Smart Communities on Earth and in Space, with Dr. Michaela Musilova

Hi #SmartCommunity friends! Welcome back to another episode of the Smart Community Podcast. In this episode I have a fascinating conversation with Dr. Michaela Musilova, an astrobiologist, speaker, analog astronaut and author. Michaela has been conducting space-related research at institutions around the world and was the Director of HI-SEAS and Commander of over 30 simulated missions to the Moon and Mars, in collaboration with NASA, ESA and many international organizations. She is currently a visiting Professor at the Slovak University of Technology, Global Faculty at the International Space University and Head of Research of the space technology company NEEDRONIX. She also writes articles for Space.com and co-authored her biography, A Woman from Mars.

In this episode, Michaela tells us about her passion for space and for life on earth, how she got into this Space space, and some of the challenges she has overcome to pursue this dream. She tells us about why it’s so important to share with the public how science is helping humanity and how diversity and also food have both been key to the success of the missions she’s been involved with. 

Michaela then tells us about the projects she’s worked on, including the Astro Seven Summits, which is focused on performing research related to life in space and also on extreme environments on earth. Michaela and I talk about how to link space exploration science with climate change, as well as what she thinks will happen on the first missions of humans living on Mars. 

We then discuss the emerging trend of commercial investment in space and especially in things like rockets, but why it’s not just rockets that make successful missions. Michaela shares with us her concerns about the commercial space race potentially taking unnecessary risks for the sake of meeting goals and boosting egos. 

We finish our chat talking about whether there really is life on other planets, and Michaela tells us what she thinks about the likelihood of finding it. As always we hope you enjoyed listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it.

Connect:
Follow her on LinkedIn and Facebook, or on Instagram and Twitter @astro_michaela 

Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube

Podcast Production by Perk Digital