adllewellyn

Love this discussion -- because what we do in space HAS to make a better life on earth, not just launch bigger rockets or send back better pictures.

My note would be that the collaboration required for serious extraplanetary exploration is the same kind of collaboration required to solve problems like poverty or address women's rights. So as we learn to do one... we are building a foundation to do another.

Pretty much all the kids I know are fascinated by space... so we hope they get involved in the Challenge. One of the best solutions last year came from a 16 year old (http://open.nasa.gov/blog/2012/05/21/space-bread/) and many locations are having student-specific challenges... we believe in getting students involved in real problem solving, they are often more innovative than adults... (less restricted thinking...)

I'll chime in as the project manager for Space Apps... I'm really excited about open ROV (http://spaceappschallenge.org/challenge/open-rov/) - this is a project we helped with last year as well, and tested at NEEMO last spring. I love it because it's a great example of the power of real collaboration all over the world to use technology in powerful ways... often to go where humans can't. (See this post and the awesome video: http://open.nasa.gov/blog/2012/06/14/open-hardware-exploration-at-neemo16/)

What one are you excited about?

As someone who wanted to be an astronaut my whole life (and grew up to pursue different adventures ;) lol) I am so excited to see that there's a way for me to engage in exploration with the skills that I have. I was really surprised when you asked Reddit before about where NASA should go next and what they should do. But I think it's pretty incredible that there are people actually doing it.

Thanks for being an inspiration.

Talk about great windows... not an F-16, but check out this video he posted recently: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lctWvzep9DM SO AWESOME.