Gravity Assist

Latest Episodes:

Season 5, Episode 22: Using Webb to Trace Galactic Histories Mar 04, 2022

Show notes

The James Webb Space Telescope, which launched Dec. 25, will allow us to see the farthest galaxies and better understand the origins of the Milky Way. Aaron Yung at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center is preparing for these historic observations by simulating what Webb will see in the early universe.

Season 5, Episode 21: In Case of Space Station Emergency Feb 18, 2022

Show notes

In space, we have to expect the unexpected. Sunny Panjwani of NASA’s Johnson Space Center shares how he got thrown into an emergency situation on his first day as a flight controller. His team makes sure that astronauts have a safe environment on board the International Space Station.

Gravity Assist: Meet NASA’s New Chief Scientist, Kate Calvin Jan 28, 2022

Show notes

Climate change is one of the most important issues facing our planet, and NASA has lots of space missions and programs in the works to monitor and understand its drivers and effects. Kate Calvin, NASA’s new chief scientist, is also the agency’s senior climate advisor. In this episode, Kate previews  upcoming Earth science missions and discusses cut

Season 5, Episode 19: A New Set of X-Ray Eyes is Launching Dec 03, 2021

Show notes

NASA is about to launch a new spacecraft to look at the universe in X-ray light. The Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer, IXPE, will look at extreme objects such as black holes, neutron stars, and supernovae, asking fundamental questions about how high-energy light gets produced.

Season 5, Episode 18: How to Move an Asteroid, with Nancy Chabot Nov 19, 2021

Show notes

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test Mission, or DART, will deliberately impact a small asteroid called Dimorphos to deflect its orbit around a bigger object, Didymos. Nancy Chabot, planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, has the details.

Season 5, Episode 17: Solar Power for the Moon Oct 29, 2021

Show notes

As NASA prepares to send astronauts to the Moon through the Artemis program, engineers are working on technologies that will give these explorers power – solar power, that is. In space, the harsh radiation and huge temperature changes make for a challenging environment.

Season 5, Episode 16:Meet a Space Weather Scientist Oct 22, 2021

Show notes

Yaireska Collado-Vega leads a team at NASA’s Goddard Spacecraft Center that is studying the solar weather environment so that robots and people exploring space can be protected. In this episode of Gravity Assist, she describes the excitement and challenges of understanding space weather, and how she got to be a NASA scientist.

Season 5, Episode 15: Lucy and the Space Fossils, with Hal Levison Oct 08, 2021

Show notes

To get a more complete understanding of the full history of our solar system, NASA is sending a spacecraft called Lucy to investigate the Trojans, mysterious small objects that share an orbit of the Sun with Jupiter. Principal investigator Hal Levison of the Southwest Research Institute

Season 5, Episode 14: Goodbye Saturn, Hello Earth Aug 27, 2021

Show notes

Janelle Wellons likes to say that she operates “fancy space cameras.” At NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, she creates commands that allow spacecraft to take valuable scientific data in our solar system and here at planet Earth.

Season 5, Episode 13: Freaky Physics on the Space Station Aug 06, 2021

Show notes

The laws of physics get very, very weird in the realm of particles too small for the eye to see. Aboard the International Space Station, an experiment called the Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL) is exploring how the universe works .

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