Andrew Rader

Andrew Alan Rader is an author, aerospace engineer, game designer, podcast host, and television personality.

He's the author of Beyond the Known: How Exploration Created the Modern World and Will Take us to the Stars, a history of exploration from the beginning of humanity to our spacefaring future, Leaving Earth: Why One-way to Mars Makes Sense, and the Epic Space Adventure series for kids.

With a Ph.D from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in long duration spaceflight, Rader is an expert in the field of space exploration who's authored more than a dozen technical papers and been featured in Slate, Motherboard, Vice, The Verge, Gizmodo, Space.com, and The New York Times. Rader was also the winner of Season 2 the Discovery series, Canada's Greatest Know-It-All.

As a science and history communicator, Rader maintains a following in the millions across his science, history, and personal social media accounts and YouTube channel. He's a tabletop game designer with several popular history, science, and political games. Rader is also a trivia aficionado whose team, Wirecrats, has twice taken home the Grand Prize in 2004 and 2010 at World Trivia Night, North America's largest live trivia contest that raises money for the Children's Aid Society.

Originally from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Rader is now based in Los Angeles where he works for SpaceX as a Mission Manager.

Education

Rader attended Carleton University from 1999 until 2005, receiving bachelor's and master's degrees in aerospace engineering there. He spent the following four years studying aeronautics and astronautics engineering at MIT, specializing in long-duration spaceflight, and receiving his Ph.D. in 2009.

Engineering and aerospace work

During his time at Carleton University, Rader worked as a research engineer at Canada's National Research Council from 2003-2005. After moving to the US, he worked as a research engineer at MIT from 2005-2010.

After graduating from MIT, Rader worked as a Spacecraft Systems Engineer at COM DEV from 2010-2014.

In 2014, Rader moved to Los Angeles to take a job at SpaceX where he now holds the position of Mission Manager.

Astronaut training

Rader was a candidate for the Canadian Astronaut Corps in 2009 and 2017 He wrote about the experience in an article for Motherboard called What It's Like to Be in the Running to Be an Astronaut.

He was also in consideration for a one-way mission to Mars, as part of the Mars One project in 2014. He was interviewed about the process for a New York Times story entitled A One-Way Trip to Mars? Many Would Sign Up by Natile Angier.

Books

Rader self-published his first five books via successful crowdfunding campaigns on Kickstarter. His first book to be released by a major publisher is the non-fiction chronicle of human exploration, Beyond the Known: How Exploration Created the Modern World and Will Take us to the Stars, released by Simon & Schuster on November 12, 2019.

His non-fiction books for adults include:

• 2019 - Beyond the Known: How Exploration Created the Modern World and Will Take us to the Stars
• 2014 - Leaving Earth: Why One-way to Mars Makes Sense

He is also the author of a series of science books for children:

• 2015 - Epic Space Adventure, successfully funded via Kickstarter on November 30, 2015
• 2016 - Mars Rover Rescue, successfully funded via Kickstarter on November 30, 2016
• 2017 - Rocket Science, successfully funded via Kickstarter on December 5, 2017
• 2018 - Europa Excursion, successfully funded via Kickstarter on December 8, 2018

Game design

Rader has designed several tabletop games, mainly in the categories of educational and strategy with an emphasis on science, politics, and early 20th century warfare. Like Rader's early books, many of his games were initially launched as successful Kickstarter projects.

• 2014 - Evolve: The Game of Unnatural Selection, co-designed with Ryan Consell, successfully funded via Kickstarter on May 3, 2014
• 2015 - Politics ~ Bribes, Scandals, Strife, & Strategy, successfully funded via Kickstarter on April 6, 2015
• 2015 - Spacematch Card Game
• 2016 - Fatal Alliances: The Great War, co-designed with Harry Rowland
• 2016 - Mars Rover Rescue Memory Card Game
• 2017 - Territories in Flames Collector's Edition, co-designed with Harry Rowland, expansion for World in Flames
• 2017 - Divisions in Flames Collector's Edition, co-designed with Harry Rowland, expansion for World in Flames
• 2020 - Stellar Horizons, successfully funded via Kickstarter on November 10, 2019

Podcasting

Rader co-hosts the weekly Spellbound podcast along with YouTube star-turned knowledge seeker Julian Smith, covering topics from science and economics to history and psychology. Video versions of some of the episodes have also been released on Rader's YouTube channel.

YouTube

Rader has a YouTube channel with over 27.3K subscribers and more than eight million views, where he posts science and education videos, media interviews, and promos for his books, games, and other projects.

Social media

In addition to his professional accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram with a combined following of over one million users, Rader is also the curator of the Twitter Accounts, Weird Science and Weird History, with a combined following of over 2 million users.

Television appearances

In 2013, Rader appeared on Season Two of the Discovery's competitive television series Canada's Greatest Know-It-All hosted by Daniel Fathers. Rader appeared in all eight episodes and won eight team challenges, to individual challenges, and his only elimination competition in Episode 6. In the final episode, he won out against two other finalists, Carla Davidson and Owen Garratt, and was declared "Canada's Greatest Know-It-All."

Selected research publications

1. Scott, A. et al. (2012). The Cosmological Advanced Survey Telescope for Optical and ultraviolet Research: Technical Design and Mission Operations. 41 st Annual Meeting of the Canadian Astronomical Society (CASCA). Calgary, AB, June 2012 (accepted)
2. Côté, P. et al. (2012). A Canadian Wide-Field, High Resolution Imaging Space Telescope. 16th Annual Canadian Astronautics Conference (CASI), Québec, QC, April 2012. Poster 1. Poster 2.
3. Rader, A., Newland, F., and Ross, A. (2011). An Iterative Subsystem-Generated Approach to Populating a Satellite Constellation Tradespace. AIAA Space 2011, Long Beach, CA, September 2011.
4. Rader, A., Oman, C., and Merfeld, D. (2011). Perceived tilt and translation perception during variable-radius swing motion with congruent or conflicting visual and vestibular cues. Experimental Brain Research. Vol. 210: 173-184. (Expanded PhD Thesis Version)
5. Rader, A., Ross, A., and Rhodes, D. (2010). A Methodological Comparison of Monte Carlo Methods and Epoch-Era Analysis for System Assessment in Uncertain Environments. 4th Annual IEEE Systems Conference, San Diego, CA, April 2010.
6. Rader, A., Oman, C., and Merfeld, D. (2009). Motion Perception During Variable-Radius Swing Motion in Darkness. Journal of Neurophysiology Vol. 102. No. 4., 2232-2244
7. Cummings, M.L., Tsonis, C., and Rader, A. (2008). The Impact of Multi-layered Data-blocks on Controller Performance. Air Traffic Control Quarterly (ATCA). Vol. 16, No. 2.
8. Rader, A., Newman, D., and Carr, C. (2007). Loping: A strategy for reduced gravity human locomotion? Proceedings from the 37th International Conference on Environmental Systems (ICES)
9. Rader, A., Afagh, F., Yousefi-Koma, A. and Zimcik, D. G. (2007). Optimization of Piezoelectric Actuator Configuration on a Flexible Fin for Vibration Control using Genetic Algorithms. Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures. Vol. 18: 1015 - 1033. (Expanded Masters Thesis Version)
10. Rader, A., Yousefi-Koma, A., Afagh, F., and Zimcik, D. (2005). Optimization of selective piezoelectric actuator configuration on a flexible fin using a genetic algorithm. Proceedings from the 12th Annual SPIE International Symposium on Smart Structures and Materials.
11. Rader, A., Afagh, F., Yousefi-Koma, A., and Zimcik, D. (2004). Optimization of piezoelectric actuator configuration using a genetic algorithm for three-dimensional surface fitting of the frequency response function. Proceedings from the 15th Annual ICAST Conference on Adaptive Structure and Technologies.
12. Rader, A., Clements, G., and Langlois, R. (2002). Dynamics of a Quarter-Car Suspension. Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Laboratory Manual. Carleton University.