Show Suggestions

[mutleyeng]

whats wrong with the universe.
how astronomy is causing problems for cosmology - in other words, stuff that dosnt quite fit what we thought we understood

[pickeringcs]

i have read that all space photgraphs are actually balck and white with color added later. Is this true? Can we not get color pictures from distant planets/space. Why would this be done? How does NASA decide how to "color" the photos. What is the "true color" of space objects?

[swampyankee]

While the Shuttle is gone, there is a lot of technology and design issues that have come out of it. One that was surprisingly challenging was zero-g toilets. (this is why I mentioned Donald Rethke, aka Dr Flush, http://news.engr.uconn.edu/mastracchioeventsummary.php).

LIGO.

Neutrino and cosmic ray astronomy

[Empyre]

@pickeringcs: They take three photos, each with a different color filter, then use those as the red, green, and blue in the final image.

[browolf]

I downloaded some of the episodes from 2007/8 and there's variation in the mp3 id tags for album title . This is somewhat annoying as loaded onto my mp3 player I've ended up with more albums than necessary.

The variations are
no album title
Astronomy Cast - 2007
Astronomy Cast 2007
Astronomy Cast
Astronomy Cast - 2008
Astronomy Cast 2008

I've no idea if this inconsistency continues in later years. It's messy and needs sorting out!

Also what happened to the question shows? I really like listening to those.

[Empyre]

I think the question shows have returned in the form of the weekly hangouts. They also now record astronomycast episodes live on google+, and afterwords, they spend a few minutes answering questions. I have been watching them on YouTube on the universetoday channel, and astrospherevids channel, and the starstryder channel. They pop up sometimes on any of those channels, and sometimes on more than one. I have not yet caught one live. There is more content now from these folks than ever.

[Solfe]

How about "Professional Profiles". Interview scientists.

Fun questions would be:
"If you weren't a physicist, an astronomer, etc., what would you choose to be?"
"Did you start in a different field or course of study in college?" (Its more fun the more removed that topic is their actual profession.)
"Do you have hobbies that simply don't jib with being a <insert profession>."

[Empyre]

They've been sort of doing that in the google+ hangouts I mentioned in my previous post right above yours.

[UW Geologist]

How about a show about the rapid expansion of privately-funded spaceflight?

You could talk about the X-Prize and billionaire stuff, the recent launches of Dragon capsules by Space X and the future plans of Cameron and friends to mine asteroids with Planetary Resources Inc.

Or maybe you've done this show already, in which case you can completely disregard this entire post.

[browolf]

Had a thought. Since you started off 5 years ago, some new things must have been discovered since on some of the topics you did way back in the beginning. It would be interesting to hear about what's been learned in the last 4-5 years.

[Solfe]

You did Mass, Inertia, Energy. Could you continue with Entropy and Acceleration?

I like the history related shows, could you do a piece on the lesser known space fairing countries? Brazil, Italy, etc.

[Andrew8]

Carl Sagan Episode? I would love to hear about his life in general, contributions to science and astronomy and his legacy.

[tomja]

McGyverisms

A show about how engineers come up with amazing solutions to problems given then lack of resources or the remoteness of the probe..

The show should be
what went wrong.. the risks... what engineers came up with to resolve the issues

Examples include:
Apollo 13
Hayabusa probe.. and many many others.

best regards

tomja

[Fraser]

I love that suggestion Tomja. There are so many examples of missions that failed in some way, and engineers were able to pull it together.

[tomja]

The missions that could have been.

A look at the space missions that have been cancelled over the years.
The episode would cover the mission, what the plans where, how far they went in building it, and what it could be giving us now, if not for cancellation.
It would be nice if it could also look at missions outside of NASA but NASA missions are the ones I know about

SIM
Terrestrial Planet Finder

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor...led_spacecraft

http://news.discovery.com/space/hist...e-missions.htm

Best Regards

Tom

[tomja]

Double post

[Kimika]

I would enjoy more history also. Rocks falling from the sky used to be dismissed as superstition. I'd love to hear more about how our understanding changed, what it took to bring that about and the people putting the new ideas forward. Apparently it was a bit of a struggle, not, "Oh yes, that makes perfect sense." (Rocks falling from the sky? Nonsense! How could there be rocks in space?)

http://www.amnh.org/explore/resource...s-from-the-sky

[mikeEZfoSheezy]

I would love to hear more about science on tv what was right and wrong


"That shining twilight flame? Neither saucer nor plane. Afloat in western skies, behold Venus with your eyes." Neil Degrasse Tyson

[mikeEZfoSheezy]

Love the idea about Carl sagan


"That shining twilight flame? Neither saucer nor plane. Afloat in western skies, behold Venus with your eyes." Neil Degrasse Tyson

[mikeEZfoSheezy]

I miss the question shows. also I would have loved to hear the astronomy cast marathon from last year, is there anyway I can get that?

[kevin1981]

How about a show on the soon to be updated LHC particle accelerator. Now we have found the Higgs, that has been put to bed..

You could do a show about what is next. Why has it been updated, what is it being updated for, what are they trying to find next and so fourth..

Just a suggestion !

Keep up the great work and thanks

[Fiachra]

Hi,

Have thoroughly enjoyed working my way through the archives over the last year and had a suggestion for an episode or possibly a series of episodes.

I like the way ye give credit too and mention the work of the worlds other space agencies and would love to hear more about them. While many listeners are probably familiar with NASA and the Russians and I am sure there is still plenty of stuff and stories to talk about with them. Of more interest to some (all of us non Americans) would be hearing about the work all the other agencies such as ESA, the Indians, the Japanese etc. I think it would be particularly worth while covering ESA and the other non cold war super power agencies to help counter the Hollywood perception that if it's in space it must be NASA (unless it's evil, then it's obviously Russian or a criminal mastermind), the whole Transformers - Beagle 2 incident was especially galling!

Fiachra.

[Wojo]

Long time listener, first time poster. Been a while since I've been able to say that!

With the slew of Science fiction films & tv shows released lately (thinking Moon, Gravity, Interstellar etc.) I'm wondering if a show about "What Sci-Fi gets right in Astronomy" might be cool. There has been a bunch of this topic scattered through various shows (has there BEEN a show on this already? Am I going crazy?) - I do remember one of the live con shows had a whole section about BSG and physics/astronomy consultation - I would be interested to know what other shows go so far to be accurate, perhaps some best & worst offenders lists. Are there any projects that Fraser & Pamela have been personally involved with? Stories!

Of course it's a wide area to discuss just Astronomy - I'm sure stretching the field to include a bit of Physics and Cosmology isn't a crime, surely...

[StevieC]

For the Modern Women series, why not an episode on Eileen Collins? First woman to be Mission Commander of a shuttle flight, and as an added bonus, the mission she was commander of happens to have been STS-93, the launch of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. I've actually met Collins and got to ask her a few questions, and even got her autograph in a book about the Space Shuttle.

[oceanview2015]

To discuss - The Universe is expanding - 'space' is being created between such objects as Galaxies which appears to make them move apart faster than the speed of lights. This is fact.
Ok then what's the deal with the new 'space' that's being created. Is additional 3 dimensional space being created ? If so is there new 4th dimensional space (time) being created as well ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TheCreepero]

I have an idea:

A series about the "eras" of the universe.

1. Primordial era
2. Stelliferious era
3. Degenerate era
4. Black hole era
5. Dark era

It could of course also be just one episode if there's not enough information to make an entire episode about these eras.

Thanks!

[dglevy]

I know this thread is more for topic suggestions, but I don't know where to post this. Can y'all start an official Facebook page? I can't believe you're not on Facebook! There's an unofficial page which has 4,800 likes, but no content...

[Solfe]

If I could make a small suggestion. The more recent shows have been very high intensity. If I could request less swearing... I use these in classrooms and I used to know which ones had bad words, but the last couple of shows seem to have more swearing than the past 350 shows.

[Navigator]

How about Lunar or Crater Ray Systems. There does not seem to be many good answers to why they form (or appear to form).

[DavidLondon]

How about an episode on the emerging space economy?

It could explore:
- the sources of demand for economic output outside the earth’s gravity well (eg space tourism, Satellite maintenance, human missions to Mars...)
- potential source of supply for this output (eg the moon)
- the various linkages and infrastructure needed to help support and maintain output
- likely timetable for the highest potential drivers of the above 3 issues (eg what could occur in 2020s-2040s, 2040s-2060s, 2060s-end of century).

It may be outside Fraser and Pamela’s areas of specialism. So perhaps more suitable for Fraser to interview somebody who specialises in this area (assuming somebody does!).