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Our museum collection, like a lot of other museums' collections, can be a working collection. That means that scientist come to do air or space research using objects in the museum. Sometimes it's as simple as an engineer coming after hours to look a little closer at a plane or spacecraft so they can better understand how it works. And other times researchers leave seismometers on the Viking Lander for several weeks.

Thanks to our guests in this episode:

• Dr. Malcolm Collum, Head Conservator-National Air and Space Museum
• Dr. Ben Fernando, Post-Doctoral Researcher-Johns Hopkins University
• Dr. Kevin Lewis, Vice Chair and Professor in Earth and Planetary Science-Johns Hopkins University
• Dr. Andy Lazarewicz, Formerly of the Viking Seismology Team

Additional thanks to Lisa Young and Becca Hiatt of the National Air and Space Museum's Collections Processing Unit

Find the transcript here

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AirSpace is created by the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum with generous support from Lockheed-Martin

In the lead up to Season 10 we're reviving some of our favorite episodes. Today we bring you Emily's favorite, The Ninety-Nines.

It took a certain amount of pure grit to be a pilot in the early days of aviation – and even more for the women who had to defy convention just to get up in the air. And if you’re thinking the only aviatrix was Amelia Earhart – think again. She was just one of a daring group of women aviators who were walking on wings, flying under bridges, breaking altitude records, and racing across the country – in the 1920s!

Join Emily, Matt, and Nick as they explore the history of the Ninety-Nines, the organization of women pilots originally led by Earhart and still active today. Documentary-maker Heather Taylor sets the scene of the thrilling and dangerous first Women’s National Air Derby in 1929. And Emily discovers an amazing view in her first non-commercial flight (in a tiny four-seater!) with modern-day Ninety-Nine Judy Shaw.

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In the lead up to Season 10 we're reviving some of our favorite episodes. Today we bring you Matt's favorite, Smoke from a Distant Fire.

Wildfire season is getting longer, according to the US Forest Service, making firefighting a bigger, more vital operation each year. In this episode, Emily, Matt, and Nick take a look at how the pros fight wildfires with everything from large water-carrying airtankers and helicopters to daring smokejumpers who parachute into the blaze equipped with axes, shovels, and chainsaws. We’ll introduce you to a few of the people who put their lives on the line to keep us and our forests safe and discuss how changes in technology, climate, and communication are impacting aerial firefighting.

We’ll hear from Chelsea Cough, a smokejumper based in Missoula, Montana, about what it’s like to parachute into forest fires too remote to reach over land. And Matt travels out to Utah to the site of an active wildfire where over 1000 people were involved in coordinated air and ground efforts to contain and suppress the flames.

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