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153 - Alan Stern: New Horizons and Mankind’s First Mission to Pluto

153 - Alan Stern: New Horizons and Mankind’s First Mission to Pluto

Robinson's Podcast vor 2 Jahren

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1:01:39

Alan Stern is a planetary scientist, space program executive,
aerospace consultant, and author. He leads NASA’s 880 million
dollar New Horizons mission, which explored Pluto and its moons
before heading deeper into the Kuiper Belt that surrounds the
solar system. In 2007 and 2008, Alan was also NASA’s chief of
space and Earth science programs. In this episode, Robinson and
Alan talk all about Pluto and how Earth got there through New
Horizons. They begin by discussing whether or not Pluto should be
classified as a planet, before turning to the logistics of flying
to Pluto and then what the New Horizons probe discovered there.
Alan’s book, Chasing New Horizons (Picador, 2018) details the
story of the groundbreaking mission.

Alan’s Website: https://alanstern.space

Chasing New Horizons: https://a.co/d/gwvun3e

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

00:56 Introduction

02:46 Why Planets?

08:23 Is Pluto a Planet?

22:19 New Horizons’ Journey to Pluto

30:14 NASA’s Flyby-Then-Probe Model

37:20 What Did NASA’s New Horizons Mission Learn About Pluto?

50:11 New Horizons After Pluto and Beyond

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of
mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations
with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and
everyone in-between.