JosieSpace

Dr. Mark Trodden of the University of Pennsylvania and the Center for Particle Cosmology

Sun, 21 Apr 2019 21:52:41 -0700

Josie Enenstein: Can you please share about your background?

Dr. Mark Trodden: I am originally from the UK. I did my undergraduate degree in Mathematics at Cambridge University. At the next stage I did a Masters Degree in Math at Cambridge where I specialized in theoretical physics. Then I took a year and did research there with a professor and during that year I started working with one of her collaborators who was in the US at Brown University. After that year, I applied to graduate school and I got accepted to Brown and went there to work with this person. I did my Ph.D. at Brown. And then I was a post-doctoral research associate at MIT. And then I was a senior post-doctoral research associate at Case Western Reserve University. And then in 2000, I became an Associate Professor at Syracuse University. I was a professor there through 2008. And then I moved to Penn where I am now. I went there as a professor and to start the Center for Particle Cosmology at Penn.

JE: What did of research were you doing while you were at Cambridge?

MT: I was already working on problems that you might call particle cosmology. There is an interesting question in cosmology of where do the big magnetic fields in galaxies come from? The general feeling is that they start off as small magnetic fields and they grow through something called the cosmic dynamo. And the question is then where do those small magnetic fields come from? One possible view is that they are cosmological in origin. They are not true to the galaxy itself. They come from something else. We work on our other exotic idea to do with something called cosmic strings which are these very exotic things that happen in particle field physics theories. We were interested in whether the fact that they can carry currents could allow them to generate magnetic fields. That was the very first paper I ever wrote. It was a long time ago now, and it was with a professor, Anne...Read More

George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic

Fri, 25 Aug 2017 12:29:27 -0700

Josie Enenstein: There are many different companies out there which somehow service the space travel industry. What role do you feel Virgin Galactic plays in the industry? Do you ever partner up with other companies in the field for projects?

George Whitesides: I think what we're really trying to do is to dramatically reduce the cost of space exploration and space travel for many more people. In terms of the number of people able to go to space, we really want to increase that. We have over 600 customers now, and we hope to supply thousands over the coming years. Right now, the total number of people who have ever been to space is less than 600. We think that there is a big opportunity there to radically increase the number of people who have gone to space. Also, in terms of small satellites, we have a small satellite company. We think we have the opportunity to significantly expand the chances for small satellites to go into space by significantly lowering the cost, but also by increasing the number of flights up to space for small satellites. In a way, we want to democratize space; make it open to many more people and uses.

J: What are the current big goals for Virgin Galactic, maybe some which you helped to implement?

GW: We want to begin commercial service with Spaceship 2, which will be a big milestone for us which we hope to do next year. We also want to begin commercial service with our Launcher 1 orbital launch vehicle over the next year, so we have a big year coming up.

J: For all of these exciting happenings in the next coming year, do you have any big publicity initiatives?

GW: With our company, typically when we do something there is a lot of publicity that just comes along with that, so we think there will be a fair amount of coverage once we...Read More

Pete Worden of Breakthrough Prize Foundation and Breakthrough Initiative

Tue, 15 Mar 2016 21:08:41 -0700

Josie Enenstein: Can you briefly describe both The Breakthrough Prize Foundation and Breakthrough Initiatives?

Pete Worden: The Breakthrough Prize was started about five years ago by Yuri Milner who studied Physics in Russia about 30 years ago but has become a very successful businessman. He believes that we should promote the role of science, understanding that science is the basis of our economic well-being. He was looking at a list of the best known people on social media and other surveys and noted that very few scientists are on these lists. He felt we needed to do something to promote the role of scientists and decided to give a very large prize, The Breakthrough Prize. The first prize Yuri Milner funded was in fundamental physics. He also has now gotten his colleagues, such as Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, Sergei Brin, the co-founder of Google, Anne Wojcicki, the founder of 23 and Me and Jack Ma, who founded Alibaba in China. We now have multiple prizes. One in biology, mathematics, fundamental physics. We started in the last year a prize for high school students for producing a 10 minute video to explain a fundamental concept in science. There are very significant prizes including scholarships up to $250,000. Maybe one of the most important things is that there will be a payment of $50,000 to the teacher who inspired the student. We also give the New Horizons Prizes for an early career scientist in physics and mathematics. That has been ongoing for about 5 years. There are more things coming, but the initiatives are mainly about funding distinct science and searching for evidence of life in the universe, whereas the prizes are about rewarding and emphasizing accomplishments of some of the best scientists today. Mr. Milner is also very excited about the fundamental questions of science and about how a lot of high net worth people can support this better. So about a year ago, he started The Breakthrough Initiative which is...Read More

Eric Anderson, CEO of Space Adventures and Planetary Resources

Tue, 11 Mar 2014 23:50:17 -0700

Josie: Can you briefly describe what your companies do and what their goals are?

Eric Anderson: There are 2 different companies. I am the founder of both of them, and I am also the chairman of both of them. The first one is called Space Adventures. Space Adventures' goal is to provide space flight experiences, from zero gravity flights on Earth, all the way up to flights to the International Space Station and flights around the moon, to the global marketplace. So for Space Adventures, we literally are a space travel company. All of the people who have been to space as private citizens have been to space through Space Adventures. So it's a company that has been in existence for about 15 years. The other company is called Planetary Resources. Planetary Resources is a company whose goal is to bring the resources of space into the economic sphere of influence of the Earth. Basically, what that means is that right now the only resources, everything from real estate itself, to fuel to strategic metals, precious metals, basic materials, [and] elements. Everything we've ever used EVER for ANYTHING that humanity has EVER done has all come from Earth. The reason we started Planetary Resources is because: if we can develop the technology that enables human beings and our projects to use the resources of space, it will radically accelerate the pace of space exploration. Setting up propellant depots and fuel stations in orbit, getting strategic and precious metals from the asteroids. The asteroids are rich with resources. It turns out that while difficult, it is absolutely possible to mine asteroids and so that is what Planetary Resources is doing. It is very cool, and we are privileged to be working on it. It is also pretty difficult. We spent a lot of time thinking about how to do it. The people who work with me on Planetary Resources are by and large people who have landed spacecraft on Mars and...Read More