Thread by @tanyaofmars

Thread: Since #LPSC2020 was cancelled, some of us held an online conference over the weekend to present our work. Here's the presentation @DannyBednar and I had about the process behind writing "For All Humankind": forallhumankind.space

Part of the inspiration behind writing "For All Humankind" was the plaque left behind on the lunar lander:
#lpsc2020

The lunar plaque reads:

"Here men from the planet Earth
first set foot upon the Moon
July 1969 A. D.
We came in peace for all mankind."

The mission also carried a disc of goodwill messages written by leaders around the world.

#lpsc2020

While all of this reflected a message of human achievement, the narrative we hear in the U.S. for the Apollo 11 mission is often very patriotic. So, I was curious: How did the general public outside the U.S. at the time view the mission? And thus the book idea was born. #lpsc2020

As a scientist, I had no formal experience in interviewing people, so I teamed up with my friend & colleague @DannyBednar, a geographer who had spent a good portion of his Ph.D. formally interviewing people. #lpsc2020

[His cat Meoward accompanied most of our Skype sessions.]

The goal was to interview a diverse range of people from around the world, preferably *not* from the space industry. We've all heard the stories of folks inspired to study space thanks to Apollo—I wanted to hear the views from the public at large. #lpsc2020

In the end we found three women and five men across five continents, whose ages ranged from 5 to 44 at the time of the Apollo 11 landing. The youngest was a child in India during the landing; the oldest was a holocaust survivor who became a radio engineer. #lpsc2020

We asked all of the interviewees the same general set of questions, although their responses often triggered additional questions out of interest. #lpsc2020

There were general themes across all of the responses:

[Slight spoiler alert.]

#lpsc2020

Perhaps the most important takeaway from the interviews for the book is this—especially in the times we are in right now. #lpsc2020

So, I want to leave you all with this question. What will it take to bring us all together to be hopeful for the future—and act on it? #lpsc2020