Guest: Leland Melvin. Topics: Spaceship Earth Grant contest, The Overview Effect, space exploration, STEM. Please direct all comments and questions regarding Space Show programs/guest(s) to the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments and questions should be relevant to the specific Space Show program. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are a violation of our copyright and are not permitted without prior written consent, even if for your own use. We do not permit the commercial use of Space Show programs or any part thereof, nor do we permit editing, YouTube clips, or clips placed on other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted, but the quote must be cited or referenced using the proper citation format. Contact The Space Show for further information. In addition, please remember that your Amazon purchases can help support The Space Show/OGLF. See www.onegiantleapfoundation.org/amazon.htm. For those listening to archives using live365.com and rating the programs, please email me as to why you assign a specific rating to the show. This will help me bring better programming to the audience. We welcomed former NASA astronaut Leland Melvin to the program to discuss Spaceship Earth Grants (SEG) (www.spaceshipearthgrants.com) as Leland is the president of the organization. This program was a one hour show so there was no break as we had just one segment. Mr. Melvin started out by telling us about SEG which he said was formed to do good in the world. He talked about their contest for raising money to send people to space so that they will experience an orbital shift in perception (The Overview Effect) and upon return, do work and good with this new perspective of Earth. They want this new perspective shared with others for the benefit of all. He talked about the application for the contest and the fee structure which you will find fully explained on their website so see the above URL. Leland explained that this was a crowd funding program though not like others that use specific crowd funding program such as Kickstarter or Indiegogo. We also learned from a listener question that the contest winners will choose their own carrier for going to space and will need to comply with the rules & conditions set by that particular carrier. Later, he mentioned that they would have a spaceflight training academy but details would not be announced until later in October. The contest involves paying a fee which is on a sliding scale, submitting a video and writing an essay on why you want to go space. I asked our guest why the average person needs to go to space. Leland spent some time responding to this question so don't miss this crucial discussion. Leland was asked if students on a global bases seemed interested & inspired by space when he spoke to them. He said yes & told us a great story about what happened with a Brooklyn student who slept through his talk. We talked about international space cooperation, specifically with the Russians even when our non-space relationship with Russia was at a low point. Regarding their contest, Leland talked about some of the benefits early adopters get by filling out an application, submitting the video, essay, and fee. A listener asked if they would market their space flights for adventure as do the space tourism companies or are they only going after the change in perspective & Overview Effect benefits. I asked Leland if he had experienced the Overview Effect on his two Atlantis flights. The same question was asked about his astronaut peers. Leland had much to say in response to this question because when he went to space, he was not familiar with the Overview Effect but told us that what he experienced was the Overview Effect without putting a name to it. Later in the program, we discussed SEG being founded on the principles of Muhammad Yunis, then Leland was asked by Kristin if SEG would focus on space settlement as well as tourism. We learned that the organization was accepting applications from 156 countries. In his summary, our guest talked about civilizations coming together through space, the orbital shift in perspective by just being in space, and the need to fund STEM programs/students. Please post your comments/questions on TSS blog above. You can email our guest through the SEG website or me.
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