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Podcast: At the Edge of Space

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Transcript (Text, PDF)

When you were a kid, dreaming of the future, did you expect to have a flying car someday? Or to live on the Moon? Traveling into space has fueled the dreams of many people, but the reality is that space flight is difficult and expensive. Though escaping Earth’s gravity to reach orbit is a real challenge, it is much easier and less expensive to take sub-orbital flights – that is, those that reach an altitude of 100 km (approximately 62 miles) above Earth. This may prove to be an affordable way for scientists to do science in space, especially with the technology to do these getting close to being ready for use.

One of our scientists, Joe Hill, builds x-ray and gamma ray instruments… and she also wants to be an astronaut. Recently, she was given the opportunity to participate in sub-orbital scientist training, which took her one step closer to realizing her dream of going into space.


More About Joe Hill’s Experience

Joe Hill provided us with a few links of interest. Here are two videos of her training experience:

You might be interested in reading Joe Hill’s blog on the experience or following her twitter account:

Here are a few pictures of Joe:

Joe Hill

Joe Hill

Joe Hill

Credits:

Host Maggie Masetti
Guests Joe Hill
Interviewer Maggie Masetti
Editor Maggie Masetti
Theme Music Naked Singularity
Transcript Maggie Masetti
Website Support Meredith Gibb
Maggie Masetti
Producer Sara Mitchell
Responsible NASA Official Alan Smale

1 Comment

  • […] But how about putting people closer to space? Space Adventure, the American firm that arranges the space tourism visits to places like the International Space Station has signed a deal with Armadillo to develop a vertical launch vehicle to put people to the edge of suborbital space for a few minutes before plunging down again. This delight will put you back $102,000, around half the price of a seat on SpaceShipTwo. If you’d rather just sit back and hear about suborbital flight and training, here’s a podcast from Joe Hill on NASA Blueshift. […]

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