Girl Geeks Toronto | To Infinity and Beyond: The Next Generation of Space Travel with Talmon Firestone and Natalie Panek

In this blog post, I want you to put yourself firmly into the shoes of your 5 year old self. Dreams were boundless then. What did you want to be when you grew up? If you asked me, I would have said artist because I loved drawing especially animals (then, I became a marketing professional).

Maybe you would have said something like doctor? Or maybe teacher, marine biologist or astronaut?

If you didn’t dream of being an astronaut, have you ever been fascinated by the night skies? They are full of mysteries besides the illuminating stars, planets, and suns. It’s even an entire Hollywood genre with the biggest and baddest movies Star Wars, Star Trek, and Space Balls (this was just bad).

I was lucky to have the opportunity to learn more about space at the latest Girl Geeks Toronto event. Caroline McGregor, Lindsay Munro and Tutu Ilelaboye presented the space aces, Talmon Firestone and Natalie Panek. In their separate conversations, they introduced the ideas and concepts around aerospace that once started as someone’s dreams.

Talmon Firestone from RE-Labs, Emerging Technology Entrepreneur

Astronomy 101 changed his life. It was easy because he was passionate about it like these big names: Richard Branson, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Robert Bigelow. These big names came with big pockets, and their respective projects in suborbital travel  have garnered attention around the globe. Some of them competed for the Ansari X Prize, and won.

For the space noob like me, here are some definitions that came from Wikipedia.

Suborbital travel according to Wikipedia: A sub-orbital space flight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches space, but its trajectory intersects the atmosphere or surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched, so that it does not complete one orbital revolution.

Ansari X Prize according to Wikipedia: The Ansari X Prize was a space competition in which the X Prize Foundation offered a US$10,000,000 prize for the first non-government organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks.

How do you get involved?

@GirlGeeksTO: Seems the best way to become a millionaire in the space industry is to start by being a billionaire. #girlgeeksto

Natalie Panek from MDA Space Missions, Robotic Operator and Aerospace Engineer

Solar Cell 101 changed her life. She studied solar cells, devices that convert light energy directly into energy. In fact, she was part of a team that built a solar-powered car from scratch. That ride was raced across North America, and it sparked some thoughts.

@lizoke: #solar #cars could become mainstream soon en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_car #GirlGeeksTO

From solar-powered cars to space, Natalie works on the next generation of the Canada Arm. Did you know that  the delay of the arm control from Earth is only a few seconds?

Mind blown? Here is the team that did that for me. Presenting from L-R: Talmon Firestone, Lindsay Munro, Natalie Panek, Caroline McGregor, and Tutu Ilelaboye.

Thank you to Girl Geeks Toronto. Not only do they fill your brain with possibilities, you also get fed at the same time. Sandwiches, yummy Holly Lew cookies and drinks! The next event? Find it here.

Until the next event, keep dreaming.