Spaceflight Mechanics: The Cornell Space Technology Podcast

This is the second of two special episodes of Spaceflight Mechanics to feature time travel. Having acquired near-immortality, Elaine and Mason discuss their experiences from their perspective in the year 2174 and reflect upon how space technology has changed since they launched the podcast 150 years ago. 

This special episode of Spaceflight Mechanics features time travel. In recognition of the sesquicentennial of mechanical engineering at Cornell, we go back 150 years to the origins of the University and speak to one of its Founders, Andrew Dickson White. We get his take on the origins of mechanical and aerospace engineering and ask him to speculate what innovations the 20th century may bring.

Mason and Elaine talk with Manan Arya, Assistant Professor at Stanford University. They discuss very smart structural strategies, why we want to fold and unfold things in space, and "other things we know how to do as a species."

Elaine and Mason discuss plasmas, propulsion, and small spacecraft with Kristina Lemmer from Western Michigan University.

 Mason and Elaine talk with Professor Fabien Royer about new ways to build spacecraft, new concepts for space structures, grandparents, and mountainboarding. 

In this second episode about Varda Space Industries' in-space manufacturing technology, Mason and Elaine speak with Wendy Shimata, Varda's Vice President for Autonomy.  It was only a few days ago, on February 21 2024, that Varda's W-1 capsule successfully landed in the Utah desert. Wendy served as the Mission Director for the deorbit and reentry shifts. She explains some of the innovations that made it possible and goes over how this technology will enable Varda to scale up to hundreds of missions each year.

This is the first of two episodes in which Mason and Elaine speak with the leadership of Varda Space Industries about technologies for manufacturing in space. In this episode, Will Bruey, Varda’s CEO, explains why and how their first technology-demonstration mission, Winnebago, will produce ritonavir with unprecedented purity.

Sadaf Sobhani, assistant professor in mechanical and aerospace engineering, helps Mason and Elaine warm to the possibility that 3D printing may change how spacecraft keep cool. 

It's not wind, but photons that blow solar-sail spacecraft across vast distances. Mason and Elaine talk with Ryan Caverly, Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota, about his ideas regarding solar sails, tensegrity, and attitude control.

Elaine and Mason talk to John Foster, Professor at The University of Michigan, about space nuclear propulsion and upcoming flight demonstrations.

Greg Falco, Assistant Professor at Cornell University, talks with Mason about security in space: hacking, cyber crime, and stealing spacecraft.

Elaine and Mason talk to Dmitry Savransky, Associate Professor at Cornell University, about space telescopes.