AstrotalkUK
Not for profit website/blog on astronomy, space and my writing
Episodes
March 15, 2024 • 48 mins
Euclid, a @esa science mission, will shed light on both dark matter and dark energy. It was launched in July 2023 and arrived in its L2 orbit a month later. It has just two instruments which will produce a high-resolution 3-D map of a third of the sky, stretching back 10 billion years during its initial 6-year operational lifetime.
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November 30, 2023 • 35 mins
Following the successful landing of @isro #Chandrayaan-3, Associate Project Director Kalpana Kalahasti was the first female to speak at the ISRO live stream event. As a seasoned engineer, Kalahasti contributed to numerous projects including SARAL in 2013. Here she talks about her journey with ISRO which began in 1999 as a radar engineer.
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November 10, 2023 • 34 mins
The 100 year starship project @100YSS aims to get humanity to develop the capability to travel to the stars in one hundred years time. It started in 2012 headed by Dr Mae Jemison the first woman of colour to fly in to space in STS 47 in 1992.
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December 16, 2022 • 45 mins
I first came across the Antikythera Mechanism just over a decade ago. It is still the most incredible artefact from history. It is as out of place in our time as William Shakespeare using an Iphone or Vasco De Gama travelling in a speedboat.
The Antikythera Mechanism is a complex mechanical (clockwork) device that can determine the position of the planets and phases of the Moon and predict when solar and lunar eclipses will occur...
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November 25, 2022 • 25 mins
The Clarke Exobelt is the name that Dr Hector Socas-Navarro has given to perhaps the largest structure humans have built. A collection of satellites in earth orbit (geosynchronous) 36,000 km radius. All circling the earth at the same speed in the same direction. The density of this orbit has been increasing since the 1960s but is not yet sufficiently dense for detection from interstellar distances. But in 200 years it may be. In t...
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November 18, 2022 • 40 mins
The Clarke Exobelt is the name that Dr Hector Socas-Navarro has given to perhaps the largest structure humans have built. A collection of satellites in earth orbit (geosynchronous) 36,000 km radius. All circling the earth at the same speed in the same direction. The density of this orbit has been increasing since the 1960s but is not yet sufficiently dense for detection from interstellar distances. But in 200 years it may be. In t...
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November 11, 2022 • 43 mins
European Space Agency's Dr Paul McNamara was studying low-frequency gravitational waves just before they were discovered in 2015. Now he is the astronomy and astrophysics coordinator for the European Space Agency. In this interview, recorded in Athens during Cospar2022, he speaks about some of the exciting science missions that ESA will be launching later this decade.
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November 4, 2022 • 44 mins
Dr Ralph Lorenz speaks about Dragonfly, a return mission to land on Titan. This mission, for which he is the mission architect, is like no other. It is not really a lander or rover but a quadcopter that will sample different regions near the landing site during its 3.3-year lifetime.
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October 28, 2022 • 69 mins
When it comes to the pioneers of rocketry, tradition has it that it was Tsiolkovsky, Goddard and Oberth. in this episode, author Rob Godwin talks about William Leitch from Scotland. He was writing about rocketry from the 1850s
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October 21, 2022 • 35 mins
Astronomer Dr Connor Nixon @shamrocketeer speaks about the @nasawebb program to observe solar system objects using the #JWST led by @hbhammel
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October 14, 2022 • 30 mins
In 1972, Harrison Schmitt became the first (and so far only), scientist to walk on the surface of the Moon. Since then many scientists have brought their scientific insights to understanding to the solar system and their moons. geologist @sanjeevgupta45 from @imperialcollege talks about Mars
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October 7, 2022 • 30 mins
Niklas Hedman, the Acting Director of the @UN Office for the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNOOSA) talks about @UNOOSA ongoing role in facilitating and promoting the peaceful uses of space in Low Earth orbit and beyond.
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September 18, 2022 • 27 mins
Sandra Benitez-Herrera talks about the opportunities for teachers and students made available by the European Space Agency 's CESAR (Cooperation through Education in Science and Astronomy Research) program. @esa
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September 9, 2022 • 40 mins
A chance meeting with James van Allen led Stamatios Krimigis to build instruments for Mariner 3 and 4. Eventually became a Principle Investigator for the charged particle instrument on voyager which was initially known as Mariner Jupiter Saturn 77 program
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October 18, 2021 • 60 mins
Astrophotographer Nik Szymanek shares his unique perspective on how astrophotography has evolved since the 1980s when he first started. We speak about software and robotic telescopes @telescopelivehq @APinSpain & @astronomynow get a mention.
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October 8, 2021 • 53 mins
Following an unexpected meeting with USA's first Astronaut, Alan Shepard in around 1962. In this episode he recounts a Moon-Bounce experiments with @Nasa.
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October 1, 2021 • 35 mins
Since the beginning of human civilisation, people have looked up at the night sky and wondered – are we alone? Science and technology of the 20th century has made it possible to try to address that question. So how is are we doing? With Jill Tarter from @SETIInstitute
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September 24, 2021 • 63 mins
The latest book from author Brian Harvey @BrianHarveyAut1, this is probably the first English language analysis of the individuals, institutions and early space projects that would eventually lead, not just France, but Europe to its status as a leader in designing, building and operating complex space infrastructure.
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September 17, 2021 • 31 mins
How has the ¢SETI evolved over the last 6 decades and especially what can modern technology allow today that was not possible then? With Jill Tarter from @SETIInstitute
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January 14, 2021 • 59 mins
On 14th January 2005, the Huygens probe landed on Titan. Saturns and the solar systems largest Moon. This was a joint NAS/ESA mission called Cassini-Huygens. Whilst Huygens landed on Titan, Cassini continued to orbit Saturn.
Professor John Zarnecki, the prinicpal investigator for the Surface Science Package, recalls the experience of that mission and what we learnt about Titan then and since.
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