Space Engineering Podcast

Dr. Kira Abercromby, Space Debris Tracking, Radar & Optical Telescopes, Spacecraft Environments | Space Engineering Podcast 6

spaceengineeringpodcast@gmail.com (Alfonso Gonzalez) — Sat, 18 Dec 2021 20:54:03 +0000

In this episode we cover the following topics: Space debris environment, deorbit regulations, geostationary (GEO) vs. Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) debris, geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) rocket bodies, hypervelocity impacts, whipple shields, Space Shuttle windows impacts, spacecraft environments, solar radiation, Ultraviolet (UV) light, Earth’s magnetic field protection from solar radiation, Atomic oxygen (AO) in the upper atmosphere, AO and UV synergistic effects, micrometeoroid impacts / flux, Earth-based observations, Radar and optical telescopes, In-space observations Orbit determination methods, Lambert’s problem, 3+ vector orbit determination sngles only orbit determination, NASA orbit modeling software (EVOLVE and ORDEM96), Anti-Satellite (ASAT) tests effects on orbital debris, GPS satellite solar panel debris, spectroscopy for identification of orbital debris materials, atmospheric water interference in infrared wavelengths, ODERACS spheres calibration mission, glare effects on observations, electromagnetic spectrum regions, Apollo rocket body observations, space environment effects on materials, What it's like to do a PhD in aerospace engineering, Becoming a Cal Poly SLO Professor.

Link to YouTube version:

Federico Giusto, ispace, Lunar Landers, Space Mining, Machine Learning | Space Engineering Podcast 5

spaceengineeringpodcast@gmail.com (Alfonso Gonzalez) — Sun, 8 Aug 2021 19:33:24 +0000

Federico Giusto is a Space Systems Engineer at ispace, inc. in their Luxembourg office. In this episode, we discuss topics from ispace's lunar landers and Blueprint Moon mission, their 3 offices (in Tokyo, Luxembourg City, and Denver), space mining laws, their NASA contract which will be the first lunar transaction of transfer of ownership of lunar regolith, the Luxembourg government's actions to become a big player in the space mining industry, the Artemis Accords.

Then in the second half we switch gears to discuss machine learning (the focus of his Master's thesis in aerospace engineering at Loughborough University in England). In this part we got deeper into the technical side, discussing comparing different light wavelengths to be able to assess how healthy a crop field is from satellite hyperspectral images.

The goal of this work is to be able to tell farmers which parts of their crops are healthy and which parts need irrigation. This is a topic I worked on at Planetary Resources so we were able to go a bit into depth of how different infrared wavelengths would be affected by the water in our atmosphere including humidity and clouds, and how to correct for those effects.

Then we go into some details of his work on machine learning and how to gather all this data in order to be able to train a model for automatic identification of crop health. He goes into a bit of technical detail of different learning methods that he considered in his work.

Links to the Space Engineering Podcast (YouTube, Spotify, Google Podcasts, SimpleCast): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOIRBaljOV8gYALpxUJywrHZuvZ9NFpz0 https://open.spotify.com/show/01GcglyOT2bw4moswvDg4O https://space-engineering-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9TelZzS3lDTQ?sa=X&ved=0CAMQ4aUDahcKEwjggN2CxZTuAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQDg

Link to Orbital Mechanics with Python video series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOIRBaljOV8gn074rWFWYP1dCr2dJqWab

Link to Spacecraft Attitude Control with Python video series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOIRBaljOV8gsvlQ_GtiDRSBECHB2vvnp

Link a Mecánica Orbital con Python (videos en Español): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOIRBaljOV8iGCAac3UnrXHu3tjKHjXSB

Link to Numerical Methods with Python video series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOIRBaljOV8gMqhggseSHI9u2pldGZonA

#spaceengineeringpodcast #engineeringpodcast #aerospaceengineeringpodcast

Sarah Rogers, Phoenix CubeSat Design, Development and Testing | Space Engineering Podcast 4

spaceengineeringpodcast@gmail.com (Alfonso Gonzalez) — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 13:00:00 +0000

Sarah Rogers is an aerospace engineer and the mission manager / systems engineer for the Phoenix CubeSat from Arizona State University (ASU). Sarah worked on the Phoenix CubeSat for 5 years, since she was a Freshman at ASU to finishing her Graduate degree in Aerospace Engineering. The Phoenix CubeSat is a 3U CubeSat with the objective to take thermal images of cities in order to measure the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. The other objective of the mission is to be an educational platform for university students on all aspects of spacecraft design: https://phxcubesat.asu.edu/ Sarah has her own podcast called The Art of Space Engineering, which I am a big fan of. Similarly to this podcast, she brings on engineers in the space industry and has long-form conversations on their expertise. I highly recommend listening to her podcast. Here are the links: https://open.spotify.com/show/4dW5Kugcbfe3RrYeJ0csN9 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-art-of-space-engineering/id1526553798 https://www.facebook.com/artofspaceeng/ Links to the Space Engineering Podcast (YouTube, Spotify, Google Podcasts, SimpleCast): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOIRBaljOV8gYALpxUJywrHZuvZ9NFpz0 https://open.spotify.com/show/01GcglyOT2bw4moswvDg4O https://space-engineering-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9TelZzS3lDTQ?sa=X&ved=0CAMQ4aUDahcKEwjggN2CxZTuAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQDg Link to Orbital Mechanics with Python video series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOIRBaljOV8gn074rWFWYP1dCr2dJqWab Link to Spacecraft Attitude Control with Python video series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOIRBaljOV8gsvlQ_GtiDRSBECHB2vvnp Link a Mecánica Orbital con Python (videos en Español): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOIRBaljOV8iGCAac3UnrXHu3tjKHjXSB Link to Numerical Methods with Python video series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOIRBaljOV8gMqhggseSHI9u2pldGZonA

Dr. Francesco Topputo | Asteroid / Lunar CubeSats Mission Design | Space Engineering Podcast 3

spaceengineeringpodcast@gmail.com (Alfonso Gonzalez) — Sun, 21 Mar 2021 12:00:00 +0000

Dr. Francesco Topputo specializes in spacecraft trajectory optimization and space mission design and is an Associate Professor at Politecnico di Milano (Milan, Italy) and a Visiting Professor at TU Delft (Delft, Netherlands).

Francesco has been at Politecnico di Milano for over 17 years, starting out as a PhD student, then a postdoctoral fellow, then assistant professor, and now associate professor. His PhD thesis was titled: Low-thrust non-keplerian orbits: analysis, design, and control, where his studies focused on analysis and design of highly non-linear orbits arising from n-body dynamics.

The Milani CubeSat, which is one of two 6U CubeSats that will be riding along Hera. Hera is part of the Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA), which is a joint mission with NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission that will be impacting a binary asteroid system called Didymos to test this method of asteroid redirection.

Link to video on Didymos binary asteroid system simulation with Hera:

I met Francesco back in summer of 2019 when I was doing an internship at GOMSpace Luxembourg. GOMSpace is a company that is headquartered in Aalborg, Denmark and they have offices in Sweden and Luxembourg. We were working on the Miniaturized Asteroid Remote Geophysical Observer (abbreviated M-ARGO), which is a mission for a 12U CubeSat to use a low-thrust engine to reach and investigate an asteroid. Francesco led the effort of designing trajectories to thousands of asteroids so we could find a few feasible candidates for targets of this mission. We discuss his work in this episode.

The LUMIO CubeSat (Lunar Meteoroid Impact Observer) will be in an Earth-Moon L2 halo orbit to observe, quantify, and characterize the meteoroid impacts by detecting their flashes on the lunar far side. We discuss the orbit trades and transfer from low lunar orbit (LLO) to L2 halo orbit, and some discussion on stable and unstable manifolds.

Dr. Francesco Topputo | Spacecraft Trajectory Optimization, Mission Design, PoliMi | SEP 3 Preview

spaceengineeringpodcast@gmail.com (Alfonso Gonzalez) — Sun, 7 Mar 2021 18:37:16 +0000

Dr. Francesco Topputo has been at Politecnico di Milano (Milan, Italy) for over 17 years, starting out as a PhD student, then a postdoctoral fellow, then assistant professor, and now associate professor. He is also a visiting professor at TU Delft (Delft, the Netherlands). His PhD thesis was titled Low-thrust non-keplerian orbits: analysis, design, and control, where his studies focused on analysis and design of highly non-linear orbits arising from n-body dynamics.

I met him back in summer of 2019 when I was doing an internship at GOMSpace Luxembourg. GOMSpace is a company that is headquartered in Aalborg, Denmark and they have offices in Sweden and Luxembourg. We were working on the Miniaturized Asteroid Remote Geophysical Observer (abbreviated M-ARGO), which is a mission for a 12U CubeSat to use a low-thrust engine to reach and investigate an asteroid. Francesco led the effort of designing trajectories to thousands of asteroids so we could find a few feasible candidates for targets of this mission.

He is also the Principal Investigator for the Lunar Meteoroid Impact Observer (abbreviated LUMIO) mission which is for another 12U CubeSat to observe the Moon from a Earth-Moon L2 halo orbit for meteoroid impacts.

He’s also working on Hera’s Milani CubeSat, which is one of two 6U CubeSats that will be riding along Hera. Hera is part of the Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA), which is a joint mission with NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission that will be impacting a binary asteroid system called Didymos to test this method of asteroid redirection.

He also did modeling and simulation of solar arrays for the Rosetta / Philae mission, which was the first mission to orbit and land on a comet.

Juan Arrieta, PhD | Spacecraft Trajectory Optimization & Navigation, Artemis, Cassini, Europa Clipper | Space Engineering Podcast 2

spaceengineeringpodcast@gmail.com (Alfonso Gonzalez) — Sun, 21 Feb 2021 19:35:00 +0000

Juan Arrieta, PhD specializes in spacecraft trajectory optimization and deep space mission design. He worked at JPL for over 7 years after finishing his PhD at Carnegie Melon, and is now the Founder and CEO of Nabla Zero Labs (he is my boss!).

In this episode, we discuss our work at Nabla Zero Labs for Artemis (trajectory optimization, navigation, and scheduling), Earth-Moon trajectories, differential equations and ODE solvers, interplanetary trajectory design, outer planet mission design (Cassini and Europa Clipper), deep space orbit determination, inertial reference frames, NASA SPICE software, software engineering in general, and more.

Here is the link to the full episode on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/J2MGyDSw1gE

Brian Douglas | Spacecraft Engineering, ADCS, Control Systems | Space Engineering Podcast 1

spaceengineeringpodcast@gmail.com (Alfonso Gonzalez) — Mon, 11 Jan 2021 17:08:34 +0000

In this episode we discuss spacecraft attitude determination and control systems (ADCS, including reaction wheels, torque rods, star trackers, magnetometers), flight software, quaternions, euler angles, Kalman filters, orbit determination (GPS, IMUs), spacecraft modes (activation, safe), Monte Carlo simulations, hardware in the loop (HWITL) simulations, and software engineering.

Brian also shares some stories of his experience at Planetary Resources, including when the first spacecraft blew up on a rocket launch.

The video version of this podcast is on YouTube, as well as video clips from the episode (5-10 minutes): https://youtu.be/wkQww6pHFrI

Along with the podcast, my YouTube channel also include 50+ videos covering orbital mechanics / astrodynamics, numerical methods, and spacecraft attitude control and how to create your own simulations in Python.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt2NJAAW0Ln0hBpArRF1rpg

Feel free to reach out with any questions or comments over email: spaceengineeringpodcast@gmail.com