The 365 Days of Astronomy

Astronomy Cast Ep. 806: Mission Tech Series: Thrusters

The 365 Days of Astronomy

Show Notes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK6w8ZHm8UM Streamed live 18 Oct 2026. Hosted by: Fraser Cain (@frasercain) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay (@CosmoQuest) Today we continue looking at space exploration technologies. This time we will examine thrusters, which can reorient a spacecraft and help it maneuver in space. Maximum flexibility but you need to bring along some propellant.

Smarter Every Day's YouTube video: I Was SCARED To Say This To NASA... (But I said it anyway) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoJsPvmFixU

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More from The 365 Days of Astronomy

Oct 25, 2026

Dr. Al Grauer hosts. Dr. Albert D. Grauer ( @Nmcanopus ) is an observational asteroid hunting astronomer. Dr. Grauer retired from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2006. travelersinthenight.org From May 2026. Today's 2 topics: - Winter nights can be exhausting, productive, as well as sometimes frustrating for asteroid hunters. At the Sixty Inch Telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona, near winter solstice, the night's observing starts at 6:30 PM and continues till after 6 AM which combined with start up and end tasks makes the asteroid hunter's work "day" more than 13 hours long. On such a recent long winter work night, my Catalina Sky Survey Teammate, Carson Fuls discovered an impressing total of 18 new Earth approaching objects. On the other hand on the next 3 night shift, I was treated to one night which was clear followed by two nights which were dominated by the first big snow storm of the season. The best nights are clear, cold, and calm with asteroid images which are small intense points of light. Such a night is said to have good seeing.

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Oct 23, 2026

From October 21, 2026. Hosted by Dr. Pamela L. Gay (@CosmoQuest) This week we look at the weird results in space science. From looking at how wildly different images from different IR telescopes can be colorized, to worlds colliding, to white dwarfs of unusual size, and even to Earth's crust on the move, the news was surprising and sometimes a tad bit horrifying. And we present all of it here.

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Hosted by Steve Nerlich. A podcast of sorts… Cheap Astronomy gets organized! Dear Cheap Astronomy – How are asteroids organized? The large majority of asteroids in the solar system are in the asteroid belt between mars and Jupiter. There are maybe 1-2 million that are more than a kilometer in diameter and millions more that are smaller than that. Nonetheless there's a huge amount of space between mars and Jupiter so it's nothing like that bit in the Empire strikes back. If you stood one asteroid is unlikely you'd be able to see another one and the odds of successfully navigating it are about one to one.

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