The Conflicts Between the American Idea and the Russians

Minter Dialogue with Dr Michael Hauser

Dr. Michael Hauser is an Emeritus Astronomer. In his capacity as Deputy Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, he was instrumental in transforming the Institute into a multi-observatory organization that included the work on the Hubble and James Webb space telescope programs. Michael was a member of the COBE science team and was part of the Nobel prize delegation in Stockholm in 2006 when the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to John Mather and George Smoot for their discoveries of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation with NASA's COBE satellite. In this conversation, we discuss Mike's career highlights, some of the key discoveries he was part of, the challenges and benefits of international collaborations in light of geopolitics, the value of theory versus observation, the future of space exploration and the nature of ambition in space.

If you've got comments or questions you'd like to see answered, send your email or audio file to nminterdial@gmail.com; or you can find the show notes and comment on minterdial.com. If you liked the podcast, please take a moment to rate/review the show on RateThisPodcast. Otherwise, you can find me @mdial on Twitter.