Tim Dodd is host of the Everyday Astronaut YouTube channel, where he teaches about rocket engines and all things space travel. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/lex to get 10% off - MasterClass: https://masterclass.com/lex to get 15% off - Shopify: https://shopify.com/lex to get free trial - ExpressVPN: https://expressvpn.com/lexpod to get 3 months free EPISODE LINKS: Tim's YouTube: https://youtube.com/@EverydayAstronaut Tim's Twitter: https://twitter.com/Erdayastronaut Tim's Instagram: https://instagram.com/everydayastronaut Tim's Website: https://everydayastronaut.com PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips SUPPORT & CONNECT: - Check out the sponsors above, it's the best way to support this podcast - Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman - Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman - Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman OUTLINE: Here's the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time. (00:00) - Introduction (06:18) - SpaceX rockets (26:56) - Falcon 9 (31:08) - Starship (35:27) - SpaceX rocket engines (43:05) - Elon Musk (58:41) - Twitter (1:04:46) - How rocket engines work (1:09:37) - Rocket fuel (1:13:03) - Rocket engine cycles (1:25:27) - Rocket cooling (1:40:24) - Multistage rockets (1:43:57) - Single-stage-to-orbit (1:49:33) - Aerospike engine (1:57:18) - Greatest car engine of all time (2:02:27) - Starship (2:05:19) - Wet dress rehearsal (2:11:29) - Landing (2:25:47) - Seeing starship in person (2:34:54) - Starship orbital test (2:41:32) - Gwynne Shotwell (2:46:43) - dearMoon project (3:05:46) - Fear of death (3:14:12) - Everyday Astronaut origin story (3:40:04) - Soviet Rocket Engine History (3:58:51) - Russia, China, USA (4:13:20) - Starlink (4:21:06) - First human on Mars (4:24:04) - Moon landing (4:30:11) - Nuclear propulsion (4:37:51) - Bob Lazar (4:44:54) - Aliens (4:48:42) - Sci-fi books (4:52:00) - Long-term space travel (4:58:47) - SpaceX competitors (5:10:07) - Kerbal Space Program (5:16:33) - Advice for young people
Paul Conte is a game designer.
A discussion on how SpaceX's vertically integrated approach to building satellites and rockets allows them to launch extremely light payloads, including small, funky-looking satellites the size of a folded up table.
Rocket Lab is testing a recovery strategy where they pull a parachute after the first stage re-enters and try to recover it with a helicopter, following a similar concept to Elon Musk's initial idea.
A rocket launch resulted in disappointment for an onlooker as a broken helium bottle caused the upper stage to over pressure and the entire rocket to explode uncontrollably.
Elon Musk's SpaceX faced many challenges in developing reusable rockets, including teaching people programming languages and dealing with rocket landings.
The difficulties of predicting the future of space travel and colonization on Mars are vast, with even the prediction of the launch of Starship into orbit remaining uncertain.
SpaceX's prototype development process involves frequent iteration and the willingness to scrap a design and start over. The company measures progress through replicable explosive yields in early testing phases.
SpaceX measures its engine performance in terms of thrust to weight ratio and efficiency in specific impulse, as well as the cost of the engine. They are making strides towards improving their rocket's performance with the development of the Raptor 2 variant.
NASA and SpaceX have differing approaches when it comes to certifying the safety of space missions, but both recognize the importance of innovation while ensuring reliability for future human flights.
Breaking through the expertise of the way things have been done in the past to push forward a new way can be difficult in fields like aeronautics or robotics where experts have been doing things their way for decades. It's important to question constraints and be willing to endure some extra pain in the R&D process for long-term benefit.
This discussion addresses questions surrounding Tesla's autonomous vehicles, robotics, and neurolink as separate from the SpaceX mission to Mars. Despite Elon Musk's fear of the sunk cost fallacy, stabilizing some things would catalyze the mission and moving the needle faster in order to get there.
The impact of social media at its basic level is meaningful connections of the collective intelligence of human civilization through the medium of digital communication, but most of it is just political bickering. However, social media can affect things like space flight and even our planetary defense.
A rocket engine's main job is to turn high pressure gas into kinetic energy to push the rocket forward. The engine must also account for the different gravitational forces of Earth, the Moon, or Mars when traveling through space.
The common oxidizers used in rockets include liquid oxygen, while solid rocket boosters are easy to develop compared to the liquids.
Soot can build up in rocket engines due to high pressures and high temperatures, causing clogs in injectors and potentially leading to engine failure. Different close cycle systems can be used to avoid this, such as fuel-rich and oxidizer-rich cycles.
Rocket engines are not as simple as they may appear, with channels milled into the walls to run fuel through and various factors to consider when it comes to ratios and thickness.
The Astro Awards were created to celebrate individuals doing exceptional work but it's impossible to account for every genius out there. Neil deGrasse Tyson discusses how every day people have areas of expertise that can blow others away, even if they don't have Nobel prizes to show for it.
This podcast episode talks about the concept of film cooling in rocket nozzles, which involves piping cooler gas into the nozzle to create a boundary layer against the hotter combustion chamber gas for better efficiency. It also discusses the challenges associated with designing rocket nozzles for space launch vehicles.
This podcast discusses rockets and how they operate, with a focus on the Falcon 9 rocket specifically.
Everything in rocket science is a compromise, and there are fixed costs associated with launching a rocket, including people on console time, paperwork, range control, and flight termination, making it relatively expensive to launch even the smallest payloads. The payload fraction of a rocket is usually only 3 to 7%, and launch costs can run into millions of dollars.
This podcast episode discusses the advantages and disadvantages of rotary and aerospike engines in terms of efficiency and reliability. While rotary engines may appear more efficient on paper, they are often more unreliable in practice. Similarly, while aerospike engines have a more efficient design, they present difficulties in cooling.
The Starship is a crucial vehicle toward the goal of rapidly reusing spacecraft and eventually making human civilization interstellar. Its development is essential for reaching this goal and advancing space technology.
The Rocket has a transport machine that picks up the booster and lander to move them to a launch mount. This rocket will use three Raptor engines firing right before takeoff.
The SpaceX Starship does not require extra engines for landing on its belly, as it can use its main engines to induce roll and precisely land without additional complexity or weight.
SpaceX's Mars rocket prototype underwent a test flight which included a flip maneuver and attempted landing, but was unsuccessful due to a problem with one of the engines.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk discusses the optimal landing technique for Starship that involves flipping around 500 meters above the ground to minimize Delta V and prevent gravity drag.
The speaker describes the surreal experience of being able to see a rocket launch from just a few hundred meters away and also seeing a city-like structure in the horizon. They also reflect on the privilege of being present during rocket launches of the Soviet Union and N1 and Saturn V eras.
The speakers describe observing a UFO that appeared to be a blimp and moved quickly before falling in a controlled manner.
In this interview, the speaker talks about the importance of having a balance between taking risks and ensuring that the money flows into business in a positive trend. They also express admiration for Gwynne Shotwell and how she manages to maintain a healthy balance between risks and operations in SpaceX.
The speaker believes that sending artists and ordinary people to space can offer a new perspective and greater impact than solely sending military-trained astronauts. By sharing their experiences, they can offer a unique and diverse viewpoint to the world.
The speaker discusses the importance of experience in space flight and appreciates the fact that there is someone in the crew with previous space flight training.
Elon Musk is planning to have live streaming from inside the spacecraft during SpaceX launches, hoping to arm themselves with the best cameras and equipment possible. He acknowledges the launch is risky but has the infrastructure to house in the vehicle, but he hopes it can help him share the excitement of space exploration with loved ones and the world.
This podcast episode talks about how a video game, Kerbal Space Program, inspired someone to produce YouTube videos about spaceflight and photography, and how photography is like storytelling.
The creator discusses his surprise at the success of his passion project on Soviet rocket engines and how answering viewer questions before releasing the video helped its popularity.
Despite being the only ride to the International Space Station for almost a decade, Roscosmos' space program seems to be in decline. The recent failures, puncture, and other incidents have decreased their potential and success, while some hope for a future with friendly competition and global unity.
In space, a spacecraft does not just keep going forever after it's been blown up; depending on its altitude, it will take anywhere from five years to one month to deorbit due to parasitic drag, which slows it down and lowers its orbit until it reenters.
The cost of space exploration and astronomy could decrease as technology advances, leading to the possibility of launching cheaper telescopes into space that provide better data collection. This could revolutionize the field and lead to significant scientific discoveries.
Navigating space exploration involves considering margins, safe distances, and communication factors, with more difficulty and risk factors involved in missions to Mars.
The speaker mentions that even though there is proof of the moon landing, some people believe in conspiracy theories regarding it being fake, and Elon Musk jokes about it.
The search for faster-than-light travel and space exploration technology has led scientists to consider possibilities like warp drives and wormholes, but the practicality and feasibility of such concepts remain in question.
Joe Rogan discusses his excitement for discovering traces of life on Mars, but acknowledges the skepticism of many people towards this achievement.
The perspective and way of observing of two different races can be so fundamentally different that coexisting could be almost impossible. Direct imaging of other planets could provide more clues to coexisting with a possible alien race.
Long-term space travel presents various challenges such as bone density loss and zero gravity, making it difficult to perform the most important aspect of sex for procreation, as well as the full biological cycle of it.
The possibility of having major civilizations in space in 30 to 50 years is achievable, as long as there are developments in reusable vehicle technology for heavy industry that could help reduce pollution on Earth.
The rocket industry is evolving at a rapid rate with 3D-printing and new technologies that allow for quicker and more efficient iterations. These advancements are paving the way for new rockets such as the neutron rocket from Relativity Space which could be a game changer for the industry.
The speaker talks about their addiction to a space exploration game where the goal is to leave planet Eve. The game involves building space planes and other spacecraft by choosing fuel tanks and engines, among other options.
The speaker encourages people to follow their hearts and find happiness by doing the things they enjoy, rather than settling for mediocrity. They express their desire to make videos and travel, and talk about their talent for explaining complex concepts.
In this podcast, the host speaks with Tim Dodd and expresses admiration for his work and personality while discussing his experience as an astronaut photographer.