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 283: Sample Stowed Nov 04, 2020

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Direct lunar water observation (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (nature.com)

— OSIRIS-REx stores sample (spacenews.com) (asteroidmission.org) (asteroidmission.org)

Short & Sweet

— Launchspace to install debris collection payload on ISS. (spacenews.com)

— Ariane 6 needs additional funding. (spacenews.com)

— Falcon 9 launch abort conclusion. (spacenews.com) (cbsnews.com)

— NASA faces tough choice due to SLS’s slow progress. (space.com)

This week in SF history

— 9 Nov, 1967. Launch of Apollo 4 (wikipedia.org) (drewexmachina.com) (space.skyrocket.de)

— Ejectable film canisters were fairly complex machines (nasa.gov)

— Apollo 8 press kit (PDF: nasa.gov)

— Apollo 4 press kit (cdm16608.contentdm.oclc.org)

— Next week (11/10 - 11/17) in 1982. It was a lovely trip, but we were stuck indoors the whole time.

Episode 282: Nightingale Sneeze Oct 27, 2020

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— OSIRIS-REx completes TAG (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (asteroidmission.org)

— Descent video and description by Dante Lauretta (asteroidmission.org) (twitter.com/NASA)

— TAGSAM details (link.springer.com) (youtu.be)

— We spoke with Richard Witherspoon, mission operations systems engineer at Lockheed Martin in Ep 186 (theorbitalmechanics.com)

Short & Sweet

— Falcon 9 core sets record with Starlink launch. (americaspace.com)

— China reveals plans for a number of space projects. (spacenews.com)

— GHGSat detects smallest methane emission ever from orbit. (smallsatnews.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Chris Hofmann via DM and Ben Hallert (twitter.com/chairboy): Firefly launches out of Vandenberg, not Wallops

This week in SF history

— 30 Oct, 1985. Launch of the eight-person shuttle crew, STS 61-A. Largest crew to date (en.wikipedia.org) (spacefacts.de)

— Interview with Ernst Messerschmid, Payload Specialist (esa.int)

— Next week (11/3-11/9) in 1967: Fiber optics trained on the ringed planet

Episode 281: International Gateway Oct 20, 2020

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— NASA and ESA Lunar Gateway contracts awarded (space.com) (spacenews.com)

— Airbus and Thales Alenia were also contracted to develop a lunar lander (spacewatch.global) (esa.int)

Short & Sweet

— Prototype rover tested in Mojave desert. (cnet.com)

— Fire at Firefly’s Wallops Launch Complex. (twitter.com/Firefly_Space) (twitter.com/DavidNagySFgang)

— Zvezda atmosphere success… and failure. (sciencealert.com) (tass.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— OSIRIS-Rex Touch-and-Go maneuver (americaspace.com) (nasa.gov)

This week in SF history

— 26 Oct, 2006. Launch of the STEREO mission (stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov)

— SECCHI - Sun-Earth Connections Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation (secchi.lmsal.com)

— IMPACT - In situ Measurements of Particles And CME Transients (sprg.ssl.berkeley.edu)

— PLASTIC - Plasma and Suprathermal Ion Composition (link.springer.com)

— Next week (10/27 - 11/2) in 1985: Room for one more?

Episode 280: DOWNLINK--Ella Atkins II Oct 13, 2020

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— SpaceX Crew-1 mission delayed (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)

— Tom Mueller explained the gas generator cycle, and the Merlin engine in particular (youtube.com)

— GPS III SV04 launch scrubbed earlier this month due to “unexpected pressure rise in the turbomachinery gas generator” (twitter.com/elonmusk)

Short & Sweet

— Chinese taikonauts selected for country’s space station (spacenews.com)

— The Autophage engine receives funding (space.com) (patents.google.com)

— SpaceX is deorbiting its original Starlink satellites (spacenews.com) (forum.nasaspaceflight.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Emory Stagmer: The LCROSS Flight Director's Blog (nasa.gov)

Interview -- Ella Atkins, Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan, and IEEE Senior Member.

— We previously spoke with Ella on Episode 223 (theorbitalmechanics.com)

— Autonomous done with a nailgun (youtube.com)

— Ella’s professional profile and CV (aero.engin.umich.edu)

— U of M’s robotics department (robotics.umich.edu)

— Thanks to IEEE for putting us in touch with Ella! (IEEE.org)

This week in SF history

— 16 Oct, 1976: Soyuz 23 becomes the first unintentional splash-down (en.wikipedia.org) (americaspace.com) (youtube.com) (books.google.com)

— Next week in 2006: a fresh pair of eyes

Episode 279: Free-Floating Selfie Stick Oct 07, 2020

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Tianwen-1 selfie (twitter.com/AJ_FI)

— No country’s first Mars mission has ever been an orbiter/lander pair before (eoportal.org)

— Orbiter instrumentation (nssc.cas.cn)

— Lander/rover instrumentation (spacerobotics.eu)

Short & Sweet

— U.S. to monitor spacecraft around cis-lunar space (breakingdefense.com)

— ThrustMe secures ESA funding (satellite-evolution.com)

— Starlink could serve as a GPS alternative (technologyreview.com)

— China announces work on lunar-capable crewed launch vehicle (space.com)

— SpaceX continues Boca Chica takeover (vice.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Ben Hallert: NRHO, but not Gateway, are required for Artemis 3 landing (twitter.com/chairboy)

— From the intro: Dragon DEMO-2 named Resilience (spacenews.com)

This week in SF history

— October 9, 2009. LCROSS impact of the lunar south pole (wikipedia.org)

— The in flight anomaly (spaceflightnow.com)

— Crater investigation (arxiv.org)

— Estimating the circumference of an ellipse (youtube.com)

— Next week in 1976: joining the polar bear club

Episode 278: DOWNLINK--Panagiotis Tsiotras Sep 30, 2020

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— NASA science mission delays (spacenews.com)

— JWST deployment tests are done! (nasa.gov)

Short & Sweet

— Blue Origin pursues space station development. (spacenews.com)

— Price tag for on-orbit publicity photos. (spacenews.com)

— ISS leak narrowed down to two modules. (businessinsider.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Andrew Z: Bishop grapple fixture placement (youtube.com) (PDF: forum.nasaspaceflight.com)

— Andrew Z: HLS size comparison (twitter.com/brickmack)

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

— Dr. Tsiotras helped design the ASTROS (Autonomous Spacecraft Testing of Robotic Operations in Space) lab at Georgia Tech (dcsl.gatech.edu)

— Dr. Tsiotras is the director of the Dynamics and Control Systems Laboratory at Georgia Tech’s School of Aerospace Engineering (dcsl.gatech.edu)

— (LinkedIn)

— IEEE Transmitter is a multimedia platform (transmitter.ieee.org)

This week in SF history

— 1 Oct, 2003. The formation of JAXA

— Hideo Itokawa, “Dr. Rocket” was instrumental in Japan’s early rocketry research (researchgate.net) (global.jaxa.jp)

— National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan (NAL) (jaxa.jp)

— Next week in 2009: I would walk 1,496,225 kilometers/ and I would walk 1,496,225 more/ and I would walk 1496225 more/ just to be the satellite that walked 4,488,675 kilometers/ to fall down at your door.

Episode 277: Little Nub Sep 22, 2020

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Nanoracks ISS airlock is nearly complete (spacenews.com) (youtube.com)

— Dynetics HLS mockup arrives at JSC (twitter.com/Dynetics) (techcrunch.com)

— On-orbit refueling is required to get Dynetics HLS to the moon (spacenews.com)

Short & Sweet

— Russia announces solo mission to Venus (dailymail.co.uk) (nplus1.ru) (twitter.com/katlinegrey)

— China preps for Chang’e 5 launch (spacenews.com)

— Artemis III’s landing site (spacepolicyonline.com) (spacenews.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Ben Hallert: FH has launched three times, not two (twitter.com/chairboy)

— Ben Hallert: Any Vulcan can have up to 6 SRMs, it’s Centaur that gets heavy (twitter.com/chairboy)

— Andrew Z: Interesting Boeing read (aviationweek.com)

This week in SF history

— 23 Sept, 1999. Mars Climate Orbiter failure (wikipedia.org) (spectrum.ieee.org) (PDF: sunnyday.mit.edu)

— Next week in 2003: a bureaucratic Voltron

Episode 276: DOWNLINK--Baratunde Cola Sep 16, 2020

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Cause of ULA’s recent hot-fire abort has been identified. (americaspace.com) (twitter.com/torybruno)

— A “routine, ongoing trade study” has resulted in the possibility of a three-core Vulcan Super Heavy (twitter.com/torybruno)

— Astra’s Rocket 3.1 flight terminated during its first stage. (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/Astra)

Short & Sweet

— Juno eyes extended mission goals. (spacenews.com)

— Boeing to be investigated by independent ethics probe. (foxbusiness.com)

— NASA offers to buy commercially-obtained lunar samples. (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/mastenspace)

— China’s mystery spacecraft returns to Earth. (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/Marco_Langbroek)

— Northrop Grumman cancels OmegA. (spacenews.com)

Interview--Baratunde Cola, Founder and CEO of Carbice Corporation

— A SBIR award was instrumental to getting the company up on their feet. (sbir.gov)

— Thermal camera footage of Carbice Carbon (youtube.com)

— Promo video (youtube.com)

— Carbice.com

Socials

— linkedin.com

— instagram.com/carbicemagic

— twitter.com/baratundecola

— twitter.com/carbice

This week in SF history

— 15 Sept, 1908. Birth of Abe Silverstein (en.wikipedia.org)

— Improved Wright R-3350 engine cooling by inserting baffles (PDF: apps.dtic.mil)

— Next week in 1999: What’s that in Pirate-Ninjas?

Episode 275: First Light Flight Sep 08, 2020

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Rocket Lab secretly launches Photon spacecraft (techcrunch.com) (spacenews.com) (space.com)

Short & Sweet

— SpaceX sets a new record. (americaspace.com)

— China launches a reusable spacecraft. (spacenews.com)

— We have a Starship hop! (spacenews.com) (youtube.com)

This week in SF history

— 7 Sept, 1995. Launch of STS-69 (wikipedia.org) (sciencedirect.com)

— Also had an alternate patch: Dog Crew II (spacepatches.nl)

— Mach waves were visible during launch (youtube.com)

Episode 274: DOWNLINK--Peter Beck Sep 01, 2020

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Funding secured for NanoFEEP manufacturer Morpheus Space (spacenews.com) (HT Andrew Zdanowicz: defenseone.com)

— Liquid eyeliner demonstrates an effect similar to the Taylor Cones utilized in electrospray engines (HT Colin: hackaday.com)

Short & Sweet

— SLS takes a brief break. (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com)

— Starliner's schedule falls further behind Crew Dragon’s. (investors.com) (spacenews.com)

— Russian space station module arrives at Baikonur. (spaceflightnow.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— From the intro: InSight drills below the surface (twitter.com/NASAInSight)

Interview--Peter Beck, Founder and CEO of Rocket Lab

— twitter.com/rocketlab

— twitter.com/peter_j_beck

— rocketlabusa.com

This week in SF history

— 5 Sept, 1977. Launch of Voyager 1, and the final Titan IIIE launch (voyager.jpl.nasa.gov) (en.wikipedia.org)

— Next week in 1995: Centenarian

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