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Live from the Kennedy Space Center for Artemis 2 Part 2 · Made of Stars

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  Speaker 1: Warning.
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  Speaker 2: The following podcast contains an entertaining look at astronomy, physics,
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: and space news throughout the known universe. Listeners have been
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: known to learn about astronomical phenomenon, the scientific method, and
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: expanded vocabulary to include terms like quasar asterism and uranus. Listen,
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  Speaker 2: that's your own risk.
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  Speaker 3: Go ahead.
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  Speaker 1: When made of stars, made them stars.
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  Speaker 4: Made sizes. When made of stars, you could be from
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  Speaker 4: high they would New Mexicomus.
• 0:39
  Speaker 5: Where a.
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  Speaker 6: Stars?
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  Speaker 7: When we are made of stars. I'm Wes Carol, joined
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  Speaker 7: by my good friend doctor Sean cruising from Columbus State
• 1:01
  Speaker 7: University's Coca Cola Space Science Center.
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  Speaker 1: Morning Sean, Good morning West.
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  Speaker 7: Good to be here today, Part two from our adventures
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  Speaker 7: at Kennedy Space Center. We're back home. We kind of
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  Speaker 7: laid this out for you last week for part one
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  Speaker 7: of the show. We were there for two days. Day
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  Speaker 7: one on Tuesday was the day of the actual arrival
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  Speaker 7: of the SLS course stage for the Artemis two rockets,
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  Speaker 7: So that was a big day for its arrival.
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  Speaker 1: And while we were there, they split us up.
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  Speaker 7: I mean not many people have dared to try to
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  Speaker 7: split us up, but we let NASA split us up
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  Speaker 7: for a little while I had to go do some
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  Speaker 7: interviews or I got to go do some interviews, and
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  Speaker 7: then you stuck behind and actually watched the Pegasus barge
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  Speaker 7: arrive with the core stage.
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  Speaker 1: So it was a lot going on.
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  Speaker 7: Last week we had my three interviews that I did,
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  Speaker 7: and if you missed last week's show, you missed me
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  Speaker 7: talking to an astron, you miss me talking to the
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  Speaker 7: manager for the mission, the Artemis two mission manager. And
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  Speaker 7: then you missed me interviewing the woman who was responsible for,
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  Speaker 7: you know, getting all these engine parts together. And I
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  Speaker 7: was doing the interview from her actual building. I was
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  Speaker 7: referring to it as her house, almost like in sports.
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  Speaker 7: And then I realized upon listening to it again, I
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  Speaker 7: was like, I think people maybe get the impression I
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  Speaker 7: thought she lived there, which I know she did not
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  Speaker 7: because she yeah, but I know that she didn't actually
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  Speaker 7: live there because you know, you couldn't have any form
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  Speaker 7: of anything that did any kind of radio frequency.
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  Speaker 1: Because it was very tough doing the interviews.
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  Speaker 7: But our good friend Joey Williams, who was the first
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  Speaker 7: voice you hear at the beginning of this show as
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  Speaker 7: he lays out our disclaimer for the show, a lot
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  Speaker 7: in practical Jokers. He he was able to clean up
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  Speaker 7: that interview quite a bit for us and get some
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  Speaker 7: of that background noise out, and I appreciated that.
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  Speaker 1: I worked on it.
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  Speaker 7: Some and I was like, you know what, I know
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  Speaker 7: he's got a little bit next level equipment that he
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  Speaker 7: might be able to work with it, and he was
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  Speaker 7: able to do that. So we appreciate him for that,
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  Speaker 7: on top of, you know, giving us that great intro
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  Speaker 7: at the beginning of each show. So anyway, we had
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  Speaker 7: that for you those three interviews last week. This week
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  Speaker 7: we're covering day two. So last Wednesday was the day
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  Speaker 7: that the actual core stage came out of the barge
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  Speaker 7: and slowly made its way into the VAB. And what's
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  Speaker 7: fun about these interviews now, there's one of them we
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  Speaker 7: had to do indoors because it's Florida and there was
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  Speaker 7: a sudden downpour. Everybody was just diving undercover with cameras
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  Speaker 7: and recording equipment.
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  Speaker 1: But we did three.
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  Speaker 7: Of the interviews outside and I know, for the sake
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  Speaker 7: of podcast, you don't have the imagery go with this.
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  Speaker 1: Now, we do have video of these.
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  Speaker 7: Interviews, so we're working on that'll be a little extra
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  Speaker 7: content for you that we could talk about later, but
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  Speaker 7: you've got other plans for the video as well, which
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  Speaker 7: is very cool. It's one of those multifaceted accomplishments we
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  Speaker 7: were able to do on this trip with so much
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  Speaker 7: different content, providing stuff to Georgia News Network, providing it
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  Speaker 7: to our local TV stations, being able to do that
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  Speaker 7: sort of stuff for them. But just for the sake
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  Speaker 7: of this podcast, if you will, if you could just imagine,
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  Speaker 7: to the far right of your screen, we have the
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  Speaker 7: barge that has now docked and slowly the core stage
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  Speaker 7: is coming out. And the only thing I could equate
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  Speaker 7: it to. And I know this is a generational thing,
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  Speaker 7: but I can remember as a kid at some point
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  Speaker 7: being exposed to those little metal cigar tubes, right, And
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  Speaker 7: I don't know that the cigar is even coming those anymore.
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  Speaker 7: I don't know that you can still get those, maybe
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  Speaker 7: the high end ones, I don't know, but the little
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  Speaker 7: individual tubes and that sort of is what it felt like.
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  Speaker 7: It was like a cigar slowly coming out of one
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  Speaker 7: of those tubes as it was making its way out.
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  Speaker 7: And then while we're doing the interviews, the backdrop off
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  Speaker 7: to your right is the core stage coming out of
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  Speaker 7: this barge and it's slowly making its way behind the interviews,
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  Speaker 7: and then by the time we get to our last interview,
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  Speaker 7: it's slowly starting to turn so that it can go
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  Speaker 7: into the VAB. And we were able to watch this
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  Speaker 7: whole process take place throughout our day, so it was
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  Speaker 7: a great backdrop for this, you know. And over yes,
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  Speaker 7: over to the left is the VAB as the core
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  Speaker 7: stage made its way in, and I guess by now
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  Speaker 7: maybe it's standing up. I don't know how long it
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  Speaker 7: takes for them to get that thing up. I heard
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  Speaker 7: some discussions about, well, we're not sure about the thing
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  Speaker 7: that lifts it up.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know.
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  Speaker 7: It was things that I probably wasn't supposed to hear.
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  Speaker 7: I mean, it was just technical stuff that they were doing,
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  Speaker 7: and they were discussing that. But I'm sure if it's
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  Speaker 7: not already up, it'll be up soon because they got
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  Speaker 7: to finish building this rocket.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 8: They do.
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  Speaker 4: And and so we happen to have a few of
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  Speaker 4: our former students here from Columbus State University who are
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  Speaker 4: actually interns here at Space Science Center who are working
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  Speaker 4: on this program. I know for sure that one of
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  Speaker 4: them is going down next week to the Kennedy Space
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  Speaker 4: Center and his job is to help put the pieces together. Basically,
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  Speaker 4: I know that's a way over simplification, but he works
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  Speaker 4: on the systems that connect the pieces of this massive
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  Speaker 4: rocket together, and so yeah, they'll have to I know
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  Speaker 4: they're doing some kind of a safety review before that
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  Speaker 4: begins to happen, So that's probably what they're they're working
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  Speaker 4: through at this time. Our projects like that, getting those
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  Speaker 4: done so they can actually then raise it up and
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  Speaker 4: begin to make the other pieces to it to have
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  Speaker 4: the full scale rocket. So it's an interesting time. It's
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  Speaker 4: a it's an exciting time because there's a moon rocket
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  Speaker 4: being assembled at Kennedy Space Center and it's going to
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  Speaker 4: carry people to the Moon for the first time since
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  Speaker 4: the nineteen seventies.
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  Speaker 7: That's right, and astronauts that know that they are destined
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  Speaker 7: to make this journey around the Moon next year. So
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  Speaker 7: our interviews today and pieces, when you talk about oversimplification
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  Speaker 7: and you say this is you know, they're putting pieces
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  Speaker 7: together to build this thing, and it's I think it
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  Speaker 7: fits with the theme of last week and this week's show,
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  Speaker 7: especially this week's show as our interviews this week, and
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  Speaker 7: I'll tee those up in a second. But different people
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  Speaker 7: that have different jobs and responsibilities that it takes to
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  Speaker 7: all have to work together cohesively with one common goal,
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  Speaker 7: and that's safely getting these astronauts around the Moon and
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  Speaker 7: back to Earth and you know, back to their families,
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  Speaker 7: and that gets covered in these interviews. It especially gets
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  Speaker 7: covered in our interview with John Huddy Honeycutt, who's the
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  Speaker 7: SLS program manager, so that interview is coming up. We
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  Speaker 7: also talked with the Exploration Ground System program manager, Sean Quinn.
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  Speaker 7: We'll do those a little bit later in the show.
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  Speaker 7: Bill Muddle is the aerojet Rocket Eye.
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  Speaker 1: Guy.
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  Speaker 7: He works with Rocket Eye and it was a great,
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  Speaker 7: great interview, great conversation you had with him talking about
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  Speaker 7: a certain part that you have there in the Coca
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  Speaker 7: Cola Space Science Center. But we'll start first with Paul Hudson.
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  Speaker 7: He's the Core Stage senior vehicle engineer and he works
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  Speaker 7: with Jacobs and we started our conversation with him, and
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  Speaker 7: and you took the load on most of these interviews
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  Speaker 7: because I knew the interviews Day one was going to
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  Speaker 7: be me talking with not necessarily on the technical side.
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  Speaker 7: There was some of that, but it was, and I'm
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  Speaker 7: for the interviews. I have a few questions in there,
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  Speaker 7: and I actually started the interview with Paul Hudson asking
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  Speaker 7: him about our return to the Moon and the excitement
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  Speaker 7: around that.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah. So, so I was around for Artemis one, which
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  Speaker 6: was our first test flight, and it was it took
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  Speaker 6: us several years to go do the processing. We had
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  Speaker 6: learned a lot out of that mission, and you know,
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  Speaker 6: that was our test flight unmanned, but and we were
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  Speaker 6: really looking forward to returning, you know, our astronauts back
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  Speaker 6: into deep space. And we think it's fantastic that we
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  Speaker 6: finally got the course stays here. It's been a long
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  Speaker 6: wait for it to come. We've been spending a lot
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  Speaker 6: of time in preparations based on what we learned in
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  Speaker 6: the Artemis one. We've had to make a lot of
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  Speaker 6: processing updates and changes we've there's from the engineering standpoint,
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  Speaker 6: the way the procedures are done, our testing, our execution.
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  Speaker 6: So it's just really a really big event for us
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  Speaker 6: to see the course stage finally show up and us
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  Speaker 6: to be able to start getting into integrated ops.
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  Speaker 8: Yeah, that's fantastic.
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  Speaker 4: I'm going to back up just a little bit. Tell
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  Speaker 4: us about your role at Jacob's and what it is
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  Speaker 4: that you know, your job assignment is what you do
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  Speaker 4: every day and how it relates to what we're seeing
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  Speaker 4: today with SLS.
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  Speaker 6: So so, I'm the senior vehicle engineer for Jacobs as
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  Speaker 6: part of the comic contracts that we're responsible for processing
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  Speaker 6: the Artemis one and two vehicle, and from my role,
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  Speaker 6: I'm trying to work through all the requirements and the
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  Speaker 6: implementation and the procedures that will go do all that
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  Speaker 6: execution of test, checkout and launch and so going going
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  Speaker 6: through that, it's just making sure that our system engineers
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  Speaker 6: we got the good handle on how we're going to
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  Speaker 6: do it. We got schedules, we try to maintain those
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  Speaker 6: schedules to meet a launch date. There's a lot of
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  Speaker 6: effort in coordination we have to do with the OEMs
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  Speaker 6: in this case Boeing to work out all the details
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  Speaker 6: and preparations. Again, there's just so much effort that we
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  Speaker 6: put into getting ready to process the vehicle, and then
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  Speaker 6: when we get it here, things happen. They don't always
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  Speaker 6: work like we planned. We're already experiencing as it's today
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  Speaker 6: with the course stage arrival. We've had some minor issues
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  Speaker 6: and as we go through it, we always have to
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  Speaker 6: learn to adapt, go figure out a way to go
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  Speaker 6: try to maintain our schedule with the issues that are
• 11:17
  Speaker 6: in front of us, and that is usually cross program
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  Speaker 6: will have. If it's major critical path type items that
• 11:23
  Speaker 6: are impacting our work, we've got to go through and
• 11:26
  Speaker 6: have meetings to go work out the path forward and
• 11:29
  Speaker 6: what's our best option. So that's really kind of what
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  Speaker 6: we're you know, I will be doing, is the course
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  Speaker 6: stays Arise, going with our system folks, working through those
• 11:37
  Speaker 6: critical path issues that are preventing us from maintaining schedules,
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  Speaker 6: stuff that we didn't expect to occur. And there's a
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  Speaker 6: lot of other things that we have to do. It's
• 11:46
  Speaker 6: just logistically, ground support equipment that we have to deal
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  Speaker 6: with locally, we may have issues with that affect our
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  Speaker 6: processing and we've got to go, you know, work through
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  Speaker 6: those problems. It's just it's just working through maintaining our schedule.
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  Speaker 7: Rocket Science is hard. Team rocket science really hard, and
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  Speaker 7: you guys at Jacob's are a big component of sort
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  Speaker 7: of meshing all of those things together. If you could
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  Speaker 7: just talk about some of the challenges that you face
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  Speaker 7: as you're trying to work with all these different vendors
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  Speaker 7: and companies to make all this come together to send
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  Speaker 7: people to the Moon.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah, so that's that is a big challenge for us
• 12:22
  Speaker 6: because our system engineers have to interface with multiple OEMs.
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  Speaker 6: So from even core stage air Jet rocket Eye, they're
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  Speaker 6: responsible for the RS twenty five inches that you see,
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  Speaker 6: and then the core stage you know, that's that's the
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  Speaker 6: OEM for that is for Boeing, and then you got
• 12:40
  Speaker 6: the other elements like lvsa's Teledim Brown. As we go
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  Speaker 6: through the vehicle, there's like five OEMs.
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  Speaker 8: We have to go deal with it.
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  Speaker 6: Again, our system engineers between common end NASA, we have
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  Speaker 6: to be able to go deal with those elements and
• 12:53
  Speaker 6: everybody operates a little differently. So you got the challenges,
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  Speaker 6: but you've got to build those relationship up, work through
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  Speaker 6: the problem problems together as a team. Everybody knows the endgame.
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  Speaker 6: We got to go process and we got to get
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  Speaker 6: into latch. But it is a complex operation with a
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  Speaker 6: lot of effort going in across all those elements, Booster
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  Speaker 6: being NORTHROMK Prumen. It is complicated rocket to go get asemblement.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, one of the purposes that we have for our
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  Speaker 4: museum at a university is we're trying to build a
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  Speaker 4: pipeline of inspiration for students K through twelve to understand
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  Speaker 4: that these kind of careers exist, and then at the
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  Speaker 4: university level to train them technically so that they're ready
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  Speaker 4: to come work with you. If you were sitting down
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  Speaker 4: with a room of my college students talking about what
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  Speaker 4: it's like to work in the space industry and what
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  Speaker 4: they need to know and what they need to be
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  Speaker 4: ready for, what kind of advice would you give to
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  Speaker 4: them as they want to pursue that path to have
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: this kind of an adventure.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah, I think you know what. I was here during
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  Speaker 6: the Shuttle program and I watched when it wound down
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  Speaker 6: and we didn't have a lot of operations. But where
• 13:54
  Speaker 6: so much has changed over the years. Now you have
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  Speaker 6: Blue Origin, you have SpaceX, you have Artemis two program.
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  Speaker 6: It's really fantastic to be able to go work on
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  Speaker 6: a vehicle that's going to take for this case, people
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  Speaker 6: into deep space. You know, get the education, focus on
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  Speaker 6: what what you think you field you want to go into.
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  Speaker 6: Operations is where I'm usually from from an engineering perspective.
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  Speaker 6: I do operations. I'm not the design guys. It's when
• 14:21
  Speaker 6: you go into the field of spaceflight. Do you want
• 14:24
  Speaker 6: to do design work from an engineering perspective or do
• 14:29
  Speaker 6: you want to go into processing? Which operations folks go in?
• 14:33
  Speaker 6: You want to be a technician. They're they're definitely highly
• 14:36
  Speaker 6: needed quality. It's the whole word. What part of the
• 14:39
  Speaker 6: vehicle processing would you want to go into? But again,
• 14:42
  Speaker 6: I left space flight for a few years back Shuttle.
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  Speaker 6: I missed it. I really I wanted to come back,
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  Speaker 6: and I did because there's nothing like what we're doing.
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  Speaker 5: It's just nowhere else right now.
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  Speaker 4: So in in that vein, in that light of thinking
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  Speaker 4: about you know, you're you're mired in your daily task.
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  Speaker 4: You're focused on what has to get done that day
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  Speaker 4: or that week or that month. But then there's a
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: bigger picture and you're sending people to the Moon on
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: a system that you help design. What's it going to
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: be like for you that day when people walk out
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: unto the service of the moon and you have that
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: satisfaction of knowing that you can you participate.
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  Speaker 6: There's nothing like we all know about it, you know.
• 15:19
  Speaker 6: I always thought that when you like when Artemis won flew,
• 15:22
  Speaker 6: we it took so much to get there, and watching
• 15:25
  Speaker 6: it you finally leave the path, was so fantastic. You
• 15:29
  Speaker 6: just can't you know, it's just something you have to
• 15:31
  Speaker 6: live through and experience because it takes a lot of
• 15:34
  Speaker 6: work and you spend a lot of time, and by
• 15:36
  Speaker 6: the end a lot of us were so tired. But
• 15:38
  Speaker 6: when you watched it clear the tower, there's nothing like it.
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  Speaker 6: It's just phenomenon. And we can't wait to do it
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  Speaker 6: with a crew. We've done the test fight. We're ready
• 15:46
  Speaker 6: for the crew vehicle.
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  Speaker 4: You know, people have lots of different opinions about going
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: to the Moon or not going to the moon, or
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: those kinds of things, and what would what would you
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: tell people is the real importance of an endeavor like
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: this one?
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  Speaker 6: Yeah, I think from that that's your first step, right,
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  Speaker 6: you keep here and that's where we got to go
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  Speaker 6: to get to Mars. So I'm sure I haven't worked
• 16:05
  Speaker 6: that program as far as you know, the big, big
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  Speaker 6: picture conops of going to Mars, but I know that's
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  Speaker 6: very important for us to show going to the Moon,
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  Speaker 6: going out to that deep space as part of that.
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  Speaker 6: But you know, that's that's the way I kind of
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  Speaker 6: look at it is it's our first step until we
• 16:21
  Speaker 6: go out farther and farther, So.
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  Speaker 7: All right, and that is Paul Hudson, Core stage, senior
• 16:26
  Speaker 7: vehicle engineer with Jacobs. It was great talking with him.
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  Speaker 7: He wasn't one of our scheduled interviews, but someone came
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  Speaker 7: up to us and said, how would you guys like
• 16:36
  Speaker 7: to talk with and we went yes, didn't matter who
• 16:40
  Speaker 7: it was, we were excited to talk with it. We
• 16:42
  Speaker 7: would have interviewed every single person there if we'd been
• 16:44
  Speaker 7: given the chance.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, Paul was a great interview, and of course you
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: can hear, you know, his excitement, his passion about working
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: with that core stage and overseeing all of the engineering
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: of that particular part of the vehicle. Remember what we
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: were there to say, is that core stage coming ashore.
• 17:02
  Speaker 4: And if you don't know what a core stage is,
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: that's the main booster, that's the big engine that gets
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: off the ground and pushes it most of the way
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: outside of the Earth's gravitational field. Then it has a
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: second stage. Of course, the capsule is a different part.
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  Speaker 4: There are some booster rockets, so all of these things
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: must be assembled. But he's the lead engineer on that
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: first stage, that big booster and it has those mighty
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: Space Shuttle engines on board there.
• 17:28
  Speaker 7: Next we talked with the Bill Muddle, and I know
• 17:31
  Speaker 7: this was the interview that you were most excited about
• 17:35
  Speaker 7: for a very specific reason.
• 17:37
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: So I'm excited about all these interviews because they're cool people.
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: But we happen to have a component of the RS
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: twenty five engine sitting in our exhibit gallery. Now you
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: might hear him refer to it as a Space Shuttle
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: main engine, it's because it's the same system. So the
• 17:55
  Speaker 4: Space Shuttle's main engines were so good that NASA do
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: to keep them and use them on the core stage
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: of their new Moon rocket. There were three main engines
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: on the Space Shuttle. They each generate somewhere on the
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: neighborhood of twelve million horse power. Well, they took those
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: old Space Shuttle engines and they souped them up a
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: little bit more, got a little bit more performance out
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: of them, and stuck four of them on the core
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: stage for SLS. And so that is one bad boy rocket.
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: When we were watching that come ashore outside of the
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: Pegasus barge and head over to the VAB, it just
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: gave you a sense of like wow, that thing is really,
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: really big, and those engines are massive, and they're gonna
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: light them up. With people on board that thing, it's
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: no wonder. It takes all of these people working together
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: to make sure that system can fly. And Bill Muddle's
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: job is the engine itself. He's the engine guru for
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: Rocket Dyne or L three Harris Aerojet rocketdy and it's
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: their name now we know them as Rocket Dine back
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: in the eighties because they were the ones manufacturing the
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: space shuttles engines. He's been working with that engine system
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: since the eighties. And here's his interview. You have a
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: lot of experience with RS twenty five engines and space
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: shuttle main engines, and that's.
• 19:12
  Speaker 9: A big part of the SLS system.
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: Why don't you tell us just a little bit about
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: that engine system and about your involvement with it over
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: the years.
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: Well, I've been involved with SSME SLASH RS twenty five
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: since about nineteen eighty seven. So I started out as
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: a development engineer back at Kenoga Park and I moved
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: to KSC in nineteen eighty nine, and I've been the
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: system engineer and an engineering manager for SSME, and now
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: I'm the lead Field Integration engineer for SLS for RS
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: twenty five.
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: So we understand that the RS twenty five engines that
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: are on this booster have kind of a Space Shuttle history, or.
• 19:49
  Speaker 8: At least some most of them do.
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: Can you talk anything about the history of those engines,
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: the engines we're seeing in the background right now.
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: So two of the four engines actually have flown on
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: the during the show program, Engines one and two. One
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: has fifteen flights and the other has approximately four I
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: think four flights excuse me, five flights, and they were
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: on the penultimate and the final mission for UH Space
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: Shuttle program. The engines three and four were are have there.
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: This will be their inaugural flight. We built the engine
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: three here at the Kennedy Space Center as part of
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: a skills retention program at the end of Shuttle to
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: help keep the workforce around to you know, to help
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: in the last program. And then when SOLS came around,
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: UH we needed a sixteenth engine to make four full sets,
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: and we had enough spare flight hardware from the Shuttle
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: program to go make the sixteenth engine, and that was
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: built at the send Of Space Center in Mississippi.
• 20:47
  Speaker 8: Yeah, that's fantastic.
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: So from just an engineering standpoint, what makes that RS
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: twenty five engine different or special from other rocket engines?
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: Why are why are we using that engine on this
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: on this are on this course stage for SLS, Well.
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: You'd have to ask aswer that question. But what I
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: believe it is just it's the most efficient engine. It's
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: one of the things is that we had so many
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: of them around and the fact that we didn't have
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: to go through a full development program so that we
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: could get SLS off the ground in a more timely manner.
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: So we had those available and it allowed us time
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: to go restart the RS twenty five program and then
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: build and tests and certify the restart RS twenty five
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: so that we could be ready for Artemis five and subs.
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: How have these engines been modified from their Space Shuttle
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: past for the.
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: So, well, there's been probably, i would say little bit
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: of modifications. The biggest modification is the controller, which is
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: basically controls the you know, reads all the pressures and
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: temperatures and controls the valves and actuators and thrust of
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: the engine.
• 21:57
  Speaker 5: That's the biggest component.
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: Because we had change the power system to adapt to
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: the power systems for SLS, we couldn't go and use
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: the old Heritage as a Shuttle power system, so that
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: was probably one of the biggest things. The other thing, too,
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: is that we've boosted the thrust. So on Shuttle we
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: would fly at one hundred and four point five percent
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: rated power, and now we're flying at one hundred and
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: nine percent, and when we get to Arms five, we
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: will be flying at one hundred and eleven percent.
• 22:28
  Speaker 5: So that's some of the biggest changes.
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: And then there's some minor i'll say thermal protection configuration
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: changes just due to the you know, we don't have
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: we don't have to worry about re entry. Now we
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: sort of have to worry about we're closer to the boosters,
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: so we have to worry about the booster keep coming
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: off the boosters.
• 22:47
  Speaker 8: Right.
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: That's that's really about the only changes we really made.
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: That's great, Thank you very much. And I ask you
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: a little bit of a personal question. And remember what
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: we do at my place is we work with students.
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: We work with K through twelve students, we work with
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: university students, And I just want to ask you what
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: sent you on this journey, What in your personal life
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: inspired you to be part of the space endeavor.
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: Well, it was a by accident really because when I
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: started out my career, I was working as a test
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: director up in Palmdale, California on the B one bomber,
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: and you know, the government only had a.
• 23:21
  Speaker 5: Contract for one hundred.
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: Of them, and I I got to aircraft ninety four.
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: It saw number one hundred coming, I'm going, what am
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: I going to do next? I'm married with a small child.
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: So I was lucky that Rockade was part of Rockwell International.
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: So and North American Aircraft was part of it too,
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: And this was just after Challenger and Rockadine was schooling up,
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: you know, to go do return to flight and all
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: that stuff, and they were needing engineers. So I just
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: you know, I interviewed and got hired to go to
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: Kenoga Park. So it wasn't a career path I had chose,
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: But it was just the luck of the draw. And
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: I'll tell you the mo luckiest person in the world.
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: I could not ask to have a better job for
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: the last thirty eight years.
• 24:15
  Speaker 8: That's fantastic. Thank you for that answer. That's great.
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: You know, we deal with college students, were helping them
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: plan out their careers. If you could sit down with
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: with a group of my college students and talk to
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: them about their career path that they're interested in getting
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: into this field aerospace working with NASA, what kind of
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: advice would you give for them?
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: What kind of advice did you get to I would
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: say that, you know, ask a lot of questions, right,
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: I mean, the only way you're going to learn is
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: if one is ask questions and then and go do
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: the research. You know, a lot of people don't spen
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: spoon feed you information.
• 24:50
  Speaker 5: You have to go out and look for it.
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: You need to go ask the questions because if you
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: don't ask a question, you're not going to know the
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: right answer. So to me, you need to go ask
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: the questions and just learn and take opportunities to go.
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: You know, if there's an opportunity to go do something
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: or to you know, be part of a project or
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: go out and see it engineering, go do it. I mean,
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: you know, I encourage my younger guys that work for me.
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: And previous to that, I said, you know, I was
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: my feet was put to the fire. I mean when
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: I came down here working on SSME, I was here
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: for two weeks and he put me on second shift,
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: you know, and I had to learn pretty quickly how
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: to do that. I just think that to me, that
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: was a valuable lesson of because I had to ask
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: questions and I had to go learn and I had
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: to do the right thing because at the end, you know,
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: in this program, I got people sitting on top of
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: that vehicle, and if you don't do the right thing,
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: it could be a catastrophic event and we could lose lives.
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: So you know, you always got to worry about those
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: things too and think that in the back of your mind.
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: So you got to make sure you're making the right decision.
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: You know that people's lives could be involved in what
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: decisions that you make, especially on the RS twenty five.
• 26:04
  Speaker 8: That is such a fantastic gay answer. I appreciate that.
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: I've got one last question for you. It's just this
• 26:09
  Speaker 4: which kind of ties in, how does it feel building
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: engines they're going to take people to the moon, and
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: what's it going to feel like when you see those
• 26:17
  Speaker 4: folks walk out onto the surface of the moon.
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: Well, I, you know, I barely remember, you know, Neil Armstrong,
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: I was nine years old at the time or when
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: when we first walked on the Moon and I get
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: to see that again. You know, I got to put
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: people into space. I'm one of the few people that
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: actually got touch hardware that put humans safely back into
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: space on Shuttle program, and now I get to do
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: it again, all in SLS. So you know, I tell you,
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: I'm the luckiest man in the world to be able
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: to do something like that, and I appreciate my appreciate
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: it every single day.
• 26:53
  Speaker 7: Again with Aerojet rocket eye, that is Bill Muddle. Next,
• 26:58
  Speaker 7: we had to run inside because a pop up storm.
• 27:04
  Speaker 7: When I was a storm, it was just a rain
• 27:06
  Speaker 7: shower that happened, but one of those little pop up
• 27:08
  Speaker 7: rain pockets. It tends to happen on the coast in
• 27:11
  Speaker 7: Florida or anywhere in Florida for that matter. They happen
• 27:14
  Speaker 7: here in Georgia also, but especially there on the coast
• 27:17
  Speaker 7: in Florida, so much so that everybody was like, it's raining,
• 27:21
  Speaker 7: get inside. And then as soon as it was done,
• 27:23
  Speaker 7: like everyone seemed to know it was about to end,
• 27:25
  Speaker 7: and they were right back outside again. We couldn't go
• 27:27
  Speaker 7: straight back outside because we were in the middle of
• 27:30
  Speaker 7: a conversation with John Honeycut. At this point, the Space
• 27:34
  Speaker 7: Launch System program manager. It was fun talking with John.
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: You know, when you talk with these folks that are
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: really high up the chain, it's two things are amazing.
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: Number One, it's really interesting to hear how they think
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: about things, how they go about their thought process for
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: running their organization, because when you're at that point, you're
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: really running gigantic teams of people, and so that's that's
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: a really interesting thing to hear him talk about it.
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: It's a lesson in leadership, and so that's that's a
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: fun part of the interview. The other thing is though,
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: just to hear how down to earth the guy is right.
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: And so you know, those of us who are space geeks, yeah,
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: we probably tend to over idolize human beings that work
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: at NASA. And I'm sorry if you're one of those
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: people that work at NASA.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: We just do.
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: We're fanboys out here, right, So it's right, it's just
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: my daily job. Yeah, I get it. But it's just
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: kind of fun to listen to, you know, how how
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: he got involved with the space program and where he
• 28:36
  Speaker 4: came from and some of those background roots. It's fun
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: for me to hear some of those stories. So you're
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: going to enjoy those things. In this great interview with
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: John Honeycutt SLS program Manager, as we're watching that giant
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: core stage of SLS roll out of the Pegasus there,
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: tell us what it means for you to get to
• 28:53
  Speaker 4: this point, tell us what it takes to get to
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: this point, and what now do you have to look.
• 28:57
  Speaker 9: Forward to as you go through the rest.
• 28:58
  Speaker 8: Of the integration. Ye.
• 29:00
  Speaker 10: So first, you know, what I'd like to say is
• 29:03
  Speaker 10: it's a highly integrated effort to get to get to
• 29:07
  Speaker 10: build the course stage. Of course, our two prime contractors
• 29:10
  Speaker 10: on the course stage are Boeing and air Jet Rockadin.
• 29:14
  Speaker 10: But if you look one layer below them, there are
• 29:20
  Speaker 10: there are thousands of suppliers across the entire United States
• 29:27
  Speaker 10: that make up part of the team, of course, as
• 29:29
  Speaker 10: well as the NASA team. So you know, I take
• 29:34
  Speaker 10: a lot of pride in the fact that we've got
• 29:38
  Speaker 10: a high performing team. They do a really, really outstanding job.
• 29:43
  Speaker 10: And you know, this is kind of like seeing your
• 29:46
  Speaker 10: baby start to mature. Right, it rolls out of the
• 29:51
  Speaker 10: factory at Math, it goes on the barge, it's been
• 29:53
  Speaker 10: a few days at sea, it shows up here. Then
• 29:58
  Speaker 10: you start getting into the big part of the integration, right, So,
• 30:01
  Speaker 10: and that's that's key, right, because when you integrate all
• 30:04
  Speaker 10: these systems together, number one, you've got to understand them.
• 30:08
  Speaker 10: But you got to have a lot of skilled experts
• 30:10
  Speaker 10: that talk to each other early and often to make
• 30:14
  Speaker 10: sure everything runs smoothly.
• 30:18
  Speaker 9: So it's a big effort in just interpersonal communication.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: At some point, all right, Yes, no doubt.
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: So when we're telling our students that they need to
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: develop those skills, what advice do you have for them
• 30:28
  Speaker 4: as they you know, they're they're college students now they
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: want to become a part of the aerospace community.
• 30:34
  Speaker 9: What kind of skills?
• 30:35
  Speaker 4: What kind of advice would you have for them?
• 30:37
  Speaker 10: Yeah, so this is a little bit non technical, but
• 30:39
  Speaker 10: I think it serves just everybody, well, especially people in
• 30:43
  Speaker 10: the technical field. Don't underestimate the power of social engineering.
• 30:51
  Speaker 10: And and you'll learn along the way if you hadn't
• 30:55
  Speaker 10: already that you gotta you gotta highly diverse population in
• 31:01
  Speaker 10: the United States, right, Not everybody comes from the same
• 31:04
  Speaker 10: background as you, Not everybody has the same values. But
• 31:10
  Speaker 10: but the thing is, you've got to be able to
• 31:12
  Speaker 10: identify those and identify each individual's strength and play it
• 31:18
  Speaker 10: to the entire team's advantage. Right, So I was fortunate.
• 31:22
  Speaker 10: I kind of learned early on that hey, everybody's not
• 31:27
  Speaker 10: like me. And I did that by being around people
• 31:31
  Speaker 10: in my formative years in various jobs, whether it be
• 31:34
  Speaker 10: at a grocery store or working in an auto mechanic
• 31:38
  Speaker 10: garage or at a at a hardware store. Right, did
• 31:42
  Speaker 10: all that while I was going to college, and I
• 31:45
  Speaker 10: learned a lot about people. Man, that's don't underestimate that.
• 31:50
  Speaker 11: So for someone working in a grocery store, and you know,
• 31:54
  Speaker 11: would you have ever imagined you'd be here on the
• 31:57
  Speaker 11: cusp of being part of this mission and sending people
• 31:59
  Speaker 11: back to the moon, I would not.
• 32:01
  Speaker 8: That's just like.
• 32:03
  Speaker 10: I pinch myself every day. You know, you've all seen
• 32:08
  Speaker 10: the book, heard the phrase the imposter syndrome. Right, I'm
• 32:12
  Speaker 10: going like, I can't believe it, but I'm here, you know,
• 32:18
  Speaker 10: And it's not about me. I mean, I got a
• 32:22
  Speaker 10: great team across the board, and I got a great
• 32:26
  Speaker 10: team of leaders.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: And so.
• 32:29
  Speaker 10: You know the thing, the thing that I like to
• 32:31
  Speaker 10: do is I like to challenge my folks when they
• 32:36
  Speaker 10: need to be challenged, but I also I am there
• 32:38
  Speaker 10: to help them when they need to be helped, you know,
• 32:41
  Speaker 10: that's and then I empower them and let them go
• 32:47
  Speaker 10: they perform outstandingly.
• 32:49
  Speaker 9: That's a really great point that that's.
• 32:52
  Speaker 4: A good model to follow us when you empower your people,
• 32:54
  Speaker 4: you let them have confidence and let them go and
• 32:56
  Speaker 4: do what they do well. Right, Yeah, thank you for
• 32:58
  Speaker 4: sharing that. You know, as we see that that that
• 33:00
  Speaker 4: giant booster rolling out, which again I'm just pretty impressed.
• 33:03
  Speaker 4: I don't get to hang around this every day. It's
• 33:04
  Speaker 4: pretty cool.
• 33:05
  Speaker 9: What are your greatest points of pride with SLS?
• 33:11
  Speaker 10: You know, when I reflect on that rocket and how
• 33:13
  Speaker 10: it went through the early stages of development and design
• 33:22
  Speaker 10: and we got into the manufacturing and overcame multiple challenges.
• 33:26
  Speaker 10: But at the end of the day, it gives me
• 33:30
  Speaker 10: a lot of pride that we got a rocket, uh
• 33:34
  Speaker 10: that has outstanding performance. It is a no food, it's
• 33:40
  Speaker 10: no fooling, a great launch vehicle. It's got it's got
• 33:45
  Speaker 10: a lot of power, it's got a lot of capability.
• 33:48
  Speaker 10: We we'll improve that capability when we do our first
• 33:52
  Speaker 10: upgrade for Artemus four. So it's yeah, it's it's an
• 33:59
  Speaker 10: amazing rock it. Artemus won the first test flight, gave
• 34:05
  Speaker 10: us an opportunity to understand that performance, and it was
• 34:08
  Speaker 10: just what we thought it would be, as well as
• 34:11
  Speaker 10: understand where our sensitivities are and what kind of margins
• 34:16
  Speaker 10: we have, and that's very important in this business.
• 34:22
  Speaker 9: We read something cool from Aerojet Rocket Dying where components
• 34:27
  Speaker 9: of those four engines, all four engines have components that
• 34:30
  Speaker 9: were involved in STS one Columbia, which is just an
• 34:34
  Speaker 9: amazing thing. Talk to us about that RS twenty five
• 34:37
  Speaker 9: engine system and about the legacy of that power plant
• 34:40
  Speaker 9: for SLS.
• 34:42
  Speaker 10: Yeah, so when you start talking that, I'm sitting here
• 34:44
  Speaker 10: getting cold chills, right, because rocket engine development is pretty hard.
• 34:49
  Speaker 10: So I remember I remember vaguely back in the day,
• 34:53
  Speaker 10: in my early years of right when the Space Shuttle
• 34:58
  Speaker 10: main engine, which is now RS twenty five was coming
• 35:04
  Speaker 10: out of its a pretty significant test program where they
• 35:08
  Speaker 10: had a lot of failures, right, but those failures empowered
• 35:10
  Speaker 10: them to learn and then move on and do better.
• 35:15
  Speaker 10: And so now you know you've got you've got an
• 35:18
  Speaker 10: engine today that's that's that outperforms any rocket engine ever
• 35:25
  Speaker 10: in history. And you know, it's it's like a Ferrari.
• 35:30
  Speaker 10: I mean, I can sit here and give you all
• 35:32
  Speaker 10: kind of facts and figures, right, I'll give you two,
• 35:36
  Speaker 10: just because you lean more towards the educational site. So
• 35:43
  Speaker 10: if you take an Olympic size swimming pool and you
• 35:46
  Speaker 10: could take one of our high pressure fuel pumps, it
• 35:49
  Speaker 10: could drain. It could drain an Olympic size swimming pool
• 35:54
  Speaker 10: totally dry within a matter of minutes. The high pressure
• 35:59
  Speaker 10: fuel pump has a turbine that's got up one hundred
• 36:02
  Speaker 10: and twenty ish blades on it. They're all about as
• 36:05
  Speaker 10: big as you're end of your thumb. Each one produces
• 36:10
  Speaker 10: five hundred horse power. Gosh, that engine is so efficient.
• 36:16
  Speaker 10: So what is the average what's the average horsepower rating
• 36:19
  Speaker 10: on a car today? You know there's some that are
• 36:22
  Speaker 10: less than two hundred, some that are more than the
• 36:24
  Speaker 10: four hundred side. I would guess two hundred, right. So
• 36:31
  Speaker 10: it's hard to get your mind wrapped around is But.
• 36:33
  Speaker 8: Have you heard it before?
• 36:35
  Speaker 10: It's hard to get your mind wrapped around as you
• 36:37
  Speaker 10: think about it. If you if you could design a
• 36:41
  Speaker 10: car engine that was as efficient as an RS twenty five,
• 36:49
  Speaker 10: you could hold your car, your two hundred horsepower car
• 36:51
  Speaker 10: engine in your hand. Wow, that's hard to get a grasp.
• 36:55
  Speaker 10: But what that tells you is the amount the amount
• 36:58
  Speaker 10: of the horsepower, energy, thrust, whatever you want to call it,
• 37:03
  Speaker 10: that you get out of that engine based on its
• 37:07
  Speaker 10: size and weight. The scales down to this in your
• 37:11
  Speaker 10: hand for your car.
• 37:12
  Speaker 8: That's so impressive.
• 37:13
  Speaker 10: Yeah, so I.
• 37:16
  Speaker 8: Go by.
• 37:17
  Speaker 10: I've got a lot of kind of secondhand history with
• 37:22
  Speaker 10: rock and NRON and I've been on the periphery as
• 37:25
  Speaker 10: part of their team for a long time. So yeah,
• 37:28
  Speaker 10: it's outstanding engine.
• 37:30
  Speaker 7: I've been pushing the idea of when we're talking about
• 37:33
  Speaker 7: rockets using a new unit, because we talk about horsepower,
• 37:37
  Speaker 7: and when you start talking about thousands of horsepower, could
• 37:39
  Speaker 7: we come up with Pegasus power. I've been trying to
• 37:41
  Speaker 7: push that unit out there, maybe for a thousand horse power,
• 37:44
  Speaker 7: you know, that way we can kind of keep it.
• 37:46
  Speaker 10: In understand I don't know. Engineers don't usually lend themselves
• 37:49
  Speaker 10: to changing their the system they used to measure things.
• 37:53
  Speaker 7: I was hoping maybe you'd be my end on getting
• 37:55
  Speaker 7: that out there and the I'm going to keep pushing
• 37:57
  Speaker 7: it out on the broadcast side of you. Maybe just
• 37:59
  Speaker 7: maybe all right, one last question and you can answer
• 38:03
  Speaker 7: this one quickly. On the day that human beings set
• 38:06
  Speaker 7: foot back on the moon. How's that going to make
• 38:08
  Speaker 7: you feel?
• 38:08
  Speaker 4: I know that's a personal question, but how are you
• 38:10
  Speaker 4: going to feel knowing that you were this involved with
• 38:13
  Speaker 4: that endeavor?
• 38:14
  Speaker 10: Yeah, again, it's not about me. I'll be most mostly
• 38:18
  Speaker 10: proud for our number one, for our team and the
• 38:21
  Speaker 10: people that have been with us along the way, some
• 38:23
  Speaker 10: of which we've lost already, right, you know, I can
• 38:27
  Speaker 10: reflect back on that, I can reflect back on where
• 38:30
  Speaker 10: the country's been, the first time we landed on the moon,
• 38:33
  Speaker 10: what a challenge it was to get there, and what
• 38:35
  Speaker 10: a challenge it's been for us to go back. But
• 38:37
  Speaker 10: this time we're going back to stay.
• 38:39
  Speaker 7: That's SLS A program manager, John Honeycutt, and I liked
• 38:44
  Speaker 7: hearing him talk about past careers. For him when he
• 38:48
  Speaker 7: was talking about, you know, oh, I was working in
• 38:50
  Speaker 7: a grocery store, and it kind of made me think
• 38:53
  Speaker 7: when we talk a lot about, you know, the team
• 38:56
  Speaker 7: aspect of this, because there's so many different jobs and
• 39:00
  Speaker 7: responsibilities that all have to work cohesively. Obviously the stakes
• 39:04
  Speaker 7: are much higher, but you hear someone talk about where
• 39:08
  Speaker 7: and I worked when I was in high school and
• 39:11
  Speaker 7: the beginning of my university days there at Columbus State
• 39:14
  Speaker 7: University worked in a grocery store, and I mean there's
• 39:18
  Speaker 7: a very small scale version of that in that, you know,
• 39:20
  Speaker 7: there's different departments in a store, everybody's kind of working
• 39:24
  Speaker 7: towards the same common goal. Everybody's doing things to make
• 39:27
  Speaker 7: the store run and run properly and those sorts of things.
• 39:30
  Speaker 7: So I'm sure elements of that are there, but it's
• 39:34
  Speaker 7: much higher stakes when you've got the lives of astronauts
• 39:37
  Speaker 7: that you're trying to safely, you know, fly around the
• 39:40
  Speaker 7: moon and bag.
• 39:43
  Speaker 8: Yeah, it is.
• 39:44
  Speaker 4: And again you kind of hear some of that in
• 39:47
  Speaker 4: the interview itself, where he really is giving the impression
• 39:50
  Speaker 4: that what they're doing has some very high stakes involved
• 39:54
  Speaker 4: and they are trying to be as careful as possible.
• 39:56
  Speaker 4: Safety is utmost and so they've got to get they're
• 40:00
  Speaker 4: engineering right. That's basically the kind of motto and the
• 40:03
  Speaker 4: message from John Honeycutt.
• 40:05
  Speaker 7: Coming up after a quick break, we have our interview
• 40:08
  Speaker 7: with Exploration Ground System program Manager Sean Quinn. We will
• 40:13
  Speaker 7: chat with him right after this. All right, we continue
• 40:36
  Speaker 7: on with part two of our adventures at Kennedy Space
• 40:39
  Speaker 7: Center for the Artemis two course stage arrival. This final
• 40:44
  Speaker 7: interview for of our seven This is seven of seven
• 40:49
  Speaker 7: of our interviews. Three in last week's Part one episode
• 40:53
  Speaker 7: and four in this one is with the Exploration Ground
• 40:57
  Speaker 7: System program Manager for NASA, Sean Quinn, and this interview
• 41:02
  Speaker 7: was taking place as the actual course stage was starting
• 41:07
  Speaker 7: to make its way into the va B. It was
• 41:09
  Speaker 7: just a great backdrop for these interviews.
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and you know, it's it's a fun thing to
• 41:16
  Speaker 4: have the energy of actually being on site and seeing
• 41:18
  Speaker 4: all of those things happen behind you as you're talking
• 41:22
  Speaker 4: to these people. I mean, you know, it's it's it's
• 41:24
  Speaker 4: really a cool thing. I think maybe the one thing
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: I want to carry forward from the show is that
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: we're really going back to the Moon, friends, and the
• 41:35
  Speaker 4: reason they gave us access to all these people is
• 41:37
  Speaker 4: because they want us to help spread the word we're
• 41:40
  Speaker 4: going back to the Moon. Human beings are returning to
• 41:43
  Speaker 4: the Moon, and that's all of these efforts are summing
• 41:46
  Speaker 4: up to that ultimate event taking place. And I would
• 41:51
  Speaker 4: say America is returning to the Moon, but it's actually
• 41:53
  Speaker 4: an international effort. It's going to be a Canadian astronaut
• 41:56
  Speaker 4: on board the first trip back, so it's it's a
• 41:59
  Speaker 4: really cool thing, and of course we're gonna talk more
• 42:01
  Speaker 4: about that on this show. But I don't want to
• 42:04
  Speaker 4: say that one of these interviews was my favorite, because
• 42:08
  Speaker 4: they're all so cool and I love talking to every
• 42:11
  Speaker 4: one of these people and hearing they're different contributions. But
• 42:16
  Speaker 4: I will say that perhaps the actual excitement of the
• 42:21
  Speaker 4: overall program might have been best summed up by our
• 42:25
  Speaker 4: next interview, Sean Quinn, Exploration Ground Systems manager at Kennedy
• 42:30
  Speaker 4: Space Center. Their motto with the Exploration Ground Systems program
• 42:34
  Speaker 4: is build, Launch, Recover, So that sums up better than
• 42:39
  Speaker 4: I could do. What they actually do. They construct the rocket,
• 42:43
  Speaker 4: They're in charge of all of the things that have
• 42:45
  Speaker 4: to happen to launch the rocket, and when the capsule's
• 42:47
  Speaker 4: coming back down, they go out and recover it. Right,
• 42:50
  Speaker 4: So this is all under their purview. That's a huge responsibility,
• 42:55
  Speaker 4: and this gentleman is in charge of all of those aspects.
• 42:59
  Speaker 4: Listen for the enthusiasm and excitement in his voice as
• 43:03
  Speaker 4: he describes working with this very important part of the
• 43:07
  Speaker 4: Artemis program. First of all, just tell us a little
• 43:09
  Speaker 4: bit about the Exploration Ground Systems program and what your
• 43:13
  Speaker 4: role is with the Artemis with SLS and in general
• 43:17
  Speaker 4: here at Kennedy.
• 43:18
  Speaker 12: So again I'm Sean Quinn, the Exploration Ground System's program
• 43:21
  Speaker 12: manager here at the Kennedy Space Center, and we're actually
• 43:24
  Speaker 12: part of Moon to Mars and the overall Artemist program
• 43:29
  Speaker 12: where we're chartered to resume human exploration of the Moon,
• 43:33
  Speaker 12: where we're going to learn how to live and work
• 43:37
  Speaker 12: off another planetary's body, and then eventually we'll take that
• 43:41
  Speaker 12: knowledge and go to Mars. The Exploration Ground Systems program
• 43:44
  Speaker 12: is one of six programs within ARTEMIS. We have the
• 43:48
  Speaker 12: Space Launch System, which is the launch vehicle and the
• 43:51
  Speaker 12: core stage for Artemist two.
• 43:52
  Speaker 5: Is right over there.
• 43:54
  Speaker 12: We have the Orion spacecraft, which is being manufactured a
• 43:59
  Speaker 12: few miles from here. And then we have Exploration Ground Systems,
• 44:03
  Speaker 12: which is all the facility, the launch pads, launch controls center,
• 44:06
  Speaker 12: mobile launchers, vehicle assembly buildings, control systems that will be
• 44:11
  Speaker 12: used to process and launch the space launch system in
• 44:13
  Speaker 12: the ryoon. And we have the Human Landing System that
• 44:17
  Speaker 12: those are the landers that SpaceX and Blue Origin are
• 44:21
  Speaker 12: working on will carry our astronauts to and from the surface.
• 44:23
  Speaker 8: Of the Moon.
• 44:24
  Speaker 5: We have the Gateway, which is.
• 44:27
  Speaker 12: Kind of an orbiting outpost around the Moon that will
• 44:30
  Speaker 12: give us global access to the lunar surface. And finally,
• 44:34
  Speaker 12: the EhP program, which will deliver spacesuits and rovers for
• 44:38
  Speaker 12: our lunar exploration. So the exploration ground systems is about
• 44:43
  Speaker 12: assembling the launch vehicle, training the launch team, testing the
• 44:47
  Speaker 12: launch vehicle and spacecraft together, going out to the pad,
• 44:49
  Speaker 12: and launching it to the Moon.
• 44:51
  Speaker 5: And we're also responsible for recovery. So we have both
• 44:54
  Speaker 5: the front of the mission front end of the mission,
• 44:56
  Speaker 5: if you.
• 44:57
  Speaker 12: Will, and the back end of the mission where our
• 44:59
  Speaker 12: team's here of the Space Center are working in partnership
• 45:02
  Speaker 12: with the Department of Defense to recover the Irion spacecraft
• 45:06
  Speaker 12: and and the astronauts following the.
• 45:08
  Speaker 5: Artemist to launch.
• 45:10
  Speaker 12: After the mission's over, they'll splash down off the coast
• 45:13
  Speaker 12: of San Diego, and our folks here at Kennedy Space Center,
• 45:16
  Speaker 12: in partnership with the Department Defense, will we'll go recover
• 45:19
  Speaker 12: and then bring a spacecraft back and get ready for
• 45:21
  Speaker 12: the next mission.
• 45:22
  Speaker 8: That's a fantastic answer.
• 45:23
  Speaker 4: What a multi faceted uh expedition that Israeli, that that program.
• 45:29
  Speaker 4: So you're you're you're touched so many different parts of
• 45:32
  Speaker 4: the SLS Artemis mission in general, tell us what what's
• 45:36
  Speaker 4: the biggest challenges, What are some of the biggest challenges
• 45:39
  Speaker 4: for your team? What are the things that you know
• 45:41
  Speaker 4: keep you awaken night are your hardest problems to work
• 45:44
  Speaker 4: through for for your team?
• 45:45
  Speaker 12: Well, some of the biggest challenges that we face here
• 45:49
  Speaker 12: at the Kennedy Space Center.
• 45:50
  Speaker 5: And the expression ground systems.
• 45:51
  Speaker 12: Is we're building you know, complex systems, uh, and we're
• 45:56
  Speaker 12: launching them for the first time.
• 45:58
  Speaker 5: And whenever you.
• 46:00
  Speaker 12: Build a new launch vehicle, a new spacecraft, new ground systems,
• 46:04
  Speaker 12: you're gonna learn something. So Artemis one was a test
• 46:07
  Speaker 12: flight for the launch vehicle, space launch system, the Irion
• 46:11
  Speaker 12: spacecraft and for us here at the ground. So following
• 46:14
  Speaker 12: the launch of Artemis one, we learned some things about
• 46:17
  Speaker 12: the launch environments that we you know, are a mobile
• 46:21
  Speaker 12: launcher received a bit more damage.
• 46:22
  Speaker 5: Than we're predicted.
• 46:24
  Speaker 12: So we have taken the data that we collected from
• 46:28
  Speaker 12: the Artemis one launch and we've updated our requirements. We've
• 46:31
  Speaker 12: gone through and done on the engineering analysis and we've
• 46:34
  Speaker 12: made some We've hardened certain systems on the mobile launcher
• 46:37
  Speaker 12: the better withstand the launch environments. So as far as
• 46:41
  Speaker 12: other challenges are concerned, it's you know, first time processing.
• 46:44
  Speaker 5: You know, for Artemis one, that was the first time
• 46:46
  Speaker 5: we processed it. We learned a lot.
• 46:48
  Speaker 12: We're applying those lessons learned for Artemis two. And you know, again,
• 46:53
  Speaker 12: you know, if this is only good, Artemist two is only.
• 46:55
  Speaker 5: Our second play.
• 46:56
  Speaker 12: So we're still learning and we're finding things out and
• 46:59
  Speaker 12: we're having to fix them and we'll launch when we're ready,
• 47:02
  Speaker 12: but our highest priority is safely launching the Artemists two crew.
• 47:07
  Speaker 7: Yeah, well that's a great segue into you know, you
• 47:10
  Speaker 7: go from the first test flight. Now it's a crewed
• 47:12
  Speaker 7: test flight. Stakes are higher, it's a lot more going.
• 47:15
  Speaker 7: If you can talk a little bit about the sort
• 47:17
  Speaker 7: of the perspective on the challenges the pressures that go
• 47:20
  Speaker 7: with that, because obviously now with a crew, it's a
• 47:22
  Speaker 7: whole different story.
• 47:23
  Speaker 12: You know, launching the safely launching the crew is our
• 47:28
  Speaker 12: absolute highest priority. You know, our crew members, Commander read Weisman,
• 47:32
  Speaker 12: Vitor Glover, Jeremy Hansen, and Christina Cook.
• 47:36
  Speaker 5: They have been to the Kennedy Space Center, they have
• 47:38
  Speaker 5: met our workforce.
• 47:40
  Speaker 12: We're getting to know them. They are people with families,
• 47:45
  Speaker 12: you know more, you know, more than just astronauts, if
• 47:47
  Speaker 12: you will. And so once you get to know the
• 47:50
  Speaker 12: crew and you understand, you know the significance of our work,
• 47:54
  Speaker 12: the importance of our work, you know for Artemists two.
• 47:57
  Speaker 12: We're adding emergency ecresystems out of the launch pad the
• 48:00
  Speaker 12: mobile launcher and we're testing notes as we speak. So
• 48:04
  Speaker 12: before we bring the mobile launcher back from the launch
• 48:06
  Speaker 12: pad to begin assembly the launch vehicle, we'll complete that
• 48:09
  Speaker 12: emergency egress testing. So I will tell you that the
• 48:13
  Speaker 12: crew is on our mind every single day, and we
• 48:17
  Speaker 12: know who we work for, and.
• 48:19
  Speaker 5: That's the art of Its two crew.
• 48:22
  Speaker 8: We're from Georgia.
• 48:23
  Speaker 4: We have some collaborations and some projects that we do
• 48:27
  Speaker 4: with Georgia Tech.
• 48:28
  Speaker 8: I understand, you know, go Jackets. You're yellow jacket.
• 48:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, tell us a little bit about your time
• 48:33
  Speaker 4: at Georgia Tech and how that helped launch your career.
• 48:37
  Speaker 8: It's where you are today.
• 48:38
  Speaker 12: Yeah, I'm a Yellowjacket through and through. I grew up
• 48:42
  Speaker 12: in Upstate New York and the only thing I ever
• 48:44
  Speaker 12: wanted to do was build big rockets and go to
• 48:46
  Speaker 12: the moon. And to that end, I you know, I
• 48:50
  Speaker 12: had an interest in science, in math and went through
• 48:53
  Speaker 12: middle school, high school, and then set my eyes on
• 48:57
  Speaker 12: excellent engineering institutions, and Georgia Tech was the top of
• 49:00
  Speaker 12: my list. And so I'll never forget receiving that acceptance
• 49:03
  Speaker 12: letter from Georgia Tech. And I started there and then
• 49:07
  Speaker 12: went through my first year and then learned out, learned
• 49:10
  Speaker 12: about what they called the Cooperative Education Program, and a
• 49:14
  Speaker 12: gentleman by the name of Tom Akers, I'll never forget
• 49:17
  Speaker 12: how he helped me, hooked me up with the NASA
• 49:20
  Speaker 12: Cooperative Education Program and when he told me that was
• 49:23
  Speaker 12: a possibility to work for NASA, you know, this is
• 49:25
  Speaker 12: a lifelong dream come true for me. And so here
• 49:28
  Speaker 12: I am at Georgia Tech, entering the Cooperative Education Program
• 49:33
  Speaker 12: and my job is to go work at the Kennedy
• 49:35
  Speaker 12: Space Center. And so it truly was a dream come true.
• 49:39
  Speaker 12: Georgia Tech provided a solid, solid.
• 49:43
  Speaker 5: Engineering foundation for me.
• 49:44
  Speaker 12: I mean, you, once you get through Georgia Tech, you
• 49:46
  Speaker 12: can pretty much do anything. And you know, it was hard,
• 49:51
  Speaker 12: you know, a lot of sleepless nights, but in the
• 49:54
  Speaker 12: end it definitely paid off.
• 49:56
  Speaker 8: That's a great story.
• 49:57
  Speaker 4: So I'm gonna shape this question and have you maybe
• 49:59
  Speaker 4: even repeat some of the ideas you just said, I
• 50:02
  Speaker 4: work with college students at my institution, Clumbs State University,
• 50:05
  Speaker 4: and some of them have gone off and now working
• 50:07
  Speaker 4: in the aerospace industry. But I would love for you
• 50:09
  Speaker 4: to just kind of address the students that I have
• 50:11
  Speaker 4: currently have and say, hey, here's my advice for if
• 50:14
  Speaker 4: you want to get involved with the space endeavor, if
• 50:16
  Speaker 4: you want to be a person that's working in this field.
• 50:20
  Speaker 4: Here are my best points of advice. What pieces of
• 50:22
  Speaker 4: advice might you have for them.
• 50:23
  Speaker 12: If you're a young person and you're interested in going
• 50:26
  Speaker 12: into the auerospace universe, if you.
• 50:29
  Speaker 5: Will having a solid education, a solid.
• 50:32
  Speaker 12: Technical education is really important in math, science, engineering, all
• 50:38
  Speaker 12: of those things are important for us in the auerospace business,
• 50:42
  Speaker 12: in the launch business that we.
• 50:43
  Speaker 5: Have at the Kennedy Space Center.
• 50:45
  Speaker 12: And the best advice that I have is, if you
• 50:48
  Speaker 12: have a dream, stick with it. Those engineering courses, those
• 50:52
  Speaker 12: science courses are going to be hard and be challenging.
• 50:54
  Speaker 12: Don't give up, get it done, graduate, and don't ever
• 50:59
  Speaker 12: let anybody tell you you can't do so.
• 51:01
  Speaker 4: Last question, and this is kind of a personal question.
• 51:04
  Speaker 4: You can have a brief answer, but on the day
• 51:08
  Speaker 4: those astronauts land on the Moon and put new footprints
• 51:12
  Speaker 4: on the Moon.
• 51:12
  Speaker 8: How are you going to feel about that?
• 51:15
  Speaker 12: The day that we land astronauts on the Moon for
• 51:19
  Speaker 12: the Artemist program is going to be a personal.
• 51:24
  Speaker 5: Highlight of my life. There's no doubt about it. Right,
• 51:26
  Speaker 5: I didn't know where to start.
• 51:27
  Speaker 12: You know, words can't describe the sense of accomplishment to
• 51:31
  Speaker 12: know that our team that I had a part of,
• 51:34
  Speaker 12: this team sending our astronauts back to the Moon for the.
• 51:37
  Speaker 5: First time since nineteen seventy two. It's a big deal
• 51:40
  Speaker 5: for this country. It's important.
• 51:42
  Speaker 12: We are going to learn and we're going to be
• 51:45
  Speaker 12: able to take this knowledge and explore further and eventually
• 51:48
  Speaker 12: going to Mars.
• 51:49
  Speaker 5: It's a really big deal for our country.
• 51:50
  Speaker 7: And that was Sean Quinn, Exploration Ground System program manager
• 51:55
  Speaker 7: for NASA and a Yellow Jacket.
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: Go Jackets.
• 52:01
  Speaker 7: He was very excited when when we brought up the
• 52:05
  Speaker 7: Georgia Tech connection. And you know, I like anybody who
• 52:12
  Speaker 7: does what you do so well what I have tried
• 52:14
  Speaker 7: to do in our you know, seven to almost twenty years,
• 52:17
  Speaker 7: I guess of doing a version of this radio and
• 52:21
  Speaker 7: on this show, and that's advocating for people to follow
• 52:26
  Speaker 7: their dreams into these careers. If that's if that's what
• 52:29
  Speaker 7: their dream is, if that's what their goal is, and
• 52:32
  Speaker 7: so many kids at some point it's I think it's
• 52:36
  Speaker 7: you know, they go, oh, I want to be a fireman.
• 52:38
  Speaker 7: I want to be a policeman. Oh I want to
• 52:39
  Speaker 7: join the army. Oh I want to be an astronaut.
• 52:42
  Speaker 7: I mean I want to be a doctor. I want
• 52:44
  Speaker 7: to be a vet. There's just things that just kind
• 52:46
  Speaker 7: of naturally flow out of the mouths of kids. And
• 52:50
  Speaker 7: wanting to be an astronaut or wanting to, you know,
• 52:52
  Speaker 7: work for NASA is something that I think most kids
• 52:56
  Speaker 7: probably don't say, Hey, I want to you know, be
• 52:58
  Speaker 7: the core stage senior of vehicle engineer. They probably just
• 53:01
  Speaker 7: say astronaut. But to understand that it's these sorts of
• 53:06
  Speaker 7: careers are more than just the astronauts. You know, that's
• 53:09
  Speaker 7: four people and that are that are going to actually
• 53:13
  Speaker 7: be making the journey and exciting. I mean, who wouldn't
• 53:16
  Speaker 7: want to be one of those four people. Well there's
• 53:17
  Speaker 7: probably a few people, but most people who would be
• 53:20
  Speaker 7: excited at a chance to fly around the moon and
• 53:23
  Speaker 7: come back home. However, we just that was interviews with
• 53:26
  Speaker 7: four people who aren't going to fly around the moon,
• 53:29
  Speaker 7: and they are all basically in charge of a whole
• 53:32
  Speaker 7: bunch of other people that will be working on this
• 53:34
  Speaker 7: and it gives you like perspective on how big this
• 53:38
  Speaker 7: whole project is. And this is Artemis two, you know,
• 53:43
  Speaker 7: and there will be other people responsible with Artemis.
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: Three as they will land on the moon once that happens.
• 53:50
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and it's impressive, as you mentioned, to really get
• 53:54
  Speaker 4: a feel for all of the highly trained and highly
• 53:58
  Speaker 4: skilled people who are working on this program. And friends,
• 54:03
  Speaker 4: I know that you're out there, You're in our listening audience,
• 54:06
  Speaker 4: you're everywhere you come, see me in the museum. There's
• 54:09
  Speaker 4: a segment of you that are going to say, well,
• 54:11
  Speaker 4: why are we spending all this money? I get it,
• 54:14
  Speaker 4: I understand. Let me address that real quickly. Which is
• 54:19
  Speaker 4: the amount of metal and actual pieces parts that goes
• 54:23
  Speaker 4: to space and is lost. In other words, the consumables
• 54:27
  Speaker 4: of this mission are in the thousands of dollars. The
• 54:32
  Speaker 4: rest of those millions of dollars are returned to our
• 54:36
  Speaker 4: economy by employing all of these highly skilled, highly trained
• 54:41
  Speaker 4: people to not only conduct these launches, but to develop
• 54:46
  Speaker 4: the technology necessary to conduct these launches. And friends, that
• 54:53
  Speaker 4: technology development is absolutely everywhere in our economy. There are
• 55:00
  Speaker 4: thousands of people across the country working with NASA, either
• 55:05
  Speaker 4: as subcontractors or directly with NASA developing these new technologies.
• 55:10
  Speaker 4: And all of those technologies that are developed for spaceflight
• 55:14
  Speaker 4: are still here, They're still present in our economy. They
• 55:18
  Speaker 4: show up in your automobile, they show up in your kitchen,
• 55:22
  Speaker 4: they show up in your emergency rooms, they show up
• 55:25
  Speaker 4: in your hospital beds, they show up across the economy
• 55:29
  Speaker 4: making life better for all of us and making new
• 55:33
  Speaker 4: wealth that didn't exist before. And independent economists have evaluated
• 55:39
  Speaker 4: NASA's contribution to our economy and they're saying it's seven
• 55:43
  Speaker 4: to one. So for every dollar that's put into NASA,
• 55:46
  Speaker 4: the technology development for space travel returns about seven dollars
• 55:51
  Speaker 4: to the economy. It's one of the greatest investments you
• 55:54
  Speaker 4: can make. And the pieces parts that go to another
• 55:58
  Speaker 4: planet are lost in orbit, they burn up, they're in
• 56:01
  Speaker 4: the thousands of dollars. They're really small. They're almost insignificant
• 56:04
  Speaker 4: by comparison to how much of that buying power and
• 56:09
  Speaker 4: knowledge is returned to help improve our country, our economy,
• 56:14
  Speaker 4: and our way of life.
• 56:16
  Speaker 7: Well, I was about to talk about the knowledge, the
• 56:17
  Speaker 7: actual science that's done, and you know, that's another aspect
• 56:21
  Speaker 7: of it, of course. And you know, it's interesting that
• 56:24
  Speaker 7: you bring that up, because, I mean, the day before
• 56:27
  Speaker 7: we left to go down to Kennedy, I was talking
• 56:31
  Speaker 7: with someone who was sort of poop pooing the whole thing.
• 56:33
  Speaker 7: I mean it was she sort of said, Hey, great
• 56:36
  Speaker 7: for you that you're getting to go down and do that,
• 56:38
  Speaker 7: but what a waste of time.
• 56:40
  Speaker 8: Man.
• 56:40
  Speaker 7: If God wanted us to be on the moon, he
• 56:42
  Speaker 7: would have put us on the moon. And I just thought,
• 56:44
  Speaker 7: you know, I know that there's people that still think
• 56:46
  Speaker 7: that way, and I know that they still exist, and
• 56:49
  Speaker 7: they still ask these questions about the money, and they
• 56:51
  Speaker 7: still ask these questions about the danger. You know, why
• 56:55
  Speaker 7: would we put people in this kind of danger. But
• 56:59
  Speaker 7: I mean, if you're going to use that logic, you
• 57:00
  Speaker 7: could say, well, if God wanted us to fly, if
• 57:03
  Speaker 7: God wanted us to you know, sit in a car
• 57:06
  Speaker 7: and drive really fast.
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: I mean there's certain.
• 57:09
  Speaker 7: Things where we just sort of accept, well, this is
• 57:11
  Speaker 7: just part of it, and it does feel like this
• 57:15
  Speaker 7: sort of travel and eventually, you know, putting people working
• 57:20
  Speaker 7: on the moon, working on Mars and you know beyond that.
• 57:25
  Speaker 7: I know we haven't even really started to think beyond that,
• 57:27
  Speaker 7: but some people probably are thinking beyond that. But who
• 57:30
  Speaker 7: knows what's next after that? And I know this is
• 57:32
  Speaker 7: a multi stage process to get there, but it does
• 57:37
  Speaker 7: sort of feel like this is the natural progression, doesn't it.
• 57:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So I mean, so God bless you people who
• 57:43
  Speaker 4: feel that way. By the way, please don't stop listening
• 57:46
  Speaker 4: to our podcast. We want you here right absolutely, We
• 57:49
  Speaker 4: want to have the conversation with you. We want you
• 57:52
  Speaker 4: to get excited about what's happening because we actually see
• 57:55
  Speaker 4: it from a different view because we got to go
• 57:57
  Speaker 4: there and we have a better understanding of how all
• 58:00
  Speaker 4: of these pieces are actually helping you. So, you know,
• 58:03
  Speaker 4: you're speaking about this person that told you these things
• 58:06
  Speaker 4: about you know, a waste of money and if God wanted.
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: Us on the moon.
• 58:08
  Speaker 4: So they probably had a cell phone in their pocket,
• 58:11
  Speaker 4: and they probably got into a very safe car full
• 58:13
  Speaker 4: of all kinds of shall we say, space age materials,
• 58:16
  Speaker 4: and they probably went home and used you know, their
• 58:18
  Speaker 4: microwave oven or a variety of other technologies throughout their
• 58:21
  Speaker 4: home and never understand what a massive contribution that the
• 58:26
  Speaker 4: space program has added to their lives simply because there
• 58:31
  Speaker 4: were challenges that were needed to be met to explore
• 58:35
  Speaker 4: space that you would have never encountered in daily life,
• 58:38
  Speaker 4: and they had spinoff consequences. And yes, you mentioned earlier,
• 58:42
  Speaker 4: there are some core science to be done.
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 58:44
  Speaker 4: It gives us a better understanding of our universe. It
• 58:47
  Speaker 4: gives us a better understanding of our solar system and
• 58:49
  Speaker 4: how all that came together. But maybe people don't value
• 58:52
  Speaker 4: that either. But friends, let me just tell you, let
• 58:54
  Speaker 4: me assure you that these dollars are being returned to
• 58:59
  Speaker 4: your economy in a huge way through the process of
• 59:03
  Speaker 4: overcoming the obstacles that it takes to put people in space,
• 59:07
  Speaker 4: to maintain them while they're in space, and to eventually
• 59:10
  Speaker 4: put them inhabiting another planet. We're going to have such
• 59:14
  Speaker 4: a benefit from all of the technologies developed for those
• 59:18
  Speaker 4: purposes that it's a bit transparent. You don't actually know
• 59:22
  Speaker 4: it comes from the Space Program, but I promise you
• 59:24
  Speaker 4: that it does.
• 59:25
  Speaker 7: Friends, and so many aspects of different careers and things
• 59:29
  Speaker 7: that all come together to make all of this work.
• 59:32
  Speaker 7: And you talked at the very beginning about you know,
• 59:35
  Speaker 7: you have a close personal connection to somebody who's going
• 59:37
  Speaker 7: to be And we talked about some of these people
• 59:40
  Speaker 7: last week, but you've got a little bit more information
• 59:43
  Speaker 7: about someone else to talk about this.
• 59:46
  Speaker 4: One of our students, Cameron McCarty, who was a student
• 59:49
  Speaker 4: intern here. He doesn't want me to go into a
• 59:52
  Speaker 4: lot of detail, but he's a payload operations director at
• 59:54
  Speaker 4: Marshall Space Flight Center right now. But I can tell
• 59:57
  Speaker 4: you that he's working also with the Artemis pro and
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 4: so he's doing some jobs to help get ready for
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 4: when those astronauts are going to the Moon. He'll transition
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 4: from his work with space Station and be working with
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 4: the Artemis program. We have Cheryl Cocher, one of our
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 4: former students and student interns here at Space Science Center.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 4: She's working at Marshall Space Flight Center, working in collaboration
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 4: with the Italian Space Agency to help figure out how
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 4: to use resources that are already available on the Moon
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 4: to build future habitats for Moon colonists. Somebody's got to
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 4: think through this stuff before they go, and so Cheryl's
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 4: on that team. Really proud of her and the work
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 4: she's doing. Zach Coker, her husband. Cheryl's husband, Zach also
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 4: works at Marshall Spaceflight Center. He's working on the integration
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 4: of these components, putting these pieces together that are going
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 4: to eventually be the SLS rocket. And so we're proud
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 4: of all of their work and everything they're doing. And
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 4: then there's another intern here at Space Science Center who
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 4: was here a few years ago. His last name is
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 4: the same as mine. That's because he's my son, and
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 4: my son, Christian Crusin, works at Axiom Space and has
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 4: spent some time working on the space suits. Those are
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 4: the EVA suits that these astronats are going to be
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 4: using when they go to the Moon. And so if
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 4: you are interested, friends in shaping your career in a
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 4: direction that you want to join this adventure, I can
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 4: tell you there are a lot of great institutions across
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 4: America where you can begin your journey, but we're one
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 4: of those, Columbus State University, Coca Cola Space Science Center.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 4: We have a proven track record of training students with
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 4: the twenty first century skills necessary to work both with
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 4: NASA and in the aerospace industry in general. And if
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 4: you want to know more about that, well, first of all,
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 4: feel free to just reach out to me through the show.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 4: Visit us at the Coca Cola Space Science Center's website.
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 4: There's an info email address. You can just email that
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 4: say hey, I want to talk to Cruise and I
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 4: want to know about careers in space, or you can
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 4: visit Columbus State University's website the Department of Earth and
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 4: Space Sciences. I helped found that department. I helped shape
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 4: that degree program, and we have a degree program in
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 4: astrophysics and planetary geology at Columbus State University in the
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 4: Earth and Space Sciences program where our students are graduating
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 4: with that degree and going to work in the aerospace industry. So, friends,
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 4: if you know someone or you yourself want to join the adventure,
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 4: please feel free to reach out to us and we
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 4: will help point you in the direction necessary to join
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 4: humanity's expansion out into the Solar System. It's a super
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 4: adventure and we got to see the rocket that's going
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 4: to take us there.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 7: And as some of these interns are people going through
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 7: your program there, what a fun way to get started
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 7: in it if you started thinking about those interns with
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 7: Shawn and I thank you for listening. We want to
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 7: say thanks to our guests from last week, Heather Moss,
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 7: Matthew Ramsey, uh. And of course Doug Hurley, I mean,
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 7: anytime you can interview an astronaut, that's a pretty darn
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 7: good day.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 7: And then also to Paul Hudson, Bill Muddle, John Honeycutt,
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 7: and Sean Quinn the interviews from this week's show, We
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 7: thank you for listening, and we will do this again
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 7: next week. Overhead Door Company of Columbus has all of
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