{"id":3822,"date":"2017-07-21T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-21T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.dream.press\/?post_type=customer-spotlight&p=3822"},"modified":"2025-05-06T20:02:36","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T20:02:36","slug":"customer-uses-space-smarts-on-earth","status":"publish","type":"customer-spotlight","link":"https:\/\/news.dream.press\/news\/customer-spotlight\/customer-uses-space-smarts-on-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"DreamHost Customer Uses Lessons from Space to Brighten Earth\u2019s Future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Just call her Mars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the nickname six-year-old Martha Lenio gave herself as she spent her Ontario, Canada, summers gazing up at the\n stars and dreaming of visiting another planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today her dream job is still to be an astronaut, maybe one of the first humans to explore \u2014 you guessed it \u2014 Mars.\n But for now, while Earth-bound, Lenio is drawing on her space-smarts to help save her home planet as the owner and\n founder of Mars Green<\/a>, a renewable energy\n consulting company she promotes using her DreamHost website<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost of my work is with solar energy,\u201d says Lenio, who officially started her small\n business<\/a> only last year. \u201cI come on to larger projects with solar experts and help them with whatever they\n need \u2014 usually usability studies, financial analysis, or design.\u201d She also tackles smaller projects like energy\n audits, and much of her work has taken her to far-flung corners of the Yukon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Space-Age Domain<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The consulting company\u2019s name holds several meanings for Lenio. For one thing, it\u2019s a stamp of her personality,\n drawing on her childhood nickname combined with her passion for a more \u201cgreen\u201d energy friendly planet Earth. \u201cI think\n of it as Martha\u2019s Green Consulting, but with a little added extra flavor,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMars\u201d also represents the ideal Lenio strives for when it comes to finding solutions that maximize renewable energy.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think a mission to Mars is the ultimate sustainability challenge,\u201d Lenio says. \u201cYou would have to recycle all your\n air and water. All your energy is solar power. You should be ideally leaving zero footprint. So if we can learn how to\n do that on Mars, we should be able to do that here on Earth. I like a challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An important piece of Lenio\u2019s brand sits in her website\u2019s URL. \u201cI wanted people to know that I am in Canada,\u201d she\n says. \u201cI was glad that I could get a .ca domain from DreamHost because you can\u2019t get that from some of the other\n hosting companies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Mission to Mars via Hawaii<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Lenio has been fascinated with the intersection of space and sustainability since college, studying mechanical\n engineering at the University of Waterloo (where she started a space-appreciation club that\u2019s still going strong) and\n earning a doctorate in photovoltaic engineering (which, in case you didn\u2019t know, means turning light into energy) from\n the University of New South Wales in Australia. After college, she worked in Silicon Valley for several years in\n R&D for solar companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through all that, her dream of becoming an astronaut burned bright \u2014 and, in 2015, she got a taste of life on the Red\n Planet. \u201cI wanted to get into the space sector, and I heard about a NASA-funded Mars simulation, so I threw my hat\n into the ring.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a year-long selection process, Lenio was chosen to captain a team of six \u201castronauts\u201d living together in a Mars\n simulation dome in Hawaii for eight months. The would-be Martians lived every day like NASA astronauts, conducting\n research, growing their own food, relying on limited communication and supplies from the outside world, living\n sustainably, and leaving the dome only when clad in authentic space suits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related:<\/strong> This\n DreamHost User Is Saving the World \u2014 One Seed at a Time<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The whole thing was ultimately a psychological experiment, explains Lenio. The trip to Mars is long and isolating,\n and the first crews sent there will have to get really cozy. \u201cNASA wants to learn how to support a crew without them\n going crazy and killing each other,\u201d Lenio says, laughing. Luckily, her \u201ccrew\u201d made it out alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe first six months were pretty easy; we all got along pretty well,\u201d Lenio says. \u201cThe last two months were more\n intense and there was a lot more conflict that arose, but we are all still friends today. There are things you have to\n do to survive on Mars. You have to work out for 1.5 to 2 hours every day, you have to maintain the habitat, you have\n to be doing research, and you also have to take the time to hang out with your crew members and have fun. There are no\n slackers on Mars \u2014 you have to take care of each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Lenio digging a hole with the Hab and Mauna Kea in the background. Image: Neil\n Scheibelhut<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From Solar Flares to Consulting Biz<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Hungry for more, Lenio applied last year to the Canada Space Agency\u2019s 2017\n astronaut open recruitment<\/a> campaign. Of 3,772 applicants she made the agency\u2019s first cut down to 72,\n qualifying for stringent training and aptitude testing. Lenio didn\u2019t make the final team, but she\u2019s still got Mars on\n her mind. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t want to do a one-way trip to Mars, but I would still like to go one day,\u201d she says. \u201cHaving done\n the simulation, I know that I can mentally hack it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for now, she\u2019s focused on using her lessons in Mars sustainability to make Earth a better, greener\n place<\/a>. And if she can\u2019t live on Mars right now, her home country is the next best thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI always wanted to come back to Canada,\u201d Lenio says. \u201cWe don\u2019t have solar silicon device R&D in Canada like they\n do in Australia or California, so I had to rethink how I could fit into the larger sustainability picture in Canada.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enter Mars Green.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After adjusting to life after \u201cMars,\u201d Lenio retrained in solar installation and systems design and used connections\n she forged during that processes to partner her newly hatched consulting biz with solar-installation companies and\n projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of my first projects was a feasibility study for the Yukon Energy Corporation,\u201d Lenio says. She was tasked with\n scouting out two spots in the Yukon for a solar plant, then determining which technologies would make sense there, and\n how much everything would cost. \u201cIt involved a lot of simulation, which I quite enjoy,\u201d says Lenio. \u201cIt was my first\n big project so I wasn\u2019t sure what to expect, but it was really well received and lead to more projects, so I\u2019m pretty\n proud of that one. This project was the first indication that maybe this will work for real.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting a business<\/a> for the\n first time always poses a steep learning curve. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot more to running a business than my technical\n experience,\u201d Lenio says. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of little things that you don\u2019t think about, like writing contracts to hire\n employees or setting up the website, that can take a lot of time and effort to get right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building a Green Website with DreamHost<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Luckily, Lenio found a partner to help her take the headache out of the little stuff. \u201cDreamHost <\/a>made the peripheral details that I don\u2019t think about,\n especially with my website, really easy to do,\u201d she says. Lenio had some experience with WordPress but didn\u2019t have the\n coding skills \u2014 or the time to learn them \u2014 to create the professional look she needed to represent her work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen DreamHost launched Remixer,<\/a> I was like, \u2018OK,\n perfect!\u2019\u201d Lenio says. \u201cI can have something that\u2019s affordable and looks good with very minimal effort. That was a\n great addition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t
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Remixer took the technical work out of building a beautiful website, allowing Lenio to customize themes to finetune a\n look that brands her work. Her website<\/a> shines with photos of the sun she took herself around the world, and she hopes\n to add more original photos and examples as she expands her work on new projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want visitors to my site to get a sense for the breadth of my work \u2014 that I don\u2019t only take on standard projects\n but also smaller and niche opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lenio initially relied on Google tools to run Mars Green and was happy to see that her existing accounts merged\n seamlessly. \u201cDreamHost plays nice with other online tools like Google and WordPress,\u201d she says. \u201cI can buy my domain\n through DreamHost, but I\u2019m not committed to using anything else; I can still use other products and servers with\n DreamHost. They leave it open for what\n people want to use<\/a>. And I like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lenio says her painless experience with web hosting helps her stay focused on the work she loves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI like working in the area of renewable energy in Canada,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m doing what I want, where I want to do it,\n and I really love that freedom to pick the projects I\u2019m interested in.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just call her Mars. That\u2019s the nickname six-year-old Martha Lenio gave herself as she spent her Ontario, Canada, summers gazing up at the stars and dreaming of visiting another planet. Today her dream job is still to be an astronaut, maybe one of the first humans to explore \u2014 you guessed it \u2014 Mars. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3823,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3822","customer-spotlight","type-customer-spotlight","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDreamHost Customer Uses Lessons from Space to Brighten Earth\u2019s Future - Website Guides, Tips & Knowledge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.dream.press\/news\/customer-spotlight\/customer-uses-space-smarts-on-earth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DreamHost Customer Uses Lessons from Space to Brighten Earth\u2019s Future - Website Guides, Tips & Knowledge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Just call her Mars. That\u2019s the nickname six-year-old Martha Lenio gave herself as she spent her Ontario, Canada, summers gazing up at the stars and dreaming of visiting another planet. Today her dream job is still to be an astronaut, maybe one of the first humans to explore \u2014 you guessed it \u2014 Mars. But […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dreamhost.com\/news\/customer-spotlight\/customer-uses-space-smarts-on-earth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"DreamHost\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DreamHost\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-06T20:02:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dreamhost.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/563c3ba7-0b98-4f0b-b687-96113baaa9ca_EpicCommanderPhoto-750x600-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@dreamhost\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"DreamHost Customer Uses Lessons from Space to Brighten Earth\u2019s Future - Website Guides, Tips & Knowledge","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/news.dream.press\/news\/customer-spotlight\/customer-uses-space-smarts-on-earth\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"DreamHost Customer Uses Lessons from Space to Brighten Earth\u2019s Future - Website Guides, Tips & Knowledge","og_description":"Just call her Mars. That\u2019s the nickname six-year-old Martha Lenio gave herself as she spent her Ontario, Canada, summers gazing up at the stars and dreaming of visiting another planet. Today her dream job is still to be an astronaut, maybe one of the first humans to explore \u2014 you guessed it \u2014 Mars. 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