Featured image: The interstage of a Saturn V rocket falls into the Atlantic, detaching to save on mass and enable further travel in space. Taken on the Apollo 6 mission by NASA.
We welcome Charles Swanson, Princeton PhD candidate in plasma physics, back to the show for a journey into the science of rockets: how expensive is it to travel around our
solar system? What makes rockets with high exhaust velocity better than high-thrust rockets? How hard is it to go to Mars? Also featuring Adam Sliwinski of So Percussion on being an ensemble-in-residence and making music out of cacti, the westerly winds of ancient Tibet, and the life cycles of stars.
For more information, check out:
- Delta-V maps, pictured right, being used in real missions
- Mary Roach’s book Packing for Mars, echoing Charles about the difficulties of interplanetary flight
- How a star was observed growing and shrinking over 30 years
- Winds in Tibet that have been constant for 42 million years
- Princeton’s ensemble-in-residence, So Percussion, and free tickets to their upcoming event Friday
The playlist is available on WPRB.com or below.
These Vibes Are Too Cosmic 
