Cosmic Radio

Join us for an interview with Richard Rieber, Robotic Systems Engineer from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Richard takes us through the various robotics created at JPL and tells us how those creations were used on NASA missions and future how future robotics are being created for future NASA missions. 

Cosmic Radio host Elizabeth Garcia interviews Principal Investigator of NASA's Psyche Mission, Dr. Lindy Elkins-Tanton. Join us as we talk about an incredible space journey to a unique metal-rich asteroid orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter. Dr. Elkins-Tanton tells us all about the Psyche asteroid, why she believes that it may be the exposed nickel-iron core of an early planet and how she is going to test her hypothesis with this amazing solar-electric spacecraft.Psyche offers a unique window into the violent history of collisions and accretion that created terrestrial planets! 

Dr. Marc Rayman is back! This time he's telling us the story of the NASA Dawn Mission and all its discoveries, technology and stressful issues. Dr. Rayman also gives us mind-blowing insights into new ideas and future concepts of interstellar space travel after Ukiah igh School Senior, Francisco Castaneda Rodriguez Jr. asks Dr. Rayman an intriguing question.   

Robert Ferguson Observatory located in the Valley of the Moon, and within the Sugarloaf State Park  (just outside of Santa Rosa, California) is a hidden jewel in Sonoma County. Listen to this interview with staff from the observatory and discovery this unique and well run center and find out all about its year-round events.Guest speakers:Stephanie Derammelaere- Executive DirectorDavid Cranford- Docent AstronomerOnce you hear about RFO it won't be "hidden" anymore!

Tony Alcocer loves excitement! He was a Santa Rosa Fire Engineer then retired and became a model rocket mentor who works with NASA and Sonoma State University. He is a member of the National Association of Rocketry and Tripoli Rocketry Association.In this interview he tells us how he teaches kids and university professors how to build and launch rockets.

A hidden jewel in Northern California-the Physics and Astronomy Department at Sonoma State University!Dr. Lynn Cominsky is an award-winning Professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department at Sonoma State University. Dr. Cominsky is the founder and director of SSU's EdEon STEM Learning, which develops educational materials for NASA, NSF and the US Department of Education and NASA's Neurodiversity Network (N3) who's goal is to provide a pathway to NASA participation and STEM employment for neurodiverse learners, with a focus on those on the autism spectrum.Learn all about this cutting edge curriculum and the woman that put it all together to help students nationwide.

Part 2 of our interview with Dr. Laura Peticolas from Sonoma State University. Dr. Peticolas teaches us about solar cycles, sun behavior and how all the the sun's behavior can affect the earth. She makes learning about our universe fun and exciting. 

Part 1: April Interview:This is an amazing and educational opportunity to learn about our sun with Heliophysicist Dr. Laura Peticolas. Dr. Peticolas is the Associate Director of Ed Eon STEM learning at Sonoma State University. She led the effort to crowd-source high quality photographs across he path of totality during the 2017 total eclipse of the sun , a project called "The Eclipse Megamovie".Dr. Peticolas graduated from the University of Fairbanks where she studied the auroras. In this interview  Dr. Peticolas speaks with such passion and enthusiasm about helioscience, she explains what auroras are and how they are created. and teaches us about the science of the sun so that it is easy to understand.Continue on to May's interview with Dr. Peticolas to find out more about heliophysics and the sun's current behavior.

Join me for part two of my interview with Todd Barber from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Todd continues to tell us all about NASA's epic Voyager Mission and the flight teams struggles to keep these aging spacecrafts working beyond the outer boundary of the heliosphere in Interstellar Space. 

Join me as we speak with Todd Barber, Propulsion Engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Todd tells us all about how and why he became an engineer with JPL and his work at JPL including working on NASA's Cassini Mission to Saturn and his current work on NASA's incredible Voyager Mission. 

SHOW NOTES:Marc Rayman Ted Talk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=B0PbFp-y6DcNASA’s Space Place - https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/full-moons/en/Deep Space One Documentary - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe2zhv2cHEk