Weekly Space Hangout – April 17, 2015: Amy Shira Teitel and “Breaking the Chains of Gravity”

Host: Fraser Cain (@fcain)
Special Guest: Amy Shira Teitel (@astVintageSpace) discussing space history and her new book Breaking the Chains of Gravity
Guests:
Morgan Rehnberg (cosmicchatter.org / @MorganRehnberg )

This Week’s Stories:
Falcon 9 launch and (almost!) landing
NASA Invites ESA to Build Europa Piggyback Probe
Bouncing Philae Reveals Comet is Not Magnetised
Astronomers Watch Starbirth in Real Time
SpaceX Conducts Tanking Test on In-Flight Abort Falcon 9
Rosetta Team Completely Rethinking Comet Close Encounter Strategy
Apollo 13 Custom LEGO Minifigures Mark Mission’s 45th Anniversary
LEGO Launching Awesome Spaceport Shuttle Sets in August
New Horizons Closes in on Pluto
Work Platform to be Installed in the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Watching the Sunsets of Mars Through Robot Eyes: Photos
NASA Invites ESA to Build Europa Piggyback Probe
ULA Plans to Introduce New Rocket One Piece at a Time
Two Mysterious Bright Spots on Dwarf Planet Ceres Are Not Alike
18 Image Montage Show Off Comet 67/P Activity
ULA’s Next Rocket To Be Named Vulcan
NASA Posts Huge Library of Space Sounds And You’re Free to Use Them
Explaining the Great 2011 Saturn Storm
Liquid Salt Water May Exist on Mars
Color Map Suggests a Once-Active Ceres
Diverse Destinations Considered for New Interplanetary Probe
Paul Allen Asserts Rights to “Vulcan” Trademark, Challenging Name of New Rocket
First New Horizons Color Picture of Pluto and Charon
NASA’s Spitzer Spots Planet Deep Within Our Galaxy
Icy Tendrils Reaching into Saturn Ring Traced to Their Source
First Signs of Self-Interacting Dark Matter?
Anomaly Delays Launch of THOR 7 and SICRAL 2
Nearby Exoplanet’s Hellish Atmosphere Measured
The Universe Isn’t Accelerating As Fast As We Thought
Glitter Cloud May Serve As Space Mirror
Cassini Spots the Sombrero Galaxy from Saturn
EM-1 Orion Crew Module Set for First Weld Milestone in May
Special Delivery: NASA Marshall Receives 3D-Printed Tools from Space
The Roomba for Lawns is Really Pissing Off Astronomers
Giant Galaxies Die from the Inside Out
ALMA Reveals Intense Magnetic Field Close to Supermassive Black Hole
Dawn Glimpses Ceres’ North Pole
Lapcat A2 Concept Sup-Orbital Spaceplane SABRE Engine Passed Feasibility Test by USAF Research Lab
50 Years Since the First Full Saturn V Test Fire
ULA CEO Outlines BE-4 Engine Reuse Economic Case
Certification Process Begins for Vulcan to Carry Military Payloads
Major Advance in Artificial Photosynthesis Poses Win/Win for the Environment
45th Anniversary [TODAY] of Apollo 13’s Safe Return to Earth
Hubble’s Having A Party in Washington Next Week (25th Anniversary of Hubble)

Don’t forget, the Cosmoquest Hangoutathon is coming soon!

We record the Weekly Space Hangout every Friday at 12:00 pm Pacific / 3:00 pm Eastern. You can watch us live on Google+, Universe Today, or the Universe Today YouTube page.

You can join in the discussion between episodes over at our Weekly Space Hangout Crew group in G+, and suggest your ideas for stories we can discuss each week!

3 Replies to “Weekly Space Hangout – April 17, 2015: Amy Shira Teitel and “Breaking the Chains of Gravity””

  1. I really like the IRVE-3 inflatable aeroshell but think the concept should be expanded upon (Pun intended?). I’d like to see a centrifugally rotating multipurpose Bigelow-like inflatable transit habitat that upon arriving at Mars is re-configured into an aeroshell re-entry heat shield and parachute. After landing, the aeroshell with attached parachute or balloot, is once again re-configured. This time into a surface hab.

    I know that’s kind of like putting all your eggs in one basket, but wouldn’t the weight savings pay off? Perhaps two landers, one to land the hab. and one for crew, landed in succession.

    1. It’s GREAT to see Amy back in the Weekly Space hangout! I hope we see her more often. Maybe you could get Amy Mainzer in the hangout WITH Amy Shira Teitel and get a double barreled shot of Amyisms?

      Great show! Thanks as usual…

  2. One of the reasons NASA had 4% of the US GDP to work with was because people were super-freaked out over the idea that the USSR might beat out the West in attaining a viable intercontinental nuclear threat…. sorry, “deterrent.” The end result was the biggest ICBM ever (Up-Goer Five) which just happened to also be able to land people on the Moon & return them safely to the Earth.

    One of the reasons they didn’t just hand the money to the Pentagon (instead of creating a new proxy agency like NASA) is because even Republican administrations have a hard time throwing almost one dollar in ten at the military, let alone Democrat ones like JFK’s. Being able to call it a 4% GDP investment in “one giant leap for Mankind” made the price tag for QUICKLY developing the most advanced ICBM fleet in the world a lot easier for the public (and the world) to swallow.

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