BALKAN SIS PODCAST@balkansispodcast | @ivanastrbacalfonso

Martina Dimoska:The Girl Who Was Never Asked What She Wanted to Be

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

This week Ivana sits down with Martina Dimoska, a Macedonian from Kicevo in North Macedonia who became the first female Balkan analog astronaut in the world. She has commanded missions simulating life on the Moon and Mars, run operations inside subsurface caves with no GPS or natural light, founded the International Space Alliance, and today works at NASA's Johnson Space Center ensuring astronaut health and safety for the xEVA spacesuit, the Lunar Terrain Vehicle, and the Pressurized Rover.

This conversation goes all the way back. To a city where nobody asked little girls what they wanted to be. To a family caring for a daughter with a disability while the community looked away. To a woman who built everything from nothing, with no funding and no one who had done it before her.

This episode is dedicated to Jovana.

IN THIS EPISODE

• Growing up in Kicevo and what dreams looked like for girls in the Balkans
• Her sister Jovana and how caring for her built resilience and problem-solving from a young age
• Her mum putting planets on her bedroom wall and a baba who made her lie in the dark and think
• Losing Jovana during college while navigating a world where peers saw her as competition
• The US State Department scholarship to Kent State and finally belonging somewhere
• What an analog astronaut actually is, explained for the Balkan barbeque table
• The APICES cave mission in Spain: no GPS, no sunlight, only emergency bars to eat
• Commanding TERRA NOVA in parallel with the Axiom-4 mission on the International Space Station
• The burnout nobody talks about when you re-enter real life after a mission
• Founding the International Space Alliance bootstrapped and self-funded from nothing
• Inat. The Balkan word for doing it anyway, despite everything.

SPONSORED BY THE BUREK GUY

Thank you to Mark Delevski and the family behind The Burek Guy. Award-winning Balkan bakery in Sydney. Fresh burek plus a frozen range for busy families.

instagram.com/the_burek_guyfacebook.com/156543917205Suite 3/1 Redman Rd, Dee Why NSW 2099 | (02) 8054 9174 | Open daily until 3pm

CONNECT WITH MARTINA

instagram.com/astrosmartalinkedin.com/in/martinadimoskafacebook.com/AstrosMartainternationalspacealliance.orgen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martina_Dimoska

FOLLOW BALKAN SIS

instagram.com/balkansispodcastinstagram.com/ivanastrbacalfonsoSpotify and Apple Podcasts

Share this with a Balkan woman who needs to hear it. Rate and review wherever you listen.