Latest / Made of Stars / The Reason We Send Humans

Transcript

The Reason We Send Humans · Made of Stars

0:00
Speaker 1: Warning.
0:00
Speaker 2: The following podcast contains an entertaining look at astronomy, physics,
0:04
Speaker 2: and space news throughout the known universe. Listeners have been
0:07
Speaker 2: known to learn about astronomical phenomenon, the scientific method, and
0:10
Speaker 2: expanded vocabulary to include terms like quasar asterism and uranus. Listen,
0:15
Speaker 2: that's your own risk.
0:16
Speaker 1: Go ahead.
0:22
Speaker 3: When made of stars, made them stars.
0:26
Speaker 4: Made sizes. When made of stars, you could be from
0:34
Speaker 4: high they would New Mexicomus.
0:39
Speaker 3: Where a.
0:41
Speaker 2: Stars?
0:43
Speaker 1: When we are made of stars. I'm West Carol, joined
0:57
Speaker 1: by my good friend doctor Sean Cruising, executive director at
1:01
Speaker 1: Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center.
1:04
Speaker 3: Hey Sean, good morning, Wes. Good to be here today.
1:07
Speaker 1: We have not done a show in what it's almost
1:09
Speaker 1: been two weeks, and there's a reason for that because
1:12
Speaker 1: the last show that we did was Made of Stars Live,
1:15
Speaker 1: and we did it there at the Coca Cola Space
1:18
Speaker 1: Science Center. By the way, for folks that don't know this,
1:20
Speaker 1: we do this by video because you know you're at
1:24
Speaker 1: work there at the Space Science Center. I'm at work
1:27
Speaker 1: here at my house. And this is just the way,
1:30
Speaker 1: it's the easiest way for us to do this. Every
1:32
Speaker 1: week and anyway, we were there doing the show live
1:37
Speaker 1: in front of an audience inside the Omnosphere Theater, and again,
1:41
Speaker 1: thank you to everybody who came out. It was a
1:43
Speaker 1: lot of fun. We took some questions, We had a
1:46
Speaker 1: couple of you know, I'm gonna stump the band kind
1:48
Speaker 1: of questions, but it's still we had a really good time.
1:52
Speaker 1: And that show we recorded, and it's the show that
1:55
Speaker 1: we released last Thursday, so we haven't really recorded since
1:59
Speaker 1: we the live show and feels like it's been forever.
2:03
Speaker 1: But there is a lot of things that have taken
2:06
Speaker 1: place since we last recorded, and hey, we've sent people
2:12
Speaker 1: back to the Moon and I guess this is the
2:15
Speaker 1: farthest we've ever been into space, which is also there's
2:19
Speaker 1: a number of historic things taking place with this Artemis
2:21
Speaker 1: two mission. But that's where all the questions I've got
2:26
Speaker 1: for today are. I know, we've got a couple of
2:28
Speaker 1: other stories, but we'll spend I know, a lot of
2:30
Speaker 1: time talking about Artemis because you know, they're on their
2:34
Speaker 1: way home and expected back tomorrow as we're recording this
2:38
Speaker 1: on Thursday. As we do so historic on a number
2:43
Speaker 1: of levels and lots of missions accomplished lots of tests
2:47
Speaker 1: have been done, and this, of course is it's hard
2:51
Speaker 1: not to do this. You don't want to do this
2:53
Speaker 1: because they're still in the middle of this historic mission.
2:56
Speaker 1: But it's kind of like what happens when a team
2:58
Speaker 1: wins the Super Bowl and they're doing the postgame and
3:00
Speaker 1: they're like, man, what a great season they had, So
3:02
Speaker 1: who are the favorites for next year? And that's kind
3:06
Speaker 1: of you know, this is about setting the table for
3:09
Speaker 1: Artemis three and missions moving forward, So it's hard not
3:12
Speaker 1: to think about that a little bit because a lot
3:14
Speaker 1: of what they were doing on this mission was setting
3:17
Speaker 1: the table for Artemis three and missions moving forward. So
3:21
Speaker 1: at this point, I'm gonna stop talking because I'm going
3:24
Speaker 1: to hand things off to you at this stage and
3:26
Speaker 1: kind of talk about where they are as we're recording
3:29
Speaker 1: and what's going on and what the next twenty four
3:31
Speaker 1: hours is going to look like.
3:32
Speaker 3: Yeah.
3:33
Speaker 4: So, I mean, one of the things about a show
3:35
Speaker 4: like this is that we're not a live show. So
3:37
Speaker 4: we know we're recording the show today, people will probably
3:40
Speaker 4: hear this later on, so we have to keep that
3:44
Speaker 4: in mind. We're not like a you know, a moment
3:47
Speaker 4: by moment newscast. The other thing is one of the
3:51
Speaker 4: things I've been very happy about. It seemed before the
3:54
Speaker 4: launch that so many people that were coming here to
3:58
Speaker 4: the Coca Cola Space Science Center were simply unaware that
4:02
Speaker 4: we were about to launch a mission to the Moon.
4:06
Speaker 4: And so two things about that. First of all, it
4:11
Speaker 4: makes me sad, you know, for that unawareness, But that's
4:13
Speaker 4: not I don't think it's intentional. I don't think that.
4:16
Speaker 4: I don't think that people. I mean, there are people
4:17
Speaker 4: who are coming to a space museum. So these were
4:20
Speaker 4: people who would be in some ways pre selected to
4:24
Speaker 4: at least be interested in space.
4:25
Speaker 3: Right.
4:27
Speaker 4: Many of them were kind of peripherally aware that NASA
4:31
Speaker 4: was working on a Moon mission, but they hadn't really
4:34
Speaker 4: locked into the moment of when that mission would launch,
4:38
Speaker 4: and so they were just unaware that the launch was imminent,
4:41
Speaker 4: you know, over the last ten days.
4:44
Speaker 5: And so so the thing that's interesting to me about this,
4:48
Speaker 5: and good in a way, is that now the vibe
4:52
Speaker 5: in the last few days since the mission's been ongoing is.
4:56
Speaker 4: That everybody knows, everybody's aware. Everybody he's kind of watching
5:00
Speaker 4: moment by moment. And when I say everybody, I mean
5:04
Speaker 4: the vast majority of people coming into my science museum
5:06
Speaker 4: and talking to me about this, right, So that's that's
5:09
Speaker 4: my sample group. And of that sample group, now suddenly
5:13
Speaker 4: everyone seems to be a lot more aware. And I
5:17
Speaker 4: credit social media, like I hate to credit social media
5:20
Speaker 4: for almost anything. Well, you know, I do have a podcast,
5:23
Speaker 4: so so.
5:24
Speaker 3: So thank you social media.
5:26
Speaker 4: Well, I think the words finally getting out through through
5:28
Speaker 4: social media outlets.
5:30
Speaker 1: Well. And and this is sort of the weird thing
5:32
Speaker 1: about that is that back in you know, the last
5:37
Speaker 1: time that we did a mission like this, the last
5:39
Speaker 1: time that we went to the moon, obviously, it was
5:41
Speaker 1: a very different place America and the world and where
5:46
Speaker 1: we live, and we didn't have that and it was
5:49
Speaker 1: very much a time that you know, you're waiting for
5:52
Speaker 1: the newspaper to come to tell you the news, or
5:54
Speaker 1: you're tuning into, you know, the evening news, or it
6:00
Speaker 1: was there was no twenty four hour news cycle. All
6:02
Speaker 1: of that came along because of OJ Simpson. I mean,
6:04
Speaker 1: it's just kind of the reality of like that kind
6:07
Speaker 1: of splash story is what it took for people to go, Yeah,
6:09
Speaker 1: maybe we should just talk NonStop about five topics all
6:14
Speaker 1: the time. So in that sense. Yeah, and there was
6:18
Speaker 1: certainly no Internet, there was certainly no social media, there
6:21
Speaker 1: was certainly not the kind of access, there were no podcasts.
6:26
Speaker 1: A show like this was not possible.
6:28
Speaker 4: Then.
6:29
Speaker 1: Now there's so many distractions that would keep your attention
6:33
Speaker 1: away from it, because you know, you go back fifty
6:36
Speaker 1: plus years ago, you know, people would they get the
6:39
Speaker 1: newspaper and it's like, here's what's happening, and they go, oh,
6:42
Speaker 1: check that out. This is a big news story. It
6:44
Speaker 1: must be important. Now it depends on where you're getting
6:47
Speaker 1: your news and different stories from is going to basically
6:52
Speaker 1: kind of dictate what you will find important because they're
6:56
Speaker 1: telling you what's important. So if you're not listening to
7:00
Speaker 1: a show like this, no, you're probably not going to
7:02
Speaker 1: be aware of it. And then on the other side
7:05
Speaker 1: of it, as you point out, this is what's made
7:07
Speaker 1: people aware of it or these things. So it's a
7:10
Speaker 1: it's a cool sort of it's two sides of that coin,
7:13
Speaker 1: where the distraction that kept people from knowing about it
7:16
Speaker 1: is also the same thing that's made people know about
7:18
Speaker 1: it now. So yeah, and there's just been a lot
7:21
Speaker 1: going on in the world. Also in their defense, and
7:24
Speaker 1: some people have been following those stories, and the attention
7:29
Speaker 1: will be shifted tomorrow to them coming back and them
7:32
Speaker 1: coming home, and obviously it'll be another moment just going
7:36
Speaker 1: to You were talking about people being unaware. I was
7:39
Speaker 1: down that way when the launch happened. I was We
7:43
Speaker 1: had done a trip down to Disney that we had planned.
7:46
Speaker 1: We were in the parks the number of times that
7:49
Speaker 1: we were standing in line for a ride, and we
7:51
Speaker 1: heard people talking about it. Oh my gosh, they're going
7:54
Speaker 1: back to the Moon, and different discussions about it. So
7:59
Speaker 1: I was excited of hearing so many people talk about it.
8:01
Speaker 1: It was a little difficult for me over the course
8:04
Speaker 1: of my time there to not go, hey, listen to
8:07
Speaker 1: my podcast, because you know, we're on vacation. But there
8:12
Speaker 1: were a few people that I really thought would be interested,
8:14
Speaker 1: and they were, and I shared info about, you know,
8:16
Speaker 1: this show and what we do, and some of them
8:18
Speaker 1: were like, I'm going to be listening to this in
8:20
Speaker 1: line and you know, and great, perfect, What a great
8:23
Speaker 1: way to you know, spend the next hour and a
8:25
Speaker 1: half that you're waiting to ride the Millennium Falcon. So anyway,
8:30
Speaker 1: I thought it was great to hear a lot of
8:32
Speaker 1: people talking about it. I heard people in the hotel,
8:34
Speaker 1: we heard people on the bus to and from the parks,
8:36
Speaker 1: so there was some buzz about it. But of course
8:39
Speaker 1: we were in that area and there was a lot
8:41
Speaker 1: of talk about you know, almost a half a million
8:44
Speaker 1: people are going to come down here to see this.
8:46
Speaker 1: So anyway, yes, the focus now will in the next
8:50
Speaker 1: especially the next twenty four hours, really start to shift
8:53
Speaker 1: back to them where it should be. And as they
8:55
Speaker 1: went up, I mean I was praying and I'll be
8:58
Speaker 1: doing the same thing as they're coming back, because obviously
9:02
Speaker 1: those are the two. While as if being in a
9:06
Speaker 1: craft in space isn't dangerous, like that's just a oh
9:10
Speaker 1: big deal, it's the going and the coming that seems
9:13
Speaker 1: like the most dangerous thing, at least for us mentally.
9:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot of times that's true.
9:18
Speaker 4: I mean in air travel, right, so your most dangerous
9:21
Speaker 4: moments are takeoff and landing. Right, so you're up to
9:24
Speaker 4: a cruising at thirty thousand feet, usually things are pretty
9:26
Speaker 4: much on the okay.
9:27
Speaker 3: So that is an important moment. It's coming Friday.
9:30
Speaker 4: But you know, as again with the show like this,
9:33
Speaker 4: in the format that we're doing it in, I really
9:35
Speaker 4: kind of wondered as I was putting the show together,
9:37
Speaker 4: what should we talk about, because again I'm aware that
9:40
Speaker 4: people are aware, and again I do kind of credit
9:43
Speaker 4: social media for that, but they're interested anyway.
9:46
Speaker 3: It's just that social media kind of.
9:47
Speaker 4: Reminded of, hey, this is actually going on, and so
9:50
Speaker 4: people really did tune in. And so based on the
9:52
Speaker 4: conversations I've had here, people are aware. They've been watching,
9:55
Speaker 4: they've been watching the stream, they've been reading the summaries.
9:58
Speaker 4: So here's just a couple of things. So first of all,
10:01
Speaker 4: you know, we need to mention the Artemis two crew again,
10:05
Speaker 4: Read Weisman, Victor Glover, Christina Cook, all three NASA astronauts,
10:10
Speaker 4: then Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. That's the crew. They've flown
10:14
Speaker 4: around the far side of the Moon, friends, and in
10:17
Speaker 4: doing so, they reached a distance from the Earth greater
10:21
Speaker 4: than any human beings have ever gone before. They were
10:25
Speaker 4: farther from home than any human being has ever been
10:29
Speaker 4: in the history of humanity. So that's a really big
10:33
Speaker 4: important moment. And in addition to that, nobody's been on
10:37
Speaker 4: the far side of the Moon since nineteen seventy two,
10:42
Speaker 4: during NASA's Apollo seventeen mission. So that was a couple
10:45
Speaker 4: of the major accomplishments. And yes, people I think are
10:48
Speaker 4: aware of that, there was a toilet issue and it's
10:51
Speaker 4: still not quite working right, but it's working well enough,
10:53
Speaker 4: and they're gonna have to get the big plunger out
10:55
Speaker 4: after they get back home and kind of see what's
10:57
Speaker 4: going on there or the scope or whatever. They're going
10:59
Speaker 4: to fix that toilet. That's not too big of a deal.
11:02
Speaker 4: But friends, one of the things they did is that
11:06
Speaker 4: the crew of the Artemis two O Ryan capsule called Integrity.
11:11
Speaker 4: They they were on the they were on the far
11:12
Speaker 4: side of the Moon, and they located a crater and
11:17
Speaker 4: with NASA's permission, and with read Weisman's permission, before they
11:22
Speaker 4: left the ground, they had already planned to do this.
11:25
Speaker 4: They located located a crater and named it after Reid
11:29
Speaker 4: Weissman's late wife, Carol Taylor Weisman, who died of cancer
11:34
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty, which is just you really can't tell
11:38
Speaker 4: his story without that being in a very very important
11:41
Speaker 4: part of the story. And the way it went down
11:45
Speaker 4: is that they wondered if Reid would read the dedication,
11:49
Speaker 4: and he said, I.
11:49
Speaker 3: Just can't do it.
11:50
Speaker 4: I can't get through that without crying. And so Jeremy
11:55
Speaker 4: Hansen was the one, the Canadian astronaut. He was the
11:58
Speaker 4: one who radioed down to Michigan asked their permission to
12:01
Speaker 4: name the crater. They got the location of the crater
12:04
Speaker 4: properly communicated. The account is that that Jeremy spelled out
12:10
Speaker 4: very carefully Carol's name, which is.
12:12
Speaker 3: Which is your last name? West?
12:14
Speaker 4: But it's two rs two l's right c A R
12:17
Speaker 4: R L L, just to make sure they got it right,
12:21
Speaker 4: so that the crater would be properly identified in Carol's name,
12:26
Speaker 4: and then he read the dedication down to Michig Control.
12:33
Speaker 3: And later read.
12:35
Speaker 4: Weisman himself described the moment and he said this, He said,
12:38
Speaker 4: I think for me, that's when I was overwhelmed with emotion.
12:41
Speaker 4: And I looked over at Christina and she was crying.
12:44
Speaker 4: I put my hand down on Jeremy's hand as he
12:47
Speaker 4: was still talking. It was right there on the rail,
12:49
Speaker 4: and I could just tell he was trembling, and we
12:53
Speaker 4: all pretty much broke down right there. Now. I'll tell you, friends,
12:57
Speaker 4: I'm having a hard time reading this on this podcast
13:00
Speaker 4: without getting a bit choked up. Read Weisman. Went on
13:04
Speaker 4: to say that was the pinnacle moment of the mission
13:06
Speaker 4: for him personally. He added, that was I think where
13:11
Speaker 4: the four of us were the most forged, the most bonded,
13:15
Speaker 4: and we came out of that really focused on the
13:17
Speaker 4: day of head So that was a profound moment. And
13:23
Speaker 4: if you're unaware that that took place, that's one of
13:26
Speaker 4: the moments I chose to just kind of remind everybody
13:29
Speaker 4: that they were able to take part in this really
13:32
Speaker 4: touching memorial to the wife of an astronaut and listen,
13:36
Speaker 4: here's why I think it's important because we're all people.
13:40
Speaker 4: These aren't robots out there performing these missions. These are
13:43
Speaker 4: human beings. That's what makes Artemis two a very very
13:47
Speaker 4: special mission. Artemis one was great, it was a fantastic
13:50
Speaker 4: technological achievement, but it had no human beings on board.
13:54
Speaker 3: It did pave the way for.
13:55
Speaker 4: This mission, but this mission is special because humans are involved,
14:01
Speaker 4: and therefore that's a little piece of each and every
14:03
Speaker 4: one of us out there on that space capsule out
14:08
Speaker 4: there on the far side of the Moon, further than
14:10
Speaker 4: humanity has ever been from its home before. They because
14:15
Speaker 4: of their human experience, something that's very relatable to the
14:19
Speaker 4: rest of us, take a little piece of all of
14:22
Speaker 4: us on this journey, and they take us there to
14:25
Speaker 4: this point, and they sit back epic moon photos as
14:31
Speaker 4: they made the flyby, and they are incredible shots of
14:35
Speaker 4: our home world looking tiny compared to the ever present
14:40
Speaker 4: moon that's right in front of them. These pictures are
14:44
Speaker 4: really not describable.
14:45
Speaker 3: I mean.
14:47
Speaker 4: In an emotive sense. You really have to just see them.
14:52
Speaker 4: But I will tell you go find them, go look
14:54
Speaker 4: at them. If you have not seen them yet. They're
14:56
Speaker 4: ubiquitous on social media also, so I imagine that most
14:59
Speaker 4: people have them. But when you see them, or if
15:03
Speaker 4: you're seeing them right now, think about the words of
15:07
Speaker 4: Christina Cook as she was seeing basically that same scene
15:12
Speaker 4: with her own human eyes, where she said it was
15:15
Speaker 4: this is a quote quote it was an incredible experience.
15:19
Speaker 4: I just had an overwhelming sense of being moved by
15:24
Speaker 4: looking back at the moon. And then she went on
15:27
Speaker 4: to describe how it wasn't just about how the moon
15:31
Speaker 4: looked or how the Earth looked, but the vast sea
15:36
Speaker 4: of inky black darkness that surrounded the Earth when she
15:41
Speaker 4: was close by, that surrounded the moon when she was
15:44
Speaker 4: out there, and just how isolated and alone we all
15:48
Speaker 4: are on planet Earth, but yet how common that makes
15:53
Speaker 4: all of us? Right, We share that pale blue dot.
15:57
Speaker 3: As a home. And this is something that so many
16:00
Speaker 3: astronauts have talked about.
16:02
Speaker 4: When they have this what some called the overlook effect,
16:05
Speaker 4: it just is a life changing moment where they see
16:07
Speaker 4: the whole world from space and it completely changes their
16:11
Speaker 4: perspective on everything.
16:13
Speaker 3: Really neat fact that Christina Cook.
16:15
Speaker 4: Expressed that, so yes, all manner of scientific accomplishments, all
16:19
Speaker 4: matter of technical accomplishments. But two moments that stood out
16:22
Speaker 4: to me that I'd like to talk about is the
16:24
Speaker 4: naming of the crater for Reid Weisman's wife, and then
16:28
Speaker 4: also that view that Christina Cook describes so well of
16:34
Speaker 4: the Earth and the moon in the inky black sky more.
16:37
Speaker 1: Made of stars. Right after this, following up on a
17:01
Speaker 1: few of those things, one the crater thing and everything
17:04
Speaker 1: that you're talking about, as far as the emotion and
17:06
Speaker 1: the humanity of it and things. It was one of
17:09
Speaker 1: those things where I heard from a number of people.
17:13
Speaker 1: I was getting text messages from people saying they named
17:16
Speaker 1: a creator Carol Crater, and I couldn't even joke about it.
17:20
Speaker 1: I wanted to make jokes about, oh yeah, it's after me.
17:22
Speaker 1: That's they love made of stars. But it was having
17:26
Speaker 1: to really put out there, no, no, this is about
17:29
Speaker 1: his deceased wife and being able to do that to
17:32
Speaker 1: honor her. I do wonder it's not a common you
17:36
Speaker 1: mentioned the spelling. It's not a common spelling for a
17:38
Speaker 1: woman's name. It's very much a typically you know, a surname,
17:44
Speaker 1: so possibly named after you know, a relative, maybe from
17:48
Speaker 1: the past. I don't know the origin of it. I
17:50
Speaker 1: could speculate on it, but she could. She could have,
17:54
Speaker 1: you know, had that name for that reason, which means
17:56
Speaker 1: we could have some common ancestry. I don't know, but
17:59
Speaker 1: I just kind of thought it was a unique spelling
18:02
Speaker 1: for it. And you know, certainly one day when you
18:05
Speaker 1: and I get invited to go out and walk around
18:06
Speaker 1: on the moon, we'll go visit that. I think that
18:08
Speaker 1: would be a cool place for us to go and
18:10
Speaker 1: stand in Carol Crater, I mean, why not? So that
18:13
Speaker 1: was one part of it following up. But the other
18:15
Speaker 1: thing talking about this stuff that Christina Cook is saying,
18:18
Speaker 1: the being overwhelmed by it, and you talked about astronauts
18:22
Speaker 1: referencing this. This is something that, you know, William Shatner
18:26
Speaker 1: in his couple of minutes in space experienced as he
18:29
Speaker 1: got up and just saw the vast nothingness that was
18:32
Speaker 1: out there, and all I can think about and anytime
18:36
Speaker 1: you if you've ever been to a place that's away
18:40
Speaker 1: from city lights, that's truly dark at night, if you've
18:43
Speaker 1: ever been somewhere that you could step outside and there's
18:46
Speaker 1: no street lights and there's no houses nearby, and you're
18:50
Speaker 1: just there in absolute pitch darkness, there can be a
18:53
Speaker 1: creepiness and uneasiness to it. And I think this is
18:55
Speaker 1: also part of that experience that they have. And that's
18:58
Speaker 1: not kind of what Shatner reference about how it kind
19:02
Speaker 1: of scared him and it, you know, it made him
19:04
Speaker 1: kind of regret even going up there. I'm sure these
19:07
Speaker 1: astronauts probably will not come home with regret for going
19:10
Speaker 1: up there and doing this, But that was just kind
19:12
Speaker 1: of another thing, another takeaway from it. But and then
19:16
Speaker 1: hearing you talk about, you know, looking back at Earth
19:19
Speaker 1: and all these things, and you know, the pilot on
19:22
Speaker 1: this mission, Victor Glover, was the person who they nominated
19:26
Speaker 1: to sort of give a message on Easter as they
19:30
Speaker 1: were going into Easter weekend and that video. It's just
19:33
Speaker 1: kind of unique because they're all there together and they
19:36
Speaker 1: just sort of floated the microphone to him. Before they
19:39
Speaker 1: even got to yeah, he's gonna take this, it was
19:42
Speaker 1: already just like, yeah, we're going to just send this
19:45
Speaker 1: over to him and let him handle it. And he
19:46
Speaker 1: delivered this amazing message about you know, this is this
19:50
Speaker 1: perfect oasis that we have to live in here on
19:54
Speaker 1: in the middle of the universe, but here on Earth
19:57
Speaker 1: we have all of that and how we really should
20:00
Speaker 1: be looking out for each other and taking care of
20:02
Speaker 1: each other because you know, everything beyond this planet is
20:06
Speaker 1: you know, not safe for us to live in, but
20:09
Speaker 1: we're here in this perfect place that we can live in.
20:12
Speaker 1: And it was a great message. I heard messages from
20:16
Speaker 1: you know, politicians and ministers and ministers who are politicians
20:19
Speaker 1: that were not nearly as on point for an Easter message,
20:26
Speaker 1: but it was just it was great hearing him say that,
20:28
Speaker 1: and it kind of ties into all these things that
20:30
Speaker 1: we're talking about.
20:31
Speaker 4: Well, you know, the amazing thing is and from from
20:35
Speaker 4: all the things you described, I think this is true.
20:37
Speaker 4: I think William Shatner got a really kind of a
20:39
Speaker 4: hard time online it's not that anybody gives anybody a hard.
20:43
Speaker 3: Time online or anything with the comments.
20:45
Speaker 1: That's so rare. It's really rare.
20:47
Speaker 3: Yeah.
20:48
Speaker 4: But anyway, so Shatner did get kind of a hard
20:51
Speaker 4: time for his comments about space, and he said, you know,
20:53
Speaker 4: it felt like death.
20:55
Speaker 3: It felt you know.
20:56
Speaker 4: But here's the thing I think is true for all
20:59
Speaker 4: of these people. They experience something profound. That's how it
21:05
Speaker 4: manifest with William Shatner. But I think it manifests differently
21:09
Speaker 4: for everyone. But the one thing that's common is they
21:13
Speaker 4: all have some sort of a profound experience when they're
21:18
Speaker 4: in that situation and they see that view of the
21:22
Speaker 4: Earth from a distance and they realize, again, as you said,
21:27
Speaker 4: looking around at the rest of the surroundings, that are
21:30
Speaker 4: just absolutely savage in terms of our survivability in those spaces,
21:36
Speaker 4: and yet you have this perfectly tuned oasis, just perfect
21:43
Speaker 4: for us to live on.
21:44
Speaker 1: And in Shatner's defense, it can you know, when you
21:47
Speaker 1: want to compare these four astronauts and William Shatner and
21:51
Speaker 1: everyone else really that's gone up on one of those
21:55
Speaker 1: Blue Origin missions, the man is in his nineties. I mean,
21:58
Speaker 1: it's just different, and he's in a different place and
22:01
Speaker 1: different mindset and all those things. So that's another aspect
22:04
Speaker 1: of it. The other thing kind of tying back to
22:07
Speaker 1: our conversation about the media and social media and all
22:10
Speaker 1: those things. And I think one of the things that's
22:13
Speaker 1: been so cool about this, this new endeavor, revisiting the endeavor,
22:19
Speaker 1: but it's a new mission obviously, is the fact that
22:23
Speaker 1: we do have what what just feels like real time
22:27
Speaker 1: video audio of the mission kind of it, and we
22:31
Speaker 1: just feel like we're just getting these little drop ends
22:33
Speaker 1: and if you're in the right place, if you're on
22:35
Speaker 1: you know, the NASA app, you're able to kind of
22:41
Speaker 1: follow everything that's happening. We're getting everything, every little detail,
22:45
Speaker 1: it seems like, of what's going on, and that's been
22:47
Speaker 1: pretty fascinating just we're just getting these little drop ends,
22:50
Speaker 1: you know, they're just up there doing their work, and
22:53
Speaker 1: we watched them take showers and all and all this
22:55
Speaker 1: talk of toilets and this kind of stuff, and it's like, well,
22:58
Speaker 1: showers not the right word, back, I guess is the word.
23:02
Speaker 1: But anyway, it's just been kind of cool to see
23:06
Speaker 1: this all playing out almost in real time. And I
23:09
Speaker 1: think that's the other part of this is you can
23:12
Speaker 1: only watch so much. You can't just be awake for this,
23:15
Speaker 1: you know, for the ten straight days. So some people
23:18
Speaker 1: are catching some of it and missing some of it.
23:20
Speaker 1: And I think that's all aspects of it too, and
23:22
Speaker 1: you're kind of getting it through the filter of social
23:25
Speaker 1: media over time. But the one the things that you
23:27
Speaker 1: picked to talk about are obviously the very important parts
23:31
Speaker 1: of it. The science is there, and over time we're
23:33
Speaker 1: going to talk about the science. We got plenty of
23:35
Speaker 1: time for the science to be scienced, right.
23:38
Speaker 4: Yeah, And so so many people say, well, why do
23:42
Speaker 4: we have to send people out into space when we
23:44
Speaker 4: have such good robotics, we have such you know, we
23:46
Speaker 4: can do this without risking human lives and friends if
23:51
Speaker 4: we don't go. If we don't go, then we don't
23:56
Speaker 4: have these visceral experiences. And what Wes just described, we've
24:00
Speaker 4: had that stream on here at the Space Science Center,
24:03
Speaker 4: live and running twenty four hours a day. So there's
24:07
Speaker 4: a dedicated monitor out there and we've just been streaming
24:11
Speaker 4: into this monitor. So when we're here during the work day,
24:14
Speaker 4: we're passing this monitor. We all stop to listen to
24:16
Speaker 4: what's whatever's going on. But as Wes described, it's like
24:20
Speaker 4: they've taken us with them. That's the beautiful thing about
24:24
Speaker 4: this mission. Because of the of the ubiquitous coverage, it
24:28
Speaker 4: kind of feels like we all got to go like
24:30
Speaker 4: we're there right and and so you know the in
24:34
Speaker 4: the Apollo era, they had a phrase that they used,
24:37
Speaker 4: they said for all mankind. We're here for all mankind. Well,
24:41
Speaker 4: that's very similar to what's happening right now. The Artemis
24:45
Speaker 4: crew is literally there for all mankind, and so that
24:49
Speaker 4: we can vicariously live the experience of this fantastic trip
24:54
Speaker 4: around the moon, and we just can't live that vicariously
24:59
Speaker 4: through a robot, through some kind of a probe. I
25:03
Speaker 4: am very much an advocate of you know, of course
25:07
Speaker 4: automated missions and robots exploring places. Sure, that's great, But
25:11
Speaker 4: I'm also a very big advocate of continuing the human
25:15
Speaker 4: spaceflight program because that's where we get this sense that
25:19
Speaker 4: Wes and I are talking about. In living this experience
25:23
Speaker 4: along with other human beings, suddenly it puts us in
25:27
Speaker 4: that seat to some extent, It puts us at that
25:30
Speaker 4: window to some extent because when people are describing that,
25:34
Speaker 4: we can understand how that's making them feel and what
25:37
Speaker 4: that might be like to experience that, and that's a
25:40
Speaker 4: very important point for human for the continuation of human spaceflight.
25:44
Speaker 1: Well and then also, you know, we could send robots up,
25:47
Speaker 1: but robots would necessarily do what we need in preparing
25:52
Speaker 1: for humans to eventually live and be like working on
25:56
Speaker 1: the surface of the Moon, this mission is not just
25:59
Speaker 1: for all mankind. And it's also we're going back for good.
26:03
Speaker 1: And there's that mindset. And just to point out we talk,
26:08
Speaker 1: I bring it up. I feel like probably more than
26:11
Speaker 1: maybe even necessary, but well I do think it's necessary.
26:13
Speaker 1: But we're in space race again. There are other people
26:16
Speaker 1: who want to get there before we do and start
26:19
Speaker 1: building before we do. And honestly, I don't know that
26:22
Speaker 1: they have any sort of slogans about doing this for
26:25
Speaker 1: all mankind. I don't know that that's their intention. I
26:27
Speaker 1: don't know what they know. They want to do things
26:30
Speaker 1: for them, and I mean, so just knowing that it
26:35
Speaker 1: is important that we're sending people up and preparing them
26:38
Speaker 1: and doing these sorts of tests so that we know
26:40
Speaker 1: what people are capable of once they get there. So
26:44
Speaker 1: now as they're getting ready to return home, and again
26:47
Speaker 1: we record this on Thursdays, So tomorrow's the day tomorrow evening.
26:52
Speaker 1: It's more than twenty four hours out for us as
26:56
Speaker 1: we're recording this, But kind of what can everybody expect?
27:00
Speaker 1: I'll be honest, And one of the things that I
27:01
Speaker 1: really missed. I mean, I knew that we were going
27:03
Speaker 1: to get the passes around the Earth to help kind
27:08
Speaker 1: of sling shot them up there. I didn't realize though,
27:12
Speaker 1: that people would be able to see that, as you know,
27:14
Speaker 1: people could see them. I had a friend in Charlotte
27:17
Speaker 1: who sent me photos of like, hey, here's artimis just
27:20
Speaker 1: it just went over my house and I thought, oh
27:22
Speaker 1: my gosh, So what what can everyone expect? I mean,
27:26
Speaker 1: what's what's the next you know, twenty four plus hours
27:30
Speaker 1: look like.
27:31
Speaker 4: So it's important to remember that as we're recording this,
27:35
Speaker 4: we're not necessarily spiking the football yet because they're not home, right,
27:39
Speaker 4: but they still have to get home. That vehicle is
27:41
Speaker 4: going to be coming back like a screaming bullet from space.
27:46
Speaker 4: They're not going to do multiple orbits around the Earth first.
27:48
Speaker 4: They're just going to come in effect straight in. It
27:53
Speaker 4: is it is, you know, a partial pass around the Earth.
27:56
Speaker 4: They are going to use the upper the very upper
27:58
Speaker 4: layer of Earth's atmosphere to slow them down.
28:01
Speaker 3: But when they make contact with.
28:02
Speaker 4: Earth's atmosphere, they're going to be traveling at something on
28:04
Speaker 4: the order of twenty five thousand miles per hour. Now,
28:08
Speaker 4: if you've been following the entirety of the Artemis program,
28:13
Speaker 4: you know that Artemis one, when it came back in,
28:15
Speaker 4: had some trouble with the heat shields. The heat shields
28:19
Speaker 4: are the ablative material on the bottom of the capsule
28:23
Speaker 4: that they leaned forward facing into the atmosphere to absorb
28:27
Speaker 4: the heat from the friction of that fast moving capsule
28:31
Speaker 4: with the upper atmosphere. When they did that on Artemis one,
28:35
Speaker 4: it did come in and land safely ostensibly, but the
28:40
Speaker 4: heat shields were heavily damaged. And in part this took
28:44
Speaker 4: place because there were gases trapped between the heat tiles
28:48
Speaker 4: themselves and the underpart of the capsule, and when those
28:53
Speaker 4: high temperatures began to occur, that gas expanded rapidly, bubbled
28:58
Speaker 4: out and formed.
29:00
Speaker 3: Many of the heat tiles. Now we think we.
29:04
Speaker 4: Have all this fixed, but we haven't actually flown another
29:08
Speaker 4: mission since that one. So in the next little bit
29:12
Speaker 4: more than twenty four hours. All eyes are going to
29:14
Speaker 4: be on the heat shields on the underside of the
29:17
Speaker 4: Orion capsule as it comes in at such a great
29:20
Speaker 4: velocity from outer space. Now, that's going to happen somewhere
29:25
Speaker 4: around eight pm on Friday evening, April tenth, twenty twenty six.
29:29
Speaker 4: And again, if you're listening in the future, you might
29:32
Speaker 4: know more than we do now.
29:34
Speaker 3: Well.
29:34
Speaker 4: As Wes said, this will be a time where I
29:37
Speaker 4: am I am also going to fold my hands in
29:39
Speaker 4: prayer for those folks as they come back in because
29:43
Speaker 4: we really want to see everything go smoothly.
29:45
Speaker 3: We want safety to be the best outcome of this entire.
29:50
Speaker 4: Mission, and it's going to be a moment that's going
29:53
Speaker 4: to be a little bit it's going to be a
29:55
Speaker 4: little bit concerning in the sense that it's always concerning.
29:58
Speaker 4: It's always a dangerous maneuver. And yes, that is one
30:01
Speaker 4: of the areas where Artemis one had some issues was
30:04
Speaker 4: on the heat tile, so we're watching that. NASA Flight
30:08
Speaker 4: Director Rick Henfling said this All of the science equipment
30:12
Speaker 4: and cameras and tablets and reference material that got unstowed
30:16
Speaker 4: in support of the flyby have now all been put
30:19
Speaker 4: away and we have to pack up our suitcases and
30:24
Speaker 4: get ready to come home. So basically what the Artemis
30:27
Speaker 4: two crew is doing right now as we're speaking is
30:30
Speaker 4: they're doing that. They're putting everything away, They're getting everything
30:33
Speaker 4: stowed for that re entry so that everything inside the
30:36
Speaker 4: capsule is safe. Then over the next eighteen hours or so,
30:41
Speaker 4: they're going to be preparing themselves. They'll be getting in
30:43
Speaker 4: the re entry suits. They'll be making sure all the
30:46
Speaker 4: seats are back in the configuration that they need them
30:49
Speaker 4: to be in in order to do their re entry
30:51
Speaker 4: and out, they'll get themselves in those seats and ready
30:56
Speaker 4: to go. The toilet should be stowed, sure, the lids down,
31:00
Speaker 4: whatever that is, so anyway, so they'll they'll have the
31:03
Speaker 4: they'll have some time to do that. And that's what
31:04
Speaker 4: they're doing as we record, and we just wish them
31:07
Speaker 4: all the best and they have our thoughts and prayers
31:10
Speaker 4: as they go through this next important phase of returning home.
31:14
Speaker 1: What's the current status of the toilet do we know?
31:16
Speaker 1: I know there's been some issues with that.
31:17
Speaker 3: Poor toilet functioning but not draining the right way.
31:23
Speaker 4: Yeah, And at one point everybody got very excited because
31:27
Speaker 4: there was a giant column of p shall we say,
31:33
Speaker 4: extending from the vehicle.
31:34
Speaker 3: It was frozen urines sticking out and everybody's taking pictures like, oh,
31:37
Speaker 3: look it's actually working. Urine's going outside.
31:41
Speaker 4: The space kept anyway, So it didn't it didn't drain
31:45
Speaker 4: quite the right way. So you know, like you know
31:48
Speaker 4: sometimes when you at home, the you know, the roots
31:51
Speaker 4: of a tree, you might go through your through your
31:53
Speaker 4: sewer line and kind of plug things. And they're kind
31:55
Speaker 4: of in that boat. They're operating in that mode right now.
31:58
Speaker 4: But you know, they do have alternatives to the toilet.
32:01
Speaker 3: They didn't. They didn't get there and go, oh, no,
32:03
Speaker 3: we don't have a toilet. We have no idea what
32:04
Speaker 3: we're going to do.
32:05
Speaker 4: No, they knew, they knew, and they had They had
32:07
Speaker 4: all the equipment they needed to bypass the toilet if
32:10
Speaker 4: that was necessary. Remember, friends, there were no toilets on
32:14
Speaker 4: the Apollo capsules. Sometime when Wes and I are not
32:18
Speaker 4: recording a podcast, come down and ask me about that.
32:21
Speaker 3: I have some stories from the Apollo.
32:23
Speaker 4: Fifteen mission that are just fantastic about that particular eventuality.
32:28
Speaker 1: But they did successfully launch some of the urine into space.
32:32
Speaker 4: Right, some of them did get out, some of it
32:34
Speaker 4: made that frozen column of urine out on the outside.
32:37
Speaker 1: That's important because I don't know that there's anything more
32:39
Speaker 1: mammalian than you know, marking something with your urine. So
32:42
Speaker 1: I feel like if they didn't do that, you know, hey,
32:45
Speaker 1: we're marking this part of space.
32:47
Speaker 3: Then they're done that. Here's the marker.
32:51
Speaker 1: Here it is just in case another another mammal comes by,
32:55
Speaker 1: or you know, a lizard person, whatever it's. You got
32:57
Speaker 1: to make sure we don't know what's going to be
32:59
Speaker 1: flying by next. For that more made of stars. Right
33:03
Speaker 1: after this, we have talked a lot about the the Oh,
33:27
Speaker 1: we got a comment. We're gonna see this comment. Maybe
33:29
Speaker 1: we're gonna see it, maybe we're not. Here's the comment.
33:31
Speaker 1: And then you sent me a text the other day
33:33
Speaker 1: that just said, uh, you know R I P in
33:35
Speaker 1: reference to the comet. However, there's another comment.
33:41
Speaker 3: Just when you just when you.
33:44
Speaker 4: Just when you thought your best hope for a comment
33:46
Speaker 4: had died because it got too close to the sun,
33:48
Speaker 4: there's another comment.
33:49
Speaker 1: There's another and this other comment has nothing to do
33:52
Speaker 1: with urine, right, we know that for a fact. Frozen urine.
33:55
Speaker 3: Okay, don't give me any of the chemistry.
33:57
Speaker 4: We could probably talk through some chemistry, but no, I'll
34:00
Speaker 4: extensibly no, as far as we know, no nothing to
34:03
Speaker 4: do with urin So all right. So the first comment
34:05
Speaker 4: that we were talking about was the Cruits Sungrazer comment,
34:09
Speaker 4: which we talked about on Made of Stars Live by
34:10
Speaker 4: the Way Comet Maps, And basically the outcome there is
34:15
Speaker 4: it got too close to the Sun and it did
34:17
Speaker 4: not survive as close pass to the Sun. So it
34:20
Speaker 4: just it just vaporized and became part of the interstellar medium.
34:24
Speaker 4: All right, So so long.
34:27
Speaker 3: And rip to comment maps.
34:29
Speaker 4: But commet pan Stars, which has a catalog number of
34:32
Speaker 4: c slash twenty twenty five R three, is making a
34:36
Speaker 4: close approach to the Sun right now and.
34:38
Speaker 3: In the morning sky.
34:39
Speaker 4: Friends, it is putting on a bit of a show.
34:42
Speaker 4: People are getting beautiful views of it through cameras and
34:45
Speaker 4: through telescopes right now, and it is able to be
34:49
Speaker 4: seen in the morning sky near the constellation of Pegasus.
34:53
Speaker 3: If you want to.
34:53
Speaker 4: Have a star map of that, check out spaceweather dot com.
34:58
Speaker 4: Spaceweather dot com has your star maps available. For the
35:01
Speaker 4: next several nights, I plan to go out and look
35:03
Speaker 4: in the morning, and I said several next several nights.
35:07
Speaker 4: Remember it's a morning sky object. You'll have to get
35:10
Speaker 4: up prior to sunrise and go out and look toward
35:12
Speaker 4: the eastern horizon to see that well, and.
35:17
Speaker 1: All of that info will be there on the website
35:19
Speaker 1: for being able to see it. But we're talking about
35:21
Speaker 1: it being a naked eye visible in the morning, and
35:25
Speaker 1: that's that's what we're talking about.
35:26
Speaker 4: Well, so maybe not naked eye when it's in the
35:28
Speaker 4: Northern hemisphere, but then it's going to make a path
35:31
Speaker 4: it's close passed by the Sun, which is about a
35:33
Speaker 4: half an au or about half the distance from Earth
35:35
Speaker 4: the Sun, and after it does, it's going to be
35:38
Speaker 4: visible in the southern hemisphere and that's when it's expected
35:41
Speaker 4: to be a naked eye object.
35:43
Speaker 3: And so we won't see that.
35:44
Speaker 4: Part here in the Northern hemisphere, but we will be
35:46
Speaker 4: looking forward to all the pictures from your relatives down
35:49
Speaker 4: there in Australia and other places south of the equator.
35:53
Speaker 4: And Nick James from the British Astronomical Association says this,
35:57
Speaker 4: if you want to catch the comet, your best chance
36:00
Speaker 4: the next is over the next week or so. Now
36:02
Speaker 4: he's saying that for our Northern Hemisphere brethren, he says
36:07
Speaker 4: goes on to say further, you will need to get
36:09
Speaker 4: up early, a couple of hours before sunrise and have
36:11
Speaker 4: a good low eastern horizon. So that's that's for us
36:14
Speaker 4: in the Northern Hemisphere, and apparently in the Southern Hemisphere
36:17
Speaker 4: they're just gonna have to go out right after the
36:19
Speaker 4: sunsets in the evening and it's just gonna be right there.
36:21
Speaker 3: That's after a mix.
36:22
Speaker 4: It's pass around the sun and is naked eye visible.
36:25
Speaker 4: So we're looking forward to that comment and for photographs
36:29
Speaker 4: of that comment coming from the Southern hemisphere.
36:32
Speaker 1: Do we want to talk about the Texas Fireball? Do
36:35
Speaker 1: we want to tease that for next week's show?
36:37
Speaker 3: Well, so we have.
36:38
Speaker 4: We've had numerous stories about the Texas Fireball. It turns
36:42
Speaker 4: out it was really weird from a chemical standpoint. I
36:45
Speaker 4: will simply tell you this to end up the podcast
36:47
Speaker 4: and maybe tease the next one is there's a very
36:50
Speaker 4: famous university in the city of Houston right near where
36:53
Speaker 4: this object fell. They have dedicated a whole research team
36:58
Speaker 4: to the found fragments of this weird raw from space.
37:02
Speaker 4: We will talk about that next time on Nade of Stars.
37:06
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about you guys there at the
37:09
Speaker 1: Kalamba State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center. I know
37:12
Speaker 1: you said anybody can come by and just check out
37:14
Speaker 1: your live stream going on. They can come twenty four
37:18
Speaker 1: hours a day, right, you guys are just open all
37:19
Speaker 1: hours of the night for them.
37:21
Speaker 4: Yeah, you can just pressure your face right up against
37:22
Speaker 4: the glass and look through there and see the stream.
37:25
Speaker 1: Just kind of peeple you're there. It's easier than doing
37:27
Speaker 1: this at home. Right.
37:29
Speaker 3: It'll be the one TV that's on in the gallery
37:31
Speaker 3: so you can see that. Yeah.
37:33
Speaker 4: I was actually here quite late last night, and you
37:35
Speaker 4: know you did hear the haunting voices of mission control
37:38
Speaker 4: coming through the exhibit gallery. But in addition to that, friends,
37:41
Speaker 4: we have a great new show in our Ominisphere Planetarium.
37:44
Speaker 4: It is Dinosaur a Survival Story. So come check out
37:48
Speaker 4: Dinosaur a Survival Story. There's sections in that show where
37:51
Speaker 4: you feel like you're actually walking with the dinosaurs right
37:54
Speaker 4: through the fields of the ancient world. And such a
37:57
Speaker 4: cool thing about that is it's a great show for kids.
38:00
Speaker 4: It's made for younger audiences, that's targeted for them. But
38:04
Speaker 4: there are some great visuals in it that are plenty
38:07
Speaker 4: entertaining for the adults as well. Come down and see
38:09
Speaker 4: our new show in the Atmosphere Theater, Dinosaur, a Survival Story.
38:13
Speaker 1: Shan and I thank you for listening and we will
38:16
Speaker 1: do this again next weeks. Overhead Door Company of Columbus
38:26
Speaker 1: has all of your garage door needs covered. Residential and
38:29
Speaker 1: commercial service and repairs. If you need a new garage
38:32
Speaker 1: door you're just looking to upgrade or repair your current door,
38:36
Speaker 1: Overhead Door Company of Columbus has you covered. Plus they've
38:39
Speaker 1: got your emergency repairs or service covered as well. Seven
38:43
Speaker 1: oh six three five eight forty five hundred seven oh
38:47
Speaker 1: six three five eight forty five hundred Odccolumbus dot com