People Over Pixels

So I've once again been a complete tourist in the Silicon Valley. A friend of mine that knows someone that works at  Facebook  (something that is completely normal around here) invited me to join them for lunch at the social media giant's HQ. Upon arrival I was told to search our intern friend's name on Facebook using one of the many iPads in order to print my visitor's badge. I quickly learned that at Facebook, using Facebook is not only encouraged but is the primary method of office communication. Pretty much frowned upon in offices around the world,but around here if you're not on Facebook then you're not doing your job.

As you can see from the photos I was pretty amazed by the abundance of free (yes, free) food at Facebook. Food labelled with the infamous FB logo are free for employees to munch away on to their heart and belly's content. Writing on the walls is another non-traditional office activity at FB since what else would the walls of Facebook be for than to be written on?  This creative outlet has resulted in works of art that as you can see are beautiful and often inspiring. 

Of course, before leaving I had to sign the infamous 'Facebook Wall' and post it to my own Facebook wall in true inception-style tech-geekiness that can only be achieved in the Silicon Valley. I went for the generic 'Nikita was here 31/07/13, in true tourist fashion. With one week left in San Francisco,  these tourist posts are only going to increase as I attempt to cram as much sight-seeing in as possible!

 You have been warned :)

-Nikita

LOS ANGELES PHOTO DIARY

Visiting NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and SpaceX were the highlights of my trip. Remember that room where the Curiosity rover landing was filmed last year and you saw Bobak Ferdowsi a.k.a Mohawk guy?  We were lucky enough to sit in those very seats! (I even caught a glimpse of Mr. Mohawk but I'm unsure he wanted more attention drawn to that fabulous hair). SpaceX was inspiring. A dream machine, entrepreneur and founder Elon Musk defintiely is the real life Tony Stark. He simply employs people that can build. No need to be a rocket scientist, I saw men and women from all backgrounds building the Dragon capsule that takes both cargo and humans into space and stages of the Falcon 9 rocket. 

LA is beautiful both in the day and night. The bubblegum pink sunsets and paradise-like Venice beach have now given me an obsession with palm trees...if only the UK was warm enough. Guess I'll have to make do with the good old Oak tree. I was a standard tourist and visited Hollywood Boulevard. Shamelessly celebrity spotting in the Hollywood Trader Joes, I saw zero famous faces but did spot the Moon Landing plaque outside commemorating Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin (Buzz Aldrin to you and me)  & Michael Collins for orbiting, landing and walking on the Moon for the first time in human history 44 years ago today.

After watching another stunning LA sunset at Griffith Observatory  I took the obligatory Hollywood sign photograph before heading back on the 7 hours drive up to San Francisco. It's very different here in NorCal, I personally prefer the cooler weather of SF but I'd definitely recommend visiting SoCal and all the palm trees it has to offer!

-Nikita

Making Space Accessible: NanoSatisfi

They say that when you love your job, you never work a day in your life. That's exactly what the guys at revolutionary space company, NanoSatisfi strongly believe in. Nestled in the heart of San Francisco, three International Space University graduates (like myself) work towards making space more affordable and accessible for everybody. Together, Peter Platzer, Jeroen Cappaert and Joel Spark juggled ISU exams, lectures, team projects and summer internships with creating a business plan and running a Kickstarter campaign. This all took place in 2012 and now, a year later the company has achieved great success with their main products, miniature cubic satellite ArduSat and ArduSat Academy. I visited NanoSatisfi HQ to learn more from the guys about their journey and what they think is the key to unlocking both happiness and success.

Based out of a collective workspace provided by tech incubator Lemnos Labs, CEO Peter Platzer treated my friends and I with a breakfast array of coffee, pastries and orange juice, before taking a seat on the office floor (there were 12 of us!) and answering our questions with Jeroen and Joel. We were keen to find out how exactly they succeeded at both university and starting a company and they provided us with a great deal of advice towards achieving our dreams, no matter what. Using the example of the 4 minute mile, Peter described how something can only be achieved when you believe it can be. Simply because it is thought to be impossible, does not make it so. The fact that this is merely a state of mind signifies a gap in the market and consequently an opportunity for you to change this thought process.

NanoSatisfi CEO, Peter Platzer holding a prototype of the ArduSat payload package (Source: Space Fellowship)

 

NanoSatisfi co-founders, Jeroen Cappaert and Joel Spark

Beginning his career as a high-energy physicist at CERN, Peter completed an MBA at Harvard before heading to Wall Street. However space exploration called. I asked Peter what NanoSatisfi meant to him personally & professionally: 

" NanoSatisfi is the culmination of my personal mission statement to have an positive impact on the world, and professionally it is a happy return to my early career aspirations as a physicist and to my passion for space exploration.  These were put on hold for 15 years while I worked in business and waited for a time when the commercialization of space would make it possible to do something impactful without relying on the whims of government budgets.  NanoSatisfi has allowed me to do that, and I am lucky that both personally and professionally I have found a way to be doing something that I love and exactly what I am meant to be doing at this point in my career." - Peter Platzer, CEO NanoSatisfi

Together with aerospace engineer Joel and mechanical engineer Jeroen, the team are driven to  providing regular people with affordable, convenient and on-demand access to space. Their two main products include ArduSat, which allows the public to buy time to run their own experiments, games or applications on board the satellite for as low as $250 a week. Their ArduSat Academy offers training on program design and building, bringing the magic of space science closer to people like you and me. 

ArduSat illustration (Source: Science Business)

Meeting people that exactly a year ago were in my position as an ISU Masters student on their summer internship gave me a strong sense of motivation to achieve similar success. I left NanoSatisfi feeling as though I can and will accomplish anything that I put my mind to. And it really is as simple as that. 

Follow @NanoSatisfi for fun space facts, updates and all-round entertaining140 retweet-worthy characters

- Nikita

Becoming a NASA Intern

For the past 3 weeks I've been interning at NASA Ames Research Center in the Silicon Valley, San Francisco. Renowned for its innovative approach, Ames is the perfect place for me to explore where I want my career to take me and to meet extra-ordinary people that can help me to identify this. 

Serving as the newest member of the NASA New Media Innovation Team (NMIT) I've been lucky enough to have the most interesting, creative and intelligent mentor, Dr. Yvonne Clearwater. With over 40 years of work at Ames, Yvonne joined Ames as a member of the International Space Station (ISS) design team and was the Principle Investigator on early ISS designs. As well as this, she developed the official NASA App, 'NASA on the (Flickr) Commons and the inspirational website NASA ArtSpace (found here: http://www.nasa.gov/connect/artspace/)

Together, we are working to increase public awareness and involvement in the creative cultural convergence of art, science and technology as it serves to inspire space exploration. We have been developing innovative projects to increase public communication and connection with NASA. In particular, utilising the powerful tool of new media platforms to increase public engagement with NASA Ames.

I'll be working here for 3 months and already have had the opportunity to go to a number of events at exciting places such as the SETI Institute: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Singularity University as well as meeting the Director of Ames Pete Worden and the NASA Administrator Charles Bolden!

Lunchtime conversations between the synthetic biologist to the neighbouring astrophysicist and their quantum computing friend have become an everyday occurrence for my fellow interns and I, and it's something I don't think I'll ever get used to hearing. It's s a daily reminder of the unique environment I'm in and I feel very fortunate to be in the midst of the ground-breaking research and technological advancement that is and will help us explore the Universe as well as sustain life as we know it on Earth.

-Nikita