Final Frontier: The Science Behind the Fiction

Guest Speaker: Kim Steadman, Robotics Engineer (JPL) *Spoilers for Strange New Worlds Episodes 1-4* Want to know how NASA approaches its away missions to Mars and beyond? Do spaceships actually fly that way? Would it make those sounds in a brown dwarf? Robotics engineer and TOS fan Kim Steadman will tell you how! She is one of the engineers for the Mars Rover program, and she does interplanetary away missions daily! Join us as we talk about "Ghosts of Illyria", how she was inspired by science fiction to become like Hemmer, and how she faces actual problems when thousands of miles away.  Click here to learn more about NASA's Perseverance Rover, and her first year and a half in space, from the press conference on Thursday.  About our guest: Kim Steadman received both her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech. She has worked on several missions including the Mars Exploration Rover Mission, Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn, the Mars Science Laboratory, and the Mars 2020 Rover. Currently, Kim is a System Engineer for the Mars 2020 Rover and the Operations Lead for the SHERLOC instrument. 

Join is on our first away mission in SNW Episode 2: Children of the Comet. Expert guitarist and theorist Tom McNally will explain and demonstrate how Uhura and Spock can turn music into language using math.  Guest: Tom McNally

Today we discuss Strange New Worlds Episode 1 with planetary physicist Kevin Grazier, and explore the mechanisms of warp drive, and the possibilities of using warp signatures to make a warp bomb. Spoilers Ahead.

Come explore strange new worlds and galaxies far far away with the science that inspires (and is inspired by) the scifi series we love. Every week we will take a closer look at an episode or film property, analyze the world building and themes, and ask a scientific question posed in each episode. Episodes coming to Geekscape's YouTube channel, the Geekscape website and an RSS feed for you.