Episodes
Wednesday Apr 29, 2020
Will Pomerantz – Virgin Orbit
Wednesday Apr 29, 2020
Wednesday Apr 29, 2020
In this episode:
We meet Will Pomerantz, Vice President of Special Projects and Brand at Virgin Orbit in Glendale, California. He has been a part of the XPRIZE Team, a weightless flight coach with Zero Gravity Corporation, and was a founder of the Brooke Owens Fellowship. He has worked with Futron Inc., the International Space University, and the United Nations. He has also done a TEDx Talk entitled, “Why We Go: Leaving Our Beautiful Home and Exploring Outer Space.”
In this conversation, Will discusses how he decided space was the place for him career wise when he was growing up, his start at Virgin Galactic, what he does now at Virgin Orbit, and how small satellite launch needs have evolved. He also describes how Virgin Orbit was able to quickly pivot from launch and commercial space activities to producing ventilators to support COVID-19 efforts, taking their ventilator design from concept to production within a month.
In discussing future Virgin Orbit projects, Will says, “I have really come to deeply love and admire the small satellite industry. I’ve gone from being a little bit of a skeptic at first, to believing that this is something that’s going to have an enormous impact on the planet.”
To learn more about Virgin Orbit, visit virginorbit.com.
Introductory and closing music: Paint the Sky by Hans Atom (c) copyright 2015 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/hansatom/50718 Ft: Miss Judged
Wednesday Apr 15, 2020
Dr. Ulyana Horodyskyj – Science in the Wild Founder
Wednesday Apr 15, 2020
Wednesday Apr 15, 2020
In this episode:
We meet Dr. Ulyana Horodyskyj, a glaciologist, geologist, climatologist, and planetologist. After earning her PhD, she went on to complete postdoctoral research at the National Snow and Ice Data Center and launched an adventure and citizen science company called Science in the Wild, which offers participants the chance to go on expeditions and collect scientific data. Ulyana is also an instructor for a citizen science program called Project PoSSUM (Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere), and a visiting professor of environmental science at Colorado College.
In this conversation, Ulyana discusses how she first got interested in space and science, the meaning of “citizen science,” and shares her experiences as commander of a deep space mission simulation as a part of NASA’s Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA XII) project. She also describes the similarities between working at high mountain elevations and being an astronaut in space, offers advice for women trying to get into scientific professions, and explains what her ideal mission destination would be if she were to be selected for the upcoming NASA class for which she is an applicant.
In discussing her research work in high mountain elevations such as the Nepal Himalayas, Ulyana says, “Twenty [thousand] to 23,000 feet is the kind of the realm I've been working in, and you still have to function in order to collect samples for the research. I think I really just enjoy both the physical and mental challenges that come along with the high-altitude climbing and the science.”
For more information about Ulyana's Science in the Wild initiative, visit www.scienceinthewild.com.
Introductory and closing music: Paint the Sky by Hans Atom (c) copyright 2015 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/hansatom/50718 Ft: Miss Judged