#157 – Natalya Bailey: Rocket Engines and Electric Spacecraft Propulsion

Natalya Bailey is a rocket propulsion engineer from MIT and now CTO of Accion Systems. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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EPISODE LINKS:
Natalya's Twitter: https://twitter.com/natalya926
Accion Systems: https://accion-systems.com/

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OUTLINE:
Here's the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) - Introduction
(06:51) - Intelligent life in the universe
(10:52) - Life in our solar system
(12:57) - Humans on Mars
(16:31) - Robots vs human in space exploration
(17:25) - AI in space
(21:30) - How rocket engines work
(26:47) - How ion engines work
(31:10) - How colloid engines work
(40:07) - Material science
(42:57) - Nuclear powered rocket engines
(47:56) - Electric propulsion out in space
(51:23) - Satellites
(56:17) - Photo of Earth from the Moon
(57:55) - Humans on Mars
(1:00:17) - Propulsion without fuel
(1:08:12) - How to build a rocket company
(1:15:10) - SpaceX and commercial spaceflight
(1:19:42) - Advice to startup founders
(1:26:18) - Book recommendations
(1:34:36) - Meaning of life