I was born one autumn day of last millennium, in a wonderful medieval town at the foot of the Italian Alps. My mom, Emma, taught me curiosity and determination. My brother Ivan instilled in me ambition and passion, while Fulvio gave me the power of self-derision.
I've been a terrible child, resistant to any form of constriction and indoctrination. I grew atheist when I realised the church was deprived of self-critique. I've been fascinated by science, philosophy and education. Curiosity and bad memory have provided me eternal wonder.
I've always enjoyed my work, and had the opportunity to change its course during the years, which has forced me to be always challenged and in need to learn. I have a very weird mix of background and experiences, very loosely connected, which make me a non-expert in about any field I have worked on.
Yet, I am publishing on what I do, and you can find my weird list of publications online.
In my professional career I've been involved in space operations, early design of human Mars missions, training for spacewalks and robotics operations, design of instructional systems, train the trainer courses, and more recently training for team safety and effectiveness in space analogue and safety critical environments.
Nowadays my major occupation is designing training and instructional systems for effective teamwork in expeditions and space exploration. My trainees are astronauts, flight controllers and Antarctic over-winterers.
I tend to share on these topics on twitter @ESA_CAVES and now also on the ESA CAVES blog, and on youtube.
In my free time I go caving. Recently I joined an expedition of the La Venta Exploring team, in the lost world of Venezuelan Tepuis. In the underworld you meet fantastic people.
I have, indeed, a fantastic job, or better a series of fantastic opportunities to work with fantastic people and learn at the same time. I am still wondering how I got there.
Some more about me at the following links:
http://explorationtraining.blogspot.it/p/about-me.html
http://independent.academia.edu/LoredanaBessone
http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Loredana_Bessone
http://blogs.esa.int/caves/2014/08/19/meet-the-team-loredana-bessone-i-have-a-dream-job/
http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/profiles/dream-job-loredana-bessone
http://www.wired.com/2011/05/st_alpha_astronaut/

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I travel for work and leisure, and I like to mingle with people - I hate hotels, and I love having people around

Interests

Hiking, Speleology, Space, Exploration, Diving, Skating, Climbing, Cycling, Learning, Reading, Watching Documentaries, Organising events

• design
• documentaries
• education
• reading
• traveling
• blogging
• cycling
• hiking
• spelunking
• scuba diving
• atheism
• rock climbing
• teaching
• science

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: Jazz & Blues
Movies: mostly documentaries, else Kubrik, Wes Anderson, Richard Linklater, ...
Books: ouff ... hard choice ... The Master and Margarita, Three men and a boat, Pennac, Benni ...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

More than one:
Taking astronauts in underground expeditions - CAVES http://www.esa.int/
Trying microgravity in Parabolic flights
Wearing a spacesuit and get training on spacewalks, and then design training for it http://www.esa.int/esapub/bulletin/bulletin128/bul128e_bolender.pdf
Supporting astronaut underwater expeditions - NEEMO 12 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/NEEMO/NEEMO12/
Exploring caves in the lost world of the Venezuelan Tepuis
http://www.laventa.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=433%3Aimawari-yeuta-il-piu-vasto-sistema-di-grotte-nelle-quarziti-al-mondo&catid=1%3Ablog&Itemid=93&lang=en

Teach, Learn, Share

Here I share my thoughts http://explorationtraining.blogspot.it
Here you can learn why I take astronauts in caves http://blogs.esa.int/caves/
Here you can join my hikes https://www.facebook.com/groups/251174538295137/

What I Can Share with Hosts

My experiences of 25 years working with Astronaut Training, my adventures with underground exploration, my love for nature, my curiosity

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Cuba, Czech Republic, Egypt, Finland, Hungary, Japan, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Maldives, Russian Federation, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland