The Orbital Mechanics Podcast

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Natural Sciences
**The Orbital Mechanics Podcast**

Every week we cover the latest spaceflight news, discuss past, current and future exploration efforts, and take a look at upcoming events. Tune in to hear about how humans get to space, how they stay in space and how unmanned craft reach farther and farther into the universe around us.

Latest Episodes:

Episode 303: Dramatic Concealed Conflagration Apr 07, 2021

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Failed data bus on Crew Dragon (HT Kevin Smith: blogs.nasa.gov)

— SN11 landing failure (space.com) (twitter.com/Bojay_stellar) (twitter.com/TrevorMahlmann)

Short & Sweet

— Rocket Lab preparing for Moon Mission (twitter.com/RocketLab) (nasaspaceflight.com)

— Everyday people in space (spaceflightnow.com)

— NASA buys lunar gravity from Blue Origin (nasa.gov)

— HLS award should be here soon (spacenews.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— From the intro: ingenuity deployed (space.com)

Last week in SF history

— 4 Apr, 1983: The launch of TDRS-A aboard STS-6 (space.nss.org) (spacefacts.de) (nasaspaceflight.com) (nasa.gov) (americaspace.com) (americaspace.com) (youtube.com)

— Footage of TDRS-E’s deployment in 1991 was shot with much better cameras (youtu.be)

— Next week (4/13 - 4/19) in 2005: Bullseye?

Episode 302: Debris Mayhem Mar 24, 2021

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Bill Nelson to be nominated as next NASA head (spacenews.com) (whitehouse.gov)

— Debris mayhem

— Space Force would hire deorbiting satellites (spacenews.com)

— Astroscale’s demo will launch on the GK Launch Services rideshare Soyuz (spacenews.com)

— NOAA-17 broke up (spacenews.com) (HT Mike Stewart: archive.org)

Short & Sweet

— Chang’e 5 orbiter begins extended mission (spacenews.com)

— JWST on target for launch in October (spacenews.com) (theatlantic.com)

— Super Heavy is being stacked (teslarati.com) (twitter.com/elonmusk)

— Capella releases dish deployment video (cnbc.com) (directory.eoportal.org)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Emory S. via Discord: on-orbit servicing thoughts

This week in SF history

— 24 Mar, 2006. HiRISE takes its first images of Mars (space.com) (newscientist.com) (mars.nasa.gov)

— Next week (3/30 - 4/5) in 1983. A little deeper pool.

Episode 301: Service Update Mar 17, 2021

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Ukrainian startup looks at in-orbit servicing (spacenews.com) (kursorbital.com)

— Northrup’s MEV-2 prepares for docking attempt with geostationary satellite (spacenews.com)

— Market analysis for on-orbit service demand by Northern Sky Research (nsr.com)

— CONFERS is working on docking standards (satelliteconfers.org)

Short & Sweet

— HST back online after software glitch (spacenews.com)

— Second hot fire of SLS core scheduled for Thursday (americaspace.com) (spaceflightnow.com)

— China successfully launches Long March 7A (spacenews.com)

This week in SF history

— 21 Mar, 2007: Second launch of Falcon 1 (wikipedia.org) (space.com) (amazon.com)

— The second stage engine bell scraped the interstage during separation (youtube.com)

— Next week (3/23 - 3/29) in 2006: First sweep of a dusty surface

Episode 300: Nikolas Trawny, Ph. D. Mar 10, 2021

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Rocket Lab reveals Neutron, goes public (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (rocketlabusa.com)

Short & Sweet

— Starship burned down, fell over, and only then sank into the swamp (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/elonmusk)

— SpaceX wins a contract (spacenews.com)

— Price changes announced for ISS and lunar mission (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)

— Perseverance update (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (youtube.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Ryan via email: Cut cables on Perseverance

— Ben Hallert: inclinometer vs gyro (twitter.com/chairboy)

— From the intro: Smarter Every Day looks at Mighty Eagle (youtube.com)

Interview: Nikolas Trawny, Ph.D., JPL GNC section

— ADAPT flight test (jpl.nasa.gov) (arc.aiaa.org) (nasa.gov)

— Mars 2020 LVS and TRN (science.nasa.gov)

— Dr. Trawny’s LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

This week in SF history

— 15 March, 1986: Soyuz T-15 docks with Mir, ahead of the first (and only) station-to-station equipment transfer. (spacefacts.de) (spacefacts.de)

— Soyuz-T still had an Igla approach system, not Kurs (svengrahn.pp.se)

— Next week (3/16 - 3/22) in 2007, This list goes up to eleven, or at least it should.

Episode 299: Dare Mighty Parachutes Mar 03, 2021

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Perseverance update!

— Parachute message (twitter.com)

— MATLAB solution (HT trbinsc in the chat: cdn.discordapp.com)

— Make your own custom message! (sjwarner.github.io)

— Perseverance photos and video (planetary.org) (spacenews.com) (mars.nasa.gov) (youtube.com)

— Opportunity visited its heat shield’s crash site (HT Mike Stewart spaceref.com)

— Dynetics completes preliminary design review for HLS lander (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com)

— NASA’s human spaceflight program and safety (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/wapodavenport)

— We talked to Emory Stagmer about Starliner’s issues in episode 241 (theorbitalmechanics.com)

Short & Sweet

— Culprit identified for failed Falcon 9 booster landing (spacenews.com)

— Post-recording followup: sounds like this may have been an issue isolated to retrofire! (HT Mike Stewart: spacenews.com)

— Blockchain transaction tested on orbit (parabolicarc.com)

— Relativity is going reusable (cnbc.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Hartvik Line via email: Inspiration has 6-DOF sensing

— twitter.com/chairboy: The largest spacecraft ever (wikipedia.org)

This week in SF history

— 5 Mar, 1999. Launch of WIRE space telescope (en.wikipedia.org) (PDF: nasa.gov) (spiedigitallibrary.org)

— Making the most of a bad situation (ucolick.org) (PDF: llis.nasa.gov)

— Next week (3/9 - 3/15) in 1986. The first stop on our roadtrip.

Episode 298: Tango Delta Feb 24, 2021

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Perseverance has landed! (arstechnica.com) (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (uahirise.org)

— HiRISE managed to snap a photo of Perseverance under its parachute (uahirise.org) (HT Mike Stewart: twitter.com/HiRISE)

— Interview with Ingenuity’s Operations Lead (HT Colin-in-the-chat: spectrum.ieee.org)

— Ingenuity runs open source control software called f’ (github.com/nasa)

Short & Sweet

— China prepares to launch first segment of space station (spacenews.com)

— SpaceX demonstrates more data collection leads to more system knowledge (youtube.com)

— Test flight of Starliner slips to April (spacenews.com)

This week in SF history

— 1 March 2002: Launch of the world’s largest civilian earth observation satellite (earth.esa.int) (en.wikipedia.org)

— Succeeded European Remote Sensing Satellites (en.wikipedia.org) (esa.int)

— Eventually replaced by Sentinel (wikipedia.org)

— Next week (3/2 - 3/8) in 1999: Once you pop, the fun don’t start.

Episode 297: Fleet Arrival Feb 17, 2021

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Mars Hope and Tianwen-1 arrive

— Great video from Tianwen-1 as it passes its first periareion (twitter.com/AJ_FI)

— Tianwen-1 will lower to a reconnaissance/landing orbit, then two different science orbits. (twitter.com/PRCMarsRover)

— Mars Hope sent back a fantastic image (bbc.com)

Mars fleet arriving soon

— Perseverance (americaspace.com) (everydayastronaut.com)

— Ingenuity (jpl.nasa.gov) (jpl.nasa.gov) (mars.nasa.gov)

— We previously talked to Ella Atkins about autonomous robotics (theorbitalmechanics.com)

Short & Sweet

— DARPA looks into off-earth manufacturing (rocketrundown.com)

— Turkey aims for 2023 lunar landing (reuters.com)

— The Vulcan pathfinder arrives (spaceflightinsider.com)

— Doors open at Blue Origin’s New Glenn factory (HT Andy Z: twitter.com/WordsmithFL)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Andrew Z and Espen via email: SN9 violation

— Andy pointed out debris separation (6:20 and 6:23: youtube.com)

— Espen pointed us at some illuminating tweets (HT Espen: twitter.com/wapodavenport)

This week in SF history

— 22 Feb, 1990. Launch of Ariane 4 V-36/407 (thespacereview.com) (capcomespace.net)

— Next week (2/23 - 3/1) in 2002: European cars may be small…

Episode 296: Spectre-2 Incoming Feb 10, 2021

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Starship SN9 update (spacenews.com)

— Lots of leftover LOX visible on IR footage (youtube.com)

— SN8’s FAA violation (spacenews.com)

— Firefly wins CLPS contract (spacenews.com) (nasa.gov)

— They will be flying the Blue Ghost lander and a number of science payloads (firefly.com)

— Regolith Adherence Characterization (RAC) (Image at parabolicarc.com)

— Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder (LMS) (hou.usra.edu)

— Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER) (today.ttu.edu)

— Lunar PlanetVac (LPV) (parabolicarc.com)

— Blue Ghost Payload User’s Guide (firefly.com)

— Space Utility Vehicle will be the service module/kick stage to get BG to the moon (firefly.com)

Short & Sweet

— Dragon breaks a record (americaspace.com)

— Nanoracks’ Bishop airlock powers on (houstonchronicle.com)

— OSIRIS-REx to return home (americaspace.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— From the intro: Koenigsmann retiring (HT Colin: cnbc.com)

— Game night!

— Come play Sea of Thieves with Dennis and Ben

— Friday 4pm Eastern 1:00p Pacific

— Meet on Discord (twitter.com/orbitalpodcast)

This week in SF history

— 10 Feb, 2001. Ammonia leak during STS-98 spacewalk (nasa.gov) (esa.int) (spacefacts.de) (science.ksc.nasa.gov)

— The Early External Active Thermal Control was still being used during this mission (sae.org)

— Next week (2/16 - 2/22) in 1990. Potato in the tailpipe

Episode 295: Storybook Titles Feb 03, 2021

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Starship, Elon, and the FAA

— SN8 violated launch license (theverge.com)

— SN9 had to contend with the outcome (spacenews.com) (arstechnica.com) (twitter.com/elonmusk)

Short & Sweet

— Problems revealed for SXM-7 satellite in orbit. (spacenews.com)

— Two more Dragon astronaut crews announced. (spacenews.com) (americaspace.com)

— Second Green Run Static Fire (spacenews.com) (blogs.nasa.gov)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Chris Hofmann (via DM), Ben Hallert (twitter.com/chairboy): SLS Core Stage tanking limits (twitter.com/NASA_SLS) (blogs.nasa.gov)

— The nine-tank mistake might be traced back to a press call (clickorlando.com)

This week in SF history

— Soyuz 24 mission to Salyut 5 (wikipedia.org) (astronotix.com) (spacefacts.de) (nytimes.com)

— Next week (2/9 - 2/15) in 2001: Do you smell that? No?

Episode 294: DOWNLINK--Panagiotis Tsiotras II Jan 27, 2021

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— SLS Green Test hotfire followup (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (spaceflightnow.com) (youtube.com)

Short & Sweet

— SpaceX buys offshore oil platforms to convert to spaceports. (chron.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)

— ThrustMe performs on orbit. (spacenews.com)

— Starliner up and running? (spacenews.com) (HT Andrew Z: spaceflightnow.com)

Interview--Dr. Panagiotis Tsiotras, IEEE Fellow and Professor and David and Andrew Lewis Chair, Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology.

— Chapter 8.2 of Ulrich Walter’s Astronautics is a good resource for learning about Lambert Transfers (books.google.com)

— Dr. Tsiotras wrote a paper called Optimal Two-Impulse Rendezvous Using Multiple-Revolution Lambert Solutions (PDF: researchgate.net)

This week in SF history

— 1 Feb, 1990: The first test of the Soviet SPK/21KS maneuvering unit (americaspace.com) (astronautix.com) (astronautix.com) (spacefacts.de) (books.google.com) (russianspaceweb.com)

— Next week (2/2 - 2/8) in 1977: A farewell salute

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