1 00:00:08,520 --> 00:00:10,760 Speaker 1: Hey, Daniel, do you think the planet Earth is getting 2 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:14,600 Speaker 1: too crowded? Well, you know, we live in southern California, 3 00:00:14,800 --> 00:00:17,320 Speaker 1: so we do experience a good amount of traffic, even 4 00:00:17,360 --> 00:00:19,560 Speaker 1: though I get to wear sandals all year long. Well 5 00:00:19,680 --> 00:00:22,040 Speaker 1: does it make you want to move out of Southern California? Well, 6 00:00:22,079 --> 00:00:24,160 Speaker 1: you know, I'd be hesitant to give up the sandals, 7 00:00:24,239 --> 00:00:26,560 Speaker 1: but I'd love to live in outer space. Well yeah, 8 00:00:26,600 --> 00:00:28,720 Speaker 1: do you think community would be easier in space? Well, 9 00:00:28,760 --> 00:00:30,560 Speaker 1: it can't be much worse than it is down here 10 00:00:30,560 --> 00:00:32,760 Speaker 1: in southern California. Well, I think you better move up 11 00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:36,559 Speaker 1: there soon because space might be getting more crowded than 12 00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:39,479 Speaker 1: you think. Are you talking about Elon Musk's Tesla that 13 00:00:39,520 --> 00:00:41,440 Speaker 1: he launched out there? There's gonna be a traffic jam 14 00:00:41,520 --> 00:01:00,440 Speaker 1: off Tesla's up there pretty soon. Hi. I'm Jorhea, a 15 00:01:00,520 --> 00:01:04,160 Speaker 1: cartoonists and the creator of PhD Comics. I'm Daniel. I'm 16 00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:07,360 Speaker 1: a particle of physicist. But I love all things space, 17 00:01:07,720 --> 00:01:10,160 Speaker 1: even if they don't have aliens in them. And so 18 00:01:10,200 --> 00:01:13,320 Speaker 1: welcome to our podcast, Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe, 19 00:01:13,400 --> 00:01:15,840 Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio in which we take 20 00:01:15,880 --> 00:01:19,360 Speaker 1: a mental tour of the universe zipping from neutron stars 21 00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:23,199 Speaker 1: to black holes to alien planets, and even talk about 22 00:01:23,280 --> 00:01:26,399 Speaker 1: tiny things here on Earth like little particles, electrons and 23 00:01:26,480 --> 00:01:29,640 Speaker 1: quantum tunneling. And the key is to share with you 24 00:01:29,720 --> 00:01:33,000 Speaker 1: the wonders, the mystery, the majesty of this universe in 25 00:01:33,040 --> 00:01:36,000 Speaker 1: a way that's explainable and hopefully makes you laugh and 26 00:01:36,040 --> 00:01:39,240 Speaker 1: maybe cringe once or twice. That are bad jokes only 27 00:01:39,240 --> 00:01:42,160 Speaker 1: but only once or twice. You cringes per episode, and 28 00:01:42,160 --> 00:01:45,800 Speaker 1: then you're cut off, and then you that's right, Then 29 00:01:45,840 --> 00:01:49,720 Speaker 1: you have to keep listening in silence. But yeah, it's 30 00:01:49,720 --> 00:01:51,640 Speaker 1: about all the amazing things we can see from this 31 00:01:51,720 --> 00:01:55,600 Speaker 1: planet Earth that we're sitting on in traffic, right, we're 32 00:01:55,600 --> 00:01:58,880 Speaker 1: sort of in the traffic of the Solar System, right 33 00:01:58,920 --> 00:02:03,840 Speaker 1: behind Mars Venus, next to the crowded asteroid belt. Yeah, 34 00:02:03,880 --> 00:02:06,720 Speaker 1: we're in an unusually dense part of the universe. You know, 35 00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:10,639 Speaker 1: if you took like an average cubic kilometer of the universe, 36 00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:13,639 Speaker 1: it would be pretty empty. Most likely, you just get 37 00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:17,120 Speaker 1: like a chunk of space in between galaxies. Even inside 38 00:02:17,120 --> 00:02:19,720 Speaker 1: the galaxies, most of them don't have planets in them. 39 00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:22,760 Speaker 1: So our neighborhood of the universe is pretty dense, we 40 00:02:22,800 --> 00:02:24,600 Speaker 1: have a star, We've got a bunch of planets. There's 41 00:02:24,639 --> 00:02:26,519 Speaker 1: a lot of rocks out there. Yeah, I hate it 42 00:02:26,560 --> 00:02:30,679 Speaker 1: when the asteroids hunk behind me. It's so annoying. Well, look, 43 00:02:30,840 --> 00:02:32,440 Speaker 1: they've been doing it for billions of years, so they 44 00:02:32,440 --> 00:02:35,040 Speaker 1: hate when like nubies come in and mess up their commute. 45 00:02:35,160 --> 00:02:39,160 Speaker 1: You know, that's right. It's people who don't signal as 46 00:02:39,160 --> 00:02:41,920 Speaker 1: the Earth signal. Lately, which way it's turning, I don't know, 47 00:02:41,919 --> 00:02:44,000 Speaker 1: but we keep launching up stuff into space out there, 48 00:02:44,080 --> 00:02:46,760 Speaker 1: messing up everybody else's commute. So, yeah, we imagine there 49 00:02:46,800 --> 00:02:49,040 Speaker 1: are a lot of you out there listening to this podcast, 50 00:02:49,120 --> 00:02:52,280 Speaker 1: maybe sitting in your cars in traffic, and you're probably 51 00:02:52,360 --> 00:02:55,600 Speaker 1: wondering where all these people came from. Are there too 52 00:02:55,600 --> 00:02:58,840 Speaker 1: many people on Earth? And is it too crowded out here? Yeah? 53 00:02:58,919 --> 00:03:01,240 Speaker 1: Maybe you feel like law eaching all those people out 54 00:03:01,240 --> 00:03:04,520 Speaker 1: into space and you have the four oh five to yourself. Yeah, 55 00:03:04,639 --> 00:03:07,760 Speaker 1: and so we were thinking, are there alternatives? Could you 56 00:03:07,800 --> 00:03:09,760 Speaker 1: live out in space to get away from it all? 57 00:03:09,919 --> 00:03:12,400 Speaker 1: But you might be surprised to discover that space actually 58 00:03:12,440 --> 00:03:14,520 Speaker 1: has a bunch of stuff in it as well. It's 59 00:03:14,560 --> 00:03:18,960 Speaker 1: not a pristine territory. It's the final frontier, but it's 60 00:03:19,040 --> 00:03:22,200 Speaker 1: also filled with traffic. It's getting crowded out there, right, 61 00:03:22,760 --> 00:03:25,600 Speaker 1: that's right. You probably heard about Elon Musk's plans to 62 00:03:25,680 --> 00:03:29,399 Speaker 1: launch thousands and thousands of new satellites to improve your 63 00:03:29,520 --> 00:03:32,240 Speaker 1: download speeds. Yeah, and not just the stuff that's going 64 00:03:32,280 --> 00:03:34,160 Speaker 1: to be launched, but there are a bunch of stuffs 65 00:03:34,160 --> 00:03:36,720 Speaker 1: out there already floating out there right in space. Yea. 66 00:03:36,880 --> 00:03:40,600 Speaker 1: So we thought we'd dive into this topic between the 67 00:03:40,680 --> 00:03:43,360 Speaker 1: Earth surface and the rest of the universe and talk 68 00:03:43,440 --> 00:03:46,040 Speaker 1: about how much stuff is there out there? So to 69 00:03:46,120 --> 00:03:53,760 Speaker 1: the on the program, we'll be tackling the question is 70 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:57,320 Speaker 1: space crowded? How much stuff is up there? How much 71 00:03:57,440 --> 00:04:01,080 Speaker 1: room is there? And do you need to get a 72 00:04:01,160 --> 00:04:04,520 Speaker 1: fast carporal late cast just to get out to get 73 00:04:04,520 --> 00:04:07,480 Speaker 1: out to Marrows these days, well, traffic in space at 74 00:04:07,560 --> 00:04:10,400 Speaker 1: least would be more complicated because you got another dimension 75 00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:12,600 Speaker 1: to move in, right. I mean, I don't know how 76 00:04:12,600 --> 00:04:14,320 Speaker 1: they will plan to organize it, but you can always 77 00:04:14,360 --> 00:04:16,320 Speaker 1: go over with the car in front of you. That's 78 00:04:16,320 --> 00:04:20,000 Speaker 1: like a double nightmare for me. It's like multidimensional traffic. 79 00:04:20,880 --> 00:04:22,680 Speaker 1: It sounds like there's a zillion more ways to get 80 00:04:22,680 --> 00:04:25,400 Speaker 1: into an accident. I feel like, at least here on Earth, 81 00:04:25,400 --> 00:04:27,320 Speaker 1: if I'm stuck in traffic, I still I can still 82 00:04:27,360 --> 00:04:31,200 Speaker 1: fantasize about flying upwards or digging down and getting away 83 00:04:31,200 --> 00:04:32,560 Speaker 1: from it all. But if you're in space and it's 84 00:04:32,640 --> 00:04:37,039 Speaker 1: space jam, in a traffic jam, uh, you've got nowhere 85 00:04:37,040 --> 00:04:39,200 Speaker 1: to go. I think you owe Michael Jordans ten cents 86 00:04:39,200 --> 00:04:43,160 Speaker 1: for mentioning that was bucks, buddy. Yeah. But you may 87 00:04:43,160 --> 00:04:45,320 Speaker 1: have heard the news that Elon Musk is planning to 88 00:04:45,400 --> 00:04:48,839 Speaker 1: launch a bunch of satellites. They recently deployed a hundred 89 00:04:48,880 --> 00:04:52,960 Speaker 1: and twenty two satellites into low Earth orbit to test 90 00:04:53,080 --> 00:04:57,320 Speaker 1: their Internet from space idea, and his plans are to 91 00:04:57,400 --> 00:04:59,720 Speaker 1: launch a bunch more, not a hundred more, not to 92 00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:03,359 Speaker 1: hundred more, not a thousand more, but something like ten 93 00:05:03,560 --> 00:05:06,880 Speaker 1: thousand in the near future, stretching up to maybe forty 94 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:09,839 Speaker 1: thousand in the far freiture. And it's all part of 95 00:05:09,880 --> 00:05:13,400 Speaker 1: his plan to create the space fornet. Is that what 96 00:05:13,440 --> 00:05:16,039 Speaker 1: he's calling it? That isn't what he should have. That 97 00:05:16,160 --> 00:05:19,159 Speaker 1: is the best possible there. You know, we got space force, 98 00:05:19,920 --> 00:05:24,240 Speaker 1: why not space Internet? Yeah, and you're probably thinking, hey, look, 99 00:05:24,279 --> 00:05:26,440 Speaker 1: space is big right, I mean, the universe is vast. 100 00:05:26,520 --> 00:05:29,280 Speaker 1: Daniel was just saying how space is mostly empty, how 101 00:05:29,320 --> 00:05:31,960 Speaker 1: could space ever get crowded? And you're right, there is 102 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:33,880 Speaker 1: a lot of space up there. You know, a quick 103 00:05:33,880 --> 00:05:37,360 Speaker 1: calculation up to high Earth orbit and there's like two 104 00:05:37,480 --> 00:05:42,719 Speaker 1: hundred trillion cubic kilometers of space just surrounding our planet. 105 00:05:43,200 --> 00:05:47,760 Speaker 1: And currently humans have launched about two thousand operational satellites, 106 00:05:47,920 --> 00:05:50,120 Speaker 1: So that doesn't seem like much. I mean, do the math. 107 00:05:50,200 --> 00:05:54,720 Speaker 1: You get about ninety billion cubic kilometers per operational satellite. 108 00:05:54,880 --> 00:05:57,120 Speaker 1: That seems like a lot, right, And it seems that's 109 00:05:57,160 --> 00:06:01,640 Speaker 1: like the ratio between space and currently how many satellites 110 00:06:01,680 --> 00:06:04,440 Speaker 1: there are out there. Yeah, we've got two thousand satellites 111 00:06:04,480 --> 00:06:06,920 Speaker 1: that are running that are doing something that are helping us, 112 00:06:06,920 --> 00:06:09,200 Speaker 1: that are like, you know, telling you where your phone are, 113 00:06:09,480 --> 00:06:12,640 Speaker 1: or spying on North Korea or whatever. It takes all 114 00:06:12,680 --> 00:06:14,960 Speaker 1: the amount of space out there in sort of high 115 00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:20,720 Speaker 1: Earth orbit, and you get ninety billion cubic kilometers per satellite, 116 00:06:20,760 --> 00:06:22,839 Speaker 1: So it seems like plenty of room. It seems like 117 00:06:22,839 --> 00:06:24,640 Speaker 1: plenty of room. But I think the problem is that 118 00:06:24,680 --> 00:06:27,080 Speaker 1: if you run into one of these things in space, 119 00:06:27,240 --> 00:06:31,599 Speaker 1: it's pretty bad news. Yeah, this is very high speed traffic. 120 00:06:31,720 --> 00:06:34,000 Speaker 1: So we thought it'd be fun to talk about whether 121 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:36,320 Speaker 1: there really is room out there? How dangerous is it 122 00:06:36,360 --> 00:06:39,120 Speaker 1: to launch a satellite? And how long do you have 123 00:06:39,200 --> 00:06:41,520 Speaker 1: to wait after you put on your left turn signal 124 00:06:41,680 --> 00:06:44,080 Speaker 1: before you know it's clear to pull your tesla into 125 00:06:44,120 --> 00:06:47,320 Speaker 1: low Earth orbit? Yeah, because you definitely don't want to 126 00:06:47,320 --> 00:06:51,080 Speaker 1: have a bumper to bumper collision here with a satellite 127 00:06:51,080 --> 00:06:54,000 Speaker 1: going in hundreds or thousands of kilometers per hour. No, 128 00:06:54,200 --> 00:06:57,560 Speaker 1: you certainly don't. I'm pretty sure your insurance doesn't cover it. 129 00:06:57,600 --> 00:06:59,360 Speaker 1: Definitely not the one you got on your rental car. 130 00:06:59,520 --> 00:07:03,560 Speaker 1: So they're about two thousand satellites right now operating out 131 00:07:03,560 --> 00:07:06,000 Speaker 1: in space. But it's not just satellites out there, right, 132 00:07:06,080 --> 00:07:09,960 Speaker 1: there's also space junk. Yeah, So I was wondering if 133 00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:12,600 Speaker 1: people were aware of this problem. Do people know that 134 00:07:12,680 --> 00:07:15,480 Speaker 1: space has more than just operational satellites on it? Do 135 00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:18,840 Speaker 1: people think space is totally empty and there's lots of 136 00:07:18,920 --> 00:07:21,080 Speaker 1: room out there for frontiers people to go out and 137 00:07:21,120 --> 00:07:23,680 Speaker 1: claim their chunk, or do people think that space is 138 00:07:23,720 --> 00:07:28,120 Speaker 1: mostly crowded and already filled with Elon Musk's garbage? What 139 00:07:28,680 --> 00:07:33,360 Speaker 1: are you gonna say, Elon, munk's junk, I should have 140 00:07:33,400 --> 00:07:37,520 Speaker 1: said that that was much better. Maybe he's planning a 141 00:07:37,600 --> 00:07:41,520 Speaker 1: business where he takes your junk and dumps it in space. Oh, 142 00:07:41,560 --> 00:07:46,080 Speaker 1: there you go, one nine hundred got space jusk junk? 143 00:07:48,160 --> 00:07:51,840 Speaker 1: Must what what must I do with my junk? And 144 00:07:51,960 --> 00:07:54,320 Speaker 1: if he didn't plan that, he's probably a listener to 145 00:07:54,360 --> 00:07:57,760 Speaker 1: this podcast because it's awesome and now he's planning it. 146 00:07:57,880 --> 00:08:00,240 Speaker 1: So Elon, we had one percent sticks. So as you show, 147 00:08:00,360 --> 00:08:03,000 Speaker 1: Daniel went out there into the streets and as random strangers. 148 00:08:03,120 --> 00:08:06,560 Speaker 1: If they thought that space was getting too crowded, here's 149 00:08:06,560 --> 00:08:08,800 Speaker 1: what people had to say before you hear their answers. 150 00:08:08,840 --> 00:08:12,840 Speaker 1: Think to yourself, do you think space is overcrowded or 151 00:08:13,040 --> 00:08:15,560 Speaker 1: is there a lot of room for more stuff? I 152 00:08:15,600 --> 00:08:19,200 Speaker 1: would say probably filled with satellites and crowded. Yeah, I 153 00:08:19,280 --> 00:08:21,200 Speaker 1: think it's like dangerous to be up there. I don't 154 00:08:21,200 --> 00:08:23,800 Speaker 1: know if it's totally crowded, but it's probably getting there, 155 00:08:24,440 --> 00:08:27,760 Speaker 1: I would imagine. I would say it was empty, mostly empty, 156 00:08:27,960 --> 00:08:30,520 Speaker 1: so like room for lots more stuff. Yeah, I think 157 00:08:30,520 --> 00:08:33,800 Speaker 1: it's definitely still mostly empty. See you, there's lots of 158 00:08:33,840 --> 00:08:37,200 Speaker 1: room for more satellites. Well, I don't think we should 159 00:08:37,240 --> 00:08:40,280 Speaker 1: put a lot more satellites, but I bet there's more 160 00:08:40,360 --> 00:08:42,640 Speaker 1: room of food needed to Oh. I think there's already 161 00:08:42,640 --> 00:08:44,640 Speaker 1: a lot of satellites, and I think more will have 162 00:08:44,679 --> 00:08:48,000 Speaker 1: a big impact on the light quality that astronomers can 163 00:08:48,040 --> 00:08:52,720 Speaker 1: collect data from. Mostly empty mostly empty wise that because 164 00:08:52,760 --> 00:08:56,720 Speaker 1: of the size of space and how you can put 165 00:08:56,720 --> 00:09:01,920 Speaker 1: the satellites in different layers, in different orbits. Do you agree, yes, there, 166 00:09:04,320 --> 00:09:06,400 Speaker 1: I think it's filled with satellites. It feels like that's 167 00:09:06,559 --> 00:09:09,520 Speaker 1: sort of relative, but it's probably as room for more. 168 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:12,880 Speaker 1: I guess that there's a lot of space junk out there, 169 00:09:13,080 --> 00:09:16,400 Speaker 1: but there's so much. I know there's a lot of 170 00:09:16,440 --> 00:09:20,000 Speaker 1: space up there, so I don't think it's too crowded. 171 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:21,520 Speaker 1: I know there are collisions, but I don't think they 172 00:09:21,559 --> 00:09:24,760 Speaker 1: happened that often. Um, but I'd say in the near 173 00:09:24,800 --> 00:09:27,160 Speaker 1: future that probably could be a problem. So why do 174 00:09:27,160 --> 00:09:30,400 Speaker 1: you think it's mostly filled up? Just because the amount 175 00:09:30,480 --> 00:09:34,240 Speaker 1: of communication that we have and data exchange, there's gotta 176 00:09:34,280 --> 00:09:38,000 Speaker 1: be satellites, old satellites to suppose satellites. So is there 177 00:09:38,040 --> 00:09:40,240 Speaker 1: like a danger of satellites bumping into each other and stuff? 178 00:09:40,280 --> 00:09:42,280 Speaker 1: I'm sure, but I don't know what they'll do anything, 179 00:09:42,280 --> 00:09:44,760 Speaker 1: But I don't know if they're made of you know, 180 00:09:45,240 --> 00:09:48,880 Speaker 1: but I've heard rumors of space trash too, you know. 181 00:09:49,240 --> 00:09:52,080 Speaker 1: All right, people don't seem too concerned about the crowdedness 182 00:09:52,080 --> 00:09:54,120 Speaker 1: of space. No, but I'm not sure how many of 183 00:09:54,120 --> 00:09:57,160 Speaker 1: these folks actually had like plans to launch anything. So 184 00:09:57,280 --> 00:10:00,320 Speaker 1: it's a bit of an abstract question for them, you know, Oh, 185 00:10:00,400 --> 00:10:02,920 Speaker 1: I see, I see. Do you think that maybe they're 186 00:10:02,920 --> 00:10:06,319 Speaker 1: trying not to be alarmist or maybe they're thinking, Man, 187 00:10:06,360 --> 00:10:08,319 Speaker 1: I got too many things to worry about here, I 188 00:10:08,400 --> 00:10:11,040 Speaker 1: got finals coming up, I got rent to pay. Who 189 00:10:11,120 --> 00:10:14,600 Speaker 1: cares about space junk? M you didn't get a lot 190 00:10:14,600 --> 00:10:17,160 Speaker 1: of concern here. No, but maybe if I told them 191 00:10:17,160 --> 00:10:19,640 Speaker 1: all about space junk and made them worry about the 192 00:10:19,640 --> 00:10:21,760 Speaker 1: future of those satellites, they'd be worried about the next 193 00:10:21,760 --> 00:10:24,680 Speaker 1: time they got on an airplane, whether the satellite that's 194 00:10:24,880 --> 00:10:29,120 Speaker 1: navig that's helping their flight and navigate, is um potentially 195 00:10:29,120 --> 00:10:32,480 Speaker 1: being exposed to high speed garbage. All right, well, let's 196 00:10:32,600 --> 00:10:34,760 Speaker 1: um let's talk about it. The idea is that maybe 197 00:10:34,920 --> 00:10:38,120 Speaker 1: space we're throwing too many things out there into space, 198 00:10:38,200 --> 00:10:41,000 Speaker 1: like as a species, you know, It was exciting when 199 00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:43,679 Speaker 1: we sent the first satellite out there, and it was 200 00:10:43,720 --> 00:10:46,400 Speaker 1: exciting when we sent people out there. But now I 201 00:10:46,440 --> 00:10:48,800 Speaker 1: think there's sort of a growing concern that are we 202 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:56,640 Speaker 1: basically treating our orbital space as the next big junkyard. Yeah, exactly, 203 00:10:56,640 --> 00:11:02,600 Speaker 1: not a landfill, but a space fill, a space space film. Well, 204 00:11:02,600 --> 00:11:06,559 Speaker 1: I guess technically landfills are space field. Everything is a 205 00:11:06,600 --> 00:11:09,679 Speaker 1: space field from that perspective. Well, I was surprised. I 206 00:11:09,720 --> 00:11:11,520 Speaker 1: did a bit of research, and I was surprised to 207 00:11:11,559 --> 00:11:15,120 Speaker 1: discover sort of the small number and the large number 208 00:11:15,200 --> 00:11:17,520 Speaker 1: of stuff that we have in orbit. Really it's both 209 00:11:17,559 --> 00:11:20,200 Speaker 1: a lot and little. Yeah, it is. I mean the 210 00:11:20,280 --> 00:11:23,280 Speaker 1: small number is the number of operational satellites. Like, we've 211 00:11:23,280 --> 00:11:26,240 Speaker 1: been launching satellites for fifty years, and I know it's expensive. 212 00:11:26,280 --> 00:11:28,880 Speaker 1: It's not just like anybody can launch them, but they're 213 00:11:28,920 --> 00:11:32,280 Speaker 1: not that rare anymore. And you know, governments and spy 214 00:11:32,360 --> 00:11:37,320 Speaker 1: agencies and armies all have their own satellites and companies do. 215 00:11:37,760 --> 00:11:39,800 Speaker 1: So I was surprised to discover there are only about 216 00:11:39,800 --> 00:11:44,160 Speaker 1: two thousand, two hud eighteen operational satellites in orbit. That's 217 00:11:44,160 --> 00:11:46,480 Speaker 1: not really that many. Really, do you think that's not 218 00:11:46,559 --> 00:11:48,240 Speaker 1: a lot. I think it's not a lot. I mean, 219 00:11:48,280 --> 00:11:51,320 Speaker 1: these days it's not that expensive to launch a satellite. 220 00:11:51,360 --> 00:11:54,520 Speaker 1: You know, elementary schools can fund us a micro's cube 221 00:11:54,520 --> 00:11:57,160 Speaker 1: sat that ends up in orbit and takes pictures of stuff. 222 00:11:57,559 --> 00:12:00,640 Speaker 1: So the prices are really coming down. So two thousand, 223 00:12:00,760 --> 00:12:03,240 Speaker 1: two D eighteen not just like the big ones you 224 00:12:03,280 --> 00:12:05,320 Speaker 1: see with the giant solar panels. But it could be 225 00:12:05,360 --> 00:12:07,600 Speaker 1: just like little tiny satellites. Yeah, some of those are 226 00:12:07,600 --> 00:12:09,679 Speaker 1: pretty small. Some of those are pretty small. But we 227 00:12:09,760 --> 00:12:11,880 Speaker 1: only got two thousand, two hundreds. You know, like how 228 00:12:11,880 --> 00:12:14,760 Speaker 1: many cars are on a freeway at any moment. It's 229 00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:18,160 Speaker 1: much bigger number than that, and so, and space is 230 00:12:18,160 --> 00:12:20,160 Speaker 1: really big, and so at first you think, wow, there's 231 00:12:20,200 --> 00:12:22,800 Speaker 1: not that many satellites and space is huge, so there's 232 00:12:22,840 --> 00:12:25,439 Speaker 1: plenty of room for more traffic. Nothing to worry, nothing 233 00:12:25,480 --> 00:12:28,920 Speaker 1: to worry. But but but the problem is that it's 234 00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:32,400 Speaker 1: not just operational satellites that are out there, right, it's 235 00:12:32,600 --> 00:12:37,680 Speaker 1: first of all, unoperational satellites, and then bits of satellites, 236 00:12:37,880 --> 00:12:41,120 Speaker 1: junk of satellites, a little bits of rockets that blew up, 237 00:12:41,360 --> 00:12:45,440 Speaker 1: you know, stuff that astronauts dropped while they were on spacewalks. 238 00:12:45,679 --> 00:12:48,000 Speaker 1: It turns out there's a lot of junk up there 239 00:12:48,240 --> 00:12:50,800 Speaker 1: really and it's all man made? Or is it also 240 00:12:50,920 --> 00:12:53,720 Speaker 1: like you know asteroids to somehow got caught in our 241 00:12:53,800 --> 00:12:56,439 Speaker 1: orbit or things like that. This is just man made 242 00:12:56,440 --> 00:12:59,079 Speaker 1: space junk. I mean there are meteors right that hit 243 00:12:59,120 --> 00:13:00,959 Speaker 1: the Earth and burnham the atmosphere and you see that 244 00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:03,240 Speaker 1: kind of stuff on a nice night when you're seeing 245 00:13:03,840 --> 00:13:07,120 Speaker 1: meteor showers, etcetera. But this is just man made stuff 246 00:13:07,120 --> 00:13:09,920 Speaker 1: that's in or wow, how many do how much? How 247 00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:11,360 Speaker 1: much of this stuff do you think is out there? 248 00:13:11,880 --> 00:13:14,400 Speaker 1: So they did a calculation and you can't count this 249 00:13:14,400 --> 00:13:16,920 Speaker 1: stuff because a lot of it is too small. But 250 00:13:17,240 --> 00:13:20,160 Speaker 1: you know, we have two thousand operational satellites right, but 251 00:13:20,200 --> 00:13:23,760 Speaker 1: in terms of space junk, there's at least twenty thousand 252 00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:27,840 Speaker 1: trackable objects that's just like chunks of stuff that you 253 00:13:27,880 --> 00:13:30,240 Speaker 1: can see that you can see that like you know 254 00:13:30,440 --> 00:13:33,520 Speaker 1: Norad and the Department of Defense and how those folks 255 00:13:33,559 --> 00:13:38,000 Speaker 1: are keeping track of Wow, don't they wonder what they are? Like? 256 00:13:38,559 --> 00:13:40,880 Speaker 1: Could there be spy cameras from aliens? Is what I'm 257 00:13:40,920 --> 00:13:45,079 Speaker 1: where I'm going with this, Daniel Man, I would love 258 00:13:45,080 --> 00:13:46,319 Speaker 1: if there was a spike camera. But if I was 259 00:13:46,360 --> 00:13:48,280 Speaker 1: an alien and I wanted to build a spy camera, 260 00:13:48,480 --> 00:13:49,880 Speaker 1: I would just put it in a rock, you know, 261 00:13:50,240 --> 00:13:51,920 Speaker 1: hide it and make it look like a big asteroid 262 00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:54,120 Speaker 1: or something. But this is just the stuff they're tracking, 263 00:13:54,160 --> 00:13:56,800 Speaker 1: you know, because they don't want their two billion dollars 264 00:13:56,840 --> 00:13:59,800 Speaker 1: spy satellite or ten billion dollars space telescope or whatever 265 00:14:00,120 --> 00:14:02,000 Speaker 1: to bump into a piece of junks. And they track 266 00:14:02,120 --> 00:14:05,320 Speaker 1: this stuff. But that's only the stuff that they can track. 267 00:14:05,520 --> 00:14:07,400 Speaker 1: They track it so that they can so it doesn't 268 00:14:07,600 --> 00:14:10,040 Speaker 1: so they can maneuver around the other space drunk. Yeah, 269 00:14:10,120 --> 00:14:12,280 Speaker 1: it's like air traffic control, right, you want to get 270 00:14:12,280 --> 00:14:13,880 Speaker 1: this out of the lands, you have to make sure 271 00:14:13,920 --> 00:14:16,360 Speaker 1: now the other planes are too close by, and so 272 00:14:16,400 --> 00:14:18,720 Speaker 1: you've got to manage it. And so they keep track 273 00:14:18,760 --> 00:14:21,240 Speaker 1: of all this stuff. But it's a ten to one ratio. Right. 274 00:14:21,440 --> 00:14:25,360 Speaker 1: Did the two thousand operational objects include the secret space 275 00:14:25,800 --> 00:14:28,120 Speaker 1: spy satellites that they don't really want us to know? 276 00:14:28,280 --> 00:14:31,760 Speaker 1: Or are those in the unknown category? Um, that doesn't 277 00:14:31,800 --> 00:14:34,200 Speaker 1: include the things that the government doesn't want us to know. 278 00:14:34,760 --> 00:14:37,480 Speaker 1: But you know, a reasonable estimates based on launches and 279 00:14:37,480 --> 00:14:39,640 Speaker 1: stuff like that, because it's pretty hard to hide a launch, 280 00:14:39,800 --> 00:14:42,280 Speaker 1: so they can track twenty thou objects. And are these 281 00:14:42,320 --> 00:14:45,040 Speaker 1: small or these like you know, a bolt from that 282 00:14:45,240 --> 00:14:47,880 Speaker 1: slipped out of the space station, or are they pretty big? 283 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:50,280 Speaker 1: These things are pretty big. You know, they're more than 284 00:14:50,360 --> 00:14:54,800 Speaker 1: ten centimeters across. You know, the largest um fifteen hundred 285 00:14:54,840 --> 00:14:58,240 Speaker 1: of these things wigh a total of nineteen hundred tons, 286 00:14:59,200 --> 00:15:02,040 Speaker 1: and the largest ten thousand of them weigh like five 287 00:15:02,120 --> 00:15:06,400 Speaker 1: thousand five tons, So it's a pretty big amount of stuff. 288 00:15:06,440 --> 00:15:09,400 Speaker 1: And again, this is just the stuff that we can track. 289 00:15:09,800 --> 00:15:12,400 Speaker 1: The stuff falls apart and get smaller, and then the 290 00:15:12,520 --> 00:15:15,640 Speaker 1: numbers get crazy, and this is all just human junk 291 00:15:15,680 --> 00:15:18,800 Speaker 1: in space. Like we've been. We've been that careless in 292 00:15:18,840 --> 00:15:23,280 Speaker 1: space that we have twenty thousand bits of junk out there. 293 00:15:23,360 --> 00:15:25,360 Speaker 1: You showed like a national park and this is like 294 00:15:25,720 --> 00:15:30,120 Speaker 1: littered with people's picnic garbage. I guess if you're out 295 00:15:30,120 --> 00:15:33,560 Speaker 1: in space, what do you do with your junk? Well, 296 00:15:33,600 --> 00:15:35,320 Speaker 1: actually what you do is you drop it on Earth. 297 00:15:35,360 --> 00:15:37,560 Speaker 1: The best thing to do with space junk is to 298 00:15:37,680 --> 00:15:40,360 Speaker 1: push it down into the atmosphere because the atmosphere will 299 00:15:40,400 --> 00:15:43,320 Speaker 1: burn it up. Anything from space is moving pretty quickly, 300 00:15:43,320 --> 00:15:45,760 Speaker 1: and if it hit the atmosphere, you'll just get fried. 301 00:15:46,080 --> 00:15:48,120 Speaker 1: So the best thing to do is to drop it 302 00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:49,640 Speaker 1: on the Earth. The worst thing to do is to 303 00:15:49,760 --> 00:15:52,680 Speaker 1: leave it in orbit around the Earth. I see. The 304 00:15:52,720 --> 00:15:54,400 Speaker 1: best thing to do is to burn it in the 305 00:15:54,440 --> 00:15:59,960 Speaker 1: atmosphere so it rains down in innocent people. Nobody, almost 306 00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:02,520 Speaker 1: nobody has ever been heard by falling space jump. The 307 00:16:02,560 --> 00:16:05,760 Speaker 1: atmosphere is a really good force field against space junk. 308 00:16:05,760 --> 00:16:07,600 Speaker 1: It's so good that what we should do with our 309 00:16:07,600 --> 00:16:10,720 Speaker 1: space junk is throw it against the atmosphere to you know, 310 00:16:10,800 --> 00:16:12,880 Speaker 1: atomize it. Oh, I see. So this is stuff that 311 00:16:12,920 --> 00:16:15,520 Speaker 1: has maybe falling off the space station or slipped out 312 00:16:15,520 --> 00:16:18,760 Speaker 1: of an astronaut's hand, but that stayed in orbit. Yeah, 313 00:16:18,840 --> 00:16:21,800 Speaker 1: and also the products of other collisions. And if you 314 00:16:21,800 --> 00:16:25,040 Speaker 1: look at even smaller stuff, there are nine hundred thousand 315 00:16:25,080 --> 00:16:28,800 Speaker 1: things that are smaller than ten centimeters. That's almost a 316 00:16:28,880 --> 00:16:32,160 Speaker 1: million pieces of space junk, little tiny bits. But those 317 00:16:32,200 --> 00:16:34,600 Speaker 1: they can't track, and they that's just an estimate. These 318 00:16:34,600 --> 00:16:36,520 Speaker 1: are not tiny bits. I mean ten centimeters. You know, 319 00:16:36,560 --> 00:16:39,080 Speaker 1: we're talking to something the size of a baseball. Like 320 00:16:39,160 --> 00:16:42,040 Speaker 1: that thing going at ten kilometers per second is not 321 00:16:42,120 --> 00:16:44,400 Speaker 1: a tiny anything. But you're right, these things are too 322 00:16:44,400 --> 00:16:46,560 Speaker 1: small for them to track. That's a lot of baseballs. 323 00:16:46,560 --> 00:16:48,520 Speaker 1: It's a lot of baseballs. And then if you just 324 00:16:48,560 --> 00:16:51,200 Speaker 1: say like any piece of junk, no matter what size, 325 00:16:51,560 --> 00:16:54,680 Speaker 1: then there are more than a hundred million bits of 326 00:16:54,720 --> 00:16:57,560 Speaker 1: space debris. And so where did all this stuff come from? 327 00:16:57,600 --> 00:17:00,920 Speaker 1: Is it all just from you know, our astronauts being 328 00:17:00,920 --> 00:17:04,560 Speaker 1: litter bugs or litter space bugs. Yeah, you know astronauts 329 00:17:04,560 --> 00:17:06,359 Speaker 1: like the flame and hot cheetohs and they just crumple 330 00:17:06,440 --> 00:17:11,080 Speaker 1: up the package and toss it over their shoulder. No, 331 00:17:11,240 --> 00:17:14,760 Speaker 1: it comes from like satellites falling apart, you know, bits 332 00:17:14,880 --> 00:17:18,800 Speaker 1: of paint flaking off of satellites. Also, we fired a 333 00:17:18,840 --> 00:17:20,639 Speaker 1: lot of rockets into space, and we just sort of 334 00:17:20,680 --> 00:17:24,320 Speaker 1: like leave those spent rocket stages and little bits of 335 00:17:24,359 --> 00:17:27,080 Speaker 1: like frozen fuel that didn't get used up. We just 336 00:17:27,160 --> 00:17:30,440 Speaker 1: generally haven't been thinking carefully about what kind of stuff 337 00:17:30,480 --> 00:17:33,200 Speaker 1: will be left from our exploration of space because we thought, hey, 338 00:17:33,240 --> 00:17:35,120 Speaker 1: space is so big and empty, it doesn't really matter 339 00:17:35,440 --> 00:17:38,679 Speaker 1: if you create a thousand little shards of ice that 340 00:17:38,680 --> 00:17:41,399 Speaker 1: are flying at really high speed. Wow, so it is 341 00:17:41,440 --> 00:17:43,840 Speaker 1: getting crowded with joke. I mean, there aren't that many 342 00:17:43,840 --> 00:17:46,480 Speaker 1: satellite but there's millions of bits of stuff out there. 343 00:17:46,640 --> 00:17:48,520 Speaker 1: There are millions of bits of stuff out there, Yeah, 344 00:17:48,520 --> 00:17:51,920 Speaker 1: flakes of paint, little bits of rocket motors, frozen coolant, 345 00:17:52,359 --> 00:17:55,000 Speaker 1: and you know, sometimes it's stuff that was created sort 346 00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:57,960 Speaker 1: of on purpose. Like in the sixties, the US and 347 00:17:58,040 --> 00:18:02,080 Speaker 1: Russia had anti satellite weapons. We built special missiles we 348 00:18:02,080 --> 00:18:05,040 Speaker 1: could fire at like the enemy's satellites because you know, 349 00:18:05,240 --> 00:18:09,119 Speaker 1: maybe you don't want them flying their spy satellites over Colorado, 350 00:18:09,160 --> 00:18:10,640 Speaker 1: and so you want to fire a missile to take 351 00:18:10,680 --> 00:18:15,520 Speaker 1: out their satellite. Interesting space wars, space wars wars, Yeah, 352 00:18:15,760 --> 00:18:18,040 Speaker 1: and China got in the game about ten years ago. 353 00:18:18,600 --> 00:18:21,640 Speaker 1: They built a system and they tested it and they 354 00:18:21,680 --> 00:18:24,359 Speaker 1: destroyed one of their own satellites, but it created a 355 00:18:24,560 --> 00:18:27,800 Speaker 1: million pieces of space debris that are still up there. 356 00:18:27,880 --> 00:18:30,439 Speaker 1: They blew something up as a test. Yeah, they fired 357 00:18:30,440 --> 00:18:32,840 Speaker 1: a missile into space in two thousand seven, blew up 358 00:18:32,840 --> 00:18:35,639 Speaker 1: one of their own defunct satellites and it created a 359 00:18:35,720 --> 00:18:45,600 Speaker 1: million pieces of space junk. Great, thank you, China. And 360 00:18:45,680 --> 00:18:47,800 Speaker 1: sometimes it is astronauts, you know, like there was one 361 00:18:47,800 --> 00:18:50,480 Speaker 1: time an astraw lost a bag of tools. You know, 362 00:18:50,520 --> 00:18:52,640 Speaker 1: you're out there on a spacewalk, you forget to clip 363 00:18:52,680 --> 00:18:54,840 Speaker 1: it and the oops, it just sort of drifts away 364 00:18:54,880 --> 00:18:58,960 Speaker 1: from you. And that was a Sandra Bullock movie. I 365 00:18:59,080 --> 00:19:02,280 Speaker 1: seen that movie. Then that's the one part of that 366 00:19:02,320 --> 00:19:05,440 Speaker 1: movie that was correct. Um An astronaut ones like lost 367 00:19:05,520 --> 00:19:07,520 Speaker 1: spare glove, you know, so that kind of stuff is 368 00:19:07,520 --> 00:19:10,320 Speaker 1: floating out there, but it's dwarfed by this sort of 369 00:19:10,440 --> 00:19:13,280 Speaker 1: like a little just pieces of junk from satellites that 370 00:19:13,320 --> 00:19:16,040 Speaker 1: are broken or smashed into each other. I wonder how 371 00:19:16,080 --> 00:19:18,680 Speaker 1: that happens. You're like, you're out in space, you might die, 372 00:19:19,359 --> 00:19:21,479 Speaker 1: but you take off your glove just just to like 373 00:19:21,600 --> 00:19:23,919 Speaker 1: pick it a little something, and then whoops. You let 374 00:19:24,440 --> 00:19:26,600 Speaker 1: you gotta open your flame and hot cheetos package, right, 375 00:19:26,600 --> 00:19:29,640 Speaker 1: and you can't do those and those really thick gloves, yeah, 376 00:19:29,840 --> 00:19:32,440 Speaker 1: those big thick fingers, and then you take the cheetos 377 00:19:32,480 --> 00:19:34,679 Speaker 1: up and sort of bang them up against your space helmet. 378 00:19:34,720 --> 00:19:38,800 Speaker 1: You know, this thing through the shooting use velcro fore 379 00:19:38,880 --> 00:19:42,120 Speaker 1: the cheetos. No. I think there must have been an 380 00:19:42,119 --> 00:19:45,320 Speaker 1: extra glove or something. But occasionally astronauts have job stuff 381 00:19:45,320 --> 00:19:48,240 Speaker 1: that's not a big contribution to the space junk. Most 382 00:19:48,240 --> 00:19:50,240 Speaker 1: of it is like flakes of paint and little bits 383 00:19:50,240 --> 00:19:53,200 Speaker 1: of rocket cooliant and stuff like that, but it's still dangerous. 384 00:19:53,359 --> 00:19:56,680 Speaker 1: And how much of that is our space cheetos? There 385 00:19:56,720 --> 00:20:00,840 Speaker 1: are no Cheetos in space that I'm aware of. That's 386 00:20:00,840 --> 00:20:03,280 Speaker 1: her first for you. Also, great, so that that's a 387 00:20:03,280 --> 00:20:05,040 Speaker 1: lot of stuff out there, and so I guess now 388 00:20:05,080 --> 00:20:07,320 Speaker 1: the question is it a problem? Is it going to 389 00:20:07,359 --> 00:20:09,560 Speaker 1: be a problem, and what can we do about it? 390 00:20:09,720 --> 00:20:11,800 Speaker 1: So let's get into that. But first let's take a 391 00:20:11,840 --> 00:20:27,400 Speaker 1: quick break, all right. I know, so there are millions 392 00:20:27,440 --> 00:20:30,000 Speaker 1: of pieces of debris out there in just in our 393 00:20:30,080 --> 00:20:33,200 Speaker 1: immediate orbit, and some of them might be space cheetos, 394 00:20:33,240 --> 00:20:34,800 Speaker 1: some of them might not be. We don't know what 395 00:20:34,840 --> 00:20:38,200 Speaker 1: the Chinese or the Russians have been developing out there 396 00:20:38,280 --> 00:20:41,040 Speaker 1: or testing. Maybe they have a system to launch cheetos 397 00:20:41,080 --> 00:20:45,720 Speaker 1: into space at our satellites. Yeah, maybe cheetos are especially 398 00:20:45,720 --> 00:20:48,160 Speaker 1: good at taking out spy satellites, you know, I mean, 399 00:20:48,240 --> 00:20:50,160 Speaker 1: until you do the experiment, you never know the answer. 400 00:20:50,160 --> 00:20:52,840 Speaker 1: You gotta keep an open minding science, right, Yeah, you 401 00:20:52,880 --> 00:20:55,959 Speaker 1: want you want that um you know that cheesy powder 402 00:20:56,040 --> 00:21:00,160 Speaker 1: that they have to get into the enemy's satellite mechanism, 403 00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:03,400 Speaker 1: And that's the worst, the worst of those gyro mechanisms. Yeah, 404 00:21:03,480 --> 00:21:07,280 Speaker 1: that's especially designed by food scientists to be a space weapon, 405 00:21:08,280 --> 00:21:10,760 Speaker 1: gets all over your your spy leans and then it's 406 00:21:10,800 --> 00:21:14,040 Speaker 1: all ruined. Space junk really is a problem. Okay, so 407 00:21:14,080 --> 00:21:16,480 Speaker 1: it is. It is a problem that scientists are concerned 408 00:21:16,520 --> 00:21:18,480 Speaker 1: about right now. It really is. Yeah, And it's a 409 00:21:18,520 --> 00:21:21,720 Speaker 1: problem sort for two reasons. One is that it's a 410 00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:24,520 Speaker 1: danger to the stuff that's out there, and the other 411 00:21:24,960 --> 00:21:27,199 Speaker 1: is that it's likely to make more of itself. So 412 00:21:27,320 --> 00:21:29,879 Speaker 1: first of all, you worry just like is the stuff 413 00:21:29,920 --> 00:21:32,159 Speaker 1: going to bump into something valuable? I mean, you build 414 00:21:32,200 --> 00:21:36,240 Speaker 1: your complicated space telescope or spy side light or whatever, 415 00:21:36,280 --> 00:21:38,960 Speaker 1: and you shoot it up into space, and then somebody's 416 00:21:39,080 --> 00:21:43,400 Speaker 1: junk comes along like ten to fifteen kilometers per second 417 00:21:43,960 --> 00:21:48,280 Speaker 1: and just trashes it. Wow, fifteen kilometers per second? Like, 418 00:21:48,400 --> 00:21:51,200 Speaker 1: is that if it's in a different orbit or like 419 00:21:51,480 --> 00:21:54,280 Speaker 1: you know, like in um you can't tend to think 420 00:21:54,280 --> 00:21:56,040 Speaker 1: in space it's everything being kind of at the same 421 00:21:56,080 --> 00:21:58,160 Speaker 1: speed that you are. But is it possible for things 422 00:21:58,200 --> 00:22:00,560 Speaker 1: to be in a different orbit and come at you 423 00:22:00,600 --> 00:22:03,720 Speaker 1: at that speed? Absolutely? This is not organized self driving 424 00:22:03,720 --> 00:22:06,120 Speaker 1: cars in space right where everything is moving along with 425 00:22:06,119 --> 00:22:10,119 Speaker 1: no relative velocity. There's lots of different orbits that cross right, 426 00:22:10,160 --> 00:22:12,840 Speaker 1: and there's no traffic lights, and so you can free 427 00:22:12,880 --> 00:22:15,080 Speaker 1: for all. It's a free for all exactly. There's no 428 00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:17,479 Speaker 1: cops up there whistling to people to stop or anything, 429 00:22:17,800 --> 00:22:20,639 Speaker 1: and so your orbit path could totally cross somebody else's 430 00:22:20,720 --> 00:22:22,880 Speaker 1: orbital path. That's a problem. Even a flick of paint 431 00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:26,159 Speaker 1: would probably do some harm to your solar panel or 432 00:22:26,560 --> 00:22:29,480 Speaker 1: Cheeto's bag, for sure. A tiny fleck with paint going 433 00:22:29,520 --> 00:22:33,520 Speaker 1: at fifteen kilometers per second is like getting punched by 434 00:22:33,520 --> 00:22:36,280 Speaker 1: Mike Tyson, right, and nobody wants their satellite getting punched 435 00:22:36,280 --> 00:22:40,360 Speaker 1: by Mike Tyson, especially in space. That would be extra embarrassing. 436 00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:41,960 Speaker 1: Maybe NASA should do that, you know, they should have 437 00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:44,679 Speaker 1: like last pre flight check, Mike, please come down and 438 00:22:44,720 --> 00:22:49,960 Speaker 1: punch the satellite and see how it goes. But it's 439 00:22:49,960 --> 00:22:52,200 Speaker 1: a real problem. And you know, sometimes you can protect 440 00:22:52,400 --> 00:22:54,560 Speaker 1: parts of your satellite, we'll talk about that later, but 441 00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:56,920 Speaker 1: some parts you just can't. Like you don't want to 442 00:22:56,960 --> 00:22:59,640 Speaker 1: build a shield in front of the lens of your 443 00:22:59,680 --> 00:23:02,160 Speaker 1: space telescope, that's why you built it right to look 444 00:23:02,160 --> 00:23:05,000 Speaker 1: out into space, or you have these big solar panels. 445 00:23:05,200 --> 00:23:07,320 Speaker 1: You can't really do much to protect them. They're supposed 446 00:23:07,320 --> 00:23:10,680 Speaker 1: to be out there gathering sunlight, so you're really vulnerable. 447 00:23:11,200 --> 00:23:13,600 Speaker 1: And even if you put armor on your satellite, that's 448 00:23:13,920 --> 00:23:16,639 Speaker 1: just gets more expensive, right because every little ounce you 449 00:23:16,680 --> 00:23:20,440 Speaker 1: send it to space because like right, yeah, you can't 450 00:23:20,560 --> 00:23:22,879 Speaker 1: armor your solar panels because that blocks them and that 451 00:23:22,960 --> 00:23:26,280 Speaker 1: they don't work. So it's a real problem. And they 452 00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:28,639 Speaker 1: try to keep track of this stuff and because they 453 00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:31,320 Speaker 1: don't want their expensive satellites to get hit by space junk, 454 00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:33,400 Speaker 1: and so they have you know, as we were saying, 455 00:23:33,440 --> 00:23:36,239 Speaker 1: tracking on like twenty thousand of these things. And they 456 00:23:36,280 --> 00:23:39,800 Speaker 1: observe a lot of close calls. There's something like twenty 457 00:23:39,800 --> 00:23:43,440 Speaker 1: close calls every day between a satellite and some piece 458 00:23:43,480 --> 00:23:47,639 Speaker 1: of trackable junk. Like every day times there's somebody freaking 459 00:23:47,640 --> 00:23:50,119 Speaker 1: out in some control room going turn left, turn left, 460 00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:52,879 Speaker 1: watch out for that space to Yeah, And they're pretty 461 00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:54,639 Speaker 1: careful about this stuff, and so they have to like 462 00:23:54,760 --> 00:23:57,000 Speaker 1: contact the owners of the satellite and say, hey, some 463 00:23:57,040 --> 00:23:58,679 Speaker 1: piece of junk is coming your way. You might want 464 00:23:58,720 --> 00:24:00,560 Speaker 1: to move up or down or let to write or 465 00:24:00,600 --> 00:24:03,800 Speaker 1: just any direction really to get out of the way. 466 00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:07,040 Speaker 1: Oh wow, are there like traffic controllers or space can 467 00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:10,440 Speaker 1: you can I study to be a space traffic controller. Yeah. 468 00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:13,080 Speaker 1: I think it's a pretty stressful job. But the Defense 469 00:24:13,119 --> 00:24:15,000 Speaker 1: Department does this, you know, because they've got a lot 470 00:24:15,040 --> 00:24:17,040 Speaker 1: of satellites up there that are pretty valuable and pretty 471 00:24:17,080 --> 00:24:19,639 Speaker 1: important for national security, and so they keep track of 472 00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:22,760 Speaker 1: this stuff and they contact satellite owners if their satellite 473 00:24:22,800 --> 00:24:25,280 Speaker 1: is in the path of some junk. Oh wow, imagine 474 00:24:25,280 --> 00:24:29,119 Speaker 1: getting that call. I think it's not too unusual, you know. 475 00:24:29,160 --> 00:24:31,639 Speaker 1: I think most satellites a few times a year have 476 00:24:31,800 --> 00:24:34,280 Speaker 1: to maneuver around space junk because it's getting kind of 477 00:24:34,280 --> 00:24:38,600 Speaker 1: crowded up there. And we've even had collisions. Really, and 478 00:24:38,680 --> 00:24:42,040 Speaker 1: what happens You just obliterate the satellite or yeah. Yeah, 479 00:24:42,080 --> 00:24:44,880 Speaker 1: that's the problem is that when to like defunct satellites 480 00:24:44,920 --> 00:24:47,040 Speaker 1: hit each other or when a piece of space junk 481 00:24:47,080 --> 00:24:50,080 Speaker 1: takes out of satellite, what do you get more space 482 00:24:50,160 --> 00:24:53,159 Speaker 1: junk more? Right, that's the other problem you're saying, And 483 00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:58,360 Speaker 1: he said junk gets junk. Yeah, It's like if you 484 00:24:58,440 --> 00:25:00,480 Speaker 1: litter in the park, somebody else walks are like, Oh, 485 00:25:00,800 --> 00:25:02,600 Speaker 1: looks like this park isn't cleaned up too much. I'll 486 00:25:02,600 --> 00:25:06,199 Speaker 1: just dump all my trash here. Um, But I'm not 487 00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:09,120 Speaker 1: sure that analogy works, but the idea that it's wondering 488 00:25:09,200 --> 00:25:11,679 Speaker 1: how that works. It's more like if you if you 489 00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:13,480 Speaker 1: find a piece of litter in the park and you 490 00:25:13,640 --> 00:25:17,440 Speaker 1: go to grow it, it it turns into two pieces of litter, right, yeah, 491 00:25:17,480 --> 00:25:19,800 Speaker 1: I guess so, or this literal taxi and breaks you 492 00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:23,440 Speaker 1: into pieces of literal in park right covers you and 493 00:25:23,520 --> 00:25:27,360 Speaker 1: Cheetos does It's terrible, um, But the idea is that, yeah, 494 00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:29,440 Speaker 1: that if a piece of space junk is a satellite, 495 00:25:29,480 --> 00:25:33,000 Speaker 1: it causes more space junk, and then the number of 496 00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:35,480 Speaker 1: pieces of space junk grows, and then you have a 497 00:25:35,560 --> 00:25:38,120 Speaker 1: higher chances of making more space junk, which of course 498 00:25:38,160 --> 00:25:40,920 Speaker 1: just makes more space junk. And so you can see 499 00:25:40,920 --> 00:25:44,280 Speaker 1: this sort of cascade effects possible. You get enough stuff 500 00:25:44,280 --> 00:25:47,639 Speaker 1: out there, the chances of collision grow very quickly, and 501 00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:49,840 Speaker 1: then the chances have become almost certain, and then you 502 00:25:49,880 --> 00:25:53,400 Speaker 1: just have spaces just totally filled with junk, right, dangers 503 00:25:53,440 --> 00:25:56,439 Speaker 1: junk right that you can't get through. Yeah. And so 504 00:25:56,520 --> 00:25:59,560 Speaker 1: some sort of space groups, advocacy groups predictlarly sort of 505 00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:02,479 Speaker 1: tipping point where we're gonna get too much junk pretty 506 00:26:02,520 --> 00:26:05,119 Speaker 1: soon that you're gonna get this cascade effect, and it 507 00:26:05,240 --> 00:26:08,040 Speaker 1: might destroy a huge number of things in orbit and 508 00:26:08,119 --> 00:26:11,920 Speaker 1: basically make space unusable. You can actually kind of extrapolate 509 00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:14,800 Speaker 1: and and see the point where it's just the jungle 510 00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:19,240 Speaker 1: just multiply beyond making space reachable. Yeah, because you can't 511 00:26:19,280 --> 00:26:22,000 Speaker 1: fly a rocket with people in it through space if 512 00:26:22,040 --> 00:26:24,560 Speaker 1: it's totally filled with space junk. You can't launch a 513 00:26:24,600 --> 00:26:27,760 Speaker 1: satellite into that orbit if it's totally filled with space junk. 514 00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:30,159 Speaker 1: And if all the satellites that we had out there 515 00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:32,560 Speaker 1: right now ended up getting hit by space junk and 516 00:26:32,560 --> 00:26:35,480 Speaker 1: turning into more space junk, you have an enormous number 517 00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:38,320 Speaker 1: of pieces of junk, and it would make space basically unusable. 518 00:26:38,359 --> 00:26:40,120 Speaker 1: You know what we need, I think, Daniel, we need 519 00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:43,639 Speaker 1: like a giant space vacuum that would totally suck space 520 00:26:43,640 --> 00:26:47,960 Speaker 1: already has a vacuum. Why doesn't space just suck it 521 00:26:48,040 --> 00:26:52,760 Speaker 1: up into outer space? Suck it up space? Um, But 522 00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:54,840 Speaker 1: it's you know, it's already sort of a problem. Like 523 00:26:54,880 --> 00:26:56,760 Speaker 1: we have people out there in space right now in 524 00:26:56,800 --> 00:26:59,680 Speaker 1: the space station, and these folks a few times a 525 00:26:59,800 --> 00:27:02,280 Speaker 1: year or have to move the whole space station like 526 00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:05,200 Speaker 1: into a higher orbit in order to avoid some piece 527 00:27:05,200 --> 00:27:08,520 Speaker 1: of junk that's coming nearby. They're actively doing, you know, 528 00:27:08,600 --> 00:27:10,960 Speaker 1: like Frogger is like changing names all the time. It's 529 00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:14,919 Speaker 1: space space. Yeah, and sometimes they have to like rush 530 00:27:14,960 --> 00:27:18,200 Speaker 1: the astronauts into one of those escape capsules because the 531 00:27:18,240 --> 00:27:20,640 Speaker 1: big pieces of junk is coming that didn't spot soon 532 00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:22,720 Speaker 1: enough and can't get out of the way, and it 533 00:27:22,800 --> 00:27:25,360 Speaker 1: might like you know, debilitate the space station and those 534 00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:28,000 Speaker 1: folks that have to basically fly back down to Earth. 535 00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:30,240 Speaker 1: I feel like you're quoting that Tender Bullet movie again. 536 00:27:31,480 --> 00:27:33,119 Speaker 1: I think it might go the other way around. I 537 00:27:33,119 --> 00:27:36,200 Speaker 1: think the Sandra Bot movie is based on real events. 538 00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:40,160 Speaker 1: So and I think it also happened with the Space 539 00:27:40,200 --> 00:27:42,359 Speaker 1: Shuttle ones right, like it like it actually did some 540 00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:44,760 Speaker 1: damage through the Space Shuttle. All the time, every Space 541 00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:47,840 Speaker 1: Shuttle comes back is pitted with space junk. You'll find 542 00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:51,360 Speaker 1: like holes in the wings, they find scratches in the windshield. 543 00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:54,080 Speaker 1: It's not unusual when the Space Shuttle comes back to 544 00:27:54,119 --> 00:27:56,760 Speaker 1: find like, you know, bits of stuff embedded in the 545 00:27:56,760 --> 00:27:59,240 Speaker 1: windshield all the way down to like half the depth 546 00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:02,879 Speaker 1: of the wind She old, yeah, yeah, exactly. You're like, 547 00:28:02,920 --> 00:28:06,280 Speaker 1: what is that squeak squick? Is that Cheetos? What how 548 00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:07,960 Speaker 1: did that get in there? Yeah, it's a it's a 549 00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:10,200 Speaker 1: dirty environment out there, and so you know how you're 550 00:28:10,280 --> 00:28:11,960 Speaker 1: driving down the highway you end up with like a 551 00:28:11,960 --> 00:28:15,840 Speaker 1: bunch of bugs on your windshield. Imagine those bugs were 552 00:28:15,840 --> 00:28:18,480 Speaker 1: going you know, ten times a speed of sound or something, 553 00:28:19,280 --> 00:28:23,040 Speaker 1: or they were like ball bearings just over the highway. 554 00:28:23,040 --> 00:28:25,320 Speaker 1: That would be pretty dangerous. Yeah, it would be pretty dangerous. 555 00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:27,199 Speaker 1: And so it's a real problem. We got to make 556 00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:29,399 Speaker 1: sure there's not too much space junk up there, and 557 00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:31,199 Speaker 1: we've got to clean it up sort of before it 558 00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:34,560 Speaker 1: gets too late, before it starts to multiply out of control. Okay, 559 00:28:34,600 --> 00:28:39,520 Speaker 1: have a new product idea for elon musk already, I'm 560 00:28:39,560 --> 00:28:45,880 Speaker 1: sure I'm not ready. Giant space windshield wipers. That's what 561 00:28:45,920 --> 00:28:50,560 Speaker 1: we cleanse the atmosphere. Well, you know, we're going to 562 00:28:50,600 --> 00:28:53,640 Speaker 1: talk about solutions to the space junk problem. And that's 563 00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:56,080 Speaker 1: not the dumbest one that's on the list. Oh really, 564 00:28:56,200 --> 00:28:58,400 Speaker 1: all right, it's already taken. It was already in a 565 00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:01,960 Speaker 1: movie with Sender Bullock. So that affects our ability to 566 00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:04,920 Speaker 1: go out into space. Does it affect actually us here 567 00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:08,040 Speaker 1: on Earth if space gets filled with junk? Well, this 568 00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:10,600 Speaker 1: sort of the direct problem and the indirect problem. The 569 00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:13,360 Speaker 1: direct problem is, like, do you have to worry about 570 00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:16,160 Speaker 1: a piece of junk falling out of space and conking 571 00:29:16,200 --> 00:29:19,400 Speaker 1: you on the head? Right, Well, there's about one piece 572 00:29:19,400 --> 00:29:22,680 Speaker 1: of space junk per day that falls out of orbit 573 00:29:22,760 --> 00:29:26,520 Speaker 1: and into the atmosphere, but those burn up. Right, as 574 00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:28,719 Speaker 1: we were saying before, it's actually a good thing for 575 00:29:28,720 --> 00:29:30,920 Speaker 1: space junk to hit the atmosphere because it gets fried, 576 00:29:31,200 --> 00:29:33,920 Speaker 1: it gets shredded, and it's just a nice you know, 577 00:29:34,200 --> 00:29:37,400 Speaker 1: another meteor in the night sky. It's pretty rare for 578 00:29:37,400 --> 00:29:39,920 Speaker 1: this stuff to actually hit the Earth. There was once 579 00:29:39,960 --> 00:29:43,440 Speaker 1: in a woman in Oklahoma was hit by a piece 580 00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:45,360 Speaker 1: of rocket, but usually you don't worry about it. Like 581 00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:47,120 Speaker 1: the Air Force when they launch rockets, they don't even 582 00:29:47,120 --> 00:29:50,000 Speaker 1: really care where they go because they just mostly burn up. 583 00:29:51,120 --> 00:29:54,880 Speaker 1: Of course it had to be Oklahoma, I feel, where 584 00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:57,560 Speaker 1: else are you saying Oklahoma deserves it? Or just like 585 00:29:57,640 --> 00:30:00,120 Speaker 1: weird stuff happens in Oklahoma? And say I was if 586 00:30:00,160 --> 00:30:02,560 Speaker 1: I was writing a Steven Spielberg movie where a piece 587 00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:04,040 Speaker 1: of dunk kids the womin in the head, it would 588 00:30:04,080 --> 00:30:07,640 Speaker 1: probably be an Oklahoma. Alright, that's good to know, but 589 00:30:07,720 --> 00:30:10,400 Speaker 1: I think the more direct issue for people out here 590 00:30:10,520 --> 00:30:13,040 Speaker 1: is that we rely on stuff in space. When your 591 00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:16,200 Speaker 1: flight is taking off, it's using a navigational system that 592 00:30:16,280 --> 00:30:20,080 Speaker 1: relies on satellites. When your phone is locating itself because 593 00:30:20,080 --> 00:30:23,520 Speaker 1: you got lost while going for a hike, it's using GPS. 594 00:30:23,560 --> 00:30:27,239 Speaker 1: So our society really relies on space technology. And if 595 00:30:27,280 --> 00:30:30,800 Speaker 1: all that was destroyed or became unusable, you know, hey, 596 00:30:31,120 --> 00:30:34,160 Speaker 1: listening to Daniel Jorge explain the universe would take longer 597 00:30:34,200 --> 00:30:36,480 Speaker 1: to download, you would get laws trying to get to 598 00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:40,080 Speaker 1: some WiFi or something. Yeah, precisely. So it's important part 599 00:30:40,080 --> 00:30:42,120 Speaker 1: of our society. We want to maintain it. It's not 600 00:30:42,320 --> 00:30:45,040 Speaker 1: really a direct danger to you unless you're an astronaut, 601 00:30:45,400 --> 00:30:47,840 Speaker 1: but it's important that we take care of the space 602 00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:50,280 Speaker 1: near the Earth. Right, it's not good. It's not good. 603 00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:52,680 Speaker 1: It's not good. All right, let's get into what we 604 00:30:52,800 --> 00:30:55,120 Speaker 1: can actually do to maybe clean up some of the 605 00:30:55,160 --> 00:30:59,040 Speaker 1: space junk maybe or prevent it or um work around it. 606 00:30:59,360 --> 00:31:14,520 Speaker 1: But first let's take another quick break. All right, Then 607 00:31:14,800 --> 00:31:16,920 Speaker 1: space is a little bit of a problem, and you're 608 00:31:16,920 --> 00:31:18,800 Speaker 1: also telling me it's kind of a problem or it 609 00:31:18,880 --> 00:31:22,360 Speaker 1: might become a problem for astronomers too. Right, like people 610 00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:25,120 Speaker 1: trying to study space. Yeah, there's been a big uproar 611 00:31:25,200 --> 00:31:29,520 Speaker 1: recently because of Elon Musk's plans to basically fill space 612 00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:32,840 Speaker 1: with satellites. He's launched, you know, something like a hundred 613 00:31:32,840 --> 00:31:35,320 Speaker 1: and twenty these things so far and then sort of 614 00:31:35,360 --> 00:31:38,960 Speaker 1: low Earth orbit and they streak across the sky. And 615 00:31:39,080 --> 00:31:42,080 Speaker 1: if you have really valuable time on a telescope because 616 00:31:42,120 --> 00:31:45,280 Speaker 1: you want to study something super far away and you've 617 00:31:45,320 --> 00:31:48,240 Speaker 1: been waiting months for your like ten hours of telescope time, 618 00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:51,800 Speaker 1: and then Musk satellites you sort of zooming from the lens, 619 00:31:52,400 --> 00:31:54,160 Speaker 1: you know, then you get a big streak. You don't 620 00:31:54,160 --> 00:31:56,320 Speaker 1: want that photo bomb. You don't want that photo bomb. 621 00:31:56,520 --> 00:31:58,680 Speaker 1: And he's only launched a hundred He's planning to launch 622 00:31:58,840 --> 00:32:03,000 Speaker 1: thousands and thou these things. So astronomers are worried. First 623 00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:04,920 Speaker 1: of all, like easy going to be blocking your view. 624 00:32:04,960 --> 00:32:08,760 Speaker 1: Is ground based astronomy going to be impossible in the 625 00:32:08,760 --> 00:32:11,920 Speaker 1: near future just to improve our Internet access. But then 626 00:32:11,960 --> 00:32:14,280 Speaker 1: also from the space junk point of view, like you've 627 00:32:14,280 --> 00:32:16,480 Speaker 1: got thousands of things up there, one of them goes 628 00:32:16,480 --> 00:32:19,480 Speaker 1: wrong bumps into another one, like it could pretty quickly 629 00:32:19,520 --> 00:32:21,960 Speaker 1: go bad. I mean if it was Bill Murray, you'd 630 00:32:21,960 --> 00:32:24,000 Speaker 1: be like, hey, that's a cool photo bomb on my photo. 631 00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:28,440 Speaker 1: But Elon Musk, that's just annoying. Yeah, precisely. And remember, 632 00:32:28,480 --> 00:32:30,560 Speaker 1: you know, you have ten times as many things up there. 633 00:32:30,840 --> 00:32:33,840 Speaker 1: It's a hundred times more likely to get collisions because 634 00:32:33,840 --> 00:32:36,880 Speaker 1: you have many more ways to get collisions. And so 635 00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:39,719 Speaker 1: he's planning to launch thousands of these things and just 636 00:32:39,760 --> 00:32:41,920 Speaker 1: a few of them have to go wrong for it 637 00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:45,600 Speaker 1: to sort of cascade and create a disaster, reached that 638 00:32:45,680 --> 00:32:48,920 Speaker 1: tipping point where it all just pulverizes everything and it 639 00:32:48,960 --> 00:32:55,280 Speaker 1: becomes a deadly, deadly barrier for space travel. Yeah, he's 640 00:32:55,280 --> 00:32:57,480 Speaker 1: thought of this, of course, and he has planned, and 641 00:32:57,520 --> 00:32:59,600 Speaker 1: you know NASA and f A, whatever say that he's 642 00:32:59,600 --> 00:33:02,400 Speaker 1: planning is good and essentially involves making sure that any 643 00:33:02,440 --> 00:33:06,280 Speaker 1: of these satellites that go wrong basically just fall and 644 00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:08,600 Speaker 1: then they get burned up in the atmosphere. And that's 645 00:33:08,600 --> 00:33:10,680 Speaker 1: not a terrible plan because that's what we want. We 646 00:33:10,760 --> 00:33:13,400 Speaker 1: want to push all this stuff, all the space junk 647 00:33:13,560 --> 00:33:16,440 Speaker 1: down into the atmospheres. The atmosphere does the job for us. 648 00:33:16,440 --> 00:33:19,480 Speaker 1: So the friction of the atmosphere basically melts all this stuff. 649 00:33:20,560 --> 00:33:22,360 Speaker 1: So how does that work. So that's one way we 650 00:33:22,400 --> 00:33:26,120 Speaker 1: can kind of avoid the space junk problem is to 651 00:33:26,400 --> 00:33:28,560 Speaker 1: make sure it comes down. But how can they do 652 00:33:28,600 --> 00:33:31,560 Speaker 1: that if it's like, if sanidite becomes disabled, what's going 653 00:33:31,600 --> 00:33:34,680 Speaker 1: to make it actually maneuver into the atmosphere? Well, you 654 00:33:34,720 --> 00:33:37,320 Speaker 1: can just get lucky and hope that it's the way 655 00:33:37,360 --> 00:33:40,440 Speaker 1: that it maneuvered or got disabled makes it fall. But 656 00:33:40,520 --> 00:33:41,840 Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of stuff out there that's 657 00:33:41,880 --> 00:33:45,640 Speaker 1: in stable orbits, and uh, one thing we can just 658 00:33:45,680 --> 00:33:48,040 Speaker 1: do is wait, you know, stop launching stuff and just 659 00:33:48,080 --> 00:33:51,240 Speaker 1: wait because eventually all this stuff will fall. Remember, the 660 00:33:51,240 --> 00:33:53,840 Speaker 1: atmosphere is not just like a turn off. There's no 661 00:33:54,080 --> 00:33:57,280 Speaker 1: perfect space in near Earth. There's a very slight atmosphere 662 00:33:57,280 --> 00:34:00,200 Speaker 1: and it drags on stuff and slows it down. Right, 663 00:34:00,200 --> 00:34:01,880 Speaker 1: But the problem isn't the problem that it's just one 664 00:34:01,920 --> 00:34:04,840 Speaker 1: piece per per day that falls. Wouldn't that take you know, 665 00:34:06,280 --> 00:34:08,920 Speaker 1: how would take a long time. So that's not really 666 00:34:08,960 --> 00:34:12,200 Speaker 1: a solution. So people have some crazy ideas, you know. 667 00:34:12,280 --> 00:34:18,280 Speaker 1: One of them, of course involves lasers. Of course, Hey, physicists, 668 00:34:18,280 --> 00:34:21,400 Speaker 1: how should we solve the problems lasers? No? No, I 669 00:34:21,400 --> 00:34:23,120 Speaker 1: just really want to comb my hair. Oh yeah, do 670 00:34:23,239 --> 00:34:25,000 Speaker 1: you want to know what the problem is first though, 671 00:34:25,360 --> 00:34:29,560 Speaker 1: just lasers. Lasers, That's right. The solution is always lasers, 672 00:34:29,600 --> 00:34:33,360 Speaker 1: and the answer is always aliens. Um No, But lasers 673 00:34:33,440 --> 00:34:35,640 Speaker 1: is not a terrible idea because if you could shoot 674 00:34:35,640 --> 00:34:38,200 Speaker 1: a laser at this stuff, you could slow it down. 675 00:34:38,680 --> 00:34:40,680 Speaker 1: You could You don't even need to blow it up, right, 676 00:34:40,680 --> 00:34:42,239 Speaker 1: You don't want to blow it up. But you want 677 00:34:42,239 --> 00:34:43,600 Speaker 1: to do is slow it down a little bit so 678 00:34:43,640 --> 00:34:46,160 Speaker 1: it drops and then the atmosphere takes over. So you 679 00:34:46,200 --> 00:34:48,360 Speaker 1: just gotta sort of like a blade it a little 680 00:34:48,400 --> 00:34:50,719 Speaker 1: bit on the side. I remember we talked about those 681 00:34:50,719 --> 00:34:53,040 Speaker 1: guys that are also using lasers to maybe save the 682 00:34:53,080 --> 00:34:56,439 Speaker 1: Earth from incoming asteroids. It's a similar idea. You don't 683 00:34:56,440 --> 00:34:58,439 Speaker 1: have to blow up the whole asteroid. You just got 684 00:34:58,440 --> 00:35:00,360 Speaker 1: to sort of shave off a little at city in 685 00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:02,719 Speaker 1: one side so it misses. In this case, you want 686 00:35:02,719 --> 00:35:04,640 Speaker 1: to just sort of like rough it up a little 687 00:35:04,640 --> 00:35:07,759 Speaker 1: bit so that it falls into the atmosphere. Wow. Like 688 00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:11,200 Speaker 1: literally you'd be like pew pew, pew, pew pew taking 689 00:35:11,239 --> 00:35:13,879 Speaker 1: stuff out of out of the sky. There for the test, 690 00:35:13,920 --> 00:35:17,000 Speaker 1: That's exactly what it sounded like. Oh really, well, why 691 00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:21,719 Speaker 1: imagine that I can foresee what physicists but sound effectively. 692 00:35:21,719 --> 00:35:24,560 Speaker 1: But you know, shooting death rays into the sky, it 693 00:35:24,560 --> 00:35:26,920 Speaker 1: would take a lot of death rays. And so this approach, 694 00:35:26,920 --> 00:35:29,480 Speaker 1: of course has some problems. So people studied about ten 695 00:35:29,560 --> 00:35:31,520 Speaker 1: years ago, but it doesn't seem like it's really going 696 00:35:31,600 --> 00:35:34,520 Speaker 1: to solve sort of the larger scale problems of having 697 00:35:34,800 --> 00:35:37,960 Speaker 1: a hundred million objects. So my son practicing video games 698 00:35:38,120 --> 00:35:40,720 Speaker 1: all this time just to get ready for that job 699 00:35:41,160 --> 00:35:43,239 Speaker 1: of shooting down space degree, I should tell him there's 700 00:35:43,280 --> 00:35:45,400 Speaker 1: no career in that. That's right. Yeah, I think you know, 701 00:35:45,600 --> 00:35:50,240 Speaker 1: that was very impressive long range planning. But I'm hoping 702 00:35:50,280 --> 00:35:52,200 Speaker 1: there are other ways that you're something can make money 703 00:35:52,200 --> 00:35:54,480 Speaker 1: with those skills. Okay, So that's so shooting them down 704 00:35:54,480 --> 00:35:57,840 Speaker 1: with lasers not a great, uh good long term solution. 705 00:35:57,880 --> 00:36:00,399 Speaker 1: What are other ways we can have solved this space 706 00:36:00,480 --> 00:36:03,760 Speaker 1: jump problem. Well, another one is a ship called clean 707 00:36:03,960 --> 00:36:07,600 Speaker 1: Space one which looks, I'm not joking, like a big 708 00:36:07,680 --> 00:36:10,960 Speaker 1: net and the idea is to gather space junk together 709 00:36:11,040 --> 00:36:14,200 Speaker 1: and then again dump it into the atmosphere. Right, it's 710 00:36:14,239 --> 00:36:16,080 Speaker 1: sort of weird, but we're treating the whole Earth is 711 00:36:16,120 --> 00:36:19,279 Speaker 1: like a trash can, and the Clean Space up. What 712 00:36:19,400 --> 00:36:21,160 Speaker 1: you gotta do is gather the stuff and then dump 713 00:36:21,200 --> 00:36:23,879 Speaker 1: it into the trash can. And so this is maybe 714 00:36:23,920 --> 00:36:25,640 Speaker 1: your son could operate this thing, you know, steer this 715 00:36:25,680 --> 00:36:29,920 Speaker 1: thing around, gathering space jump. That's what every parent wants 716 00:36:29,960 --> 00:36:32,600 Speaker 1: for your son to be a space janitor. Thank you, 717 00:36:32,680 --> 00:36:36,440 Speaker 1: Daniel Hey, it's pretty glamorous. I mean space janitors. Come on, 718 00:36:36,680 --> 00:36:38,120 Speaker 1: that's the way you work your way up, right, That's 719 00:36:38,120 --> 00:36:40,560 Speaker 1: how you become an astronaut. You've got space, you get 720 00:36:40,560 --> 00:36:42,840 Speaker 1: a job as a janitor, and then you know, step 721 00:36:42,880 --> 00:36:46,520 Speaker 1: by step, eventually you're piloting the space station I mean spacetaniter. 722 00:36:46,600 --> 00:36:50,920 Speaker 1: It's just like, you know, barely a step above podcaster. 723 00:36:51,120 --> 00:36:54,399 Speaker 1: So at least it's a step up. Um. But that's 724 00:36:54,400 --> 00:36:56,520 Speaker 1: not a joke. You know, this is an idea. Gather 725 00:36:56,640 --> 00:36:58,919 Speaker 1: the stuff and then dump into lower orbit and hope 726 00:36:58,920 --> 00:37:01,080 Speaker 1: that it eventually decay, is down to burn up. So 727 00:37:01,160 --> 00:37:03,320 Speaker 1: this would be what does this look like like a giant? 728 00:37:04,680 --> 00:37:07,480 Speaker 1: Like a giant like four rockets holding a giant net 729 00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:10,439 Speaker 1: in between them. It looks basically, yeah, like a big net. 730 00:37:10,560 --> 00:37:12,560 Speaker 1: You know, it's got like four big arms and some 731 00:37:12,640 --> 00:37:15,560 Speaker 1: lines between them, and they would essentially just like reach 732 00:37:15,600 --> 00:37:18,239 Speaker 1: out like an tuck a huge claw, grab a piece 733 00:37:18,280 --> 00:37:21,680 Speaker 1: of space junk and then drag it down into lower orbit. 734 00:37:22,160 --> 00:37:23,920 Speaker 1: But this would work for you know, maybe like the 735 00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:28,080 Speaker 1: twenty thousand defunct large trackable objects we have, but it 736 00:37:28,080 --> 00:37:30,600 Speaker 1: wouldn't really help clean up all the other tiny stuff, 737 00:37:30,680 --> 00:37:32,880 Speaker 1: all right, So then what can we do about those? 738 00:37:33,360 --> 00:37:35,239 Speaker 1: Not that much? I mean, one thing we can do 739 00:37:35,360 --> 00:37:40,799 Speaker 1: is we can stop adding more stuff. Right when has 740 00:37:40,840 --> 00:37:44,160 Speaker 1: it ever worked with humanity? We could start being responsible, 741 00:37:44,400 --> 00:37:47,920 Speaker 1: I promised, starting today, we're gonna be good. Really this time, 742 00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:49,719 Speaker 1: this time it's gonna be We're gonna be good. I'm 743 00:37:49,719 --> 00:37:53,080 Speaker 1: gonna stop eating those cheetos tomorrow tomorrow. But here, actually 744 00:37:53,120 --> 00:37:56,120 Speaker 1: there's a bit of hope because Americans, at least American 745 00:37:56,160 --> 00:37:59,440 Speaker 1: space agencies have tried to design their rockets to produce 746 00:37:59,600 --> 00:38:03,680 Speaker 1: less space junk, so create like smaller number of larger 747 00:38:03,719 --> 00:38:06,200 Speaker 1: pieces of debris that are more likely to fall into 748 00:38:06,239 --> 00:38:10,360 Speaker 1: the atmosphere. They don't explode bits of coolant into space 749 00:38:10,440 --> 00:38:12,920 Speaker 1: because earlier we're like, oh, I don't care whatever it's 750 00:38:12,960 --> 00:38:15,600 Speaker 1: out in space, But now we do care, And so 751 00:38:15,840 --> 00:38:18,960 Speaker 1: are more recent rockets produced less space junk per launch, 752 00:38:19,160 --> 00:38:21,759 Speaker 1: per launch, or per like if you lose it per 753 00:38:21,840 --> 00:38:25,520 Speaker 1: launcher launch. Every time you launch a rocket there's stages 754 00:38:25,560 --> 00:38:27,720 Speaker 1: of it that are supposed to burn up and don't. 755 00:38:27,719 --> 00:38:30,960 Speaker 1: Always there's bits of coolant that you know, that league 756 00:38:31,040 --> 00:38:33,960 Speaker 1: or solid rocket fuel that wasn't burnt up. And so 757 00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:37,120 Speaker 1: are more recent rockets are better at that. They produced 758 00:38:37,200 --> 00:38:39,480 Speaker 1: less junk per launch, but still they do produce junk. 759 00:38:39,600 --> 00:38:42,319 Speaker 1: So you know that's that's not a way to clean 760 00:38:42,320 --> 00:38:44,239 Speaker 1: it up. It's just a way to like be bad 761 00:38:44,320 --> 00:38:46,080 Speaker 1: less quickly. So I think what I'm getting from you 762 00:38:46,160 --> 00:38:49,440 Speaker 1: is that to solve the space junk problems, scientists have 763 00:38:49,640 --> 00:38:51,600 Speaker 1: come up with a couple of solutions. One is, wait 764 00:38:51,600 --> 00:38:56,279 Speaker 1: a million years. That solves a lot of problems. To 765 00:38:56,480 --> 00:39:00,719 Speaker 1: convince you managed to stop littering that never happened. Or 766 00:39:00,880 --> 00:39:03,319 Speaker 1: three shoot lasers at it. Yeah, and so we're all 767 00:39:03,320 --> 00:39:04,960 Speaker 1: waiting for your son to be good enough at the 768 00:39:05,040 --> 00:39:07,520 Speaker 1: laser to solve this problem. Doesn't sound like there's a 769 00:39:07,520 --> 00:39:10,400 Speaker 1: good solution here. No, there's not a great solution to 770 00:39:10,560 --> 00:39:13,040 Speaker 1: cleaning up space junk. And so in the interim, what 771 00:39:13,120 --> 00:39:15,719 Speaker 1: we've done is just trying to protect our satellites. You 772 00:39:15,800 --> 00:39:17,960 Speaker 1: put a shield around it to try to protect it 773 00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:20,520 Speaker 1: and they're pretty clever. This is really cool design. It's 774 00:39:20,560 --> 00:39:23,440 Speaker 1: called a Whipple shield. And the ideas and don't just 775 00:39:23,480 --> 00:39:26,560 Speaker 1: like make your satellite really heavy with armor, but put 776 00:39:26,560 --> 00:39:29,520 Speaker 1: a really light thin shield, but have it be separated 777 00:39:29,520 --> 00:39:31,640 Speaker 1: from the satellite a little bit. And the idea is 778 00:39:31,640 --> 00:39:33,880 Speaker 1: that it doesn't destroy the space junk, is sort of 779 00:39:33,920 --> 00:39:36,760 Speaker 1: deflects it, it turns it, it breaks it up and 780 00:39:36,760 --> 00:39:40,640 Speaker 1: and changes its direction. Oh interesting, Yeah, and so you're 781 00:39:40,680 --> 00:39:43,680 Speaker 1: more likely to survive impact with space junk, and so 782 00:39:43,719 --> 00:39:46,439 Speaker 1: you know, we have some technology to protect ourselves, but yeah, 783 00:39:46,440 --> 00:39:49,240 Speaker 1: we sort of painted ourselves into a corner here. Space 784 00:39:49,320 --> 00:39:50,960 Speaker 1: is filled with junk and it's not an easy way 785 00:39:50,960 --> 00:39:53,680 Speaker 1: to clean it up. Well, hopefully those um maybe in 786 00:39:53,680 --> 00:39:56,720 Speaker 1: the future space general will be like the most valuable 787 00:39:56,800 --> 00:40:00,600 Speaker 1: profession on the planet. Yeah. I think we also just 788 00:40:00,640 --> 00:40:04,040 Speaker 1: need to find some new way to put the cost 789 00:40:04,160 --> 00:40:07,320 Speaker 1: of making space junk on the people producing it, because 790 00:40:07,400 --> 00:40:09,080 Speaker 1: right now the cost of space junk is on the 791 00:40:09,120 --> 00:40:11,640 Speaker 1: people launching a new satellite. Like you have a billion 792 00:40:11,640 --> 00:40:14,839 Speaker 1: dollar satellite, you have to protect yourself from the space junk. 793 00:40:15,160 --> 00:40:17,680 Speaker 1: The people who satellite made that, they're free and clear, 794 00:40:17,719 --> 00:40:20,520 Speaker 1: they don't really care. So somehow we need to make 795 00:40:20,560 --> 00:40:23,160 Speaker 1: sure that the people who are producing space junk bear 796 00:40:23,200 --> 00:40:26,279 Speaker 1: the cost of it, and maybe that'll help fund to 797 00:40:26,320 --> 00:40:29,520 Speaker 1: clean up somehow. Interesting. It's like carbon credits, but for 798 00:40:29,560 --> 00:40:31,880 Speaker 1: a space junk. Yeah. Or we need everybody have like 799 00:40:31,960 --> 00:40:35,880 Speaker 1: an insurance card so that when things bump into each other, say, hey, 800 00:40:35,920 --> 00:40:37,560 Speaker 1: that was your piece of junk. Now you owe me 801 00:40:37,600 --> 00:40:42,280 Speaker 1: a billion dollars. Oh interesting, So more more like cars 802 00:40:42,320 --> 00:40:46,240 Speaker 1: actually then, you know, for creating a traffic jam up there. Yeah. 803 00:40:46,600 --> 00:40:51,600 Speaker 1: We also lawyers to solve this problem. Space lawyers, space lawyers. 804 00:40:52,520 --> 00:40:54,560 Speaker 1: All right, maybe I'll try to steer my son towards 805 00:40:54,600 --> 00:40:57,240 Speaker 1: that profession. It sounds like it might have law that 806 00:40:57,239 --> 00:41:02,360 Speaker 1: that'll impress his grandparents also. All right, Well, it sounds 807 00:41:02,360 --> 00:41:04,520 Speaker 1: like there are a lot of things out there in 808 00:41:04,560 --> 00:41:06,880 Speaker 1: space that you might run into, and it's going to 809 00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:11,080 Speaker 1: get crowdier crowder in the next couple of years. Yeah, 810 00:41:11,120 --> 00:41:15,200 Speaker 1: and cheesier and cheeto here, that's right, and spicier and 811 00:41:15,280 --> 00:41:19,600 Speaker 1: flaming and flaming hot. Well, hopefully flaming hot, because that 812 00:41:19,640 --> 00:41:22,640 Speaker 1: means it's burning up. Yeah, what happens if you drop 813 00:41:22,760 --> 00:41:25,279 Speaker 1: a space cheeto? Actually, it does get flaming hot. Right 814 00:41:25,280 --> 00:41:28,480 Speaker 1: as it burns up in your entry. So yeah, in space, 815 00:41:28,960 --> 00:41:34,120 Speaker 1: all cheetos are flaming hot. There you go. How can 816 00:41:34,160 --> 00:41:37,120 Speaker 1: we ask for a better adding to So think about 817 00:41:37,120 --> 00:41:39,200 Speaker 1: that next time you were going to launch your own 818 00:41:39,719 --> 00:41:43,359 Speaker 1: micro satellite into space. Do you really need that out 819 00:41:43,400 --> 00:41:45,840 Speaker 1: there or are you just contributing to the problem. So 820 00:41:45,920 --> 00:41:48,160 Speaker 1: next time you look out there into space at night, 821 00:41:48,320 --> 00:41:50,719 Speaker 1: think about that beautiful star you might be looking at 822 00:41:50,920 --> 00:41:58,360 Speaker 1: could be a piece of cheeto. I've got nothing after that. 823 00:41:58,239 --> 00:42:00,520 Speaker 1: And that's it all right, everybody, Thanks are listening. We 824 00:42:00,600 --> 00:42:03,879 Speaker 1: hope you enjoy it. Then thanks everyone, see you next time. 825 00:42:11,560 --> 00:42:13,879 Speaker 1: Before you still have a question after listening to all 826 00:42:13,920 --> 00:42:17,120 Speaker 1: these explanations, please drop us a line. We'd love to 827 00:42:17,160 --> 00:42:19,560 Speaker 1: hear from you. You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, 828 00:42:19,680 --> 00:42:23,320 Speaker 1: and Instagram at Daniel and Jorge That's one word, or 829 00:42:23,440 --> 00:42:27,400 Speaker 1: email us at Feedback at Daniel and Jorge dot com. 830 00:42:27,400 --> 00:42:30,200 Speaker 1: Thanks for listening and remember that Daniel and Jorge Explain 831 00:42:30,280 --> 00:42:33,160 Speaker 1: the Universe is a production of I Heart Radio. For 832 00:42:33,320 --> 00:42:36,200 Speaker 1: more podcast from my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart 833 00:42:36,320 --> 00:42:40,720 Speaker 1: Radio Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. 834 00:42:45,880 --> 00:42:45,960 Speaker 1: Ye