podcast Archives - AstrotalkUK

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

Dr 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.

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 52:44 — 55.9MB) | Embed

Episode 86 – Moon: Art, Science, Culture

By Gurbir Leave a Comment

The 50^th 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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:55 — 34.4MB) | Embed

Embed video if there is one

Episode 84: NASA after the Shuttle. SLS and The Gateway

By Gurbir Leave a Comment

Dr 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. He was present in mission control in 1970 and witnessed the drama of Apollo 13 first hand.

He joined the British Interplanetary Society in 1965, published his first article in the society’s journal Spaceflight in 1969 and since 2011 has been the editor of that very journal -Spaceflight. To date, he has published a remarkable 110 books by the close of 2018 with a few more in the pipeline for 2019 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Apollo 11.

In this episode, we talk about the current status of the space programme in the US and the changing role of NASA.

The USA has not been able to launch US astronauts from the USA since the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011. NASA found itself in a similar position between 1975 (Apollo Soyuz Test programme) and the first Space Shuttle in 1981.
Why NASA dropped the Ares programme and why its replacement, the Space Launch System (SLS) schedule remains unclear. The first SLS mission, uncrewed – Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) by 2020 and the second crewed mission, Exploration Mission-2 (EM-2) by 2023.
The successor to the ISS, the “Gateway” is an international project for a space station in lunar orbit. Only about a third of the size of the ISS and it will have fewer international partners.
The gateway is seen by Russia as an American lead programme. Will Russia participate with the gateway or consider a joint Russia/China human spaceflight programme?
China/USA cooperation in space has been prohibited ny US law. What prospects that this will change?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:55 — 24.8MB) | Embed

Episode 83: India’s Human Spaceflight Programme with R Umamaheswaran

By Gurbir Leave a Comment

R Umamaheswaren was born in 1963, the same year that India initiated its space programme with the first-ever launch of a rocket into space from Indian soil. He is currently serving as the Scientific Secretary to the chairman. This was recorded at the IAC2018 (so a little noisy background). Audio and video available below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:32 — 14.9MB) | Embed

He first joined ISRO in 1987 as an avionics and communications engineer at the VSSC and has held several posts including

Deputy director for the GSLV launch vehicle
Mission director for 3 GSLV launches
GSLV Mk3 to launch in November 2018 with high throughput satellites GSAT-29 to support the Digital India programme. A total of 100GBPS will be available from space once the other two satellites are launched.

Dr. Lalitambika. Directeor of ISRO Human Spaceflight Programe. Credit TEDX
Pad Abort Test. Credit ISRO
Pad Abort Test. Credit ISRO
Pad Abort Test. Credit ISRO

Fundamental system and engineering challenges have been addressed and India is ready for human spaceflight. ISRO conducted a Pad Abort Test on 5th July 2018 – Youtube video here. Currently, the roadmap looks like this

Crew selection – discussion underway.
Two uncrewed missions will take place – no animals required. Sensors and instruments will be sufficient.
Astronaut training – under discussion. Astronaut training support will be required from a third country – yet to be announced.
Not necessary for potential applicants to be test pilots.
Prospect for a female to be part of the first crew is “very high”.
First uncrewed flight start in late 2020.
A longer vision for Human Spaceflight – priorities not yet defined.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: