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Astronomycast Episode 482 alternative ways to space. Welcome to Astronomycast from weekly facts

based journey through the cosmos where we help you understand not only what we know but how we know

what we know. I'm Fraser Keane, publisher of university today with me as always. Dr. Pamela gave

the director of technology and citizen science at the Astronomical Society to Pacific and

the director of Cosmic Quest. Hey Pamela, how's it going? It's going well. How's it going for you,

Fraser? It's going great. Something just arrived for me that I've been waiting a long time for and

I'm gonna hold this up so the people who are watching the livestream can see it. It is a Falcon Heavy.

I think it's a resin printed Falcon Heavy that's been spray painted silver and this was provided to

me by Ollie Braun who has sort of made a cottage industry of making these 3D printed models of

Falcon Rockets and they're awesome. He's makes bigger ones, smaller ones, different configurations

and check out his website. Do search for Ollie Braun Falcon Rockets. He's got really cool collection.

I've seen a bunch of these starting to show up so he's clearly you know, sitting all out to the

YouTubers but it's it mine got cut in shipping for a long time because I had to go from Germany to

Canada but I'm so glad that I got it and it will take a place of honor on my shelves that I

have behind me when I'm shooting so thanks a lot Ollie. Getting to space is all about Rockets.

But people are trying to figure out other methods that could carry payloads to orbit and beyond.

Railguns, airplanes, tethers and more. Today we'll talk about alternative methods of spaceflight.

Alright Pamela, this is like one of those like regularly requested topics that I get on

the guided space at universe today, things like that. People are always like they're just frustrated

at the tyranny of the rocket equation and for good reason if Earth was any more massive

...