Moriba Jah (@moribajah) is a space scientist, aerospace engineer and Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

He previously worked as a spacecraft navigator at the NASA JPL, where he was a navigator for the Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, Mars Exploration Rover, and his last mission was the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Moriba is a Fellow of multiple organizations: TED, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), American Astronautical Society, International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS), Royal Astronomical Society, and the Air Force Research Lab. He has served on the US delegation to the UN Committee On Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN-COPUOS), is an elected Academician of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), and has testified to congress on his work as related to Space Situational Awareness and Space Traffic Management. Here’s a fun list of satellites we’re tracking.

In today’s episode we discuss:
- The problem of space junk and how to police it
- What EVERYONE needs to know about the risks of geoengineering
- How space mining could ruin Earth’s industries
- Why a Kessler event isn’t likely or inevitable in Moriba’s opinion
- What to do about flat earthers and the anti-science movement
- New models for a more interconnected education system
- The value of being a generalist and an outsider
- What’s the future of space travel and why it’s so important
- Why astronauts shouldn’t be idolized
- How space affects climate change and vice versa
- The biggest problem nobody knows about
- Why history is biased and detrimental to teach
- What does interspace commerce look like going forward
- How aboriginal communities should inform our collective future
- What does the future hold for space piracy
- Why the space goldrush will be a collective commons nightmare