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SpaceX Starship Gets Approval for 25 Launches Per Year · Made of Stars

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  Speaker 1: Warning.
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  Speaker 2: The following podcast contains an entertaining look at astronomy, physics,
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: and space news throughout the known universe. Listeners have been
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: known to learn about astronomical phenomenon the scientific method, and
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: expanded vocabulary to include terms like quasar asterism and uranus. Listen,
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: that's your own risk.
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: Go ahead. When made of stars, made them stars, made sizes.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: When made of stars, you could be from high they
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  Speaker 2: would New Mexicomus.
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: Where are.
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  Speaker 2: Stars?
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  Speaker 4: When we are made of stars? I'm Wes Carol, joined
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  Speaker 4: by my good friend doctor Sean Cruising from Coma State
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  Speaker 4: University's Coca Cola Space Science Center.
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  Speaker 3: Hey Sean, Hey, well it's good to be here.
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  Speaker 4: Let's revisit a story from last week. We talked about
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  Speaker 4: this uh Russian or it's not Russian, it's the Soviet Union, right,
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  Speaker 4: the zombie zombie venus probe ready to come back to Earth.
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  Speaker 4: And we talked about all the scenarios kind of last week.
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  Speaker 4: We talked about all of them, but I mean this
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  Speaker 4: whole idea that this thing is gonna gonna make it
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  Speaker 4: back to Earth and where's it gonna land? And you know,
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  Speaker 4: we we always talk about most likely where we are
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  Speaker 4: a water planet, so there's a lot a lot of
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  Speaker 4: surface area that this thing could land in.
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  Speaker 1: But now we're looking like maybe we got a landfall
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  Speaker 1: for this thing. So what what's the status.
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  Speaker 4: And and let me so this thing is is we
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  Speaker 4: started talking about the Soviet Union. Uh, it's an old
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  Speaker 4: piece of equipment. It was made to survive coming back
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  Speaker 4: in the atmosphere, and there was a plan for it
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  Speaker 4: to actually be able to land, but not so optimistic
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  Speaker 4: that that's going to work at this point or so.
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  Speaker 3: It was made to land in not our atmosphere. It
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  Speaker 3: was made to land in Venus's atmosphere. Right, So this
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  Speaker 3: thing is built to survive a Venus atmospheric reentry right right,
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  Speaker 3: go land on the surface of Venus, which has a
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  Speaker 3: much more dense and damaging atmosphere. Now it's going back
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  Speaker 3: to Earth because it didn't launch correctly back fifty years
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  Speaker 3: ago when it took off. So what we have, my friend,
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  Speaker 3: is a fifty year old zombie robot from the Soviet Union,
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  Speaker 3: made to handle the conditions of Venus, but heading back
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  Speaker 3: toward the planet Earth for an infall through the atmosphere.
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  Speaker 3: Now again, we did talk about this last week Cosmos
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  Speaker 3: four eighty two. The new part of this story is,
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  Speaker 3: after some analysis, many of the experts now believe it's
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  Speaker 3: going to survive the trip back through the atmosphere. So
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  Speaker 3: whether it actually makes landfall or not, it's still a
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  Speaker 3: statistical argument as you made last week talking about how
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  Speaker 3: small of a percentage of the Earth's surface is actually
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  Speaker 3: covered with land versus ocean. But the question of whether
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  Speaker 3: it will burn up in the atmosphere, it's looking like
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  Speaker 3: the answer is no, it's not going to burn up
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  Speaker 3: in the atmosphere. The atmosphere is not going to save us,
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  Speaker 3: and so when it comes in, it's going to make
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  Speaker 3: what's called a hard impact, so in other words, more
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  Speaker 3: or less intact. So this don't take my word for it.
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  Speaker 3: This is coming from Dutch satellite tracker Marco Longbrook. He's
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  Speaker 3: the same expert we quoted last week. The story we
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  Speaker 3: quoted last week was from spaceweather dot com. This is
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  Speaker 3: actually from space dot com now picking this up and
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  Speaker 3: discussing the analysis of this of this vehicle coming back
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  Speaker 3: in built to survive the atmospheric reentry and weighing a
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  Speaker 3: thousand pounds which is half a ton and very likely
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  Speaker 3: to make it all the way down to the surface
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  Speaker 3: of the earth. Now again important to point out most
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  Speaker 3: of the surface of the Earth is water. Yeah, big splash,
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  Speaker 3: splashing and swimming is likely. Yeah, but don't expect it
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  Speaker 3: to simply disintegrate in the air above the surfaces.
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  Speaker 4: All right, And I got because the rest of this
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  Speaker 4: quote from from Langbrook is about how there's a parachute
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  Speaker 4: deployment system. It's old, you know, nobody's really checked on
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  Speaker 4: this parachute in a while, and it's and this batteries involved,
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  Speaker 4: so not likely. So it's hard impact or at least,
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  Speaker 4: you know, a big splash. I guess my next question
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  Speaker 4: do you do we know if it would float or
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  Speaker 4: is this thing just gonna you know, sink like that
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  Speaker 4: necklace at the end of Titanic, Like what sorry spoiler alert.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's you know, it's only one meter across, three
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  Speaker 3: feet across, and it weighs half a ton. I don't
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  Speaker 3: think it's floating anywhere.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, that's that was my thinking. But I didn't know.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, they've got all these things in place.
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  Speaker 4: It was designed to survive, you know, impact on venus,
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  Speaker 4: So I thought, well, maybe, just maybe, so they're gonna
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  Speaker 4: have to catch it, is what you're saying.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, so what you really don't want is for
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  Speaker 3: your house to be underneath this thing when it's coming in.
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  Speaker 3: If you do see it, do not try to catch it,
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  Speaker 3: because that's not gonna go well for you or for
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  Speaker 3: anyone really. So so, but here's the thing. We're joking
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  Speaker 3: around about this as we're recording the show. But this
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  Speaker 3: is just a handful of days here. It's gonna be Saturday,
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  Speaker 3: May tenth plus or minus twenty hours, right, so it
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  Speaker 3: could be Friday, could be Sunday, but it's this weekend.
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  Speaker 3: So this thing is going to be coming in this weekend,
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  Speaker 3: likely to come all the way down to the surface
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  Speaker 3: of the earth, weighing half a ton, not going to
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  Speaker 3: disintegrate in the atmosphere. I mean, tune in next week, friends,
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  Speaker 3: because we don't know, well, we do not know the
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  Speaker 3: outcome of the story.
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  Speaker 4: And I got other questions, and I mean these maybe
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  Speaker 4: I'm just throwing out some you know, questions that don't
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  Speaker 4: need to be answered, or maybe you know, but when
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  Speaker 4: we're talking about really a country that doesn't exist anymore,
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  Speaker 4: I mean, is it still their property or you know,
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  Speaker 4: I mean, if it does happen to land make landfall,
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  Speaker 4: like in Ohio and somebody goes out and they say, hey,
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  Speaker 4: look what I just found in the yard. I mean,
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  Speaker 4: is it fair game? I'm sure someone from NASA would
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  Speaker 4: want to get their hands on it, but.
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  Speaker 3: I mean they probably should sue Mikhail Gorbachev. I don't know. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: I don't see how it Seriously, I don't see how
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  Speaker 3: it could be honestly, right, it's an entity that no
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  Speaker 3: longer exists.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, I just didn't know if maybe you just go, well,
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  Speaker 4: and now it should be returned. Is it like you know,
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  Speaker 4: a home run ball of significance and you're like, well,
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  Speaker 4: the nice thing to do is just give it to
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  Speaker 4: the player, Just give it this thing.
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  Speaker 3: If this thing lands in your backyard, you go straight
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  Speaker 3: to eBay friends.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, that's what I thought, but I just wanted
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  Speaker 4: to make sure. I wanted to offer that up to
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  Speaker 4: whoever happens to win or lose the lottery, depending on
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  Speaker 4: how this thing goes, because as you point out, it's
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  Speaker 4: a half a ton. You know, if it does land
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  Speaker 4: in your yard, you just don't want anybody. You don't
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  Speaker 4: want the dog out there on a on a bathroom break.
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  Speaker 3: I think the Hammer and Sickle is officially out of business.
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  Speaker 3: I think the entity formally known as c CCP pretty
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  Speaker 3: much not going to be in the rolodex.
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  Speaker 4: I know we don't do politics here, but are they
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  Speaker 4: Are they really out of business?
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  Speaker 3: I mean, that's okay, that is a that is a
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  Speaker 3: source of another podcast by friends.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, just loving that out.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, you know you're making a fair pointnes and.
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  Speaker 4: Not really but yeah, okay, anyway.
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  Speaker 3: Didn't Monsanto change their name? I mean, you know this
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  Speaker 3: is what happens, right.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, Well, I'm a big radio company that changed names
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  Speaker 4: to get rid of the old image and then all
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  Speaker 4: the same things again.
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  Speaker 1: But that's also another all the things that they were
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  Speaker 1: known for. Hey, let's do all that again.
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  Speaker 3: And I'm sure mon Santos a fighted company, by the way,
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  Speaker 3: you know, I know, they're probably great. They're doing some
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  Speaker 3: good stuff. Yes, I'm the world of protecting us from
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  Speaker 3: zombie space satellites from Russia. I don't know what they
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  Speaker 3: do these, yes.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, all right, Well let's talk about so that's to
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  Speaker 4: be determined. We'll have more on that maybe next week.
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  Speaker 4: All right, so let's talk about the uh, this Titan drone,
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  Speaker 4: this this is kind of fun. You talk about sending,
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  Speaker 4: sending something somewhere else, and this is a very important
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  Speaker 4: somewhere else to send something.
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  Speaker 3: Speaking of building giant robots to go investigate other planets,
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  Speaker 3: you hope this one will make it out of the
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  Speaker 3: atmosphere too. Because this spacecraft is called Dragonfly. It is
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  Speaker 3: not the size of a dragonfly. It is the size
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  Speaker 3: of a car, okay, And it's gonna be heading for
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  Speaker 3: Saturn's Moon Titan because NASA has just given it the okay.
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  Speaker 3: They've okayed the construction and flight of their Dragonfly probe,
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  Speaker 3: which is think about this, We just successfully, for the
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  Speaker 3: first time flew an aircraft in the atmosphere of another planet.
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  Speaker 3: That was the tiny drone on Mars. Well this is
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  Speaker 3: this is similar, except it's not a tiny drone. It's
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  Speaker 3: a very large vehicle, and it's gonna be heading for
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  Speaker 3: the Moon Titan, which does have an atmosphere, a very
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  Speaker 3: dense atmosphere. It's a it's a moon around the planet Saturn.
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  Speaker 3: And this is going to be a quad copter that's
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  Speaker 3: going to be deployed in the hazy skies of the
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  Speaker 3: Moon Titan. Now it's going to be flying over a
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  Speaker 3: variety of environments on Titan. It titans dunes, it sees,
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  Speaker 3: it's through a variety of layers of the atmosphere. It
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  Speaker 3: probably does. There's probably some tundras up there towards the
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  Speaker 3: poles on Titan. Just what it's going to be looking for,
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  Speaker 3: It's going to be looking for evidence of life. So
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  Speaker 3: this is no joke, right This moon Titan is a
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  Speaker 3: very healthy source of hydrocarbons. It's got all manner of hydrocarbons,
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  Speaker 3: including methane up there in the atmosphere, has methane oceans,
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  Speaker 3: so it's got many of the building blocks of life
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  Speaker 3: on its surface. We already know. So we're going to
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  Speaker 3: send a giant nuclear powered quad copter up there and
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  Speaker 3: invade this pleasant little garden spot a moon and search
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  Speaker 3: for signs of life. So in July of twenty twenty eight,
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  Speaker 3: Dragonfly is scheduled to launch guess where, from a Falcon
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  Speaker 3: Heavy Florida's Kennedy Space Center. The Falcon Heavy rocket taking
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  Speaker 3: the Dragonfly not just to orbit, but out of Earth's orbit,
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  Speaker 3: much like that cherry red Tesla roadster that's out there somewhere,
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  Speaker 3: and then the vehicle will proceed on to the planet
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  Speaker 3: Saturn deploy in around the gravitational field of the moon Titan,
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  Speaker 3: and then this giant quad copper will be deployed out
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  Speaker 3: of that the fairings of that spacecraft and fly around
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  Speaker 3: in the atmosphere looking for prebiotic chemistry and assessing the
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  Speaker 3: past and present habitability of this world as well as
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: diverse geological locations. So there you have, friends, dragonflyes Ago.
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  Speaker 3: It's a cool it's a really cool space mission. I'm
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  Speaker 3: super happy that NASA passed this, and we're going to
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  Speaker 3: find out a lot more about one of the most
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  Speaker 3: interesting places in our Solar system not named Earth.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, and there's a lot of science fiction
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  Speaker 4: about Titan, and you know, this is not uh, this
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  Speaker 4: is a very obviously a very strategic mission for a
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  Speaker 4: lot of a lot of the right reasons, and to
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  Speaker 4: call it second most interesting place definitely, and they definitely
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  Speaker 4: are hoping to find some some signs of life for
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  Speaker 4: some indications of it. I mean, there's science fiction written
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  Speaker 4: around like you know right now, and this has just
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: been in the news this week, you know, Elon Musk
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  Speaker 4: talking about, Hey, we're going to need Mars for when
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  Speaker 4: people can't live on Earth anymore, because the Sun will
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  Speaker 4: eventually make it where we can't live here anymore, but
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  Speaker 4: Mars will be And you know, so there was a
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  Speaker 4: time when Titan people thought was maybe that place, right, Yeah, well.
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  Speaker 3: Maybe we want to go to Titan by the time that.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe that would be the case.
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  Speaker 3: So here here's a quick We're going to go down
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: this cul de sac real quick y, which is you know,
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: we border on sounding like fanboys of SpaceX off and
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: on the show, because they that company is just amazing.
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: But Elon's point was not terribly well taken. Because if
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: we're going to talk about when the Sun starts to
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: expand out into the Solar System and ultimately makes Earth uninhabitable,
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  Speaker 3: I promise you Mars is a hell hole today. It's
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  Speaker 3: not going to be better when the Sun starts expanding out.
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  Speaker 3: Mars is going to be even more difficult to live
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  Speaker 3: on when that happens. So, you know, Elon, I like
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  Speaker 3: some of the things you say. You're a smart dude.
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: You got a great rocket company. Astronomically speaking, not such
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: a great not such a great comparison. Here is one
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: I thought he could say, which is simply, hey, our
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: Earth might get hit by a massive meteorite or a
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: massive asteroid. That's a total life killer, right, so we
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: need to be on another planet case that happens. But
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  Speaker 3: on the day that the Sun's expanding out into the
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  Speaker 3: Solar System, Mars is not much better.
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  Speaker 4: Maybe maybe a good storage place for some frozen eggs,
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  Speaker 4: you know whatever, just something to store there in case
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  Speaker 4: humanity has to make a comeback here. And just another
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: quick thought on this, and I you know, we talk
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: often about careers when it comes to you know, things
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: that you guys cover there at the Cocola Space Science Center.
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  Speaker 4: When you start talking about flying around a little helicopter
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: on Mars and then you start talking about sending a
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  Speaker 4: drone to Titan A robotics people just you know, just
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  Speaker 4: we're just throwing this out there because there's a there's
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  Speaker 4: a huge future in this in the space industry.
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  Speaker 3: There absolutely is. And actually we are teaching those skills
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: to students this summer at the Space Science Center in
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: our summer academy. And so there are still a few
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: days to sign up for that. I know, we're in
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: the middle of the show. We usually don't do Space
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: Center promos in the middle of the show, but if
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: you're in the immediate listening area, and you'd like you
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: have your middle school or high school students who want
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: to participate in a great learning experience all about robotics
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: and drones. Do check out our website at the Space
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: Science Center www dot CSSC dot org and find out
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: about our Summer Robotics Academy. Students will apply to that program,
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: but then if they're accepted, they go free of charge,
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: and that is due to the support of a very
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: generous donating company, Pratt and Whitney, maker of Dependable engines friends.
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: So yeah, check out that information at our website.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: We're going to take a quick break.
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: When we come back, we're going to talk about Japan's resilience.
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: We'll do that next. All right, let's talk about Japan's resilience.
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: This is their lunar lander as an entered orbit around
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  Speaker 4: the Moon and uh, here we go.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's interesting story. It's a company actually, so
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  Speaker 3: it's a it's a commercial lander. The company is called
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: ice Space. You know ice Space, U Space, We all
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: space ice Space.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: Yes, So, now I want ice cream?
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: Why do I? Why do I have a craving for
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: ice cream? Now, West, I don't know why I usually
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: do me too. Actually, now it's worse though, all right, So,
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: but ice Space not ice Cream. So so, Japan has
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  Speaker 3: a company called ice Space. They're a commercial space flight company.
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: They have built a second moonlander. This is their second
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: attempt to land on the Moon. First attempt did not
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: quite go as planned, but now they're going back up there.
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  Speaker 3: Their second attempt is with a view called Resilience, which
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: is a lunar lander. It's part of the Haikuto r
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: M two mission. The Haikuto M two mission is the
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: vehicle and all the other things that are taking it
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: up there. But the actual lander nickname Resilience, is going
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: to be shooting for a landing sometime in June, no
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: earlier than June fifth. But right now it is safely
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: in lunar orbit. So it did make the trip to
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: the Moon. It's the longest yet by a spacecraft in
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: terms of it's burn of its main thruster, approximately a
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: nine minute burn to put it into that lunar orbit.
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: And so these are all milestones from the ice based
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: company from Japan. They are in lunar orbit. If you
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: want to read about that, SpaceNews dot com has a
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: great article on the Ice Space mission and the resilience
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: lunar Lander.
• 17:55
  Speaker 4: Let's talk about the Artemis to Moon rocket. It's gotten
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: a second stage.
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  Speaker 1: Here we go.
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  Speaker 4: We kind of teased a little bit of this, I
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  Speaker 4: think last week we talked about the second stage.
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  Speaker 1: And all of that. But here we go. We're now
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  Speaker 1: one step closer. This is like a two part story.
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  Speaker 4: We're gonna do the first part of the story and
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  Speaker 4: then and then yeah, and then we'll take a break
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: and do the second part of the story.
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  Speaker 1: So but let's start with the good part.
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  Speaker 3: All right. Well, yeah, there's a certain student of mine
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: who's going to remain nameless because I don't want to
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: get this person in trouble. But they were texting me
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: pictures from inside the VAB of something happening. I don't
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: know what it was, but coincidentally, at the same time
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: NASA was stacking the new Moon Rocket, they were putting
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: the second stage on top of the SLS and I
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: may or may not have seen pictures of that somewhere anyway,
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: So really cool stuff. The second stage, of course, is
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: what the Oriyan Capsule will eventually sit on top of.
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: So you have this massive, you know, basically thirty six
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: story rocket system, and then inside the top of that
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: rocket system you have a second smaller, much smaller rocket system.
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: That's the second stage. On top of that will be
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: the actual space vehicle inside of which people will ride.
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: That's called the Orion space capsule. This is the Artemis
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: two Mega rocket, the space launch system. The Artemis two
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: mission is designed to put people inside of that Orion
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: capsule and let them fly a trip around the backside
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: of the Moon. Friends, So yes, sending people back to
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: the Moon for the first time since the Apollo missions.
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: Now that doesn't mean they'll actually walk on the Moon
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: in this flight, but the Artemis three mission is scheduled
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: to happen in twenty twenty seven, So Artemis two a
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: quick lap around the backside twenty twenty six next year,
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: maybe as early as February, and then twenty twenty seven,
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: Atomis three land on the surface of the Moon. With
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: great cheers and admiration for NASA and its astronauts returning
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: to the surface of the Moon. All right, that's all great.
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: But last Friday, May second, there was an announcement about
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: a budget proposal from the Trump administration for NASA where
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: they cut the SLS program right on out, and that
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: happens after the Artemist three, So they would complete the
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: next mission Artemis two, around the backside and then back home,
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: then Artemis three and twenty twenty seven to lend people
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: on the Moon, and that would be the swan song
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: for the space launch system, at least under the leadership
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: of this current administration. So that that's a happy story. Yay,
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: we've got the rocket stack, we're gonna send astronauts. Yeah,
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: there's gonna be another mission just in two years. But
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: then that's the one hand. Then the other hand is
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: the current plans will be to scrap that higher program.
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: Now that does not mean scrap human beings efforts to
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: go back to the Moon. That just means this rocket,
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: this space vehicle, etc. So now there's probably a second
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: story here, I think somewhere there is, and.
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: We're going to get to that in just a second.
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: But you talk about it as a swan song, and
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: I do realize, you know, to be able to say, Okay, look,
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: we got people back on the Moon again, and that's
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: obviously going to be another just major accomplishment. Some probably
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: not many of those skeptics out there might even go Okay, finally,
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: oh yeah, they're on the moon. Now, fine, fine, okay,
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: but probably most of them are still going to say no,
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: they're not, and the Earth is flat. But you'll have that,
• 21:49
  Speaker 4: you'll have that part of this. And then you're going
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: to say, all right, we've done this as human beings.
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: It's happened again. Look what's happened. And then and you say,
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: that's the Swan song.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's in.
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: We don't want it to be the swan song for
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: the Sols, but that's a nice swan song. I mean
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: it's a nice It's like retiring after winning a Super Bowl, right.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: It is, by the way, Yes, And and you know
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: Dared Isaacman, we talked about him last week in his
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: testimony before Congress looking to be approved as the next
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: NASA administrator, basically say, look, it's it's the best way
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: for us to get people to the moon right now,
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: the quickest way, best most efficient way. Because the rocket's
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: already built, the system's already designed, it's already ready to go.
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: Let's go ahead and use it. And as you said,
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: Wes accomplished this great feat of a return to the moon.
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: But then perhaps there might be alternate methods of returning
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: to the Moon for prolonged purposes, which maybe we should
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: talk about in this next door.
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: We'll talk about it like after a quick break, just
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: one more quick thing on this and and to be clear,
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: we're we're pulling for SLS. You and I have met
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: many people working on the SLS. We went down to
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: Kennedy with press credentials, so I don't I don't think
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: maybe if you did or didn't see an image of
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: something inside the va B, I would think that.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: You know, we we got to see.
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: A lot of stuff while we were down there, including
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: that that first stage. So I don't think it's a
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: it's any great crime and that, but we're pulling for him.
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: I mean, we know people working on this next mission.
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: We interviewed them. You can go back and listen to
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: those from like a year ago when we did those shows.
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: It's on Made of Stars, many interviews from them. So
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: we will now take our next break because the next
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: story is absolutely a follow up to that story, and
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: we'll talk about maybe how people will get to the
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: Moon after Artemis III. So we have covered uh, SpaceX
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: and Starship launches. There have been you know, we talk
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: about their their method for doing things. They say, we're
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: gonna launch. Uh oh, it blew up the launch pad.
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: Stuff went everywhere, and they go, all right, well, we'll
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: figure it out and we'll launch again. The FAA says,
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: not so fast. We got to check on this first,
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: and then you've got environmental agencies going, we got to
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: check this out first. And then you know, kind of
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: quickly they got somehow it's what seemed like a quick turnaround.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: They were able to launch again, and they've continued to launch.
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: They're catching things and chopsticks, they're doing all this fun stuff,
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: and now it seems they have gotten approval from that
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: same FAA to begin a much more extensive series of launches. Company,
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: by the way that year after year breaks its own
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: record for the number of launches that it does every
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: year for themselves and for other people, like they do
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: both of those, and they're just launching it seems like
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: every other day, and sometimes maybe even the same day.
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: Sometimes the same booster gets used, like less than a
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: week apart. We don't even know how this stuff's even possible.
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: So it seems at least there may be some assumption
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: that maybe this might be the better vehicle to get
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: people to the Moon one day.
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: I mean, is it the same FAA. I don't know.
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure it's exactly the same. Maybe that's fair,
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: the same initials.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's fair.
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: Maybe something might have changed.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: There might have been a few little things that are
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: a little bit different.
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: Now, just a little different.
• 25:55
  Speaker 4: That's a fair that's a fair assessment. Yes, that is
• 25:58
  Speaker 4: as fair as my question about the Soviet Union in Russia.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: So that is I'm not comparing the two faas to that.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: I'm just pointing out the fact that while there's not
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: a big maybe not a big difference.
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: Between Russia and the Soviet Union, and at least some
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: of the things they're doing these days, I'm just pointing
• 26:17
  Speaker 4: out out anyway.
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: All right, here's what I can tell you. Under the
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: previous leadership of the FAA, SpaceX was licensed to have
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: five launches of their starship per year. They had a
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: cap a maximum of five missions. And now, on Tuesday,
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: May sixth, the US Federal Aviation Administration released its final
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: environmental assessment of the starship operations at Starbase. They went
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: back down there and just looked things over. By the way,
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: the SpaceX facility is now at its own city in Texas. So,
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: you know, they were part of a different municipal organization
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: and now they're just their own town. Yeah, so they
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: can you know, they can make their own rules for
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: their own town and so so yeah, the FAA came
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: down and visited the new town of Starbase near Brownsville, Texas,
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: and they did some assessment. And after their assessment, they said,
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: how about how about we jump from five missions a
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: year to five times five missions per year twenty five
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: missions per year. We think you'll be all right launching
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: you know, every other week for the rest of this year. Friends.
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: So so yeah, now the FAA cap on starship launches
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: per year is up to twenty five. And you know,
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: I believe that Elon Musk and SpaceX have those starships
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: and their booster rockets called the Falcon Super Heavy Boosters.
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: They've got them lined up like the Borg in Star Trek,
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: the next generation. Right, they're just in a giant warehouse,
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: just ready to roll out the next one, the next one,
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: the next one, the next one. So I don't know
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: if they'll quite hit the launch cadence of twenty five
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: per year, or even at a rate of every two weeks,
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: but they might and if they're launching that frequently, and
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: the Space Launch System, which we mentioned in the last story,
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: is going to launch once every two to three years,
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: and both vehicles have the potential capability of taking human
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: beings all the way to the Moon. That's probably not
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: good for the Space Launch System, that's all I'm saying.
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: Probably not good.
• 28:36
  Speaker 4: When you start looking at some things like sustainability. I mean,
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: there's a few factors that go into play here when
• 28:42
  Speaker 4: you start talking about SpaceX, what they do and how
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: they do it. I mean, you know, there's an argument
• 28:48
  Speaker 4: to be made. We're not fanboyan, We're just pointing out
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: the fact that if you've got a private company that
• 28:53
  Speaker 4: wants to do it, and it's not as expensive and
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: there's a sustainability element to it, you know, maybe you
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: have to look at those things.
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Both components of the Starship vehicle, which include the
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: Falcon Super heavy booster and the Starship what they call ship,
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: which is the vehicle itself, are potentially reusable. They are
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: both designed to come back down and land and get
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: fueled up and go back to space again. Right now,
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: let's talk about the Space Launch System. NASA's rocket, largely
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: designed by Boeing. It's a frankenstein of old Space Shuttle parts, right.
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: It's the main fuel tank from Space Shuttle. It's turned
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: into the main core stage of SLS. They have solid
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: rocket boosters that are old Shuttle boosters modified now they
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: are the booster rockets for SLS. And the main engines
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: are old Space Shuttle engines, the RS twenty five engines.
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: There were three of those on the Space Shuttle itself,
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: they're now four on the SLS. The main engines are
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: in many cases actually leftover engines from the actual Shuttle program.
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: Why were they left over because they could come back down,
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: land on a runway and reuse them. The solid rocket
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: boosters are made of leftover parts. Because the solid rocket
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: boosters from Shuttle would land in the ocean, they would float,
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: NASA would go back out and get them, bring them
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: back and reuse them. Now, the main fuel tank was
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: not reusable and it still isn't okay, so on the
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: Space Launch System. Not only is the core stage not reusable,
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: the engines attached to the bottom, which are old Shuttle
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: engines which have flown missions before. They're going to be
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: dropped to the bottom of the ocean. And the plan
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: is for those big old solid rocket boosters which used
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: to float so nicely after they took shuttles to space.
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: Now they're just gonna sink them one and done for
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: every component of that massive rocket except the capsule, and
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: you fly it hopefully every two to three years, and
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: none of it's reusable. Compare that to a company like SpaceX,
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: who has a competing vehicle potentially in terms of capability,
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: that's launching every other week and the whole darn thing
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: is reusable. There's a reason that SLS might have a
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: swan song. And as Wes mentioned, people we know very closely,
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: and some of them I would say, we love We
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: are close enough to some of these people that we
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: just love you guys, and if you're listening to the podcast,
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: I'm sorry, we love you still. But SLS potentially is
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: not going to survive this fight simply because of its
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: lack of reusability if nothing else.
• 31:53
  Speaker 4: And we will see how these twenty five launches a
• 31:58
  Speaker 4: year goes over the next couple of years, and obviously,
• 32:01
  Speaker 4: if they're able to do that many launches and tests,
• 32:04
  Speaker 4: we're going to have a very good idea of what
• 32:06
  Speaker 4: those craft are capable of. All right, you mentioned the
• 32:10
  Speaker 4: camps this summer for the Coca Cola Space Science Center,
• 32:15
  Speaker 4: the school years winding down and parents already starting to go.
• 32:20
  Speaker 4: We got how many days left? We got to start
• 32:22
  Speaker 4: figuring out what we're doing with these kids this summer,
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: because we can't just let them stare at a screen
• 32:25
  Speaker 4: all summer. I mean you can, but maybe you don't
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: want to let them stare at a screen all summer.
• 32:32
  Speaker 4: But there's some certainly some things to do there at
• 32:34
  Speaker 4: the Co Cola Space Science Center, including those camps that
• 32:36
  Speaker 4: you talked about, that they just have to go in
• 32:39
  Speaker 4: and apply. And I can tell you this because you
• 32:43
  Speaker 4: guys at the Coca Cola Space Science Center do not
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: make the decisions on who gets into the camps, and
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: I will. And I say that because I want to
• 32:52
  Speaker 4: mention the fact that for the last two years my
• 32:54
  Speaker 4: kids have applied and gotten in and had a blast,
• 32:59
  Speaker 4: really enjoyed themselves, had a great time at the camps.
• 33:03
  Speaker 4: They enjoyed the competitions that were done there. They enjoyed,
• 33:07
  Speaker 4: you know, the team work. There was some activities done
• 33:10
  Speaker 4: where you're working in teams, competition, robotics and things, and
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: they had a great time so I can tell you
• 33:15
  Speaker 4: just as an endorsement, it is absolutely worth it to It's.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: A great free as you.
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: Pointed out, if you get in, you're getting in for
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: free to be able to be part of these robotics
• 33:29
  Speaker 4: camps at the Cocola Space Science Center this summer.
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's certainly a great program. And again it's it's
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: funded by our friends at Prett and Whitney. They're doing
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: that because we're helping to inspire and educate the next
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: generation of scientists, engineers and science educators, and so it's
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: it's a fantastic opportunity. We have our train staff at
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: the Space Science Center who will be leading these summer
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: academy activities and the summer camps. And yeah, as Wes mentioned,
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: the students just simply need to apply and if they're selected,
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: they're gonna be able to go to these camps for free.
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: So want more information about that, visit our website www
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: dot CCSSC dot org. And let me just take a
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: second to also announce a very special summer long event
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: really that we're having this summer, which is we're working
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: with the bo Bartlett Center, which is an art gallery
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: just a few blocks down front Avenue from where we're
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: located in Columbus, Georgia, and our friends at the bo
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: Bartlett Center are collaborating with us to put on display
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: the artifact and photography collection of David R. Scott, Commander
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: of Apollo fifteen. These are items directly from the private
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: collection of David Scott, through his brother Tom Scott, donated
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: to the Space Science Center. They've been so generous to
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: us that we have more pieces of this collection that
• 34:52
  Speaker 3: we can conveniently put on display in our own gallery
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: right now. We wanted to get eyes of the public
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: on these really amazing photographs and artifacts, and so we
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: are teaming up with our friends at the Bow Bartlett
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: Center at Columbus State University and they're going to be
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: doing a show of these pieces from David R. Scott's
• 35:11
  Speaker 3: collection from June to third through August second, so basically
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: all the months of June and July. So if you're
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: looking for something really interesting and different to do with
• 35:22
  Speaker 3: the kids this summer, drop by the Bow Bartlett Center,
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: visit the David Scott exhibit at that facility, and then
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: when you do, there'll be a way for you get
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: to get a discounted admission to the Coca Cola Space
• 35:36
  Speaker 3: Science Center, which again is just three blocks down the road.
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: So go visit the art gallery first, hit the QR code.
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: You'll get a coop coupon. You can come down to
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: the Space Sigence Center, get a discounted admission and have
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: a whole day of really cool space fund at the
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: Bow Bartlett Center and the Coca Cola Space Science Center
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: at Columbus State University.
• 35:57
  Speaker 4: Sean and I thank you for listening, and we'll do
• 35:59
  Speaker 4: this again next week. Planet Assio. Overhead Door Company of
• 36:08
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