GalacticAstronaut

Are there any particular organizations that are doing an especially effective job at accomplishing the kinds of objectives you discuss in The Orbital Perspective book?

#TheKeyIsWE

Astronaut Chris Hadfield provides excellent "how to be an astronaut" advice at 27:20 here:
http://www.theguardian.com/science/audio/2014/dec/15/chris-hadfield-nasa

Recent rapid progress with both 1) researching existence of past or living organisms on Mars and on Europa and 2) discovering exoplanets (planets beyond our Solar System), plus continuous advancement of SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence)
lead me to believe more and more that in a 10-20 year timeline, we may find proof that we're not alone. Less likely in 5-10 years, but much more likely by 20-30 years from now.
Finding existence of a civilization orbiting another star will be a profound game-changer, and I wouldn't be surprised if it happened in the lifetime of someone who's 20 years old today. Having lots of STEM-proficient folks (hint, hint students) will help make that happen.

Is there any particular message you like to give to students to inspire the about STEM / space travel / Spaceship Earth? (I'm signed up to fly into space on a suborbital flight with Virgin Galactic and am doing student outreach; I've been leading astronomy lessons in classrooms in volunteer programs since 1995). Thanks, and thanks also for MIT 16.885 & 16.00X online- fabulous stuff!