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 234: Irregular Nomenclature Nov 05, 2019

Show notes

This week in SF history

— 29 October 1998: Launch of STS-95 (wikipedia.org) (PDF: nasa.gov)

— Next week in 1974: Solidarity

Spaceflight news

— Upgraded H3 rocket for lunar missions (spacenews.com)

— H-IIA had a proposed asymmetric configuration as well as liquid boosters (HT Sam in the chat: b14643.de)

Short & Sweet

— Chang’e-5 to launch late next year (spacenews.com)

— The X-37 sets another record. (spacenews.com)

— NASA gives funding to look into extended mission to Pluto (americaspace.com)

— Another plot twist for the mole on Mars. (spacenews.com)

Episode 233: IAC DC, 2019 Oct 29, 2019

Show notes

Bit of a weird show this week! No news, tired hosts. We talk about our favorite things from this year’s International Astronautical Congress, and we promise more information later.

This show is brought to you by just over one hundred supporters on Patreon (and direct monthly supporters using Bitcoin and Paypal!) We couldn’t have done this without you, and we are so thankful for your confidence in our ability to bring you educational and entertaining content.

Episode 232: Full Panic Ensued Oct 15, 2019

Show notes

This week in SF history

— October 17, 1956: Birth of Mae Jemison (wikipedia.org)

Spaceflight news

— Battery replacement EVAs (americaspace.com)

— Commercial crew update (arstechnica.com) (spacenews.com)

— Eric Berger says "full panic has ensued" (twitter.com/SciGuySpace)

— Dragon done in 10 weeks? (twitter.com/elonmusk)

Short & Sweet

— Virgin Orbit announces potential Martian cubesat missions. (theverge.com)

— Stratolaunch is now under new ownership. (spacenews.com)

— The Jason-2 mission has ended, but its satellite will remain. (spacenews.com)

Episode 231: Fewer gyros, more problems Oct 08, 2019

Show notes

This week in SF history

— 2000 October 9: HETE-2, first orbital launch from Kwajalein (wikipedia.org)

— Next week in 1956: listen in for an audio clue.

Spaceflight news

— Plans in place to fix DSCOVR (spacenews.com)

— We first reported on this on Ep 218 as a S&S (spacenews.com)

— Faulty gyro? (twitter.com/simoncarn)

— Triana engineers considered laser gyro failures (PDF: nasa.gov)

Short & Sweet

— NASA Mars 2020 tests descent stage separation (jpl.nasa.gov)

— NASA issues request for information on xEMU. (nasaspaceflight.com)

— New Shepard will likely not fly humans in 2019. (spacenews.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— #TOMIAC2019

— Sunday: Off Nominal meetups (events.offnominal.space)

— Monday: museum day

— Udvar-Hazy and downtown Air and Space Museum

— Thursday: Dinner meetup

— mcgintyspublichouse.com

— 911 Ellsworth Dr, Silver Spring, MD 20910

— Friday: IAC no-ticket open day

Episode 230: Starship InSight Oct 01, 2019

Show notes

This week in SF history

— October 1, 1958: NASA begins operations (wikipedia.org) (archives.gov)

— Next week in 2000: Sometimes a good explosion is exactly what you need

Spaceflight news

— InSight scientists presents three new discoveries (americaspace.com) (copernicus.org)

— Images show scoop packing down regolith around mole? (twitter.com)

— Starship update (spacenews.com) (youtube.com) (spaceflightnow.com)

— Our interview with Tess Caswell on CDRA (theorbitalmechanics.com)

Short & Sweet

— NASA awards a long-term contract to Lockheed Martin. (spacenews.com)

— Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter delayed to 2022 (spaceflightnow.com)

— NEO mission confirmed (spacenews.com)

Episode 229: Somewhat Rectilinear Sep 24, 2019

Show notes

This week in SF history

— September 27 2003: last flight of Ariane 5 G, launching E-Bird

— First A5 flight, 1996, failed spectacularly (youtu.be) (wikipedia.org) (hownot2code.com)

— Next week in 1958: Twelve pages

Spaceflight news

— NASA planning on placing a cubesat in a Lunar near-rectilinear halo orbit (spacenews.com) (youtube.com)

— Meanwhile some Congressfolk are suggesting killing Lunar Gateway altogether (arstechnica.com)

Short & Sweet

— Updates on Rocket Lab and Blue Origin launch complexes (rocketlabusa.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)

— SpaceX is offering a buyout. (space.com)

— Japan seeks to double its launch capacity. (rocketrundown.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Off-Nominal DC (aka “inside the beltway”) meetup (events.offnominal.space)

Episode 228: Fired up Sep 17, 2019

Show notes

This week in SF history

— 21 September 1968: Landing of zond 5 (wikipedia.org) (russianspaceweb.com)

— Next week in 2003: generic no longer

Spaceflight news

— H-IIB launch pad fire (youtube.com) (spacenews.com) (HT Sam in the chat: twitter.com/mageshiman1025)

— NASA conducts ground test of the B330. (space.com)

— Tour of B330 (Mars Transporter Testing Unit) and Olympus B2100 (youtube.com)

Short & Sweet

— Tianhe passes final review, though delays are still likely (spacenews.com)

— NASA’s LRO to take images of the Vikram Lander (spaceflightnow.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— GOES-13 correction from Kevin Smith (skyriddles.wordpress.com) (spacenews.com)

Episode 227: Successful Orbiter Sep 10, 2019

Show notes

This week in SF history

— 12 September 1959: Launch of Luna 2 (wikipedia.org)

Spaceflight news

— Chandrayaan-2’s successful orbiter mission? (space.com) (reddit.com)

— Doppler curves (twitter.com/cgbassa)

— Lander crash site located (thehindu.com) (ndtv.com)

— Aeolus dodges a Starlink. (space.com)

Short & Sweet

— Target marker operation and dress rehearsal postponed for Hayabusa2 (hayabusa2.jaxa.jp)

— WFIRST passes PDR (spacenews.com)

Episode 226: Duricrust Sep 03, 2019

Show notes

This week in SF history

— 7 September 1914: Birth of James Van Allen (wikipedia.org)

— Next week in 1962: cloud-based navigation

Spaceflight news

— Starhopper Completes Test Flight (spacenews.com)

— Scott Manley’s excellent coverage (youtube.com)

— More detailed photos (twitter.com/bocachicagal)

— Updates from Elon Musk (twitter.com/elonmusk)

— InSight mole update (spacenews.com)

Short & Sweet

— The completed Rosalind Franklin rover displayed by Airbus engineers! (bbc.com)

— Mars 2020 helicopter integrated into the rover (bbc.com)

— JWST has now been physically assembled (nasa.gov)

Episode 225: DATA RELAY--Hot Structures Aug 27, 2019

Show notes

This week in SF history

— August 30, 1931. Birth of Jack Swigert (wikipedia.org)

— Next week in 1914: You know what might have killed Swigert….

Spaceflight news

— Uncrewed Soyuz aborts docking. (spacenews.com)

— Second attempt delayed to free up a new docking port. (twitter.com/roscosmos)

Short & Sweet

— Astrobotic chooses ULA’s Vulcan Centaur rocket to deliver its lunar lander (astrobotic.com)

— Sierra-Nevada selects ULA. (spacenews.com)

— Europa Clipper passes Key Decision Point-C (arstechnica.com)

Data Relay—Hot Structures

— Thanks to Ben Crews for researching and presenting this topic! (linkedin.com)

— X-15 Hardware Design Challenges (PDF: nasa.gov)

— NASA solicitation for research on hot structures (sbir.gov)

— Multifunctional Hot Structure (HOST) Heat Shield (techbriefs.com)

— Heat Shield Concepts and Materials for Reentry Vehicles (includes some familiar lifting-body vehicle form proposals!) (PDF: dtic.mil)

— Advances in Hot Structure Development (Brief with link to PDF: nasa.gov)

— Thermal-Structural Optimization of Integrated Tanks for RLV (embedded PDF: aiaa.org)

— Tim Dodd’s discussion on Starship transpiration cooling (youtube.com)

/— u/spacerfirstclass speculates on Spaceship’s use of hot structures. (reddit.com/r/spacex)

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