May 12 1803 – German scientist Justus von Liebig born https://amzn.to/3fc0WOz
May 12 1880 – American explorer Lincoln Ellsworth born https://amzn.to/3bonn1T
May 12 1886 – German Zeppelin captain Ernst A. Lehmann born https://amzn.to/3hq21ov
May 12 1895 – American chemist William Giauque born https://amzn.to/3obA8BX
May 12 1902 – John Bruce Medaris born https://amzn.to/33ArkMw
May 12 1910 – British chemist Dorothy Hodgkin born https://amzn.to/3faIXYJ
May 12 1916 – Bernhard Hohmann born
May 12 1922 – Abram Moiseyevich Genin born
May 12 1924 – Russian mathematician Alexander Esenin-Volpin born
May 12 1950 – Last flight of the XS-1
May 12 1965 – Soviet spacecraft Luna-5 crashes on the moon https://amzn.to/33COmSV
May 12 1967 – French mathematician Mireille Bousquet-Mélou born
May 12 1977 – Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani born https://amzn.to/3vX1zlN
May 12 2000 – Final spacewalk at Mir space station https://amzn.to/3hmeObq
Cesare Barbieri is Emeritus Professor of Astronomy at the University of Padova, Italy. He and his teams have been involved in the construction of various astronomical instruments. He recently wrote a book on the methods to discover extra-terrestrial life. We spoke about the book and his work. A Brief Introduction to the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Life (CRC Press, 2021)
May 7 1770 – Botany Bay named by Captain Cook https://amzn.to/2RADDG0
May 7 1886 – Ernst A Lehmann, German captain of the ill-fated Hindenberg which crashed May 6, is born https://amzn.to/3h6dBVP
May 7 1962 – Influential sociologist and physician Nicholas Christakis born https://amzn.to/3baAV0L
May 7 1992 First flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour https://amzn.to/3o0fCnY
May 6 1851 John Gorrie recieved a patent for a machine to make ice https://amzn.to/2R2R0i2
May 6 1937 The LZ 129 Hindenburg crashed, the last great airship disaster https://amzn.to/3xTKOtm
May 6 1968 Neil Armstrong nearly died in a practice flight of the LLRV https://amzn.to/3b774Gl
May 6 2001 On the Soyuz TM-31 Dennis Tito returns from his trip to space as the first paying space tourist https://amzn.to/3eW3FLP
May 5 1811 Scientist John William Draper born
May 5 1961 Alan Shepard piloted the Mercury-Redstone 3 mission and became the second person, and the first American, to travel into space https://amzn.to/2SiHzLJ
May 1980 Science communicator William Henry Green II born https://amzn.to/2StkJkN
May 5 2018 Inight MarCO was the first interplanetary mission launched from Vandenberg AFB https://amzn.to/33j7SE0
Eric Berger is a Houston-based reporter and editor. He reported for the Houston Chronicle and is now the senior space editor for Ars Technica. He was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his coverage of Hurricane Ike and most recently wrote a book on the early days of SpaceX. We spoke about SpaceX, Elon Musk, the space industry, and his work. Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX (William Morrow, 2021)
0:37 – Eric talks about how he got into studying and writing about SpaceX.
1:22 – Eric talks about what the book focuses on.
3:13 – Eric talks about SpaceX in 2002.
5:10 – Eric talks about how Elon created his SpaceX engineering team.
6:15 – Eric talks about the legal and business environment in 2002 for SpaceX.
7:48 – Eric talks about the other companies that got DARPA grants.
8:17 – Eric talks about the small satellite launch industry in 2002.
9:56 – Eric talks about how Elon financed SpaceX.
12:17 – Eric talks about the obstacles SpaceX faced.
14:28 – Eric talks about Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic.
16:49 – Eric talks about SpaceX’s worth.
17:59 – Eric talks about SpaceX’s use of old technology.
20:39 – Eric talks about Elon’s companies and his motivations.
22:45 – Eric talks about PayPal and Elon Musk.
23:59 – Eric talks about why Elon Musk was interested in SpaceX.
24:27 – Eric talks about Elon’s organizational skills and management abilities.
27:26 – Eric talks about personnel turnover at SpaceX.
28:09 – Eric talks about how he researched the book.
29:38 – Eric talks about Elon’s personality style.
32:19 – Eric talks about how closely SpaceX came to failure in the early days.
33:04 – Eric talks about Elon’s other plans and goals.
33:32 – Eric talks about NeuroLink.
34:11 – Eric talks about wanting to better understand how much Elon was involved in SpaceX at the start.
35:59 – Eric talks about their reusable rockets.
37:30 – Eric talks about their use of propulsion fuels.
38:28 – Eric talks about NASA’s space launch rocket.
40:09 – Eric talks about space debris.
41:34 – Eric talks about SpaceX and foreign space agencies.
43:20 – Eric talks about SpaceX and national security issues.
43:56 – Eric talks about ITAR and other issues.
45:06 – Eric talks about competition for the Moon and Mars.
45:55 – Eric talks about the style of the book.
51:15 – Eric talks about space stations and SpaceX.
52:38 – Eric can be found at arstechnica or on twitter @SciGuySpace.
Cesare Barbieri is Emeritus Professor of Astronomy at the University of Padova, Italy. He and his teams have been involved in the construction of various astronomical instruments. He recently wrote a book on the methods to discover extra-terrestrial life. We spoke about the book and his work. A Brief Introduction to the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Life (CRC Press, 2021)
0:44 – Cesare talks about being an astronomer and why he wrote about extra-terrestrial life.
2:49 – Cesare talks about how to use telescopes to find extra terrestrial life.
4:54 – Cesare talks about the detection of planets.
6:59 – Cesare talks about other options for detecting life in space.
12:27 – Cesare talks about the strange object that came into the system.
15:54 – Cesare talks about the ideal systems in which to find life.
21:51 – Cesare talks about gravitational waves.
23:05 – Cesare talks about cosmic rays.
23:57 – Cesare talks about the contribution of computing power to this search.
27:34 – Cesare talks about advancements in telescopes.
32:34 – Cesare talks about the maintenance of telescopes.
37:08 – Cesare talks about micro-impacts on space telescopes.
38:05 – Cesare talks about problems space telescopes might encounter. He also touches on putting telescopes on the Moon and Mars.
40:03 – Cesare talks about life on Mars might affect the search for additional life.
44:37 – Cesare talks about ways to exchange information with alien intelligences.
45:00 – Cesare talks about [the] Freeman Dyson’s ideas and pulsars.
47:45 – Cesare talks about dark matter and dark energy.
51:41 – Cesare explains the differences between dark energy and dark matter.
52:22 – Cesare talks about radial velocity.
54:35 – Cesare talks about how to coat telescopes.
56:11 – Cesare talks about the research he did for this book.
56:56 – Cesare talks about being surprised by how quickly we discovered new planets. He also talks about how important the Moon was for life.
1:00:39 – Cesare talks about how other moons can be discovered.
1:01:14 – Cesare talks about the planets we’ve discovered.
1:02:36 – Cesare talks about combining radio and optical telescopes data.
1:04:40 – Cesare talks about the various data available to astronomers and current advances.
1:05:33 – Cesare talks about the difficulty of overcoming research problems.
Today in Space and Science History: May 11
