Space, But Messier!

Today we chat with Athena Brensberger of AstroAthens. Athena is a science communicator and international model. She started up Astroathens, LLC to improve the outreach for science education and STEM. The focus of Astroathens, LLC is to inform and inspire the public to learn more about space exploration and the cosmos. We chat about her journey through her science communication career, from working with Neil DeGrasse Tyson, teaching a classroom full of students at Dexter, to combining these passions with that of the modeling industry with Alien and Love Your Martian! Find her at @astroathens on all platforms :)

Today we chat with Athena Brensberger of AstroAthens. Athena is a science communicator and international model. She started up Astroathens, LLC to improve the outreach for science education and STEM. The focus of Astroathens, LLC is to inform and inspire the public to learn more about space exploration and the cosmos. We chat about her journey through her science communication career, from working with Neil DeGrasse Tyson, teaching a classroom full of students at Dexter, to combining these passions with that of the modeling industry with Alien and Love Your Martian! Find her at @astroathens on all platforms :)

Today we chat with Athena Brensberger of AstroAthens. Athena is a science communicator and international model. She started up Astroathens, LLC to improve the outreach for science education and STEM. The focus of Astroathens, LLC is to inform and inspire the public to learn more about space exploration and the cosmos. We chat about her journey through her science communication career, from working with Neil DeGrasse Tyson, teaching a classroom full of students at Dexter, to combining these passions with that of the modeling industry with Alien and Love Your Martian! Find her at @astroathens on all platforms :)

We sit down with Astrophysicist Kirsten Banks (@astrokirsten) and chat about life, school, the Bachelor, and astrophysics.

We sit down with Astrophysicist Kirsten Banks (@astrokirsten) and chat about life, school, the Bachelor, and astrophysics.

We sit down with Astrophysicist Kirsten Banks (@astrokirsten) and chat about life, school, the Bachelor, and astrophysics.

The Four Levels of the Multiverse. We talk Parallel Universes, Schrödinger's Equation, Decoherence as researched by Max Tegmark. What if we lived in 4 spacial dimensions? What if we had different laws of physics? Looking at the different theories in regards to parallel universes addresses these questions and more!

The Four Levels of the Multiverse. We talk Parallel Universes, Schrödinger's Equation, Decoherence as researched by Max Tegmark. What if we lived in 4 spacial dimensions? What if we had different laws of physics? Looking at the different theories in regards to parallel universes addresses these questions and more!

The Four Levels of the Multiverse. We talk Parallel Universes, Schrödinger's Equation, Decoherence as researched by Max Tegmark. What if we lived in 4 spacial dimensions? What if we had different laws of physics? Looking at the different theories in regards to parallel universes addresses these questions and more!

Last week we discovered the truth behind Climate Change based on real evidence and data by NASA. This week, we look beyond what we've done, and look forward to what we can do to help save our planet!

Last week we discovered the truth behind Climate Change based on real evidence and data by NASA. This week, we look beyond what we've done, and look forward to what we can do to help save our planet!

Most research and quotes for this episode were taken from nasa.gov. As promised, here are some resources form the episode: Want to do your own research? The following selected resources from U.S. government organizations provide information about options for responding to climate change. Climate Data Initiative U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Climate Assessment 2014 U.S. Department of Energy Environmental Protection Agency State of California's Climate Change Portal U.N. Framework on Climate Change   Wanna make a difference in your community? Do a google search for your area: Environmental jobs + [location] Sustainable jobs + [location] Sustainability jobs + [location] Green jobs + [location] Bioenergy jobs + [location] Biofuels jobs + [location] Geothermal jobs + [location] Solar jobs + [location] Hydroelectric jobs + [location] Ocean jobs + [location] Hydrogen jobs + [location] Wind jobs + [location] Green Design jobs + [location] Recycling jobs + [location] Water Quality jobs + [location] Clean Car Manufacturing jobs + [location] Natural Sciences jobs + [location] Energy Efficient Construction jobs + [location] Farm jobs + [location]

Great source of up-to-date info: https://climate.nasa.gov/ The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's full “Summary for Policymakers” report: https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/ipcc_wg3_ar5_summary-for-policymakers.pdf. List of International Agencies and their stance on Climate Change: http://www.opr.ca.gov/facts/list-of-scientific-organizations.html

Great source of up-to-date info: https://climate.nasa.gov/ The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's full “Summary for Policymakers” report: https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/ipcc_wg3_ar5_summary-for-policymakers.pdf. List of International Agencies and their stance on Climate Change: http://www.opr.ca.gov/facts/list-of-scientific-organizations.html

Great source of up-to-date info: https://climate.nasa.gov/ The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's full “Summary for Policymakers” report: https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/ipcc_wg3_ar5_summary-for-policymakers.pdf. List of International Agencies and their stance on Climate Change: http://www.opr.ca.gov/facts/list-of-scientific-organizations.html  

Remembering Katherine Johnson, Viewing the Moon in 4K, a New Space Race, $15,000 Prize, and Prayers Please!

Remembering Katherine Johnson, Viewing the Moon in 4K, a New Space Race, $15,000 Prize, and Prayers Please!

Moon in 4K: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ilifg26TZrI Venus Sensor Contest: https://www.herox.com/VenusRover/guidelines The Moon in 4K NASA with the help of the high-resolution camera of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, has recreated the Apollo 13 crew’s trip around the Moon, only this time it’s in4k. The video uses data gathered from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft to recreate some of the stunning views of the Moon that the Apollo 13 astronauts saw on their journey around the farside in 1970. These visualizations, in 4K, depict many different views of the lunar surface, starting with earthset and sunrise and concluding with the time Apollo 13 reestablished radio contact with Mission Control. Also depicted is the path of the free return trajectory around the Moon, and a continuous view of the Moon throughout that path. All views have been sped up for timing purposes — they are not shown in “real-time.” Link in the Show Notes. The Daily Beast Reports thatThe Pentagon wants to extend the reach of its satellites tens of thousands miles toward the moon. And it’s working on a high-tech, atomic-powered “nuclear thermal propulsion” engine to make it possible. Right now, almost all of the satellites between here and the moon and placed in orbit, then left to fall around Earth unless acted on by another force. The military’s goal is to deploy maneuverable satellites into the vast space between the Earth and the moon—“cislunar” space, it’s called—before China gets there with its own spacecraft. But this isn’t the first time the U.S. government has tried to develop an atomic rocket. And there’s no guarantee the same problems that ended previous efforts won’t also end this one.  The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which oversees the atomic rocket effort, explains in its budget proposal that: “The capability afforded by this [nuclear thermal propulsion] will expand the operating presence of the U.S. in space to the cislunar volume and enhance domestic operations to a new high-ground, which is in danger of being defined by the adversary, here being China The U.S. and Chinese space agencies and even private corporations are eager to mine the moon for minerals that could support deep-space missions, potentially including humanity’s first trip to Mars.  DARPA’s budget request for 2021asks for $21 million for the “Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations” program, or DRACO.    Congress gave DARPA $10 million in 2020 to start studying the DRACO engine. The 2021 budget would allow the agency to start building components. The plan is for DARPA to test DRACO before handing it over to the U.S. Air Force for routine operations. DRACO is basically, it’s a small nuclear reactor atop a space rocket. The reactor heats up a propellant—hydrogen, for example—that accelerates through a nozzle, pushing the satellite in the opposite direction. These Nuclear-thermal engines aren’t for launching from Earth’s surface. They’re for cruising long distances through space or maneuvering a lot while keeping closer to Earth.  The moon is 240,000 miles from Earth. Most man-made satellites orbit no more than a few thousand miles from Earth’s surface. The United States and China are both in a scramble to fill that gap.    Would you like to make $15,000According to Tampa Bay’s Channel 10 News, you can enter your designs for NASA next Rover for exploring Venus. After sending four rovers to Mars -- with a fifth launching soon -- NASA is now eyeing Venus for future research missions. And, the space agency needs the public's help to design the perfect rover that can survive Venus's "hellish" landscape. On Venus -- the second planet from the Sun -- temperatures can reach more than 840 degrees Fahrenheit. The surface pressure on the planet can also be 90 times that of Earth. That level of pressure can turn lead into a puddle and easily crush a nuclear-powered submarine, NASA said.  Many missions have visited Venus, but only about a dozen have reached the surface of the planet before being destroyed by the heat and pressure. Soviet Vega 2 was the last spacecraft to touch Venus in 1985. That’s 35 years ago. Despite Venus's "hellish" environment, scientists say it and Earth are "basically sibling plants." But, they say at one point Venus took a turn and became inhospitable. More on that in our episode on Climate Change Jonathan Sauder, a senior mechatronics engineer at JPL and principal investigator for the Automaton Rover for Extreme Environments concept says that "By getting on the ground and exploring Venus, we can understand what caused Earth and Venus to diverge on wildly different paths and can explore a foreign world right in our own backyard," The "Exploring Hell: Avoiding Obstacles on a Clockwork Rover" competition aims to get public input for a sensor that could be incorporated into a future Venus rover. NASA said the biggest challenge is designing a sensor that doesn't rely on electronic systems, which fail during exposure to more than 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Submissions are open now through May 29. The first-place prize is $15,000, second place is $10,000 and third place is $5,000. The link to apply will be in the show notesAccording to NASA.com Katherine Johnson passed away Feb. 24, 2020 at age 101, after living a life filled with trail-blazing achievements.  But why should you care, and why was she important? With International Women’s day coming up on Sunday March 8th, let’s take a look! Being handpicked to be one of three black students to integrate West Virginia’s graduate schools is something that many people would consider one of their life’s most notable moments, but it’s just one of the breakthroughs that have marked Katherine Johnson’s long and remarkable life. Born in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, by thirteen, she was attending the high school on the campus of historically black West Virginia State College. At eighteen, she enrolled in the college itself, graduated with highest honors in 1937 and took a job teaching at a black public school in Virginia.   In 1953, Johnson began working in the all-black West Area Computing section at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics’ (NACA’s) Langley laboratory. Just two weeks into her tenure in the office, she was assigned to a project in the Flight Research Division, and Katherine’s temporary position soon became permanent. In 1957, Johnson provided some of the math for the 1958 document Notes on Space Technology, a compendium of a series of lectures given by engineers in the Flight Research Division and the Pilotless Aircraft Research Division (PARD). Engineers from those groups formed the core of the Space Task Group, the NACA’s first official foray into space travel, and Katherine, who had worked with many of them since coming to Langley, “came along with the program” as the NACA became NASA later that year. She did trajectory analysis for Alan Shepard’s May 1961 mission Freedom 7, America’s first human spaceflight. Then In 1960, she coauthored a report called, Determination of Azimuth Angle at Burnout for Placing a Satellite Over a Selected Earth Position, laying out the equations describing an orbital spaceflight in which the landing position of the spacecraft is specified. It was the first time a woman in the Flight Research Division had received credit as an author of a research report. In 1962, as NASA prepared for the orbital mission of John Glenn, Katherine Johnson was called upon to do the work that she would become most known for. The complexity of the orbital flight had required the construction of a worldwide communications network, linking tracking stations around the world to IBM computers in Washington, DC, Cape Canaveral, and Bermuda. The computers had been programmed with the orbital equations that would control the trajectory of the capsule in Glenn’s Friendship 7 mission, from blast off to splashdown, but the astronauts were wary of putting their lives in the care of the electronic calculating machines, which were prone to hiccups and blackouts. As a part of the preflight checklist, Glenn asked engineers to “get the girl”—Katherine Johnson—to run the same numbers through the same equations that had been programmed into the computer, but by hand, on her desktop mechanical calculating machine.  “If she says they’re good,’” Katherine Johnson remembers the astronaut saying, “then I’m ready to go.” Glenn’s flight was a success, and marked a turning point in the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union in space. So today, we remember her life and her contributions to space travel. 

Today we cover the large scale structures of the universe. Everything from Stars, Star Clusters, Galaxies, Galaxy Clusters, Filaments, Walls, Great Walls, Voids, Super Voids, Super Clusters, Dark Flow, The Great Attractor and questioning the expansion of our universe!

Today we cover the large scale structures of the universe. Everything from Stars, Star Clusters, Galaxies, Galaxy Clusters, Filaments, Walls, Great Walls, Voids, Super Voids, Super Clusters, Dark Flow, The Great Attractor and questioning the expansion of our universe!

Today we cover the large scale structures of the universe. Everything from Stars, Star Clusters, Galaxies, Galaxy Clusters, Filaments, Walls, Great Walls, Voids, Super Voids, Super Clusters, Dark Flow, The Great Attractor and questioning the expansion of our universe!

Donald Trump, Mars Rocks, Babies with no butts, and the Corona Virus from Space!

Donald Trump, Mars Rocks, Babies with no butts, and the Corona Virus from Space!

Donald Trump, Mars Rocks, Babies with no butts, and the Corona Virus from Space!

Intro to Quantum Mechanics! Everything from quantum realms, Endgame, electrons, atoms, cats, matter, light, to all laws of physics!

Intro to Quantum Mechanics! Everything from quantum realms, Endgame, electrons, atoms, cats, matter, light, to all laws of physics!

Intro to Quantum Mechanics! Everything from quantum realms, Endgame, electrons, atoms, cats, matter, light, to all laws of physics!

Warp Drives and Space Travel! What is AntiMatter and how can it be used to send us across the stars?

Warp Drives and Space Travel! What is AntiMatter and how can it be used to send us across the stars?

Warp Drives and Space Travel! What is Anti-Matter and how can it be utilized to send us across the stars?

Black Hole Image, Crashed Spacecraft, SpaceX, Tourist Destinations… and TWINS?!

Black Hole Image, Crashed Spacecraft, SpaceX, Tourist Destinations… and TWINS?!

Black Hole Image, Crashed Spacecraft, SpaceX, Tourist Destinations… and TWINS?!

Ash Wednesday, Donald Trump, China, Israel, Japan, Jeff Bezos, & Planet Nine

Ash Wednesday, Donald Trump, China, Israel, Japan, Jeff Bezos, & Planet Nine

Ash Wednesday, Donald Trump, China, Israel, Japan, Jeff Bezos, & Planet Nine

Why haven't we returned to the Moon? Was it toxic, dangerous, aliens, FLO'S RAP SKILLS?!

Why haven't we returned to the Moon? Was it toxic, dangerous, aliens, FLO'S RAP SKILLS?!

Why haven't we returned to the Moon? Was it toxic, dangerous, aliens, FLO'S RAP SKILLS?!

There are people on this Earth that think the Earth is flat! They are called Flat Earthers and they believe that "The earth is a flat disc that is surrounded on all sides by an ice wall that holds the oceans back. This ice wall is what explorers have named Antarctica- a 150-foot-tall wall of ice, around the rim. NASA employees, they say, guard this ice wall to prevent people from climbing over and falling off the disc.

There are people on this Earth that think the Earth is flat! They are called Flat Earthers and they believe that "The earth is a flat disc that is surrounded on all sides by an ice wall that holds the oceans back. This ice wall is what explorers have named Antarctica- a 150-foot-tall wall of ice, around the rim. NASA employees, they say, guard this ice wall to prevent people from climbing over and falling off the disc.

There are people on this Earth that think the Earth is flat! They are called Flat Earthers and they believe that "The earth is a flat disc that is surrounded on all sides by an ice wall that holds the oceans back. This ice wall is what explorers have named Antarctica- a 150-foot-tall wall of ice, around the rim. NASA employees, they say, guard this ice wall to prevent people from climbing over and falling off the disc.

This week, we feature Venus! Being the brightest object in our sky save the Moon and our Sun, learn how Venus is composed and how it could give us a warning about the fate of our own planet!

This week, we feature Venus! Being the brightest object in our sky save the Moon and our Sun, learn how Venus is composed and how it could give us a warning about the fate of our own planet!

This week, we feature Venus! Being the brightest object in our sky save the Moon and our Sun, learn how Venus is composed and how it could give us a warning about the fate of our own planet!

We dive into how the Nazi Party had an integral part to play in the formation of NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

We dive into how the Nazi Party had an integral part to play in the formation of NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

We dive into how the Nazi Party had an integral part to play in the formation of NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

This weeks Planet Spotlight is all about Mercury! It's the smallest planet and closest to the Sun, but there is so much more to learn! Dive in to learn more about why Dr. Seuss, Vincent Van Gogh, and Beethoven are all involved! Included is the history of discovery, what spacecraft we have sent there, its atmosphere, surface, and its composition.

This weeks Planet Spotlight is all about Mercury! It's the smallest planet and closest to the Sun, but there is so much more to learn! Dive in to learn more about why Dr. Seuss, Vincent Van Gogh, and Beethoven are all involved! Included is the history of discovery, what spacecraft we have sent there, its atmosphere, surface, and its composition.

In this episode, we dive into the planet Mercury. Included is the history of discovery, what spacecraft we have sent there, its atmosphere, surface, and its composition.