Hi, I'm Matthew Burchette, and this is Behind the Wings of the 34th annual
Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, and check this out. BAM! That's Sierra Nevada's
Dream Chaser. How cool is that.
There are over 14,000 participants here from 30 different countries.
So, let's stop talking, and let's start interviewing.
I am here with Dr. Janet Kavandi of the Glenn Research Center, and she works for
NASA, has been into space and is super cool. Thank you so much for being with us.
Oh, it's my pleasure, Matthew.
So, we're standing here, and this looks like a Saturn V to me,
but I know it's not, because it's an SLS which stands for what?
Space Launch System.
So this is, basically, our new Saturn V.
Our new rocket. Yes, that is capable of going back to the lunar vicinity. But also, farther
than that, we can actually go to Mars with this rocket, as well.
Oh, no kidding.
Right.
So where is actually Orion on here?
Orion is where the crew will sit, which is up here at the top. They got the crew
module and a service module and then there's a launch abort system up there on top,
which could carry the crew away in the event of a bad event.
So, at the Glenn Research Center, which is where you mentioned I
work, we're working on the service module. This part underneath the crew module that
contains solar arrays and power and electronics that will support the crew
module, where the people will live. And then, we will take it down to the Kennedy
Space Center, mate it with the crew module and then, once that's mate,
we will fly it up to Ohio and test it in the Plum Brook facility, which is
part of the Glenn Research Center, which has the world's largest vacuum chamber.
And then, we'll circle back in testing on it up there.
And then, we'll fly it back down to the Kennedy Space Center, where it will then
be assembled into the full configuration for launch.
You know what, thank you so much for your time.
I know you're very busy, but it was so nice to meet you.
Very nice to meet you too.
And, hopefully, we will see you maybe up in space, again?
Yeah, well, I would love to, but I think we've kind of pass it off to the next generation.
Exactly, thank you so much.
I'm here with Samantha Suarez, who's got the coolest title ever. She is the SRB
integration lead for the Vulcan Centaur rocket for United Launch Alliance.
Tell us a little bit about what ULA does.
Yeah, so ULA is a launch service provider.
We have our Atlas and our Delta rockets that are currently flying today, but one of
the things we're doing right now, is as you stated, we're developing the Vulcan
Centaur rocket. It's incredibly exciting and, like you stated, I am integrating these
solid rocket boosters right here onto the vehicle. So working with our supplier
to make sure that we get everything to fit with our design, and vice versa.
That our design fits with their design. We're going to launch in 2020, and it's going to essentially
become our one product line. Eventually, we will fly out Atlas and Delta,
and we'll have a Vulcan Centaur line.
Okay. Oh, nice.
I kind of see behind you "send your face to space," which I did, and I'm proving my
wife wrong, who said that I would never make it to space. And I'm getting there,
but what is that actually?
We took some pictures and, like you got to do, put your
picture on a tile and put it on that poster. That poster is, in fact, going to go in
the CST-100 Starliner capsule that's going to launch on an Atlas rocket.
The very last tile was done by our CEO, Tory Bruno, so he actually took the last
picture and got to put his picture on there, as well.
Oh nice.
Yeah, so it's got, you know, people like you and me, who can prove people wrong
and say we're going to space, and then its got our CEO, all these people on there.
That is awesome.
Yeah!
So, I'm here with Justin Kugler, and he is with a company called Made in Space.
And it is exactly what it sounds like. Justin, good to see you again, buddy.
Let's just get right down to it. You were telling me about Archinaut, which is
this right here. And this thing is really super, getting sci-fi type stuff.
This is one concept that we have for what we call the Archinaut in Space
Manufacturing Technology. We combine extended structure additive
manufacturing in space with robotic assembly, so that we can fabricate,
assemble and deploy structures in space of, you know, arbitrary size, shape and
configuration. We can build systems and space vehicles, you know, that are
optimized for, you know, their 10 to 20 year life in space, instead of that first
15 minutes, just to make it through the rocket ride.
So to put that into English, this will build stuff in space.
Yes.
So we will launch this, it will then build the X-Wing or
the Death Star in space and we don't have to launch it.
I know you're busy. But I just want to say thank you so much, and
we definitely had to get this into the episode, because, oh my gosh, that's cool.
Absolutely.
So, when you guys do finally get that first X-Wing built, I kind of want the first ride.
I understand. We'll see what we can do.
I'm here with Cory Springer, who's the director of weather and environment from
Ball Aerospace. And we are standing here in front of kind of like this disco ball,
ironing thing, which is actually the Global Microwave Imager.
What the heck is that?
Okay, that's a good question. So it was a joint program between NASA and the
Japanese space agency. The contribution from the U.S. and NASA was they
provided the instrument which Ball built for NASA. And the Japanese contributed a
radar and the launch. So this mission is now flying, and it provides information
primarily on precipitation across the Tropics and the mid-latitudes.
And predicting hurricanes all that kind of stuff, which, after last season, we know is
kind of a big deal.
That's right. We just awarded a contract to build a
similar mission for the Air Force. It's called Weather System Follow-On
Microwave. And that mission is using a very similar technology. It measures the
wind speed and direction at the ocean's surface.
Can you hazard a guess as to why the Air Force would want to know that kind of stuff?
Right, well, that's a good question. So, for instance, we have
U.S. military installations throughout the world. A lot of them are in areas which
are vulnerable to tropical cyclones. And understanding the intensity and
direction and timing of where topical storms or typhoons are moving is very
important for us to be able to, you know, stay ready as a military.
I am here with Claire Barchum, who is the commercial space director for the UK
Space Agency. I didn't even know they had one of those. That's pretty cool.
Claire, it's so nice to meet you. I love your accent.
Thank you so much.
So I got to be honest, I didn't know that there was a UK Space Agency. What do you guys do?
So we've heard that a lot here, and we really need to promote ourselves. I would
say that our ambition is probably a little bit bigger than our size, at the
moment. What we do is set the government's policy for the civil use of
space, so that means that we're responsible for how the UK uses space to promote our
science and research activities, to promote our industry, to promote our
commercial and economic interests. But what we don't do is military. That's our major defense colleagues.
So does the agency have plans to have their own launch vehicles,
or are you going to use somebody else's?
What we're doing is a little bit different from other countries.
We're not saying that UK government is going to procure a launcher, we're not
going to build our own and run our own space spot. What we want to do is make
sure that businesses, that have plans to do that, are able to, in the UK. So we want
to create an environment where commercial launch to orbit is really
successful and thrives.
Alright, so I have to ask this question. Being in
London you probably would know this, if it's true or not, is Big Ben actually a spaceship?
Well, I don't know if you've seen the British TV show, Doctor Who?
Yes.
A spaceship did it crash into Big Ben on TV once. But, no,
I'm not aware that Big Ben is a spaceship. If it is, they've kept it a really tight secret.
So you can neither confirm nor deny?
Well, I'm not going to say that it's not.
To say, I love you. Alright, that was my Stevie Wonder. That was horrible.
We've been at the 34th annual Space Symposium, and it was awesome.
We didn't see even a 16th of the people that were here, but I would like to say thank you
so much to the people we did see and who put up with me, because you guys are
awesome, and you made just a really fun day. I'm going back into space.
See you. Oh, man. It's so awesome.
you