Dr Sian Proctor, NASA HI-SEAS’ original analog astronaut inspires today’s students, “Eat like a Martian!”

Mike Mongo’s Astronaut Job Fair announces Dr Sian Proctor

Atlanta Science Festival, Fernbank Science Center, March 18, 2019

Atlanta Science Festival feature event joined by co-star of Science Channel series Stranger Evidence

Eating like a Martian can make the Earth more sustainable is the message Dr Sian Proctor delivers this month to future astronauts, scientists, and space professionals at the Atlanta Science Festival debut of feature event Mike Mongo’s Astronaut Job Fair, March 18th at DeKalb County School District’s Fernbank Science Center.

Dr Sian Proctor, the science demonstration expert on Science Channel’s Strange Evidence and an astro-explorer on PBS’s Stephen Hawking’s GENIUS series, delivered her extraterrestrial message about the good sense of Martian eating at her TEDx talk early this year in Arizona. Dr Proctor’s experience with Martian diets comes from her time as an inaugural “analog astronaut” of NASA’s HI-SEAS Mars analog habitat in Mauna Loa, Hawaii.

NASA HI-SEAS’ inaugural crew of analog astronauts–including Yajaira Sierra Sastre, Oleg Abramov, Simon Engler, Angelo Vermeulen, Kate Greene and Sian Proctor. (Photo: Sian Proctor)

“Analog astronauts are people who spend time participating in research that advances human spaceflight and exploration,” explains Dr Proctor in her talk. “What I’ve learned from being an analog astronaut is if we solve for space we solve for earth. What I mean by this is all the things we need for space exploration to be efficient–food, water, energy, shelter–those things are the same things we need to thrive here on earth.”

Dr Proctor will be joining a diverse faculty of Space industry luminaries: Director of the Mexican Civil Space Agency Juan José Díaz Infante, NASA Solar System Ambassador David Lockett, Satellite Industry Association’s Therese Jones, breakthrough propulsion physicist Tiffany Frierson, and Astronaut Job Fair’s founder & namesake, The Astronaut Instruction Manual author, Mike Mongo.

Joining Dr Sian Proctor: Space luminaries (from l-to-r) Juan José Díaz Infante, David Lockett, Therese Jones, Tiffany Frierson

Astronaut Job Fair founder & author, The Astronaut Instruction Manual, astronaut teacher Mike Mongo

Inclusion, diversity, and equity are central to the Astronaut Job Fair’s “space is for everybody” ethos. Teacher-recommended Scholar’s Choice Awards are available to fifty (50) of the full-day event’s one hundred attendees. Awardees will be bestowed scholarships for the event’s $25 ticket price. The Astronaut Job Fair’s Scholar’s Award recommendation form can be found here.

Along with Dr Sian Proctor, traditional Space operators such as NASA and Lockheed-Martin, “New Space” operators like Blue Origin, SpaceX, and Virgin Galactic, and popular Space NGO’s such as Yuri’s Night, Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS), and Icarus Interstellar are all lending support for the inaugural launching of Mike Mongo’s Astronaut Job Fair at the Atlanta Science Festival.

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To learn more about Mike Mongo’s Astronaut Job Fair,
visit astronautjobfair.org.

For tickets for Mike Mongo’s Astronaut Job Fair,
visit atlantasciencefestival.org.

For more information about Dr Sian Proctor,
visit sian.proctor.info

For more information about Atlanta Science Festival,
contact Meisa Salaita at meisa@atlantasciencefestival.org.