Latest / Made of Stars / It's Historic, Trust Us

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It's Historic, Trust Us · Made of Stars

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Go ahead. Go ahead.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: We're made of stars. Made of stars. Made of stars.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: We're made of stars.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: We really are. You could be from Hollywood, New Mexico
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: or Mars. We're all made of stars.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: We are made of stars. I'm Wes Carroll, joined by
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: my good friend, Dr. Sean Cruzan. He's executive director at
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Columbus State University's Coca-Cola Space Science Center. Hey, Sean. Hey, Wes.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: Good morning. How are you?
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: I'm not as well as the people that are currently
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: doing a spacewalk while we're recording. They're living the dream
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: right now. Historic spacewalk.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: They have really cool tools. I'm watching the video as
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: we're recording this. And, you know, I have a drill,
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: but my drill is not like shiny chrome. You know,
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: it doesn't look like something Buck Rogers would be using.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: It's just a drill with a socket, but man, is
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: it cool looking.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: I mean, everything they have up there, I guess, is
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: going to be cooler in some capacity, except for the meals.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that could be the one difference. You're right.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, they don't have an actual pizza oven up
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: there or anything like that. So they don't have a grill.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: So they can figure out how to grill in space.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: I suppose we're going to get there, though. If we
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: get settled comfortably on the moon, there'll be a way
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: to grill in space in some way.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: But NASA nutritionists have been working for decades trying to
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: improve the quality of the food in orbit. So, yeah,
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: hopefully they're working on that.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: I'm sure that they are. And at least 3D printing
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: steaks would be something that they can try to figure
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: out because I know they were working on that for
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: a while. All right, so this is a spacewalk. It's
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: going on right now, and I guess my first question
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: for you is the number of times that we get
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: stories like this where they say, okay, there's a spacewalk
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: going on, and they always like to throw the word historic.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: It's always historic. There's always something, some technicality that makes
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: it historic in some way.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: I mean, if you think about it, all spacewalks, should
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: be historic, right? I mean, because they're doing something for
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: the first time ever, even if they're not, right.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: So even if it's not the first time ever, they're
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: doing something that is, uh, historic and that this is
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: part of the historic, the record of history, uh, because
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: it is in fact, someone, you know, that's in space
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: working with a shiny drill.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: The shiny drill.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: So, I mean, if they get there and they've got
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: their silver shiny drill and then they show up the
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: next week and then they do a walk and they've
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: got now a spray painted black drill, it's historic because
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: it's a different color drill or a different type of
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: drill or whatever. So in that sense, they're using something different. Um,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: but what makes this particular walk historic? Does it have
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: anything to do with the fact that we have, uh,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: you know, somebody from the Canadian space agency? Is that
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: the historic part of this?
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'd like to say yes, because, you know,
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: we should pay extra attention when we have our international
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: collaborators working alongside of us. However, this is certainly not
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: the first spacewalk done by a Canadian.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Is it the first one done by a Canadian named
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Manon or whatever? Because, I mean, in that sense, it's historic.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: First time.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: You might think that the name Anil Manon would belong
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: to a Canadian person. But that's actually the NASA astronaut.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Oh, well, but still, if there's never been one named
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Anil Manon.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: I'm not aware of a Canadian astronaut named Anil Manon. Yeah.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: Doing a spacewalk before. But now we have NASA astronaut
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Anil Manon out there working with Canadian Space Agency astronaut
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: Joshua Kutrick.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: So that combination has never gone up. So it's historic.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: To my knowledge.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: No pair of astronauts named Anil Manon. and Joshua Kutrick
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: have ever performed a spacewalk where they're deploying new rollout
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: solar arrays before. I think that that is a first. Yeah.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: So while you're talking about what they're doing, I want
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: to try to see if I can find out why
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: it's historic. Because if you're not sure, I'd like to
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: know what makes it historic.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: I mean, numerology. That's what makes it historic. We like
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: round numbers.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: Ah, because it's number 100.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: This is the 100th spacewalk.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: From the International Space Station's Quest airlock.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Look, that's cool. All right, that's cool. We're just tossing
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: this word historic around a little too much.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: But it has two zeros, Wes.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: We've talked about that many times.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: It's divisible by 5, 10, and 20. Yeah, all right.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: And 25. Yeah, and by 100. And by 100. But
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: I definitely think we've over-salted things a little bit with
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: the historic.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: No, no, that makes it historic. That makes it historic.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: It's divisible by 5, 10, 20, 25, and 50, and 100.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: And 100, yeah.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: So therefore, it is historic. So it's the Spacewalk 100
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: is what NASA has deemed it. So check out nasa.gov. Actually,
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: you can't do this because, you know, we're doing this live.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: I would tell you to check out nasa.gov right now.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: You can actually see the spacewalk. But that's when we
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: were on the radio. We can't do that anymore with podcasts.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: But okay. Check it out next time because there's going
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: to be a 101st.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: This may be posted, though, by the time they're finished
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: because if they're still working up there. And we have
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: a quick turnaround. We finish and get it up. So
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: if you get it straight away.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: Once again, for those people who aren't being notified real
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: time when we post our podcast, why not? sign up
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: for the real-time notifications, and you can just go, oh,
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: let me log into NASA.gov and see the historic divisible
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: by 5, 10, 20, 25, and 50, and 100 spacewalk
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: from the Quest airlock aboard the International Space Station.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: You'd be on top of it.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: By the way, just quickly, 166 total spacewalks from the
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: space shuttle program. Not divisible by 5, 10, well, I
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: guess it is, but you're going to end up Not
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: evenly divisible by 5, 10, 20, 25, 50. None of those.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: So 166, it's historic.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: Well, because it's 166.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right. There's never been spacewalk number 166 before.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: And we've never had the 167th spacewalk from the space
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: shuttle program because there is no more space shuttle program, so.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: All of these reasons, friends, all of these reasons make
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: these spacewalks historic. There you go.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Well, and I don't, I don't want to be dismissive
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: of it because we, honestly, we look at this like
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: anything that gets people excited about it. It's worth hyping
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: it up. So, uh, I just think, you know, it's
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: number 100. That's significant. And, you know, for people that
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: are thinking someday. The kids that are going, I want
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: to be an astronaut and do a spacewalk and they
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: could figure out, you know, what number they might get
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: to do. So that's, you know, there's some, there's some
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: value in it. All we want is people to be
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: excited about it.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: Well, and so maybe, maybe the real value under all
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: this is that NASA has gotten so good at these
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: things that it does seem kind of routine, right? We
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: can joke about a 100th spacewalk because they have had
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: so many and they've been so successful that that it
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: does feel kind of every day. So the notion in
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: the 1960s of a human being going to space and
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: then getting out of the space vehicle in a suit
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: and just kind of floating around out there doing anything
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: would have been mind-blowing. And now you and I are
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: just joking around about numerology.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Well, and it really is fascinating that when you think
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: about it and what you just said, I think is worth, worth,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: worth emphasizing, at least from my perspective. So we get
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: really anxious about launches and those are pretty routine, but
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: there's still always a source of anxiety when they, when
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: they open it up and just go floating around out
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: in the space, which should be terrifying. That's very routine
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: to me. That's that feels more routine than a launch.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: And we do way more launches.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: When you make the terrifying routine or feel routine anyway,
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: that is a successful organization, right? Something that should be
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: amazingly technically difficult and also extremely dangerous. And they've done
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: it so well for so long that we can just
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: kind of joke about it. Yeah, that should be a
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: badge of honor to NASA. So NASA, if you're listening
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: to us joking around, about 100 spacewalks. Our spacewalk 100,
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: it's really because you have done so amazingly well at
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: making this look routine.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: More made of stars right after this. uh let's talk
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: about virgin galactic we were talking about the fact that
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: they were getting ready to uh move on to the
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: delta class space plane and it has now been revealed
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: along with the name that they settled on because we
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: were talking about that i guess they had narrowed it
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: down to what three names the last time we talked
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: about it and we have a name now.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: Yes a name has launched uh The name is called Apiron,
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: and Apiron is an interesting word. It's the ancient Greek
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: word meaning boundless, Apiron. But in the Virgin Galactic press releases,
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: they say it's called Aperon or Aperon. Aperon. That's their
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: pronunciation guide in the Virgin Galactic promotional materials. Aperon.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: That's the thing that you wear so you don't splash–
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: like food on your clothes when.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: You're, uh, when you're grilling in zero gravity, right?
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: You have to have an apron on.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah. You do. Uh, that's, uh, yeah, I saw the
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: pronunciation for this that was on the announcement and I
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: went that I don't think that's how you pronounce that
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: word at all.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: But so I looked up other pronunciation guides and appear on.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: So appear on seems to appear to be the way
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: to say it.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: So, I'm not an expert on all that stuff, so
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: I'll just go with whatever they say to say. But
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: it's a cool-looking space plane.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: Let me just tell you that I've shared a photograph
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: with Wes of this space plane from Virgin Galactic. It's
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: from our story from space.com, but it's out there in
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: other places. But the image on space.com, they aligned the
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: setting sun just right towards coming through windows of the
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: vehicle and that is one sexy beast. That is a
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: really cool paint job for one thing, but it's just
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: a really amazing looking potential space vehicle, right? An actual
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: space plane with wings and things where it comes back
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: in and lands as an aircraft after it's gone to space.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: This is a really cool looking vehicle. So that I
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: will give Virgin Galactic, I will say promotional photos, A plus.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: And They just named a people magazine, just named Noah
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Wiley sexiest man alive. How can you do that when
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: this plane exists?
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: So this is clearly the sexiest space plane alive.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, nothing against Noah Wiley. Good for him. Right. Um, yeah.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: Where's Noah been late? What's he done lately?
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Oh, well, he's got a really big hit show called
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: the pit. That's what he's got. And they've had a
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: couple of seasons of it and it's no, no. And
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: it's a big deal, but you know, if you're, uh,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: not on top of that, I'm just trying to figure out, uh,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, it, it feels like, you know, 25 years,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: a little late. Because I feel like he could have
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: done all this back in the day, back in the
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: ER days. Yeah. But no, good for him.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: That's a really good point.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: But good for him. I mean, I say if you're
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: going to.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: Is he sexiest man alive like over a certain age or?
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: No, no, no. The sexiest man alive.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: Number one.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Number one.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: I was third. I'm disappointed.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: But, you know, I'll take whatever.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, bronze. You know, it's okay.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: It's all right. That's platform. I'll take it. So this
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: plane is their next iteration. We talk about how... I
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: don't know that any... Well, I guess we would have
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: gotten there. But it does feel like Virgin came along
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: and kick-started all of this private company stuff. And it
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: was like, hey, we're going to do this. This is
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: what we're going to do. So they very much are
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: a significant part of the tree for the other companies
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: to branch off of. Sorry, I got trees on the brain.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: But the... They've just taken a very different approach to
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: how they're handling it. And then also their pacing of
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: releasing new things and the kinds of things that they're
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: trying to do. So this is the latest for Virgin Galactic.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: Really, in many ways, the commercial space industry, in terms
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: of space tourism at least, has Virgin Galactic to thank
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: for being at the tip of the spear. And when
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: you and I were on the radio, what, 15 years ago,
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: something talking about Virgin Galactic was a very common thing.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: And then, of course, they had a few unfortunate circumstances
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: along the way. One of the last ones was they
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: took a group of people up, they brought their vehicle
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: back down, and the vehicle had cracks everywhere. and structural
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: integrity issues. So they have worked through all of that.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: This new Delta class vehicle is their solution for all
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: of those problems. And they're going to begin testing it
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: very soon now. They've rolled the vehicle out in its
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: manufacturing facility in Mesa, Arizona. They are now going to
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: be transporting it to Spaceport America, a tax funded project
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: out there in New Mexico. which maybe hasn't had quite
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: as many space launches as they'd hoped, but Virgin Galactic
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: is still alive and still going to be launching from
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: Spaceport America. So, so out there in the New Mexico Prairie,
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: Spaceport America, they're going to begin testing of this new
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: Delta class vehicle called Apiron or Apiron or one of
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: those words. And so, so anyway, we're looking forward actually, uh,
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: to Virgin Galactic being back in the game and, uh,
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: And being a part of the current era of commercial spaceflight,
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: really want to wish them the very best because we
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: know that competition refines the process and adds to the
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: overall impact of an industry. And we really want the
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: commercial space industry to be successful on this show. So
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: that's why we're actually rooting for Virgin Galactic.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: Let's jump back to NASA for a minute because this
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: is significant. And you and I were there for the
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: arrival of the Artemis II core stage. The Artemis III
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: core stage has joined its boosters at Kennedy Space Center
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: and I guess is now inside the VAB.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. So the core stage of the Space
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: Launch System rocket, if you think about the giant orange
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: fuel tank for space shuttles, This is as if you
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: had taken an old space shuttle fuel tank and put
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: rocket engines just directly on the bottom of it and
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: put some mounting capability on the top of it so
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: you could stick a spaceship up there. And then you
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: slap a couple of those white booster rockets from the
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: space shuttle alongside of that. And that's what the Space
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: Launch System is. And friends, it really is those parts.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: It really is upgraded, renovated, improved, but still derived from
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: those original space shuttle components. And so this giant core
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: stage was, it's very long, just on the ground horizontally.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: But then when you pick this thing up inside the
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: vehicle assembly building or the vertical assembly building out there
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: at the Kennedy Space Center, and you lift it up
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: into those giant bays, And they have to actually pick
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: this core stage up in one bay and then lift
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: it over the wall in between bays and then drop
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: it down inside the two already mounted booster rockets and
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: then attach everything. That's what they just completed down there
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: at Kennedy Space Center. So the core stage is 212 feet.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: So this thing is a giant piece of technology. And
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: The two booster rockets were already there. They're nearly that
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: height as well. And so dropping that hardware in place,
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: like if you've seen the mechanism to set an engine
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: inside a car, right? You pick up the motor and
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: you haul it over and you drop it down inside
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: the hood of the car and then you bolt everything
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: in place. This is a mega scale version of that.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: They're hauling that main stage. They're dropping it down between
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: the booster rockets. They're attaching everything together and And now
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: they have this vehicle that they'll be able to attach
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: the actual space capsule on the top of it. And
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: we're watching this process very closely because a friend of
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: the show and former student intern here at the Space
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: Science Center, Mr. Zach Coker is on the team that
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: actually helps to fit all those pieces together. He particularly
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: focuses on the integration of the space vehicle with this
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: launch rocket system. So that'll be happening next in the process.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: Once they get all that together, they're going to be
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: doing things like fuel testing, what they call a process
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: they call tanking. Tanking means something different in the NFL,
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: by the way. And the NFL has their own version
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: of tanking. We've seen some of that taking place. But
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: this kind of tanking is just filling that core stage
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: with its fuel just to make sure it's holding fuel
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: correctly and not leaking. And then they can actually practice
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: the countdown procedures because here's why. They're getting close to
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: launching the Artemis III mission, friends. And the Artemis 3 mission,
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: which hopefully will launch sometime next summer, will be taking
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio, and Andre Douglas from the National
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: Aeronautics and Space Administration, along with famous European Space Agency
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: astronaut Luca Parmitano from Italy. Those four will ride up
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: in the Orion space capsule. into orbit and do a
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: variety of tests with the SLS rocket, but also with
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: vehicles that are hopefully going to be taking the next
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: round of astronauts on Artemis IV to the lunar surface.
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: So Blue Origin and SpaceX, competing to be that vehicle
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: that takes those astronauts down to the moon's surface. Just
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: a little bit of a hint. I think SpaceX might
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: be ahead right now because Blue Origin is still trying
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: to rebuild their launch pad. And they've just come out
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: with a story saying, oh, we're going to build multiple
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: launch pads. Yeah, you should do that in case you
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: blow one up. Anyway, so SpaceX looks to be the
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: leader on that particular front. But that future mission will
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: take those astronauts to the moon We've got to figure
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: out which of those vehicles is going to work and
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: work better. And that's what Artemis 3 is all about.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: And so that's what that core stage has been put
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: in place for.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: Getting us one step closer as this space race continues on, right?
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm excited. The time is ticking away where it's
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: getting closer and closer to us actually sending human beings
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: back to the moon. And this is an important space race, friends,
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: because The Chinese and the Russians are also trying to
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: get to the south pole of the moon. That's because
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: there are major resources available in that area because it
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: is the south pole and the sun doesn't shine down
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: inside the craters as efficiently at the south pole. And
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: so there's large stores of water ice in that region.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: And water ice, yes, it can be melted to drink it,
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: but it also can make fuel For rockets, it also
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: can make oxygen to breathe by astronauts. It's an extraordinarily
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: important resource if you're trying to colonize, or in other words,
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: put a permanent space base up there. And we really
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: want to do that. And so we'd like to do
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: that before the Chinese and the Russians get there and
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: claim all of those resources. So yeah, that's why the
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: Artemis program is such an important geopolitical project, as well
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: as being Just an important moment in human exploration.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: More made of stars right after this. All right, so
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: a new object found beyond Neptune, and it may be
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: a new dwarf planet. So yes, what are they looking
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: at beyond Neptune?
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so to see, I mean, let's just say this.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: If it's small like Pluto, it's hard to see from Earth, right?
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: If it's even tiny bit smaller than Pluto, it gets
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: even more difficult to find it, to locate it. And
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: so you need a really big telescope to be able
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: to do that. There's one that we have constructed down
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: in Chile. It's called the Vera Rubin telescope. If you
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: don't know who Vera Rubin is, she's a very famous
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: astrophysicist herself. And so they named this observatory after Vera Rubin.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: Its ultimate goal is to investigate dark matter and dark
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: energy distributions out there in the universe. So it takes
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: long exposure to photographs of broad areas of the sky
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: and and it looks for motions among galaxies and things
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: like that. But if you're looking for those kinds of things,
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: it turns out that there's a lot of things that
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: are a lot closer that are also moving that you
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: discover as well. The Vera Rubin telescope in a very
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: short period of operation has already discovered over 11,000 new asteroids.
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: So it's good at finding asteroids, comets, and things that
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: are moving in our solar system. Okay, so that being
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: the case, There was a researcher from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: for Astrophysics. His name is Matthew Holman. And Matthew was
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: using a brand new piece of software that he'd helped
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: to write and develop, some code that looks through all
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: of these Vera Rubin telescope images and looks for things
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: that are moving and tries to figure out what they are.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: And so with this new software, Matthew Holman and his collaborator,
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: Kevin Napier, discovered something moving, except this thing was obviously
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: in our own solar system. And very far away, but
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: also very bright. Okay. So that means it's not just
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: a standard small asteroid or small comet body. It must
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: be something else. And so the conjecture is now that
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: this newly discovered object called 2026 ED-138. ED is just
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: the catalog that it's in. So ED-138 from 2026. is
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: likely to be somewhere between 600 and 1500 kilometers wide.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: For those of us in the United States, that's somewhere
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: between 370 and 970 miles across, something on that order.
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: And that is large enough that if it's correct, that's
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: big enough to be bigger than an asteroid. That could
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: be a dwarf planet. Now, the dwarf planets have one
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: more qualification, and that qualification is that it has enough
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: gravity to pull itself into a sphere. In other words,
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: it's not oddly asymmetrically shaped or potato shaped or any
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: of those kinds of things. In order to be a
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: dwarf planet, it has to have sufficient gravity to cause
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: what we call hydrostatic equilibrium, which means pulling itself into
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: the most stable shape, which is a sphere or a
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: spheroid type object. So if that's true, then these two
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: researchers from Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, we know that as CFA,
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: these two CFA researchers will have discovered only the sixth
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: dwarf planet to ever be found in our solar system,
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: which is pretty cool. What are the other five? Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Huame,
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: and Makemake. So Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Huame, and Makemake, the
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: five known dwarf planets discovered. this object 2026 ed 138
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: could turn out to be the sixth. Stay tuned friends.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: We're going to be looking at this object with the
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: Hubble space telescope. And that's because that telescope in the
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: infrared is more likely to be able to determine the
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: shape and size of this object out there.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: It is almost the start of the month of November.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: When we start certain months of the year, like, you know, October, November, we, we,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: tend to have soon after the beginning, that first Tuesday,
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: which means music under the dome at Columbus State University's
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Coca-Cola Space Science Center. November 3rd happens to be that
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: first Tuesday of the month.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: What a great concert series, by the way. Every time
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: I go to one of these shows, I just think
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: to myself, first of all, what a fun collaboration that
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: our friends over at the Schwob School of Music kind
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: of came up with the idea along with us, just
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: Really in casual conversation. I don't know if Paul Hostetter
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: and I were actually having a beer at the moment.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: We were in.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: Casual conversation just talking about things and said, hey, what if?
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: And now we have a fantastic Disclavier Yamaha piano inside
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: our planetarium. That's a nine-foot concert grand piano, by the way.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: And the musicians from the Schwab School of Music come
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: over and play that piano as well as a variety
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: of other instruments inside the planetarium. And our planetarium producer,
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: Lance Tankersley, and other visual artists produce original videos for
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: these concert series that are choreographed to the music. I've
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: been watching Lance work on that this week. He just
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: sent out a message this morning, in fact, saying all
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: of his images are done. They're ready to go. So
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: November 3rd is the next date. Friends, if you've not
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: seen one of these concerts, you're missing out on a
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: true sight and sound extravaganza. And again, I sound like
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: I'm overhyping and I probably am to some degree because
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: that's what I do. But this really lives up to
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: the overhyping because this experience is so phenomenal and they're
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: all original. Not one concert is like another because it's
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: different combinations of music. It's always original graphics. Come check
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: out Music Under the Dome at Columbus State University's Coca-Cola
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: Space Science Center. And by the way, friends, the very
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: next day, November 4th, on the main campus of Columbus
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: State University, there's going to be a groundbreaking ceremony. And
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: the groundbreaking ceremony is for a new facility called the
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: Piesold Center for Emergent Technologies. And why that's important is
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: because that's the new home of Columbus State University's Coca-Cola
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: Space Science Center. We are expanding our facility. We are
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: adding space. We are adding capabilities. We are going to
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: be moving into a house with our robotics engineering program,
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: a shared nexus space for technology and student inspiration and education.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: All of that happening under one roof. There are going
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: to be a variety of other emerging technologies that are
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: explored in that area. It's a collaboration also with our
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: Muskogee County School District partners. So we're going to be
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: training their students in the space as well. This is
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: an exciting new facility and the groundbreaking ceremony is happening
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: on November 4th. So if you are a part of
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: the folks that are in the area, you want to
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: come find out more about this incredible facility, or you
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: just want to be part of the festivities, 2.30 p.m.
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: at the corner of East Lindsay and College Boulevard, there
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: is going to be the groundbreaking ceremony in the parking
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: lot next to the Bradley Turner Center for Continuing and
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: Professional Education at Columbus State University's Coca-Cola Space Science Center's
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: new home, the Piesel Center. for emerging technologies. It's really
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: going to be in a parking lot, but okay. That's
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: where you break ground. You break ground where there's nothing,
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: because if you break ground where there's something, then you
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: break other things. We're just breaking ground, right? So it's
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: in the parking lot out there by the continuing education facility.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: There you go. Sean and I thank you for listening,
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: and we will do this again next week. Overhead Door
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: Company of Columbus has all of your garage door needs covered,
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: residential and commercial, service and repairs. If you need a
• 30:33
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• 30:40
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• 30:43
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