Latest / Made of Stars / American Exceptionalism in Space Exploration
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Warning. The following podcast contains an entertaining look at astronomy, physics,
- 0:04Speaker 1: and space news throughout the known universe. Listeners have been
- 0:07Speaker 1: known to learn about astronomical phenomenon, the scientific method, and
- 0:10Speaker 1: expanded vocabulary to include terms like quasar asterism and uranus. Listen,
- 0:15Speaker 1: that's your own risk.
- 0:16Speaker 2: Go ahead. When made of stars, made them stars.
- 0:26Speaker 3: Made sizes. When made of stars, you could be from
- 0:34Speaker 3: high they would New Mexicomus, where all stars.
- 0:43Speaker 4: When we are made of stars. I'm Wes Carol, joined
- 0:58Speaker 4: by my good friend doctor Sean Crue was an executive
- 1:00Speaker 4: director at Columbus State Universities Coca Cola Space Science Center.
- 1:04Speaker 2: Hayshan, Hey, Wes, it's great to be here today. We're
- 1:07Speaker 2: looking forward to an important holiday coming up, and well,
- 1:12Speaker 2: there's lots of these stories that tie into that.
- 1:14Speaker 4: Today we always talk about anniversaries that end in fives
- 1:18Speaker 4: and zeros, and especially when you get one of those
- 1:21Speaker 4: big rounded numbers like twenty five and fifty and one
- 1:25Speaker 4: of those kind of it's not really rounded, but you know,
- 1:27Speaker 4: double zeros or zeros on the end, it's a big anniversary.
- 1:32Speaker 4: Before we do that, though, because we got a lot
- 1:34Speaker 4: of patriotic stuff to talk about. I just want to
- 1:37Speaker 4: quickly mention this because something else has happened that is
- 1:43Speaker 4: pretty cool, and it's happened before, but it's happened again.
- 1:46Speaker 4: And I got an email at the beginning of the
- 1:49Speaker 4: week saying that we were a finalist in the twenty
- 1:54Speaker 4: twenty six Gabby Awards for Best Podcast Series. Thank you
- 2:00Speaker 4: to the Gab kind of one of those like I
- 2:04Speaker 4: was actually expecting the email maybe later than you know,
- 2:08Speaker 4: that would kind of give an update on who the
- 2:11Speaker 4: finalists were. I certainly didn't presume anything. I just kind of,
- 2:15Speaker 4: you know, thought an email was going to come and
- 2:17Speaker 4: just let everybody know who the finalists were. And when
- 2:20Speaker 4: I opened the email and I saw our names in there,
- 2:22Speaker 4: I was like, ah, nice and sent you or I
- 2:26Speaker 4: called you. I called you before I called Jill, for
- 2:29Speaker 4: whatever that's worth, just so that you know, you were
- 2:32Speaker 4: my first call about the boys were there when I
- 2:34Speaker 4: got it, and I was like, oh nice. But anyway,
- 2:38Speaker 4: it's certainly flattering. I sort of made a post online
- 2:42Speaker 4: about so I get to talk about fun space stuff
- 2:45Speaker 4: and interview astronauts with my good friend and you know,
- 2:50Speaker 4: and they sometimes give you awards for it. The awards
- 2:55Speaker 4: have always been kind of you know, in the in
- 2:57Speaker 4: the background, we talk about them because hey, thanks and
- 3:01Speaker 4: it's cool. But we do this because we like doing it.
- 3:05Speaker 4: And when I started a podcast company, it was this
- 3:07Speaker 4: was the flagship show. This was You were the first
- 3:10Speaker 4: call when I said, I'm thinking about doing this and
- 3:14Speaker 4: just completely as a separate entity on my own, and
- 3:17Speaker 4: you know, want to do this show, this version of
- 3:20Speaker 4: what we've been doing for a very long time talking
- 3:24Speaker 4: about space news and space things. And you were like,
- 3:27Speaker 4: I'm in, let's do it. And that's how I kicked
- 3:31Speaker 4: off this company. And then to be able to, you know,
- 3:36Speaker 4: get this email from the Georgia Association of Broadcasters to say, hey,
- 3:43Speaker 4: you have one of the best podcasts in the state
- 3:45Speaker 4: and we want to acknowledge you for it. Certainly flattering
- 3:49Speaker 4: and we'll find out in late September on your birthday,
- 3:52Speaker 4: no less, if we won the top prize. But we've
- 3:56Speaker 4: won it before. I think we won either the first
- 3:59Speaker 4: or second time that they gave out the Best Podcast
- 4:02Speaker 4: Series award only because we weren't entered in the previous year.
- 4:05Speaker 4: I think, I mean, we weren't even in the running then,
- 4:10Speaker 4: but I've won this, I've won an award from them.
- 4:13Speaker 4: This is my ninth time, and a lot of times
- 4:16Speaker 4: it's been covering Dragon con or weather events and things
- 4:20Speaker 4: like that. So again, flattering, humbling in so many ways
- 4:24Speaker 4: because you just kind of go what. But it's appreciated
- 4:29Speaker 4: very much, and I just excited that you and I
- 4:34Speaker 4: get to share this again.
- 4:36Speaker 2: If you feel humbled, let me just remind you that
- 4:40Speaker 2: you are actually a professional broadcast for my friend, well,
- 4:45Speaker 2: I'm a science teacher. I mean, I know, but.
- 4:48Speaker 4: You've been doing a version of this on the radio
- 4:51Speaker 4: or on a podcast for a very long time. You
- 4:54Speaker 4: and I've been doing it almost twenty years together. And
- 4:58Speaker 4: you were doing it on like we did a couple
- 5:02Speaker 4: while I was in Top forty radio. You popped in
- 5:04Speaker 4: at least once and we talked about something that was
- 5:07Speaker 4: going on. So you were doing it long before that.
- 5:11Speaker 4: And and I know you have a past in broadcasting.
- 5:15Speaker 4: So look, we were at the awards, we won the
- 5:19Speaker 4: top prize that night a couple of years ago, and
- 5:22Speaker 4: you were kind of like looking around the room going
- 5:24Speaker 4: I'm seeing all these people like Georgia broadcasters, and I
- 5:27Speaker 4: really don't feel like I belong in here and then
- 5:30Speaker 4: we won Best Podcast Series and I was like, Okay,
- 5:34Speaker 4: you won something that these other people didn't necessarily win tonight,
- 5:38Speaker 4: So yeah, you're in the club now.
- 5:40Speaker 2: So talk about imposter syndrome. I mean, this is like
- 5:44Speaker 2: the maximum imposter syndrome that I feel like I can have.
- 5:48Speaker 2: What was the size of our market again, I forgot
- 5:51Speaker 2: large market. Oh we're in the large market.
- 5:54Speaker 4: Okay, that's right, So some of those others are small market,
- 5:59Speaker 4: but you know, we were in large market.
- 6:01Speaker 2: So we're in large market. And we won an award
- 6:04Speaker 2: before and looks like maybe we're up for possibly winning
- 6:09Speaker 2: another award again. I mean, we're gonna win something, that's true.
- 6:12Speaker 4: We've won something late September. We don't know exactly what
- 6:16Speaker 4: we've won. We know the category and that we're getting something.
- 6:19Speaker 4: And I'm just disappointed that you're not going to be
- 6:21Speaker 4: at the award ceremony because it's your birthday and you've
- 6:25Speaker 4: had some other plans and that's.
- 6:26Speaker 2: What it's going to be, traveling overseas. You see, with
- 6:28Speaker 2: the family, we will be on the continent as they say.
- 6:31Speaker 4: That's right. But I'm happy to accept on our behalf
- 6:36Speaker 4: and on behalf of our friend Graham Hobson and Joey Williams,
- 6:40Speaker 4: who were both part of this show. You hear them
- 6:43Speaker 4: both before you hear either one of us on every episode,
- 6:47Speaker 4: so nice that we're kind of the four of us
- 6:50Speaker 4: or back there again.
- 6:51Speaker 2: So it's their work. Definitely tease up the expectation as
- 6:56Speaker 2: you listened to the podcast, right, yep, the anticipation, so yes.
- 7:00Speaker 4: So thanks to Graham and Joey and thanks to the
- 7:03Speaker 4: GAB for another opportunity to come and you know, eat
- 7:09Speaker 4: a nice meal and listen to people handout awards and
- 7:14Speaker 4: some speeches and all that fun stuff that goes with it.
- 7:17Speaker 4: So it's we're coming up on the two hundred and
- 7:20Speaker 4: fiftieth birthday of the US and a as Borat would say,
- 7:26Speaker 4: and it's a big holiday, it's a big weekend. It's
- 7:30Speaker 4: just everything lined up, you know, for it to be
- 7:32Speaker 4: on a Saturday. On top of everything else, it feels
- 7:37Speaker 4: like we should all be listening to Chicago at the
- 7:39Speaker 4: very least, right, I mean, just go to a park
- 7:43Speaker 4: and listen to Chicago. And I think I saw somewhere
- 7:45Speaker 4: it said this is the last time that song is
- 7:48Speaker 4: relevant for like eleven years, So you know, as far
- 7:52Speaker 4: as the specifics of this, which is it just happened.
- 7:55Speaker 4: It just happened this year like it was meant to be.
- 7:58Speaker 4: So we'll we got a few things to talk about,
- 8:02Speaker 4: and first and foremost, I think it's important that we
- 8:05Speaker 4: talk about the space program in America, the dominance of
- 8:10Speaker 4: it and everything that comes with it, because as much
- 8:14Speaker 4: as we are trying now to shift things as a
- 8:18Speaker 4: country and as NASA into the direction of where this
- 8:23Speaker 4: is a world accomplishment and the things that we're trying
- 8:26Speaker 4: to do, we're including other countries and that's great, and
- 8:29Speaker 4: European Space Agency on this next mission, and obviously we
- 8:33Speaker 4: took a Canadian around the Moon with us and doing
- 8:36Speaker 4: those things and looking at big picture and that's one
- 8:41Speaker 4: of the focuses now. I mean, there's certainly other focuses,
- 8:44Speaker 4: and colonizing the Moon, eventually colonizing Mars. These are all
- 8:48Speaker 4: ambitious things that are working towards in the future. But
- 8:53Speaker 4: there's a lot of American success to talk about when
- 8:57Speaker 4: it comes to where the space program started and even
- 9:00Speaker 4: where it's going.
- 9:02Speaker 2: Both Jeremy Hansen from Canada and Luca Parmaitano from the
- 9:06Speaker 2: Italian the Italian Space Agency or the European Space Agency.
- 9:10Speaker 2: Bona fide heroes, no question right, and so you know,
- 9:14Speaker 2: tip tip our hat to them. I'm actually very happy
- 9:17Speaker 2: that it was Luca. If we're going to pick somebody
- 9:19Speaker 2: from another country to go, just what I know about
- 9:22Speaker 2: Luca Parmaitano. He seems like the kind of guy that
- 9:25Speaker 2: I'm I'm very happy for that he's going to be
- 9:27Speaker 2: going on the next Artemis mission. I would say that
- 9:32Speaker 2: neither Canada or Italy are offering us a ride anytime soon.
- 9:36Speaker 2: That's the one thing I would say yes. And so
- 9:40Speaker 2: that's going to be kind of the theme of this
- 9:42Speaker 2: next segment in our podcast is simply, look, we we
- 9:47Speaker 2: do like to share the stage with these other countries.
- 9:50Speaker 2: We are very inclusive when we are trying to explore space.
- 9:55Speaker 2: We the United States, however, the United States, the state's
- 9:59Speaker 2: space pro is a reflection of excellence for our country.
- 10:04Speaker 2: And as we recognize this two hundred and fiftieth anniversary
- 10:08Speaker 2: of our nation, it's good to just pause for a
- 10:12Speaker 2: moment and just look back and say, you know, the
- 10:15Speaker 2: United States has contributed mightily in this area, many areas,
- 10:20Speaker 2: by the way, many areas, but this is a space podcast.
- 10:24Speaker 2: So we're going to talk about space. So, first of all,
- 10:27Speaker 2: America remains the only country on Earth to land astronauts
- 10:31Speaker 2: on the Moon. And yes, it happened between nineteen sixty
- 10:35Speaker 2: nine and nineteen seventy two, but we are rapidly preparing
- 10:38Speaker 2: to do it again. And that is a monumental accomplishment
- 10:44Speaker 2: for humankind. And so the fact that it was accomplished
- 10:49Speaker 2: by our country and we're celebrating our anniversary, I believe
- 10:53Speaker 2: it just it's worth stating. It's worth stating. It was
- 10:58Speaker 2: our it was our focus on exploration, it was our
- 11:03Speaker 2: commitment of resources, it was our talents and efforts. And yes,
- 11:09Speaker 2: some international people contributed, even during the Apollo program, but
- 11:12Speaker 2: it was really because the American people and the American
- 11:16Speaker 2: Space Agency and quite frankly, the American president at the time,
- 11:19Speaker 2: President Kennedy, decided we are going to do this and
- 11:22Speaker 2: we're going to get it done. And we were able
- 11:24Speaker 2: to get it done. So there we go, landing astronauts
- 11:27Speaker 2: on the moon. For those of you who still don't
- 11:31Speaker 2: believe we land on the moon, I just don't even
- 11:34Speaker 2: know how to address you, but you know, God bless you.
- 11:38Speaker 2: Keep listening to the podcast. All right, So America also
- 11:41Speaker 2: remains the only country on Earth to develop reusable orbital
- 11:46Speaker 2: spacecraft systems. And yes, I'm going to begin with the
- 11:51Speaker 2: Space Shuttle. Now, the Space Show was a partially reusable system,
- 11:54Speaker 2: not an entirely reusable system. That's just because the fuel
- 11:58Speaker 2: tank burnt up. But the solid rocket boosters and the
- 12:01Speaker 2: actual space plane itself, we called that the orbiter for
- 12:06Speaker 2: thirty years operated in its mode of reusability from nineteen
- 12:10Speaker 2: eighty one to twenty eleven, and it reutilized a It
- 12:15Speaker 2: utilized a reusable winged orbiter and the solid rocket boosters.
- 12:18Speaker 2: So there's that one. Of course, we know about SpaceX
- 12:21Speaker 2: Falcon nine. It's partially reusable two stage orbital system. SpaceX
- 12:27Speaker 2: Dragon is a reusable CAPSULEX SpaceX Starship. Still working on it,
- 12:32Speaker 2: but it's close to being in an operational mode. It's
- 12:37Speaker 2: a reusable vehicle. And don't forget Boeing. It's not Starliner,
- 12:41Speaker 2: by the way. We can't we can't count Starliner among
- 12:44Speaker 2: the crew. But Boeing. The X thirty seven B, which
- 12:47Speaker 2: is an uncrude reusable robotic space plane operated by the
- 12:51Speaker 2: United States Space Force, is capable of remaining an orbit
- 12:56Speaker 2: for extending periods and landing horizontally and being reused. So
- 13:00Speaker 2: these are reusable orbital vehicles. America the only country to
- 13:04Speaker 2: do it. What else, Well, I mean, we are the
- 13:09Speaker 2: only country on Earth that's ever touched the Sun with
- 13:13Speaker 2: a spacecraft. That is the Parker Solar Probe. It is
- 13:19Speaker 2: the only it is the only spacecraft ever to reach
- 13:23Speaker 2: out and fly through the outer layers of the Sun's atmosphere.
- 13:27Speaker 2: And the Parker Solar Probe is still in operation returning
- 13:32Speaker 2: data to the Earth. It has a great number of
- 13:36Speaker 2: contacts with the Solar surface. It has flown through twenty
- 13:41Speaker 2: eight different times sampling the Solar Atmosphere tool. The twenty
- 13:47Speaker 2: eighth close approach to the Sun occurred as we're recording this,
- 13:51Speaker 2: really just a few days ago, back in early June,
- 13:53Speaker 2: less than a month ago, passing just three point eight
- 13:56Speaker 2: million miles from the Solar surface and traveling at record
- 14:00Speaker 2: breaking speed. So there's the Parker Solar Probe. Also the
- 14:04Speaker 2: only country on Earth to have spacecraft that cross the heliopause.
- 14:10Speaker 2: What is that, Well, it means leaving the Solar System
- 14:13Speaker 2: and going into interstellar space not once, but twice. The
- 14:19Speaker 2: Voyager one and the Voyager two spacecraft have both crossed
- 14:24Speaker 2: that important physical boundary and are now traveling out beyond
- 14:32Speaker 2: the magnetic and solar wind influence of the Sun into
- 14:36Speaker 2: interstellar space. Voyager one crossed over August twenty fifth of
- 14:40Speaker 2: twenty twelve. Voyager two followed in November fifth, twenty eighteen.
- 14:45Speaker 2: Voyger one still has two instruments still functioning. Voyager two
- 14:50Speaker 2: has three instruments still functioning returning data. So these are
- 14:54Speaker 2: not just dead spacecraft that happened to drip past the boundary.
- 14:58Speaker 2: These are spacecraft that are still retur earning data to
- 15:00Speaker 2: the Earth. They are still in operation, all right. Now
- 15:05Speaker 2: here is one more.
- 15:07Speaker 4: When I got I got a question, where where? Where's
- 15:10Speaker 4: the Where's the Tesla roadster? How close is it to
- 15:13Speaker 4: leaving the Solar System?
- 15:14Speaker 2: The Tesla Roadster is still orbiting the Sun, so it
- 15:17Speaker 2: is not going to be leaving. It is still in
- 15:19Speaker 2: an orbital trajectory around the Sun. It does flip out,
- 15:24Speaker 2: and it's farther in the farthest part of its orbit.
- 15:26Speaker 2: It circles out past the orbit of Mars okay, but
- 15:29Speaker 2: but it then returns to the inner part of the
- 15:32Speaker 2: Solar System inside the Earth's orbit.
- 15:34Speaker 1: I got you.
- 15:35Speaker 4: For some reason, I thought it was headed out, like
- 15:37Speaker 4: I thought it was just zooming its way out into
- 15:39Speaker 4: the rest of the universe.
- 15:40Speaker 2: Okay, it's still captured by the Sun, but it's no
- 15:44Speaker 2: longer in Earth orbit, so it's in what we would
- 15:46Speaker 2: call interplanetary space.
- 15:48Speaker 4: It's still something that's eventually going to really confuse the
- 15:51Speaker 4: Aliens when they come this way and they go, wait,
- 15:53Speaker 4: what we've been trying to We've been trying to talk
- 15:56Speaker 4: to this guy in this thing and he won't respond.
- 15:59Speaker 2: Yeah. I knew they made space. Why knew they made
- 16:02Speaker 2: it to space with their rockets and spaceships, but they
- 16:04Speaker 2: apparently made it to space in a car once.
- 16:06Speaker 4: This is very confusing, and he won't respond, all right.
- 16:11Speaker 4: I was just curious on that one. I didn't know
- 16:13Speaker 4: where it was. I didn't I knew it wasn't out,
- 16:15Speaker 4: but I figured, if my thinking was, it was heading
- 16:18Speaker 4: out and I just was wondering where it was.
- 16:20Speaker 2: Yeah, it's still captured by the Sun's gravity. However, it
- 16:24Speaker 2: does zip out by the Red planet, and that's where
- 16:26Speaker 2: we're going with. You know, the next great accomplishment, which
- 16:30Speaker 2: is this America remains the only country on Earth with
- 16:33Speaker 2: multiple rovers successfully exploring the surface of Mars, and that
- 16:38Speaker 2: number is five friends, five rovers, and so Opportunity and Spirit.
- 16:46Speaker 2: They followed the Sojourn, which was the first little remote
- 16:49Speaker 2: control car. All three of those are dead. But then
- 16:52Speaker 2: came Curiosity and Perseverance, which are actually both still operational
- 16:57Speaker 2: on the Red Planet, still returning important data and recently
- 17:03Speaker 2: some data that might lead to the future exploration of
- 17:06Speaker 2: past life on the surface of Mars. So that's how
- 17:10Speaker 2: good our Mars rovers are still operating. All of those
- 17:14Speaker 2: vehicles have passed their expected lifetime and are in an
- 17:19Speaker 2: extended period of research and investigation on the Red Service.
- 17:23Speaker 2: That is beyond what the expectations were. Now it got
- 17:27Speaker 2: to be careful about this. China has also landed a
- 17:30Speaker 2: rover on Mars. It did function for a period of time,
- 17:34Speaker 2: it is not functioning now. And they only had one
- 17:38Speaker 2: rover and that was the Jorong. The Jong rover functioned
- 17:41Speaker 2: on Mars for a period of time. Now it's dead
- 17:45Speaker 2: and that's just one. So again, my only is only
- 17:49Speaker 2: the only country on Earth they have multiple rovers successfully
- 17:52Speaker 2: exploring Mars. I'm not talking about spacecraft that land and
- 17:56Speaker 2: don't go anywhere. There have been a few of those two,
- 18:00Speaker 2: but I'm talking about remote control vehicles actually moving around
- 18:04Speaker 2: and exploring on Mars or on Earth. America is the
- 18:08Speaker 2: only country with multiple of those vehicle successes on the
- 18:12Speaker 2: red planet.
- 18:12Speaker 1: So there you go.
- 18:13Speaker 2: Now, there are a lot of other ones, right. We're
- 18:16Speaker 2: the only country to fly a helicopter on Mars, you know,
- 18:19Speaker 2: quite honestly, International Space Station largely an American accomplishment, although
- 18:25Speaker 2: hat tipped to all of our international partners on that.
- 18:28Speaker 2: So there are other things that we could say, you know,
- 18:30Speaker 2: the first commercial company to carry astronauts into orbit. Lots
- 18:34Speaker 2: of things we could say, right, but those were the
- 18:37Speaker 2: five that I really thought kind of bring it all
- 18:39Speaker 2: into focus. And just remember as you're celebrating the two
- 18:44Speaker 2: hundred and fiftieth anniversary that in less than one hundred years,
- 18:49Speaker 2: Americans went from flying the first airplane to sixty six
- 18:55Speaker 2: years later walking on the Moon. That is red, white,
- 19:00Speaker 2: and blue achievement to the rest of the world. You're welcome.
- 19:05Speaker 4: More made of stars right after this, another huge accomplishment
- 19:30Speaker 4: for an American company. And you mentioned SpaceX a couple
- 19:33Speaker 4: of times in the UH you know, American UH dominance
- 19:39Speaker 4: of the US Space program conversation. Uh, and SpaceX is
- 19:45Speaker 4: just a huge accomplishment for an American company.
- 19:50Speaker 2: Yeah. So with a recent launch of a Falcon nine
- 19:54Speaker 2: rocket with a bunch of star Link satellites on board,
- 19:58Speaker 2: SpaceX has crap has crossed a new milestone. They have
- 20:02Speaker 2: broken a new record. SpaceX has now launched fifteen thousand,
- 20:08Speaker 2: two hundred and sixty two satellites into orbit. That's a
- 20:15Speaker 2: lot of satellites, right, That's a lot of satellite satellites.
- 20:18Speaker 2: So here's how to put that in perspective. That number
- 20:22Speaker 2: is greater than all other companies and organizations on Earth
- 20:30Speaker 2: since the dawn of the space age in nineteen fifty seven,
- 20:35Speaker 2: every other country an organization on Earth. You summed them all,
- 20:40Speaker 2: all of those payloads, all of those satellites orbit only
- 20:44Speaker 2: equal fifteen thousand, one hundred and thirty eight. So this
- 20:48Speaker 2: is almost well, it's over one hundred more satellites than
- 20:53Speaker 2: the rest of all space companies and countries and organizations
- 20:57Speaker 2: since the beginning of time.
- 20:59Speaker 4: And not slowing down. It's not like you're going to go, well,
- 21:02Speaker 4: these numbers are going to kind of even out. No, No,
- 21:04Speaker 4: they're going to just continue to be really the source
- 21:09Speaker 4: for a lot of people to get satellites in space.
- 21:12Speaker 2: We know, friends, that not everybody is ecstatic about this
- 21:16Speaker 2: particular record. There's a lot of you know, there's a
- 21:19Speaker 2: lot of self examination among the human species about should
- 21:25Speaker 2: we put this many mechanical payloads in orbit? But here
- 21:29Speaker 2: we are right twenty twenty six, and it's just the fact.
- 21:32Speaker 2: And so Elon Musk founded SpaceX in two thousand and two,
- 21:38Speaker 2: so that last accomplishment has happened in the last twenty
- 21:41Speaker 2: four years, when again the space age began in nineteen
- 21:46Speaker 2: fifty seven. So the company was, you know, not an
- 21:54Speaker 2: instant success either. They had to build up to that capacity.
- 21:58Speaker 2: In fact, the first three launch of what they had
- 22:02Speaker 2: a rocket called the Falcon one were failures, and so
- 22:06Speaker 2: SpaceX was launching a fourth Falcon one in two thousand
- 22:11Speaker 2: and eight. Had that fourth Falcon one rocket not made
- 22:16Speaker 2: it to space, Elon Musk himself would have gone bankrupt,
- 22:21Speaker 2: the company would have gone under, and that might have
- 22:24Speaker 2: been the end. However, the fourth, the fourth vehicle was
- 22:30Speaker 2: a success, and that moved SpaceX onto their next launch
- 22:36Speaker 2: vehicle called Falcon nine. Or you're a Star Wars fan,
- 22:40Speaker 2: it's Falcon nine something along those lines, which debuted in
- 22:44Speaker 2: twenty ten and now remains, let's say, arguably the world's
- 22:50Speaker 2: greatest workhorse rocket. It flew one hundred and sixty five
- 22:57Speaker 2: times in twenty twenty five, one hundred sixty five times.
- 23:02Speaker 2: That is nearly once every other day last year, and
- 23:07Speaker 2: the vast majority of the of the payloads were Starlink satellites.
- 23:11Speaker 2: And that's why we have now and sixty two satellites
- 23:14Speaker 2: taken to space by SpaceX. About twelve three hundred and
- 23:18Speaker 2: eighteen of those were star Links headed for low Earth orbit.
- 23:24Speaker 2: And so again people wring their hands over these things.
- 23:28Speaker 2: There are two points of view on this. I do
- 23:30Speaker 2: want to just say I understand that, But if you're
- 23:34Speaker 2: talking about a successful space launch company, it's hard to
- 23:40Speaker 2: argue with numbers like this. For SpaceX achieving fantastic goals
- 23:46Speaker 2: of success in the ability to launch vehicles to space
- 23:51Speaker 2: and to provide telecommunications to those of us back down
- 23:55Speaker 2: here on Earth.
- 23:56Speaker 4: A lot of people will be enjoying fireworks this week
- 24:00Speaker 4: and maybe starting even as soon as tonight, because they're
- 24:03Speaker 4: going to get started and it's just going to blow
- 24:05Speaker 4: all through the weekend. Be careful out there kids, but
- 24:10Speaker 4: and adults, you know, and Jason Pierre Paul if you
- 24:14Speaker 4: remember that, just as a Giants fan, do that one
- 24:17Speaker 4: really hurts and they go ended up winning another Super
- 24:20Speaker 4: Bowl with Tampa Bay, right, I think with you know,
- 24:24Speaker 4: limited hand abilities because.
- 24:26Speaker 2: They said give me a high three.
- 24:28Speaker 4: Yeah, one of those deals. But the Sun will be
- 24:32Speaker 4: making some of nature's fireworks already has been and who
- 24:37Speaker 4: knows how long it's going to last.
- 24:39Speaker 2: So you can check out this story either on space
- 24:42Speaker 2: dot com or spaceweather dot com. But in the last
- 24:46Speaker 2: twenty four hours, the Sun has fired off ten powerful
- 24:52Speaker 2: solar flares Earth, directed primarily from three massive sunspot groups,
- 25:01Speaker 2: ten M or X class solar flares. These are among
- 25:05Speaker 2: the most powerful two categories in rating how strong a
- 25:11Speaker 2: solar flare are, and so the fact that ten of
- 25:15Speaker 2: them have gone off it is a really interesting thing
- 25:18Speaker 2: because that means that giant masses of charged particles from
- 25:24Speaker 2: the Sun are indeed on their way to impact and
- 25:29Speaker 2: interact with the Earth's magnetic field and possibly with the
- 25:32Speaker 2: Earth's atmosphere. Those are called coronal mass ejections. If you
- 25:37Speaker 2: follow the show or you just know space weather, you
- 25:39Speaker 2: understand that they are the triggering events for a roar
- 25:42Speaker 2: phenomenon here on the Earth. Now listen, don't get too excited. Yes,
- 25:47Speaker 2: some coronal mass ejection waves might be arriving on the
- 25:50Speaker 2: night of the fourth of July. Yes, you might be
- 25:54Speaker 2: in a place not named Colorado where you can still
- 25:56Speaker 2: launch fireworks. It's kind of rough out there in Colorado
- 25:58Speaker 2: right now. Please don't launch fireworks in Colorado this fourth
- 26:02Speaker 2: of July. There's enough fires going on there already. That's
- 26:04Speaker 2: my home state anyway. But if you're in a place
- 26:07Speaker 2: where you can launch fireworks, you might be out under
- 26:09Speaker 2: a night sky watching for a sky show. Well, the
- 26:13Speaker 2: sun might actually be jumping in providing chrominal mass ejections
- 26:18Speaker 2: that trigger Aurora borealis phenomenon. But here's what I would
- 26:22Speaker 2: caution you. It is summertime, so the sun doesn't go
- 26:26Speaker 2: down for a long time, right, So we have fewer
- 26:28Speaker 2: hours of darkness generally around this time of year. So
- 26:32Speaker 2: that's the one thing, is the sky's just it's going
- 26:33Speaker 2: to take a while before the skies can actually get dark.
- 26:36Speaker 2: Number two, there are there's a there's a bright moon
- 26:41Speaker 2: out at this time. It's not quite a full moon. Anymore,
- 26:43Speaker 2: we just have the strawberry moon, but you know it's
- 26:47Speaker 2: it's still kind of a bright moon, and so the
- 26:49Speaker 2: moon might be interfering somewhat with your looking for northern lights.
- 26:53Speaker 2: And number three, there's also something that happens this time
- 26:56Speaker 2: of year called the Russell mcfair in effect, which does
- 27:01Speaker 2: two things. Number One, it makes aurora a lot more
- 27:06Speaker 2: possible and a lot more observable around the equinoxes, which
- 27:11Speaker 2: is fall and spring. But it also has the opposite effect,
- 27:16Speaker 2: which is it suppresses aurora phenomenon during the winter solstice
- 27:22Speaker 2: and near the summer solstice, which we just passed a
- 27:25Speaker 2: very short time ago on Father's Day in fact. And
- 27:27Speaker 2: so because of that Russell mcfairn effect, which is a
- 27:31Speaker 2: an interaction of the magnetic field, it turns out that
- 27:35Speaker 2: all of these things may end up suppressing any kind
- 27:39Speaker 2: of aurora phenomenon that also might be occurring during fireworks.
- 27:43Speaker 2: But that doesn't mean you shouldn't go look. If you're
- 27:46Speaker 2: out there watching fireworks displays, or you just want to
- 27:48Speaker 2: go out in the evening on July fourth, check the
- 27:52Speaker 2: sky friends, follow spaceweather dot com, keep your eye out
- 27:57Speaker 2: for aurora phenomenon in the summer here of twenty twenty six.
- 28:02Speaker 4: The Bobby mcfair in effect causes people to stop worrying
- 28:06Speaker 4: and be happy.
- 28:08Speaker 2: You know, as much as I can promote that, I
- 28:10Speaker 2: would like to. I think that's a generally good way
- 28:13Speaker 2: to live your life.
- 28:14Speaker 4: More made of stars. Right after this, let's talk about
- 28:38Speaker 4: the Wedding of the Century or whatever they're calling it,
- 28:43Speaker 4: because you know, there's this significant wedding. I hate that
- 28:47Speaker 4: they're calling them American royalty because it's a football player
- 28:50Speaker 4: and a singer. But this wedding is going to happen
- 28:53Speaker 4: and a lot of people are talking about Taylor Swift,
- 28:58Speaker 4: when in reality people should be talking talking about the
- 29:00Speaker 4: Swift telescope.
- 29:02Speaker 2: Yeah, by Gully, we should have working class royalty in
- 29:05Speaker 2: this country because we don't have royalty. We're just kind
- 29:08Speaker 2: of a blue collar nation. So, and I won't even
- 29:11Speaker 2: guess kind of all right.
- 29:12Speaker 4: I want to be really clear because I've said some
- 29:14Speaker 4: things and people have been like, man, you give Taylor
- 29:16Speaker 4: Swift a hard time, and it's like, I'm never gonna
- 29:20Speaker 4: say anything bad about Taylor Swift because she's never said
- 29:23Speaker 4: anything but positive things about me. Clearly, I mean now
- 29:28Speaker 4: that's one hundred percent of the truth. And and I
- 29:30Speaker 4: can just tell you she has said nothing but glowing
- 29:33Speaker 4: things about me.
- 29:34Speaker 2: Would you have an example, the.
- 29:36Speaker 4: Exact quote, This is what she said about me to
- 29:39Speaker 4: someone who I said, tell her. I said, hi, and
- 29:42Speaker 4: this is exactly The response was, oh, Wes, Carol, I
- 29:45Speaker 4: love him? So how why would I say anything bad
- 29:49Speaker 4: about her?
- 29:51Speaker 2: That's a direct quote.
- 29:52Speaker 4: That's I'm not making that up either, So why would
- 29:55Speaker 4: I say anything bad about her? I don't know that
- 30:00Speaker 4: as Kelsey has said anything about me at all, Like,
- 30:02Speaker 4: I don't know, so I mean, I can you know,
- 30:04Speaker 4: I can say.
- 30:05Speaker 2: What you're seeing is your name has actually passed? Yeah,
- 30:08Speaker 2: Taylor Swift?
- 30:10Speaker 4: Yeah, And why would I say anything bad about her?
- 30:12Speaker 4: For that? I'm not invited to the wedding, But that's okay.
- 30:15Speaker 4: It's like only a thousand people. I didn't think I'm
- 30:18Speaker 4: in the top thousand people in her world. But I
- 30:20Speaker 4: don't know if those thousand people, how many of them
- 30:22Speaker 4: has she said that she loves them?
- 30:24Speaker 2: I mean, if you put a few more zeros on there,
- 30:26Speaker 2: you might be in that.
- 30:27Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean if we had gotten them to ten thousand.
- 30:29Speaker 4: I mean, it's not like they're doing the wedding in
- 30:31Speaker 4: Madison Square Garden. I don't know if there's.
- 30:33Speaker 2: Enough seats, maybe ten million or something like that.
- 30:36Speaker 4: I just know when I watched that Godzilla movie, it
- 30:38Speaker 4: was big enough for Godzilla to run around in Madison
- 30:41Speaker 4: Square Garden, which cannot really be tall enough. But he
- 30:46Speaker 4: was in there, so there should be room for a
- 30:47Speaker 4: few more people to fit besides a thousand. But I
- 30:50Speaker 4: digress anyway, the Swift Telescope, that's where it's at. My friend,
- 30:54Speaker 4: I don't know, you don't even need to worry about
- 30:56Speaker 4: Madison Square Garden.
- 30:58Speaker 2: I mean, can I tell you that I am not
- 30:59Speaker 2: a exactly sure that these people are not related. I
- 31:03Speaker 2: mean it's possible. I have no evidence that Neil Garrel's Swift,
- 31:09Speaker 2: for whom the Swift Observatory was named, is not some
- 31:12Speaker 2: far flung cousin, uncle, grandfather type figure. For Taylor, I
- 31:17Speaker 2: don't know.
- 31:17Speaker 4: I can tell you this if if at any point
- 31:21Speaker 4: he has a chance of winning an NBA Championship or
- 31:24Speaker 4: a Super Bowl, she'll be there to watch and be
- 31:27Speaker 4: pulling for his team. Just bank on that. She hasn't been.
- 31:32Speaker 4: I don't think she's been in any World Series yet
- 31:34Speaker 4: so maybe if he plays baseball's let's get him there. Well,
- 31:40Speaker 4: she'll be there with a jersey on and everything.
- 31:43Speaker 2: Doctor Swift isn't going anywhere. But anyway, fair enough, yet
- 31:47Speaker 2: another story, all right, So what are we really talking
- 31:49Speaker 2: We're talking about the Swift Observatory, friends, which is a
- 31:52Speaker 2: NASA gamma ray facility in orbit around planet Earth, which
- 31:59Speaker 2: still you know, doesn't belong to Taylor yet that could
- 32:02Speaker 2: possibly belong in entirety one day anyway, So NASA is
- 32:06Speaker 2: trying to launch a mission to go up to space
- 32:11Speaker 2: and keep this telescope from crashing into the Earth. Because
- 32:14Speaker 2: here's what's happening. The Swift Observatory, which has been around
- 32:17Speaker 2: a minute, by the way, it's been taking data of
- 32:20Speaker 2: the universe in the gamma ray spectrum for over twenty years.
- 32:24Speaker 2: It has been a workhorse of a telescope, helping us
- 32:26Speaker 2: to monitor all kinds of phenomenon like gamma ray bursts,
- 32:31Speaker 2: for instance, or colliding black holes, or just the regular
- 32:34Speaker 2: output of black holes or supernope explosions, or a lot
- 32:38Speaker 2: of energetic phenomenon. So what's happening though, is it's drifting
- 32:43Speaker 2: lower and lower in its orbit around the Earth. It's
- 32:46Speaker 2: running into the top layers of its atmosphere, which is
- 32:49Speaker 2: causing some drag and it's beginning to sink. All right,
- 32:53Speaker 2: So NASA says, hey, you know this telescope, the Swift Observatory,
- 32:59Speaker 2: it's still working pretty well. There's no real We don't
- 33:02Speaker 2: have to let this thing. How much would it cost
- 33:04Speaker 2: to build an Oh that's expensive to build a new one.
- 33:07Speaker 2: Why don't we hire somebody to go up and give
- 33:10Speaker 2: it a boost? So there's a company called Catalyst, spelled
- 33:14Speaker 2: with a K. I don't know what marketing I guess
- 33:18Speaker 2: I don't know. C comes before K and the Yellow Pages? Yeah,
- 33:22Speaker 2: are the Yellow Pages around anymore? Maybe that's why they
- 33:25Speaker 2: went with K.
- 33:26Speaker 4: Maybe Kelsey starts with a K.
- 33:27Speaker 2: Maybe the K is the first letter in Kelsey. It's
- 33:30Speaker 2: no Taylor made as they say.
- 33:35Speaker 4: I like it.
- 33:35Speaker 2: Yes, Oh, so Catalyst with a K. Catalyst Space Company
- 33:40Speaker 2: is offering a spacecraft called Link tie that one in
- 33:44Speaker 2: it's called Link to fly up there and doc or
- 33:48Speaker 2: reach out and grab with its kind of boom arm,
- 33:52Speaker 2: reach out and grab the Swift Observatory and raise it
- 33:54Speaker 2: back to a higher orbit. But see, here's what has
- 33:58Speaker 2: to happen first. The Link spacecraft from Catalyst Space first
- 34:03Speaker 2: has to be launched on a Pegasus XL rocket. Now
- 34:06Speaker 2: we have Norfolk Grumman in the picture and NORTHLK Grumman. Well,
- 34:11Speaker 2: they only launched their Pegasus XL rockets from underneath a
- 34:15Speaker 2: Lockheed Martin L one zero one one airliner, the ten eleven,
- 34:20Speaker 2: the L ten eleven, the Lockheed Martin LL ten eleven.
- 34:23Speaker 2: So now you have Norfolk Grumman, Lockheed, you have Catalysts
- 34:29Speaker 2: with the K, you have Swift, you have NASA, you
- 34:31Speaker 2: have the Kelsey brothers are in their summer. I don't
- 34:34Speaker 2: know how they're in there. All of these people have
- 34:36Speaker 2: to work together to make the space mission possible. This
- 34:39Speaker 2: is all I know. And they were supposed to launch
- 34:43Speaker 2: a couple of times already, but they have failed to
- 34:45Speaker 2: launch again today as of the day of the recording
- 34:48Speaker 2: of the show Friends, they had a failure to launch
- 34:52Speaker 2: at five oh nine am today Thursday, July second, twenty
- 34:56Speaker 2: twenty six. They're gonna be launching from the Marshall Islands.
- 34:59Speaker 2: There's another end to involved. Now. They were supposed to
- 35:03Speaker 2: launch the Locky Martin L ten eleven airliner with the
- 35:07Speaker 2: Link spacecraft built by Catalyst space on a Northrop Grumman
- 35:12Speaker 2: Pegasus XL rocket carried to space by Lockie Martin. All
- 35:16Speaker 2: of those things contracted by NASA to go save a
- 35:20Speaker 2: NASA spacecraft named Swift Catalyst starts with the k all,
- 35:24Speaker 2: the Kelsey brothers, all of this stuff has failed today, fans,
- 35:27Speaker 2: it's it did not happen. So I hope all of these,
- 35:31Speaker 2: all of these individuals and organizations can get themselves together
- 35:34Speaker 2: and launch that rocket and get up there and save
- 35:37Speaker 2: the Swift Observatory. NASA will set a new launch date
- 35:41Speaker 2: after reviewing data from today's attempt, So it's just a
- 35:44Speaker 2: bit too early to tell. In other words, they'll have
- 35:46Speaker 2: to get together and review that data from today's launch
- 35:49Speaker 2: attempt figure out what we're wrong. Something went wrong with
- 35:52Speaker 2: the launch vehicle that would suggest Northrop Grumman dropping the
- 35:56Speaker 2: ball here, friends, come on, dropping the ball. That's a
- 35:58Speaker 2: football reference by the way. Anyway. So the Gamma ray
- 36:01Speaker 2: telescope has been observing for over twenty years and might
- 36:04Speaker 2: last another twenty five years if it can be boosted
- 36:08Speaker 2: to a new orbit. So we'll see if Taylor and
- 36:11Speaker 2: Travis and the whole gang can get the Swift telescope
- 36:15Speaker 2: raised back to orbit. We wish them all the best
- 36:18Speaker 2: of success.
- 36:19Speaker 4: I suspect I don't have any hard evidence on this,
- 36:22Speaker 4: but my hunch is that this wedding would have maybe
- 36:24Speaker 4: happened a year sooner if the Chiefs hadn't dropped so
- 36:26Speaker 4: many balls in that Super Bowl that last time, you know,
- 36:30Speaker 4: just just a couple too many. And I say that
- 36:33Speaker 4: as a Giants fan who hates the Eagles and was
- 36:38Speaker 4: pulling for the Chiefs and Taylor Swift and pulling for
- 36:42Speaker 4: the wedding.
- 36:43Speaker 2: But you must understand that how I feel as a
- 36:45Speaker 2: Bronco fan.
- 36:46Speaker 4: I get it.
- 36:46Speaker 2: As Patrick Mahomes in art Division.
- 36:48Speaker 4: Well, yeah, I completely get that. It was. Yeah, it
- 36:52Speaker 4: was one of those deals where you just kind of
- 36:54Speaker 4: have to, you know, pinch your nose and pull for
- 36:57Speaker 4: the team that you hate the least of the two.
- 37:00Speaker 4: But anyway, not that I hate, not that I hate anybody.
- 37:04Speaker 2: I mean, you know, it's in a sports sense, right,
- 37:07Speaker 2: It's not like we don't really hate you, but you
- 37:08Speaker 2: know it's sports hate. Yeah, it's different than hate.
- 37:12Speaker 4: It is. But you know, someone asked me, like, who
- 37:15Speaker 4: are you pulling for in the Super Bowl? And I said,
- 37:17Speaker 4: bane you know from the Dark Knight run. It's not really,
- 37:21Speaker 4: not really, but you know, you get it. Let's talk
- 37:26Speaker 4: about Columbus State Universities Coca Cola Space Science Center. You
- 37:29Speaker 4: guys are closed Friday the third, and I assume through
- 37:33Speaker 4: the weekend because it is a holiday weekend.
- 37:36Speaker 2: But you know, we're gonna be celebrating the two hundred
- 37:38Speaker 2: and fiftieth anniversary of the United States of America by
- 37:41Speaker 2: barring our doors and not letting a soul inside.
- 37:46Speaker 4: Just live with it, friends, Yeah, you guys are gonna
- 37:48Speaker 4: be able to throwing tea in the river. I wonder
- 37:50Speaker 4: would they let us throw tea in the.
- 37:51Speaker 2: River to celebrate, but or would that be against certain
- 37:54Speaker 2: environmental you know kinds of concerns. Anyway, so we're part
- 37:57Speaker 2: of a state system. Friends, in the state government here
- 38:00Speaker 2: in Georgia closing down for the weekend so they can
- 38:02Speaker 2: all go party and celebrate America. So we're going to
- 38:05Speaker 2: be doing that too. But we're going to be opening
- 38:07Speaker 2: back up again on Monday. So come back in and
- 38:10Speaker 2: see us on Monday, the sixth of July, and we
- 38:14Speaker 2: can talk space again then, and we can talk all
- 38:16Speaker 2: of the great accomplishments of the American space program, including
- 38:21Speaker 2: the mighty RS twenty five engine, which carried not only
- 38:25Speaker 2: the Space Shuttle to space for thirty years, but also
- 38:29Speaker 2: the Artemis program aboard the SLS. We have an RS
- 38:32Speaker 2: twenty five main engine nozzle sitting in our exhibit gallery.
- 38:35Speaker 2: There is a nine time space flyer. We have a
- 38:38Speaker 2: tire that John Glenn landed back with the Space Shuttle.
- 38:41Speaker 2: We have a flag that Dave Scott took to the
- 38:44Speaker 2: surface of the Moon. All of these things on display
- 38:47Speaker 2: in our exhibit gallery. Come and see us. Just ask
- 38:49Speaker 2: for me at the door. I will tell you all
- 38:51Speaker 2: about it. I'm loaded up with all the stories. I'm
- 38:55Speaker 2: going to be here on the sixth. Come down and
- 38:56Speaker 2: check it out here at Columbus State University's Coca Cola
- 38:59Speaker 2: Space Science Center.
- 39:00Speaker 4: Sean and I thank you for listening, and we will
- 39:03Speaker 4: do this again next week. SUS Overhead Door Company of
- 39:13Speaker 4: Columbus has all of your garage door needs covered, residential
- 39:16Speaker 4: and commercial service and repairs. If you need a new
- 39:20Speaker 4: garage door, you're just looking to upgrade or repair your
- 39:22Speaker 4: current door, Overhead Door Company of Columbus has you covered.
- 39:26Speaker 4: Plus they've got your emergency repairs or service covered as well.
- 39:31Speaker 4: Seven oh six three five eight forty five hundred. Seven
- 39:34Speaker 4: oh six three five eight forty five hundred odccolumbus dot
- 39:38Speaker 4: com