In celebration of NASA's 50th anniversary, NASA Future Forums were held at many locations around the United States.  At each one-day event, NASA leadership, astronauts, scientists, engineers and local business, technology and academic leaders participated in Discovery, Innovation, and Inspiration panel discussions.  These panels focused on space exploration's role in advancing science, engineering, technology, education and the economy while benefiting local communities and the nation.    

To help communicate these ideas to a global audience, we brought middle and high schoolers to create Career Bytes video segments.  View The Making of NASA Future Forum Career Bytes in which students join with some of the panelists to create once-in-a-lifetime Career Bytes video interviews.   View Career Bytes Future Forum interviews with many NASA Future Forum panelists organized according to three categories:

• Discovery: How does science push the limits of knowledge to inspire a new generation?
• Innovation: How does business unleash the power of technology and creativity?
• Inspiration: How does education build idea factories for the future?

Take a look "behind the scenes" of a Future Forum by viewing "Making of a Future Forum Career Byte," created by our student team in St. Louis.

• his career change and re-educator from lawyer to sci/tech development mentor through his interest in the work of Gerard K. O'Neill's work at Princeton and with NASA in space travel and colonization
• his belief in the importance of enabling new environments and opportunities, rather than carving up existing opportunities
• advances such as the microelectronics revolution that put low cost computing (and similar tools) at the fingertips of large populations
• future advances in space colonization that will make living and traveling in space as "usual" as traveling to another country

• his work as an educator
• his life-time role model, his mother, who raised six successful children who "worked hard, studied hard, and played by the rules" to achieve success
• the teachers who believed in him
• the financial challenges he dealt with in his educational path

• how her high school biology and math teachers and learning experiences lead her to pursue higher education in these areas
• how she has taken her learning about science and technology and melded that with her business talents to:
  • encourage development of new technology opportunities 
  • mentor cooperation around a business propositions
  • inspire new economic energy in her area
• how basic education is key and from there you can:
  • merge your experiences and talents
  • apply this expertise, always trying to "do your best"