We had a cosmic conversation with Spencer Anunsen (first-time guest, long time listener), who is a mechanical engineer at Synchronous. Synchronous is a company doing work in the space industry whose website boasts the tagline, “building the barely possible”.
Spencer talks building trebuchets, is actually from Seattle, and has great taste in beer.
We talked with him at length about his childhood in Seattle (how weird!), his work with the Mars Curiosity Rover project as an intern at Jet Propulsion Laboratories, the privatized space industry, the point of mining asteroids, billionaires and their rockets, future space missions and much, much more. It was a hell of a time.
Spencer ONLINE
Also if you want to tell us about all the questions you would ask Spencer, we’d love to hear them or forward them on. Just write to us at seattlesworstpodcast@gmail.com.
Links
- Hayabusa 2 Twitter
- The spacecraft Spencer’s company (Synchronous) is contributing to:
- Scott Manley’s Youtube
- Space News Sites:
More links in the show minutes.
Show Notes
Podcasters (Stephen, Sean, Grant, Ben)
2m – Intro
4m – Old Business
5m – Sean is Having a Baby/Full Term at the Midterms
7m – Anxiety Level: Carseat
8m – Kavanaugh
9m – S Blocks the News
13m – KBF
15m – Men Need to be Afraid
18m – Space!
19m – Grant Does a Dramatic Reading – Some People are Saying It’s the Best, Big League
24m – Trebuchets
29m – Careers in Space
30m – Book Recommendation – Roving Mars
34m – Book Recommendation – Sex & Rockets
37m – Rovers in Movies
38m – Working on Curiosity
47m – The Stress of Watching a Project Launch
51m – Grant’s Dating Space Program
53m – Asteroid Mining
55m – Startup Culture
58m – Spencer’s Work was Featured on the Daily Show
62m – Privatized Space Industry financial models
66m – Upcoming Space Missions – What Mission Should We Follow?
- Mars 2020
- Parker Solar Probe
- Mars Quakes
- Europa Clipper
- Asteroid Stuff (Hyabusa II)
73m – Stephen Edits/F Tesla
74m – The Garage
75m – Who Gets Paid? Why Spend Money in Space?
76m – Decadal Survey
78m – Private Space Companies/Public Space Relies on Private Industry
83m – Failure as a Positive Permission Structure
84m – Insane Copper Rod Project
87m – The Space Garbage Island/Space is Cluttered AF
92m – Spencer Goes Deep on our Podcast Space Project
95m – Radiation in Space
97m – Some People Say MIT is the UMR of the East
101m – Mushrooms/Paul Stamets
104m – Is Space an Earth-Friendly Industry?
106m – Initiative 1631: Yes
107m – What to Say to a Person Who Thinks Space Exploration is Worthless
110m – Resources for Following Space Stuff
Special Acknowledgements/Mentions
- RIP Paul Allen
Corrections
- It was incorrectly stated that Orbital-ATK was bought by Lockheed-Martin (46th minute) when it was actually bought by Northrop-Grumman
Hashtag City
#Seattle #SPACE #EuropaClipper #SpaceForce #billionaires #trebuchets #MarsRover #Curiosity #Mars2020 #PaulStamets #mushrooms #CarbonTax #PrivatizedSpace #Kavanaugh #Kavanope #Birth #Paternity #FirstChild #DramaticReading #RovingMars #SexAndRockets #DailyShow #SpacePioneers #NeilDeGrasseTyson #NDT #Tesla #SpaceGarbage #YesOn1631 #PlanetaryResources #SynchronousLLC #JPL #JetPropulsionLab #NASA #RPI #Rensselaer
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