St. Petersburg, FL, USA
Nicole Stott is an astronaut, aquanaut, engineer, artist, author of Back to Earth: What Life In Space Taught Me About Our Home Planet – And Our Mission To Protect It, and, most importantly, a mom. She creatively combines the awe and wonder of her spaceflight experience with her artwork to inspire everyone’s appreciation of our role as crewmates here on Spaceship Earth. As an astronaut, she spent 104 days in space across 2 missions on the ISS and Space Shuttle, and 18 days on a saturation dive mission at the Aquarius undersea laboratory in preparation for spaceflight. On her post-NASA mission, she is a technical and creative consultant, motivational speaker, and advocate for all we do in space that is ultimately for the benefit of all life on Earth. She is a co-founder of the Space for Art Foundation; a partner in purpose with Space for a Better World; and an enthusiastic ambassador for our planetary home.
What inspired you to become an 11th Hour Racing ambassador?
I was introduced to 11th Hour Racing through a collaboration with the 11th Hour Racing Team, exploring the similarities between the Overview Effect and what they called the Oceanview Effect as the Team prepared for The Ocean Race. I was delighted to discover that 11th Hour Racing was about more than just a race; it embedded science and a better understanding of the ocean into the crew’s operations. A crew in an extreme environment, with a challenging mission and actively involved in solutions for our ocean, reminded me very much of what it’s like to be a crew on a space mission.
Why are you passionate about ocean conservation?
I am in awe of our ocean planet and how the ocean plays a critical role in how perfectly designed our planet is to support life. Like a space station – a machine in space that is built to mimic as best we can what Earth does for us naturally – our planetary spaceship needs the attention of its crew in order to continue to support the life of the crew. I’m passionate about raising that awareness, about actively inspiring and participating in solutions for our ocean, and about encouraging everyone to accept their role as crewmates, not passengers, on our planetary spaceship. I believe that by doing so, we have the power to create a future for all life on Earth that’s as beautiful as it looks from space.
Supporting the mission
Project name: We Live on an Ocean Planet (in space)
Project mission: Integrating space-based resources supporting ocean solutions and associated storytelling (art, science, and conservation).
Photo credit: Raul Roa
