astronaut

Episode 158: Why Does a Spacecraft Need a Heat Shield?

Meet the Expert: Dr. Sarah D’Souza, the Orion Thermal Protection Deputy System Manager at NASA Ames Dr. Sarah D’Souza is currently the Orion Thermal Protection System (TPS) Deputy System Manager at NASA Ames Research Center which is part of NASA’s Artemis program. Dr. D’Souza is a California native with a passion for all things aerospace and a proud graduate of the… Continue Reading Episode 158: Why Does a Spacecraft Need a Heat Shield?

Episode 154: How Do You Slow Down a Spaceship?

April 27, 2023

Meet the Expert: Julie Wolfson, Orion Program Risk Manager at Lockheed Martin In this role, she works to ensure that Orion risks to the success of every Artemis mission are identified early and handled properly. She collaborates with engineers from multiple disciplines analyzing technical and safety concerns, and finance staff to accurately assess the potential… Continue Reading Episode 154: How Do You Slow Down a Spaceship?

Episode 152: How Do You Move a Rocket?

April 13, 2023

Meet the Expert: Dan Zapata, Crawler Systems Engineer, Exploration Ground Systems Kennedy Space Center Dan Zapata is a crawler systems engineer for the Exploration Ground Systems Program at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. One of seven certified drivers for the agency’s crawler transporters –six-million-pound platforms that carry rockets and spacecraft from Kennedy’s iconic Vehicle… Continue Reading Episode 152: How Do You Move a Rocket?

Episode 135: How Do You Power a Spacecraft?

December 14, 2022

Meet the Expert: Carl Sandifer, Manager, Radioisotope Power Systems Program, NASA Glenn Research Center Mr. Carl E. Sandifer II is the Chief of the Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS) Program Office in the Space Flight Systems Directorate at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Glenn Research Center (GRC). In this position, Mr. Sandifer also serves… Continue Reading Episode 135: How Do You Power a Spacecraft?

Episode 134: Why Would You Send Yeast into Space?

December 11, 2022

Meet the Expert: Dr. Sergio Santa-Maria, project scientist for NASA BioSentinel Mission Sergio is originally from Lima, Peru, where he studied Biology & Ecology. He did his doctoral studies at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, where he studied novel pathways for the repair of DNA damage using model biological organisms,… Continue Reading Episode 134: Why Would You Send Yeast into Space?

Episode 132: How Do You Talk to a Spaceship?

November 22, 2022

Meet the Expert: Rob Chambers,Business Development Director Commercial Civil Space Space Systems Company, Lockheed Martin Rob Chambers is the Business Development Director for Lockheed Martin’s Commercial Civil Space line of business. In this role, he is focused on Lockheed Martin’s blueprint for extending humanity’s knowledge of our planet, our solar system, and the universe at… Continue Reading Episode 132: How Do You Talk to a Spaceship?

Episode 124: How Do You Study Another Planet’s Moon?

September 29, 2022

Meet the Expert: Tracy Drain, Flight Systems Engineer NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Tracy Drain is a Systems Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She is currently the lead Flight Systems engineer for the Europa Clipper mission. This spacecraft will launch in 2024 set off on a 5.5-year journey to study Europa, an icy… Continue Reading Episode 124: How Do You Study Another Planet’s Moon?

Episode 115: The BEST of Amazing Engineering

July 26, 2022

Love to learn about the wonders of engineering and technology? Don’t miss this fabulous episode with snippets from AMAZING engineering!! Dr. Arturo Dominguez discusses (How To Hold the Sun in a Donut), Dr. Anna Michel chats abt (How to Design a Sensor to Learn about the Deep Ocean) … Continue Reading Episode 115: The BEST of Amazing Engineering

Episode 113: The BEST of Ice!

July 24, 2022

Enjoy this COOL selection of our BEST of ICE episodes with Dr. Ulyana Horodyskyj (How are Glaciers Nature’s Time Machine?) Dr. Will Grundy (Why Do We Study Alien Ice?) and Dr. Alan Stern (What is it Like to Fly by Pluto?) If you like… Continue Reading Episode 113: The BEST of Ice!

Episode 98: Why Do We Study Alien Ice?

March 29, 2022

Meet the Expert: Dr. Will Grundy, Co-investigator of NASA’s New Horizon Project and Planetary Scientist at Lowell Observatory Dr. Grundy does spectroscopic, thermal, and imaging observations of outer Solar System bodies using numerous large ground- and space-based telescopes including Hubble, Keck, Gemini, DCT, IRTF, and MMT. Targets of these observations include icy satellites and Kuiper… Continue Reading Episode 98: Why Do We Study Alien Ice?

Episode 96: How Can You Help NASA to do Astronomy?

March 15, 2022

Meet the Expert: Dr. Marc Kuchner, Citizen Science Officer for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate Marc Kuchner is an astrophysicist and the Citizen Science Officer for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. His job is to foster citizen science at NASA; he oversees a portfolio of roughly 25 NASA-funded citizen science projects, reaching more than a million volunteers.… Continue Reading Episode 96: How Can You Help NASA to do Astronomy?

Episode 90: How Do You Design a Space Station?

February 1, 2022

Meet the Expert: Lou Ramon, former NASA Engineer Lou Ramon has been a “space cadet” his entire life. As a young boy, he had his own model plane “air force” hanging from his bedroom ceiling and he grew up reading and watching science fiction TV shows and movies. So it’s no wonder he ended up… Continue Reading Episode 90: How Do You Design a Space Station?

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