Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Racing... on the Moon! (with Mary Hagy from Moon Mark)

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Racing... on the Moon! (with Mary Hagy from Moon Mark) · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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Break Fix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from all
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over the autos sphere, from wrench, turners, and racers to artists, authors,
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designers, and everything in between.
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Our goal is to inspire a new generation of Petrolhead that wonder.
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How did they get that job or become that person?
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The Road to Success is paved by all of us because everyone has a story.
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The Motorsports community is full of interesting people, and the more time I
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spend in it, the more stories I uncover.
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And tonight's guest is no exception.
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I had the great honor of working with our guest throughout several HPDE seasons
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in conjunction with Hooked On Driving.
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At that time, she was operating a veterans outreach organization
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known as our vet success, and I even rode right seat in her buy Turbo
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V 12 Mercedes SL at Watkins Glen.
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And let me tell you, that thing was an absolute rocket ship.
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So ladies and gentle drivers, our guest tonight is Mary
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Hague, a former US Army soldier.
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Thank you for your service.
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She is a renowned Philadelphia businesswoman and currently the CEO and
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founder of Moon Mark, an organization that captures the adventures of high
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school students from around the world who are going to compete to design, build,
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land, and race two vehicles on the moon.
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Joining Mary with us on the show is also Moon Mark, project administrator
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Maryanne Bea, and as you've guessed it, my special guest host tonight
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is from our drive through series.
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You know her as Tanya, who's filling in for Brad while he's on vacation.
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With all that, I'm sure our listeners can't wait for us to unpack all of this.
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So how about we head to the moon and back?
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Welcome to Break Fix.
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Maryanne.
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Maryanne.
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Thank you.
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So, hey, let's go.
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Alright, Mary, let's reminisce in the past a little bit.
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Let's talk about motor sports, your involvement in that world, your
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passion with cars, and let's go back to, you know, where we met, you know,
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circa, let's call it the 2016 era.
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Okay, well you're a little late in the game there, Eric.
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Because I had a passion for driving since I can remember, and I first
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learned how to drive with a stick shift.
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And in recent times, the paddles are like, okay, okay.
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But I love that stick.
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When I was 15 years old, I started driving and by the time I was 18
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years old and, and thank you Tanya for introducing me as a military veteran.
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I really appreciate it.
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I was in South Korea serving there, and I had, I don't know who gave
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me the questionable judgment of the possession of a Jeep, but I I, I
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drove that thing on about two wheels most of the time, so, oh, yeah.
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Yeah.
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So, you know, this has been in my blood for a long, long time.
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You and I, Eric met at Watkins Glen, like you said, and it was through, uh,
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a series of really, really meaningful things that kind of brought me from
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being a kid who couldn't drive other than as I needed to drive to a place
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where it was really a much more important and meaningful experience,
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meaning understanding the physics and the engineering and the safety.
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And oh by the way, everything to do with the camaraderie of Motorsport.
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And so that's where you and I met like some years ago after
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you know that Jeep, right?
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Yeah, I would say a long time after that Jeep problem.
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Hey, hey, hey, hey.
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I'm kidding.
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I'm kidding.
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I'm kidding.
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So it sounds like you came about motorsport and racing
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and the passion for cars.
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Honestly, I am really glad to tell you that over my lifetime I have.
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Thoroughly enjoyed driving and driving safe and fast and stuff like that.
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But you and I encountered each other with the, our Vet Success program.
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That's correct.
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And as an Army veteran.
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Um, just a little bit of backstory.
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After 2010 I, in 2011, you know, coming out of the Great Recession, uh, I
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started to feel like and understand that the media was portraying
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military veterans in a victimized way.
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That they were homeless, that they were homicidal, that they were
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suicidal, that they were unemployable.
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And, and I started to, you know, just be consumed with these messages.
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I said to myself, I must do something.
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To affect this narrative because it's not right.
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Military veterans have come out of the military and every human
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carries around a bag of rocks.
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Okay?
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But 80% of the post nine 11 veterans coming back, they were doing their best
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to transition, but they were, you know, surrounded by this narrative, right?
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This media narrative, right?
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And so that is why I started our vet success, and that's why
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I created the Triumph Games.
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So, long story short, Solomon Rosenthal, does that name ring a bell?
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It does.
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Okay.
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Solomon Rosenthal and I were sitting around in Philadelphia a few years ago,
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and I'm talking to him about this, and I'm saying, I'm gonna do this television
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program because I need to tell stories about veterans who are successful, right?
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And he says, well, you gotta have motor sports.
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Absolutely.
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And, and I said, what?
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So we created the television program and a part of the competition
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that we created was motor sports.
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And that first year the production for CBS sports was at Willg
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Racing Manor in the Hudson Valley.
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And, uh, Alan Wilson was so wonderful to welcome us up and Jack Roush Jr.
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Provided a wonderful Roush Mustang for our competitors to drive on Alan's court.
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Here's the interesting crossover between the story you are telling and a guest
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we had on not, but a couple weeks ago.
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So another name you might be familiar with, who was also friends with
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Solomon Rosenthals, Paul Willams.
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And he told the story from his perspective.
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Oh, because he was invited.
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Oh, Paul was there.
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Oh yeah.
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Oh yeah.
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Good old Pauly.
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Right.
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So he tells the story from his perspective as a coach and, and working
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with Brock Hs Jr. And all these other folks that were at that same event.
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So on his episode, he talks about this story as well.
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So it's a small, small world, uh, you know, when we're talking about motorsport.
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Yes, it really is.
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And it's a wonderful world.
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It is a wonderful world.
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Paul is a super guy and I also wanna call out Papa Joe Ella.
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It's his birthday today.
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Right?
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And he's the head of NASA Northeast.
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Mm-hmm.
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So NASA Northeast came to Wilson Manor and trained the athletes
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so that they could perform and.
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You know, compete, uh, effectively and safely, you know, so NASA and
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HOG booked on driving both of those.
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So what you're hearing me say is that the motor sports community is
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not only small, but it's really, really a wonderful experience to
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be together and make things happen.
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That's what we did.
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And, and then the next year, the next series, Solomon and Brian
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Humphreys, his cohort in crime, we created a, a racetrack on the sea
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slope of West Point Military Academy.
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Whoa.
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Uhhuh?
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Yeah.
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On the other side of that, I got the bug.
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You don't say, oh, yeah.
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Oh yeah.
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I got it.
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I got it.
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I got it.
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That's why I ended up spending as many hours.
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On the track with people I care about and who are having
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a great time as I possibly can.
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And this actually influences the story of Moon Mark.
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Interesting.
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'cause if it were not for the time that I have spent in motor sports, whether
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it be at an HPDE event or it be in, you know, volunteering, uh, or being a part
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of the pit crew in NASCAR and IndyCar and ISAI, I mean, I just had to be there.
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And it has influenced how we are ending up racing on the moon.
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I, a woman of action.
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I, I absolutely love it.
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And I have to add a little color to this.
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So when we got together in the 2016 timeframe as you were there, frequenting
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Watkins Glen, just like I do, I'll never forget, I of, if it was Micah Rigo and
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Chris Lou and, and a couple others, they came up to me and they said, Hey.
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We need to put you in the car with the TV lady, right?
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And I'm like, what are you, what are you talking about?
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Just, just go out there, don't, you don't have to worry about it.
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Don't, don't just, you'll be okay.
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Just get in the right seat.
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And I'm a coach, a veteran coach, and I'm like, come on.
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Okay, what, whatever.
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And I'm like, are you guys sure?
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Oh yeah, we'll stick her out in advance, she'll be fine.
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I'm like, what are you guys talking about?
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I get in the car with you and I had met you casually because you guys were filming
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and doing everything you were doing.
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And I glommed onto the whole idea of what you guys were doing.
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'cause I was already invested with, you know, wounded warriors and helmets
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off to heroes and things like that.
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So for me, what you guys were doing really resonated.
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And I'm like, okay, they're gonna stick me in the car with this lady.
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I'm like, whatever.
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And then I see your car and I'm like, oh boy, all black Mercedes SL convertible.
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And I'm like, wow.
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So we get out and I didn't know what to expect.
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I'm be totally honest with you.
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About turn two, you lit up those turbos and it was like, oh, we are
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in for a treat and I gotta, I gotta tell the audience, Mary can drive.
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Okay.
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I was blown away.
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Now we did work on a couple of little pointers here and there, but the one
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thing I remember and it, it's one of the few students, and I'm gonna, I'm
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gonna put the label student on you that I've had where I've actually
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had to kind of pull the reins back and be like, stop target fixating.
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'cause you are hunting people on track.
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'cause that Mercedes is wicked fast.
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My biggest fear was that we were gonna run out of brakes 'cause it's
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a big, heavy car and there was no problem going where we needed to be.
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It was just making sure that we could slow down.
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But that was an absolute epic ride.
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Oh, well thank you Eric.
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It was such a pleasure, uh, to, to, uh, do that with you.
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And, and my memory of that particular round with you that you're talking
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about is I was chasing a Mustang.
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And I was like, come on baby, come here, come to mama.
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The red mist was ever apparent, that's for sure.
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But no, I, I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
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I, I, I didn't have a lot of red mist.
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Um.
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Just laser focus, all that track.
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Oh yeah, like a missile.
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Speaking about the successes you had with our vet success, I was wondering if
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you might have crossed paths with one of our previous guests on break fix, which
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is Peter Klein from Vet Motorsports.
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So if there was any overlap with that.
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And then my second question is, what happened to the Mercedes
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and what are you driving now?
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So I know they're totally unrelated questions, but I
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gotta throw 'em out there.
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I have not had the privilege of communicating or connecting with
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Peter, although I am aware of his work.
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And you know, one of the things that happens in the course of creating
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things, which is what I do, is that you go in and with a particular
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intent to impact and then you see the impact and then you figure out
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is this still the right place or are others coming in, and things like that.
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So there are some amazing people and organizations that are helping veterans
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in the Motorsport world right now.
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Absolutely.
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And you know, when I looked around and I, and I recognized that, I said, okay.
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This is good.
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This is really good.
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So I have not met leader, but I would, I would love an introduction to him and
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always glad to talk with folks that are supporting veterans and, and so are we.
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Absolutely.
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And I, I'd like to think that Vet Motorsports is
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definitely leading the charge.
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They're at the pointy end of that stick when it comes to veterans outreach
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and the con, you know, and that intersection with Motorsport and all that.
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And for our listeners who might not be aware of what we're talking about, go back
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and review the Vet Motorsports episode that we did with Peter Klein and he
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explains their entire, you know, process and the program and everything like that.
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Awesome amounts of detail.
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So let's get back to, let's get back to the car stuff though.
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So that Mercedes, that big black Mercedes, what happened to that thing?
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Is it still around?
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And if not, what are you driving?
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Now?
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Now I wanna do tell you, 'cause this is really important.
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My SL was a 400 and I took a four 50 on the tractor and I didn't like it at all.
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I had to have that 400 because I just melded into it.
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She was such a beautiful, is that from the torque?
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Is that from the torque pushing you into the seat from all the acceleration?
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Uh, yeah.
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Yeah, that was it.
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Totally.
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Okay.
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Now I'll tell you what happened to that car.
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So I now live in Northern Nevada in the beautiful, beautiful foothills
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of the Sierras overlooking Reno.
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Uh, I drove across country in that car, and I have to tell you.
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I didn't spare the horses.
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That was a fast cross country was a cannonball.
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It was not a cannonball.
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But thank you Tanya.
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Thank you Tanya.
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Sounds like she didnt spare the cowboys either.
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Good lord.
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So you gonna love this, this story because Maryanne and I recently
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just traversed the same road.
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It's called the Loneliest Road in America.
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Okay?
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It's Route 50.
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You come outta Utah and you come across to Nevada, but you
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come around to pass and shit.
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Howdy.
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That's a nice ribbon.
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A road right there.
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And I said, I said at the time now, now this is before Maryanne was with me.
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I didn't do this with Maryanne.
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I only hit the one oh oh like a couple of times before she said Mary.
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Mary.
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But while you were asleep, honestly, I couldn't, I couldn't even fall asleep.
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Tell her what, what I drove while she was asleep.
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I slept with my hand gripped to the side of the car.
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Just, you know, just waiting for it.
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A white knuckle sleep.
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Can you believe that's, that's like me on, that was like me
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on track in the right seat.
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It must be a right seat thing.
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So, so I'm driving, uh, and, and I got my little dog.
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I like, I get little, my, my little brown dog and I'm saying, oh man, you know what?
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I need to see if there's a regulator on this thing.
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Oh wow.
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Of course you do.
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Oh yeah, Roger.
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Oh yeah, I did.
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And, and there's nothing.
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I mean, I mean, it's the great basin.
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It is gorgeous.
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It is absolutely beautiful.
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So what, what does it look like at 178 miles an hour?
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I don't even want it.
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Allegedly nothing.
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Allegedly.
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I'm so not confessing to that.
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I'm only gonna tell you that the regulator didn't tip.
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Ah, so did you have like spare fuel cans?
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Any trunk or something?
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See, only Mercedes going down Route 50 with Jerry cans on it.
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Like mad Max, but, but, but the tire shred.
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Oh.
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Just driven across country.
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You know that car that you know, Eric, there's no spare tire.
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Yes.
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Probably run flats.
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Yeah.
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Oh yeah, those run flats.
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Oh, mm-hmm.
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Mm-hmm.
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They work really well until you.
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Speed.
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Limit.
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Limit.
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You're supposed to drive miles 50 miles an hour, just like she was verifying
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whether there was a regulator or not.
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She was verifying the max speed rating on the,
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she found out.
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Yeah, 1 55 is not so, yeah, so I end up 80 miles east of the closest
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town, which is Fallon, Nevada.
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So even if I decide to run out the run flats, I am going there.
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Right?
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This is a two lane road.
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There's no place to pull off.
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I finally found some utility thing, right?
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Utility something or other and, and I pulled off there and I called a friend of
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mine who's with the CIA for 29 years, and I said, Carl, I don't know if you might.
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Somehow hear that.
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I'm not gonna be out of this, but my bones are here.
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See, I was gonna say, you call aaa, but who needs AA when you got CIA?
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No.
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Oh no.
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Oh no.
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Somebody queue up the secret agent man soundtrack.
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I called the people and I said, Hey, your run flat tires are shit.
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Okay.
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Um, and can you please come pick me up seven hours?
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Oh, there's this weird noise engine.
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I se it's, it really is.
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It's that long.
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Okay.
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It was seven hours later and it was, I, I got no complaints
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'cause it's a beautiful day.
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Um, and I was off the road.
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I got my little brown dog.
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So the way that I arrived into Nevada for the first time was on
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a tow truck with my car on the tow truck and sitting in the front seat
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with the driver who was very nice.
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With an escort, you mean you arrived, escorted into Nevada CIA,
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was an all black tinted tow truck, but nonetheless undercover Crown
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Victoria in front of the tow truck too.
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So Eric, that's a long-winded way of saying by the time I got here with
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that beautiful car, which is the most wonderful car that I've ever loved,
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I also have a very steep driveway.
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It doesn't do well in snow at all.
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So you don't say
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So I had to, um, I had to get a new one and I still do have a Mercedes.
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A G wagon, please tell me it's a gwa.
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If she did, I'd steal it.
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You and every soccer mom in LA, right?
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Yeah, yeah.
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No, it's not a G wagon, but it is an all wheel drive.
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Very cool.
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And she's got some pep in her step.
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She's faster than my car, I'll tell you that.
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Oh, you should know you drove it.
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And listen, I may not be a speed demon, but I think I got her up almost.
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I think I hit a hundred a couple times, which is like pretty fast for me.
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So I'm gonna ask, before we transition to talking about Moon
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Mark, I do wanna ask one question.
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So.
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Has it always been Mercedes?
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Was that the big draw?
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Was, is the goal always been Mercedes or is that what you feel is like the sexiest
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brand out there or the sexiest car?
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Or is there something else that is maybe above that that you're still
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kind of aspiring and reaching for?
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Hmm mm-hmm.
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What a question.
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Um, normally I just ask point blank, what's the sexiest car
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of all time, in your opinion?
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I figured I'd make it a little bit more interesting.
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Well, I I'll answer that.
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I'll answer that question, but the other question you answered or you're asked,
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so it hasn't always been Mercedes.
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I love Audis.
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Oh, okay.
21:08
So, oh yeah.
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You and your tt.
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You and your tt.
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That's right.
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You remember?
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I do.
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I absolutely do.
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I love Audis and I thoroughly enjoyed them.
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The SL 400 that you and I had the privilege of sharing was
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my second one, and I had also driven a four 50 and a five.
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They're just really, like you said, they're really heavy cars, but the
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400 was just exactly right for me.
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Nice.
21:38
So we'll have to, I, I'm, I'm holding off on my sexiest car answer though.
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Oh, that's good.
21:44
We'll hold it, we'll hold it for later.
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That's okay.
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And you're a good company.
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'cause Tanya's a big Mercedes fan too.
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She's usually at the top of her list.
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Oh, I'm.
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And the sl hundred is a beautiful car, always.
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It so is I. Um, yeah.
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You know, we had, we had a really nice time together.
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Right.
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So let's start going back.
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Moon Mark, we talked about in the intro, you know, high school kids
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and designing some sort of vehicle that was gonna race on the moon.
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And, and people are probably wondering, what the heck, what is this episode about?
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And, and really stepping back, it's, it's very, for people that are familiar with
22:26
STEM, science, technology, engineering, mathematics, this sounds, and you will
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correct me, but it's highly STEM focused, it's outreach to high school students.
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I'm a engineer by degree as well.
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So in, in university I was involved in a couple different outreach
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programs with one of my professors and we didn't do things nearly as epic
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as moon mark.
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I mean, we were, you know.
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You always did the classic drop an egg and, you know, don't let it break.
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Or, you know, we did filtration experiments and probably the most
23:00
sophisticated one we did was, uh, you know, having the kids, when we had
23:04
high schoolers come in and basically do a hemodialysis machine and, and
23:08
we had stimulated blood and they were filtering out, you know, stuff, whatever.
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We, I don't even remember what we put in it.
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That's, that's so, that's so pedestrian.
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You know, Mary's full send, she can't just do that kind of stuff.
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No, I mean, we're sending vehicles to the moon and racing 'em.
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It doesn't get better than this.
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Tell us how the heck did this come about?
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I welcome that question because Eric, I think you may appreciate this
23:37
and it's related to Watson's Glen.
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So, while I was still living in Philadelphia, I went to a robotics
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competition on a Saturday afternoon.
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I didn't have anything else to do, so I went to see things
23:50
people say all the time.
23:54
I went to see these high school students compete in a robotics competition.
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You know, I had some wonderful people that, that welcomed me there.
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And they introduced me to, um, some young people and one of
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the, the students said, Mary.
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Would you like to see our pit?
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And I went, oh, I'm done.
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Oh heck yes, let's go.
24:22
All of the teams had their robots in pits and they were working on them to compete
24:29
much as we see, you know, in motor sports.
24:33
So I came out of there and I said, I really wanna work with young people.
24:38
And then somebody along the line told me that somebody was going to the moon.
24:43
And, and I went, moon, I thought we were done with the moon.
24:47
I thought we were gonna Marx, right?
24:51
But if, if somebody's going to the moon, we're going to get kids work on that
24:57
lander and it's gonna land on the moon and it's gonna be a way for that generation.
25:04
To have a defining moment that means something to them.
25:09
And so there's, you know, a bunch of backstory behind that.
25:13
It took me about almost two years talking and talking and talking about it with
25:19
different people and stakeholders and opportunities and things like that.
25:23
And I just was not at all making any headway.
25:28
And I, I was, you know, it was kind of like perplexing because I said,
25:32
why don't people get that space?
25:35
Commercialization is here now and this generation needs to have skilled
25:41
workforce to do it and stuff like that.
25:45
And I just said, hush up Mary.
25:47
You need to listen to what people are telling you.
25:51
And what they were telling me was that they could not.
25:54
Contemplate high school kids being on the moon or having their work on the moon.
26:01
The repeated message that I kept getting was, Mary, you silly foe.
26:06
You need to understand that it's gonna take hundreds of millions of dollars
26:12
and decades to do what you're saying.
26:15
And I knew differently because.
26:18
I'm an entrepreneur and I, I looked at the market.
26:21
I knew what we could do for what we could do it, but the messaging was not right.
26:27
I could not get the support behind it.
26:29
I just like the fact that in Mary's style and flair and what I like to call bravado,
26:35
she has basically told all the naysayers, okay, boomer, we're going to the moon.
26:40
Right?
26:41
And I love it and I applaud you for it.
26:43
And so this is what I mean, Eric, by reckoning back to another time when I
26:49
was at Watkins Glen and I'm there in the paddock and I'm just looking around,
26:53
you know, it dawned on me that so much of my really, really rich experience.
27:02
In motor sports, not meaning, you know, just going out and having fun
27:06
and racing around and stuff like that.
27:08
The meaning of it, the physics behind it, the engineering behind it, the
27:14
problem solving the technology, and I love, love, love that you do.
27:21
Build, break, fix, repeat.
27:23
That's what you do.
27:25
Mm-hmm.
27:25
And that's what we've done with Moon Mark.
27:28
And I'm looking around and I'm saying, okay, there's so much analogous work here
27:35
between aerospace and rockets and things like that, which I know nothing about.
27:40
And these really cool people that are on the racetrack, right?
27:44
Yeah.
27:45
Uh, and I said, alright, we're gonna race on the moon.
27:47
That's how we got to be a race on the moon.
27:51
Because anything that you do in either one of these industries.
27:56
Is not only useful to young people who wanna find their
28:01
paths, whether it's in space.
28:04
And on the track, uh, in medicine, whatever it is.
28:08
But if you give 'em something that's compelling and you wrap
28:12
around an experience, then you can really make a difference.
28:16
And that's how Moon Mark came about.
28:18
I mean, that's really very incredible.
28:20
I, I can't even imagine thinking back in high school and, and, and
28:25
this being a project to work on.
28:27
I mean, it's just.
28:28
Literally out of this world to think about.
28:30
Absolutely.
28:31
And you know, I'm gonna nerd out here for a minute because Mary, I think you
28:34
touched on something really important, which is what we oftentimes reference
28:38
on this show as car adjacent, right?
28:41
A lot of things that we talk about aren't necessarily completely tied
28:44
to vehicles or even motorsport in that way, but it's interesting how,
28:47
if you play the Kevin Bacon game, how they're all really related.
28:50
And what you touched on and alluded to was the intersection
28:53
between motorsport and aerospace.
28:55
And a lot of people don't realize that there is a blending there, especially when
28:59
you look at Formula One level technology.
29:01
There's a lot of aerospace influence in that.
29:03
And little known fact when I was a lot younger and you know, earlier in my
29:07
career I worked for British Aerospace and one of my goals was to go work on
29:12
the McLaren team, and I also signed up to do engine management on helicopters.
29:16
That's a whole nother story.
29:17
We can talk about that another day.
29:19
But you know, let's say I'm not doing that today, unfortunately.
29:22
SOB story there.
29:23
But what, what I'm getting at is, if you look at the history of cars and
29:27
airplanes and what is now aerospace, they're very tightly coupled, right?
29:32
The Wright brothers first flight was in 1903.
29:34
The first car was invented in 1897.
29:37
Thank you, Mercedes.
29:38
But if you look at famous car manufacturers and builders, they got
29:44
their influence from airplanes and from aeronautics and from aerospace.
29:48
Let's take Porsche as an example.
29:50
They were building airplane engines.
29:53
Before they were building cars Lotus.
29:56
Right.
29:56
Colin Chapman also developed his first Lotus based on airplane
30:00
technology that he learned in the RAF, you know, stuff like that.
30:03
So there's multiple manufacturers that started that way.
30:06
So there's an interesting blend.
30:08
You don't mention SOB in this Born from Jets.
30:11
Yes, I know.
30:13
Uh, I'm glad somebody remembered Saab and for the one listener that has
30:17
one out there, uh, I congratulate you on still having it moving on.
30:21
Uh, but no, I, I, it's interesting, right?
30:25
And one feeds the other in some ways.
30:27
And so maybe your mission is to go to Mars, but you gotta start somewhere.
30:31
And I heard many of people that, you know, when I was coming up, you know,
30:35
in a different era, I was like, I went to work as an intern for Ford Aerospace.
30:39
And then you scratch your head for a second and say, wait, what?
30:42
Ford Aerospace, how does that work?
30:44
Right?
30:44
So there's a lot of interesting things out there, so you gotta open your mind to it.
30:48
So I'm, I'm really behind this.
30:49
I think this is a super cool idea.
30:52
The other thing I looked at is there's some pretty big names backing this.
30:55
If you look at the Moon Mark website, especially folks from the
30:58
racing community, names that our audience might be familiar with.
31:01
Folks like Scott Elkins, who is, you know, famous from FIA, but also
31:06
the Motorsport Safety Foundation.
31:07
You have Ross Bentley on that list, you have a bunch of other
31:09
folks from the Motorsport world.
31:11
So I thought that was kind of cool.
31:12
So how did you tie all these people together?
31:14
How did you convince them that, you know, this is viable?
31:17
There's a, uh, you know, a pretty cool story.
31:20
I don't know why everything leads back to Watkins Glen.
31:24
All roads lead to the Glen All wa Roads lead to Watkins Glen.
31:28
So when I was, uh, at Watkins Glen for one of the events, I met Ross
31:36
Bentley and we had a really great conversation and it's, you know, a
31:41
panic kind of conversation and I learned a lot from him and we parted ways.
31:46
So when I moved to, uh, Northern Nevada, the thing that I immediately
31:53
went looking for is, where's the nearest track and what am I gonna do?
31:58
Right?
31:59
So the SCCA was having an event at Thunder Hill, and so I said, well,
32:05
I'm gonna stop out there and see them.
32:08
So I drove over there, and Mary, you said you went from your new
32:12
place to Thunder Hill, so for you, that's a hop, skip, and a jump.
32:15
But for anybody else who looks it up on Google Maps, that's a 219 mile drive.
32:20
So it's not like it was in your backyard,
32:25
but that's, uh, knowing the stories you've already told,
32:27
it didn't take you very long.
32:28
But so, and I go in and I've not been to the track before.
32:34
When I go in, I immediately see all of these cars parked in
32:39
front of the building and I said, well, this must be where we are.
32:42
So I went in there and lo and behold, the, the place was filled.
32:47
And Ross was talking, he was having a session, and I'm like, I didn't
32:52
know Ross was here this weekend.
32:54
And I said, well, I'm gonna sit down and learn something.
32:58
So David Gray, God bless him, who owns, uh, hooked on
33:02
driving and it was their event.
33:04
I, I wandered into the wrong event.
33:08
That's, that's a, that's a great story.
33:10
So I wandered into the wrong event and I, uh, learned a lot in the session.
33:15
Uh, and then I approached Ross afterwards, and David, you know, welcomed me.
33:21
I, I, I told him, I said, I know this is gonna sound, I know this is gonna
33:25
sound a little bit out there, okay, but we're gonna race on the moon and I would
33:32
love to have you work with us on that.
33:35
And Ross's first reaction was.
33:39
You had me at Moon, but you know, that's the kind of person he is and
33:44
he's just a really, really super supporter for us as well as obviously,
33:52
you know, has deep technical expertise.
33:55
So he introduced me to Scott Elkins.
33:59
And so Scott is actually gonna design the track on the moon.
34:05
Wow.
34:06
Mm-hmm.
34:07
It's pretty cool.
34:08
Now, the person that you didn't mention, who I'm surprised
34:12
about, is Frank Stephenson.
34:14
He's designed Clarence Ferraris menus.
34:18
He just is a freaking amazing, not only human being, but an amalgam
34:27
of art and science in auto sports.
34:30
And also because, you know, he, he now has a, a really great
34:34
portfolio in automated aviation.
34:38
This is a great way to segue over to Maryanne when you're talking about
34:41
Frank Steffenson and the design of the cars and things like that.
34:44
So, let's talk a little bit about the parameters of this particular event
34:49
and the logistics and what the students are gonna do and what they're designing
34:52
towards and, and things like that.
34:53
So, can you unpack that for us and kind of give us an idea of
34:56
what the competition is like?
34:57
Absolutely.
34:59
Before we talk about the competition itself, which is gonna be coming in 2022,
35:02
what we did was we created a challenge for students to kind of get a feel of
35:07
what they were capable of essentially.
35:09
And also, you know, wanted to see if what we were designing
35:13
was of interest to them too.
35:15
And you know, we had a lot of people, like Mary said earlier, every time we told
35:18
somebody that what we were doing, they're like, no way, that's not gonna happen.
35:21
Or they would say, wow, I wish I could, I had that opportunity
35:25
when I was in high school.
35:26
So it was a good way for us to kind of like test the waters.
35:29
So we came up with a lunar race car design challenge, and Mary and I
35:32
really just sat down together and hammered out everything and it became.
35:36
Just a really awesome initiative that we did.
35:39
So we put it out there.
35:40
We had 35 teams, essentially from 11 different countries, which we
35:44
then whittled down to six teams who went forward with the competition.
35:49
So we like to say, you know, when we're talking about building race cars for
35:53
the moon, we do this with parental guidance essentially, because we really
35:57
wanna make sure that these cars work.
35:59
Um, but we also wanna give these kids, you know, freedom to create
36:02
and, and do what they're best at.
36:04
And so we gave them specification, we gave them guidelines as to how to create it,
36:09
what they were going to need, and, and what it was gonna be able to withstand,
36:13
you know, on the moon and the different environments and things like that.
36:17
When we created it, I kept thinking to myself when I was talking to Mary
36:20
about it, we used the term steam instead of stem, which includes the A
36:24
with for arts, you know, and I am, I'm an A, didn't get super into science
36:27
or because I didn't have initiatives like this when I was in school.
36:30
So.
36:31
When I was talking to her, I was like, I don't know how these kids are gonna do it.
36:34
And I was a little doubtful myself.
36:35
I was like, there's no way these kids are gonna be able, these high school
36:38
students are gonna be able to cars that could actually run on the moon.
36:41
I was looking at the specification and Mary was like, Marianne,
36:44
you had to give him a chance.
36:45
You'd be surprised what these people like.
36:47
You know what these kids can do.
36:49
So I was like, all right.
36:50
So we put it out there and the results were incredible.
36:52
We had the six teams that competed, so over the course of four weeks,
36:56
they would submit videos that were answering key questions throughout the
36:59
challenge of how their design was going.
37:02
And so we weren't asking them to actually build it, it was just to design, you
37:05
know, what it would look like and you know, all the specifications between
37:09
like what parts and things like that.
37:10
So we ended up with four winning teams, and we had different categories
37:15
that each team won in, and those four winners actually got a thousand
37:20
dollars to donate to their charity.
37:21
So that was like a really cool initiative that they.
37:24
Kind of like inspired them to do it.
37:25
Like, Hey, if we do this, we can, we can help our community.
37:28
So I saw that as, you know, a really cool way for them to, to
37:32
motivate them through the challenge.
37:33
But by the end of it, we came out with two lunar viable racers essentially,
37:39
that were cleared by our, uh, engineering teams, in our aerospace
37:43
engineers that were from opposite side.
37:45
You know, we had one team from Argentina, one team from China.
37:48
So watching the kids go through this process and, and seeing
37:52
exactly what they're capable and the fact that they actually did
37:54
design two, you know, very feasible.
37:57
Options for us really helped us kind of realize that we were on the right track.
38:02
Like this is definitely possible.
38:03
These kids definitely have the motivation, they have the skills.
38:06
So it was really just figuring out how we wanna frame it.
38:08
So that was a really great test pilot to know what we're
38:10
gonna be doing in, in 2022.
38:12
I think I have a question in terms of the, the kids that are participating in this.
38:16
So the race is supposed to happen, so next year, 2022, sort of TVD.
38:21
So are, are these kids, are any of these kids gonna be graduated from high school
38:25
and, and if so, will they still be able to continue obviously in the program?
38:30
Absolutely.
38:31
That's, that's pretty exciting.
38:33
I do wanna caveat that as we've gone along here, COVID has
38:37
really kicked us in the sheds.
38:39
Like everybody.
38:40
So the fact of what we're doing with Moon Mark is global.
38:46
It's not us kids.
38:48
It's galactic.
38:49
Nobody owns the moon.
38:52
Everybody, every human from birth has had an experience with the moon.
38:57
Our goal is, we say in the prime directive, right Marianne, the prime
39:01
directive is to reach and engage as many people on earth and in space as possible.
39:09
COVID has prevented us, for example, this summer.
39:13
We're fortunately coming through what we hope will be the worst of
39:17
it, but we can't bring in a lot of kids from around the world, right?
39:21
It's just not feasible.
39:23
So, um, we're doing a lot of other things that will give
39:27
rich experiences beyond that.
39:29
While we can start with the basics.
39:32
How big are these things?
39:33
The design that we put out there for the kids, I think they were about 11
39:37
pounds, was the requirement for us.
39:40
So they were pretty, they're pretty small.
39:41
So like an RC car, basically a remote control car.
39:44
Yes.
39:45
Thereabouts.
39:46
Okay.
39:46
So to put that part in context, the market cost to launch on a rocket and
39:55
then on a lander, and then land on the moon is $1.2 million a kilo per kilo.
40:02
Wow.
40:02
Okay.
40:03
Yep.
40:03
Per kilo.
40:04
So 2.2 and change kilos per pound.
40:08
Right.
40:11
Talking you so funny.
40:13
It's like, uh, after, after a while, it's like, uh, what?
40:18
You know, it's all monopoly money.
40:19
It's okay.
40:21
Um, you know, it's not monopoly money, but what it is is a change.
40:27
It's a pivot in space commercialization.
40:30
Right?
40:31
And this is something that we've been able to see over the last couple of years.
40:35
It's the same thing with racing and spacing.
40:38
So with racing, it's very expensive, right?
40:42
It's always been very expensive.
40:43
You've got the name, you've got the money, you've got a ride.
40:46
You don't got those.
40:47
You don't gotta ride.
40:48
And that's one of the things that really has impacted me over the past
40:54
few years, that along with being in the pits and looking at the stands
41:00
and seeing lots of empty seats.
41:03
Right.
41:03
That's really, really bothered me because that means that the sport is
41:08
not doing, and this is before COVID, the sport is not drawing people as
41:14
it should, and so we need to get more young people into the sport.
41:19
That doesn't change the reality of you gotta name, you got money, you got a ride.
41:24
Exactly.
41:24
So I think that there's also a potential for pivoting for the sport as well as
41:33
looking at how, for example, SpaceX has, because of commercialization, brought down
41:41
the cost of getting anything into space.
41:45
So I kept hearing again and again and again.
41:49
Mary, you can't do this because it's gonna be hundreds of millions of dollars.
41:53
It's gonna take decades.
41:55
And I'm looking at the people that are saying this to me and
41:59
their frame of reference and their filter is, is nasa, right?
42:04
Right.
42:05
This is what, you know, 50 years ago and, and 50 years, hence this is what it's
42:11
taken to get into space, but not now.
42:15
And that's what, uh, I'm looking at is the juxtaposition.
42:19
For motor sports is, maybe this time is not now for kids who wanna come
42:27
and young people that wanna come into the sport and how can we find
42:31
opportunities for them to do that, right?
42:34
If that's what they wanna do and not be confined by the constraints that
42:40
we know have existed for a long time.
42:44
I mean, I'd be remiss not to.
42:45
Uh, if you listen to our drive through series, I'd be remiss somehow not
42:50
to bring up Tesla or Tesla adjacent.
42:53
You mentioned SpaceX, right?
42:54
So I mean, that's an Elon Musk company.
42:57
Whatever you feel towards Elon or, or Tesla or SpaceX, I mean, it takes
43:03
him and those kind of companies or someone like him to be a disruptor.
43:07
The status quo because until it becomes, and mainstream's a strong
43:12
word, but until more and more people are trying to do these things, like go
43:16
into space, the cost can't come down.
43:18
You know, something as simple as solar panels, the first time someone came up
43:22
with a solar panel to power homes, they were astronomically priced and everyone
43:26
said, this will never be mainstream because the cost is prohibitive.
43:29
But now we've already seen over the last decade, the price has really
43:32
come down and it's only gonna further come down as, as more manufacturers
43:36
come online, as technology improves.
43:38
This is pretty incredible experience for these young kids around the world
43:44
to take part in this and, and get to.
43:47
Who knows what comes out of this.
43:48
Maybe some new, something is invented that cuts costs or, or does something
43:53
better that, you know, NASA or even SpaceX or you know Virgin Galactic
43:59
are able to use in the future.
44:01
And its technology that.
44:03
Become something that the world is using and these kids can, you know, say one day
44:08
hopefully that they were a part of it.
44:10
I mean, it's really incredible.
44:11
But I do wanna circle back because you know, my imagination is still pretty good.
44:15
So I'm trying to figure out how this is all really gonna work.
44:18
So I'm putting the money aside, like suspension of disbelief, right?
44:22
Which you have to do with a lot of science fiction I envision.
44:25
Face X rocket.
44:26
They're like, yeah, we're not going to the moon, we're going to Mars, but we're
44:29
gonna drop off your package like the UPS guy, kicking it down the hallway
44:33
in an apartment building, and your RC car is then gonna land on the moon via
44:37
parachute, and then the race starts.
44:39
So am I totally off base here, Marianne.
44:42
How is this gonna work?
44:43
SpaceX does take us to space.
44:45
We still have to have vessel that will land us on the moon.
44:48
So there are multiple companies that are doing lunar landers, so putting our
44:52
racers on a lunar lander that will land us on the moon, that will then, you know,
44:56
by robotic arm, drop us on the surface.
44:59
And within those landers, and obviously on our cars too, there's going to be
45:04
footage from a lot of different angles.
45:06
You know, all the different machinery has cameras on them.
45:08
So not exactly dropping it off, but kind of with the robotic arm and kind
45:12
of like, you know, setting it down.
45:13
So pretty much.
45:14
And then, uh, once they're on the ground, they will take off and
45:18
they'll, they'll start racing.
45:20
So there's gonna be a little like time to get, you know, everything accu
45:23
acclimated once they're on the ground.
45:25
I think there's a few people who wanna race 'em.
45:26
So looking at your, your site a little bit, I mean, it seems like that part
45:31
is still under development, like logistically the actual race piece.
45:35
'cause that's where my question is, is like.
45:37
Which robot is going out and putting cones down or something.
45:41
Marking the track.
45:42
Alright.
45:42
Alright, so that dovetails, that dovetails into my question, which
45:47
was, which Motorsport discipline does this most closely relate to?
45:51
Are we talking about off-roading?
45:52
Are we talking about drag racing, auto crossing rally?
45:55
Is it gonna be a circuit track?
45:57
What?
45:57
What kind of race is this?
45:59
Oh hell yes.
46:02
I knew she was gonna wanna say that.
46:04
It's gotta compete five different segments.
46:06
First is the drag race followed by the off road payload test.
46:11
It's gonna end up like a episode of road kill.
46:13
But anyway, it's gonna pick up some Blue Rocks at the end and
46:16
bring them back to pit lane.
46:18
I, I really appreciate your question Tanya.
46:21
And as an engineer, you know, you wanna know how this can happen.
46:24
Thank heaven.
46:25
Mary's not figuring that out.
46:28
Okay, that would be really scary.
46:31
But we're surrounded by an incredible group of people both on the race
46:37
side and the space side that are philosophically aligned with us.
46:43
Meaning we are all intending for this to be a generation
46:49
defining moment for young people.
46:51
And so we need to give them as much opportunity and flexibility as possible.
46:58
But also, as Maryanne was saying, to have adult supervision so
47:03
that when what we have up there actually races actually goes.
47:09
I need adult supervision at the track too.
47:11
So it's that's, that's so true, Eric.
47:15
It's so true.
47:16
And it's one of the things that I saw as one of the, like you say, adjacent
47:22
things between auto, sports and aerospace.
47:25
When we get there, the lunar day is 14 days long, then it's done.
47:32
That means that our electronics are gonna fry and stuff like that.
47:38
So we're gonna get there, and then we'll have a couple of days of the
47:42
lander, you know, adjusting and making sure that all of the, the payloads
47:48
are doing what they're supposed to do.
47:50
And then we drop down, uh, on the surface as we get closer to the launch
47:56
date, you know, where we're planning to land is at the South Pole of the moon.
48:02
And so the landing site will come into Sharper Relief and we have people on our
48:10
team that are gonna enable us to examine.
48:15
We're gonna be able to understand like within a hundred meters.
48:20
Of where the land is gonna land, we'll be able to figure out and we'll do this well
48:25
ahead of time, how to geo map that whole area and figure out different tracks.
48:32
And so yeah, we'll do a drag race.
48:35
Yeah, we'll do an off-road race.
48:39
Uh, we'll do a bunch of stuff at the end of that.
48:43
It's really important to know the racers that we put up there are not
48:48
just gonna sit there as space jump.
48:50
They are going to have a scientific purpose.
48:54
Right now our plan is for 30 years.
48:57
Oh wow.
48:58
After we are finished racing, we've got those things in place.
49:03
You know, we could probably spend a lot of time really nerding out on the
49:07
requirements of the vehicles and getting into specifics, but every little facet of
49:11
the car, of this lunar racer is going to be intricate down from the suspension to
49:16
the tires, to the propulsion system and, and all these different kinds of things.
49:20
There's tons to read about on the website, but I think the one thing,
49:23
the killer thing is gonna be despite all that, and, and to get you the
49:26
most followers and the most likes, is you're gonna have to do some sick.
49:30
Lunar burnouts with whatever these racers are.
49:32
So you gotta add that to the list of requirements.
49:35
Must be able to achieve a burnout on the moon.
49:38
You awesome.
49:40
Burnout on the moon might cause some, you know, disruption to our cameras
49:44
just because regular lingers, you know, the, the material on the moon once
49:48
it, how awesome would look though.
49:50
Come on now.
49:52
It would be pretty cool.
49:54
Moon dust for us lay people is gonna cover the camera lens.
49:58
That's right, that's right.
49:59
Going back to your question or your comment, Tanya, about what,
50:04
what about technology in this.
50:06
So what we are finding is as we are creating and making this happen,
50:13
we are accelerating technology.
50:15
You know, we're thinking, oh, we're just go up there and build the race.
50:20
Yeah, no, that's not, that's not happened.
50:24
We have to figure out a lot of way.
50:26
Uh, if, if, if you wanna get an Apollo kind of video from
50:31
the moon, that can happen.
50:33
But what we need is something much more than that.
50:37
What we are challenging our partners to do is really to come up with solutions
50:43
that accelerate technology in ways that will also enable future moon exploration
50:52
or Mars exploration or whatever.
50:54
So it's, it's a pretty interesting process.
50:56
I mean, logistically, there's just so much to, to do, let, let alone just,
51:02
oh, the design of the track, but just.
51:04
Everything.
51:05
I mean, my head is just reeling through how are you doing all the
51:10
camera recording and making sure you have all the right angles.
51:13
How are you controlling these things?
51:15
Or is somebody sitting here on earth like they're playing a video
51:18
game, watching it through a screen?
51:20
Is it somehow you guys map out the track and then you prerecord
51:24
instructions into these, you know, vehicles and, and they go for it at 1.1
51:30
million a kilo, 1.2, 1.2, excuse me.
51:36
That, that, that 0.1 adds up after a while.
51:39
So it's, it's kinda like an inspiration from the Motorsports community for me
51:45
has been we figure out how to do this.
51:48
It's not that we don't think about the money, we think
51:51
about how to make it happen.
51:53
No, no.
51:54
Yeah.
51:54
And in my comment there was more at, at 1.2 million a kilo.
51:58
You, you definitely want adult supervision on this.
52:00
And, and the adults here are the, you know, astrophysicists that you have on
52:04
the team and the, the lunar geologists and, and other, you know, scientists
52:09
and extremely intelligent people.
52:11
'cause you don't want the payload drops off the vehicles and then
52:14
suddenly they're long dead on arrival.
52:16
Yeah.
52:17
If the moon has long, you know, their, their lawn ornaments there for the
52:20
next 30 years, we want them to be long ornaments after they've competed.
52:25
So, you know, what is great about this project, how it relates to what I believe
52:32
and really appreciate about motor sports.
52:35
There are a lot of what I call gulp.
52:38
Moments.
52:39
You know, you do your best to manage the risk around those moments.
52:45
That's all you can do.
52:46
And then I've been asked again and again, what if it crashes Mary?
52:50
It's like, okay, what's it gonna, what's it gonna hit?
52:54
That's what I wanna know.
52:55
Did you put up a tire barrier that we didn't know about?
52:58
Hey, the last two landers, one from Israel and one from India, they both crashed.
53:03
Oh well, yeah.
53:04
The surface of the moon.
53:05
Yeah.
53:06
Uhhuh.
53:06
So it's, it's not a matter of, you know, are you, you know, you trying
53:11
to get around the boot at the Glen.
53:13
It really is.
53:15
There's a lot of golf moments.
53:16
The point of what we're trying to do, and we are doing is that we want
53:23
to bring young people into the sport and we wanna bring young people into
53:28
thinking big, figuring out and knowing that they can achieve their dreams.
53:32
That's what this is about, and bringing them into steam.
53:36
I like that.
53:36
I like the addition of the, a very often engineers stereotypically are not known
53:43
for being very creative people, but at the same time, I've met a lot of engineers
53:47
that have that creative side to them.
53:50
And, and you often unfortunately, get it beat out of you depending on
53:54
the industries you work in, which is unfortunate because the creativity is very
53:57
important for innovation and advancement.
54:00
So, I mean, I think this is, again, I've said it like 18
54:03
times, I think this is great.
54:05
It's very exciting.
54:07
You wanna know some big news?
54:08
I'm only telling you guys all ears.
54:10
Sorry.
54:10
We're all ears.
54:12
I mean, I don't know what's bigger than the moon at this point, but Good.
54:14
Go, go ahead.
54:15
Shock me please.
54:17
Mary's going too.
54:21
She's, she's dropping the green flag.
54:24
She's the, she's the only corner worker on the moon.
54:27
I'll do that and then I'll go to sleep.
54:29
While we are, we're going through the march to launch, we are doing lots of
54:36
things with young people to bring them into both Moon Mark and Motorsport.
54:43
So one of the things that we've just recently developed, and
54:48
I'm extremely excited about.
54:51
Is a partnership with NHRA National Hot Rod Association, the drag
54:57
racers, we're gonna shoot these things straight off the moon, neath
55:02
the space top fuel lunar landers.
55:07
It's gonna be amazing.
55:09
Four second quarter mile on the moon.
55:11
I'm not a drag racer, but I, I really like this, uh, organization, which is
55:16
the largest sanctioning body racing body in the country, and we're incredibly
55:22
blessed to be partnering with them.
55:24
In addition to that, we are partnering with.
55:29
Los Angeles County program called Delete the Divide.
55:33
And, okay, delete the Divide is a way to reach young people who
55:40
do not have internet access.
55:43
They don't have computers or laptops or phones or any of that.
55:47
And there are currently about 500,000 of them.
55:52
And so we're doing two events with both of the groups, and one of them
55:58
is on July 30th, uh, at pom, and the other one is their national
56:04
Championship on November 12th.
56:07
What we are gonna do with Delete the Divide and Moon Mark is there to bring
56:13
space and race together and give kids the experience of understanding the
56:19
interdisciplinary offering of both of these industries in both of these
56:25
beautiful, beautiful ecosystems.
56:27
So we're really excited about that.
56:29
And, and to touch on what you said Tanya, about, you know, adding the
56:33
a and and engineers, you know, some kids may not have it in them to be
56:36
engineers, and I think it's really important what we've discussed with
56:39
our partnership with the NHRA and and delete the divide is that these different
56:43
industries have people that all have teams around them, of other people.
56:48
And they may not all be scientists, they may not all be engineers, but
56:51
each person plays a very key role.
56:53
You know, it's not one person that sends a rocket to space.
56:55
It's not one person that drives a car.
56:57
You know, they have these entire teams around them that each play their role.
57:00
And so inspiring kids to understand that they could fit into any aspect of
57:05
these things if they really want to.
57:07
Uh, is something that, you know, we've talked about over and over again.
57:10
And, and it's, it's something that we hold close to us.
57:13
And it goes back to what we talked about earlier, not just the intersection
57:16
between aerospace and automobiles.
57:19
It's all the different branches of science that are involved
57:23
just in building a vehicle.
57:24
People look at a vehicle and they go, oh, it's a bucket of nuts and
57:27
bolts and some sheet metal, but it's chemistry, it's physics, math, it's
57:31
thermodynamics, it's electronics, it's mathematics, it's aerodynamics.
57:35
It's all sorts of things.
57:36
There's, it's not just a toaster.
57:38
You know, I, I hate it when people think cars are just appliances
57:42
because they're not, they're beautiful pieces of engineering.
57:45
Sometimes, you know, handcrafted, you know, they came out of someone's
57:48
dream or maybe they were designed by a computer, like the most recent
57:52
McLaren that we've seen, the optimal design or whatever it might be.
57:55
But there's a lot of thought, a lot of patients, and a lot of.
57:58
To Mary's point, trial and error that goes into that, but a ton of science.
58:02
Sure.
58:02
And a ton of dedication.
58:03
No car, no vehicle, whether it be these lunar landers or these
58:07
lunar racers rather, or, or the cars that you drive on the street.
58:10
You know, even that base model rental car, there's teams of people involved.
58:14
It's not designed in a vacuum and it's just incredible what goes into
58:18
what we take for granted every day.
58:19
What I also see from this is kind of, you know, fantasizing a little bit
58:23
again about what the future looks like.
58:25
I mean, we've been spoonfed science fiction since the sixties, right?
58:29
Since Mary mentioned Star Trek and you had Star Wars and the ideas of
58:33
what the future would look like.
58:34
And even in, in some video games where it's like they can take liberties
58:38
with what science is gonna be like.
58:40
As an example, and this is gonna be really current mass effect, super popular title.
58:45
Probably one of the best stories of all time in the video game world has a whole
58:49
section in it about landing on planet, but what the rover is like six by six.
58:54
You know, all these different kinds of things and what the physics are like to
58:56
drive that thing on a, on a alien planet.
58:59
Kind of interesting.
59:00
It, it all come together and if you think about it, you know.
59:03
30 years ago, 40 years ago, 50 years ago, when somebody said, Hey, do you
59:07
think we're gonna have a watch that we can talk to, like on Dick Tracy?
59:10
People are like, what are you talking about?
59:12
That's, that's nonsense.
59:14
I mean now even the pads on Star Trek, they called 'em, right?
59:17
Which are the little tablets that they would go around.
59:19
We already have that.
59:20
Those are iPads, right?
59:21
All that technology, it's just foreshadowing.
59:23
And I think to Tanya's point to everything that we've been talking about, this
59:27
is the beginning of something big.
59:29
And I like the fact that you guys are doing this with vehicles because I think
59:33
even though it's miniature, because of the cost, it's eventually going to scale up.
59:38
And that's where I was going with my example about, you know, like mass
59:40
effect and some of these other things, because maybe one day it'll be shuttle
59:43
craft, just like in Star Trek, right?
59:45
You never know.
59:46
And I think too, it's gonna grow with the kids, right?
59:48
We get 'em in while they're young and they have this small remote controled car.
59:52
We know we're building a future workforce with those kids.
59:54
So those ideas are just gonna get bigger.
59:56
Those cars are gonna get bigger places are gonna be farther away.
59:59
Yeah.
59:59
Not to get on the soapbox.
1:00:01
I mean, our society, our country as a whole, we need to push them or steam at
1:00:06
younger and younger ages and particularly, you know, historically women, were
1:00:10
the minority kind of in that grouping.
1:00:13
And we need to push even, you know, more women to that field and to realize
1:00:17
that you too can be an engineer.
1:00:19
And so it's really critical if we, if we start 'em young and they, and they're
1:00:23
learning those skills or how to think differently and especially when they
1:00:27
start out young, they're not jaded.
1:00:29
Yeah.
1:00:29
And, and the creativity and imagination is so much different when you're young
1:00:34
versus when you've gone through college or whatever and you're working a job.
1:00:39
Uh, life can tamp that out of you a bit.
1:00:42
So harnessing that energy and that force.
1:00:45
Is critical to all this innovation and advancement, so it's great.
1:00:49
Well, we had a lot of spirited discussion about whether to focus
1:00:56
our attention on high school kids.
1:00:59
Or college kids.
1:01:00
I was wondering about that.
1:01:03
It was a, a very meaningful, not only discussion, but decision process.
1:01:08
And like you are saying, Tanya, we concluded that the, the creativity spark.
1:01:15
An ability to reach the demographic that we wanted in order for them to
1:01:22
be inspired, motivated, and achieved at that moment in their life is really
1:01:28
in the high school versus college age.
1:01:31
By the time you get to college, there's a lot of other things going
1:01:34
on, and high school was challenging enough, but we've proven out with
1:01:38
our lunar race car design challenge.
1:01:41
Clearly, if teams of high school kids can design lunar worthy racers within four
1:01:49
weeks and they estimated the cost would 30,000 bucks, that's kind of indicative.
1:01:58
And, and Maryanne as and I as as bright as we are, we're not
1:02:03
the ones that determine that.
1:02:06
Okay.
1:02:08
Our space partners determined that, that, that they were viable.
1:02:12
So if you have that kind of backing of information and data and experience,
1:02:19
that starts to really inform what you do going forward with this opportunity.
1:02:25
Being for high school, you see a lot of kids when they're
1:02:27
going into college, right?
1:02:28
Kind of like a demoralization if they don't get into the college that
1:02:31
they want or if they can't excel in the, you know, in the subject
1:02:35
that they are passionate about.
1:02:37
And so what this opportunity does, you know, getting them to the moon,
1:02:40
giving it to high school students, it kind of propels them through that.
1:02:43
And it's like, all right, well, I mean, maybe I didn't get this, you know,
1:02:46
specific college scholarship, but I already sent something to the moon, so
1:02:50
like, I'm not gonna let this hold me back from like pursuing something beyond that.
1:02:55
Plus you probably would've lost a bunch of people in the sense that once you
1:02:59
get into college at a certain point.
1:03:01
Everyone is compartmentalized in their major or whatnot, right?
1:03:05
So you've got all the engineers over here and astrophysicists and this, that, and
1:03:08
the other, and suddenly all the people that are gonna register for this program
1:03:12
are gonna be, you know, PhD graduate students that are gonna spend two years
1:03:17
and it's gonna cost not 30,000, 300,000.
1:03:21
I'm sure it's probably gonna work, but it would've been way more than needed in
1:03:26
when the kids are still in high school.
1:03:28
They're not thinking about all that.
1:03:29
No, no one is, oh, you're the engineer, you're the physicist, you're the,
1:03:32
everyone is just kind of the same.
1:03:34
And so you probably have more people willing to put themselves out there.
1:03:38
And that's what we also found with the Lunar Race Car Design challenge.
1:03:41
You know, we didn't tell them who needed to be on their team.
1:03:44
You know, we gave them the specifications.
1:03:46
We said, this is what you need.
1:03:47
It'd be good to have.
1:03:49
And they were the ones that came in.
1:03:50
They were like, okay, you're good at science.
1:03:52
You can help us.
1:03:52
You're good at math, you can help us.
1:03:54
Like you're good at art.
1:03:55
You can make videos, you can make designs, you can help us.
1:03:57
Like, that was their doing and it really worked amazing.
1:04:01
You know, they had teams that really came together and created something incredible.
1:04:04
I do wanna mention our uh, lunar race provider partner, which is Lunar Outpost.
1:04:11
And they have done an amazing job of putting together our prototypes.
1:04:19
And we're all working with Frank Stinson on the design side for the bodies.
1:04:25
And so by the time we get to the moon, number one, we're gonna know
1:04:32
that the young people are gonna be able to race these things.
1:04:36
And number two, they're gonna look pretty freaking awesome.
1:04:41
They're gonna look like race cars.
1:04:44
That's awesome.
1:04:44
Got some stickers on them, some stickers that don't melt or freeze
1:04:50
on the moon.
1:04:51
I'm gonna, I'm gonna leave the audience with some food for thought.
1:04:54
So on the moon, is there a design that cheats the wind?
1:04:58
And I'll let, I'll let Stefon answer that question on his own time, right?
1:05:01
So you gotta think about that for a minute.
1:05:03
Thank you, listeners for staying tuned in with us.
1:05:05
I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
1:05:07
You wanna learn more about Mary?
1:05:09
You can always find her on LinkedIn, but if you're interested
1:05:12
in racing on the moon with Mary.
1:05:14
Be sure to check out www moon space or follow their progress via Instagram at
1:05:22
moon mark space and be sure to reach out to Maryanne for her updates and
1:05:25
additional details on the program.
1:05:27
So thank you both again.
1:05:29
Absolutely.
1:05:30
This has been pretty epic.
1:05:32
I, I don't think we've had any discussion like this of any kind before.
1:05:35
I think this is gonna be a pretty eye-opening experience
1:05:37
for a lot of people.
1:05:38
And I, and I love the crossover here between the education side of
1:05:42
this, the motor sports side, the competitive side, aerospace engineering,
1:05:46
all the things we talked about.
1:05:47
I cannot applaud you guys enough for the initiative that you've taken on.
1:05:50
This is above and beyond to infinity and beyond, I suppose, to, I salute you both
1:05:56
and I wish you all the best of luck and I cannot thank you guys enough, Maryanne,
1:06:01
Maryanne, for coming on break Fix and talking with us and telling your story.
1:06:04
Tanya and Eric, thank you so much.
1:06:07
Really appreciate your time this evening, Maryanne.
1:06:09
Thank you as always.
1:06:11
Um, no, appreciate your time, both of yours.
1:06:14
Let's, uh, that was fun.
1:06:15
Let's go get on track.
1:06:17
Yeah, absolutely.
1:06:18
Watkins Glen, October.
1:06:19
I'll see you there.
1:06:22
Okay,
1:06:27
that's right.
1:06:28
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1:06:28
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