Today we meet with Ben Jones, an Electrical & Manufactory Technician for NearSpace Launch in Upland Indiana. A recently graduate of Valparaiso University with a Bachelor of science in electrical engineering, Ben joined NSL in May of 2025 after participating in their DreamBig Project. Ben’s university team joined five other university teams who earned payload space on a .5U CubeSat. Ben helped found his university’s first space program where they worked with pocketqubes and he also participated with the University Nanosatellite Program in Albuquerque designing a 3U cubesat. We look forward to hearing about his new career fresh out of school and know you will enjoy hearing about his journey as well.
Chris Carberry is the CEO and co-founder of Explore Mars, Inc. (Explore Mars), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit space advocacy organization. In this role, he oversees the annual Humans to Mars Summit, the largest annual conference focused on sending humans to Mars, and has spearheaded dozens of programs, projects, and outreach efforts. Before joining Explore Mars, Carberry served as Executive Director of The Mars Society. Carberry has presented oral (and written) testimony to both the United States Senate as well as the United States House of Representatives. He is also the author of over 100 articles that have appeared in publications around the world and has been featured in over 100 national and international television, radio programs, and podcasts. Carberry is the author of The Music of Space (2024) and Alcohol in Space: Past, Present, and Future (2019), which has been adapted into a documentary film. Carberry is co-editing a book called A Future Spacefaring Society for Springer to be released in 2026.
Today we meet with the phenomenal Sam Wheeler is a physics instructor at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, where he teaches AP Physics C, General Physics, and Elements of Satellite Design—a course in which students design, test, and fly CubeSats on a campus zipline. His career has included remarkable opportunities such as co-hosting a live math and science TV show, flying student experiments on Zero-G flights, connecting students with astronauts aboard the ISS, and conducting astrobiology research in Death Valley. A Fulbright Scholar to Japan, former NCSTA President, and recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math & Science Teaching, Sam has also served as an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow at the U.S. Department of Energy. He holds undergraduate degrees in physics and science education and a PhD in Science (Physics) Education from NC State University.
Today we meet with Michael Fatig: He’s a lifelong space enthusiast and second generation career space professional as an Engineer, a program manager, a business unit manager, and a growth leader. He has worked on Over 35 missions including one that led to a Nobel Prize for science in astrophysics). He has also led 15 professional papers, and is a recipient of the NASA Public Service Medal. Michael’s work encompasses many realms including Founder of the Cooperative Satellite Learning Program, President of the Maryland Association of Partners in Education, and Board Member of the Maryland Space Business Roundtable. Stay tuned for what is sure to be a great episode.
Lalitha Murali is a gifted and talented teacher for the Glendale River-Hills School District. 16 years ago, when she started teaching, she noticed that there were only a handful of immigrant and minority children in the gifted programs. By starting educational outreach programs and organizing workshops, Lalitha targeted the underrepresented groups in her school a community. Today, she offers advanced learning opportunities for immigrant and minority families. Lalitha has been recognized several times for dedication and passion in the field and most recently, her commitment to advancing STEM education has earned her recognition as a Globant STEM Award Winner for the Inspiring Leader
Raz Idan has been an educator for almost 20 years, working as a guide in multiple science museums and even at an astronomical observatory. He's a self-proclaimed space-nerd with degrees in physics, materials engineering, and a master's in space systems engineering on the horizon.
Raz brings his passion for education and space together in his professional life. Currently teaching Engineering & Entrepreneurship (E²) at The Leffell School, a K-12 private school in Westchester County, NY, he launched the space engineering elective this past year. His students developed a payload box that will be launched on a high altitude balloon, aiming to pass 100,000 feet! This coming school year holds even more exciting space-related activities in store. In his spare time, Raz has picked up hobbies such as observational astronomy, astrophotography, and ham radio, which he often incorporates into his classroom.
Today we meet with Dean Cameron, the CEO of TOP shelf Media. He has been an aerospace marketing professional for the past 38 years with experience in engineering and design as well as numerous manufacturing disciplines. In an effort to support both current Manufacturing resources, Dean launched Northwest Aerospace News in 2017. He strongly believes that the future of the aerospace industry depends on exposing youth to Advanced Manufacturing practices—this means as early as middle school! He connects young minds to the industry, exposing them to careers in the industry through his middle school aged focus publication, Let's Go Aerospace Magazine for kids. Dean’s view on education completely jibe with our own, and we know you will see how valuable his contributions are after this episode. Don’t miss the links to his publications below.
Links: www.northwestaerospacenews.com (Industry Trade Magazine)
www.letsgoaerospace.com (Middle School Magazine)
Melissa Sleeper is a National Board Certified Teacher currently teaching Life Science and Space Science at Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy in Melbourne, Florida. A career changer, Melissa worked as an Agriculture Economist/Statistician setting up crop reporting services and running rural household surveys. She lived and taught in both public and private schools in Morocco, Egypt, Grenada, Barbados, Bolivia, and Nicaragua in addition to her extensive work here in the States. Melissa has the unique experience of being able to say she has taught at every grade level from pre-K to adult.. Melissa an active member of the National Science Teaching Association, The AIAA and has served on, among others, the Aerospace Advisory Board and National Middle Level Science Teachers Association. Her passion for space education was flamed when she was selected an Educator Ambassador for NASA’s MAVEN Mission. We are grateful to know such a passionate STEM educator and we know you will appreciate Melissa as much as we do.
Melissa Mecca holds a Bachelors of science in mechanical engineering from the university of Florida where she graduated cum laude in 2021. She now has four years of industry experience under her belt at Aerojet Rocketdyne, a segment of L3 Harris providing space and defense propulsion products. There she supports the RL10 program, which is one of the most reliable liquid cryogenic upper stage rocket engines. Currently, she works as a Project Component Engineer, holding the position of Hardware Management Lead for the engine valves. She seizes opportunities to educate and inspire students interested in STEM by leading site tours and supporting recruiting events. Outside of work, she enjoys pickleball, salsa dancing and travellng the world. Let’s check in with Melissa now.
Small Sat Education Conference:
Today we meet with Jo Mackiewicz; she has spent 20 plus years researching how communication facilitates (and impedes) learning while teaching at universities such as Auburn and Iowa State. She’s studied (via corpus and discourse analysis) writing center talk, technical editing and, more recently, communication between welding instructors and students in the book Welding Technical Communication. In 2022, she finished her diploma in welding and started working at Howe's Welding and Metal Fabrication, a small repair and fab shop in Ames, Iowa. Her latest book, Learning Skilled Trades in the Workplace, describes and analyzes her experiences learning welding and fabrication on the job and is available to download or read online for free. Oh and did I mention she’s my bestie since high school? You will be inspired by this amazing woman in STEM and see that pursuing one’s passion can come at any point in your career. Stay tuned!
SmallSat Education Conference: https://www.smallsateducation.org/
Today we meet with Daniel Tatum. Dan is an electronics engineer specializing in hi-reliability applications. He provides design consulting services for small startups to get advanced electronics from concept to production quickly. Outside of work, Daniel is a motorsports enthusiast who spends his weekends motorcycling, 4-wheeling, boating, and enjoying anything with an engine. Lately, he’s even taken up racing remote control NASCARs on Wednesday nights for a little midweek adrenaline. We trust this will be a highly reliable interview that will rev your intellectual engines!
SmallSat Education Conference: https://www.smallsateducation.org/
Today we meet with Domina Stamas, a Space Camp alum and veteran science educator with over 15 years of experience, is the founding physics and astronomy teacher at Westlake Charter High School in Sacramento, California. She is also the founder of The ACE Project, which connects thousands of students from around the world with analog astronauts during simulated space missions. Domina was selected as the only formal educator in the 2025 World’s Biggest Analog Mission and was assigned to the Lunares Habitat in Poland, bridging STEM outreach and educator representatives. A NASA Airborne Astronomy Ambassador and alumnus of the U.S. Naval Academy’s SET Sail teacher program, she’s passionate about inspiring the next wave of space explorers through unique student-centered educational experiences. She brings a wealth of knowledge to our podcast today and we look forward to the discussion.
Jackie Blumer is a passionate Earth and Space Science educator with over 25 years of classroom experience. She brings space exploration to life for students through innovative hands-on lessons, global collaborations, and real-world STEM connections. Jackie partners with organizations like Limitless Space Institute, ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, AIAA, the Space Foundation, and ARRL (American Radio Relay League) to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers. Her work especially focuses on reaching underrepresented students in rural and Title I schools. Jackie’s mission is to spark curiosity, build confidence, and open doors to STEM careers through the wonder of space. This is our second interview with Jackie and we can’t wait to be updated on all her amazing work.
Jackie's first podcast with us:
https://www.smallsateducation.org/
Tashfia Diha is a high school junior and the founder of the Youth Space Organization (YSO), a thriving community of space lovers who are passionate about research, digital storytelling, and writing. She is an alumnus of The Knowledge Society 24' where she led the space moonshot that won Most Innovative that year. She is passionate about science journalism and engineering to create a positive impact on the world. She has written for The Stanford Daily, and The Spectator, and is a semi-finalist for the Princeton Summer Journalism Program. She is also researching autonomous space navigation with a professor at Virginia Tech and has conducted preliminary research on the impact of COVID-19 on education with York College. You can check out her website by googling Youth Space Organization for more details.
LINK TO SMALL SAT ED: https://www.smallsateducation.org/
Today we meet with Rodrigo Schmidt! Rod is an astrophysicist, space engineer and analog astronaut from Brazil. He is finishing his PHD at Purdue, where he is researching the development of space missions while applying AI to sandbox game environments like Kerbal Space Program. Rod is the also the co-founder of SEARCH, the first organization at Purdue dedicated to astronaut-related initiatives, as well as RocketPy, the official rocketry simulator from the European Rocketry Challenge. This interview only touches the surface of all that Rod is doing, but be prepared to be as impressed as we are!
Today, we meet with Daniel Portas Levy, a 10th grader at Florida Atlantic University High School, where he is also pursuing an undergraduate degree in mathematics. He has been a part of the Wolfpack CubeSat Development Team since middle school. He brought that early interest along with him as he entered high school where he joined their aerospace team, and he is currently their software lead. His primary focus is on the applications of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, particularly in space missions and aerospace education. He has shared his ideas with the scientific community at international conferences such as the Committee on Space Research, the Astrobiology Science Conference, and the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics' SciTech Conference. We look forward to catching up with Daniel and know that his work will inspire you to consider the future of AI and machine learning.
https://www.smallsateducation.org/ (link to SmallSat Education Conference mentioned in promo
Today we meet with Alex Castronovo, a 17-year-old student at Florida Atlantic University High School and long time Wolfpack member. Alex has demonstrated proficiency in software development, with contributions in neuroscience research as a research fellow at the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience. His work includes the development of a software tool for analyzing synapses in electron microscopy images. Alex's academic achievements extend to astrophysics and aerospace, with several publications in peer-reviewed journals and international conference proceedings. Some of his personal projects include Launchify, a web application providing customizable rocket launch notifications, and JANGL ], a Java graphics library simplifying 2D graphics development. Alex's awards, including first place in the QubitX Hacks competition, show his commitments in the fields of software development and scientific research.
Today, Kevin and I meet with the TheTERP RAPTOR team at the University of Maryland who are leading an ambitious mission. What started as a class project has rapidly grown into a multi-institutional collaboration, bringing together researchers from UMD, the Naval Research Laboratory, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks to design and launch a 12U CubeSat for ahigh-speed flyby of the asteroid Apophis. Their goal? To image Apophis, analyze its surface, and send ground-breaking data back to Earth. Guided by aerospace engineering professor Brent Barbee, the UMD team includes Adrienne, Kruti, Chinthan, Sean, Rahul, Ryan, and Cameron, a diverse group of Masters and PHD students. Their expertise spans orbital determination, machine learning, radio communications, and structures and mechanical modeling, and their prior experience includes work at NASA, Naval ResearchLaboratory, the FDA, ExoAnalytic Solutions, and UMD's Balloon Payload Program. We are excited to learn more about how their student-led initiative evolved into a full-scalespace mission and we know you will be just as inspired as we are by this amazing team.
In this first episode of 2025, Kevin and I discuss the amazing work of the Wolfpack CubeSat Development Team and how AIA (Aerospace and Innovation Academy) is beginning it's Spring trimester. Your middle-high school space-loving student can still join by visiting the website at aerospacehigh.org.
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/moire/space-ranger
License code: FOJ02OAYEPOEJYD3
Today we meet with Maria Nickel, a Kinesiology and STEM specialist teacher for over27 years. Although she has taught a variety of subjects K- 12, Maria is currently the STEM innovation program specialist K- 12 for the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada where she focuses a lot on space.
Maria has sent two SSEP experiments to the ISS- including the first elementary school experiment in Canada on Cancer and Manitoba’s first Jr. High Experiment on double exposure of radiation on ungrown Tomatosphere seeds. She also has created a science instrument for Manitoba’s first Cube Sat, IRIS, and is working on a second Cube Satellite for Artic Ice flow research
In addition to all her great work as an educator, Maria is the winner of Science Teachers Association of Manitoba- Innovative Group STEM work for the RAMWC 202 and was Inducted into the Space Camp Alumni Hall of Fame Class of 2024.