Re-post from Facebook (2/3)

Nasa Mike
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5:59pm Saturday, Jan 26 Edit Note Delete
I could not believe fate could bring me to Barow and meet Mike Comberiate, aka NASA Mike, the chief scientist in Goddard Nasa physics facility. This guy is such a down to earth guy, despite his status. He is so passionate about what he's doing, be that work or travelling. I like his "can do" attitude from what he told us. He always wants to be the pioneer and is not afraid of arrow (he said pioneers are the one with arrows in the back). After he present his slides on North pole, I came talk to him and told him about my NP trip and why I am in Barrow. He seems to be very interested, I guess because not too many people here are interested in going to the North Pole. He told how he planned his trips for the North Pole's first live webcam. It was a cool trip. He also show the picture of the Barneo and the trip. I cannot wait to be there and experience it first hand. When I told him about the price, he thought it was a lot since the time he organzied it, it was only 6k-8k person! I guess the Russian really know how to make money. I gave me a tip that i should bring peanut butter with me since the food on the trip is awful! I asked him a question on how realistic the plan to put man on Mars. He did not give a definitely answer. Instead his answer was something that they wanted the Chinese to go to the Moon so they have the push for the program. He refered White House as Dog House for their beaurocracies. At the end I took pictures with him and shake his hands. He wished me luck for the trip and told me to make sure keep in touch. This guy is so famous that if i write Nasa Mike with zip code 20777, it will direct to him (for NASA itself it is 20771). I also met his team, this one guy Steve (dont know his last name) and Ellis (who is very smart, he gave me a 1 on 1 demo of the robot and how it works). They are going back to Maryland this monday night and so do I. So hopefully i run into them again and definitely talk more on space, NASA and trips! This is the unexpected thing which I love about trips to remote or "crazy" expedition, such as I met the Ibanez family in Antarctica.