Casual Space 79: Space Reporting, Writing and Communicating with Elizabeth Howell
Elizabeth Howell is a space writer, science consultant and writing teacher based in Ottawa, Canada. She writes about space, science and astronauts, and has even BEEN an astronaut in a simulation on Mars!**
Elizabeth writes hundreds a stories a year on the space business, from conferences, from live events and from my own home. You can see her work daily in places like Space.com, Forbes and SpaceQ. Elizabeth's notable projects include:
- Elizabeth journeyed to Kazakhstan twice to report on two International Space Station launches: Expedition 56 and Expedition 58.
- She documented living on a "Mars" base for two weeks.
- And, Elizabeth attended three space shuttle launches (like this one), and talked to numerous astronauts about how to prepare for spaceflight.
*She participated in the Mars Desert Research Station. Run by the Mars Society- researchers go there for 2 weeks with isolated conditions to work and learn and adapt to the environment. She rocked the research. Not so much the cooking…
About writing her latest book: "Canada Arm and Collaboration" about the Canadian space program, and it will be published in October. It will be my 3rd book about science that will be out earlier this year… What really made the book easy to write form me- because book writing is terrible- it's a lot of work and a lot of research- it was the result of 25 years of passion from the Apollo 13 movie just pouring out. what I really wanted to highlight was the behind the scenes work the astronauts do." – Elizabeth Howell from Casual Space
About the story behind the story: "The challenge is that there's not very much coverage because there's only about 6 of us (covering space) across the country (in Canada), so I've trying to attend as much as possible trying to tell the stories of both the astronauts from the launch, but they do all of these cool things on the ground that nobody talks about! They do underwater missions! They do geological field work! They do inspirational events for children! They have conversations with our Prime Minister! I like to be there and report when they are doing things in between (missions).
About being a writer: "I was quite good at writing, it just seemed to come naturally to me. I had this ability to sit down and translate complex ideas into really cool stuff!"
About inspiring her students: "There are many ways to do something. If you want to be an astronaut, I tell students that I've gone and simulated being an astronaut, I've gotten a degree where I was studying astronaut behavior. I've written and talked to so many astronauts over the years, so I basically have come as close as I can!"
Where to find Elizabeth and her work: https://elizabethhowell.ca/
On Twitter: @Howellspace
Books: https://elizabethhowell.ca/books/
The Science of Time Travel: The Secrets Behind Time Machines, Time Loops, Alternate Realities, and More!
The Search of Life On Mars: The Greatest Scientific Detective Story of All Time by Elizabeth Howell and Nicholas Booth
And
Canadarm and Collaboration: How Canada's Astronauts and Space Robots Explore New Worlds