Three phenomenal women in space share their stories with us this weekend, in honour of Asteroid Day — a UN-recognised initiative raising awareness about the potential impacts, and opportunities, of these marvels of astronomy.



Asteroid Day takes place on 30 June, the anniversary of the Tunguska event in 1908 where a meteor destroyed a landmass of about 2,150 km2 (a little smaller than the landmass of Luxembourg) of forest in Siberia, Russia.



Asteroid Day was co-founded in 2014 by physicist Stephen Hawking, B612 Foundation president Danica Remy, astronaut Rusty Schweickart, film-maker Grigorij Richters and astrophysicist (and Queen guitarist) Brian May. Now recognised by the UN, Asteroid Day is celebrated globally to raise awareness about asteroids and their potential impact on Earth. It also raises awareness of the potential to mine asteroids as we move towards a space economy.



My guests this week are:



- Julie Payette - a Canadian engineer, scientist and astronaut who also served as Governor General of Canada from 2017 to 2021

- Wanda Díaz-Merced - astronomer using using sonification

- Hoor Abdelraman Al Maazmi - space science researcher at the UAE Space Agency

- Maher Kalaji - Board Director of the Asteroid Foundation and founder of the newly to be announced Luxembourg Rocket Society.



Julie Payette joined the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) in 1992 as a member of the Canadian Astronaut Corps. She completed two spaceflights, logging more than 25 days in space. Dr. Payette also served as capsule communicator (CapCom) at NASA Mission Control Center in Houston and from 2000 to 2007 as CSA's chief astronaut. Julie was named COO for the Montreal Science Centre in July 2013. In 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Queen Elizabeth II had approved the appointment of Payette as the next governor general of Canada which she started that October until January 2021.



Wanda Díaz-Merced was born in Puerto Rico and lost her eyesight gradually through her teenage years into early adulthood. She talks about this experience and her long journey to become an astronomer who uses sonification to turn large data sets into audible sound. Currently, Wanda works at the European Gravitational Observatory Cascina, Italy, where she is the Director of the Arecibo Observatory.



Dr Díaz-Merced received an internship with Robert Candey, an incredible mentor to her, at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, USA, and went on to complete a Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Glasgow. Wanda was then accepted as a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and South African Astronomical Observatory in Cape Town.



Wanda’s work has also included collaborations with the European Gravitational Observatory proposal REINFORCE and the National Astronomical Observatory Japan (NAOJ). 

Dr Díaz-Merced creates sonification software to perceive space in a different sensory way.



Hoor Abdelraman AlMaazmi is a space science researcher at the UAE Space Agency and a member of the Emirates Mars Mission science team since 2017. The Mars mission, named ‘Amal’ or ‘Hope,’ launched in 2020.



The UAE is going to send a spaceship to explore the solar system’s main asteroid belt due to launch in 2028. For this mission, they will look at six asteroids with the target to land on the seventh- Justitia. This asteroid is thought to be one of only two known red asteroids and potentially laden with organic substances.



The aim for this MBR Explorer is to deploy a landing craft to study the surface of Justitia fully developed by private UAE start-up companies.



https://asteroidfoundation.org/

https://royalsociety.org/about-us/who-we-are/diversity-inclusion/case-studies/scientists-with-disabilities/wanda-diaz-merced/

https://space.gov.ae/en/initiatives-and-projects/uae-mission-to-asteroid-belt-ema

https://www.instagram.com/uaespaceagency?igsh=ZXgwcnR3dTNqOHFs

https://x.com/uaespaceagency?s=21