Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Blue Dot 07: Engineers Who Get It Done

Chris Gunn
/
NASA

Engineers figure out how to implement cool science — things like shooting a rocket to the moon, deploying the sky crane maneuver, sending probes all over the solar system, building space telescopes and much more. On Blue Dot today, we hear from Riley Duren, principal engineer and chief systems engineer for the Earth Science Directorate at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, about some of the projects he's been a part of and the issues and challenges that arise making that stuff exist, and making it work.

We also check in with Adam Steltzner, the NASA engineer who figured out how to get the Mars Curiosity Rover safely on the surface of Mars. 

Dave Schlom is the longtime host and creator of Blue Dot. From surfing to Voyager in interstellar space, rock guitar to orcas in our imperiled oceans, the topics on Blue Dot are as varied as the host’s interests and connections -- which are pretty limitless! An internationally respected space history journalist, Dave is also deeply fascinated by all aspects of the grand workings of nature’s awesome machinery on scales ranging from galactic to subatomic. And topics take in all aspects of the arts and sciences.