163: NASA Astronaut, Author and Artist: Nicole Stott

Nicole is an astronaut, aquanaut, artist, mom, and now author of her first book Back to Earth ~ What Life In Space Taught Me About Our Home Planet - And Our Mission To Protect It.  She creatively combines the awe and wonder of her spaceflight experience with her artwork to inspire everyone's appreciation of our role as crewmates here on Spaceship Earth.  Today on the Casual Space Podcast is Beth’s conversation with Nicole recorded earlier this month, in preparation for the Analog Astronaut Conference in Tucson, Arizona, where Nicole shares a variety of thoughts about analogs, what it was like to live under the sea, and seeing our beautiful Earth from Space.  More about Nicole Stott: She is a veteran NASA Astronaut with two spaceflights and 104 days as a crewmember on both the International Space Station (ISS) and the Space Shuttle. Personal highlights of her time in space include performing a spacewalk (10th woman to do so), flying the robotic arm to capture the first free-flying HTV, painting a watercolor (now on display at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum), working with her international crew on science that is all about improving life on Earth, and of course the life changing view of our home planet. She is also a NASA Aquanaut. In preparation for spaceflight she was a crew member on an 18-day saturation dive mission at the Aquarius undersea laboratory.  Nicole believes that the international model of peaceful and successful cooperation we have experienced in the extreme environments of space and sea holds the key to the same kind of peaceful and successful cooperation for all of humanity here on Earth. On her post-NASA mission, Nicole is a co-founder of the Space for Art Foundation --- uniting a planetary community of children through the awe and wonder of space exploration and the healing power of art.  Follow Nicole and her art here: https://www.npsdiscovery.com  Back to Earth: What Life in Space Taught Me About Our Home Planet―And Our Mission to Protect It In her book, Back to Earth, Stott imparts essential lessons in problem-solving, survival, and crisis response that each of us can practice to make change. She knows we can overcome differences to address global issues, because she saw this every day on the International Space Station. Stott shares stories from her spaceflight and insights from scientists, activists, and changemakers working to solve our greatest environmental challenges. She learns about the complexities of Earth’s biodiversity from NASA engineers working to enable life in space and from scientists protecting life on Earth for future generations. Ultimately, Stott reveals how we each have the power to respect our planetary home and one another by living our lives like crewmates, not passengers, on an inspiring shared mission GET THE BOOK: Get your copy of Back to Earth here: Back to Earth: https://www.amazon.com/Back-Earth-Planet_And-Mission-Protect/dp/1541675045  And, you can learn more about Analog Astronauts and our missions at: https://www.analog-astronaut.com/