Latest / Best of Business / Josh Eoraki: Stardome astronomer ahead of the first all-civilian private spacewalk

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Josh Eoraki: Stardome astronomer ahead of the first all-civilian private spacewalk · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News talks'd be follow
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  Speaker 1: this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio
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  Speaker 1: Heller Duple Set.
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  Speaker 2: We are about to have a first out in space.
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  Speaker 2: It's the first ever private citizens who will do a
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  Speaker 2: space walk, as in like normal punters like you, well,
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  Speaker 2: semi normal, that's all billionaires, but otherwise normal punters like
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  Speaker 2: you and I not actually astronauts. It's two billionaires who've
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  Speaker 2: paid to go up to space with SpaceX and do
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  Speaker 2: the space walk, which actually is about the most dangerous
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  Speaker 2: thing that you can do once you're up in space.
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  Speaker 2: Josh Aurraki is Star Dome's astronomer and with us right
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  Speaker 2: now on this.
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  Speaker 3: Hey, Josh Gelder, how's it going well?
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  Speaker 2: Thank you? Would you do this?
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  Speaker 1: Ah?
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  Speaker 3: I mean, if I was given the chance, I honestly
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  Speaker 3: probably would just for the views, but I think the
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  Speaker 3: technicalities it's a pretty scary thing to be doing in space.
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  Speaker 2: Yet why is it so dangerous?
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  Speaker 3: I mean, yes, space is a vacuum, so you know,
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  Speaker 3: there's no air. You would suffocate. It's extremely hot if
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  Speaker 3: you're in the sun, it's freezing if you're in the shadow.
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  Speaker 3: So it's kind of just the most in hospital environments
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  Speaker 3: in humans, and you know to combat that you need
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  Speaker 3: you know, really heavily heavy levels of protection. So you know,
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  Speaker 3: you need a space suit, you need all the stuff
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  Speaker 3: to protect you, but not just a space that, you
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  Speaker 3: also need all the stuff that keeps you alive, so
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  Speaker 3: you know, water, oxygen, pretty much everything.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, now it sounds like these. So with the NASA guys,
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  Speaker 2: when they go out for a space walk, they've got
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  Speaker 2: jet packs attached to them, right, So presumably that is
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  Speaker 2: if they somehow become untethered and float off, they can
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  Speaker 2: zoom back to wherever they need to get back to,
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  Speaker 2: not Earth obviously, just the Shuttle.
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  Speaker 3: But these guys don't need that, no, So these are
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  Speaker 3: very different. So when you see like astronauts on the
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  Speaker 3: space station do walk, so they have their EMU units
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  Speaker 3: which is basically like it's a jetpack basically, but even
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  Speaker 3: with that, they're basically tethered to the space station so
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  Speaker 3: there's no risk of them you know, flying off. But
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  Speaker 3: what we're gonna what we're going to see tonight is
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  Speaker 3: basically these spacesuits modified versions of suits that they already use,
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  Speaker 3: so they're quite mobile. You can move pretty well in them.
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  Speaker 3: But they don't have that big bulky backpack. So to
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  Speaker 3: get those life support systems, you know, oxygen all that,
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  Speaker 3: they're basically going to be on umbilical cords. So they're
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  Speaker 3: going to be teared into the spacecraft and that's going
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  Speaker 3: to provide them with the life support systems as opposed
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  Speaker 3: to those massive backpacks that you kind of usually see
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  Speaker 3: in space.
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  Speaker 2: Which is good, right because it means if they were
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  Speaker 2: somehow to let go accidentally, they would still be able
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  Speaker 2: to be hauled back in.
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  Speaker 3: You'd assume, yeah, exactly, so you'll tell it to your spacecraft.
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  Speaker 3: There's no risk of them, you know, floating off in
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  Speaker 3: a you know, soundra bullock S gravity moment.
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  Speaker 2: But yeah, Josh, listen, they're going up there to test
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  Speaker 2: these spacesuits, right, They've got to do the twisting and
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  Speaker 2: all that stuff. Would you trust anything made by Elon
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  Speaker 2: Musk the first time around?
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  Speaker 3: I mean it's he's obviously a very controversial person.
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  Speaker 2: But didn't you see what's happened to the teaselers.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, you know, I can speak to space, I
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  Speaker 3: can't speak to cars.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, but do you know, like this's kind of just
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  Speaker 2: if there's a pattern, you know, like autopilot on the
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  Speaker 2: car doesn't work, spacesuit bursts.
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  Speaker 3: I don't know, what are you Yeah, I put it
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  Speaker 3: this way. I don't trust us, but I trust the
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  Speaker 3: engineers at SpaceX. I mean the amount of work and
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  Speaker 3: advancements and terms of rocketry and space expression that they've
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  Speaker 3: done in the last years, it's really incredible. And you
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  Speaker 3: look at the speed of what they're being able to
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  Speaker 3: do it, it's really amazing. So it's you know, the
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  Speaker 3: thousands of workers at SpaceX that are doing all the
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  Speaker 3: hard work for me.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, that's a fair point. Do you think this
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  Speaker 2: is going to take off? I mean, obviously at the
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  Speaker 2: moment it's the plaything of billionaires because of the costs
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  Speaker 2: and stuff like that. But in the future, do you
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  Speaker 2: think people are going to want to go up there
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  Speaker 2: and do this thing just for a bit of a laugh.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, it's always going to cost a lot of money.
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  Speaker 3: I don't think it's ever going to be, you know,
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  Speaker 3: as cheap as a plane ticket, as a billionaire might teut.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, it will be an industry. I think
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  Speaker 3: there will be an industry of tourism where you know,
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  Speaker 3: wealthy people can go to space. But the really is.
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  Speaker 3: No one really wants to go to space, you know,
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  Speaker 3: just for start, it's not necessarily a fun environment. I
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  Speaker 3: think it would be beautiful and amazing to experience, but
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  Speaker 3: as you know, as it being there for a long
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  Speaker 3: periods of time, it's just not a nice thing. It's
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  Speaker 3: really bad on the human body. There's a lot of isolation,
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  Speaker 3: and you know, you're literally away from everything that you know,
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  Speaker 3: so it's just the most unfamiliar environment that you can
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  Speaker 3: think of.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you'll bang on there. It's a little
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  Speaker 2: bit like going to an Antarctica, but even worse. Josh,
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  Speaker 2: thank you appreciate it is always good to talk to you.
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  Speaker 2: That's Josh Houraki, who is a Stardom's astronomer.
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