Water turns into plasma then propels spacecraft sounds like science fiction — until you talk to Rob Schwarz, CTO of Momentus. We sit down with Rob to unpack how a microwave electrothermal thruster heats steam, creates a plasma, and pushes it through a nozzle for efficient in-space propulsion, all while avoiding the electrode erosion that limits many electric thrusters.

It's also our chance to ask questions about space dynamics, which Rob patiently answers.

We zoom out to the business and mission reality of modern spaceflight: small satellites keep getting cheaper, but big rockets and rideshare launches still dominate the cost curve. That’s where an orbital transfer vehicle, the classic space tug idea, promises a “stage four” that can distribute payloads to their operational orbits without forcing every satellite to haul lifetime fuel. Rob explains the staging logic, the refueling problem, and why transfer demand has grown slower than many expected.

We talk about Momentus’ modular Vigoride spacecraft, thermal control challenges, and why in-space manufacturing experiments like advanced semiconductor crystal growth may benefit from microgravity’s reduced buoyancy-driven separation. We also tackle the big question people always ask about electric propulsion: why not nuclear, and what the radiator and engineering trade-offs look like in practice.

We sit down with Brittany Mays Ing, VP of Siemens Maritime, right after her US Senate testimony on “Less Hype, More Help” about AI and unpack what industrial AI looks like when you have to build real ships on real timelines. We connect digital twins, copilots, and the digital thread to the biggest constraint shipbuilders face today: talent, throughput, and first-time quality.
• Why Brittany gets tapped to speak to Congress about industrial AI across manufacturing
• How Siemens Maritime uses the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio plus Altair tools for shipbuilding
• Why ship design tools look different from typical CAD and simulation workflows
• What a record scale ship digital twin proves about complexity and visualization
• Why AI in shipbuilding reduces repetitive work instead of eliminating jobs
• How AI helps first-time quality, reduces rework and cuts burnout in shipyards
• What “digital thread” means for suppliers, OEMs, and national defense readiness
• How commercial, military, and unmanned vessel programs are reshaping the market

We dig into SPAD photon-counting sensors and why converting photons into bits can change low-light imaging, motion blur, and dynamic range for real perception systems. We also connect the physics of uncertainty to modern AI so vision models stop guessing when the data is ambiguous.
• How SPAD arrays work and why they differ from CMOS image sensors
• Why SPAD data volume can reach terabytes and how near-sensor processing makes it usable
• Photon noise as a physics limit and how integrating over time improves confidence
• Motion compensation that enables longer effective exposure without motion blur
• Why night color is often a noise problem, not a missing-color problem
• How uncertainty-aware imaging can reduce AI hallucinations in computer vision
• Automotive and ADAS use cases plus reflections and extreme dynamic range
• What “seeing around corners” means using time-tagged light echoes and real constraints