Your Space Journey

What will the James Webb Space Telescope discover? Will it be able to detect alien life? How does it compare to Hubble?

Find out in this interview with Lee Feinberg, JWST's Optical Telescope Element Manager. 

Lee Feinberg has been the Optical Telescope Element Manager for the James Webb Space Telescope at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for the past 20 years. Lee led the telescope technology development and led the telescope from architecture trades and design activities to manufacturing through integration and testing. He was also a member of the optics team that determined the optical prescription to correct the Hubble Space Telescope and performed independent testing of the mirrors that corrected Hubble. 

The James Webb Space Telescope (sometimes called JWST or Webb) is an orbiting infrared observatory that will complement and extend the discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope, with longer wavelength coverage and greatly improved sensitivity. The longer wavelengths enable Webb to look much closer to the beginning of time and to hunt for the unobserved formation of the first galaxies, as well as to look inside dust clouds where stars and planetary systems are forming today.

For more information, visit https://webb.nasa.gov/

Interview with Homer Hickam

Homer Hickam is the New York Times #1 best-selling author of 19 books, including ‘Rocket Boys’ which became the major motion picture ‘October Sky’, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Homer. In this interview Homer talks about how his fascination with rockets began in October, 1957 with the launch of Sputnik. He also shares details of his newest book Don't Blow Yourself Up! and talks about his work with NASA and other space agencies.

Homer is a retired NASA engineer who worked on the Hubble Space telescope, trained U.S. and Japanese astronauts, and helped negotiate the use of the International Space Station with the Russians. Homer is a decorated Vietnam vet, carried the Olympic torch, taught David Letterman how to scuba dive, flew with General Chuck Yeager, dove on a sunken WWII German U-boat just off the North Carolina coast, and found four T-Rex skeletons as an amateur paleontologist. 

His best-selling books including his newest book Don't Blow Yourself Up! have been translated into dozens of languages and ‘Rocket Boys’ has been the most-read book in U.S. public schools for almost two decades.

For more info visit https://www.homerhickam.com

Interview with SpaceX Crew-3 pilot Tom Marshburn

Dr. Thomas Marshburn is the pilot of the Crew Dragon spacecraft and second in command for the SpaceX Crew-3 mission, which launched November 2021. He is responsible for spacecraft systems and performance. Once aboard the International Space Station (ISS), he will serve as an Expedition 66 flight engineer. 

Tom is a Statesville, North Carolina, native who became an astronaut in 2004. Prior to serving in the astronaut corps, the medical doctor served as flight surgeon at Johnson and later became medical operations lead for the ISS. 

The Crew-3 mission will be his third visit to the space station and his second long-duration mission.  Tom previously served as a crew member of STS-127 in 2009 and Expedition 34/35, which concluded in 2013.

Having flown the space shuttle, Soyuz and soon the Crew Dragon, in this interview Tom discusses some of the differences between these vehicles and even the pre-launch traditions for astronauts. He also talks about some of experiments planned for the Crew-3 mission, including a muscle sensor that will study how muscles atrophy in space, as well as the Cold Atom experiment, which aims to create the lowest temperature ever for studying gravitational fields. Tom also describes his emergency spacewalk experience with Chris Cassidy, when both astronauts had to fix an ammonia coolant leak in the ISS.

For more info, visit https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew
https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/thomas-h-marshburn/biography
https://www.spacex.com

In this episode we dive into the new award-winning documentary about inspirational physics professor Gerry K. O’Neill. Gerry was a Princeton University professor who changed the face of space exploration during the 1970s and 80s with his plans for building human colonies in space. His innovative ideas inspired many, including Johnny Carson and Isaac Asimov. 

Producer Will Henry joins us today to discuss the new film, THE HIGH FRONTIER: The Untold Story of Gerard K. O’Neill.

About the film
The High Frontier: The Untold Story of Gerard K. O’Neill is an award winning documentary film about the life and influence of Gerard K. O’Neill told through the eyes of his peers, family and the younger generation he inspired during the 1970s and 80s who are now leaders in the modern day space race. Through old stories of “Gerry” as many called him, and the social impact he made on the world, this documentary pays tribute to the unsung hero of today’s space race, while hoping to inspire all ages and walks of life to reignite our planet’s space venturing spirit.

About Gerard K. O'Neill
This Princeton University physics professor changed the face of space exploration during the 1970s and 80s with his plans for building space colonies in free space in Earth orbit. These ideas, and a book he released, THE HIGH FRONTIER: HUMAN COLONIES IN SPACE, made an incredible impact on a generation fueled by Star Trek and a dream of venturing out into this unknown territory. Gerry made appearances on the Johnny Carson Show, the Round Table with Harold Hayes, even Isaac Asimov was a fan. Unfortunately, Gerry passed in 1992 from a battle with leukemia and his space colonies and dreams never came to fruition. Until now..
 
With Gerry’s story, and the help of everyone involved with the film, we hope to keep his dream alive and maybe even see a day where “O’Neill Cylinders” are above our own heads!

For more info, visit https://thehighfrontiermovie.com/
https://twitter.com/HighFrontierDoc
https://www.instagram.com/highfrontierdoc/
https://www.facebook.com/HighFrontierDoc/

Are you interested in pursuing a career in space? 

In this episode we interview space consultant and author, Laura Seward Forczyk. Laura is the owner of Astralytical, a space consulting firm specializing in space science, industry, and policy. Laura & her company also offer space & aerospace career coaching services to students and professionals. In this episode we’ll dive more into the latest space news and find out more about how you can pursue a career in the space industry. 

About Astralytical
Astralytical is a woman-owned research, consulting, and publishing firm founded in 2016 and located outside of Atlanta. Their focus is high-quality big-picture outlook on the space sector including space-related scientific research, industry and policy analysis, career coaching, and communications. They welcome global clientele for consulting, coaching, project, or ongoing support. 

https://www.astralytical.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Astralytical/
https://twitter.com/Astralytical 
Laura’s Space on Space (blog): http://laurasspaceonspace.blogspot.com/ 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraforczyk/

Cloud-Based Mission Control
In this episode we speak with Tyler Browder, CEO and founder of Kubos, a satellite software company. Tyler joins us to discuss how their company’s cloud-based mission control platform, Major Tom, helps operators take care of every aspect of a satellite’s flight software, from mission design and onboard software to hardware testing and mission operations in the cloud.

Major Tom, which uses Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS), Amazon Identity and Access Management (IAM), Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Elastic Container Registry (Amazon ECR), and Amazon Route 53 to power its cloud-based mission control solution, will gives Kubos customers seamless control of their satellites through AWS Ground Station’s fully managed ground station as a service.

The wide-scale adoption of Major Tom by global customers with vastly different needs has been driven by a quickly changing space environment with lower and lower barriers to entry. Missions running on the software range from picosatellites, which are less than 1kg, through traditional-sized satellites and from small with a single satellite to full-scale constellations. Major Tom users, regardless of mission profile, will can add AWS Ground Station to their mission control.

Major Tom gives customers a modern interface that scales with the size of their mission and offers the ability to choose from multiple ground station networks without leaving the web application. Traditionally, mission control had to send emails or use multiple systems to schedule contact time with their spacecraft – neither of which met modern needs or budget constraints. Today, scheduling contacts can be done via a web browser with Major Tom and new ground station network providers can be easily added.

About Kubos
Kubos is a satellite software company that focuses on providing cloud technologies to the satellite industry through their mission control platform, Major Tom. Major Tom is a unified cloud platform to integrate and control ground segment applications and services, through out-of-the-box integrations, data analytics, real-time dashboards and a customizable commanding API. Customers have complete visibility and control across the entire space and ground segment. Kubos was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Lake Oswego, Oregon with remote employees across the US. Visit kubos.com for more information.

In this episode we explore speak with Jeromy Grimmett, the founder & CEO of Rogue Space Systems. Rogue is a new space startup company that is creating orbital robots, or “Orbots”, that will repair and service satellites using Artificial Intelligence. Their new service will increase satellite lifespans, reducing the need to replace expensive space assets; by repairing them. Their first Orbot, named LAURA, is scheduled to launch in early 2022, to be followed later in 2022 and 2023 by Orbots FRED, CHARLIE & BOB.

About Jeromy Grimmett 
Jeromy is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Rogue Space Systems Corporation.  He started his career in the US Army where he specialized in missile guidance systems for both ground and air defense platforms. Since then, he’s attended Harvard University’s School of Extension Studies where he pursuing Undergraduate and Master’s degrees in Government and International Relations respectively.  After founding and running a successful technology services company, Jeromy founded Rogue Space Systems Corporation in 2020 and brought his expertise in AI, tech, and robotics to advance space systems, orbital vehicles and space services.

ROGUE SPACE SYSTEMS CORPORATION 
Rogue Space Systems Corporation is a Laconia, New Hampshire-based company that designs satellite vehicles and subsystems to provide on-orbit services to satellite operators both now and well into the future. Founded in 2020, the Rogue team is using its 50+ years of combined aerospace and defense experience to build a fleet of Orbital Robots (Orbot™) that will perform a variety of services for orbital assets in LEO, MEO, and GEO including inspection, maintenance, repair, overhaul, refueling, cargo transport and more. The fleet is supported by a first of its kind AI-enabled sensory observation platform.

Rogue Space Media
https://rogue.space/
https://www.facebook.com/roguespacesystems
https://twitter.com/roguespacecorp
https://www.instagram.com/roguespacecorp/ 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuGuMjYSWyeodtm26vce8vw
https://www.linkedin.com/company/rogue-space-systems-corporation/
Rogue Space now accepts Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) from investors on their crowdfunding offering on truCrowd.com

Is there life on Europa and in our Solar System? We'll discuss this question and more in this David Brown interview that will talk about just how close we are to finding an answer about alien life in our own backyard. David's book, THE MISSION, discusses NASA’s upcoming Europa Clipper mission and the scientists, engineers and other key figures behind this incredible endeavor to explore the Jovian moon. 
 
In this episode we are going to explore Europa, the ice moon of Jupiter, and the mission to get there. NASA is currently building the Europa Clipper spacecraft which will begin its voyage to the Jovian Moon in 2024. David is an award-winning writer, whose work appears frequently in The New York Times, Scientific American and Smithsonian. He is an Antarctic expeditioner, an endurance runner, a former U.S. Army paratrooper, and a veteran of Afghanistan. David just released his latest book: THE MISSION, an amazing behind-the-scenes narrative of NASA’s deep space mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa, where alien life just might exist in an ocean beneath the frozen surface.
 
DAVID W BROWN
https://www.dwb.io/​
 
EUROPA CLIPPER MISSION
https://europa.nasa.gov/​
 
THE BOOK
THE MISSION, or: How a Disciple of Carl Sagan, an Ex-Motocross Racer, a Texas Tea Party Congressman, the World's Worst Typewriter Saleswoman, California Mountain People, and an Anonymous NASA Functionary Went to War with Mars, Survived an Insurgency at Saturn, Traded Blows with Washington, and Stole a Ride on an Alabama Moon Rocket to Send a Space Robot to Jupiter in Search of the Second Garden of Eden at the Bottom of an Alien Ocean Inside of an Ice World Called Europa (A True Story)

In this episode we discuss the news around NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2 mission, the second rotational flight to the ISS which launched in late April 2021. We also feature an interview with European Space Agency's astronaut, Thomas Pesquet, where we are fortunate to have a pre-launch press conference Q&A with him and other Crew-2 astronauts. This episode will also discuss ESA’s quest to find new astronauts and open up space to people with disabilities.

0:00 Intro to Season 2 Episode 1
0:45 European Space Agency (ESA) & SpaceX News Updates
4:22 Shane Kimbrough & Thomas Pesquet Press Conference Questions Answered
6:37 Press Conference Bonus Question #1 for Thomas Pesquet
10:25 Bonus Question #2 for Thomas Pesquet
12:35 Bonus Question #3 for Thomas Pesquet
16:34 Closing Thoughts on ESA and the SpaceX Crew-2

Topics covered in this episode:

ESA PARASTRONAUT FEASIBILITY PROJECT
In a first for ESA and human spaceflight worldwide, ESA is looking for individual(s) who are psychologically, cognitively, technically and professionally qualified to be an astronaut, but have a physical disability that would normally prevent them from being selected due to the requirements imposed by the use of current space hardware. For more information visit https://www.esa.int/About_Us/Careers_at_ESA/ESA_Astronaut_Selection/Parastronaut_feasibility_project

NASA SPACEX CREW-2 MISSION
NASA and its international partners have assigned crew members for Crew-2, which will be the second operational SpaceX Crew Dragon flight to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur will serve as spacecraft commander and pilot, respectively, for the mission. JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet will join as mission specialists.

Crew-2 is targeted to launch in spring 2021. The Crew-2 astronauts will remain aboard the space station for approximately six months as expedition crew members, along with three crewmates who will launch via a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The increase of the full space station crew complement to seven members – over the previous six – will allow NASA to effectively double the amount of science that can be conducted in space. For more information visit https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

Planetary scientist Dr. Alan Stern has been chosen to be the first to conduct NASA-funded science experiments while flying aboard a commercial spacecraft. In this interview Dr. Stern discusses the experiments he will perform aboard Virgin Galactic’s “SpaceShipTwo” on a suborbital mission from the Spaceport America launch site in New Mexico. He also discusses software upgrades coming to the New Horizons spacecraft in 2021, and as a proponent of Pluto, explains why it should be considered the ninth planet in our solar system. 

About Dr. Alan Stern
Dr. Alan Stern is a planetary scientist, space program executive, aerospace consultant, author, and avid public speaker. Since 2001 he has led NASA’s $880M New Horizons mission that successfully explored the Pluto system and is now exploring the Kuiper Belt—the farthest exploration in the history of humankind. In 2018, he was named by the Administration to a six yearlong term to the U.S. National Science Board. In both 2007 and 2016, he was named to the Time 100 list. In 2020, NASA selected Dr. Stern to fly as an experimenter on a commercial suborbital spaceflight aboard Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShip2.

Since 2009, Dr. Stern has been an Associate Vice President and Special Assistant to the President at the Southwest Research Institute. Additionally, from 2008-2012 he served on the board of directors of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, and as the Chief Scientist and Mission Architect for Moon Express from 2010-2013. From 2011-2013 he served as the Director of the Florida Space Institute. Dr. Stern serves as the Chief Science Officer of World View, a near-space ballooning company that he is co-founder of. In 2016 and again in 2017 he was elected to be the Board Chairman of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. Dr. Stern is also on the advisory board of Lowell Observatory.

Dr. Stern also maintains his own aerospace consulting practice. His current and former consulting clients include Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, Naveen Jain’s Moon Express Google Lunar X-Prize team, Ball Aerospace, Paragon Space Development Corporation, the NASTAR Center, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, and the Johns Hopkins University.

His career has taken him to numerous astronomical observatories, to the South Pole, and to the upper atmosphere aboard various high performance NASA aircraft including F/A-18 Hornets, F-104 Starfighters, KC-135 Zero-G, and WB-57 Canberras. He has been involved as a researcher in 29 suborbital, orbital, and planetary space missions, including 14 for which he was a principle investigator; and he has led the development of 8 scientific instruments for NASA space missions. In 1995, he was selected as a Space Shuttle Mission Specialist finalist, and in 1996 he was a candidate Space Shuttle Payload Specialist. In 2010, he became a suborbital payload specialist trainee, and is expected to fly several suborbital space missions aboard Virgin Galactic vehicles in 2019-2020.

About SwRI
Southwest Research Institute is a premier independent, nonprofit research and development organization using multidisciplinary services to provide solutions to some of the world’s most challenging scientific and engineering problems. Headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, our client-focused, client-funded organization occupies more than 1,500 acres, providing more than 2.3 million square feet of laboratories, test facilities, workshops, and offices for approximately 3,000 employees who perform contract work for government and industry clients.

For more information, visit https://www.swri.org/