Radiation hardening, is the process of making electrical components resistant to high levels of radiation. It's an important part of developing space equipment obviously. Doing it however requires the proper tools and facilities, and there's a new one out there. Auburn University's Applied Research Institute has recently been given a contract through the Missile Defense Agency to create a new "cutting-edge" rad hardening facility. To find out more I had the chance to speak with the executive director for the Auburn's Applied Research Institute, Jonathan Pettus.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It seems like a strange thing to wonder, but I was curious of the role that science and research plays in military space operations, particularly for the U.S. Space Force. I found the perfect person to help with that question. Dr. Stacie Williams is Chief Science Officer, who was able to lay out to me the focus of her role and why STEM is still one of THE most important aspects of U.S. space dominance.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Starting today at an unlikely place, the U.S. Army. With the branch recently celebrating its 250th anniversary, it's also entering a new chapter, one that involves more space activity. In fact, it's creating a new military occupational specialty for enlisted personnel supporting Army space operations – the 40D, Space Operations Specialist. To find out more about it and other plans of actions the branch is looking towards, I spoke with Brig. Gen. Donald Brooks, who is Deputy Commanding General for Operations for Army Space and Missile Defense Command.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Back in March, the ASPIRE ONE Lunar Record successfully landed on the moon. It was a part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services within the Artemis program. The experiment involves putting a digital record of life here on Earth, on the moon. Think of it as a time capsule for anyone to possibly find in the future and see what life was like here during this time. A fascinating idea to say the least, that involved a lot of philosophical thinking during the creation process. To learn more about it, I got the chance to speak with Anamaria Berea, an associate professor at George Mason University.

https://www.gmu.edu/news/2025-03/mason-scientist-orchestrates-moon-based-message-bottle-future-generations

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

There's almost too much data for humans to consider when making decisions now during space missions. Operators can become bogged down in analyzing all the avenues of information at their disposal. Enter artificial intelligence and machine learning. The application here could help make those decisions for them, especially as missions take place further and further away from the Earth itself. For more on this area of interest, I had the chance to speak with Victoria Da-Poian, a Lead Data Scientist at NASA contractor Tyto Athene.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

New research from Wokelo, a Gen-AI-powered investment research platform, reveals that the space economy and commercialized space tech are quietly becoming investor hot spots, with funding rounds accelerating and valuations soaring. It exceeded $3 billion in funding in 2021 and continues to attract investors, even from characters you may not have seen venture off into this area before. To explain, I spoke with Siddhant Masson, Co-founder and CEO at Wokelo.

https://insights.wokelo.ai/unobvious-sectors-that-will-skyrocket-in-2025-a-data-driven-deep-dive/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Now in it's 5th year of existence, the U.S. Space Force continues to make advancements and investments in defense network connectivity and joint space operation. The availability of data gathered in space has grown exponentially during that time period as well. In order to be able to access it and maintain operational capabilities, it requires a lot of interoperability. One company working on that with the Space Force is Sev1Tech, where my guest, Michael Fry, is general manager of its air and space force division.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.