Kyle R. Conway

Category: want

  • Making Supportive Space

    Making Supportive Space

    Tonight I just happened to catch the Artemis II crew doing interviews with TV stations on the NASA live stream.

    There aren’t timestamps for live streams, but this was on 4/2/2026 and was about 10h40m into this stream at the time of writing.

    The crew of the Artemis II looking cramped, but genuinely happy, while floating.
    Screengrab of the crew of the Artemis II looking cramped, but genuinely happy, while floating.

    They were being interviewed by TV stations and what struck me was not just that they were energetic and joyful, but that some of those simple joys seemed to be connected to orchestrated events (like wake-up music or familiar, yet seemingly unexpected voices from Houston). These were small, but meaningful joys.

    Watching the launch the day before made an unexpected impact: it was relieving to see a diverse group of experts collaboratively achieving the unimaginable again. Years of planning and preparation and final checks. The seriousness and the joy. Nothing taken for granted and everything planned with backups.

    And then it hit me: the joy is certainly planned for too. So I asked the following:

    Kyle R. Conway

    Just saw a couple of live interviews with the Artemis crew with various TV stations on the NASA stream and it made me wonder how NASA specifically plans for supportive teams and environments. Put another way: it's not by chance that the people on that flight seem like they *feel* supported even by little things like music and seemingly surprising voice contacts from unexpected (but welcome) voices from the ground waking them up while they're hurtling further and further away. Do they publish documents about this type of thing?

    April 3, 2026, 3:05 am 0 boosts 0 favorites

    Thankfully the wonderful Jacob Kaplan-Moss responded with an answer and a recommended resource of Mary Roach’s book Packing for Mars. Since I’ve not heard of it the library will be my friend.

    jacobian

    @K_REY_C They’re public about some of this — there are, as I recall, some details about how they plan for and manage crew mental health in Mary Roach’s _Packing for Mars_

    April 3, 2026, 3:35 am 0 boosts 1 favorites

    Thank you, Jacob. I’ve added this to the reading list. With any luck I’ll learn a bit about how, specifically, to plan for joy. My best to the Astronauts! May you have the most supportive space.

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    Kyle R. Conway
    Kyle R. Conway
    @kyle@kylerconway.com

    I make things

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  • INFORMATION DOESN’T WANT TO BE FREE by Cory Doctorow | Kirkus

    I’m excited to find out about this book. I wasn’t aware that Cory was working on something non-fiction. The second quote below defines the internet as “one great big copy machine” which is amusingly accurate. I had the opportunity to ask an interviewee for a one-word definition of the internet. Her response was the word “open” followed by a string of warm musings about sharing and connecting directly with others to exchange everything from ideas to art. “Copies” wouldn’t be a bad definition either, though I sincerely hope we can re-position that term as a positive one.

    The first quote from Palmer and Gaiman is a belief that is widely shared on the web. I wonder if it is a belief or a truth, because  these industries still exist while producing and distributing content. It just feels like their business model has shifted away from the exchange of content and money when they fought so hard against the web. Things like Patreon are fascinating examples of alternative means to make the exchange more meaningful and direct.

    “We are a new generation of artists, makers, supporters, and consumers who believe that the old system through which we exchanged content and money is dead. Not dying: dead.”

    Instead, the author advocates for a liberalized system of copyright laws that finally admits that the Internet, for all its virtues and diverse purposes, is nothing but one great big copy machine, and it’s not going away.

    via INFORMATION DOESN’T WANT TO BE FREE by Cory Doctorow | Kirkus.