The Art of Space Engineering

About The Art of Space Engineering

The Art of Space Engineering is a podcast which aims to explore the details behind how spacecraft and various payloads come together before launch, and the lessons learned along the way. Episodes feature discussions between faculty, students, and industry professionals on topics including instruments, CubeSats, and various engineering disciplines, to provide a well-rounded overview of what it takes to prepare space systems for missions both in and beyond Earth's orbit. Hosted by Sarah Rogers Cover art design by Amy Liu Feel free to connect with me! Email: artofspaceeng@gmail.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-s-rogers Hosted on rss.com: https://rss.com/podcasts/theartofspaceeng/

Publisher

Sarah Rogers

Category

education · technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

2 Jan 2021

Latest episode

4 Mar 2025

Latest episodes

30 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   4 Mar 2025

   #30 - Tilebox: End to End Data Processing for Space Missions (Laura Costa Ortega & Laura Todd)

   Episode Overview This episode features a discussion with Laura Costa Ortega, the co-founder of Tilebox, and Laura Todd, Vice President of Space Exploration Future Programmes at Airbus Defense and Space and mentor at the Creative Destruction Lab. We discuss the challenges of processing data products collected by space missions and new methodologies being developed to improve efficiency of the end to end processing chain. In addition, we discuss the business side of emerging space companies which provides a nice blend of technical interchange with strategy and vision. I hope you enjoy this format! Timestamps 0:00 - Episode intro 3:54 - Background: Laura Costa Ortega & challenges in space data processing 13:08 - Background: Laura Todd 18:20 - Developing the Tilebox narrative, startup mentality, strategy, and product development 31:12 - Tilebox + Colossus integration, end to end processing 41:44 - Challenges of on orbit processing vs ground processing 46:41 - Future methodologies for data processing 51:50 - What do you love most about your job 57:34 - Episode outro Links Tilebox: https://tilebox.com/ (https://tilebox.com/) CDL: https://creativedestructionlab.com/ (https://creativedestructionlab.com/) Colossus: https://colossuscompute.com/deploy-your-edge-compute-mission-faster-1 (https://colossuscompute.com/deploy-your-edge-compute-mission-faster-1)

2. 

   10 Mar 2024

   #29 - Operating Satellite Constellations at Planet Labs with Deanna Farago

   Episode Summary This week’s episode features a conversation with Deanna Farago on how Planet Labs manages efficient commissioning and nominal operations for its constellation of over 200 satellites. Planet Labs was founded in 2010 with a goal to collect high resolution imagery of the entire earth every day. Today, Planet’s dataset includes, on average, 1700 images of every place on Earth. This has provided researchers, business, and governments with significant insight into our Earth. In this episode we dive into how Planet Labs balances commissioning new satellites while continuing to operate existing ones, the tools and automated features enable their constellation to run seamlessly, what aspects of constellation management are not as well known as they should be, and finally what we can learn from reflecting on a decade of operations. Deanna Farago is the Director of Mission Operations at Planet. Her team is responsible for commissioning and operating the largest Earth-observation constellation of satellites in the world. With an expertise in operations-at-scale, Deanna has written papers and presented at conferences such as Small Satellite, Grace Hopper, and the SpaceOps Conference. Prior to coming to Planet in 2014, Deanna worked as a Simulation Engineer at NASA Ames Research Center performing human-in-the-loop experiments in the Vertical Motion Simulator (VMS). She also worked as the Mission Assurance Manager on the ASTRA project at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory which helped to advance Mars surface instruments using a high-altitude balloon test environment. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode intro 2:39 - Deanna's background 14:00 - Pelican 1 Tech Demo status 19:20 - Commissioning process for Dove fleets 25:28 - Queueing satellite commissioning 28:32 - Megahealth app - contacting satellites post deployment 32:48 - Aside on TLEs and operational experience 39:44 - Looking back on growth over the years 45:50 - Things to consider about operating constellations 50:28 - Episode Outro & other applications Links Planet Labs website: https://www.planet.com/ (https://www.planet.com/) Commissioning the World’s Largest Satellite Constellation (SmallSat 2017): https://s3vi.ndc.nasa.gov/ssri-kb/static/resources/Commissioning%20the%20World_s%20Largest%20Satellite%20Constellation.pdf (https://s3vi.ndc.nasa.gov/ssri-kb/static/resources/Commissioning%20the%20World_s%20Largest%20Satellite%20Constellation.pdf) Automated fleet commissioning workflows at Planet (SmallSat 2021): https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5088&context=smallsat (https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5088&context=smallsat) Autonomous Monitoring of a Diverse Ground Station Network (SmallSat 21) https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4983&context=smallsat (https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4983&context=smallsat)

3. 

   30 Jan 2024

   #28 - Developing the AOS Mission Architecture with Dr. Scott A. Braun

   Episode Summary NASA’s Atmospheric Observing System (AOS) is a constellation of 4 smallsats which will help characterize aerosol, cloud, convection, and precipitation processes to give insight into extreme weather events as well as climate change. The spacecraft have been designed to compliment each other with their orbits as well as their instrument suite (which includes radar, lidar, limb sensors, polarimeters, and radiometers). AOS was designed to influence the next decade of scientific research in aerosols and cloud processes and enable us to improve our understanding of our Earth. The project is led by NASA Goddard and supported by international partnerships with Japan, Canada, and France, who are developing spacecraft and instruments alike to support this mission. This episode explores the complex study that was undertaken to develop a mission architecture for AOS which could maximize the science return. Over 100 different architectures were developed during the study before the architecture was chosen for AOS. Specifically, we discuss the approach to designing and analyzing different combinations of instruments and spacecraft platforms, and what strategies were used to quantify the impact that each architecture could have on the science objectives. We will also cover How the study trades developed over time, and the challenges associated with an analysis of this scope. Dr. Scott Braun is the Project Scientist for the AOS mission and has been with the program since the study began back in 2018. Dr. Braun is a research meteorologist at NASA Goddard, specializing in hurricanes, and specifically how these form and intensify, including their interaction with the Saharan Air Layer. He has also served as the Principal investigator for NASA’s Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) mission, and the Project Scientist for TROPICS, the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), GOES-R, Global Precipitation Measurement mission. Dr. Braun has received numerous awards including Fellow of the American Meteorological Society, the Goddard Earth Science Achievement Award, the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal, and several other group achievement awards. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode Intro 4:36 - Dr. Braun's background 10:56 - Building the AOS architecture study team 13:48 - Approaching the AOS architecture study per the mission objectives 23:31 - Trading performance vs size 26:48 - Quantifying the scientific value 39:36 - Process for narrowing down options 51:32 - Feedback during the study 56:44 - Evaluating new approaches vs continuity with existing missions, challenges associated 1:03:36 - International partnerships 1:05:02 - One thing that could be done differently 1:07:30 - Favorite problem 1:09:06 - Episode Outro Links AOS Project website: https://aos.gsfc.nasa.gov/ (https://aos.gsfc.nasa.gov/) Paper on the AOS architecture study: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=9843507 (https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=9843507)

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

13 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

15 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 22 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

11

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

85

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Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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