EXPLICIT MATERIAL Possible

On this weekly update Alex does another Lightning round to go over some of the many things that have happened in Space since the last episode.

This week's Lightning Round mixes electronic synth & beat loops as well as some disco-era baselines accompanied by the intuitive GarageBand Drummer Nikki.  

She's not real...but she plays like she's real.

Topics for this EP: Click the images for the link to the topic, and see underneath for extras!

• Inflation Deflated

Image Credit: ESA/Planck Collaboration. Acknowledgment: M.-A. Miville-Deschênes, CNRS – Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, Université Paris-XI, Orsay, France

• What the hell is a CubeSats?!

Image Credit: Clyde-Space.com Figure 1: Pumpkin 1U CubeSat Structure with Clyde Space Solar Panels.

• NASA's SMAP Launches

Photo credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

• Z-1 Prototype Suit - To infinity, or just beyond?

Image Credit: NASA. This new spacesuit prototype from NASA might reinvent the ways astronauts experience space.

When Falcon Heavy lifts off later this year, it will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two. Thrust at liftoff is equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft operating simultaneously.

NASA's Proposed Budget  For 2016 Source Space.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration Space Links:

• http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2015/01/31/cosmic_inflation_evidence_still_not_in.html
• http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Planck/Planck_gravitational_waves_remain_elusive
• http://www.space.com/19003-nasa-z1-future-spacesuit.html
• http://www.universetoday.com/118126/elon-musk-and-the-spacex-odyssey-the-path-from-falcon-9-to-mars-colonization-transporter/
• https://blogs.nasa.gov/smap/
• http://www.satnews.com/story.php?number=309270661
• http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/files/Agency_Fact_Sheet_FY_2016.pdf
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CubeSat
• http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0L715F20150203?irpc=932
• http://www.space.com/28436-nasa-europa-mission-white-house.html
• http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1113325854/esa-calls-off-search-for-philae-020215/#tMOTfF4SlscMbyuT.99