Our listeners know that aerospace is not just about being an astronaut or engineer—both of which are fine career options. In fact, almost any field here on Earth will be needed as we becoming space faring nations. Including, yes, you guessed it, lawyers..

Today, we meet with Michelle Hanlon—who IS a  space lawyer.  Ms. Hanlon  is Co-Director of the Air & Space Law Program at the University of Mississippi School of Law. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of both the Journal of Space Law and the Journal of Drone Law and Policy.  Michelle co-founded For All Moonkind a nonprofit that is the only organization in the world focused on protecting human history in outer space.   For All Moonkind is a Permanent Observer to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.  As if all that wasn’t enough to make her an expert in today’s conversation, Michelle is also President of the National Space Society and founding partner of ABH Space Law.

For all our “talkies” out there who love policy work, this is an episode you won’t want to miss and we hope you will stay tuned after for our takeaways.

Today we meet with 19 year old Leeloo Schindelhauer. As a German student, Leeloo attended a STEM based high school where she participated in many extracurriculars including math club. She currently pursues aerospace engineering studies at Technical University of Munich But her love of space became evident about four years ago as she participated in a student internships at DLR, the German Space Agency and even attended Space Camp. LeeLoo has participated in the European Space Design Competition  and International Space Design Competition where she also serves as a volunteer. Recently, she also attended  Space Rush conference at KSC where we were privileged to meet her.

Today, we meet with Michael Starch--  a flight software engineer working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  In the decade that Michael has worked at JPL, he has contributed to a number of JPL missions including several deep space CubeSats and the Mars Helicopter “Ingenuity”.  Now Michael is the Cognizant Engineer and Community Manager for the OpenSource flight software framework F´.  We are excited to chat with him today about his contributions to space and we hope you will stay tuned after for our takeaways.

Today in this special episode I talk with Kevin about the first annual SmallSat Conference coming to the Kennedy Space Center Oct 29-30. We discuss why there was a need for such a conference on the East coast as well as talk about what attendees can expect. Remember students and teachers may attend for free! Head to SmallSat Education. Org to register before it’s too late. And of course you can check the show notes for that link

https://www.smallsateducation.org/

Today we meet with Zachary Clarke—a masters student at Utah State University who works as a Systems Engineer for the F-16 Fighting Falcon. As such,Zach is pursuing his degree in systems engineering with an emphasis in the space environment. Zach has worked as the head system engineer for the student developed satellite mission: ACMES, where he managed twenty undergraduates in their efforts to design a one year mission observing the atmosphere with cryocooled instruments. Zach is a strong team member who loves contributing to the community through mentoring opportunities.  When Zach isn't engineering or presenting, he hangs out at home in Logan, UT with his wife Hailee, and their two year old son, August.

Today we meet with two more extraordinary middle school students who are doing real world aerospace. Argyrios Deanie Vaitsos is entering 8th grade while Dylan Kiesling is entering the seventh. Both boys are finishing up at the same private school in Palm Beach Gardens and are looking at promising high schools in the future. Deanie shares about his team’s work on building a paraglider with the intention of retrieving HAB payloads while Dylan Kiesling discusses his work both with xenobots—live robots made from frog cells as well as how digitial engineering makes space application more approachable for students. These students contine to build impressive resumes based around their particular passions, and we can help your students do the same. To find out more, please visit our website at aerospacehigh.org or our social media links: FB: @Go2space. Youtube: Aerospace and Innovation Academy.

Our series highlighting Wolfpack Students and their research has covered, up to this point, some of our high school and university students. Today, we hear from two S. Florida middle school students, both of whom will be starting the 8th grade this coming school year but who are doing incredible research related to space and their individual passions. Arnav Joseph is the lead on two biological papers that will be presented in Athens at the COSPAR conference. His work is investigating bacteria that could be potentially useful in recycling and food supply for astronauts on The ISS or future long term missions. He also is looking into the best growing conditions for lunar colonies. Daniel Levy has a passion for artificial intelligence in its many forms and his work on the use of Micro:Bits as an early coding tool will be implemented in upcoming HAB and CubeSat missions. Whoever thought middle school students couldn’t do this level of work should think again. Of course, stay tuned after for our takeaway, and for information on how your student can join the WCDT.

Today we meet with two South Florida members of the Wolfpack, both of whom are rising juniors in their respective high schools. Theodore Ouyang, a student at Suncoast High School, has been working for several years on his CubeSat proposal, the FlipSat, which seeks to address the mitigation of bit flips in space. When his proposal was not selected by NASA’s CSLI for funding, teammate William Mayville, who attends American Heritage, made it his mission to solve the funding issues that preclude many capable students and teams from achieving a launch. Today we will learn how the combination of their efforts may change the way CubeSats can be used as a disruptive educational tool.

For information on sponsoring FlipSat and WOLF-C:  click here

For information on attending the SmallSat Education Conference here: 

Today we meet with recent UF grad, Haley Boles. Haley earned her Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and Cell Science.  Before transferring to UF, she attended her local community college where she earned my Associate of Arts with Honors as well as her Certificate of International Studies.  Haley loves the fields of both space biology and astrobiology which is reflected in her research experience.  She is a three -time NASA intern as well as an active undergraduate researcher at UF. She has participated in many other NASA programs including National Community College Aerospace Scholars, or NCAS, the L’SPACE Academy, and the Space Chile Challenge.  During her free time, Hayley also enjoys restoring vintage gaming systems, tending to my 100+ houseplants, and baking. Hers is a fantastic story and we hope you will stay tuned after for our takeaways.