iPhone Travel Fotos

In days gone by, I never left home without my camera bag stocked with film and lenses. With an iPhone, I travel so much lighter. I’m totally hooked on the hipstamatic app, which allows me to create a funky style without a darkroom or chemicals. With a simple shake of my iPhone, I can change camera lenses and film, though my favorite is the Hipstamatic John S lens and Kodot XGrizzled film.

Here are a few shots from my 2011 travels to the Space Tweetups in Germany and Italy, and the NASA tweetups at the Kennedy Space Center. The final two are from Washington DC, where I work and play. Enjoy!

Cologne, Germany

Space Tweetup: German Space Day train

Frankfort Airport

Roma Colosseo

Rome: Santa Maria Maggiore

ESA/ESRIN facility in Frascati, Italy

Cocoa Beach Sand Castles

Space Coast Space Melons

White House

Taxi window view of Washington Monument

2011 My Space: Top 10 Off-Planet Pics

View from Space Station: 16 Moonrises Each Day. Photo by Astronaut Ron Garan.

STS-134 Endeavour docked to Space Station.

Astronauts Mike Fincke reflected in Greg Chamitoff's visor. Final spacewalk by Space Shuttle crew.

STS-134 Space Shuttle Endeavor docked to Space Station: Photo by ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli

Mosaic of 48 Saturn images from the Cassini spacecraft.

STS-135 final mission to Space Station with US flag flown on STS-1.

STS-135 Atlantis docked to Space Station.

STS-135 Space Shuttle Atlantis leaving Space Station. Photo by Expediton 28 crew.

NASA's Spitzer space telescope shows "stellar nursery" around Orion's sword.

Comet Lovejoy: Photo by Space Station Expedition 30 Commander Dan Burbank.

TOO many images to choose from — which is a good thing. I hope these give you a flavor for space.

A special 2011 space thanks to Expedition 27/28 Astronaut Ron Garan for your visionary leadership for Fragile Oasis. Your willingness to share  your Space Station experience made space seem closer for those of us who are gravity-challenged. Elyse David, you are amazing. Thanks for keeping Fragile Oasis going 24/7. Donna Connell, you juggled all our requirements for LAUNCH and Fragile Oasis, and ensured we were totally covered contractually. You ROCKet! Ben Slavin, you’re my hero. I’m so glad you’re on the team. We wouldn’t have made it through the year without you.

I’m thankful for the opportunity to host several tweetups at our last Space Shuttle launches. I gained so many new friendships with space tweeps from around the world. I will treasure my time with the ESA/DLR colleagues at the two Space Tweetups across the ocean. Getting to know ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti was a highlight for 2011. I look forward to the time when she’s telling her stories from space.

Though we’ve closed out the Space Shuttle program, we continue to support a crew of six humans onboard Space Station 240 miles overhead, orbiting Earth every 91 minutes at a speed of 17,500 miles per hour. We have much work ahead in 2012. I’m eager to get started.

2011 My Space: Top 10 Fav iPhone Fotos

Here are my top ten 2011 space-related photos taken with the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone. It’s so hard to pick only ten photos, I’ve decided to create several fav foto lists in different categories.

STS-135 Atlantis post-landing

STS-135 Atlantis: the final launch

STS-135 Crew in AstroVan going to Launch pad

STS-135 Atlantis on the Launch Pad

STS-134 tweetup at Kennedy Center press site

STS-135: Our 1st NASA Tweetup Marriage Proposal

Latte at ESA/ESRIN facility in Frascati, Italy - Space Tweetup

@VenusBarbie and @Astro_Luca at the ESA/DLR Space Tweetup in Germany

German Space Day: ESA/DLR Space Tweetup

Saturn V Moon Rocket represents the past. A similar rocket will take us to the future.

LAUNCH:Energy Super-Charged!

Sparks fly when innovative thinkers join together to address critical issues — like solving the world’s sustainability problems. LAUNCH gives us a unique opportunity to expand the Fellowship of Innovation with  ten new LAUNCH innovators, several dozen new LAUNCH Council Members, and new members of the LAUNCH team. What a privilege to recharge my creative batteries in this unique creative power source.

LAUNCH: Energy. Space Shuttle Endeavour waits for us over at the VAB.

It was only one week ago when NASA hosted LAUNCH: Energy at the Kennedy Space Center. Quick summary: ten innovators presented TED-like presentations to thought leaders in their various disciplines. Presentations are followed by high impact round table discussions with each innovator to probe, question, and evaluate the potential of each innovation.

LAUNCH: Energy is our third sustainability forum, following LAUNCH: Water and LAUNCH: Health. This was our first without a Space Shuttle launch to plan around. We’ve never hosted an event at the Kennedy Space Center during a holiday weekend. A government facility on a long weekend feels like a ghost town — eerily deserted. On the flip side, we had the place to ourselves. We FINally snagged the Mission Management Team meeting room, which was always our first choice. Planning events during Space Shuttle launches means prime real estate is already spoken for, and rightly so.

The press site looks so empty without a Space Shuttle launch.

We were fortunate to tour the Vehicle Assembly Building where post-retirement Space Shuttle Endeavour takes shelter. I have to admit, seeing her without her eyes, nose, and engines made me heartsick. How strange to stare in the face of history.

Space Shuttle Endeavour in her twilight years.

Many ask us: Why LAUNCH?

LAUNCH is our opportunity to problem-solve for an entire weekend with a group of innovative thinkers who care deeply about saving the world — social entrepreneurship at its best. As a bonus, we hopefully infect participants with our “Yes We Can” space virus that they, in turn, spread to their colleagues, friends and families.

Personally, LAUNCH is an intellectual treat. Brain candy!

LAUNCH is all about three things for NASA:

1. sharing the sustainability story of how life off this planet mirrors Earth — we have no natural resources in space which forces us to generate, collect, store, conserve, recycle, and manage our resources wisely — just like Earth but more extreme;
2. offering our problem-solving expertise and convening power of the NASA brand to host a crucial conversation with innovative problem solvers from around the world, and
3. promoting the emergence of transformative technology to solve problems that we share as global citizens of this planet, which may also address issues of long-duration life in the extremes of space.

Can you think of a more "problem-solving" setting?

Fellowship of Innovation

The ten innovators, who are now part of our innovation fellowship (and FAMILY) offer a variety of solutions to address energy sustainability challenges. The innovations include an economical fuel cell that can be recharged in a cooking fire, a thin flexible electrochromic film that can be applied to windows or surfaces to manage energy use, a low temperature heat activated fluid motion pump, a hydrokinetic turbine, a 96% efficient wood combustion cookstove process, a thermal energy battery for economical refrigeration in remote locations, a next generation fast-charging, long-lasting ultracapacitor battery, an integrated smart microgrid, a lightweight energy management system, and a solar-powered lantern/charger.

Solantern light, charging station, and solar charger.

Social Entrepreneurship

At its essence, LAUNCH is an enterprise grounded in social entrepreneurship — the effort to target large-scale transformational outcomes to make life better for a segment of the underserved populations on our planet.

Side Note: Social entrepreneurship is near and dear to my heart and the topic of my PhD research. Thanks to two separate bus rides from Kennedy Space Center back to our hotel in Orlando, I refined my research proposal — which was due immediately following LAUNCH: Energy. Council members Carrie Freeman of Intel and James Parr, formerly of IDEO and founder of Imaginals, introduced me to new concepts and potential research paths. I came home and rewrote my proposal.

LAUNCH is the innovation soup we create by pulling together just the right ingredients and turning up the heat — like a long bus ride at the end of a long day.

Hatching new ideas on ride to and from Kennedy Space Center.

Accelerator

And now, the real work begins. The Accelerator process, the next phase, is the critical follow-through leg of the LAUNCH journey, where our LAUNCH team 1) walks the Innovators through recommendations and insights shared by the Council, 2) refines and crafts a forward strategy, and 3) helps make connections necessary to solidify future support for each innovation. This process can last from four-six months, depending on the wishes of the innovator and the maturity of the innovation.

Thanks to all the LAUNCH team for all the long hours in planning, preparation, and execution. Thanks to all the Council Members for giving so generously of your time. Thanks especially to all our LAUNCH Innovators for caring enough about the future of our human race to create transformative solutions. You guys ROCKet!!

To borrow from Innovator Frank Wang, “Let’s get super-charged. BOOM!”

LAUNCH Innovator Frank Wang, "Boom! Super-charged!!"

Resources:

LAUNCH:Energy Flickr photos by LAUNCH team member Dennis Bonilla.

LAUNCH:Energy photos by LAUNCH Council Member Michael Catalano.

Forum Concludes with LAUNCH of New Ideas to Generage, Store and Distribute Energy by LAUNCH Council and team member Rebecca Taylor

LAUNCH: Energy Forum — An Update from Mission Control  by Department of State team member Vy Manthripragada.

LAUNCH: Energy Forum — Fueling Ideas, Propelling Innovation by Department of State team member Vy Manthripragada.

LAUNCHing an Energized Future by LAUNCH team member Lena Delchad.

Collective Genius for a Better World by NASA’s Open Gov team member Ali Llewellyn.

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LAUNCH: Energy

This week, we celebrate ten disruptive innovations with groundbreaking ideas for provision and access to sustainable energy for both the developed and developing world populations. LAUNCH: Energy is a challenge of particular interest to NASA. Issues of sustainable energy are part of every human and robotic mission off of the planet. We have NO natural energy sources off the planet, so the creation, storage, conservation and replenishing of energy is one of our challenges in exploring the unknowns of space.

View the LAUNCH video.

LAUNCH is a unique initiative formed with founding partners are NASA, USAID, Department of State, and NIKE to identify solutions to the world’s most urgent sustainability challenges. For the sustainability forums, we identify innovations poised to create transformational change in critical sustainability issues, and connect innovators to thought leaders and advisors. After the forum, we work with the innovators to take recommendations compiled during the 2+ days at the Forum, and work with the innovators to sift through and implement the recommendations to help propel the innovations toward success.

Here are the innovators:

1. Gram Power: Yashraj Khaitan – A micro/mini-grid solution for underserved communities that utilizes modular battery storage technology, energy management intelligence, and a pre-payment model.

2. Hydrovolts: Burt Hamner – An affordable “Flipwing” turbine that enables reliable hydroelectricity generation from canals and other managed-flow water courses. @Hydrovolts

3. Turbococinas: Rene Nunez Suarez – A revolutionary clean and efficient wood combustion cookstove.

4. Point Source Power: Craig Jacobsen – An economical fuel cell for emerging markets that allows battery charging in cooking pits or fires.

5. The Solanterns Initiative: Nina Marsalek, Renewable Energy Ventures – An initiative dedicated to replacing 1 million of Kenya’s kerosene lanterns with solar powered lights. @Solanterns

6. Powerzoa: Jamie Simon – A smart system that allows enterprise-level energy managers to automate control of energy down to the appliance level, stopping power waste. @powerzoa

7. Promethean Power Systems: Sorin Grama – A rural refrigeration system for commercial cold-storage applications in off-grid and partially electrified areas of developing countries. @PrometheanPower

8. NIFTE Pump: Mark Bryan, Thermofluidics – A pumping device that uses low-temperature heat to generate fluid motion with very few moving parts.

9. Flexible Electrochromic Film: Ashu Misra, ITN Energy Systems – A revolutionary flexible electrochromic film that allows active control of transmitted light and solar heating.

10. NanoTune Technologies: Frank Wang – An electrode innovation that produces ultracapacitors with five to seven times greater story capacity as conventional capacitors. @carbonmind

You can join us virtually at LAUNCH: Energy Forum on November 11-13 through U-stream link that will be posted on the LAUNCH website. You can also log on to MindMapr, which will have a twitter stream of the ongoing conversations between the LAUNCH Council and the ten innovators.

Crosspost on GovLoop.

Halloween Story + Rocket Art

My buddy Jim Hull, NASA Exhibits Manager, is a passionate painter and cartoonist. Years ago, he created a cartoon character named Plumpie. Jim gave me a shout out as a new character in Plumpie’s story. I thought I’d share the story with you.

Here I am in full-figured cartoon form. Finally, I get wings and a wand!!

Art by NASA's Jim Hull

My character entered the story after Jim and I had a series of conversations about how each story needs relevance. My question: why should anyone care. As storytellers, we need to find ways to connect to our audiences, no matter what story we’re telling. You’ll find the conversation reflected in the story below.

Please enjoy Jim’s Legend of Plumpkin: Tales from the PlumpPatch!

Art and story by NASA's Jim Hull

Art and story by NASA's Jim Hull

Art and story by NASA's Jim Hull

Art and story by NASA's Jim Hull

Art and story by NASA's Jim Hull

Art and story by NASA's Jim Hull

Art and story by NASA's Jim Hull

Art and story by NASA's Jim Hull

Art and story by NASA's Jim Hull

Art and story by NASA's Jim Hull

Art and story by NASA's Jim Hull

Art and story by NASA's Jim Hull

Jim also creates great rocket art. Check it out. Here is Plumpie going to space in his rocket ark.

Plumpienaut & the Rocket Ark by Jim Hull

The drawing below is my very favorite of all. Very whimsical and fun. I can see an entire retro-ish space cartoon in this style.

Jim? What say you?

Rocket design by Jim Hull

Jim is busy working on an ambitious project to create an experiential art display where users can interact with a series of 50 paintings. You can follow Jim at @JimEHull on Twitter.

ESA Space LUV: Italian-Style

The morning after the ESA/DLR SpaceTweetup, NASA’s Stephanie Schierholz and I met with  Marco Trovatello and Henning Krause of the Germany Space Agency DLR and Fulvio Drigani,  Erica Rolfe, Daniel Scuka, Andreas Schepers of the European Space Agency ESA to talk lessons learned from the first-ever European tweetup. Great sharing ideas and good practices across agencies.

Space Tweetup Debrief with ESA, DLR, NASA

Erica, bless her heart, traveled with me to Italy for the next ESA tweetup at the ESRIN facility. We took a train from Cologne to Frankfurt. A plane from Frankfurt to Rome. And a taxi through congested evening traffic to Frascati, located south of Rome.

ESRIN is ESA’s European Space Research Institute – the center for Earth Observation. No one prepared me for the little piece of paradise I would encounter in the land of olive trees, lavendar bushes, grape vines, and cappuccino bars!

Morning Cappuccino Break at ESA/ESRIN

Olive groves on ESA/ESRIN property!

Not so hidden among the olive trees, ESA's satellite dish.

On Thursday, ESA hosted a small group of space tweeps for a one-on-one question and answer session with the MagISStra crew, ESA’s name for the Expedition 26-27 Space Station crew: @Astro_Paolo Nespoli and @Astro_Cady Coleman. @AstroSamantha Cristoforetti was part of the panel as well.

ESA MagISStra Mission Logo

Each of the tweeps had been invited for their support during @Astro_Paolo’s mission, or for winning ESA twitter contests, or for supporting the mission within ESA. @NickAstronomer won the golden ticket as the 25,000th @ESA twitter follower. Here is the list (forgive me if I missed someone): @TiraLondon, @SpaceKate, @mariiabennet, @nhaima, @Stelygs, @pressarea,@mattegianni, and @HimeIshida.

Tweeps: ESA/ESRIN SpaceTweetup

@Astro_Cady @Astro_Paolo @AstroSamantha

Space tweeps chatting with astronauts

@Astro_Paolo with @AstroSamantha tweeting from stage

After our session with the astronauts, we toured the facilities at ESRIN. Here we are wearing our cool spacey 3-D shades to watch GOCE satellite image animations.

ESA GOCE image of Earth

Touring the facilities: @Stelygs @mattegianni

Tweeting: @pressarea @ericarolfe @mattegianni

@TiraLondon @SpaceKate

After the tour, we headed out to Frascati to an event with the Mayor, citizens, and astronauts.

Frascati, Italy

Q & A with Mayor and Citizens of Frascati

They posed for pictures in front of this statue. I’m not sure the story behind the second head, but it can’t be good….

Statue in Frascati's Town Hall

Great day all around!! 

Special thanks and well-deserved praise for my ESA colleagues. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to share your world with you this past week. I want to take a few moments to thank you each individually.

Erica Rolfe (communicator extraordinaire and force behind the @ESA twitter account):

Words can’t begin to express my appreciation for you. You are a gracious and cheerful host, all the while juggling several events, social media, and family. You made sure I had rides to the ESA office and events, a place to work, and plenty of opportunity to share ideas with ESA staff. Erica, you’re truly AWEsome. Virtual applause for all that you do. Thanks for sprinkling me with your star dust.

In fact, @Astro_Paolo presented an award to Erica, but she missed it. She was presiding over a facilities tour with invited space tweeps.)

Fulvio Drigani:

Thanks for your vision and support for the role social media can play in connecting Earthlings with space. Your easy laugh is a delight. I look forward to working closely with you when we hatch our future partnership plots. We have so much to gain by working together more closely.

Frederic Le Gall:

Thanks for your probing questions and lively debate over how best to tell the story of space and allocate scarce resources. You made me think the most! I look forward to the FAB new ideas you have in mind for future projects. Let us know when you’re ready to collaborate.

Asa Ericson:

You are an absolute doll for picking me up at my hotel each morning, taking care of badging and wifi access, making sure I have coins for the vending machines, copying your map to keep me from getting lost, and overall cheerful support. You put me at ease and helped me feel at home. I’ve never felt so welcome. Truly. You’re wonderful.

Daniel Scuka:

Though you didn’t come back to Italy with us, I wanted to take a moment to thank you for taking care of me in Cologne. Your sense of humor and chill demeanor helped ease my jet-lagged slogginess. And I enjoyed your German, even though the taxi-drivers made you switch to English. My regards to your Texan wife!!

Samantha Cristoforetti:

I’m inspired by your passion, enthusiasm, and great perspective on life. You’ve embraced the social media tools as a way to help share the story of space. You really “get it,” which makes life easy for those of us who want to help you do your job in the best way you can. Thanks for catching the vision. Your journey to space can be our journey too, if we can go with you through social media. Glad to see you on Google+ too!

Thanks ESA. I wave my flag (or your flag) in your honor!

ESA flag flying at ESRIN in Frascati

Final thought:

@Astro_Paolo Nespoli posed a question to tweeps after the ESRIN tweetup:

“What do you get out of social media. What does it do for you?”

We all gave him good reasons, but it struck me on the flight home that without social media, I would never have met any of the folks at ESA or DLR, nor would I have been invited to attend these super cool SpaceTweetups. I met my communications colleagues through Twitter, not through normal work channels.

But here’s the real reason we use social media: we get to share the space LUV and watch it grow exponentially.

I’ll leave you with a quick glimpse of Rome. I’m ready to go back and spend some time enjoying the sights!

Roma Colosseo

Roma: Colonna Traiana

Roma: Arco di Constantino

Roma: Santa Maria Maggiore

SpaceTweetup: #Awesome

I keep trying to post my thoughts and photos about the first-ever European tweetup in Cologne, Germany and a smaller tweetup with @Astro_Paolo Nespoli, @Astro_Cady Coleman, and  @AstroSamantha Cristoforetti at the ESA/ESRIN facility in Frascati, Italy. Way too many great conversations and experiences to slow down and write. Now that I’m back home in DC, I have no more excuses.

One word sums up the week: AWESOME!

SpaceTweetup stage. Cologne, Germany

Just so you know, I was informed by my European tweeps that they were making a bit of fun at our American enthusiasm by using the word awesome. As it turned out, awesome became the catch-word of the event — with it’s own hashtag. I think enthusiasm is actually contagious, if given the proper petri dish. Right @twISSt?

Kudos to Marco Trovatello and Henning Krause of the Germany Space Agency DLR and Fulvio Drigani, Erica Rolfe, Daniel Scuka, Andreas Schepers of the European Space Agency ESA. You guys ROCKet!

Here are some highlights of the Space Day Tweetup in Cologne:

Enthusiast tweeps waiting to board the bus.

ESA's FABulous tweep-herder @EricaRolfe

ESA/DLR SpaceTweetup Welcome by Marco, Andreas, and Fulvio.

ESA's @DanielScuka tweeting for @ESAoperations.

We headed out to the tarmac to see the A380, the largest passenger airliner in the world, and Sofia aircraft, or Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. We got a glimpse of the German version of Air Force One for German Chancellor Angela Merkel. (What is it with wet tweetups lately? Did Stephanie Schierholz and I bring the STS-135 rain with us?)

German version of the Air Force 1

Sofia telescope

We headed back to the tweetup tent to meet the Expedition 26-27 and STS-134 astronauts. One problem, we separated from the group somehow. Here are my LostMates!

Lost with me on the grounds of German Space Day: @SpaceMike @Timmermansr @JohnnieMojo

This little train came by to give us a lift. Well, not exactly...

This little magic train appeared. I thought maybe it would lead us back to basecamp, but no dice. To tell you the truth, I’m not sure how we found our way back to the tweetup tent. Perhaps it was the huge inflatable astronaut that guided us home. (Or the smell of coffee and pastries back in the TWent!)

Large inflatable Spacewalker at German Space Day

SpaceTweetup Coffee Bar

Before starting the program again, we assembled at the stage for a group photo. Just then, @Astro_Paolo appeared in the tent, followed by @Astro_Cady, @Astro_Box, @AstroIronMike, @Astro_Taz, and Drew Feustel. One by one, they plopped down in the middle of the chaos to pose with us for the group photo. Totally unscripted. Totally AWEsome!

SpaceTweetup Portrait with Astronauts Sprinkled in. Photo: ESA

Here is a list of the speakers from the agenda. As you can see, the DLR/ESA folks kept us hopping — in a wonderful way.

SpaceTweetup speakers

I lost track of the number of astronauts who visited the tent during the day. Ten or more, maybe? ESA astronauts train at a facility on site, which made it easy for them to drop by. I was thrilled to meet new ESA astronauts Alexander Gerst, @Astro_Luca Parmitano, and @AstroSamantha Cristoforetti, as well as veteran astronauts like Thomas Reiter, ESA’s Director of Human Spaceflight and Operations.

And, you know how it goes…when astronauts show up, tweeps leap into action…as in Lights, Camera, Action!

TWaparazzi!

New ESA astronaut @AstroSamantha

@DataChick's @VenusBarbie and friends listen to @Astro_Luca

NASA's Stephanie Schierholz encourages ESA Astronaut Alexander Gerst to tweet

I loved hearing new ESA astronaut @AstroSamantha tell the crowd that her inspiration has been @Astro_Paolo, @Astro_Ron, and his brainchild @FragileOasis. WooHoo for Fragile Oasis!! AND, if we can work out an agreement with our ESA colleagues, we hope to include ESA bloggernauts on the site. Shhhh. That’s just between us…. 

Stephanie Schierholz and I had an opportunity to share insights from our NASA tweetup experience. Here’s what tweeps look like via my iPhone Hipstamatic app Helga lens. Quite surreal and grainy. Or maybe it was all a dream.

Our very own TWaparazzi! @mfrissen @gravinaut @hollandSpaceCen

With Space Day in full swing, we shared the facility with 80,000 visitors — adding to the excitement and frenzy.

DLR balloon in the crowd outside the SpaceTweetup Tent.

Jeff Wallace @RocketMan528 carried @Camilla_SDO to Europe with him. Camilla is quite the cult hero. Space groupies rushed to take photos with her (including my Star Wars buddies and me). I don’t know if you can tell, but the woman in this photo is crying. I’ve never seen anything like it. Crying, just because she got to hold a rubber chicken (a very lovable rubber chicken, I might add).

SpaceTweetup @Camilla_SDO Fan (They even dressed alike!)

Magnet @Camilla_SDO collects Star Wars + NASA

I have so much more to share. Time and space get in my way. I’m still processing and absorbing. I have so many new tweeps to connect with. Without social media, I would never have met any of you out in the virtual universe — like my long-time Twitter buddies @Cosmo4U and @Amoroso, whom I met in person for the first time.

Our world is getting smaller, but our connections are limitless!

@SpaceRaceKids + @Timmermansr sharing the space luv!!

For more information about the tweetup, you can read ESA’s excellent blog and their Flickr stream.

I leave you with a few iconic pics of Germany.

Church next to my hotel.

The view outside the train station!

Yummy Pretzels!

Very Matrix-y: Make sure you look UP inside the Frankfurt Airport

Next post: ESA/ESRIN tweetup in Frascati, Italy.

Moon Shadows

Now that I’ve started the PhD program at Virginia Tech, I drive to the Blacksburg campus one day a week for classes. In order to get to my 9:00 a.m. class, I leave my house at 4:00 a.m. Needless to say, much of the drive is illuminated by artificial light — street lights and headlights from my car. Once I get into the hills and mountains outside the Washington, D.C. area, street lights disappear, as well as the light pollution from the metroplex. An amazingly bright moon (and BBC news on XM radio) kept me company.

Moon from Space

As I drove, I thought about the disparity between people who live without power around the world — even today — and the hi-tech culture that sends humans to space. Technology enables me to look at photos of moonrises from space in near realtime. Some cultures may never see those pictures.

Lost in thought, I noticed something odd. Light kept flashing on and off the road in front of me and bounced off the hood of my car — like a pulsating flood light from a helicopter, but engulfing too great a distance to be manmade. I looked up through my sunroof to see the source.

The trees on top on the mountain cutaway created a filter pattern, blocking and revealing the moon, strobe-light fashion, as I drove through. It dawned on me:

Moon Shadows!

I’d never seen them before, that I can recall. What a cool experience in the black of night to have the heavenly light-dance in front of and all around me. A song from my distant past flooded into my memory: Cat Stevens’ Moonshadow.

“Yes, I’m being followed by a moonshadow

Moonshadow, moonshadow

Leaping and hopping on a moonshadow

Moonshadow, moonshadow…”

In my case, I was embraced by a moon shadow.

What is the significance of any of this? I’m not sure. I just felt the need to share the wonder and awe I felt driving through moon shadows, even just for a few minutes. I felt connected, in some strange way, to humans who walked on the surface of that huge reflecting orb in the sky. I felt sad for Astronaut Ron Garan who leaves behind, probably forever, the magnificent view he has of the moon and stars from Space Station.

Moon Rise over Earth. Photo by @Astro_Ron

Thank you, Moon, for inviting me to your shadow-dance performance. You made my day!

Welcome to Gravityland @Astro_Ron

Ron Garan's Moonrise from Space Station September 12, 2011

Astronaut Ron Garan departs Space Station Thursday, September 15. I know his family is elated. He’s been gone for six months. I have to admit. I’m having the opposite reaction. I’ve truly enjoyed his tweets, twitpics, blogs, vlogs…and, yes, phone calls from space.

As founder of Fragile Oasis, Ron tirelessly provided fresh content for NASA’s fledgling website to ensure we tell the story of space in a way that inspires Earth-bound citizens to want to make this world a better place. From the unique point of view only our astronauts can provide, we learn about our blue planet — a fragile oasis suspended in an extremely hostile universe. Fragile Oasis features projects submitted by the community to contribute to a better tomorrow. Take a moment to browse the awe-inspiring projects on the site.

Ron is the Founding Bloggernaut for Fragile Oasis.

“The focus is not on the problems of the world but on how the problems of the world are being solved by amazing people.” — @FragileOasis

I first met Ron at our LAUNCH:Water forum, when Ron’s Manna Energy was selected as one of ten disruptive innovations. I had no idea he was an astronaut. How cool is that! When he went to Star City to train for his time on Space Station, Elyse David and I both received phone calls from Russia with a new brainchild: Fragile Oasis. And now you can join Fragile Oasis too — simply by signing in through Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn.

I have to say, working with Ron brought some really cool perks — like photos from space.

My daughter Steph, my mother and I are visiting a day care in Soweto, South Africa.

A green screen Space Station photo of me in the actual Space Station. Oh the irony.

The photo immediately above is from NASA’s Galactic Explorer Module, one of my first creations in my current job as Outreach Manager. We created a green screen kiosk that allows individuals and groups to go to space and back in 30 seconds (ok, not really, but it’s as close as we can offer on the ground) and email their photo/video to friends and family. This was years before social media hit the scene — but our early attempt at viral messaging.

This green screen photo of me with Space Station as a backdrop is now up in space inside the real Space Station. Too cool for words!

Ron thrilled dozens of space tweeps when he called to say hello at our STS-135 tweetup. He’s called each one of our Fragile Oasis team members from space. It seems like a simple thing to do, but a phone call from space is just over the moon! Well not literally, but you get my point.

Ron, we’ll miss having you in space. You’ve been an amazing ambassador. I’m sure you’ll have us running around the moment you climb out of your Soyuz capsule in Kazakhstan this week. See you soon.