Hi everybody! This will be the last SolSeed Quarterly Report -- but only because we've decided to switch over to Seasonal Reports instead, in keeping with our spiritual practice of celebrating the Solstices and Equinoxes.
Speaking of which, for the Fall Equinox this year, we traded event concepts between Portland and Ottawa. Brandon, Shelley, and I adopted Eric's space-themed idea for the Equinox by creating prototype Closed Ecological Life Support Systems, sealed jars each containing plants, snails, copepods and amphipods, and a single shrimp. Joined by our friend Hank from the CELSS Facebook group, we had loads of fun gathering some of the organisms from a local wetland called Oaks Bottom. Unfortunately, we still have a lot to learn about the complex process of sustaining a miniature ecosystem; none of our shrimp "eco-nauts" survived more than a few days. We'll probably try again next year.
Meanwhile, in Ottawa, Eric and his family had adopted our idea of a more down-to-Earth trip to pick apples at a local orchard. This plan was thwarted by rain, but they did get to bake and eat tasty apple crumble while also pretending to be in space (with all the tableware Velcro'd to the table to keep it from floating away!) Because the Equinox was on a Saturday this year, we also joined Eric via Skype (after dinner for him, midafternoon for us) for our regular Sabbath service.
As for the rest of the quarter, we've largely spent it focusing on the long-term future, revising our One-Page Plan away from a narrow focus on the next quarter and toward a vision for the direction we're headed over the next few decades. I also gave a talk about future-focused motivations, specifically answers to the question "Why go to space?" at the annual Space Elevator Conference in late August, which this year was relocated to the inspirational environment of the Museum of Flight in south Seattle (check out the awesome backdrop for our climber competition at left). I was also inspired by Michael Laine's pitch at the conference for his company, Liftport, and its new lunar elevator project, and SolSeed decided to make a donation to the Liftport Kickstarter as a result. 
Earlier in August, we made a major donation to another Kickstarter run by our friend and ally, John Boswell, for his new album of songs celebrating science, Terra Lumina. The songs are written from scratch and sung by his collaborator Will Crowley, rather than using clips of famous scientists as in John's popular Symphony of Science videos. John and Will are also going to create a song for SolSeed, as thanks for our contribution!
Thanks for reading; we'll be back in three months with the 2012 Autumn Report!
Ben Sibelman