Space, But Messier!

Why Galileo?

Last Episode we discussed NASA’s latest mission to Europa, the Europa Clipper, and we mentioned that Jupiter’s Moon Europa is one of the 4 Galilean moons. These moons have curious names though.

SIDE NOTE:

If you’ve ever wondered where these planets and moons got their names, we trace it all the way back to Roman Mythology. Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus, and Mercury were named after Roman gods because these were the planets that early Romans could see without a telescope. Then, we continued the tradition, for example:

MERCURY: Roman Winged Messenger, winged god of travel because he moves so fast

VENUS: Roman Goddess of Love, no doubt because of Venus's dazzling appearance in the sky

MARS: Roman God of War

JUPITER: Chief Roman God (Jupiter is King of the Gods, an elected position)

SATURN: Former Roman God of Agriculture, retired. Replaced by his daughter, Ceres, which is the name of the Dwarf planet Ceres; the largest object in the asteroid belt...

News:

Who wants to be an astronaut? Well, there’s an app for that!

Created by Finnish startup Space Nation, the Space Nation Navigator mobile app includes boot camp-style fitness workouts, exams, and even a story-based adventure element. “These are designed to test and train not just users’ physical abilities, but also their cognitive and social skills — such as problem-solving or managing a crisis.”

As an astronaut in training, you can collect points and reach increasingly difficult levels, with the potential of winning prizes at certain stages of the program. After three 12-week cycles, somewhere around 100 trainees from all over the world will be selected to participate in a real-life training camp. Of those selected, 12 will then be invited to participate in a more intensive 10-week astronaut training camp in Iceland, which will be filmed and broadcast. The winning contender will get a free trip to the cosmos!

Congratulations RocketLab and Welcome...

News:

• Tiangong-1, or the “Heavenly Palace”, came down safely and splashed down in the ocean, killing no one most of it burning up in the atmosphere. 
• We met Robert Picardo, the Doctor form Star Trek, AND HE TWEETED US
• We interviewed Bill Nye!

Yuri's Night L.A.

Welcome to the Elon Musk podcast! Just kidding, but remember when SpaceX launched the Tesla Roadster into space driven by Starman? Do you remember the extra cargo? Inside the Roadster, SpaceX launched those drives made of quartz-crystal which held Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy. We had the opportunity to meet the man responsible for sending these books into space, Nova Spivack, so we had the chance to ask him.. Why?

Much of his reasoning is very consistent with what we thought; Harry Seldon's plan in the Foundation trilogy was to spread humanity's knowledge to the ends of the galaxy for preservation. Alongside Elon Musk, he was able to do just this, or a scaled version anyway, sailing...

News:

Elon Musk is prepping for Mars

SpaceX announced that they are building the first interplanetary spaceship, and they think we'll be able to do short trips and flights by early 2019 NEXT YEAR! Their original plan was to send a cargo ship to Mars in 2022, thus making these present ones test flights. SpaceX's BFR rocket is expected to be able to travel through space to other planets, and be completely reusable, costing less than the initial Falcon 1 flights, which were estimated in the $5 to $6 million range. He hopes if BFR launches, others will believe that travel to Mars is possible, and follow suit. Musk noted that as soon as all of the necessities for life are installed on Mars "then really the explosion of entrepreneurial opportunity [will begin], because Mars will need everything from iron foundries to pizza joints.”

NASA is sending another lander to Mars!

NASA’s InSight, (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport), is a Mars...

Why are we as a human race so fascinated with Mars? Where did this desire come from? What have we sent there already and what are we sending now? Find out in this episode of Space, But Messier!

News:

UPDATE:

Chinese Space Station Tiangong-1 still falling, but China has been monitoring Tiangong-1 and has determined that the space lab will burn up after entering the atmosphere and the remaining wreckage will fall into a designated area in the sea, without endangering the earth.

NASA is building a HAMMER
Not a hammer like one in your toolbox at home, instead, they’re building a Hypervelocity Asteroid Mitigation Mission for Emergency Response (HAMMER). The plan is to protect our planet from asteroids before they can reach Earth. This project is headed up by NASA, the US National Security Administration and a weapons lab from the US Energy Department.

There are two ways the system could prevent an asteroid from slamming into Earth. Firstly, it would hit an asteroid to knock...

China's Space Station is hurdling towards Earth, Captain Kirk wants to send you to the Sun, and you use technology originally made by NASA far more often than you think!

FUN FACT OF THE DAY:
THERE MAY BE A PLANET MADE OUT OF DIAMONDS. As space facts go, this is pretty impressive. Research by Yale University scientists suggests that a rocky planet called 55 Cancri e — which has a radius twice Earth’s, and a mass eight times greater – may have a surface made up of graphite and diamond. It’s 40 light years away but visible to the naked eye in the constellation of Cancer.

Contest Reminder
Shout out to Gwydion
16 year old from North Whales hoping to study Astrophysics at University and go on to cool Space Stuff after that

News:

NASA will fly you to the sun — or at least your name.
Now until April 27, NASA is accepting online submissions to be sent on the Parker Solar Probe all the way to the sun.
Learn more and add your name to the mission here:...

Hello and welcome to the newest podcast in the universe! We are extremely pleased to present to you a podcast all about Space, Flight, Astronomy, History, New, and so much more. We are Tony DiBernardo and Florencia Pina, recording from Southern California to bring you the best and simplest space podcast around! So, without further ado, here are the notes for our first episode: All About Us | Space, But Messier!

You can check out the Space, but Messier! Podcast and subscribe here!

About Us

Tony: I was an average student in high school, transferred to CSULB and majored in Communications. In my last semester, in my need for one last capstone class, I took The History of Human Space Flight. It was fun! We learned all about the History of NASA, Roscosmos, Historical Missions, etc... Then at the end we had the opportunity to do the calculations to send a satellite to Mars. We were helped along the way, but completing that assignment gave me the most purpose I had ever felt...