Hey Chasers! Happy Earth Day! To help celebrate, I decided to jump on the “Global Seflie” shuttle that is being promoted by NASA Today. NASA is hoping to create a mosaic of the Earth from the ground up rather than from space down with the participation of selfies from all across the globe in celebration of Earth Day. I’m stoked about …
Matt’s Talking about Space at TEDx UTSC
Hey Chasers! A quick update to let you know that I’m giving a talk at TEDx University of Toronto Scarborough this weekend. What’s the topic? SPAAAAACE! (of course). More specifically, the theme of this TEDx is “Converging Realities.” They are looking for speakers who could bridge two fields/concepts/ideas that might seem otherwise unrelated. In my other life, I help run …
Dragon Capsule Links with International Space Station
Last week did not bode well for SpaceX’s first attempt at launching dragon. Aborted launches at 4am are not fun for viewers (I’m on the West Coast) never mind for the engineers that had to build, test and attempt to put the craft into space. However, with a successful launch this past Tuesday, Dragon has now officially docked with the …
Space X Launch to ISS in Just Under One Hour
History is about to be made with the first private launch to the International Space Station. The automated Dragon cargo ship, the product of private space flight company Space X, is due to launch at 4:55 EST. You can watch the launch live at NASA’s public “Ustream” http://www.ustream.tv/nasahdtv The launch represents NASA’s new strategy to use private space companies such as …
A Different Kind of Frontier (The End of the Race for Space)
Lately, I have given a great deal of thought to my childhood dream of going to space. Reflecting on space has certainly been a central part of Chasing Atlantis, the documentary we shot this past Summer about the final flight of space shuttle Atlantis. The famous lines from the opening of Star Trek described Space as the Final Frontier. It …
“We’ve Chosen to Not Afford It”
A very cool friend of mine, James Joyce (not to be mistaken for James Joyce the Irish Novelist), sent me a link a while back to an article in Discover Magazine that I just resurrected from my Facebook Inbox. James studies astronomy at the University of Toronto and gets access to much cooler equipment than I do *shakes fist. Anyhow, …
Last Day to Vote in the Race for Space
Hey Chasers, At midnight EST, the Race for Space Closes. Thank you very much for your support and votes! The goal is to hit 30K by the end of the evening. So let’s try to push for it! Here is the link to vote http://metroinspace.com/ca/view/ct94 you can vote 10 times on any internet enabled device. The youtube version of my entry in …
Day 6 in the Race for Space!
Day 6 in the Race for Space Hey Orbiters, It’s now Day 6 in the Race for Space! Yesterday I was setup with my booth at SFU. Got to talk to some folk who are also space geeks. Printed flyers with QR codes on them so that everybody could scan on their smart phones straight from the booth. The Link …
Day 5 In the Race for Space
Day 5 In the Race for Space It’s been 5 days competing in Metro’s Race for Space, a competition to win a trip on one of the first space tourism flights with aerospace company SXC. As of right now, I just hit 8500 votes. Amazing! I thought I’d be struggling to hit 1000, and here we are. I want to …
Day 2 in the Race for Space
Hey Chasers, Only a day and a half in and I’ve already grabbed 3400 votes for my entry in Metro Newspaper’s Race for Space Competition. Thanks to everybody who’s been voting for the support. Here’s the current strategy. The top voter is still a ways off from where we’re at. However, we have moved to 30th place out of approx …