ORLY-EP0111A - Hail Hydra and Rocket Science!
Welcome to ORLYRADIO #111A for Friday MAY 27th, 2016 - where we dismantle the current events for your edutainment through mostly rational conversations that make you go ‘Oh Really’! I’m your host Andy Cowen.
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Potpourri: Guests/Rants/Etc:
A speech, but from whom?
This Week in History:
Special presentation from Fred Sims.
Science Bitches!
The theme of today’s segment is transportation!
Aaaaaand… STUCK the landing! SpaceX’s recent test flight, that is: http://www.space.com/33004-spacex-thaicom8-launch-rocket-landing.html
Speaking of test flights - it’s long been a maxim of space programs that every flight is a test flight. It’s simply too expensive to launch enough missions to collect big, juicy data sets. Jeff Bezos over at Blue Origin wants to change that with his relatively inexpensive and autonomous New Shepard design. The more data we get, the safer space travel gets: http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/05/jeff-bezos-is-trying-to-destroy-his-own-spacecraft-and-thats-a-good-thing/
Speaking of making spaceflight cheaper, India has unveiled a small reusable craft that only cost 14 million to make its flight - for reference, each NASA shuttle cost 450 million per mission. Now, this craft is unmanned and mostly a test platform, but it’s a proof of concept showing how affordable space programs can be: http://www.iflscience.com/space/india-has-launched-low-cost-space-shuttle
Also in the field of space innovation - inflatable spaceships?! It’s more likely than you think. So likely, in fact, it’s being tested on the International Space Station: http://www.iflscience.com/space/watch-live-nasa-inflates-first-expandable-room-iss
And finally, just as every space mission must one day come back to earth, so too must this segment - but only because we get to cover a cool superbus which can literally drive OVER other cars: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-05/25/c_135387633.htm
If there is time, http://gizmodo.com/new-evidence-suggests-a-fifth-fundamental-force-of-natu-1778881644
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