Casual Space

Triple threat Tyler Nordgren and Beth talk about:

• Seeing the Great American Solar Eclipse in 2017 and what to expect when in comes back
• Why our National Parks are a treasure for our observation and appreciation
• Traveling the world in search of cosmic phenomenon

About Tyler:

Dr. Tyler Nordgren is a professional astronomer and artist. He holds a Ph.D. in Astronomy from Cornell University where he did work on dark matter as well as a B.A. in Physics from Reed College. For over a decade he has worked with the National Park Service to turn the national parks into the single largest source for public science and astronomy education in the world. His popular science book "Stars Above, Earth Below: A guide to astronomy in the national parks," reveals what visitors to America's national parks can observe in their dark night skies.

The color illustrations in this book include both his night sky photography as well as vintage-style "travel posters" he designed to help the public learn about and see the astronomical wonders in the sky. For the 2017 "Great American Eclipse" he wrote the book, "SUN MOON EARTH: The History of Solar Eclipses from Omens of Doom to Einstein and Exoplanets," describing the vast array of social and scientific influences eclipses have had throughout history. Dr Nordgren also produced a series of 30 eclipse travel posters for communities, state, and national parks in the path of totality. These posters are being collected by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

In addition to the Smithsonian, Dr. Nordgren's work has appeared at NASA Headquarters and the White House where he designed the poster for President Obama's final White House Astronomy Night. In 2012, NASA's Curiosity rover joined Spirit and Opportunity on Mars, each carrying sundials, or "Marsdials" which Dr. Nordgren helped design through his science and art. Dr. Nordgren also leads astronomically themed tours for various companies to see the beauty of the northern lights in Alaska, dark skies in the Grand Canyon rafting the Colorado River, and locations around the world following the shadow of the Moon to share the glory of a total solar eclipse with the general public.

Where to find Tyler and his books:

https://www.tylernordgren.com/

In this two-part series, RSE Dean Mikolajczyk shares several examples of how NASA learned valuable lessons from manned spaceflight mistakes including:

(Part 2 will feature manned flights and will be posted January 2020)

• What we learned from the Surveyer Program (the very first unmanned lunar landers)
• Mars Polar Lander (just a bit of a fast landing)
• Mars Express (this lesson really hurts) and
• The most recent Moon lander mission: Israel's nearly-successful, almost first-ever private moon lander "Beresheet"

Show Highlights: As always, expect to enjoy the expertise and fun facts presented from Dean Mikolajczyk, the show's "Resident Space Expert" as he shares powerful examples of what makes space exploration so challenging when it comes to unmanned missions. This "back-to-school" episode is all about the most difficult kind of learning- learning from our mistakes.

Even our nation's space agency, with more than 60+ years of missions, continues to learn valuable lessons from space exploration.

So pay attention! There will be a quiz.

About Dean:

BS Technical Photography

MS Astrophysics

NASA MER Mars program

NASA Public Relations

Astronomy instructor & lecturer

Where to find Dean:

www.TritionCollege.edu/Cernan

www.HarperCollege.edu

Ed shares with Beth:

• Becoming a Space Camp Hall of Fame Honoree and meeting his childhood hero astronaut Charlie Duke
• Details regarding the many job responsibilities the NASA Mission Control Flight Director has, getting to crew to space safely and back home safely is always the first priority.
• Big and small success that are worth celebrating- and learning from- during days/ nights on the International Space Station

About Ed: Right Stuff" recipient Ed Van Cise knew before his trip to Space Camp® that NASA would be the where of his future. But it was Apollo 16 Moonwalker Charlie Duke's presentation at Camp that led him to the how and what. Van Cise left that week knowing that he wanted to be an Aerospace Engineer, and eventually work at Johnson Space Center in Mission Control. And not long after, that is exactly where he was. Van Cise committed to his path and is currently the 78th Flight Director in NASA's history. Since taking the call sign "Carbon Flight," Ed has worked as Lead Flight Director for several different aspects of the International Space Station. Edward Van Cise methodically pursued his dream, earning awards and commendations for leadership, as well as respect from his peers. He continues that dream, today, fully dedicated to NASA and the future of human space exploration.

Where to find Ed Van Cise: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLi_9j25Niv2NBm7L3pqbKrIkSdR53UeF9

and more information about NASA Flight Directors and Mission Control:

https://www.nasa.gov

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8aWXJeh9R4

Beth Meets Airline Captain Mark Hardcastle and learns:

• How the air force academy put Mark on the path to a future in aviation.
• What's Mark's favorite plane? (It's the Cadillac of planes)…
• Mark explains "The magic of the 4th"
• How do we respond when things challenge us? Mark's got 60+ years of inspirational stories he's gathered and shares both on stage and in his book, The Symphony of Your Life – Restoring Harmony When Your World is Out of Tune

About Mark:

Mark graduated from the USAF Academy in 1982. After nine years as a pilot on active duty including multiple combat missions during the Persian Gulf War, he left the military to join a commercial airline. In addition to flying B-737s around the country, Hardcastle spends time in the Rocky Mountains and serves on the artistic staff of the Colorado Children's Chorale. He lives in Centennial, Colorado, with his wife and four children.

About how Mark's book came about:

Mark Hardcastle recognized years ago that patterns were developing around events in his life. Sometimes it was good stuff; often not-so-good. But in the end, everything always seemed to work out. Was that just a matter of chance? Or was it something he could rely on?

After several years of journaling about that reality, Mark broke his neck in a mountain biking accident near Moab, UT. An event like that has the effect of powerfully focusing one's attentions, and today he travels around the country inspiring groups of all sizes to lives that aren't over-complicated. He teaches us to use 3 simple steps to create significance in our lives, then he shares the glue that holds it all together!

His book, The Symphony of Your Life – Restoring Harmony When Your World is Out of Tune, is a 3-time 1st-place CIPA award winner, and it's available in print at Amazon.com or in your favorite e-book format.

Where to find Mark:

[email protected]

Twitter: @SOYLMHardcastle

720.840.8361

https://www.linkedin.com/in/speakermarkhardcastle

Where to find his book; "The Symphony of Your Life" https://www.facebook.com/TheSymphonyOfYourLife/

YouTube: Symphony Of Your Life Channel

www.symphonyofyourlife.com

Robert explains…

• While the Swedes may not be very braggadocios, they've launched more than 650 balloon missions with NASA, JAXA, and others to test things in 50+ kilometer altitudes…and more than 550 rocket launches! They go straight up, 400-700 kilometers, and come right back down, (often in the snow).
• Launching near the polar north of Sweden allows balloons with experiments and materials to hover in very low wind environments…it's ideal for items that need to be exposed to and tested in space-like environments.
• Robert describes what a successful mission looks like from start to finish when a payload "flies" with the Swedish Space Corporation.
• Robert reminds up about the NEW space industry and how it's projected to grow from the billion dollar market ($$) to a trillion dollar market ($$$$$$$) due to cheaper, smaller satellites, and all the materials and resources that will allow for more access to space.

About Robert:

Robert works as a high-tech executive, expanding international markets for satellite technologies, video/IP/IoT data networks, rocket launch systems and hypersonic flight. He has extensive knowledge of the aerospace industry, and he's a satellite & space expert. Robert loves all things technology, aircraft and automobiles. By the way, Robert is fluent in English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Portuguese and Italian. ...

Where to find Robert:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertfeierbach/

and

https://www.sscspace.com/

This week, Beth gains a deeper understanding & appreciation on how COMPUTERS help NASA explore the cosmos with her returning guest and Resident Space Expert Dean Mikolajczyk. Here are the highlights:

• Dean shares his insights from his days as programmer for the MARS rovers Spirit and Opportunity!
• Dean explains how a democratic computer system works down to the second before a launch SAFE MODE (and why this feature on computers is so important).
• The reason why Space X lands on a barge… (it depends on the payload, and trajectory, and a few other things). It's a beautiful partnership between computer software and hardware.
• Are the computer programmers the unsung heroes of our lunar landing successes? Dean answers this and all of my Casual questions on this fun episode.

Quotes from Dean here:

"You can't use computers for everything, you've got to use computers and people together."

"Humans are flawed. We're also three miles from the launch pad. So even with binoculars, we couldn't be able to see/ assess a problem, so let's leave it up to the 20,000+ sensors on the external tank and on the Space Shuttle itself."

"I still think humans are the better judges behind the wheel."

"Behind the scenes, especially with the [Mars] rovers, from my point of view, you are constantly questioning, 'did we do this, did we do that,' the nice thing about working as a programmer is that you have teams, and we worked democratically."

"Data is flawed if you're human, but that's how we learn."

About Dean:

BS Technical Photography

MS Astrophysics

NASA MER Mars program

NASA Public Relations

Astronomy instructor & lecturer

Where to find Dean:

www.TritionCollege.edu/Cernan

www.HarperCollege.edu

Charles Pappas shares with Beth details from the stories within his new book, including;

• What kind of sandwich was snuck on board an early Gemini mission!!
• How Charles always wanted to be an astronomer, and got to meet astronaut Gus Grissom as a young boy
• What one historic item Charles would select from all the possible spaceflight memorabilia

About Charles Pappas:

Charles Pappas is a senior writer at Exhibitor magazine, where for the last 15 years he has researched and written the Archive column, which explores the unique history of exhibiting. His new book, "Flying Cars, Zombie Dogs, and Robot Overlords," shows how, when the world wants to see what the future will bring, it looks to world's fairs and trade shows. Pappas is also the author of "It's a Bitter Little World," a collection of the most go-for-the-jugular quotes from film noir. If you want to know the meaning of life, don't study Shakespeare, don't peruse Plato. Everything you need to know in life you can learn from film noir.

About One Giant Leap: On July 20, 1969, Americans had their eyes and ears glued to their TVs and radios. This moment inspired inventors and engineers across the nation. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1969 moon landing, we share with you 20 patents that were inspired by the space race and how they reshaped the world. Featuring the original patent schematics from the US Patent and Trademark Office, blast off with inventions inspired by the moon landing including: Memory foam, freeze-dried food, firefighting equipment, cordless tools, protective paint, cochlear implants, image sensors, carbon nanotubes, pocket calculators and more!

Where to find Charles Pappas:

Where to find One Giant Leap: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/one-giant-leap-charles-pappas/1130879993#/

Friend of the show Rod Pyle returns to discuss his latest book, and all things Apollo with Beth AND…

• Receiving the foreword from Buzz Aldrin himself!
• Rod's impressions and insights from speaking with the Apollo 11 astronauts' children (now grown adults)
• Combing through the NASA archives to find incredible, never before shared documents, photos and stories from the Apollo era
• And what the future of space can be, returning to the Moon, on to Mars, and beyond…

Quotes from Rod here:

"You get the sense of an eternal restlessness with Buzz (Aldrin)… he demands that we move further and faster and beyond in space exploration, and he has not stopped thinking about that since the day he returned."

"One thing that always impressed me from my years of training at the Johnson Space Center, I would walk along the Saturn V rocket, and share the experience with several executives who would start crying because it's such a powerful experience as you walk from one end to the other, where you see what a massive accomplishment it all was…and I take them to the top of the rocket and explain that 'all this is just to get the astronauts to the moon,' and they are astonished."

"What I always try to do in my books is to both give the quotes of numbers, details about the missions, how many pounds of thrust the Saturn V rocket uses, etc., but that's not speaking to our hearts, and that's the conversation we need to have with people. The last time I saw this done well was when Elon Musk launched his Tesla from a Falcon Heavy into space, looking back on the Earth."

"On Apollo 12, Pete Conrad and Allan Bean were very serious and they were setting down the LEM, and there was this easy banter between two brothers sharing a common goal and landing right on target. He (Conrad) came down right on the money, and when they landed, it was like party time inside the LEM, they were slapping each other's backs and it like listening to the

"Throughout the [Apollo12] moonwalks, and there were two (Pete Conrad and Allan Bean), they were so overjoyed not just to be there and to be there on the moon, but to be in each other's company; there was this warmth, and this joy, this kind of excitement and this almost child-like thrill."

About Rod Pyle:

Rod Pyle is a space author, journalist and historian who has authored 15 books on space history, exploration and development for major publishers that have been released in ten languages. He is the Editor-in-Chief for the National Space Society's quarterly print magazine Ad Astra, and his frequent articles have appeared in Space.com, LiveScience, Futurity, Huffington Post, Popular Science, Caltech's E&S magazine, and WIRED. He has written extensively for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech, including Technology Highlights for NASA'S Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Rod co-authored and lectured for the Apollo Executive Leadership Program for NASA's Johnson Space Center and The Conference Board. New book releases for 2019 include Space 2.0 (with a foreword by Buzz Aldrin), Interplanetary Robots, Heroes of the Space Age, and First on the Moon (also with a foreword by Aldrin), which is currently in its fifth printing. Rod's previous Apollo books Missions to the Moon (foreword by Gene Kranz) and Destination Moon are being republished for 2019.

Rod appears on national radio and television, with regular slots on KFI/Los Angeles, and WGN/Chicago (both market leaders), as well as popular podcasts and radio in numerous other markets. Rod hosts a podcast called Cool Space News on iHeart Radio, and appears on PBS's Between the Lines and C-SPAN's Book TV regularly. He holds an MA from Stanford University and a BFA from the Art Center College of Design, and lives in Alhambra, California.

Where to find Rod Pyle:

Ad Astra: https://space.nss.org/ad-astra-the-magazine-of-the-national-space-society/

Cool Space News Podcast: https://kfiam640.iheart.com/content/2019-07-12-cool-space-news-with-rod-pyle/

First on the Moon: https://www.amazon.com/First-Moon-Apollo-Anniversary-Experience/dp/1454931973

"Eight Years to the Moon" with Nancy Atkinson

Introducing our RSE; Resident Space Expert Dean! Beth and Dean enjoy;

• Reminiscing about what each of thought when we looked through a telescope for the first time, and last year's Great American Solar Eclipse!
• Understanding the difference between seeing something in the night sky and looking at something in the night sky
• Highlighting all the many types of telescopes, places to look through a telescope FOR FREE, and where BIG observatories can be found if you really want to see deep into space!
• What are some of the objects we can expect to see in the next couple of summer months…STAR PARTIES!!!!!

"I want to teach the art of seeing an object. Any one can look, but when you're interested, you're seeing (an object) for what it is."

"Once you see Saturn, you'll be hooked. It's just majestic. The crazy thing for us astronomers, is that it IS that exciting every time you look. And the more you look, the more you learn."

About Dean:

BS Technical Photography

MS Astrophysics

NASA MER Mars program

NASA Public Relations

Astronomy instructor & lecturer

Where to find Dean:

www.TritionCollege.edu/Cernan

www.HarperCollege.edu