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NASA Administrator – Jim Bridenstine

By Gurbir Dated: October 28, 2019 Leave a Comment

NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine is unique in the short history of NASA. He is the first administrator not to have any first-hand experience of Apollo. He is not old enough.

A former naval pilot and experience politician, Bridenstine is now a powerful advocate of NASA’s work in addressing climate change, space exploration, return to the moon, engaging private-sector space companies and collaboration with international partners. Italy and Japan have already signed up to work with the project Artemis which the Presidential Space Directive 1 says in part “”lead an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and international partners to enable human expansion across the solar system and to bring back to Earth new knowledge and opportunities”.

In his post for less than two years, Bridenstine is an articulate, extremely well informed and appears to be steering NASA through some particularly tough challenges on the road to successful.

In this 30 minute video, he answers questions for the registered press (and frankly members of the public who happened to be passing through the NASA booth in the exhibition) at the IAC2019.org on 24 October 2019 in Washington DC.

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Episode 89 – Carbon Nanotubes

By Gurbir Dated: October 25, 2019 1 Comment

Gadhadar Reddy

In his 1979 novel, Fountains of Paradise, Arthur C Clarke imagines a cable stretching from the Earth’s equator to Geosynchronous orbit. He called it a “space elevator” and imagined it would be constructed from continuous pseudo-one-dimensional diamond crystals. Bangalore based NoPo Technologies is now commercially producing Carbon Nanotubes. Could this material, one day be used to construct Clarke’s space elevator?

Materials that offer high strength alongside low mass are highly sought after by the aerospace industry. In the past, it was aluminium, titanium and Carbon fibre. The new wave of materials consists of Graphene and Carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes like diamonds, soot and graphene are allotropes of Carbon. Same atomic structure but differ in physical construction.

NoPo Technologies was established in 2011 by the CEO Gadhadar Reddy and is already commercially supply Carbon Nanotubes to Japan and elsewhere.

Some of the themes we discussed include:

  • NoPo Technologies was incorporated in 2011 and is probably the only producer of Carbon Nanotubes in India at the present.
  • Carbon Nanotubes have desirable attributes of high thermal and electrical conductivity, tensile strength, resilience to radiation and are extremely lightweight.
  • Nopo Technologies commercially produce single-walled Carbon Nanotubes of about 8 nm diameter and 2000 nm long.
  • Use cases currently include lightning conductors on aircraft, insulators for cryogenic fuel tanks, black surfaces for star trackers on spacecraft and molecular scale filters that can be used for producing biological membranes or even water filters for desalination plants.
https://media.blubrry.com/astrotalkuk_podcast_feed/astrotalkuk.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Episode-89-Gadhadar-Reddy.mp3

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  • NOPO Offices in Bangalore
  • Electron Microscope
  • Carbon Nanotubes
  • Anto assessing a new batch of Carbon Nanotubes
  • Manufacturing vessel
  • Raman Specrometer

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Episode 87 – Apollo Era recollections of a Brit working in NASA

By Gurbir Dated: July 12, 2019 Leave a Comment

David Baker has been involved with the USA since childhood. First attending a US school in England and then studying in the US under a scholarship program sponsored by Senator Clinton P Anderson. He returned to the USA and worked for NASA on various programs from Gemini to the SpaceShuttle. After leaving NASA, he set up one of the earliest private space sector companies in London.

(Note – following questions on the veracity of his Phd, David Baker resigned from the BIS as the editor of Spaceflight on 25th March 2021.)

Today he is the editor of the British Interplanetary Society’s monthly journal – Spaceflight and a prolific author of space books. Some of the topics we spoke about include

  • Early interest in space and astronomy stimulated by milestones such as breaking of the sound barrier, Sputnik and Gagarin’s flight.
    Completed his PhD in Earth and Planetary physics.
  • Worked for Nasa between 1965 and 1984. Mainly in the mission
    Setup a consultancy in 1984 to bring US launch and satellites services to the wider international community.
  • Setup a consultancy in 1984 to bring US launch and satellites services to the wider international community
  • Delayed the launch of STS-41B in February 1984 carrying payloads for Indonesia and Western Union but problems with the payload Assist Modules did not meet the insurance certification requirements.
  • Was involved in the purchase by India its 4 INSAT satellites (INSAT 1A-1D) from Ford Aerospace in the USA.
  • Published over 110 books and more in the pipeline to mark the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11.
https://media.blubrry.com/astrotalkuk_podcast_feed/astrotalkuk.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Episode-87-Personal-recollections-of-a-brit-working-in-NASA.mp3

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Episode 86 – Moon: Art, Science, Culture

By Gurbir Dated: June 28, 2019 Leave a Comment

Moon: Art, Science, Culture
Moon: Art, Science, Culture

The 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing was a momentous event and expected to be marked by numerous publications. Most books cover the technologies, events, personal recollections and politics of the first human voyage to another world. One book jointly authored by an art historian and an astronomer has a fresh perspective.

The guests in this episode are the authors of the book Moon: Art, Science, Culture – Dr Alexandra Loske Associate Tutor in Art History, University of Sussex and Dr Robert Massey Deputy Executive Director Royal Astronomical Society.

The book is attracting an interesting eclectic mix of readers with an interest in science and art. Some of the topics we spoke about include

  • Fritz Lang’s 1929 sci-fi movie (watch full-length movie on Youtube here) Frau im Mond.
  • The book has a chapter about the Nebra Sky Disk and we also discussed the Antikythera Mechanism.
  • One of the earliest books with a picture of the Moon, called The Moon: Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite  (link offers free download) written in 1874 by James Nasmyth and James Carpenter. Here is an interesting review of it from Dr Stephanie O’Rourke from the University of St Andrews.
  • The Bluedot Festival at Jodrell bank starts on Friday 19th July

https://media.blubrry.com/astrotalkuk_podcast_feed/astrotalkuk.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Episode-86-Dr-Robert-Massy-and-Dr-Alexandra-Loske.mp3

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