omega tau - English only

By Markus Voelter, Nora Ludewig

How do scientists uncover phenomena and explain their connections? How do engineers design machines, methods and infrastructure? At omega tau, experts give detailed answers. Over the last ten years, w... more

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FAQs about omega tau - English only:

How many episodes does omega tau - English only have?

The podcast currently has 231 episodes available.

omega tau - English only episodes:

December 22, 2015 191 – String Theory
String Theory is currently one of the most important theories in fundamental physics, with applications to a variety of subfields including black holes and cosmology, nuclear physics others. This episode is an introduction to the core ideas of the field, as well as to some of its applications. Our guest is Alexander Westphal of Germany's particle physics lab DESY. He does a wonderful job of introducing the very abstract topic in a way that could be understood by non-physicists, at least to some degree.
...more
2h 44min
December 08, 2015 190 - SOFIA Part 2, The Flights
Guests: Jochen Eislöffel, Maria Kapala, Robert Peterson, Nick Veronico, Charlie Kaminski, Randy Grashuis, Steven Laney, Ace Beall, Chris Farinha, Ken Bower, Bill Vacca, Bill Wohler, Christopher Trinh, Oliver Zeile, Christian Fischer Host: Markus Voelter Shownoter: Tim Jurik, Stefaan Rillaert
SOFIA is an airborne observatory, a Boeing 747SP modified to carry a 2.7m infrared telescope in the back of the fuselage. In late October 2015, I had the opportunity to fly on SOFIA during science missions 248 and 249. This episode captures these two flights. The episode is a mix between interviews with scientists and aircrew, recordings from the intercom system and some narration by me. The list of guests can be seen above.
I suggest you listen to Episode 189, SOFIA Part 1 first, if you have not done so, because it explains the details. There is also a video that contains lots of photos about the flights. This episode is 7 hours in length, so the download may take a while.
Introduction 0:00:30

Jochen Eislöffel - Scientist 00:05:32

Schmidt Plate | Palomar Observatory
Maria Kapala - Scientist 00:29:22

Andromeda Galaxy | H.E.S.S. site in Namibia
Robert Peterson - Safety Briefing/Egress Training 00:46:27

NASA Public Use Aircraft Operations
Nick Veronico - On-Plane Safety Briefing 00:57:15

Charlie Kaminski - Flight Briefing - Flight 1 01:03:00

Randy Grashuis - Flight Briefing - Flight 2 01:21:49

Engine Startup, Taxi, Takefoff, Departure, Climb 01:26:59

Steven Laney, Safety Tech, Lead Mechanic 01:59:44

Ace Beall, Pilot 02:06:01

NASA Armstrong | International Standard Atmosphere | FADEC | Autothrottle | NASA Dryden/Johnson | C-141
Chris Farinha, Flight Engineer 02:21:64

GE Test Bed | Engine bleed air | Leading edge device | ForeFlight | Coffin Corner | High speed stall in swept wing | Lockheed Electra | C-130 | Evergreen aviation (note the (ex)owner of the company founded a museum near Portland Oregon that houses among other things the Spruce Goose and an SR-71) | Evergreen Supertanker
Ken Bower, Flight Planner 02:44:56

NASA Ames
Charlie Kaminski - Mission Director 3:13:02

Cryogenics | Cryogenics on SOFIA | South Pole Infrared Explorer (SPIREX) | Cosmic microwave background | Altazimuth mount | Flight plan | Cosmic ray
Bill Vacca - Lead scientist pipeline and DCS 3:29:28

SOFIA Data Cycle System (DCS) | Data reduction | Overview of the SOFIA Data Processing System | The Challenge of Data Reduction for Multiple Instruments on SOFIA | Dither | FITS file format | Error bar | Chop-nod | Interactive Data Language
Bill Wohler - Interface software engineer 3:44:35

Bill Wohler | SOFIA Mission Control Subsystem Software | Interface Control Document (ICD) | KOSMA | Kepler spacecraft | Kepler Data Analysis Tools | Kepler Data Processing Handbook
Fifi Handover Intercom 4:03:05

Christopher Trinh - Astronomer 4:12:42

Christopher Trinh | SOFIA Instruments | Star formation | Planetary nebula
Oliver Zeile - Telescope Engineer 4:35:30

Oliver Zeile | Infrared telescope | SOFIA telescope | Characteristics of the SOFIA telescope | Fibre optic gyroscope | Guiding a Telescope | SOFIA Guider Cameras | Star catalogue
Christian Fischer - Instrument Engineer 5:41:50

Far Infrared Field-Imaging Line Spectrometer (FIFI-LS)
Landing 5:48:49

Visual flight rules (VFR) | Instrument landing system (ILS)
Science and flight reports 6:21:10

General aviation
Jochen Eislöffel - Scientist 6:26:18

Jochen Eislöffel
Maria Kapala - Scientist 6:30:39

Maria Kapala
End of the show and Domingo 6:35:20

Domingo's Mexican & Seafood Restaurant
...more
6h 56min
December 08, 2015 190 – SOFIA Part 2, The Flights
SOFIA is an airborne observatory, a Boeing 747SP modified to carry a 2.7m infrared telescope in the back of the fuselage. In late October 2015, I had the opportunity to fly on SOFIA during science missions 248 and 249. This episode captures these two flights. The episode is a mix between interviews with scientists and aircrew, recordings from the intercom system and some narration by me. The list of guests can be seen on the episode page - it is too long for the abstract.
...more
6h 56min
November 30, 2015 189 - SOFIA Part 1, Basics
Guests: Alfred Krabbe, Thomas Keilig, Christian Fischer, Dörte Mehlert, and Zaheer Ali
Host: Markus Voelter Shownoter: Tim Jurik
SOFIA is an airborne observatory, a Boeing 747SP modified to carry a 2.7m infrared telescope in the back of the fuselage. In the context of the preparation for my SOFIA flights, I visited the DSI in Stuttgart several times during this summer to record interviews with various DSI people about SOFIA. This episode covers these interviews, plus a recording of the visit of the instrument labs in Palmdale. The guests and topics are Alfred Krabbe, Head of the DSI, on the history and some of the science; Thomas Keilig, CEO of DSI, on the airplane and the modifications; Christian Fischer, Project Engineer of FIFI-LS, on the instrument and some of the science; Dörte Mehlert, Education and Public Outreach, on education and the flying teachers programme; and Zaheer Ali, head of the science and mission operations laboratory, on that lab.
Introduction 00:00:30

Alfred Krabbe 00:03:22

Project History, Overview of aircraft and telescope | German SOFIA Institute/DSI (Deutsches SOFIA Institut) | German Aerospace Center (DLR) | Universities Space Research Association (USRA) | Scientific Objectives | Black Holes, jets | FIFI-LS (Far-Infrared Field-Imaging Line Spectrometer) | Plan for future, funding discussion, challenges | Prior airborne platforms | C-141 Kuiper Airborne Observatory | Lear Jet | Concorde | Airborne astronomy history
Thomas Keilig 00:48:36

Telescope discussion | Airplane modifications | 747 SP | L-3 Communications (formerly Raytheon) | Cockpit modifications/avionics upgrade | MCCS and flight testing | Mission control and command system | Interaction between science instruments, telescope, door and autopilot)
Christian Fischer 01:17:46

FIFI-LS (Far Infrared Field-Imaging Line Spectrometer) | Interstellar medium | Overview of instruments | Red shift | Blue shift | Chop and Nod | Scientific observations/goals/targets
Dörte Mehlert 02:06:40

Education and Public Outreach | Educators interested in applying to the German program should contact Dörte Mehlert at [email protected]
Zaheer Ali 02:22:30

Tour of SOFIA Science lab
Summary 02:45:55

...more
2h 49min
November 30, 2015 189 – SOFIA Part 1, Basics
SOFIA is an airborne observatory, a Boeing 747SP modified to carry a 2.7m infrared telescope in the back of the fuselage. In the context of the preparation for my SOFIA flights, I visited the DSI in Stuttgart several times during this summer to record interviews with various DSI people about SOFIA. This episode covers these interviews, plus a recording of the visit of the instrument labs in Palmdale. The guests and topics are Alfred Krabbe, Head of the DSI, on the history and some of the science; Thomas Keilig, CEO of DSI, on the airplane and the modifications; Christian Fischer, Project Engineer of FIFI-LS, on the instrument and some of the science; Dörte Mehlert, Education and Public Outreach, on education and the flying teachers programme; and Zaheer Ali, head of the science and mission operations laboratory, on that lab.
...more
2h 49min
October 20, 2015 185 - Nuclear Test Monitoring and the CTBT
How do scientists uncover phenomena and explain their connections? How do engineers design machines, methods and infrastructure? At omega tau, experts give detailed answers. Over the last ten years, we have produced over 350 episodes in which we dug deeper, until we ran out of questions. Join us on our journey through the world of science and engineering: the closer you look and listen, the more interesting things get.
...more
1h 54min
October 20, 2015 185 – Nuclear Test Monitoring and the CTBT
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) is an international treaty, still being ratified, that bans all nuclear tests. An important ingredient to the test is monitoring, whether nuclear tests will be performed nonetheless. To this end, the CTBT Preparatory Commission has established a world-spanning monitoring system that relies on seismic, hydroacoustic, infrasound and radionuclide monitoring. In this episode, our guest is Randy Bell who runs the international data center and is thus responsible for running the monitoring network and evaluating the collected data.
...more
1h 54min
October 13, 2015 184 - Societal Complexity and Collapse
How do scientists uncover phenomena and explain their connections? How do engineers design machines, methods and infrastructure? At omega tau, experts give detailed answers. Over the last ten years, we have produced over 350 episodes in which we dug deeper, until we ran out of questions. Join us on our journey through the world of science and engineering: the closer you look and listen, the more interesting things get.
...more
1h 15min
October 13, 2015 184 – Societal Complexity and Collapse
Joseph Tainter, our guest in this episode, is an anthropologist and historian. In 1988 he wrote a book called The Collapse of Complex Societies in which he argues that societies inevitably increase their inherent complexity, and, if and when the complexity becomes too "expensive" (diminishing returns), a society will collapse. In this episode, Joe explains his rationale and provides historic examples for collapse. We then discuss his theory relative today's world, concluding with a not alltogether positive outlook.
...more
1h 15min
October 05, 2015 183 - Aerobatics and Red Bull Air Racing
How do scientists uncover phenomena and explain their connections? How do engineers design machines, methods and infrastructure? At omega tau, experts give detailed answers. Over the last ten years, we have produced over 350 episodes in which we dug deeper, until we ran out of questions. Join us on our journey through the world of science and engineering: the closer you look and listen, the more interesting things get.
...more
1h 49min

FAQs about omega tau - English only:

How many episodes does omega tau - English only have?

The podcast currently has 231 episodes available.

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