Episode 4 - "Pushing the Boundaries of Human Spaceflight‪"‬ Receding Horizons

Episode Notes
On today's episode we have Emmanuel Zamora, or Alex, as his friends call him. Alex is currently an electrical engineer working at NASA's Johnson Space Center. He was born and raised in the great city of Brownsville, Texas, graduated from Hanna High School, and received a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at San Antonio. His experience as an electrical engineer includes an internship at the Brownsville Public Utilities Board, a job at CPS Energy, and then landing an opportunity as a sub-contractor for NASA on the International Space Station program, where he provided engineering support for the space station's electrical power system, or EPS. More specifically, for the Spartan Controller at Mission Control at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Alex recently stepped into his new role as a NASA civil servant in January of this year 2021, where he oversees and implements policies over numerous programs. His long-term goal is to become a flight director.

Recorded on 2 April 2021.

00:00:00 - Introduction

00:01:14 - Space travel

00:04:33 - Interstellar

00:09:06 - Star Wars and movie technology

00:14:15 - NASA film restoration

00:17:28 - Excerpt from Scott Kelly's "Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery"

00:25:48 - Emmanuel Alex Zamora

00:28:52 - The Star Wars Expanded Universe

00:32:09 - Path to NASA

00:45:30 - PHOENIX, SPARTAN Flight Controller, ISS ATCS/EPS

00:59:19 - Spacesuits and EVA

01:05:21 - Building 9

01:08:28 - Astronaut safety and daily lives

01:13:11 - ISS electrical power system and solar arrays

01:19:10 - Yeet

01:21:30 - Orbital speed and microgravity

01:28:04 - Spotting the ISS

01:31:25 - Expeditions into space

01:36:15 - SpaceX

01:43:56 - Exploration of the unknown

01:50:59 - A one-way ticket to Mars?

01:56:16 - Mission control and Gene Kranz

01:59:11 - Tungsten Flight

02:01:48 - Meeting astronauts

02:07:07 - Artemis, Orion, and Gateway

02:15:57 - Space station occultations and observing

02:21:56 - Imaging technology

02:27:41 - Martian pyramids and extremophiles

02:37:33 - Rocket launches

02:41:40 - Future plans

02:47:14 - Outro