Please welcome our guest tonight, John Powell, President of JP Aerospace, a nonprofit that launches student designed Pongsats (i.e., experiments that fit inside of a ping pong ball,) and other experiments to the edge of space using balloons. To date, over 80,000 students have participated in this program with plans to expand it even further.
Continue reading “Weekly Space Hangout: December 16, 2020 – John Powell Tells Us About PongSats and Airship to Orbit”Weekly Space Hangout: November 4, 2020 – Pranvera Hyseni, Astronomy Outreach of Kosovo
This week we are excited to welcome Pranvera Hyseni (Pran) to the Weekly Space Hangout. Pran is a celebrated science popularizer and the founder of “Astronomy Outreach of Kosovo” (AOK). She completed her B.A. in geography in 2019 at the University of Pristina, and now she’s pursuing her Master’s in Planetary Science at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Continue reading “Weekly Space Hangout: November 4, 2020 – Pranvera Hyseni, Astronomy Outreach of Kosovo”Weekly Space Hangout: October 7, 2020, Dr. David Warmflash Discusses Mixed-Reality Surgical System
This week we welcome back to the show Dr. David Warmflash. Since he was last with us, David has been named as Co-Principal Investigator and Medical Director for a new NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBRI) Phase I study titled “Mixed-Reality Holographic Training System to Enable High-Value Surgical and Complex Medical Procedures by Astronauts.” This study, managed by the New Jersey-based Mgenuity Corporation with collaboration from Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU), aims to develop a system to guide astronauts through surgical and medical procedures on Exploration Class missions.
Continue reading “Weekly Space Hangout: October 7, 2020, Dr. David Warmflash Discusses Mixed-Reality Surgical System”Weekly Space Hangout: September 16, 2020 – Dr. Merav Opher Discusses the Shape of the Sun’s Heliosphere
This week we are pleased to welcome Dr. Merav Opher, Professor from the Astronomy Department of Boston University and the Director of the SHIELD (Solar wind with Hydrogen Ion charge Exchange and Large-Scale Dynamics) DRIVE Science Center. Using data from NASA’s planetary science missions, SHIELD scientists use data/computer modeling to predict the characteristics of our Sun’s heliosphere. Historically, the heliosphere has been thought to be comet-shaped. However, in a paper published in March, 2020, in Nature Astronomy, Dr. Opher (as lead author) and the team from SHIELD predict an alternative shape for the heliosphere: one that does not include this tail, but rather resembles a “deflated croissant.”
Continue reading “Weekly Space Hangout: September 16, 2020 – Dr. Merav Opher Discusses the Shape of the Sun’s Heliosphere”Weekly Space Hangout: July 1, 2020 — Dr. Andrew Siemion, Director of Berkeley SETI Research Center
This week we are pleased to welcome Dr. Andrew Siemion, Director of the Berkeley SETI Research Center, to the WSH. As an astrophysicist, Andrew’s research interests include high energy time-variable celestial phenomena, astronomical instrumentation and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). He is also the Principal Investigator for the Breakthrough Listen program.
Continue reading “Weekly Space Hangout: July 1, 2020 — Dr. Andrew Siemion, Director of Berkeley SETI Research Center”Weekly Space Hangout: May 20, 2020 — Dr. Sarah McAnulty from Skype A Scientist
This week we are joined by Dr. Sarah McAnulty. Sarah is a squid biologist and the executive director of the science communication non-profit Skype a Scientist which matches scientists with people all around the world.
Continue reading “Weekly Space Hangout: May 20, 2020 — Dr. Sarah McAnulty from Skype A Scientist”Weekly Space Hangout: March 25, 2020 – Amy Shira Teitel’s Fighting for Space
Hosts: Fraser Cain (universetoday.com / @fcain)
Allen Versfeld (https://www.urban-astronomer.com/ / @uastronomer)
Carolyn Collins Petersen (TheSpaceWriter.com / @spacewriter)
Alex Teachey (alexteachey.com /@alexteachey
We are pleased to once again welcome our good friend Amy Shira Teitel back to the WSH to chat about her most recent labor of love, her new book Fighting for Space which tells the story of female pilots who dreamed of being the first American woman in space.
Continue reading “Weekly Space Hangout: March 25, 2020 – Amy Shira Teitel’s Fighting for Space”Weekly Space Hangout: February 19, 2020 – John Thornton, CEO of Astrobotic
Hosts: Fraser Cain (universetoday.com / @fcain)
Dr. Brian Koberlein (BrianKoberlein.com / @BrianKoberlein)
Carolyn Collins Petersen (TheSpaceWriter.com / @spacewriter)
Michael Rodruck (@michaelrodruck)
Tonight we are airing Fraser’s interview with John Thornton, CEO of Astrobotic Technology. John earned his Master of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. While at Carnegie Mellon, John led the build of Scarab, a NASA concept robot for lunar drilling, and the first robot to carry a prototype of NASA’s RESOLVE payload. He also founded Carnegie Mellon’s Advanced Composites Lab, a research, training, design, and manufacturing lab specializing in high performance, lightweight composites for robotics.
Continue reading “Weekly Space Hangout: February 19, 2020 – John Thornton, CEO of Astrobotic”Weekly Space Hangout: February 12, 2020 – Mapping Pulsars with Dr. Cole Miller
Hosts: Fraser Cain (universetoday.com / @fcain)
Dr. Morgan Rehnberg (MorganRehnberg.com / @MorganRehnberg & ChartYourWorld.org)
Sondy Springmann (@sondy)
Alex Teachey (alexteachey.com /@alexteachey)
This week we are airing Fraser’s interview with Dr. Cole Miller, Professor of Astronomy at the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Miller led one of two separate teams that analyzed Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) data – specifically that for pulsar called J0030+0451 (J0030) in the constellation Pisces – and were able to map the surface features of a pulsar for the first time.
Continue reading “Weekly Space Hangout: February 12, 2020 – Mapping Pulsars with Dr. Cole Miller”Weekly Space Hangout: January 22, 2020 – Dr. Kenneth Carpenter of HST and WFIRST
Hosts: Fraser Cain (universetoday.com / @fcain)
Allen Versfeld (https://www.urban-astronomer.com/ / @uastronomer)
Carolyn Collins Petersen (TheSpaceWriter.com / @spacewriter)
Michael Rodruck (@michaelrodruck)
This week we welcome Dr. Kenneth Carpenter to the Weekly Space Hangout.
Continue reading “Weekly Space Hangout: January 22, 2020 – Dr. Kenneth Carpenter of HST and WFIRST”