Weekly Space Hangout

This week we are very excited to welcome Darian Dixon, Curiosity (MSL) MMM operator and Percy's Mastcam-Z Data Management (ZDM) Lead at Malin Space Science Systems (https://www.msss.com/). Darian earned his BS in Geology in 2015 before moving to Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA, where he earned his MS in Planetary Geology in 2018. While at WWU, Darian studied under Mastcam-Z Co-Investigator Dr. Melissa Rice and had the opportunity to attend Mars-2020 team meetings and contribute to the Mastcam-Z team. When not immersed in the thrilling world of Mars exploration, Darian is an avid gardener, loving husband, dog owner, gamer, rabid basketball fan, and gym rat. He is also a STEM ambassador who does school speaking events during which he encourages young students of color from underprivileged backgrounds to pursue their own paths in STEM, just as he has. You can learn more about Mastcam-Z by visiting the project's website: https://mastcamz.asu.edu/cameras/ **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: ► Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest ► Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! ► Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! ► Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx ► Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast ► Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx ► Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv ► Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us… all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

This week we welcome Dr. Mario Borunda to the show. In his recent article published on EarthSky.com, Mario discusses advancements in warp drive technology research. You can read his article, "Warp Drives: Physicists Give Chances Of Faster-Than-Light Space Travel A Boost," here: https://earthsky.org/space/warp-drive-chances-of-faster-than-light-space-travel/ Dr. Borunda double-majored in Physics and Mathematics earning his B.S. from the University of Texas at El Paso in 2003. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from Texas A&M University in 2008. He spent three years as a postdoc and nine months as a research associate at Harvard University. In September 2012 he became a faculty member of the physics department at Oklahoma State University. Dr. Borunda has also been a visiting researcher at Harvard University. Mario has performed research in several areas. His work at UTEP, performed with Jorge Lopez, involved using α-particle spectroscopy as a teaching tool. As a graduate student (advised by Jairo Sinova) and post-doc (under Eric Heller) he performed calculations on electronic conductivity in two-dimensional systems, proposed and described an atom-laser coupling scheme that induces spin-orbit interaction in ultra-cold atoms, and simulated electron transport in graphene. At Oklahoma State his research has focused in quantum information, the quantum-to-classical boundary in chaotic systems, and using theoretical methods to predict novel materials for energy production and electronic applications. More details about the work performed at OSU is described in the research sections of The Borunda Research Group's website: https://borunda.okstate.edu/members.html#borunda Dr. Borunda is enthusiastic about working with undergraduate students and has worked towards producing a positive impact as undergraduate research coordinator for the OSU physics program, with minority students through the OK-LSAMP program, as faculty advisor of OSU’s SACNAS chapter, and as technical officer with the National Society of Hispanic Physicists. **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: ► Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest ► Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! ► Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! ► Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx ► Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast ► Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx ► Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv ► Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us… all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

This week we are pleased to welcome Dr. Ethan Schaler to the Weekly Space Hangout. Ethan is a Robotics Mechanical Engineer in the Robotic Actuation and Sensing Group at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Ethan has backgrounds in Electrical Engineering (PhD), Mechanical Engineering (BS), and Micro/Nanotechnology (MPhil), and collaborates with researchers in a variety of disciplines to design, model, fabricate, and characterize new robotic systems at micrometer- to meter-scales. In the flight world, Ethan is a member of the Robotic Arm team in the Sampling and Caching Subsystem for the Mars 2020 mission, where he's focused on testing / operating the rover’s robotic arm and built-in force-torque sensor. In the research world, he's built flexible grippers, miniature legged robots, and high-voltage actuators. Lately, he’s also been brainstorming ideas for new robots to explore unique corners of our solar system. You can learn more about Ethan and stay up to date with his projects by visiting his JPL Website: https://www-robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/people/Ethan_Schaler/ and the M2020 Website: https://mars.nasa.gov/people/profile/?id=23310. You can also follow him on Linked-In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanschaler/. **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: ► Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest ► Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! ► Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! ► Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx ► Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast ► Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx ► Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv ► Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us… all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

This week we welcome Dr. Jay L. Nadeau to the Weekly Space Hangout. Jay is an Associate Professor in the Physics department at Portland State University and the founder of the Nadeau Lab (https://motility.research.pdx.edu/index.html) where they research nanoparticles, fluorescence imaging, and develop instrumentation for the detection of life elsewhere in the solar system. Prior to PSU, she was associate professor of biomedical engineering and physics at McGill University (2004–2015) and a Research Professor at Caltech (2015-2017). Before McGill, she was a member of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Center for Life Detection, and previous to that a Burroughs-Wellcome postdoctoral scholar in the laboratory of Henry A. Lester at Caltech. She received her PhD in physics from the University of Minnesota in 1996. The Nadeau Lab receives funding from NASA, the NSF, private foundations, and industry. The group features chemists, microbiologists, roboticists, physicists, and physician-scientists, all learning from each other and hoping to speak each other’s language. A believer in bringing biology to physicists as well as physics to biologists, Jay teaches upper-division courses in Biophysics, Statistical Mechanics, and Quantum Mechanics. She also teaches Radiation Physics in the OHSU Medical Physics program. She is the author of two textbooks, Introduction to Experimental Biophysics and Truly Tricky Graduate Physics Problems, and a popular science photo book, Going To MARS: Science in Canada’s High Arctic. Jay is committed to fostering diversity and inclusion in STEM, and seeks to broaden the pipeline into physics by creating new courses and programs that are friendly to people who are coming to physics after other careers or majors, to working professionals including teachers, and to underrepresented students. She is a member of the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE), the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT), the American Physical Society, and the American Chemical Society. **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: ► Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest ► Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! ► Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! ► Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx ► Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast ► Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx ► Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv ► Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us… all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

This week we are excited to welcome "Professional Martian" Dr. Tanya Harrison to the WSH. Tanya is a respected Mars expert who worked as a geoscientist and mission operations specialist on multiple NASA Mars missions over the past 13 years, including the Opportunity, Curiosity, and Perseverance rovers, and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. A thought leader in the commercial space sector from her previous role as Director of Research for Arizona State University’s NewSpace Initiative, she currently works as the Director of Science Strategy for the federal arm of the Earth observing satellite company Planet Labs. Tanya holds a Ph.D. in Geology with a Specialization in Planetary Science and Exploration from the University of Western Ontario. There, her research focused on the formation and evolution of features on Mars called gullies, and what they can tell us about the recent climate history of the Red Planet. She also holds a Masters in Earth and Environmental Sciences from Wesleyan University, and a B.Sc. in Astronomy and Physics from the University of Washington. Her honours include two NASA Group Achievement Awards, the Amelia Earhart Fellowship for women in aerospace and the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, Canada’s most prestigious doctoral award. She was also named one of Via Satellite’s Young People to Watch of 2018, and a Future Space Leader in 2019. Dr. Harrison has appeared in documentaries for channels such as National Geographic and The Weather Channel, regularly appears on radio interviews with the BBC, and has written on space-related topics for outlets including Slate, Canada’s The Globe and Mail, the Houston Chronicle, and Astronomy magazine. Her first non-academic book, For All Humankind (2019, Mango Publishing) highlights international memories of the day of the Apollo 11 Moon landing and made the #1 release on Amazon’s Aeronautics and Astronautics book list. Committed to fostering the next generation of space professionals, Tanya is active in mentorship, education, and outreach initiatives. She serves on the Board of Advisors for Explore Mars and Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS), and the Board of Governors for the National Space Society. She is also a co-founder of the Zed Factor Fellowship, an initiative to increase diversity, inclusion, and accessibility in the aerospace sector through internship opportunities, mentorship, and community engagement. Outside of her life in space, Tanya is also a professional photographer, public transit enthusiast, and chronic creative. She currently resides in Washington DC and Toronto, where she can usually be found with a camera and NASA stickers in hand. You can find Tanya prolifically tweeting about all things Mars, space, and Canada on Twitter as @tanyaofmars (https://twitter.com/tanyaofmars) To learn more about Tanya, visit her website https://www.tanyaharrison.com/ , and you can read her blog at https://tanyaofmars.medium.com/. **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: ► Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest ► Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! ► Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! ► Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx ► Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast ► Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx ► Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv ► Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us… all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

This week we are airing Fraser's prerecorded interview with Dr. Ronald Mallett, Professor Emeritus and Research Professor of Physics at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. Ron received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in physics from the Pennsylvania State University. In 1975 he joined the physics faculty at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. His research interests include black holes, general relativity, quantum cosmology, and relativistic astrophysics. As part of his research, Ron has hypothesized that a rotating ring laser could, via frame dragging, sufficiently twist space and time to mimic the conditions inside a rotating Black Hole, potentially allowing a binary message (encoded in a neutrino stream) to be sent back in time. You can learn more about the theory behind Ron's hypothesis in this January 2020 Popular Mechanics article: https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a30420165/time-machine-prototype/ Prof. Mallett has published numerous papers on black holes and cosmology in professional journals. His breakthrough research on time travel has been featured extensively in print and broadcast media around the world and has appeared in a feature-length documentary "How to Build a Time Machine" which won Best Documentary at the 2017 Philip K Dick Film Festival in New York City. The documentary is now available on Amazon Prime. His published memoir “Time Traveler: A Scientist’s Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality” has been translated into Korean, Chinese, Japanese and is currently in discussion become a major Hollywood motion picture. To learn more about Ron and his research, visit his faculty website https://physics.uconn.edu/person/ronald-mallett/. You can also follow Ron on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ronald.l.mallett) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/rlmallett). **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: ► Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest ► Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! ► Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! ► Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx ► Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast ► Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx ► Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv ► Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us… all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

This week we are excited to welcome Chelsea "Foxanne" Gohd, Senior Writer at Space.com, to the WSH. Chelsea writes articles and creates, scripts, and hosts videos about science topics ranging from climate change to exoplanet exploration and human spaceflight. In November 2020, Chelsea became an analog astronaut after having completed an analog Mars mission at HI-SEAS** with six other women. Their mission, Sensoria M2, is only the second ever all-female crew at HI-SEAS. You can watch a short video about their experience here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFWmG1dZfr8&t=1s Prior to her work at Space.com, Chelsea worked as a freelance science writer, with bylines in publications including Scientific American, Astronomy Magazine, and Discover Magazine. Additionally, Chelsea wrote an installation for the American Museum of Natural History's Hall of Meteorites which included extensive text for touchscreen exhibition placards, and both design and text for interactive, in-exhibit games. She also worked as an exhibitions assistant at the AMNH, helping to shape and deliver public lectures the exhibitions "Spiders Alive!" and "The Secret World Inside You." Chelsea is also a musician and writes, performs, and records indie-pop music under the pseudonym "Foxanne." As Foxanne, she released her debut full-length record in 2020, titled "It's real (I knew it)," named after an iconic scene from the hit sci-fi film "Galaxy Quest." The album features a number of space-y easter eggs, including audio from the OA-9 rocket launch, a 2018 cargo mission that launched from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, and a song written from the perspective of NASA's Opportunity rover. Following this album in 2021, she released "Hello, Mars," a song featuring the first audio recorded on the surface of Mars, recently captured by NASA's Perseverance rover. To stay up to date with Chelsea's science writing, you can follow her on Twitter (https://twitter.com/chelsea_gohd and https://twitter.com/SPACEdotcom), find her on Space.com, and visit her website at https://www.chelseagohd.com/. And don't forget to follow Foxanne on Twitter (https://twitter.com/Foxannemusic) where you can find information about her music. **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: ► Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest ► Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! ► Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! ► Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx ► Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast ► Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx ► Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv ► Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us… all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

This week we are airing Fraser's pre-recorded interview with Dr. Amanda Hendrix, Senior Scientist at PSI. Amanda studies solar system bodies in ultraviolet wavelengths and is the Director/PI of the NASA Toolbox for Research and Exploration (TREX) team, a branch of NASA's Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI). Amanda has 20+ years of experience in planetary science research. She earned a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering Sciences from the University of Colorado Boulder. As a graduate student and post-doctoral research at LASP/Univ. Colorado, Amanda gained valuable experience in UV spectroscopy and instrumentation, and began a career of investigating solar system surfaces (largely airless bodies) in the UV. After LASP, she spent 12 years at JPL, progressing from a science planner on Cassini to Deputy Project Scientist, before moving to PSI in 2012. She is a co-investigator on the Cassini UVIS instrument as well as on the LRO LAMP instrument. Amanda has led observing and research teams and published results in numerous NASA R&A and HST programs. She is also a co-author of "Beyond Earth: Our Path to a new Home in the Planets," published by Penguin/Random house in Nov 2016. Besides research, she enjoys teaching and sharing her love of planetary science with students and the public. You can stay up to date with Amanda's research by visiting her PSI webpage https://psi.edu/about/staffpage/ahendrix , and following her on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/amanda.hendrix.98 and Twitter https://twitter.com/dr_hendrix . Complete information about TREX is available by visiting https://trex.psi.edu/about-trex/ . You can also follow the team on Twitter https://twitter.com/TREX_SSERVI . **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: ► Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest ► Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! ► Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! ► Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx ► Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast ► Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx ► Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv ► Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us… all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

This week we are very pleased to welcome Dr. Ken Shen, assistant staff researcher in the UC Berkeley astronomy department, to the Weekly Space Hangout. Ken studies the astrophysics of white dwarfs in interacting binary systems, with a focus on thermonuclear phenomena. Ken received his PhD in September 2010 in the Department of Physics at UC Santa Barbara, and from 2011-2014 he was a postdoctoral Einstein fellow at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Oh yeah! Ken appeared on Jeopardy on 24 February 2021 (unfortunately he didn't finish in first place) but, in honor of the late Alex Trebek, he has donated his winnings to the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research. In his free time, Ken walks his dog, Lucy, and tries to keep up with the never-ending influx of New Yorker magazines. You can follow Ken on Twitter (where he documented his entire Jeopardy Journey) https://twitter.com/kenjshen and check out his research by visiting his website https://sites.google.com/site/kenshen **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: ► Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest ► Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! ► Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! ► Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx ► Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast ► Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx ► Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv ► Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us… all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

This week we are very excited to welcome Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein to the Weekly Space Hangout. Chanda is an assistant professor of physics and astronomy and core faculty in women’s and gender studies at the University of New Hampshire. She is also a columnist for New Scientist and Physics World. In her first book, THE DISORDERED COSMOS: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred (Bold Type Books), Chandra brings readers into the world of particle physics and the cosmos — all while making an urgent call for a more just and inclusive practice of science that expands our understanding of the universe and our place in it. Chanda's research in theoretical physics focuses on cosmology, neutron stars, and dark matter, and she is active in Black feminist science, technology, and society studies. Essence magazine recognized her as one of “15 Black Women Who Are Paving the Way in STEM and Breaking Barriers.” She has been profiled in several venues, including TechCrunch, Ms. Magazine, Huffington Post, Gizmodo, Nylon, and the African American Intellectual History Society’s Black Perspectives. A cofounder of the Particles for Justice movement, Chanda has received the 2017 LGBT+ Physicists Acknowledgement of Excellence Award for her contributions to improving conditions for marginalized people in physics, as well as the 2021 American Physical Society Edward A. Bouchet Award for her contributions to particle cosmology. Be sure to visit Chanda's website: http://www.cprescodweinstein.com/ and follow her on Twitter (https://twitter.com/ibjiyongi), LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/chandaprescodweinstein), and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/chandapw/). To learn more about The Disordered Cosmos, including where to get your copy, visit: ► In the US: https://www.boldtypebooks.com/titles/chanda-prescod-weinstein/the-disordered-cosmos/9781541724709/ ► In the UK: https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/chanda-prescod-weinstein/the-disordered-cosmos/9781541724709/ **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: ► Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest ► Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! ► Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! ► Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx ► Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast ► Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx ► Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv ► Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us… all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

Yup - another week with no guest scheduled (we are working on it though, I promise) but fear not - I know the team will fill the hour with a slew of amazing stories!! **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: ► Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest ► Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! ► Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! ► Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx ► Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast ► Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx ► Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv ► Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us… all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

This week we are pleased to welcome Dr. Casey Honniball to the WSH. Casey is a NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) Fellow at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and has extensive experience in observing, instrumentation, and telescope operation. As an undergraduate at the University of Arizona, she aided in the development of a submillimeter instruments that she would later help deploy to Mt. Graham and Llano de Chajnantor Observatories and to Antarctica. As a graduate student at the University of Hawai'i she was responsible for assembly, test, and deployment of a 3-5 µm imaging interferometer (MIDAS, Mid infrared detector of atmospheric species) used for volcanological studies and as a prototype for a small satellite instrument. She co-led a large-scale survey of the mid-IR hydration properties of lunar surface using the SpeX cross-dispersed spectrograph at the NASA InfraRed Telescope Facility (IRTF). Dr. Honniball originated the project to use the NASA/DLR Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) to search for the 6 µm molecular water signature on the lunar surface and has had two observing runs on SOFIA with 20 more hours planned. As a postdoc fellow, Dr. Honniball continues lunar observations with the IRTF and SOFIA and works to connect the 3 and 6 µm hydration bands on the Moon. Be sure to follow Casey on Twitter (@CaseyHonniball) to stay up to date with her research. **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: ► Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest ► Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! ► Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! ► Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx ► Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast ► Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx ► Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv ► Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us… all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

No guest is scheduled for this week yet (although we are still trying to line up someone awesome,) but there is nothing at all wrong with spending the hour catching up on the news! **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: ► Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest ► Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! ► Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! ► Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx ► Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast ► Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx ► Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv ► Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us… all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

This week we are extremely pleased to welcome Dr. David Kipping, Assistant Professor of Astronomy at Columbia University, to the WSH. David researches extrasolar planets and moons, including their impact on the origins of our solar system and beyond. At Columbia, he leads the Cool Worlds Lab where he and his team study extrasolar planetary systems with a particular focus on the detection and analysis of worlds found at longer orbital periods. David is also principal investigator of The Hunt for Exomoons with the Kepler (HEK) project, in addition to being active in science outreach, including operating a YouTube channel called Cool Worlds, which, with more than 100,000 subscribers, serves as an international platform to discuss his group’s research and related science. David earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the University of Cambridge and received his Ph.D. in Astrophysics from University College London. He spent time doing postdoctoral work at Harvard University before joining Columbia University in 2015, and has authored more than 90 scientific publications. We here at the WSH also have a personal connection with David: he is/was Graduate Advisor to two of our current Journalists: Dr. Alex Teachey and (soon to be Dr.) Moiya McTier. You can learn more about the Cool Worlds Lab by visiting http://coolworlds.astro.columbia.edu/ and heading over to their YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/coolworldslab To learn more about David, please visit his website at http://www.davidkipping.co.uk/ **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: ► Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest ► Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! ► Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! ► Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx ► Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast ► Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx ► Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv ► Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us… all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

This week we are excited to welcome Dr. Nicholas Castle from the MSL/Curiosity Mission Science Team to the WSH. Nick has been a rock-collector and space enthusiast for as long as he can remember. He is currently an active member of the Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity Rover) mission operations team, where he helps coordinate activities for the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) X-ray diffraction instrument. Outside of mission operations his research focuses on meteorites, especially those from Mars. He is a bit of an instrumentation junkie who works with electron microscopes, mass spectrometers, X-ray diffractometers, high-temperature furnaces, and the occasional laser. As an associate research scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, Nick is interested in communicating research results with the general public and promoting science literacy. A graduate of Lehigh University, the University of Washington, and the University of Alberta, he loves fieldwork, camping, sailing, and good espresso. He currently resides in the Arizona desert. **************************************** As part of his science outreach activities, Nick is partnering with CosmoQuest as we relaunch our CosmoAcademy series of educational programming. Our first program (which Nick will be teaching,) "Mars 101: How to Live on Mars (and Not Die)," begins on Saturday, March 20. For complete information, including cost and how to register, go to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mars-101-how-to-live-on-mars-and-not-die-tickets-141371715607. **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: ► Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest ► Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! ► Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! ► Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx ► Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast ► Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx ► Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv ► Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us… all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

We record the Weekly Space Hangout every Wednesday at 5:00 pm Pacific / 8:00 pm Eastern. You can watch us live on Universe Today or the Weekly Space Hangout YouTube page. This week we are very pleased to be airing Fraser's pre-recorded interview with Melissa Thorpe, Interim Head of Spaceport Cornwall. Melissa is the main liaison for industry, military, Government, media, public, and schools for Spaceport Cornwall, the UK’s first horizontal launch site. Together with launch partner, Virgin Orbit, this ambitious project will offer dedicated and responsive access to space by 2022 from an existing civilian airport. Melissa works across the launch environment to efficiently secure investment and infrastructure required to launch, whilst communicating the space story to the local community. Originally from Canada, Melissa moved to the UK to attend the London School of Economics in 2010. Since then, she has worked on several aerospace development projects, and has been part of the Spaceport Cornwall team since its inception in 2014. **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: ► Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest ► Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! ► Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! ► Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx ► Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast ► Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx ► Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv ► Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us… all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

We record the Weekly Space Hangout every Wednesday at 5:00 pm Pacific / 8:00 pm Eastern. You can watch us live on Universe Today or the Weekly Space Hangout YouTube page. This week we are excited to welcome Joseph Mallozzi to the Weekly Space Hangout. Although you may not know his name, most of us certainly recognize — and love — many of the television shows Joe has produced, written, and/or showran. Joseph Mallozzi is a Canadian writer, showrunner, and producer with over 20 years experience in the television industry. He has over 350 hours of produced television to his credit in addition to 100+ hours as both a writer and a showrunner. Joe has worked primarily in the genre field, most notably on the Stargate franchise (SG-1, Atlantis, Universe,) Dark Matter (a show he created and showran for three seasons,) and, most recently, Utopia Falls for Hulu. **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: ► Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest ► Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! ► Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! ► Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx ► Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast ► Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx ► Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv ► Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us… all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

We record the Weekly Space Hangout every Wednesday at 5:00 pm Pacific / 8:00 pm Eastern. You can watch us live on Universe Today or the Weekly Space Hangout YouTube page. This week we are joined by Dr. Jani Radebaugh, Planetary Scientist from Brigham Young University. Jani's field work specializes in finding analogues to other planets here on Earth. She is a Science Team Member for the newly selected NASA Dragonfly rotorcraft lander mission to Saturn’s moon Titan. She was also involved in the Cassini and Galileo Missions, the Io Volcano Observer mission proposal, and the Median project for Mars. Professor Radebaugh travels far and wide with her Brigham Young University students to find and study unique landscapes to better understand other planets. She explores the big deserts of the world, such as the Saharan, Arabian, and Namib deserts, as well as the Argentinian Altiplano and Iran’s Lut desert to study giant sand dunes and wind-carved ridges similar to those on Titan, Mars, Venus, and Pluto. She studies lakes of lava in the Ethiopian Afar valley and Vanuatu in the southwest Pacific to compare them with active lava lakes of Jupiter’s moon Io. Jani is a regular presence on the Science/Discovery program "How the Universe Works," the NASA "Unexplained Files," as well as many BBC and Nova programs. She has been an invited speaker for the U.S. State Department, the Spacefest Convention, TedX, a BYU Forum, and New York City’s Hayden Planetarium. She has spoken at many universities, astronomy organizations, and regularly visit the Traverse Mountain 6th grade. Be sure to follow Jani on Twitter (@radjanirad) and Instagram (@radjanirad). Learn more about the upcoming Dragonfly Mission by visiting https://dragonfly.jhuapl.edu/index.php **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: ► Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest ► Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! ► Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! ► Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx ► Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast ► Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx ► Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv ► Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us… all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

We record the Weekly Space Hangout every Wednesday at 5:00 pm Pacific / 8:00 pm Eastern. You can watch us live on Universe Today or the Weekly Space Hangout YouTube page. This week we are excited to welcome Dr. Aaron Rosengren and Di Wu, with Dr. Nataša Todorović in the chat, to the Weekly Space Hangout. Their research team recently identified gravitational interactions which have produced a superhighway network of sorts within the Solar System. This network can reduce transport times for objects traveling between Jupiter and Neptune to decades rather than hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of years. Long-term, this network may potentially be used for human exploration, but in the short-term, it could assist in the study of comets and asteroids. Aaron J. Rosengren received his Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering Sciences from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2014. He served as a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow for the European Union Asteroid and Space Debris Network, Stardust, from 2014 to 2016, at the Institute of Applied Physics Nello Carrara of the Italian National Research Council. In 2017, Dr. Rosengren worked at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece in the Department of Physics, as part of the EU H2020 Project ReDSHIFT. He was an Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona (2017-2020) prior to his appointment at UC San Diego in July 2020. He received the "COSPAR Outstanding Paper Award for Young Scientists" on three separate occasions and has held invited visiting researcher positions in Australia, Israel, Italy, and Serbia. Di Wu is a 3rd year PhD student of UC, San Diego. His research focuses on space situational awareness, astrodynamics, solar system dynamics, and machine learning. Recognized by the International Astronautical Federation, he was awarded the Future Space Leader for his research that bridges space debris characterization and asteroid dynamics. Di was also invited to attend the space generation congress and was involved in making policy suggestions to the UN about space sustainability. You can read the team's paper, The Arches of Chaos in the Solar System, on the AAAS site: https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/48/eabd1313 You can learn more about the team's research on the ScienceAlert website: https://www.sciencealert.com/solar-system-arches-of-chaos-create-cosmic-fast-travel-superhighways/amp **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: ► Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest ► Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! ► Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! ► Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx ► Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast ► Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx ► Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv ► Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us… all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

Tonight we are very excited to welcome Dr. Ann Marie Cody from the SETI Institute to the WSH. In her own words, Ann Marie searches for "the weird." Young stars exhibit some pretty bizarre behaviors, all of which have astrophysical explanations. However, there may be even stranger things out there, ready to be discovered with space telescopes. Her upcoming project will be searching for "alien megastructures" using the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Ann Marie Cody is a Principal Investigator with the SETI Institute's Carl Sagan Center. She has also worked at NASA Ames since 2014, first as a NASA Postdoctoral Program fellow and subsequently as a research support scientist for the Kepler and K2 Missions. Dr. Cody uses ground-based telescopes and space observatories to explore the diversity of variability behavior in young stars. She uses this variability to learn about the dynamics of gas and dust associated with newborn stars and their planet-forming disks. Her time domain research involves high-precision optical and infrared photometry, as well as spectroscopy. In her spare time, Dr. Cody enjoys creating scientific cartoons to illustrate topics in astronomical research. You can learn more about Ann Marie and her research by visiting her website, http://annmariecody.com/Home.html , and reading this NASA interview, In Conversation: Dr. Ann Marie Cody [https://www.nasa.gov/feature/in-conversation-dr-ann-marie-cody] Be sure to follow Ann Marie on Twitter [https://twitter.com/astronomcody], and check out her artwork/cartoons on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/annmariecody_art/]. **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: ► Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest ► Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! ► Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! ► Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx ► Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast ► Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx ► Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv ► Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - https://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us... all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.