0:00

Coming up on this week in

0:02

space, the private polar Fram II

0:04

crew comes back to Earth. NASA's

0:06

Starliner astronauts speak out. And why

0:09

is everyone so mad at Katie

0:11

Perry launching on Blue Origin? We'll

0:13

find all that and more, plus

0:16

tariffs in space. So tune in.

0:18

Podcasts You Love. From People You

0:20

Trust. This is Tolt. This is

0:23

this weekend space episode number 155

0:25

recorded on April 4th 2025 Space

0:27

News You Can Use if you're

0:30

not stuck on the ISS Hello

0:32

and welcome to another episode

0:34

of this week of space the

0:36

cool space news you can use

0:39

if you're not stuck on the

0:41

ISS edition I'm rod pile editor

0:43

and chief badaster magazine. I'm joined

0:45

by that space ace new hand

0:47

Space Ace News Hound, I might

0:49

say. Tark Malek, editor and chief

0:51

of space.com, hello partner. Hello, Rod.

0:53

Happy Friday. Happy Friday to you.

0:55

Or podcast day, we should say,

0:58

right? And your custom made, very

1:00

cool sweater. That's nice, isn't it?

1:02

My wife made this for me.

1:04

That's my favorite color. It's orange

1:06

for people who aren't watching. Nobody's

1:08

ever made me a sweater, so

1:10

we're going to talk later. Today

1:12

we're playing catch-up with Cool Space

1:14

News because we kind of got

1:16

behind the eight ball due to having

1:18

a slate of really good guess. But

1:20

for the next hour or so, we're

1:23

going to make that up to you

1:25

by covering a full range of topics

1:27

from Butch and Sunny's Wild Ride to

1:29

orbiting the Earth's poles to mysterious Russian

1:31

orbiters. Now before we begin. Please don't

1:34

forget do a solid make sure

1:36

to like subscribe the other cool

1:38

podcast things so that we can

1:41

keep bringing you just fine content

1:43

and now a space joke from

1:45

and I quote Andy water

1:47

and Andy Waterson's daughter Merritt

1:50

Waterson Merritt. Merritt. Natarik.

1:53

Yes, Rod. What was the name of

1:55

the nuclear physicist best

1:57

friend? I don't know what. Adam.

1:59

Adam. Oh, like an atom. Like

2:01

an atom. Okay. Up and

2:04

at them. Got it. Now,

2:06

from Megan on Discord.

2:08

Hey, Tark. Yes, Ron.

2:10

Why don't planets ever speak

2:12

the truth? I don't know

2:14

why. Because they prefer

2:16

to spin. Oh, I like

2:19

that. I got that one faster.

2:21

Okay, one more, one more

2:23

from yours truly. Why

2:25

did America win the space

2:28

race race? Why? because

2:30

the Soviets were stolen. Gotta

2:32

think about that one, right? Wow.

2:35

Bring out the torches and the

2:37

piss works. Okay, I've heard that

2:39

some people want to send us

2:41

to a Russian gulag when it's

2:43

joke time of this show, but

2:45

you can help by sending us

2:47

your best, worst or most of

2:49

different space joke to us at

2:51

TWIT. TV and we'll be your

2:53

huckleberries. Oh, speaking of which, how

2:55

sad. Is it that we lost

2:58

Val Kilmer at 65? Yeah, he

3:00

was young. I didn't realize he

3:02

was younger than me because as

3:04

bad as I look, he doesn't,

3:06

didn't look younger than me, but

3:08

he had been through some pretty heavy

3:10

stuff. But Star of Red Planet, the

3:12

sci-fi movie, you know, before Matt Damon?

3:15

Well, for the show that's appropriate, but

3:17

I mean, if you're going to talk

3:19

about starring roles for him, tombstone, I

3:21

mean, yeah, yeah, I can see that that

3:23

was just. I don't know Top Gun

3:26

was quite good but you know where

3:28

I first I first saw him in

3:30

top secret. Do you remember

3:32

that? Yeah that was the

3:34

first movie I ever saw him it.

3:37

So that was funny. Yeah. Well

3:39

we'll see about. All right let's

3:41

jump into some headlines because

3:43

this week we're all headlines all

3:45

the time. Headline news. Oh I

3:48

missed it again. We

3:51

need to name her. Who is that?

3:54

What are we going to call

3:56

her? Well, we should, like, how

3:58

about the people help us decide?

4:00

Let's get some suggestions. There we

4:02

go. The listener is on the

4:04

podcast. I was thinking, Carla, but

4:06

it could be anything. Well, it

4:08

could be astronautica. It could be,

4:10

like, who is the Queen in,

4:12

in, was it Millennium or whatever

4:14

that was? That Fritz, Fritz movie,

4:16

you know, Fritz Lange. A metropolis.

4:19

Metropolis, yeah. Mechanical lady. Yeah, I

4:21

don't remember her name. All right,

4:23

let's actually do something productive here.

4:25

I'm too. You're just the one

4:27

Stalin. Oh, oh, what, wow. This

4:29

is a cool flight. So they're

4:31

back, but, and I think we

4:33

touched on it last week, but

4:35

can you give us a recap?

4:38

I mean, because this is, it

4:40

didn't get as much airplay as

4:42

the Polaris missions, at least I

4:44

didn't. I didn't think it did.

4:46

Well, it did and there's a

4:48

reason. Yeah, there's a reason for

4:50

that. But it's cool because it

4:52

was polar and nobody had ever

4:54

done that before. Not even anything

4:56

like it before. Yeah, this, so

4:59

this is hot off the presses

5:01

because as we are recording this,

5:03

the astronauts are being plucked from

5:05

their capsules if they haven't already

5:07

been out in the Pacific Ocean,

5:09

but SpaceX's latest private orbital mission

5:11

from tomb, which was financed by

5:13

a cryptocurrency billionaire tune wing, I

5:15

think of Malta. Just return to

5:18

Earth after a four-day mission. So

5:20

it was a very very short

5:22

mission. They launched this week. They

5:24

landed this week. And as you

5:26

mentioned, Rod, this was the very

5:28

first ever in the 60 plus

5:30

years of space exploration flight that

5:32

sent astronauts over Earth's poles. And

5:34

that's because most of them always

5:37

kind of go either on an

5:39

equatorial direction or in an inclination

5:41

that can reach the space station,

5:43

what is that, like 52 degrees,

5:45

something like that? Yeah. and uh...

5:47

uh... but chune wing is an

5:49

explorer he he he is you

5:51

know gone to the polls he

5:53

is clined mountains and he wanted

5:55

to go see the Earth's poles

5:58

from space. And they named it

6:00

after a, a famed Fram polar

6:02

expedition with, you know, ships and

6:04

stuff like that. Well, won't. Okay,

6:06

the ship was called Fram. It

6:08

was Edmonton going to the Antarctic.

6:10

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I knew that

6:12

you would know more than I

6:14

did about that, Rod. But that's

6:17

why it's called the Fram II

6:19

mission. And it seems like it

6:21

went pretty smooth, but you are

6:23

right. For a private mission, we

6:25

had. a lot less Ballyhoo about

6:27

this flight. Apparently by design, it

6:29

sounds like Chun Wang didn't really

6:31

want. as much pomp and circumstance

6:33

as what Jared Isaacman has done.

6:35

You know, Isaacman has really wrapped

6:38

his Polaris dawn and his inspiration

6:40

for emissions in philanthropy, in, I

6:42

don't want to say activism, but

6:44

like awareness and whatnot, where he

6:46

was really trying to push every

6:48

little aspect of it to drive

6:50

fundraising and that type of things

6:52

for St. Jude's. And this one

6:54

was really kind of. dedicated to

6:57

June's desire to see the Earth's

6:59

poles as well. I think they

7:01

did 22 different experiments. Some of

7:03

them were photographing the auroras while

7:05

people on the ground photograph the

7:07

auroras from the surface, that sort

7:09

of thing. But we didn't see

7:11

anywhere as near as the in-depth

7:13

media run-up to it. And even

7:15

like during flight. However, one thing

7:18

that was different, they had like

7:20

video snippets, almost like cell phone

7:22

videos, of what life was like

7:24

on the capsule. every day. And

7:26

it seemed like that Starlink connection

7:28

that they've added to these spacecraft

7:30

is really paying off that they

7:32

can get a video. I think

7:34

as he was being strapped into

7:37

the capsule, he was tweeting out

7:39

my video about what that was

7:41

like. It was pretty crazy to

7:43

see. That's cool. All right, next

7:45

up, we have from Space News,

7:47

we have the first launch of

7:49

Kuiper Internet satellites. That's right Starlink.

7:51

Eat your heart out. We're just

7:53

talking about that. Five days. Yeah,

7:55

April 9th, you know, as we

7:58

are recording this is the launch

8:00

date for for Amazon's first batch

8:02

of Cooper satellites. This is, they're

8:04

gonna launch 27 of these Cooper

8:06

internet satellites. Of course, this is

8:08

Amazon's answer to SpaceX's Starlink, which

8:10

has had such a leg up.

8:12

And I think what, how many

8:14

years? Right. About two, three years

8:17

to really. solidify its hold on

8:19

space-based internet. Well, what are they

8:21

up to? 3,200 satellites? Well, they've

8:23

launched for over 4,000. Over 4,000.

8:25

So, so KIPER, even if they're

8:27

more efficient to have some work

8:29

to do to catch up. Yeah.

8:31

Yeah, so Amazon is planning a

8:33

constellation of 3,200 satellites, all in.

8:35

in orbit to provide maximum coverage

8:38

of Earth at high speeds for

8:40

internet. And so this is their

8:42

first mission. It's called Cooper Atlas

8:44

One because it's launching on an

8:46

Atlas Five. In fact, I've heard

8:48

that this is going to be

8:50

the heaviest Atlas payload ever for

8:52

the rocket. So at least they

8:54

get to use their own engines,

8:57

right? Yes. Yes. So there is

8:59

that their own rocket. Yeah. So

9:01

and so it'll be interesting to

9:03

see how this mission goes. If

9:05

you might recall, Amazon launched. kind

9:07

of like a pathfinder set. I

9:09

think it was two pathfinders in

9:11

recent years to see if the

9:13

technology was ready. It sounds like

9:15

it was, but it's been a

9:18

bit of a road to get

9:20

here. In fact, the folks at

9:22

Blue Origin that were also working

9:24

a little bit on this had

9:26

to really kind of push and

9:28

whatnot is what I've heard through

9:30

the grapevine. So we'll see how

9:32

this does because they have confidence

9:34

that they're going to be able

9:37

to have these operational. constellation fairly

9:39

in short order and it's based

9:41

in Kirkland Washington you know which

9:43

is kind of very close to

9:45

where Blue Origin is based as

9:47

well. And the home of all

9:49

the best cheap generic brands of

9:51

Costco. That's right. Apparently. All right

9:53

so for People magazine that that's

9:55

a first. Yeah. We have of

9:58

Olivia Munn complaining about the all-female

10:00

Blue Origin space crew for the

10:02

next suborbital launch of Shepard. This

10:04

is a weird one. Yeah, I

10:06

picked this. So April 14th is

10:08

the launch date for Blue Origins

10:10

Next crude space flight. And it

10:12

is organized and led by Lauren

10:14

Sanchez, the fiancé of Blue Origins

10:17

billionaire founder. Jeff Bizoz, and Sanchez

10:19

has put together kind of like

10:21

an all-star list of scientists and

10:23

singers, Katie Perry, is one of

10:25

them, Gail King, the news reporter,

10:27

another, and the whole big thing

10:29

is that they're all, it's an

10:31

all-female crew. So it's the first

10:33

all-female crew since Valentina Tereskova, launched

10:35

in the 60s, right? So it's

10:38

the very first time that they've

10:40

done this. And... For whatever reason

10:42

this one blue origin mission is

10:44

spawning such hate or anger or

10:46

Like drama online, you know, they've

10:48

launched how many of these rod

10:50

like like a good 10 or

10:52

15, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I

10:54

think they just had their 10th

10:57

Yeah, I mean they've launched a

10:59

lot if they've launched several times

11:01

of the last two years and

11:03

and this is the one that

11:05

is getting the biggest backlash. I

11:07

didn't see this backlash when they

11:09

launched William Shatner to space or

11:11

Michael Strahan to space or even

11:13

Wally Funk, who at the time

11:15

was the oldest person, right, that

11:18

they launched into space on that

11:20

first flight. Or even when they

11:22

launched off Bizoz to Space, you

11:24

didn't see this much backlash. And

11:26

Olivia Mun, I'm pointing it out

11:28

here because I've seen her comments

11:30

just echoing throughout the general culture

11:32

sphere. New York Post has it.

11:34

People has it here. But she

11:37

wasn't the first, a lot of

11:39

the cephuffles started a week or

11:41

two ago with other people complaining

11:43

about how this is the dumbest

11:45

mission ever that they're saying. And

11:47

the only thing that strikes me,

11:49

and perhaps it's just. You know

11:51

my lens is that it's it's

11:53

an all-female crew and it feels

11:55

like it's open season on this

11:58

mission. You know, and I don't

12:00

know, I don't know, what do

12:02

you think about that Rob, about

12:04

the fact that there's this big

12:06

pushback against it. In these times,

12:08

it's hard to be surprised by

12:10

much of anything. But with you,

12:12

I'm with you, it is kind

12:14

of weird because there's certainly been

12:17

other missions you could criticize you

12:19

were going to, especially because. You

12:21

know, this is a privately funded,

12:23

low resource mission. It talks about

12:25

a terrific waste. It's a suborbital

12:27

flight for six minutes. It's like

12:29

a couple of jet airliners. I'm

12:31

minimizing it a bit, but you

12:33

know what I mean. I understand

12:35

the point. Just don't get me

12:38

wrong, because space tourism is a

12:40

fabulous, like, like, example. of conspicuous

12:42

consumption, right? So, and we are

12:44

in, you know, some tough times

12:46

economically wise, we've just got these

12:48

tariffs, which I think we're going

12:50

to talk about in a little

12:52

bit, and we were talking about

12:54

the price of eggs earlier. This

12:57

is not going to lower the

12:59

price of anyone's eggs, like this

13:01

launch. Okay, but we may be

13:03

able to deliver them from point

13:05

to point by Starship soon. There

13:07

is that, but anyway, it's something

13:09

to watch, and everyone out there,

13:11

you make the call, why do

13:13

you think this mission is being...

13:15

Such blasted so publicly whereas the

13:18

last 10 have not been just

13:20

think about that. I want to

13:22

know your answers. So send us

13:24

some send us your answers after

13:26

we come back from this break.

13:28

We will be right back standby.

13:30

Sorry I didn't mean to give

13:32

everybody homework. So it's okay. This

13:34

one's on you pal. Are you

13:37

ready? Yeah. From writers Tariffs and

13:39

Space now. I just said it

13:41

like your name. What a great

13:43

place. Tariffs in space. So I'm

13:45

letting you take all the credit

13:47

for this one when the mail

13:49

comes in, but go for it.

13:51

Yeah, well, this one, I mean,

13:53

people, these are these. are really

13:55

fresh like as we are speaking

13:58

I think we have what it's

14:00

been just like less than 48

14:02

hours since the the new tariffs

14:04

yeah the stock market shock is

14:06

still sinking in yeah that was

14:08

yesterday when everything cratered and went

14:10

through the floor it's lowest stock

14:12

the huge the biggest drop in

14:14

since 2020 since the COVID basically

14:17

but I'm asking the question because

14:19

I don't think that we know

14:21

what's going to happen yet but

14:23

for people who maybe you know,

14:25

didn't see the news. The government

14:27

in the US, the Trump administration,

14:29

released a sweeping wave of very

14:31

high tariffs across the board. I

14:33

think 10% from most countries. China

14:35

is 34%. The UK is 10%

14:38

and we run a surplus with

14:40

trade for them. And it's going

14:42

to touch on everything from cars

14:44

to all sorts of technical imports,

14:46

steel, all of that stuff. And

14:48

so the question that Reuters is

14:50

talking about in this article here,

14:52

as well as the times before,

14:54

is what is that going to

14:57

mean for the aerospace industry? You

14:59

know, we have talked a lot

15:01

about international cooperation, a lot of

15:03

the companies, not only have international

15:05

partnerships, but they rely on parts

15:07

that are made in other countries

15:09

to build their vehicles, their planes,

15:11

their spacecraft, and whatnot. I mean,

15:13

think about Northrop Grumman, Rod, right?

15:15

They build the Cigna spacecraft, but

15:18

it is. It is a pressure

15:20

vessel built for them in Italy

15:22

and then shipped to the United

15:24

States for final. Exactly. And so,

15:26

like what is the tariff on

15:28

that going to be? I don't

15:30

know, right? And so it seems

15:32

like the economy specialists in the

15:34

aerospace industries, particularly in the European

15:37

Union, which did get hit fairly

15:39

hard. keeping a close eye on

15:41

all of these all of these

15:43

components all of these industries you'd

15:45

have got Airbus that needs to

15:47

ship there or not Airbus Orion

15:49

space that builds their rockets and

15:51

then has to ship them all

15:53

the way down to Peru you

15:55

know and and from different parts

15:58

all around there's a lot of

16:00

moving parts in this whole industry,

16:02

and it's unclear to me how

16:04

that's going to be affected. In

16:06

fact, we've got a story in

16:08

the works, had space, all about

16:10

that, that you'll probably see next

16:12

week, people will talk about it

16:14

on the show. So this is

16:17

just something that I want to

16:19

put everyone's on, everyone's radar, because

16:21

it could touch everything that we

16:23

consume here, because much of the

16:25

stuff that we buy or need

16:27

or whatever. is important. But the

16:29

same is true for these companies.

16:31

You know, SpaceX probably not so

16:33

much, they build a lot of

16:35

their components in-house. Almost all of

16:38

them. Almost all of them, yeah.

16:40

And when they've had some failures,

16:42

it was a third-party part that

16:44

they ended up replacing in-house in

16:46

the past. But what about Boeing?

16:48

What about Northrop Grumman? What about

16:50

Lockheed when they're trying to build

16:52

them things that we need for

16:54

these launches? We'll have to wait

16:57

and see. Well, and things that

16:59

NASA may need as well. Yeah,

17:01

I mean, this is why ULA

17:03

shifted from the Russian engines to

17:05

their new ones for the Vulcan

17:07

rocket. It is why Blue Origin

17:09

built their own engines. No one

17:11

wants to have to deal with

17:13

importing those critical. parts and it's

17:15

why you know that North of

17:18

german is building a new version

17:20

of their enterous rocket that doesn't

17:22

use you know a stage built

17:24

from Ukraine you know they've had

17:26

to really shift away from that

17:28

very good points all right I'm

17:30

gonna skip one down and go

17:32

to SpaceX is going to be

17:34

flying a test run soon, we

17:37

hope, for the US military to

17:39

deliver cargo anywhere in the world

17:41

in less than 90 minutes with

17:43

the rocket cargo vanguard program. Do

17:45

we hope? Do we hope that

17:47

that's going to happen soon? Well,

17:49

you know, I'm kind of neutral

17:51

on the military aspect, I guess,

17:53

but the reason I hope that

17:55

is because it will give them

17:58

a hob-nail... boot to the posterior

18:00

to get going with Starship because

18:02

they're by roughest. in my mind

18:04

about five years late. Well, can

18:06

I just add one more thing?

18:08

Yeah, go ahead. The test landing

18:10

zone apparently is going to be

18:12

my favorite place in the planet.

18:14

Johnston at all in the central

18:17

Pacific, there are concerns about seabirds

18:19

and sea life and so forth.

18:21

And if you've ever been to

18:23

Johnson Island, I mean, it is

18:25

denated a natural preserve now and

18:27

part of the. Pacific Wildlife Heritage

18:29

Trust or something. I don't remember

18:31

the name, but it's a protected

18:33

area. But Johnston has been a

18:36

military dumping ground in the Pacific.

18:38

I mean, other than the places

18:40

where they tested atomic bombs, Johnson's

18:42

about as bad as a gat.

18:44

I was there once for a

18:46

few hours, transitioning to the two

18:48

points west from there. and it

18:50

looks like when you're coming in

18:52

it looks kind of like an

18:54

aircraft carrier it's this big rectangular

18:57

thing in the middle of literally

18:59

the middle of nowhere 700 miles

19:01

from Hawaii and it's a kind

19:03

of a dump you know it's

19:05

a sheer off because the Navy's

19:07

been there a long time they

19:09

were used from World War II

19:11

on certainly and it is known

19:13

for a place where you can

19:16

land and refuel an airplane and

19:18

where they used to have a

19:20

single building down at the end

19:22

of the air strip where they

19:24

would burn bio weapons that were

19:26

no longer necessary. So that's the

19:28

kind of place it is. So

19:30

while I understand, you know, we

19:32

have to be cognizant of species

19:34

and so forth, of all the

19:37

places where you could get concerned

19:39

about, you know, which fish or

19:41

birds are going to piss off,

19:43

and literally it's small. I mean,

19:45

it's just big enough to land

19:47

of 727 to take off again,

19:49

which is why they fly 727's

19:51

down there. because it's too too

19:53

darn short for there was, I

19:56

don't think they're using it for

19:58

that anymore, too darn short for

20:00

like real airplanes. So it's an

20:02

interesting, so anyway, sorry that was.

20:04

that was kind of my take

20:06

on it. Well, well, I mean,

20:08

I take the point. I take

20:10

the point. Although, like, while it's

20:12

small for airplanes, it's not small

20:14

for the birds that are there.

20:17

You know, I understand why the

20:19

people are upset, but this isn't

20:21

anything new for SpaceX. By the

20:23

way, we should tell people. So

20:25

this rocket vanguard thing, it's Starship.

20:27

The Air Force. wants to explore

20:29

using Starship for point-to-point cargo transportation.

20:31

In the solicitation or announcement in

20:33

the Federal Registry about what these

20:36

are, it's a vanguard thing for

20:38

up to 10 reentry landings per

20:40

year over four years to test

20:42

and demonstrate these capabilities to deliver

20:44

100 tons of cargo wherever 100

20:46

tons of cargo is the payload

20:48

manifest at least currently for Starship

20:50

so that that's the vehicle that

20:52

we're talking about the world's largest

20:54

rocket they want to land that

20:57

on this remote atoll in the

20:59

South Pacific and and the the

21:01

concern at least from the American

21:03

bird conservancy. They sent out a

21:05

blast today, but this story was

21:07

also reported by Reuters earlier this

21:09

week to say that they're really

21:11

pushing to stop it because they

21:13

saw what happened in South Texas

21:16

where star bases where the first

21:18

launches destroyed a bunch of really

21:20

invaluable nests for some some birds

21:22

I think that are either at

21:24

risk or on on the endangered

21:26

list, but they said that there

21:28

is something like There's some species

21:30

where there's only like 70,000 of

21:32

the birds ever like left on

21:34

the planet Where which is like

21:37

as I understand it's small for

21:39

birds. I don't I don't I'm

21:41

not an ecologist at all But

21:43

that this is the like their

21:45

main their main stomping grounds and

21:47

having you know the world's largest

21:49

rocket land here, but but but

21:51

I would ask you know if

21:53

you know if you know if

21:56

It's not fair to ask. a

21:58

conservancy group, this question, I'm just

22:00

pit-balling here. But if you're gonna

22:02

object to that specific place, help

22:04

us find one that is okay,

22:06

like Mojave Desert, right? Or somewhere,

22:08

well, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

22:10

Wherever you go, you're probably gonna

22:12

upset some part of the ecosystem.

22:14

That's the nature of human beings.

22:17

I mean, we're kind of parasitic

22:19

that way, right? What is stopping

22:21

the government and the military? from

22:23

just building the platform right offshore

22:25

of the place. I mean, it's

22:27

SpaceX run by the world's richest

22:29

man. They can afford to build

22:31

their own thing, right? But we

22:33

know he doesn't spend money on

22:36

lists in his own interest. I'm

22:38

just saying, I don't think, I

22:40

don't think, just, okay. Or do

22:42

what they did in the Galapagos,

22:44

which is there was one island

22:46

that had a terrible rat infestation,

22:48

so they took everything else off

22:50

that island and... put it in

22:52

temporary holding pens in other islands,

22:54

birds, turtles, a breed of pig

22:57

or boar, a bunch of other

22:59

stuff, physically transplanted it temporarily long

23:01

enough for them to kill off

23:03

the rats who were in evasive

23:05

non-native species, and then bring them

23:07

back. So you can certainly transplant

23:09

things for less money than you

23:11

could build a seagoing platform. But

23:13

yes, your point is taken. I

23:16

understand. I don't think it should

23:18

be on the ecologist to find

23:20

another side. They could just say,

23:22

hey, look, like, take this into

23:24

consideration. But I don't know. Well,

23:26

that's because you're not a boomer.

23:28

I lived in the age of

23:30

progress in the space age. Well,

23:32

yeah. Where there was no conservation.

23:34

It's like, hey, let it gas

23:37

is good. It goes down to

23:39

the lungs earlier. Okay. We've got

23:41

to go to another break. Yeah.

23:43

We'll be right back. Stand by.

23:47

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24:06

up on the latest episodes without

24:08

the ads. Are we done with

24:10

that one? I'm done. Yeah, I

24:12

just okay. Well, we'll wait and

24:14

see. We'll see what happens, right?

24:17

We'll see what happens. There's got

24:19

to be a place out there.

24:21

That's kind of how we're looking

24:23

at everything these days. All right.

24:25

Now, this is a big one.

24:27

Ours Technica, Eric Berger, our friend

24:29

of the show, yes. That article

24:31

about the Starliner flight in which

24:33

he related how he had a

24:35

chance to talk to Butch Willemore.

24:38

and he was supposed to have

24:40

a 10 minute slot at the

24:42

end of a very long press

24:44

day but he had butch apparently

24:46

get on well so it went

24:48

on for half hour plus and

24:50

wow apparently that flight was a

24:52

little little more contentious and scary

24:54

than we had been led to

24:56

believe. Yeah this is a good

24:59

one. but we didn't realize it

25:01

was like life-threatening in the way

25:03

that it was. I think that

25:05

we all thought it was. I

25:07

thought it was really concerning, right?

25:09

Those thrusters get out, they're not

25:11

at the space station, they don't

25:13

know what's gonna go on. Well,

25:15

I thought it was concerning, but

25:17

we kept saying, okay, there's one,

25:20

oh, there's three, oh, oh, there's

25:22

five, oh, it sounded four, you

25:24

know, it's like, we're all pointing

25:26

one direction. Yeah. And then suddenly

25:28

you have maneuvering issues to get

25:30

out of orbit and that gets

25:32

scary. So take it away. Well,

25:34

I have to admit, I actually

25:36

missed the big press conference this

25:38

week with Sunny Williams and Butch

25:40

Wilbore talking about it. But it

25:43

sounds like from this article in

25:45

looking through it that that Eric

25:47

put together, it was it was

25:49

stuff that came after the fact

25:51

that we didn't hear there. But

25:53

it was very interesting to see

25:55

how candid Butch. was in describing

25:57

what it was like both the

25:59

pilot, the pilot, the Starliner, because

26:01

he did say in the public,

26:04

well, I guess the wider press

26:06

conference, that he enjoyed that aspect

26:08

of being really hands on with

26:10

the vehicle, being able to have

26:12

that kind of control. But yeah,

26:14

it seemed like it was a

26:16

lot harrier than it appeared to

26:18

maybe a lot of us on

26:20

the ground. I thought obviously they

26:22

were in a good. fit in

26:25

trouble when you lose attitude control

26:27

and you're in free drift, which

26:29

they were, that's not a good

26:31

place to be when you are

26:33

on a brand new spaceship. And

26:35

I stand real close to a

26:37

great big metal object in orbit.

26:39

Exactly. Exactly. And it really is

26:41

a good read this article by

26:43

Eric. I really encourage it because

26:46

it isn't like you weren't hearing

26:48

the descriptions of what happened. filtered

26:50

through Eric's voice, which is always

26:52

a great voice, right? This is

26:54

really kind of a transcript of

26:56

what they were saying was going

26:58

on, and it is extremely interesting.

27:00

There will be books written. about

27:02

this. If they're having already been

27:04

right Rod about all of this

27:07

and so he's talking about how

27:09

they're losing the thrusters and now

27:11

they're single fault tolerant for the

27:13

for the loss and they're really

27:15

starting to start meaning that they're

27:17

right on the line yeah exactly

27:19

exactly so and he's like we're

27:21

supposed to leave the space station

27:23

and how are they going to

27:25

be able to get through all

27:28

this it's just it's just crazy

27:30

and so it is really great

27:32

him they also praise the people

27:34

in mission control that are doing

27:36

all the Tiger team work, just

27:38

to make sure that they can

27:40

get to the space station, let

27:42

alone, you know, do the other

27:44

tests and maneuvers that they were

27:46

going to be doing? It did

27:49

cause you to wonder. This is

27:51

one of those, this is the

27:53

kind of question that somebody should

27:55

be asking me and I should

27:57

be able to answer and I

27:59

wouldn't be able to answer, which

28:01

is if they had had a

28:03

maneuvering problem sufficient that they could

28:05

neither get... to the station, nor

28:07

get back, which is unlikely, but

28:10

possible in any case, how long

28:12

would it take to cycle up

28:14

one of the spacecraft on the

28:16

ISS to perform a rescue? I

28:18

don't know. That's a really good

28:20

question. Could they even do it,

28:22

Rod? Yeah. How would they do

28:24

it? Right? The suits that they

28:26

had on Starland. I'm glad that

28:28

we didn't have to find out

28:31

the answer to this. Because the

28:33

suits that they had on Starliner

28:35

are those those Boeing pressure suits,

28:37

right? Right. And I don't think

28:39

they're rated for full vacuum. Neither

28:41

are the SpaceX suits, which presumably

28:43

you would need, right? No, but

28:45

well, I don't know how different

28:47

the ones on, um, it's Polaris

28:49

Dawn were, but they're rated, they

28:52

are pressure suits, not EBA suits.

28:54

And my understanding is the differential

28:56

is primarily about. wear points and

28:58

thickness and all that for safety

29:00

reasons, but they are designed to

29:02

be at full vacuum for as

29:04

long as they have to be

29:06

to get the astronauts back safe.

29:08

So if you're not, you know,

29:10

moving the joints a ton and

29:13

rubbing up against stuff, I think

29:15

that's the whole point of them.

29:17

It's like you're expecting... But attached?

29:19

How do you get out of

29:21

the space? Well, that's... You'd have

29:23

to be on umbilicals, and that

29:25

means that you then have to,

29:27

I guess, I guess, uncouple couple...

29:29

and recouple in the spacecraft that's

29:31

rescuing you, which of course the

29:34

Boeing suits aren't standard, so to

29:36

SpaceX and vice versa, so I

29:38

don't know how they do that.

29:40

And that probably argues for standardizing

29:42

suit fittings and couplers and things.

29:44

Yeah, that's kind of important. I

29:46

think that's one of the biggest

29:48

lessons that I think that NASA

29:50

should have learned from this whole

29:52

thing. It's great to be a

29:55

customer and it's great to tell

29:57

them what you need and that's

29:59

what they did for these two

30:01

companies. pushing for that kind of

30:03

interoper, interoper, interoperable, interoperability. Interoperable, I

30:05

still can't say it. I think

30:07

it's great, because you get in

30:09

a car, you know how the

30:11

car door works. It works very

30:13

similar to every other car door,

30:15

right? And so, or the lights

30:18

on the cars, that kinds of

30:20

thing. I think the only time

30:22

I've had a problem was when

30:24

I bought a Saturn, my space

30:26

car, and you had to use

30:28

special tools to open things, and

30:30

that was really annoying. And so

30:32

I hope that there is. That

30:34

kind of thinking going on for

30:36

the future if there's ever another

30:39

evolution of this is to find

30:41

that kind of System where they

30:43

can just ship up an extra

30:45

suit and it fits because they

30:47

can take it into whatever or

30:49

an adapter just have someone build

30:51

an adapter, you know Well, and

30:53

certainly if you're going to have

30:55

to go EVA for a rescue

30:57

you should have and they may

31:00

have I don't know this one

31:02

way or the other we should

31:04

look into it probably whether they

31:06

have one of those small emergency

31:08

backpacks or not. Or the bubbles,

31:10

right? Those bubbles? Those never went

31:12

in the bags where you got

31:14

zipped inside. Yeah, I don't, I

31:16

don't, I guess they tested them,

31:18

but I don't think they ever

31:21

tested them. I would freak out

31:23

so much. Oh, yeah. and then

31:25

it gets snagged in the hatch

31:27

and then you can't get in

31:29

or out of the space. I'd

31:31

be, I would freak out. Well,

31:33

they should be in the right

31:35

position to kiss the proper part

31:37

of your atom and anatomy goodbye.

31:39

So, okay. I've never claimed that

31:42

it'd be a good astronaut. I've

31:44

never claimed it. So I know

31:46

I wouldn't. When I get that

31:48

flops wet in between floors on

31:50

an elevator when it slows down

31:52

too much. Let's get one more

31:54

in before the break before the

31:56

break. some mystery Russian objects. Space?

31:58

Yeah. My friends, Cosmos 2581, 2582,

32:00

and 2583. And Cosmos is funny

32:03

that they continue that on for

32:05

the Soviet days. Cosmos was always

32:07

the designation for satellites. didn't want

32:09

to talk about and now there's

32:11

three war they don't want to

32:13

talk about conducting what we politely

32:15

call proximity maneuvering tests which basically

32:17

amounts to potentially intercept the destroy

32:19

or intercept and grab tests which

32:21

are making people nervous. Yeah, so

32:24

these spacecraft, they all launched on

32:26

the same Soyuz rocket in February

32:28

on the second, I believe, as

32:30

we're recording. And because they're military

32:32

satellites, they have that Cosmos designation.

32:34

So that's how you know that

32:36

there's probably some kind of government

32:38

or military type function. They also

32:40

launched from Plasets, which is the

32:42

northern most costume, I think Plasets,

32:45

because in Siberia, is that right?

32:47

Yeah, and so they do a

32:49

lot more military flights out of

32:51

there. And in March, the people

32:53

that track these satellites, Jonathan McDowell

32:55

and others, noticed that the three

32:57

of these satellites, these three satellites,

32:59

were all kind of hovering around

33:01

each other, doing different types of

33:03

approaches and whatnot. And that's why

33:06

they think they're doing proximity operations

33:08

to study how to do, you

33:10

know, reconnaissance or investigations in space.

33:12

on March 18th as they're doing

33:14

these, the U.S. space force, which

33:16

tracks all the objects around, all

33:18

the satellites around, found a new

33:20

object in the orbit, which they

33:22

think might have been released by

33:24

the Cosmos 2581. So it's a

33:27

satellite that's spit out another satellite

33:29

and they don't know what it

33:31

is. So that's the cloak and

33:33

dagger aspect of all of this.

33:35

What are these three satellites doing?

33:37

What are they deploying? in space,

33:39

what are they testing? Because it

33:41

could be anything, it could be

33:43

a target, right? Like a debris

33:45

capture target, it could be some

33:48

other kind of target, you know,

33:50

it could be for formation flying,

33:52

it could be a docking target,

33:54

we don't know. And it could

33:56

be a science experiment too. So

33:58

there's. That's a good point. It

34:00

could be nefarious from our point

34:02

of view or it could also

34:04

be completely neutral. Could be an

34:06

accident, could be debris. Yeah, I

34:09

mean, to be square about it, Russia

34:11

hasn't been flying a lot of

34:13

pure research stuff lately because there's

34:15

space budgets and shambles and there's

34:17

space programs and shambles for reasons

34:19

we don't need to talk about.

34:21

And we fly the X-37B, which

34:23

is also secret. But at least

34:25

according to the third party observers,

34:27

who are the ones I think

34:29

we have to believe in this

34:31

case, our spacecraft doesn't seem to

34:33

be carrying out... anything quite as suspect

34:35

as what we're seeing with Cosmos and

34:37

frankly the Chinese are doing this a

34:39

few years back as well. And they've

34:41

seen these kinds of things with Chinese

34:43

and Russian satellites too in like in

34:45

the past, right? So they've seen these

34:48

kind of trios doing work. It's just

34:50

really strange to see it and then

34:52

it begets another satellite like what is

34:54

what is that up to? So you

34:56

know you can you can expect that

34:58

the Pentagon's washing it pretty closely right

35:00

now. The machine overlords are spawning

35:02

at last quick at Leo in

35:04

here. They're having babies. Just be

35:06

nice. Always say thank you to your

35:08

robot, right? Yeah, because there's a

35:11

story in the times today about

35:13

humanoid robots and how there's a

35:15

company that's selling ones that can

35:18

help out in your house using

35:20

AI and also. If they want to.

35:22

Because they also will have you

35:24

alone in the house, we hours

35:26

of the morning, and you have

35:28

to sleep sometime. Oh, my gosh.

35:30

Let's run to our last ad

35:32

break and we'll come back with

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And we are back with more

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ad breaks to come as I

36:32

was informed. You said, but you

36:34

said, but I said, you said

36:36

it was the last time. Starship

36:38

test nine coming up. And I

36:41

believe, they've... No, they haven't been

36:43

cleared for test nine yet. They

36:45

got cleared for tests for the

36:47

results of test seven, which is

36:49

explosive, but they're still investigating test

36:51

eight, which means that they're not

36:53

yet cleared to schedule a date

36:55

for test nine. My brain hurts.

36:57

But one thing that's very cool

36:59

about it is that they're reflying

37:01

one of their boosters. Now, that

37:03

strikes me as a little odd,

37:06

considering that the upper stage can't

37:08

be refloned because they keep blowing

37:10

them up. You know, you get

37:12

your progress where you can and

37:14

it's going to use 29 used

37:16

engines. Yeah, not only that, it's

37:18

a big week for Starship, for

37:20

SpaceX, because NASA added Starship officially

37:22

to the launch offerings that SpaceX

37:24

can offer NASA. this week and

37:26

then this happened where SpaceX took

37:28

the flight 7 booster which launched

37:30

in January and then they put

37:33

it up on a test dam

37:35

and did the static fire for

37:37

their next flight with mostly reused

37:39

engines 29 of the 33 on

37:41

the first stage which is crazy

37:43

that that they were able to

37:45

do that with confidence that it

37:47

wouldn't just blow up well crazy

37:49

good way right yeah yeah and

37:51

I just you know it's it's

37:53

enormous again I mean I've told

37:55

you this I've been there you

37:58

can stand across the street from

38:00

from that giant thing to see

38:02

it but yes because people pay

38:04

you to travel well yeah unlike

38:06

some of us space journalists we

38:08

should we should hit the road

38:10

we should hit the road cry

38:12

via river yeah you can stay

38:14

on the floor of my hotel

38:16

next time I get to go

38:18

there how about that right Or

38:20

we'll get like a one of

38:22

those futons. Creating disturbing images, but

38:25

go ahead, please. Just get a

38:27

dog in bed. So we saw

38:29

this iterative approach that SpaceX took

38:31

in the early days of the

38:33

Falcon 9, where they did the

38:35

test fires, they did the little

38:37

hopping at their McGregor site in

38:39

Texas. And now they're taking the

38:41

next step. Elon Musk has said

38:43

that the whole point of Starship

38:45

is that it's a fully reusable

38:47

vehicle. Now, as you point out,

38:49

they have not managed. to reach

38:52

orbit with the new version that

38:54

debuted in January and then again

38:56

in March. Both of them failed

38:58

during ascent, but the two boosters

39:00

themselves did not. And they were

39:02

able to catch one of them.

39:04

I think one of them they

39:06

redirected out to sea. But they've

39:08

managed to catch it a few

39:10

times now. And so they think

39:12

that they can turn it around

39:14

at the pad. and try this

39:17

re-flight, so that will be a

39:19

really big win if they're able

39:21

to do that, especially if they

39:23

can fly most of the engines

39:25

again. That is what I am

39:27

a bit more impressed by, the

39:29

33 engines of this Raptor 2,

39:31

and they're building these at record

39:33

paces to be able to accommodate

39:35

such a massive booster. So I

39:37

think that it'll be very interesting

39:39

to see how this flight pays

39:41

out, but there is a lot

39:44

of road to go. Specific does

39:46

I really know why. the starships

39:48

failed the vehicles the ship vehicles

39:50

themselves failed on on the last

39:52

two flights they did change the

39:54

design from the previous ones all

39:56

the way up to flight six

39:58

uh... and that could be a

40:00

factor, there's something in that design

40:02

that isn't working the way they

40:04

think it is, but you know,

40:06

two of those have failed. The

40:09

bushes themselves seem to be getting

40:11

all of their kings ironed out,

40:13

and so it'll be interesting to

40:15

see if they can cross that

40:17

threshold with the upper stage and

40:19

finally reach orbit and then reuse

40:21

both of the things, because then

40:23

you've got maybe something that you

40:25

can scale up. to reach the

40:27

flight rate that they'll need for

40:29

this point-to-point stuff we were talking

40:31

about earlier. Well, and or for

40:33

oil refueling, and for Artemis, and

40:36

for the crew stuff, you know,

40:38

and for Mars as well, all

40:40

of that stuff is is hinging

40:42

on this reusability, and at least

40:44

they're like one step closer with

40:46

this test. Well, and I'd have

40:48

to think that... And maybe we

40:50

have some people that have been

40:52

with us on the show that

40:54

do have NASA access. It would

40:56

be interesting to ask, but I

40:58

have to think at this point,

41:01

there are some nervous folks wondering

41:03

about how soon, if ever, this

41:05

is gonna make sense for a

41:07

lunar lander. Now, to be fair,

41:09

you know, two or three flights

41:11

of a new design do not

41:13

something robust make, and they've done

41:15

it very quickly, and when you

41:17

look at that, you know, you

41:19

start playing about that. versus the

41:21

SLS, which is at this point

41:23

about a 22-year project, and it's

41:25

only flown a couple of times,

41:28

SpaceX is still really killing it,

41:30

and it's impressive. And they're willing

41:32

to hang their underwear out in

41:34

public and have failures like that.

41:36

It's just, yeah, it's a little

41:38

concerning when it comes to the

41:40

ALS. I would be more concerned

41:42

if there was actually a functional

41:44

Boeing exploration upper stage for SLS,

41:46

something that there was a very

41:48

clear alternative that could carry a

41:50

different type of a design. Because

41:53

right now, even if there was

41:55

another design for a lunar lender,

41:57

there's still no rocket to carry

41:59

it, right? Except for what Starship

42:01

would be. Well, or you just

42:03

break up the flights. I mean,

42:05

you would have to. You would

42:07

have to. And I will add,

42:09

we have an art. coming in

42:11

the next edition of Had Astra,

42:13

which will be out in a

42:15

few months. Not this one that's

42:17

coming out in a couple of

42:20

weeks, but in a couple of

42:22

months, about the idea of segmenting

42:24

this into the new Glenn and

42:26

Falcon Heavy, which could easily transport

42:28

the components needed to be linked

42:30

up and used for a lot

42:32

less money than we're spending, but

42:34

that's a show on to itself.

42:36

And actually we should get somebody

42:38

on whose... who's fluent in that,

42:40

that would be interesting. That would,

42:42

that would really talk about the

42:44

alternative approach. And I'll just, I'll

42:47

close off with this one last

42:49

idea, because I fully expect and

42:51

believe that once, once SpaceX is

42:53

able to figure out both the

42:55

ship vehicle in a way, and

42:57

I think they'll do it quickly,

42:59

and the booster, like, like, like

43:01

they've shown, that it will be.

43:03

like scaled up massively very very

43:05

quickly. I mean we just passed

43:07

what recently 400 right 400 plus

43:09

landings for for SpaceX for the

43:12

Falcon 9 and they didn't start

43:14

landing them until it's only been

43:16

10 years and 400 times they've

43:18

done that in 10 years. I

43:20

mean was a NASA launch they

43:22

launched like four space shuttles a

43:24

year. you know and that's it

43:26

let's not forget an environment where

43:28

nobody ever landed a rock and

43:30

back on exactly ever so on

43:32

ships moving in the ocean so

43:34

anyway I think that we're gonna

43:36

get there but it well it's

43:39

there's there's there's there's rose to

43:41

hope is on saying you know

43:43

let's oh and you got it

43:45

right yeah I thank you for

43:47

that so it's not roads let's

43:49

do one more before we go

43:51

to our next ad break how

43:53

about Japan's Jackson, their space agency,

43:55

is planning to send many, many

43:57

rovers to Mars and a lander

43:59

to Phobos. And it's interesting, they're

44:01

looking for rides, but it's interesting

44:04

that they're finally jumping into this

44:06

so you know they've tested some

44:08

of this technology already on the

44:10

moon but the idea that they

44:12

could get multiple mini rovers down

44:14

and they're talking about using one

44:16

of these soft fabric expandable decelerators

44:18

like NASA tested and the article

44:20

in Space Dew says oh yeah

44:22

NASA tested the LDSC is that

44:24

right low yeah a few years

44:26

back But that article claimed successfully,

44:28

and if you recall having Rob

44:31

Manning on here, who is a

44:33

chief engineer on that, I don't

44:35

think they ever had a complete

44:37

success. They flew two different designs.

44:39

One was successful, one I think

44:41

spun out. The big one was

44:43

not. Yeah. So now this is

44:45

interesting. I actually was glad that

44:47

you had flagged this one because

44:49

I saw Jeff Faust piece. This

44:51

is from Jeff Faust at Space

44:53

News. And it actually is a

44:56

presentation that the new director general

44:58

of the of Japan's Institute of

45:00

Space and Astronautical Sciences gave, it's

45:02

part of Jackson, the Japan Space

45:04

Agency, gave at the National Academy

45:06

Space Week this week on April

45:08

1st. So it was not in

45:10

April. Fool's joke that they want

45:12

to do this. But they are

45:14

looking at this inflatable reentry vehicle,

45:16

it's like a heat shield, to

45:18

allow them to land bigger things

45:20

on Mars. And what they think

45:23

that they can do by using

45:25

these decelerators is really scale up

45:27

what they deliver. Sorry, so let

45:29

me just jump in for a

45:31

second. So the idea behind these

45:33

big soft decelerators is you can

45:35

expand the much larger than the

45:37

diameter of rocket ferry that can

45:39

make it to Mars. If you

45:41

don't use something like that, you

45:43

have to have a small hardened

45:45

heat shield, which becomes problematic. What

45:47

is weird, however, is they're talking

45:50

about 200 to 440 pounds of

45:52

deliverable mass to the Mars surface,

45:54

which is half the weight of

45:56

the Mars Pathfinder, which was already

45:58

tiny. So they're talking really small

46:00

machines small rovers. So they would

46:02

you would expect they would be

46:04

small but built to be capable

46:06

right? Yeah, but just don't mean

46:08

a lander platform. So you're getting

46:10

down to rovers that are probably

46:12

like 15 pounds a piece or 25 pounds

46:15

of piece. I think I think it'd be

46:17

very interesting to see if you really in

46:19

fact did. So this inflatable arrow shell by

46:21

the way this heat shield is designed to.

46:23

You know, slow, slow, slow, a

46:25

lander down substantially more without the

46:27

need for a really, really big,

46:30

inexpensive, and heavy, supersonic parachute that

46:32

you need, you know, and that

46:34

hard airshell that Rob, that Rob,

46:37

Rob, Rod was talking about earlier.

46:39

And, and I would say that

46:41

if you coupled that type of

46:43

a thing with. you know additional of these rovers

46:45

maybe those rovers themselves are surrounded in

46:47

airbags you really don't need a lander

46:49

at all they just pop pop pop

46:51

like popcorn and then they inflate on

46:54

the bottom that's just one concept but

46:56

but you know it depends on on

46:58

really how the nature of the mission

47:00

is is going as going to be

47:02

they think that they've got this strategic

47:04

fund of something like a trillion yen

47:06

that six point seven billion dollars over

47:08

ten years to advance different space technologies

47:10

this is one of the technologies they

47:12

think or really bring Mars within reach

47:14

for surface exploration. And Jackson

47:16

already has their, you mentioned

47:18

their slim moon landing, moon

47:20

lander, which had an augur

47:23

in approach that like landed

47:25

on its nose and then

47:27

spit out a camera, the

47:29

ticket picture, which was spectacular.

47:31

But they've got a mission,

47:33

their Martian moons exploration mission

47:35

to go to Phobos, like you said,

47:37

and collect samples and bring them back,

47:40

I think is that right. No, I

47:42

think I just examined there because

47:44

the sample return is even for a

47:46

Martian moon. Yeah. Well, I'd be all

47:49

for it because we hear nothing but

47:51

sadness from that tale. We have

47:53

to go to one more break real

47:55

quick and let's come back and

47:58

talk about carnivorous dust. on

48:00

Mars, because that's cool. Is cannibal, cannibal

48:02

dust devils, yes. Hey prime members, are

48:04

you tired of ads interfering with your

48:06

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48:17

to Amazon.com/ad-free podcasts. That's Amazon.com/ad-free podcast to

48:19

catch up on the latest episodes without

48:22

the ads. So our friend Perseverance took

48:24

a series of still pictures of a

48:26

dust devil that was moving a quote

48:28

erratically unquote, which sounds more like a

48:30

police report than one from the Perseverance

48:33

Rover. And then another littler one popped

48:35

up and they merged and one devoured

48:37

the other. And that's really kind of

48:39

the extent of the story. It was

48:41

just such a cool headline. I couldn't

48:43

resist. By the way, Rod, Rod picked

48:46

the Gizmoto version of the story, which

48:48

just had the picture of the dust

48:50

devils. And so that's why I replaced

48:52

it with the JPL one on if

48:54

we're showing it where you can actually

48:57

see the dust devils moving around. I

48:59

had a video link too, didn't it?

49:01

I didn't see it in the shell

49:03

at the top. But I could be

49:05

wrong. I could be wrong. I apologize.

49:07

but you can see if you're watching

49:10

our our our our YouTube stream or

49:12

you know elsewhere you can see there's

49:14

this one really strong dust devil it's

49:16

a bit like a cyclone on the

49:18

Martian of what is it a desert

49:21

floor you know and then you see

49:23

the smaller one come up behind it

49:25

smack into it and then like it

49:27

just gets all torn up. Hey buddy

49:29

ow! I know what I like about

49:32

this view because it's a landscape view

49:34

is that in the background you can

49:36

see another dust double just kind of

49:38

going on its own way going I

49:40

don't want any part of that. You

49:42

guys are all up to that. It's

49:45

way in the distance. This reminds me

49:47

of gym class every day in junior

49:49

high school right before. the showers and

49:51

got got beat up. I want to

49:53

hear what it sounds like there, you

49:56

know, I want to know. Yeah, I

49:58

know, but I want to hear that

50:00

dust devil like, uh, like smacking in

50:02

the other one. What if it screams

50:04

like an angry person? Would that be

50:07

cool? Or maybe it sounds like the

50:09

Tasmanian devil. But these are, by the

50:11

way, they're not small. They're not small.

50:13

The larger dust level that we're seeing

50:15

in this image is 210 feet wide.

50:17

That's 65 meters. The smaller one was

50:20

only 16 feet wide. And then you

50:22

can, there's two other ones, so I

50:24

miss it. There's that, there's that one

50:26

in the background around the mid-bottom, but

50:28

there's another one that's somewhere else. I

50:31

can't find it. Oh, I do, I

50:33

see it now, it's on the left.

50:35

It's on the left, you, you can

50:37

see, you can see, you can see

50:39

a way far, you, you, you, you

50:42

can see, you, you, you, you, you

50:44

can see, you, you, you, you, you,

50:46

you, you, you, you, you, you can

50:48

see, you, you, you, you, you, you,

50:50

you, you, you, you, you, you, you,

50:52

you, This is what you're missing by

50:55

not getting the video stream, which is

50:57

available for only $7 a month. And

50:59

free, of course, on YouTube. One thing

51:01

that this did remind me of seeing

51:03

the dust being blown around like that

51:06

is that weird paper that came out

51:08

recently that was shocked, shocked I tell

51:10

you to find that Martian regolith is

51:12

probably toxic to human beings. That's right.

51:14

Now I'm sure that there was, I

51:16

hoping there was some level of misrepresentation

51:19

there because we've known. pieces

51:21

of that story for decades about

51:23

perchlorate and people. So maybe this

51:25

was just putting a fine point

51:27

on it, but I thought that

51:29

was kind of weird when I

51:31

saw that. It's like, yes, and?

51:33

Yeah, I know, right? You know

51:36

perchlorate's bad for us. Got it.

51:38

Maybe we just need a reminder

51:40

before we start sending like all

51:42

the people we can fit in

51:44

a Starship there, right? So this

51:46

one I want you to just

51:48

take and run with. It's our

51:50

asteroid 2024 YR4 update. Do we

51:52

do the law and order? There

51:54

was a study that came out

51:56

this week or recently. where, you

51:59

know, this is the asteroid asteroid,

52:01

asteroid, what was it, 2024, I'm

52:03

going to get this wrong, asteroid,

52:05

2024, YR4, that was discovered over

52:07

Christmas time. And and we saw

52:09

what was it was I think

52:11

it was February oh my gosh

52:13

it's gonna kill us no it's

52:15

not gonna kill us it's the

52:17

highest risk ever wait no it's

52:19

not you know it's up and

52:21

it's like kitty parry going going

52:24

going on her launch it's up

52:26

and is down right uh... except

52:28

she won't be running under the

52:30

moon we hope well there is

52:32

that and i'm gonna touch i'm

52:34

gonna touch on that so at

52:36

the end of at the end

52:38

of that month they said they

52:40

were again they had gotten them

52:42

time on the James Webb's face

52:44

telescope to point it at this

52:47

asteroid so that they could actually

52:49

see how big it actually is

52:51

and they were able to do

52:53

that and James Webb was able

52:55

to pin down the size of

52:57

the the asteroid you know they

52:59

they think that now it's about

53:01

200 feet wide so it's a

53:03

little bit a little bit bigger

53:05

it's the size of I think

53:07

a like the empire state building

53:10

type of a thing at 15

53:12

story building yeah And I think

53:14

the empire is like what, 30

53:16

stories, something like that? Yeah. So

53:18

60 meters wide. And so they

53:20

know that it's not as, it's

53:22

not as nebulous, like what the

53:24

size is because of the environment.

53:26

Right. They had a range before.

53:28

Exactly, exactly. And so, and you

53:30

can see, like, the images that

53:32

they captured from James Webb, both

53:35

at space.com, but also from the

53:37

Space Telescope Science Institute for what

53:39

they were able to see. And

53:41

similarly, they were able to use

53:43

those James Webb information, and this

53:45

is the second link, John, that

53:47

we've got there, to take another

53:49

look at what the impact probabilities

53:51

are. for for the moon and

53:53

those were able to observe it

53:55

long enough to narrow it down

53:58

further exactly yeah so so they

54:00

they they they did say that

54:02

that you know as of as

54:04

of those observations, it did increase

54:06

a bit, the chance of it.

54:08

It's still like astronomically small, 96.2

54:10

chance that it's going to miss

54:12

the moon. Yeah, but it almost

54:14

doubled. I mean, there's two ways

54:16

of looking at it went from

54:18

1.7 to 3.8. Exactly. So those

54:20

are the two big findings. I

54:23

think that we're, you know, we've

54:25

still got some time. We've got

54:27

what. between now and 2032. Like,

54:29

help me out with the math,

54:31

seven years, we've got seven years,

54:33

right? So John has given me

54:35

a thumbs up. So before this,

54:37

before this asteroid swings by, to

54:39

see how things go. But the,

54:41

it is smaller than we thought,

54:43

because the upper range was 300

54:46

feet before. So that's good. And

54:48

now the upper range is 200,

54:50

220 feet. And it has a

54:52

higher chance of hitting the moon,

54:54

but still like an astronomically small

54:56

chance of hitting the moon. So

54:58

well, and this, this gives better

55:00

cause for setting up on the

55:02

lunar poles because it's a lot

55:04

less likely to smack into a

55:06

pole than somewhere roughly equatorial. Yeah,

55:09

yeah. But man, can you imagine

55:11

we have a moon base there

55:13

that is sitting there waiting to

55:15

wait to wait? Let's see, which

55:17

one do you want to do?

55:19

Immortal Duke on YouTube says we'll

55:21

just jump up before it hits,

55:23

you know, so that way it

55:25

misses us. Yeah, it's like jumping

55:27

in the elevator right before he's

55:29

the ground. I thought this was

55:31

kind of cool. I called it

55:34

Scat Lunar Dust, Firefly, NASA just

55:36

announced from something that was actually

55:38

published a couple weeks ago, but

55:40

I just saw it. was Firefly

55:42

Aerospace's lander Blue Ghost, Blue Ghost,

55:44

right? Blue Ghost, yes. Yeah. We

55:46

knew they had an electric static.

55:48

To be confused with Space Ghost.

55:50

So there is. I favored as

55:52

a kid. I actually saw it

55:54

the first time, set up an

55:57

experiment using electricity or electrostatics to

55:59

repel lunar dust, which had been

56:01

talked about a lot because lunar

56:03

dust is highly staticky, which is

56:05

one of the problems. And if

56:07

you saw, if you ever flipped

56:09

through a book of or website

56:11

pictures of the Apollo program, when

56:13

they got those longer moon walks

56:15

from Apollo 15 through 17, those

56:17

guys come back, it came back

56:20

in lunar module. filthy. They're pristine

56:22

white suits, were dark gray, and

56:24

there was dust everywhere. And it's

56:26

a real problem. It's abrasive, somewhat

56:28

toxic, but worse than that, you

56:30

can get asbestosis from it because

56:32

the fiber is getting your little

56:34

sharp bits that have never ever

56:36

seen weather of any kind getting

56:38

your lungs and possibly kill you

56:40

besides messing up your equipment. So

56:42

it's important to figure out how

56:45

to do mediation for this. So

56:47

for years, it's been to talk

56:49

about, well, when they're going in

56:51

the airlock, we'll hit them with

56:53

a sonic bathy-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a Dump anti-freeze on

56:55

the mirror. There's all kinds of

56:57

ideas of how to do it.

56:59

I'm exaggerating there. But electrostatically is

57:01

a really cool idea. So this

57:03

is called the Electro-D dynamic dust

57:05

shield. Yeah, and in fact John,

57:08

before you go on Rod, John,

57:10

if you hit that play button,

57:12

if it works, we should be

57:14

able to see this in action

57:16

while Rod is talking about what

57:18

it is. So, like a jiff

57:20

loop, yeah. You know, this is

57:22

going to be a real problem

57:24

on the moon and Mars. So

57:26

the fact they were able to

57:28

actually do this little experiment, remember

57:31

this mission was short, it was

57:33

only a couple of weeks, it

57:35

had to be all in one

57:37

lunar day. So I'm so impressed

57:39

with what Firefly did. What a

57:41

lander when that was, right? Yeah,

57:43

given the other ones that have

57:45

augured in and, you know, no

57:47

ding on the other companies and

57:49

countries trying to do this. It

57:51

is hard. But Firefly nailed it

57:53

on their first outing. and to

57:56

be able to actually pull off

57:58

this experiment and have it show

58:00

something. repeatable and this was first

58:02

proposed in 1967 and apparently would

58:04

work for a variety of objects

58:07

including solar panels possibly windows and

58:09

even spacesuits. Radiators too which you

58:11

need to shed heat you know.

58:14

Yeah yeah yeah. Right. The example

58:16

that we were seeing in the

58:18

video for folks watching was NASA

58:20

testing it both on glass. and

58:23

also on thermal radiator material. And so,

58:25

you know, you need glass for your

58:27

windows so you can see outside. And

58:29

you need, or for your gauges that

58:31

you need to measure for instruments and

58:33

whatever. And the radiators, like we're talking

58:35

about, are kind of key to shed

58:38

heat for any kind of heat exchange

58:40

that you're going to have on your

58:42

vehicles themselves. And so, you know, this

58:44

is just like a, a, I think

58:46

this was what the clips program, the

58:48

commercial lunar payload services program was for.

58:50

was to take an idea of this

58:52

technology, actually test it to see if

58:55

they can do it on the moon,

58:57

and then they can implement that if

58:59

they want to with the higher tier

59:01

missions, with the people that are going

59:03

to land there with the factories or

59:05

manufacturers or whatever you're going to do.

59:08

So very, very, very cool stuff. And

59:10

I think the closest to sci-fi that

59:12

we're going to get this year possibly

59:14

on the moon. We'll see. We'll see. Part

59:17

of what clips is for. I mean, part

59:19

of it also was, hey, if you land

59:21

there, will pay you for it. You don't

59:23

have to bring it back, just pick it

59:25

up. Which was a really interesting way to

59:27

kind of introduce this whole conversation of, I

59:29

wouldn't say property rights because that's not

59:31

cool under the outer space treaty, but

59:33

resource allocation. I don't know. That's what

59:36

we pay like Amazon for, or the

59:38

supermarket, they go pick up our groceries

59:40

and put it on shelf first to

59:42

go there, pick it up, right? Then I

59:44

got to put pants on.

59:46

Go to the store. Oh,

59:48

talk about a right turn.

59:50

Pick a last story for

59:52

yourself. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you

59:54

know, it's been a week, it's

59:56

been a week and a half,

59:59

but I really. think that we

1:00:01

should end. Actually we don't have a

1:00:03

lot of stories left, Rod. We almost

1:00:05

got through the mall. It seems like.

1:00:08

We may have one or two more,

1:00:10

but you go ahead and take your

1:00:12

best shot. We got spin launched, you

1:00:15

know, and I think that we should

1:00:17

should go ahead and talk about spin

1:00:19

launches plan to launch 250 satellites at

1:00:22

a constellation. that they're saying is going

1:00:24

to be far and above the types

1:00:26

that we have available now. And why

1:00:29

spin launch is cool is because instead

1:00:31

of using like actual chemical rockets from

1:00:33

the ground, they're going to like slingshot

1:00:36

them halfway up with this giant centrifuge

1:00:38

thing that spins and spins and spins

1:00:40

and then and then it goes straight

1:00:43

up and then a rocket once it

1:00:45

gets at its apex ignites and launches

1:00:47

the thing into orbit. And so this

1:00:50

is a very novel approach, I think,

1:00:52

to the... Well, excuse me, it's interesting,

1:00:54

it's novel, and yet it's as old

1:00:57

the science fiction, right? Yeah, yeah. In

1:00:59

the late 1800s. And what kind of

1:01:01

strikes me about it is, these things

1:01:03

are going to be subjected to like

1:01:06

10,000 or more G's, which means you

1:01:08

got a really hammerproof, those electronics. What

1:01:10

I could not find anywhere was the

1:01:13

actual, I know that the test object,

1:01:15

at least the last one, was 10

1:01:17

feet long. It didn't, I couldn't find

1:01:20

anywhere the specs that said the diameter

1:01:22

of the actual launch tube, the diameter

1:01:24

of the vessel is a few hundred

1:01:27

feet, excuse me, the centrifuge itself that

1:01:29

spins this thing up, but I could

1:01:31

not find the diameter of the exit

1:01:34

tube, but looks to be about three

1:01:36

feet. It was small, it wasn't big

1:01:38

at all, but that was their prototype

1:01:41

though, because it didn't actually go to

1:01:43

space either. It didn't go suborbital when

1:01:45

they did that. I think they're based

1:01:48

out in New Mexico, is that right?

1:01:50

Yeah, they're at the space port. Yeah,

1:01:52

that's what I thought. Port America. And

1:01:55

so, you know, if they wanted to

1:01:57

launch bigger payloads, they do have to

1:01:59

have a bigger vehicle. So, so I

1:02:02

am waiting to see. They're going to

1:02:04

scale it up by I think a

1:02:06

factor three, right? Yeah, yeah. And they're

1:02:09

receiving 12 million in funding from Kongsburg

1:02:11

Defense and aerospace to develop and commercialized

1:02:13

satellites. And so, they want to have

1:02:16

a demonstrating on orbit demonstrator launched. by

1:02:18

next year, which suggests, Rod, that their

1:02:20

concept is fairly mature, right? If they

1:02:23

think that they could try this next

1:02:25

year. It is either that or it

1:02:27

is very, very straightforward to scale up,

1:02:30

like you were just talking about there,

1:02:32

because the physics are fundamental. You know,

1:02:34

it's a sling, basically. It's a real

1:02:37

basic works or it doesn't kind of

1:02:39

thing. There aren't a whole lot of

1:02:41

fine points. Once it exits, it's the...

1:02:44

cannon if you will, the centrifugal accelerator,

1:02:46

you know, it either goes high enough

1:02:48

to escape the gravitational well or it

1:02:51

doesn't. Yeah, yeah. And so they're calling

1:02:53

this their their their base constellation to

1:02:55

achieve significantly and I quote higher broadband

1:02:58

capacity in a satellite constellation compared to

1:03:00

what is available on the market today.

1:03:02

Starlink, right? And the other, the other,

1:03:05

the two others, you know, you got

1:03:07

Cooper and you got the other one.

1:03:09

Well, they made point is that they

1:03:12

be able to even if if Starship

1:03:14

brings down costs a lot They should

1:03:16

still be able to do this for

1:03:18

much less much cheaper launch One web

1:03:21

is the other right and okay and

1:03:23

they're hedging their bets by reminding us

1:03:25

all that it's Roughly 70 80% less

1:03:28

invasive in terms of resources. Yeah, because

1:03:30

they do need an awful lot of

1:03:32

power, but they're not burning up hydrocarbons,

1:03:35

you know There is a there is

1:03:37

a John there is a video on

1:03:39

that page if you scroll down you'll

1:03:42

find it to so well you are

1:03:44

working this poor guy to death here.

1:03:46

I know. Mining his own business on

1:03:49

his treadmill, watching us do our thing,

1:03:51

and you're working him to death. Who

1:03:53

knows, by the way, John, for the

1:03:56

treadmill. That's pretty cool, that you're able

1:03:58

to get that thing. I should do

1:04:00

that for a video game. Thank you.

1:04:03

I appreciate it. It's been, it's been

1:04:05

nice. It's been nice. Aren't people that

1:04:07

engage with fitness irritating, Tarak? I don't

1:04:10

know, I've lost 11 pounds in the

1:04:12

last the last month. Oh, I just

1:04:14

waiting for you to get that one.

1:04:17

You teed me up for that. You

1:04:19

knew I'm proud of it and you

1:04:21

wanted me to share it with the

1:04:24

girl. Yeah, and how many pounds have

1:04:26

I lost since January? How many have

1:04:28

you lost? Almost 20. Wow, even better.

1:04:31

That's great. Congratulations. The thing that I

1:04:33

noticed when I was way younger than

1:04:35

you are is that when you reach

1:04:38

a certain size and you lose 20

1:04:40

or 30 pounds, people. You should moustache

1:04:42

longer, you know, they don't get it

1:04:45

until it's like 50 pounds and they

1:04:47

go, oh, you're skinny. You look better

1:04:49

when you're fat. Oh, no. So I

1:04:52

would like to queue up the video

1:04:54

on line 30. Tarak predicts the future.

1:04:56

There he is. We got to hear

1:04:59

the audio. Question of how accessible these

1:05:01

programs will be to the average person,

1:05:03

not just the super super well. Talk

1:05:06

about space tourism. I'd like you to

1:05:08

listen to the assessment of Chris Anderson.

1:05:10

He runs Space Adventures, which provides private

1:05:13

space flight programs. Let's listen. Within the

1:05:15

next 10 years, there will be literally

1:05:17

thousands of people going to space every

1:05:20

year. And so it's certainly not millions,

1:05:22

like in civil aviation, but it's a

1:05:24

heck of a good start. Is he

1:05:26

optimistic or is he right? You know,

1:05:29

if you had asked me, you know,

1:05:31

a decade ago, if he was on

1:05:33

the right track, I would say he's

1:05:36

dreaming. Watching this industry develop over the

1:05:38

last 15 years like I have, you

1:05:40

know, they're up until now only about

1:05:43

550 or so people have flown in

1:05:45

space. SpaceX, Boeing, Virgin Galactic, they're not

1:05:47

building a spaceship for one person. They're

1:05:50

going to be carrying seven people at

1:05:52

a time on these vehicles. If big

1:05:54

little aerospace builds their space station, that

1:05:57

six people. Oh, that didn't age well,

1:05:59

but. He has set his sights for

1:06:01

Space Hotels on the moon. They're not.

1:06:04

Oh, doesn't it? Oh, no. Six wants

1:06:06

to put people on Mars in the

1:06:08

next 20 years. So, how hard could

1:06:11

it be? I know. they can get

1:06:13

this the cost down we're seeing that

1:06:15

with reusable vehicles that we could see

1:06:18

this this whole market change as swiftly

1:06:20

as what Erica's saying well you're a

1:06:22

space guy do you know this actually

1:06:25

being something that you might do wow

1:06:27

I look so young yeah so you're

1:06:29

a handsome lad once I probably still

1:06:32

have those yeah right somewhere that big

1:06:34

old arrows but that did not age

1:06:36

well not at all right you know

1:06:39

it was tough because it's that point

1:06:41

we were hearing. I still have the

1:06:43

glasses. They're my computer glasses now. The

1:06:46

same exact ones. Oh, tripped on memory

1:06:48

lane. So at that point, you know,

1:06:50

we were hearing just the first inklings

1:06:53

of Starship and the incredible things SpaceX

1:06:55

was doing. And of course, and to

1:06:57

an extent, it's very self-interested, of course,

1:07:00

but the industry, the space tourism industry,

1:07:02

such as it was. you know was

1:07:04

was gassing off about oh yeah how

1:07:07

hard could it be there'll be thousands

1:07:09

and thousands of people going to orbit

1:07:11

because the economy of scale and everybody

1:07:14

want to do it and all that

1:07:16

well you know we're still up in

1:07:18

the hundreds in terms of people that

1:07:21

have gone to orbit and in the

1:07:23

what probably just the double digits in

1:07:25

terms of people who have done suborbital

1:07:28

so it's not quite working out that

1:07:30

way and the endless news stories we

1:07:32

heard and read and about the space,

1:07:34

you know, the gigatone space hotels that

1:07:37

were going to be built, because how

1:07:39

hard can it be? Well, it turns

1:07:41

out it's really freaking hard. And I

1:07:44

think people that had a good sense

1:07:46

of this at that time knew it

1:07:48

was pretty hard and thought, well, okay.

1:07:51

So yeah, it hasn't quite worked. that

1:07:53

as we hope, but fingers crossed, you

1:07:55

know. Yeah, well, you know, by the

1:07:58

way, for some context, that that clip

1:08:00

that you just ran was from CGT

1:08:02

America. So it's like the the English

1:08:05

Chinese news agency part of their CCTV.

1:08:07

And that was it was eight years

1:08:09

ago. So eight years ago was 2013.

1:08:12

Is that right? So. the way what's

1:08:14

what's what's what's what 2017 we know

1:08:16

where the math skills line thank good

1:08:19

as we can write but but but

1:08:21

man I have to say the the

1:08:23

the one little thing from that if

1:08:26

you look at that clip online because

1:08:28

I don't know if Rod's gonna include

1:08:30

the link the the CCTN was the

1:08:33

first agency or group ever to call

1:08:35

me an astrojournalist, which is what we

1:08:37

were calling myself, my friends and I,

1:08:40

when I was in college, trying desperately

1:08:42

to try to figure out what was

1:08:44

going to do with my life. So

1:08:47

it was a validation of a Fox

1:08:49

News reporter in that still clip that

1:08:51

we're seeing for those. So there's two

1:08:54

outfits. There's this one, which is the

1:08:56

a blue collar shirt with the red

1:08:58

tie and the black sport coat. And

1:09:01

then I have one that is the

1:09:03

red collar shirt and the blue tie.

1:09:05

And I would interchange them. Oh, so

1:09:08

you're crossing party lines. I got it.

1:09:10

All right. Well, thank you for allowing

1:09:12

me to run that, which, of course,

1:09:15

you did because I didn't ask you.

1:09:17

It was fun to go back at

1:09:19

a time warp, and none of us

1:09:22

would have guessed any better. So I'm

1:09:24

not dating you. I'm not dating you

1:09:26

at all for that. It was just,

1:09:29

I stumbled upon it by accident completely,

1:09:31

and I thought. God, that kind of

1:09:33

looks kind of like, wait, that is

1:09:36

sorry. Does Astro journalist? All right, everybody,

1:09:38

thank you so much for joining us

1:09:40

today for episode 155 that we call

1:09:42

Cool Space News that you can use

1:09:45

if you're not stuck in the ISS.

1:09:47

Tark, where can we find you battling

1:09:49

Dr. Sloan these days? Did I get

1:09:52

that right? Well, Dr. Sloan? Well, no,

1:09:54

that was like three chapters. ago, Rod,

1:09:56

but I really applaud you for the

1:09:59

effort, right? So Dr. Sloan was a

1:10:01

villain in Fortnite, everybody. Grandpa looked it

1:10:03

up all by himself. No, actually, you

1:10:06

can find me at space.com, as always,

1:10:08

as Rod alluded to, you can find

1:10:10

me on YouTube, playing video games, Marvel

1:10:13

Rivals, and Fortnite, and others at SpaceTron

1:10:15

Place. This weekend. You will find me

1:10:17

doing my taxes part one, but also

1:10:20

I will be at the Northeast Astronomy

1:10:22

Forum in software in New York on

1:10:24

Saturday. It's a two-day astronomy. They bill

1:10:27

it as the world's largest astronomy expo.

1:10:29

We can see all the latest telescope

1:10:31

and sky watching equipment. Eileen Collins will

1:10:34

be there. Hoot Gibson Astronaut Extraordinary will

1:10:36

be there. Sarah Seger of MIT will

1:10:38

be there to talk about exoplanets. So

1:10:41

I really suggest if you're in the

1:10:43

New York area or you want like

1:10:45

an hour long trip, you know, it's

1:10:48

a short day trip out to upstate

1:10:50

New York. Get on a train, head

1:10:52

on there, it's going to be a

1:10:55

lot of fun, and it's all put

1:10:57

on by the Rockland Astronomy Club at

1:10:59

the State University of New York in

1:11:02

Rockland Community College. Well, geez, well, now

1:11:04

that you spent 10 minutes following that,

1:11:06

I should mention also in, let's see,

1:11:09

just a scosh over two months, Tark

1:11:11

and I will be at the International

1:11:13

Space Development Conference in Orlando, Florida, which

1:11:16

is put on by the National Space

1:11:18

Society, my... My employers and Tarak is

1:11:20

going to be getting the Space Pioneer

1:11:23

Award. Thank you to them by me.

1:11:25

And it's a big metal, heavy metal

1:11:27

globe, so watch out. It might be

1:11:30

worth coming just to see what happens

1:11:32

at that. Because last year, no, two

1:11:34

years ago when I gave it to

1:11:37

Pascali, I threw it on the ground.

1:11:39

No, I made a mock-up of it

1:11:41

that looked just like the real thing,

1:11:44

but we got to do a tug-of-war

1:11:46

over the award because I pretended that

1:11:48

I wanted it, that I made sure.

1:11:50

the fake one fell on the ground

1:11:53

and there is an audible gas from

1:11:55

the audience which was my intention. But

1:11:57

anyway, this conference is the highlight in

1:12:00

my year. It's usually about a thousand

1:12:02

to twelve hundred people that get together

1:12:04

and it's for everybody. You know we

1:12:07

have the same most the same guess

1:12:09

you just mentioned but a number of

1:12:11

astronauts Jared Isaacman's going to be there.

1:12:14

Oh, by that time possibly NASA chief.

1:12:16

Greg Autry will be there of course

1:12:18

number three in the agency. a number

1:12:21

of writers from Antastra, you, Pascal, who

1:12:23

we've had on the show, and just

1:12:25

a whole bunch of, I think we

1:12:28

have six astronauts coming, a number of

1:12:30

senior NASA officials and so forth. So

1:12:32

it's a good time. I like it

1:12:35

just because I get to hang out

1:12:37

with my tribe and I don't get

1:12:39

that blank stare that I so often

1:12:42

get when I talk to people about

1:12:44

spaced up and they go, can you

1:12:46

get away, can you back up three

1:12:49

feet so I can run away from

1:12:51

you please? You get the blinking stairs

1:12:53

of... Well, yeah, and what's more fun

1:12:56

than Orlando in the early summer, right?

1:12:58

Well, yeah, I look forward to being

1:13:00

there. My family's gonna come out too,

1:13:03

because not only are we gonna go

1:13:05

to ISDC, but we're gonna go ahead

1:13:07

and check out Star Wars Land at

1:13:10

Disney World, or maybe go see a

1:13:12

rocket launch, or seven, depending on how

1:13:14

many of your space it's gonna launch

1:13:17

that week, right? Well, and that's what's

1:13:19

remarkable. It's remarkable. It's remarkable. at the

1:13:21

National Space Society Headquarters, which is on

1:13:24

the Kennedy Space Center, in the Kennedy

1:13:26

Space Center, and saw two SpaceX launches

1:13:28

in the same day about four hours

1:13:31

apart. Now it's amazing enough that they

1:13:33

do that on two separate coasts, but

1:13:35

to do it from the same general

1:13:38

area within a mile or two of

1:13:40

each other. Which they did this week,

1:13:42

too. Yeah, breathtaking. Yeah. And of course.

1:13:45

got that Dr Sloan thing and there

1:13:47

I'll have to do better research next

1:13:49

time. You can find me at pilebooks.com

1:13:52

or at Astor Magazine.com and maybe playing

1:13:54

in a tittily weeks tournament at a

1:13:56

derelict gas station down the road because

1:13:59

I don't live... high life like Tarck

1:14:01

does. Please remember you could drop us

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1:15:26

Always is. And I will see you.

1:15:28

and everybody else next week. Peace.

1:15:31

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