Blue Marble Space: A Shared Vision for Humanity and Space

On the non-profit science organization where I work, and what we're trying to do together to better Earth and space science

By Graham Lau.

See the original article here. Ngā mihi nui Jim Critchley for sharing, and congratulations on your new role as an Education Affiliate with Blue Marble Space!

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Blue Marble Space began with a question:

What symbol could truly represent all of humanity as we venture beyond our world? An answer to that question became an organization, and the organization became a community, and the community became something I'm proud be part of as we work together to build a better future for everyone.

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When I finished my doctorate in 2017, I honestly didn’t know what to do next with my life. I’d already realized that modern academia probably wasn’t for me (for a number of reasons); at least not the tenured professor direction I had always thought I would take. I’d already planned and worked to be able to take some time off altogether, but those few weeks of reading (so many books!) and walking my dogs a bunch flew by.

When I had to find work again, I started off by piecing a few small things together to make ends meet. I was helping a local author, Gregg Eisenberg, to publish his book, Letting Go Is All We Have To Hold Onto: Mind-Altering Jokes! (a fun little book of jokes and aphorisms set up like witty Buddhist koans with a mix of science and philosophy). I was pulling some random gigs here-and-there I’d found on Craigslist, like helping someone move some furniture or other one-off manual labor jobs. And I managed to score a few contracts doing some freelance graphic design, mostly for folks in the science realm.

Thanks to my PhD advisor, I was able to take on an adjunct professor position at the University of Colorado Boulder to teach a class on geochemistry that I had once taken as an undergrad and helped to teach as a grad student...

Explore the full Blue Marble Space article and its vision for humanity and space

Kia ora koutou, It has been an honour to be made an Education Affiliate with the Blue Marble Space, an international non-profit based the USA. Dr. Graham Lau has produced this article which explains the work they do. From an Aotearoa NZ perspective, the way I can help is through making connections. If you would like to have a video call with a Space Scientist, then I am able to put the word out to the Blue Marble community to see if anyone can help. The easiest email to contact me is jimc@mmc.school.nz Ngā mihi,

Jim Critchley