1
00:00:00,400 --> 00:00:02,759
Speaker 1: Are you looking for brand new episodes of a short

2
00:00:02,800 --> 00:00:06,520
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works podcast that explains the everyday world around us,

3
00:00:06,760 --> 00:00:10,280
Speaker 1: then check out brain Stuff with me Christian Saga. New

4
00:00:10,320 --> 00:00:14,520
Speaker 1: episodes hit every Monday and Wednesday on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify,

5
00:00:14,760 --> 00:00:22,080
Speaker 1: or anywhere else you get your podcasts. Welcome to Stuff

6
00:00:22,120 --> 00:00:30,400
Speaker 1: to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff Works dot com.

7
00:00:30,440 --> 00:00:32,239
Speaker 1: Hey you, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My

8
00:00:32,320 --> 00:00:34,920
Speaker 1: name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick and Robert.

9
00:00:34,960 --> 00:00:37,559
Speaker 1: A lot of times on this podcast we end up

10
00:00:37,560 --> 00:00:41,400
Speaker 1: talking about instincts. Yes, we use our instincts to talk

11
00:00:41,400 --> 00:00:45,480
Speaker 1: about instincts for better or worse, often worse. But one

12
00:00:45,520 --> 00:00:50,440
Speaker 1: of any animal's deepest instincts is the escape instinct. It's

13
00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:53,880
Speaker 1: right down there with the desire for food, water, reproduction,

14
00:00:53,920 --> 00:00:57,480
Speaker 1: but I would say maybe even more immediate. And you

15
00:00:57,480 --> 00:00:59,800
Speaker 1: can definitely see how powerful it is by the way

16
00:00:59,800 --> 00:01:04,280
Speaker 1: that escape instincts, even in rational, really high functioning primates

17
00:01:04,319 --> 00:01:08,240
Speaker 1: like human beings, can totally short circuit rational thinking and

18
00:01:08,360 --> 00:01:11,080
Speaker 1: lead to mass panics that kill people. This happens all

19
00:01:11,080 --> 00:01:15,040
Speaker 1: the time. Uh. And so the escape drive, you know,

20
00:01:15,120 --> 00:01:19,000
Speaker 1: the fight or flight impulse, has been associated in neuroscience

21
00:01:19,040 --> 00:01:23,479
Speaker 1: with the amygdala and the autonomic nervous system, deep deep,

22
00:01:23,640 --> 00:01:27,120
Speaker 1: primitive old parts of the brain, the rat like hind brain,

23
00:01:27,360 --> 00:01:31,000
Speaker 1: the reptile brain. Right though I have heard people disputing

24
00:01:31,040 --> 00:01:33,959
Speaker 1: the term reptile brain, I do not refer to it

25
00:01:33,959 --> 00:01:37,480
Speaker 1: as such, and from a scientific standpoint, right, But but

26
00:01:37,560 --> 00:01:40,080
Speaker 1: the idea of the the earlier, more primitive parts of

27
00:01:40,120 --> 00:01:42,640
Speaker 1: the brain that go way back in evolutionary history, that

28
00:01:42,800 --> 00:01:46,320
Speaker 1: is there, and so escape is is rooted down in

29
00:01:46,360 --> 00:01:49,240
Speaker 1: those really primitive parts of the brain. Is this fundamental,

30
00:01:49,400 --> 00:01:53,680
Speaker 1: intractable part of human psychology, because think about it. When

31
00:01:53,720 --> 00:01:56,480
Speaker 1: you go into a room, even if there's no cause

32
00:01:56,480 --> 00:01:59,760
Speaker 1: of danger whatsoever, just say it's an office Christmas party

33
00:02:00,240 --> 00:02:02,240
Speaker 1: something like that. Oh yeah, you better believe I'm gonna

34
00:02:02,240 --> 00:02:04,640
Speaker 1: have an escape plane at an office. Exactly what's the

35
00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:07,720
Speaker 1: first thing you do in your mind? If you're like me,

36
00:02:08,680 --> 00:02:11,720
Speaker 1: it's probably unconscious. You're not consciously thinking about it, but

37
00:02:11,760 --> 00:02:13,760
Speaker 1: you do just sort of take note of where all

38
00:02:13,800 --> 00:02:16,400
Speaker 1: the exits are in the room. Do you do the

39
00:02:16,400 --> 00:02:19,800
Speaker 1: same thing, Robert, Yeah, Well, I I would say, like

40
00:02:19,840 --> 00:02:24,399
Speaker 1: the physical exits, it's almost like a subconscious thing. But

41
00:02:24,680 --> 00:02:28,520
Speaker 1: I also will kind of have like social exit strategies

42
00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:31,760
Speaker 1: in mind as well. Right, right, If this gets uncomfortable

43
00:02:31,800 --> 00:02:33,640
Speaker 1: for any number of reasons, and I'm not saying like

44
00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:37,800
Speaker 1: office Christmas parties in particular are uncomfortable, but like any

45
00:02:37,840 --> 00:02:42,040
Speaker 1: social situation that I'm not like one comfortable with, I'll

46
00:02:42,080 --> 00:02:44,400
Speaker 1: have that escape hatch in the back of my mind.

47
00:02:44,639 --> 00:02:46,760
Speaker 1: You know, that's a really good point because that kind

48
00:02:46,800 --> 00:02:50,840
Speaker 1: of shows how our obsession with physical escape extends even

49
00:02:50,880 --> 00:02:53,639
Speaker 1: to our metaphors and our abstract thinking. You know, you're

50
00:02:53,680 --> 00:02:57,080
Speaker 1: in an awkward social situation, how do I get out?

51
00:02:57,160 --> 00:02:59,280
Speaker 1: You're in a bad relationship, and you think, how do

52
00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:01,600
Speaker 1: I find a way out of this? You're not physically

53
00:03:01,760 --> 00:03:04,160
Speaker 1: finding a way out, but that that's the way your

54
00:03:04,200 --> 00:03:06,520
Speaker 1: brain goes. It's like the hatch in the top of

55
00:03:06,560 --> 00:03:10,000
Speaker 1: an elevator on the roof of a school bus. You're

56
00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:15,360
Speaker 1: probably not gonna shinny up any any elevator shaft cables today,

57
00:03:15,480 --> 00:03:18,239
Speaker 1: but there's something comforting about knowing that hatches there. So

58
00:03:18,360 --> 00:03:22,200
Speaker 1: I have always kind of wanted to do that. Yeah,

59
00:03:22,240 --> 00:03:24,880
Speaker 1: but but it's true. I think always somewhere deep in

60
00:03:24,880 --> 00:03:28,160
Speaker 1: your mind, there is a part of you, mostly unconscious,

61
00:03:28,520 --> 00:03:31,520
Speaker 1: that is obsessed with escape, And it's always doing the

62
00:03:31,560 --> 00:03:35,080
Speaker 1: pre calculations for an escape trajectory. How would I get

63
00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:36,920
Speaker 1: out of here? How how could I get out if

64
00:03:36,920 --> 00:03:40,480
Speaker 1: I had to? So, of course our obsession with escape,

65
00:03:41,040 --> 00:03:44,440
Speaker 1: escape routes, flight from danger, it extends to our technology.

66
00:03:44,520 --> 00:03:48,640
Speaker 1: Our technology always reflects our psychology. So when we imagine

67
00:03:48,880 --> 00:03:52,560
Speaker 1: a rebel spaceship fleeing from the galactic empire, we also

68
00:03:52,640 --> 00:03:56,680
Speaker 1: imagine escape pods fleeing from the larger rebel ship. And

69
00:03:56,840 --> 00:03:59,720
Speaker 1: uh no, of course, no science fiction vessel is complete

70
00:03:59,720 --> 00:04:02,880
Speaker 1: without an escape pod. And I think at some point

71
00:04:02,960 --> 00:04:06,400
Speaker 1: this year, I bet, when times were rough and the

72
00:04:06,440 --> 00:04:09,720
Speaker 1: world seemed full of despair, you thought about an escape pod,

73
00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:12,680
Speaker 1: didn't you. Sometime this year many of us have found

74
00:04:12,680 --> 00:04:16,120
Speaker 1: ourselves idly wishing you could just get into the capsule

75
00:04:16,200 --> 00:04:19,120
Speaker 1: and blast away and leave everything behind. The one I

76
00:04:19,200 --> 00:04:22,760
Speaker 1: always come back to in in fiction is the escape

77
00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:28,719
Speaker 1: pod that that that president ideal President Donald Pleasants uses

78
00:04:29,200 --> 00:04:32,800
Speaker 1: um to escape from Air Force one in Escape from

79
00:04:32,800 --> 00:04:35,520
Speaker 1: New York. It's also my favorite, yeah, because it's it's

80
00:04:35,520 --> 00:04:38,560
Speaker 1: so comfy. It's an egg, yeah, and and Pleasants is

81
00:04:38,640 --> 00:04:40,680
Speaker 1: kind of egg like himself, so and it it's just

82
00:04:40,760 --> 00:04:43,680
Speaker 1: this perfect egg that he's able to get into an

83
00:04:43,800 --> 00:04:47,440
Speaker 1: escape from immediate danger into of course more immediate danger. Right, So,

84
00:04:47,480 --> 00:04:51,600
Speaker 1: if you haven't seen the movie President US President Donald Pleasants,

85
00:04:51,600 --> 00:04:53,640
Speaker 1: which is kind of strange because he has a British accent.

86
00:04:54,279 --> 00:04:57,200
Speaker 1: He gets his plane, gets captured by terrorists who are

87
00:04:57,200 --> 00:04:59,240
Speaker 1: going to kill him, and they're gonna crash the plane

88
00:04:59,240 --> 00:05:01,600
Speaker 1: into Manhat and I believe it was kind of strange.

89
00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:05,320
Speaker 1: But yeah, so Donald Pleasants gets into this big egg

90
00:05:05,400 --> 00:05:07,359
Speaker 1: and he gets shot out the back of his airplane

91
00:05:07,360 --> 00:05:09,920
Speaker 1: to safety. I think he says something to his doomed

92
00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:15,440
Speaker 1: staff like mang god, watch over argue all. But yeah,

93
00:05:15,440 --> 00:05:17,200
Speaker 1: that's a great one. But there are tons of great

94
00:05:17,240 --> 00:05:20,680
Speaker 1: fictional escape pods there in all kinds of James Bond movies.

95
00:05:20,760 --> 00:05:23,280
Speaker 1: Always when Raker had a great one that was kind

96
00:05:23,279 --> 00:05:28,000
Speaker 1: of like a like a sexy um bachelor pad, they're

97
00:05:28,080 --> 00:05:32,000
Speaker 1: always like that. There's some aquatics escape pods in James

98
00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:35,360
Speaker 1: Bond movies too. Why did the escape pods in these

99
00:05:35,400 --> 00:05:39,040
Speaker 1: movies always have like satin sheets and champagne coolers and

100
00:05:39,120 --> 00:05:41,800
Speaker 1: curtains on the windows. It's weird because they're kind of

101
00:05:41,880 --> 00:05:44,599
Speaker 1: it's kind of there's a sense of it being a

102
00:05:44,600 --> 00:05:48,200
Speaker 1: a comfy little abode and like a little bed, but

103
00:05:48,279 --> 00:05:51,320
Speaker 1: also kind of like a little casket. You know, it

104
00:05:51,360 --> 00:05:54,880
Speaker 1: gets complicated, I guess when you start teasing apart how

105
00:05:54,920 --> 00:05:57,680
Speaker 1: we design our our escape pods and how we design

106
00:05:57,720 --> 00:06:01,760
Speaker 1: our our our coffins. You're totally right. It is like

107
00:06:01,800 --> 00:06:05,919
Speaker 1: a coffin. It's like a sexy, sexy coffin. But of course,

108
00:06:06,160 --> 00:06:08,800
Speaker 1: so we don't have to look entirely to fiction for

109
00:06:08,839 --> 00:06:12,000
Speaker 1: examples of escape pods, because sometimes we really do build

110
00:06:12,279 --> 00:06:18,800
Speaker 1: escape capsules of some kind into our technologies, especially our vehicles. Um,

111
00:06:18,839 --> 00:06:22,560
Speaker 1: but why would you build escape capsules into real vehicles?

112
00:06:22,560 --> 00:06:26,039
Speaker 1: Why not just have a door? Well, that's kind of

113
00:06:26,040 --> 00:06:28,960
Speaker 1: an obvious question. It's a great question. Um, I think

114
00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:31,240
Speaker 1: what one of the main area to look for an

115
00:06:31,240 --> 00:06:33,159
Speaker 1: answer here is in the room of aviation and a

116
00:06:33,160 --> 00:06:35,680
Speaker 1: lot of We're gonna go through several examples that are

117
00:06:35,680 --> 00:06:40,280
Speaker 1: related to aviation or or space exploration, because we've all

118
00:06:40,320 --> 00:06:42,520
Speaker 1: seen like or I don't know about we've all, but

119
00:06:42,640 --> 00:06:44,960
Speaker 1: I've certainly seen my fair share, and I know you've

120
00:06:44,960 --> 00:06:48,160
Speaker 1: seen your fair share of like old serial adventures from

121
00:06:48,200 --> 00:06:51,400
Speaker 1: the thirties and forties, where you have individuals trying to

122
00:06:51,400 --> 00:06:54,440
Speaker 1: get off of a crashing airplane. They're using an obvious

123
00:06:54,480 --> 00:06:59,400
Speaker 1: set with just in abnormally large fuselage, and they're walking

124
00:06:59,400 --> 00:07:02,839
Speaker 1: with relative of ease down the aisle of this airplane

125
00:07:02,960 --> 00:07:05,720
Speaker 1: to go jump out of a door, out of the

126
00:07:05,960 --> 00:07:10,240
Speaker 1: the the portal with their parachute. And of course a

127
00:07:10,320 --> 00:07:13,440
Speaker 1: crashing airplane or an out of controlled airplane or airplane

128
00:07:13,440 --> 00:07:17,400
Speaker 1: imperil is not going to be that straightforward a situation generally,

129
00:07:17,600 --> 00:07:20,440
Speaker 1: right well, I mean a passenger aircraft also are just

130
00:07:20,520 --> 00:07:23,160
Speaker 1: not made to be jumped out of. You can read

131
00:07:23,160 --> 00:07:27,160
Speaker 1: the whole dB Cooper story for for some more details

132
00:07:27,160 --> 00:07:30,040
Speaker 1: on this. So there's a basic need for an escape

133
00:07:30,080 --> 00:07:32,640
Speaker 1: system be a and be at an ejection seat, which

134
00:07:32,640 --> 00:07:34,920
Speaker 1: we're not really gonna get into ejection seats much here

135
00:07:35,040 --> 00:07:37,800
Speaker 1: that we should mention we're all familiar with ejector seats

136
00:07:37,880 --> 00:07:40,000
Speaker 1: right like in top GA, and the ejector seat will

137
00:07:40,040 --> 00:07:42,960
Speaker 1: propel you up the pilot out of the failing aircraft.

138
00:07:43,280 --> 00:07:45,680
Speaker 1: You deploy a parachute, you get the pilot safely to

139
00:07:45,720 --> 00:07:48,760
Speaker 1: the ground, but generally the canopy comes off, though some

140
00:07:48,880 --> 00:07:51,320
Speaker 1: there are models of ejection seats where the canopy did

141
00:07:51,320 --> 00:07:53,240
Speaker 1: not come off and you just blast through the glass.

142
00:07:53,480 --> 00:07:56,000
Speaker 1: But today we're talking about escape pods. So when you

143
00:07:56,080 --> 00:07:59,080
Speaker 1: need this enclosed space, when does that come in. Well,

144
00:07:59,080 --> 00:08:01,880
Speaker 1: it's gonna come when you need added protection, certainly when

145
00:08:01,880 --> 00:08:05,720
Speaker 1: you're dealing with higher altitude, higher speed aircraft. And and

146
00:08:05,760 --> 00:08:07,240
Speaker 1: of course this is just on top of we we

147
00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:10,040
Speaker 1: talked about, you know, the need for the individual, for

148
00:08:10,040 --> 00:08:12,160
Speaker 1: the pilot, for the crew member to have an escape plan.

149
00:08:12,480 --> 00:08:15,480
Speaker 1: But of course just to boil down, like the basic

150
00:08:15,600 --> 00:08:19,400
Speaker 1: economic idea here is that human lines are more valuable

151
00:08:19,440 --> 00:08:22,560
Speaker 1: than machines. Yeah, but not in like a moral sense,

152
00:08:22,600 --> 00:08:24,880
Speaker 1: because most of these are war machines designed to like

153
00:08:24,960 --> 00:08:28,160
Speaker 1: drop nuclear payloads on the whole cities. Right know what

154
00:08:28,240 --> 00:08:30,520
Speaker 1: means they cost more to train, right right? You need

155
00:08:30,560 --> 00:08:34,720
Speaker 1: you need highly trained specialist individuals who are piloting these aircraft.

156
00:08:34,880 --> 00:08:37,440
Speaker 1: And even though the aircraft costs millions and millions of dollars,

157
00:08:37,600 --> 00:08:39,720
Speaker 1: if it goes down in flames, at least you can say,

158
00:08:39,760 --> 00:08:43,080
Speaker 1: in a sence, you're saving the brain of the aircraft,

159
00:08:43,160 --> 00:08:47,560
Speaker 1: you're saving the pilots that fluid exactly. So let's look

160
00:08:47,640 --> 00:08:51,800
Speaker 1: at some examples from aviation history of these great Uh,

161
00:08:51,840 --> 00:08:54,120
Speaker 1: what would you call it if if the pilot being

162
00:08:54,160 --> 00:08:56,800
Speaker 1: saved from a failing aircraft is like saving the brain,

163
00:08:57,320 --> 00:08:59,440
Speaker 1: the escape pod is like the jar that you put

164
00:08:59,440 --> 00:09:02,040
Speaker 1: the brain in. Yeah, So let's look at some of

165
00:09:02,040 --> 00:09:04,200
Speaker 1: these jars, all right, Well, so the first one we're

166
00:09:04,200 --> 00:09:05,960
Speaker 1: gonna bring up, and we're gonna I'm gonna try and

167
00:09:05,960 --> 00:09:08,120
Speaker 1: make sure that we have images related to these on

168
00:09:08,160 --> 00:09:09,880
Speaker 1: the landing page for this episode of Stuff to Blow

169
00:09:09,880 --> 00:09:13,319
Speaker 1: your Mind dot Com, because you're gonna we're gonna try

170
00:09:13,320 --> 00:09:15,840
Speaker 1: and describe everything, but you know you're gonna you're gonna

171
00:09:15,840 --> 00:09:18,920
Speaker 1: probably want some visuals. So the first one we want

172
00:09:18,920 --> 00:09:21,800
Speaker 1: to mention here is the B fifty eight Hustler, the

173
00:09:22,080 --> 00:09:25,440
Speaker 1: convert B fifty eight Hustler. So this was a bomber

174
00:09:25,480 --> 00:09:29,520
Speaker 1: that saw service nineteen sixty through nineteen seventy. About hundred

175
00:09:29,520 --> 00:09:31,800
Speaker 1: and sixteen were built. It was a three man crew.

176
00:09:32,120 --> 00:09:34,520
Speaker 1: This was a U. S. Air Force US Air Force

177
00:09:34,920 --> 00:09:38,160
Speaker 1: debuted nineteen fifty six, and it was the U. S.

178
00:09:38,200 --> 00:09:42,800
Speaker 1: Air force is first operational supersonic bomber. It was visually

179
00:09:42,880 --> 00:09:46,520
Speaker 1: notable because it had these awesome delta wings, so it

180
00:09:46,559 --> 00:09:50,199
Speaker 1: looked like an arrow um and it also had a

181
00:09:50,240 --> 00:09:52,920
Speaker 1: wasp waist fuselage. It was so thin that it had

182
00:09:52,960 --> 00:09:56,880
Speaker 1: to use external bomb pods, gleaming chrome appearance, and most

183
00:09:56,920 --> 00:09:58,720
Speaker 1: of the images you see of it, so yeah, it

184
00:09:58,760 --> 00:10:01,720
Speaker 1: looked like an arrowhead. They'll maybe an arrowhead either you know,

185
00:10:01,800 --> 00:10:05,199
Speaker 1: pregnant with death or infected with explosive parasites. However you

186
00:10:05,280 --> 00:10:07,679
Speaker 1: want to frame it. It is a very weird and

187
00:10:07,800 --> 00:10:11,280
Speaker 1: very sexy looking aircraft. It's got this this tapered fuselage

188
00:10:11,320 --> 00:10:13,400
Speaker 1: like you're talking about, is kind of thin, and uh,

189
00:10:13,480 --> 00:10:18,280
Speaker 1: the in these straight, completely angular wings cutting through it.

190
00:10:18,080 --> 00:10:20,920
Speaker 1: It's cool to look at. Yeah, and I wanna I

191
00:10:21,040 --> 00:10:24,360
Speaker 1: mention this real quick quickly here. Uh it sounds like

192
00:10:25,080 --> 00:10:27,240
Speaker 1: some people might be thinking, oh, you're graffly enthusiastic about

193
00:10:27,240 --> 00:10:30,840
Speaker 1: all these awful war machines, Robert. Uh I do have

194
00:10:30,840 --> 00:10:32,760
Speaker 1: to say that I grew up in a household where

195
00:10:32,760 --> 00:10:35,920
Speaker 1: my my dad was a big aviation enthusiast, and uh

196
00:10:36,080 --> 00:10:39,640
Speaker 1: I was really into aviation history, military avation history. So

197
00:10:39,960 --> 00:10:42,000
Speaker 1: I grew up like with a lot of books about

198
00:10:42,080 --> 00:10:44,920
Speaker 1: these airplanes around, and it seems like they were always

199
00:10:44,920 --> 00:10:47,880
Speaker 1: documentaries on TV about these aircraft. So I have a

200
00:10:47,880 --> 00:10:50,800
Speaker 1: certain fondness for their designs. The back of the BF.

201
00:10:51,559 --> 00:10:56,560
Speaker 1: So yeah, sexy looking aircraft, uh, and initially boasted typical

202
00:10:56,600 --> 00:10:59,760
Speaker 1: ejection seats, so just blast the individual crew members out

203
00:10:59,840 --> 00:11:04,920
Speaker 1: of the imperiled aircraft. But ejection at supersonic speeds proved dangerous,

204
00:11:04,960 --> 00:11:09,600
Speaker 1: so Stanley Aircraft Corporation developed a retrofitted ejection capsule and

205
00:11:09,679 --> 00:11:12,520
Speaker 1: in the late nineteen sixty two, and this allowed aircrew

206
00:11:12,760 --> 00:11:15,800
Speaker 1: to eject safely at twice the speed of sound and

207
00:11:15,840 --> 00:11:18,840
Speaker 1: from as high as altitudes of seventy tho feet or

208
00:11:19,679 --> 00:11:23,640
Speaker 1: roughly twenty one kilometers. That does not sound like a

209
00:11:23,720 --> 00:11:26,040
Speaker 1: condition in which you would want to be ejected naked

210
00:11:26,080 --> 00:11:28,960
Speaker 1: out of your right, have your brain ejected naked, or

211
00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:31,520
Speaker 1: even in a flight suit and in a chair, right,

212
00:11:32,120 --> 00:11:35,040
Speaker 1: So they came up with this capsule. The capsule was

213
00:11:35,160 --> 00:11:39,319
Speaker 1: essentially a clam shell hood that closed over the ejection seat,

214
00:11:39,800 --> 00:11:43,000
Speaker 1: and it was I found some some gay images on

215
00:11:43,040 --> 00:11:45,760
Speaker 1: this and the Getty images a database of some some

216
00:11:45,840 --> 00:11:48,679
Speaker 1: work that wented and went into designing this, and it

217
00:11:48,720 --> 00:11:52,400
Speaker 1: was apparently referred to as the torture chamber during development

218
00:11:52,440 --> 00:11:54,240
Speaker 1: because it I guess because it kind of looks like

219
00:11:54,280 --> 00:11:57,319
Speaker 1: an iron maiden. It really does. Yeah, So this capsule

220
00:11:58,160 --> 00:12:00,199
Speaker 1: you have the seed. It's like a right ang goal

221
00:12:00,280 --> 00:12:02,360
Speaker 1: kind of thing, which is where the crew member would be,

222
00:12:02,400 --> 00:12:04,640
Speaker 1: I guess, but folded over the top of it, it

223
00:12:04,720 --> 00:12:08,480
Speaker 1: looks kind of like a It's just this cascading series

224
00:12:08,559 --> 00:12:12,280
Speaker 1: of metal bands coming down. So it looks like a

225
00:12:12,320 --> 00:12:14,960
Speaker 1: mask that a Cinabyte would wear in one of the

226
00:12:14,960 --> 00:12:18,080
Speaker 1: hell raisor sequels, and the Cinabyte would be called like

227
00:12:18,280 --> 00:12:21,520
Speaker 1: shutter Face or something. Yeah, it's reminiscent a little bit

228
00:12:21,520 --> 00:12:25,240
Speaker 1: too of a roll top desk. Yeah yeah, yeah, like that,

229
00:12:25,760 --> 00:12:28,920
Speaker 1: but metal. Yeah. So this this that once it's over you.

230
00:12:29,400 --> 00:12:32,320
Speaker 1: This thing was air tight, had an independent oxygen supply

231
00:12:32,600 --> 00:12:37,360
Speaker 1: supply system that ensured pressurization, and this was but one

232
00:12:37,360 --> 00:12:39,360
Speaker 1: of the things was it was far from fully automated,

233
00:12:39,360 --> 00:12:40,920
Speaker 1: because I know when you're when you're hearing this or

234
00:12:40,920 --> 00:12:43,079
Speaker 1: reading about it, you're imagining like, oh, it shuts over

235
00:12:43,120 --> 00:12:44,520
Speaker 1: you and then you blast out like you're in a

236
00:12:44,520 --> 00:12:48,480
Speaker 1: science fiction movie. But it wasn't. The user still had

237
00:12:48,520 --> 00:12:51,720
Speaker 1: a number of choices. After the clamshell shut you could

238
00:12:51,720 --> 00:12:56,000
Speaker 1: continue onto ejection, or you could hold off until the

239
00:12:56,040 --> 00:12:58,800
Speaker 1: plane made it to a lower altitude that didn't demand

240
00:12:58,840 --> 00:13:02,400
Speaker 1: the pressurization. Um. The idea here being you know, that

241
00:13:02,559 --> 00:13:07,040
Speaker 1: is still incredibly dangerous, UM, ejecting from the aircraft at

242
00:13:07,120 --> 00:13:10,280
Speaker 1: high altitudes, even in the capsule, So if the plane

243
00:13:10,400 --> 00:13:13,000
Speaker 1: is not in just complete peril, then maybe it makes

244
00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:16,199
Speaker 1: sense to wait just a minute. Um. And this is

245
00:13:16,240 --> 00:13:18,240
Speaker 1: the thing we should keep in mind throughout the episode.

246
00:13:18,240 --> 00:13:22,400
Speaker 1: I mean, ejecting from an aircraft, Uh always comes with risks.

247
00:13:23,000 --> 00:13:25,880
Speaker 1: You know, when you eject from an aircraft to bail out,

248
00:13:26,200 --> 00:13:28,760
Speaker 1: there is a certain percent chance that you will be

249
00:13:28,840 --> 00:13:31,760
Speaker 1: killed by the ejection process. That's why it is a

250
00:13:31,840 --> 00:13:34,840
Speaker 1: last result, is a violent last resort in a in

251
00:13:34,920 --> 00:13:39,320
Speaker 1: a in a terrible dangerous situation. Now, additionally, the pilot's

252
00:13:39,360 --> 00:13:42,640
Speaker 1: capsule in the hustler contained the control stick and other

253
00:13:42,679 --> 00:13:46,000
Speaker 1: necessary controls to pilot the aircraft to that lower altitude,

254
00:13:46,440 --> 00:13:51,520
Speaker 1: and then communication was maintained capsule to capsule in the airplane. Uh.

255
00:13:51,600 --> 00:13:55,480
Speaker 1: So it's this interesting, UM. I love how these capsules

256
00:13:55,480 --> 00:14:01,720
Speaker 1: are not you know, immediate um, immediately exercides from the craft.

257
00:14:02,080 --> 00:14:04,319
Speaker 1: They're kind of a part of the craft in peril.

258
00:14:04,600 --> 00:14:08,360
Speaker 1: So what kind of test pilot would volunteer to be

259
00:14:08,559 --> 00:14:12,080
Speaker 1: the first test subject of the torture chamber. Well, it's

260
00:14:12,120 --> 00:14:16,079
Speaker 1: interesting and reading about these different tests, because the thing

261
00:14:16,160 --> 00:14:17,839
Speaker 1: you have you have a fair amount of testing the

262
00:14:17,880 --> 00:14:20,560
Speaker 1: win into any of these extensive testing even uh, you

263
00:14:20,560 --> 00:14:23,560
Speaker 1: would have test pilots that are you know, trying them

264
00:14:23,560 --> 00:14:27,560
Speaker 1: out in some cases on the ground. Um, they're loading

265
00:14:27,600 --> 00:14:30,760
Speaker 1: them onto um, you know, under propelled carts to just

266
00:14:30,800 --> 00:14:33,400
Speaker 1: see how they how the impact affects them. And in

267
00:14:33,440 --> 00:14:38,600
Speaker 1: the case of the Hustlers ejection capsules, the US Air

268
00:14:38,640 --> 00:14:41,920
Speaker 1: Force used Himalayan and American black bears to test the

269
00:14:41,960 --> 00:14:44,480
Speaker 1: ejection seats. Well, how did I hear you? Right? Yes,

270
00:14:44,680 --> 00:14:48,560
Speaker 1: say that again, Himalayan and American black bears. Uh, none

271
00:14:48,600 --> 00:14:50,720
Speaker 1: of them were killed during the test. They always suffered

272
00:14:50,720 --> 00:14:53,720
Speaker 1: broken bones for what it's worth, and they were drugged.

273
00:14:54,600 --> 00:14:58,440
Speaker 1: But we're talking ejections at speeds of mock one point

274
00:14:58,520 --> 00:15:03,400
Speaker 1: six um, that's ween or and also at altitudes of

275
00:15:03,640 --> 00:15:08,280
Speaker 1: forty five thousand feet. So yeah, the bears helped us

276
00:15:08,320 --> 00:15:11,960
Speaker 1: out in that regardless. Well, hard to argue that they volunteered,

277
00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:14,920
Speaker 1: but I'm glad to hear that no bears were killed

278
00:15:14,920 --> 00:15:17,000
Speaker 1: in the making of this escape pod. Yeah, at least

279
00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:19,880
Speaker 1: we can say that, right. Um, So after injection, the

280
00:15:19,920 --> 00:15:22,480
Speaker 1: capsule here featured a parachute of course, as well as

281
00:15:22,480 --> 00:15:25,360
Speaker 1: shock absorbers and inflatable bladders to turn the thing into

282
00:15:25,400 --> 00:15:28,560
Speaker 1: a life raft if it fell in the water. Uh So,

283
00:15:28,600 --> 00:15:31,400
Speaker 1: in short, it was it was a pretty pretty cool

284
00:15:31,520 --> 00:15:33,640
Speaker 1: escape capsule. I think. I think it's one of the better,

285
00:15:33,920 --> 00:15:37,200
Speaker 1: like just pure examples of of a of an escape

286
00:15:37,240 --> 00:15:41,760
Speaker 1: capsule in aviation history. There are actually videos online of

287
00:15:42,080 --> 00:15:44,800
Speaker 1: the tests of this escape capsule, of it coming up

288
00:15:44,800 --> 00:15:46,920
Speaker 1: out of the plane. You can see it just rocketing

289
00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:49,240
Speaker 1: up into the sky and shooting up over the top

290
00:15:49,280 --> 00:15:52,280
Speaker 1: of the plane as the plane passes underneath. It's worth

291
00:15:52,320 --> 00:15:56,160
Speaker 1: looking up. Yeah, there's also a fabulous periscope films documentary

292
00:15:56,200 --> 00:15:59,760
Speaker 1: that's freely available on YouTube now that that shows the

293
00:15:59,800 --> 00:16:01,960
Speaker 1: ex actually how it worked, and it had had like

294
00:16:02,040 --> 00:16:06,680
Speaker 1: some wonderful animations. They quoted Shakespeare and showed like sort

295
00:16:06,720 --> 00:16:10,200
Speaker 1: of a Disney documentary hand paid the leafing through a

296
00:16:10,200 --> 00:16:13,280
Speaker 1: book of the works of Shakespeare just impeccably, you know,

297
00:16:13,400 --> 00:16:17,680
Speaker 1: nineteen fifties pr project here, So do we know how

298
00:16:17,720 --> 00:16:20,880
Speaker 1: often people in the real world ejected from one of

299
00:16:20,920 --> 00:16:23,760
Speaker 1: these planes and how well it worked? This was a

300
00:16:23,800 --> 00:16:26,840
Speaker 1: real revelation to me. There is a wonderful website and

301
00:16:26,840 --> 00:16:28,720
Speaker 1: I say wonderful. It's it's a little long in the

302
00:16:28,720 --> 00:16:32,280
Speaker 1: tooth now it could it could benefit from redesign, but

303
00:16:32,320 --> 00:16:34,960
Speaker 1: this but the work that's gone into it is pretty

304
00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:40,360
Speaker 1: pretty awesome. It's ejection history dot org dot UK and

305
00:16:40,520 --> 00:16:46,400
Speaker 1: it's an attempt by the author and contributors to catalog

306
00:16:46,960 --> 00:16:52,160
Speaker 1: every ejection from from key aircraft and and and and

307
00:16:52,320 --> 00:16:57,240
Speaker 1: also rank like how how survivable each incident was so

308
00:16:57,640 --> 00:17:01,040
Speaker 1: all in all, like some some aircraft have better databases

309
00:17:01,040 --> 00:17:03,600
Speaker 1: and others on this site, but it's it's a real

310
00:17:04,040 --> 00:17:10,040
Speaker 1: sobering look at the effectiveness of ejection seats and ejection capsules,

311
00:17:10,640 --> 00:17:13,440
Speaker 1: UH to determine, like to what sooner are they able

312
00:17:13,480 --> 00:17:16,359
Speaker 1: to save lives in the event of, you know, catastrophe.

313
00:17:17,800 --> 00:17:20,120
Speaker 1: In the case of the Hustler, it looked like there's

314
00:17:20,160 --> 00:17:24,040
Speaker 1: something like thirty ejections total, with the majority of them

315
00:17:24,040 --> 00:17:28,000
Speaker 1: being survivals, so the torture chamber by and large worked,

316
00:17:28,160 --> 00:17:29,560
Speaker 1: it would seem too. I don't I don't have to

317
00:17:29,760 --> 00:17:32,840
Speaker 1: have a particular stat on it because the database doesn't

318
00:17:32,880 --> 00:17:37,000
Speaker 1: really present the information that that. Clearly it's not it's

319
00:17:37,040 --> 00:17:41,119
Speaker 1: not a modern spreadsheets sort of format, but certainly if

320
00:17:41,119 --> 00:17:42,520
Speaker 1: you really have to have an answer to that, you

321
00:17:42,520 --> 00:17:45,600
Speaker 1: can go and count them. Um, but yeah, the Hustler

322
00:17:45,800 --> 00:17:49,639
Speaker 1: an interesting plane, a great escape capsule. Get in that

323
00:17:49,720 --> 00:17:52,720
Speaker 1: centerbyte head. Okay, let's look at another one. How about

324
00:17:52,760 --> 00:17:56,600
Speaker 1: the XP seventy Valkyrie. Oh yeah, so this this one's

325
00:17:56,640 --> 00:17:59,520
Speaker 1: really cool too. So this was a prototype for the

326
00:17:59,600 --> 00:18:02,440
Speaker 1: B set D And this was another beautiful delta wing

327
00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:04,879
Speaker 1: bomber of the sixties, designed to be a high altitude

328
00:18:04,960 --> 00:18:08,879
Speaker 1: mock three bomber. It never actually entered service, so visually

329
00:18:08,920 --> 00:18:11,320
Speaker 1: it's most striking feature and the one that that if

330
00:18:11,359 --> 00:18:13,720
Speaker 1: you've looked at aviation pictures in the past, you might go, oh,

331
00:18:13,760 --> 00:18:17,120
Speaker 1: that airplane, it's uh, it's probably because it has these

332
00:18:17,160 --> 00:18:22,399
Speaker 1: two large canards, which active surfaces essentially imagine the So

333
00:18:22,480 --> 00:18:25,200
Speaker 1: imagine the airplane is a bird. It has two little

334
00:18:25,240 --> 00:18:29,720
Speaker 1: wings right behind its ears. Um, those are just you know,

335
00:18:29,760 --> 00:18:35,159
Speaker 1: control surfaces essentially located behind the cockpit. Performance was However,

336
00:18:35,280 --> 00:18:37,399
Speaker 1: the really crazy thing about the XP seventy was that

337
00:18:37,480 --> 00:18:41,040
Speaker 1: it was designed to fold its wings down during supersonic

338
00:18:41,080 --> 00:18:45,560
Speaker 1: flight and ride its own shock wave quote much as

339
00:18:45,600 --> 00:18:48,399
Speaker 1: a surfer rides in ocean wave. That's a according to

340
00:18:48,400 --> 00:18:52,240
Speaker 1: the NASA DOT Gov fact sheet on this aircraft. So

341
00:18:52,280 --> 00:18:55,159
Speaker 1: if you look at pictures of this aircraft, it also

342
00:18:55,320 --> 00:18:57,480
Speaker 1: is very visually striking. As you say, I thought, this

343
00:18:57,520 --> 00:19:00,400
Speaker 1: one looks kind of like a paper plane. It it's

344
00:19:00,440 --> 00:19:04,720
Speaker 1: like it's very white and very thin, extremely thin as

345
00:19:04,720 --> 00:19:07,000
Speaker 1: far as the wings go. Has a paper like kind

346
00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:09,760
Speaker 1: of quality to it, except that the the of course,

347
00:19:09,800 --> 00:19:12,720
Speaker 1: the middle fuselage is kind of circular, but otherwise it's

348
00:19:12,720 --> 00:19:15,280
Speaker 1: it's dead ringer for paper plane. Yeah, it looks it

349
00:19:15,280 --> 00:19:17,639
Speaker 1: looks like a paper plane or piece of oregony, almost

350
00:19:17,640 --> 00:19:21,200
Speaker 1: like an oregony crane. Yeah, I see that too. So

351
00:19:21,720 --> 00:19:24,880
Speaker 1: this airplane design came about in a time of uncertain

352
00:19:24,920 --> 00:19:29,119
Speaker 1: future for traditional bombers, and the Kennedy administration ended up

353
00:19:29,119 --> 00:19:33,040
Speaker 1: scrapping it, so it became a research aircraft, largely for

354
00:19:33,240 --> 00:19:37,440
Speaker 1: supersonic transport research, looking into the idea of using supersonic

355
00:19:38,359 --> 00:19:42,159
Speaker 1: airline or supersonic sonic transport planes. In general, it was

356
00:19:42,200 --> 00:19:44,640
Speaker 1: the right shape, it was the right size, and even

357
00:19:44,680 --> 00:19:47,960
Speaker 1: though the program was scrapped, they had two prototypes, so

358
00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:52,760
Speaker 1: you had two XP seventy Valkyries, so it was sort

359
00:19:52,800 --> 00:19:56,440
Speaker 1: of a prototype Concorde. Well it was like that, Well,

360
00:19:56,440 --> 00:19:58,919
Speaker 1: it was totally a bomber, but but it was the

361
00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:02,239
Speaker 1: right size and it had enough in common with the

362
00:20:02,280 --> 00:20:05,840
Speaker 1: designs that were being looked at for commercial use that

363
00:20:05,880 --> 00:20:09,840
Speaker 1: it could be used to explore the possibilities there. So,

364
00:20:09,920 --> 00:20:12,879
Speaker 1: despite some of the problems the the early flight provided

365
00:20:12,960 --> 00:20:16,880
Speaker 1: data on a number of issues facing supersonic transport. These

366
00:20:16,880 --> 00:20:23,000
Speaker 1: included aircraft noise, operational problems, control system design, UH, comparison

367
00:20:23,040 --> 00:20:25,960
Speaker 1: of winternal predictions with what actually happens during the course

368
00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:30,159
Speaker 1: of flight, high altita to clear air turbulence, all of

369
00:20:30,160 --> 00:20:31,920
Speaker 1: these issues. I mean, this was there. There was still

370
00:20:31,960 --> 00:20:36,000
Speaker 1: so much to learn at the time about supersonic flight.

371
00:20:36,280 --> 00:20:39,160
Speaker 1: But this one did have an injection capsule. Yes, back

372
00:20:39,160 --> 00:20:41,439
Speaker 1: to the main point. The reason we're talking about is

373
00:20:41,480 --> 00:20:44,440
Speaker 1: that it did feature an injection capsule and it had

374
00:20:44,440 --> 00:20:47,320
Speaker 1: a clam clam shell design similar to that that we

375
00:20:47,359 --> 00:20:50,800
Speaker 1: discussed in the Hustler. So they're bringing back shutter face, right, yeah,

376
00:20:50,840 --> 00:20:54,199
Speaker 1: shutter faces in action that the ideally the chair that

377
00:20:54,320 --> 00:20:57,800
Speaker 1: you're in the cockpit seat, it kind of like folds

378
00:20:57,840 --> 00:21:01,600
Speaker 1: back and then the clam shell snap over uh. And

379
00:21:01,680 --> 00:21:05,480
Speaker 1: it contains survival gear oxygen systems. It also contained the

380
00:21:05,480 --> 00:21:08,760
Speaker 1: flight control stick for the pilot and uh, you know,

381
00:21:08,800 --> 00:21:13,320
Speaker 1: it's very much the same idea. We we only had

382
00:21:13,320 --> 00:21:16,080
Speaker 1: two of these, so it's there's not a lot of

383
00:21:16,119 --> 00:21:21,800
Speaker 1: ejection data on it. But there is one key incident

384
00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:24,480
Speaker 1: that occurred with one of the XP seventies, and that

385
00:21:24,520 --> 00:21:29,160
Speaker 1: was the tragedy involving one of them in nineteen sixty six.

386
00:21:29,240 --> 00:21:32,240
Speaker 1: June eighth, nineteen sixty six, the second of the two

387
00:21:32,359 --> 00:21:36,760
Speaker 1: XP seventies crashed following a mid air collision with NASA's

388
00:21:37,040 --> 00:21:41,399
Speaker 1: F one oh four in Chase plane. How did that happen? Um,

389
00:21:41,600 --> 00:21:45,880
Speaker 1: they were essentially, they were they were doing photographs of

390
00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:49,320
Speaker 1: the research that was being conducted, and one plane got

391
00:21:49,359 --> 00:21:52,119
Speaker 1: too close to the other. And yeah, it was a

392
00:21:52,760 --> 00:21:55,320
Speaker 1: pretty pretty terrible accident because in the course of this,

393
00:21:56,000 --> 00:21:58,679
Speaker 1: Joe Walker, the F one oh four in pilot, he

394
00:21:58,800 --> 00:22:02,400
Speaker 1: died in the accident. Um Carl Cross, who was making

395
00:22:02,440 --> 00:22:04,760
Speaker 1: his first flight in the XP seventy, was unable to

396
00:22:04,800 --> 00:22:08,280
Speaker 1: eject and he died in the crash. North American test

397
00:22:08,320 --> 00:22:11,879
Speaker 1: pilot Al White, who had been with the XP seventy

398
00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:15,480
Speaker 1: projects since the beginning, he ejected. He said, he ejected,

399
00:22:15,760 --> 00:22:19,680
Speaker 1: uh in the capsule, but he received serious injuries in

400
00:22:19,720 --> 00:22:24,040
Speaker 1: the process because the clamshell crushed his arm. So his

401
00:22:24,200 --> 00:22:27,640
Speaker 1: arm was outside of the the clamshell and it was crushed.

402
00:22:27,800 --> 00:22:30,080
Speaker 1: That is something I've read about and these, uh, these

403
00:22:30,119 --> 00:22:33,760
Speaker 1: aviation eject capsules, is that they tend to if they

404
00:22:33,800 --> 00:22:37,440
Speaker 1: close over you, they have to close with extreme force. Uh,

405
00:22:37,480 --> 00:22:41,000
Speaker 1: and so you're always at risk of having injury from

406
00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:45,560
Speaker 1: the actual closing process of the capsule. Yeah, and certainly

407
00:22:45,840 --> 00:22:48,680
Speaker 1: you know going through that A that A that ejection

408
00:22:48,760 --> 00:22:51,600
Speaker 1: website that I mentioned earlier, you see this with with

409
00:22:51,720 --> 00:22:58,240
Speaker 1: countless ejections. Capsules are not where Sometimes individuals survived, sometimes

410
00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:00,840
Speaker 1: they don't. Sometimes they are minor. Sometimes there are severe

411
00:23:00,880 --> 00:23:04,680
Speaker 1: injuries that are entailed the course of escaping that aircraft. Okay,

412
00:23:04,760 --> 00:23:07,240
Speaker 1: let's look at another one. How about the General Dynamics

413
00:23:07,320 --> 00:23:11,000
Speaker 1: F one eleven ard Vark name, yes, the ard Vark,

414
00:23:11,119 --> 00:23:13,679
Speaker 1: this one. This one is a great, great aircraft. This

415
00:23:13,720 --> 00:23:15,840
Speaker 1: was one was one of always one of my favorites.

416
00:23:16,359 --> 00:23:20,359
Speaker 1: So this one was in service seven through for the U. S.

417
00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:23,640
Speaker 1: Air Force. Of course, five hundred and sixty three were produced,

418
00:23:24,440 --> 00:23:27,040
Speaker 1: and uh, it was. It was always a favorite airplane

419
00:23:27,040 --> 00:23:30,200
Speaker 1: of mind growing up because in probably in part because

420
00:23:30,240 --> 00:23:32,399
Speaker 1: I did have a toy version of it. There you go.

421
00:23:32,560 --> 00:23:34,919
Speaker 1: If you have that physical manifestation of the thing as

422
00:23:34,960 --> 00:23:36,439
Speaker 1: a kid, you can't help it be a little more

423
00:23:36,480 --> 00:23:38,760
Speaker 1: into it. But it was also just like a little

424
00:23:38,800 --> 00:23:41,040
Speaker 1: bit like a like it was just a weird plane.

425
00:23:41,119 --> 00:23:44,120
Speaker 1: It stood out from the other jets. It effectively came

426
00:23:44,160 --> 00:23:47,800
Speaker 1: off like a larger bomber version of the F fourteen Tomcat.

427
00:23:47,960 --> 00:23:50,119
Speaker 1: The of course, you know, the top gun plane for

428
00:23:50,160 --> 00:23:52,879
Speaker 1: anyone out there is not not that familiar with with

429
00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:57,320
Speaker 1: your jets, variable sweep wings and coolest of all, kandem

430
00:23:57,480 --> 00:24:00,320
Speaker 1: seating for the two man crew. Okay, so if you

431
00:24:00,400 --> 00:24:02,480
Speaker 1: have if you have top gun in mind, of course

432
00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:05,080
Speaker 1: you're going to imagine front and back seating for the

433
00:24:05,119 --> 00:24:07,879
Speaker 1: pilot and what the gunner? What are the two people?

434
00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:10,800
Speaker 1: I don't know my top gun, but yeah, you'll have

435
00:24:10,880 --> 00:24:13,680
Speaker 1: one in front and one directly behind. Yeah, with multiple crews,

436
00:24:13,720 --> 00:24:17,920
Speaker 1: you know you're often talking about the pilot, um a navigator, pilot,

437
00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:20,239
Speaker 1: co pilot, bombity or you know, there are all these

438
00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:22,840
Speaker 1: different roles depending on what the airplane is. And in

439
00:24:22,960 --> 00:24:27,080
Speaker 1: your your sleeker faster designs such as fighter planes and

440
00:24:27,200 --> 00:24:31,000
Speaker 1: interceptors and fighter bombers in some cases you're gonna have,

441
00:24:31,400 --> 00:24:34,880
Speaker 1: you know, one in front, one behind. Um also with trainers.

442
00:24:34,920 --> 00:24:37,600
Speaker 1: Trainer aircraft are often like that. But this one had

443
00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:40,840
Speaker 1: pilot co pilot pilot sitting right next to each other,

444
00:24:41,800 --> 00:24:43,600
Speaker 1: just like a love seat, just like a love seat.

445
00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:46,800
Speaker 1: And uh, the cool part here is the crew didn't

446
00:24:46,840 --> 00:24:51,000
Speaker 1: have ejection seats or an escape pod. Even the entire

447
00:24:51,240 --> 00:24:54,000
Speaker 1: cabin of the F one eleven ard Vark was an

448
00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:57,080
Speaker 1: escape capsule, the McDonald escaped capsule. And it looks something

449
00:24:57,160 --> 00:25:00,920
Speaker 1: like a Star Treks shuttlecraft. So we will see this

450
00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:04,439
Speaker 1: idea repeated in a few minutes when talking about some

451
00:25:04,480 --> 00:25:08,879
Speaker 1: proposals for passenger aircraft. It was so yeah, think of

452
00:25:09,040 --> 00:25:12,040
Speaker 1: think of a shuttle craft. It was self righting, it

453
00:25:12,119 --> 00:25:15,000
Speaker 1: was water tight, it could be used as a flotation device.

454
00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:18,640
Speaker 1: Um so sorry you said self righting. Not that's not

455
00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:21,119
Speaker 1: riding with a d but self righting, as in it

456
00:25:21,119 --> 00:25:23,320
Speaker 1: would bob right side up. Yeah. So it's a pretty

457
00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:25,399
Speaker 1: cool little capsule. I mean it was the it was

458
00:25:25,960 --> 00:25:30,280
Speaker 1: it was the entire crew cabin really and so so

459
00:25:30,320 --> 00:25:32,360
Speaker 1: how did it work. Well, if we look to ejection

460
00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:35,520
Speaker 1: history dot org dot UK, which is the leading source

461
00:25:35,520 --> 00:25:38,280
Speaker 1: of information on this sort of thing. Um looks like

462
00:25:38,320 --> 00:25:41,320
Speaker 1: there were about over a hundred injections logged for the

463
00:25:41,359 --> 00:25:44,480
Speaker 1: F one eleven during the course of its tenure, and

464
00:25:44,520 --> 00:25:46,520
Speaker 1: the survival rate looks pretty good. But again, it's it's

465
00:25:46,560 --> 00:25:48,480
Speaker 1: kind of sobering to look at a lot of this data,

466
00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:51,520
Speaker 1: especially when you can see the pictures of the pilots

467
00:25:51,520 --> 00:25:55,760
Speaker 1: that were involved. Sometimes the survivors sometimes m f casualties

468
00:25:56,800 --> 00:25:59,879
Speaker 1: because you can you can have this great ejection system

469
00:25:59,880 --> 00:26:04,480
Speaker 1: in place. But you're still talking again about really dangerous situations, uh,

470
00:26:04,960 --> 00:26:09,080
Speaker 1: really parallel situations with a malfunctioning or crashing aircraft. Sometimes

471
00:26:09,080 --> 00:26:11,520
Speaker 1: it's in a war zone, and we're talking about everything

472
00:26:11,600 --> 00:26:14,160
Speaker 1: from bird strike that's when an airplane strikes a bird,

473
00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:19,720
Speaker 1: which can have just cataclysmic um results on the aircraft.

474
00:26:19,800 --> 00:26:22,400
Speaker 1: You wouldn't think so, but yeah, I mean the high

475
00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:25,560
Speaker 1: speed bird a high speed plane, uh versus and that

476
00:26:25,600 --> 00:26:28,159
Speaker 1: meets a you know, the the canopy of the plane

477
00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:32,000
Speaker 1: or the engine. So you have a bird strike, crashes, collisions,

478
00:26:32,040 --> 00:26:34,919
Speaker 1: engine problems. All these things happen in the course of

479
00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:38,000
Speaker 1: a plane's tenure of it, you know, is actually utilized

480
00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:40,879
Speaker 1: over the course of a decade or longer um and

481
00:26:40,920 --> 00:26:45,240
Speaker 1: sometimes the Sometimes the stories are just like fatally short.

482
00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:47,240
Speaker 1: You know. It's just like the plane had a malfunction

483
00:26:47,240 --> 00:26:49,760
Speaker 1: and it crashed and there's no sign that even an

484
00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:52,960
Speaker 1: ejection was even attempted. It just happened so fast that

485
00:26:53,119 --> 00:26:55,919
Speaker 1: other times they're pretty remarkable. There's a listing for a

486
00:26:56,000 --> 00:26:59,679
Speaker 1: in an October seven, nineteen seventy six ejection with the

487
00:26:59,800 --> 00:27:03,719
Speaker 1: ard Arc uh and it says, quote capsule was fired

488
00:27:03,800 --> 00:27:06,560
Speaker 1: with the airplane about sixty degrees nose down at a

489
00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:11,040
Speaker 1: hundred feet or less. Uh So, like the it seems

490
00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:12,919
Speaker 1: like if this is in the last second, this may

491
00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:16,560
Speaker 1: even be past the last second. Yeah, and they but

492
00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:19,800
Speaker 1: they actually both crew members survived. There were no senti

493
00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:21,640
Speaker 1: for serious injuries. So this one was one that sort

494
00:27:21,640 --> 00:27:24,080
Speaker 1: of stood out as an anomaly of like a it

495
00:27:24,200 --> 00:27:25,800
Speaker 1: really seemed like it was going to go the other way,

496
00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:29,719
Speaker 1: but they survived thanks to the escape capsule. Okay, how

497
00:27:29,760 --> 00:27:34,040
Speaker 1: about one more? What about the Rockwell B one a Lancer? Yeah,

498
00:27:34,080 --> 00:27:37,000
Speaker 1: this one is this is another beautiful plane. I guess

499
00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:39,280
Speaker 1: kind of there's kind of an evolution here and this

500
00:27:39,359 --> 00:27:42,160
Speaker 1: is the form that we still find in service today.

501
00:27:42,880 --> 00:27:45,040
Speaker 1: Uh and uh, it's it's likely going to remain in

502
00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:48,920
Speaker 1: service tool around. I think of the current estimates here

503
00:27:49,080 --> 00:27:52,920
Speaker 1: the U. S Air Force uh B one Lancer, So

504
00:27:53,119 --> 00:27:56,040
Speaker 1: the Air Force had four B one a's built. This

505
00:27:56,080 --> 00:27:58,879
Speaker 1: was the first model and h then they ended up

506
00:27:58,880 --> 00:28:01,159
Speaker 1: doing a hundred B one be The first three B

507
00:28:01,280 --> 00:28:04,760
Speaker 1: one a's featured an escape capsule that ejected the cockpit

508
00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:07,720
Speaker 1: with all four crew members inside it, much like we

509
00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:10,080
Speaker 1: saw with the ard Vark. So just you know that

510
00:28:10,119 --> 00:28:13,720
Speaker 1: the next evolution of the Ardvark was present here. But

511
00:28:13,800 --> 00:28:16,280
Speaker 1: then the B one a was equipped with a conventional

512
00:28:16,320 --> 00:28:19,199
Speaker 1: ejectian seat for for each crew member, so they ended

513
00:28:19,280 --> 00:28:24,119
Speaker 1: up scrapping the the full escape capsule design in favor

514
00:28:24,160 --> 00:28:27,919
Speaker 1: of more traditional ejection seats. So that was kind of

515
00:28:27,960 --> 00:28:31,840
Speaker 1: like the end of the the golden age of the

516
00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:34,159
Speaker 1: ejection capsule, I guess you would say, at least from

517
00:28:34,160 --> 00:28:38,800
Speaker 1: a military aviation standpoint. And apparently it was only used once.

518
00:28:38,960 --> 00:28:42,520
Speaker 1: I mean you only had what three aircraft that featured it.

519
00:28:43,120 --> 00:28:48,960
Speaker 1: But there was an August incident escape pod parachutes didn't

520
00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:52,200
Speaker 1: deploy fully in the module impacted in a right nose

521
00:28:52,320 --> 00:28:55,080
Speaker 1: a low altitude. One crew member was killed, two others

522
00:28:55,080 --> 00:28:58,320
Speaker 1: were severely injured. So the one use of it again

523
00:28:58,400 --> 00:29:01,760
Speaker 1: during its limited roll out, uh was it was very

524
00:29:01,840 --> 00:29:04,040
Speaker 1: much a mixed back. So one of the big takeaways

525
00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:07,400
Speaker 1: from all these stories in military aviation history is yet

526
00:29:07,400 --> 00:29:10,240
Speaker 1: again we said this earlier, but even if you make

527
00:29:10,280 --> 00:29:13,160
Speaker 1: it into the escape pod, it's not a sure thing.

528
00:29:13,440 --> 00:29:16,520
Speaker 1: It's still a dangerous world out there between you and

529
00:29:16,560 --> 00:29:19,200
Speaker 1: the ground. I guess most of the dangers at the ground,

530
00:29:19,320 --> 00:29:23,120
Speaker 1: but yeah, but but yeah, it's a dangerous environment. You're

531
00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:25,400
Speaker 1: not really supposed to be up there, and the thing

532
00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:29,320
Speaker 1: that got you there is not functioning or crashing. So Joe,

533
00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:32,040
Speaker 1: I flew a few times this year. Uh where was

534
00:29:32,040 --> 00:29:35,560
Speaker 1: my injection seat? It's a total bummer, isn't it that

535
00:29:35,600 --> 00:29:38,400
Speaker 1: you do not get an escape pod in a regular

536
00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:43,080
Speaker 1: passenger aircraft? I want my money back. No, actually I don't,

537
00:29:43,080 --> 00:29:46,200
Speaker 1: because I arrived safely and so you know it's fine.

538
00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:49,240
Speaker 1: Uh So, there are a few patents that there. There

539
00:29:49,360 --> 00:29:51,240
Speaker 1: is a reason that I'm going to get to in

540
00:29:51,240 --> 00:29:54,560
Speaker 1: a minute why you don't usually see this in passenger aircraft.

541
00:29:54,640 --> 00:29:56,560
Speaker 1: But first I just want to look at a couple

542
00:29:56,560 --> 00:29:59,760
Speaker 1: of examples. One is a patent that I found filed

543
00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:06,120
Speaker 1: January two eleven by Tatiana ivan Evna dimon Chuk, who

544
00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:10,080
Speaker 1: wrote this patent for quote method for the mass Emergency

545
00:30:10,120 --> 00:30:15,080
Speaker 1: Evacuation of passengers from air Transport and Aeroplane with equipment

546
00:30:15,160 --> 00:30:19,320
Speaker 1: for rescuing passengers in an emergency situation. I have to

547
00:30:19,400 --> 00:30:22,520
Speaker 1: just comment reading a bunch of patents for this episode. Man,

548
00:30:22,560 --> 00:30:26,720
Speaker 1: the writing style of most patents is so awful. It

549
00:30:26,800 --> 00:30:29,600
Speaker 1: as if they're written explicitly to make it hard to

550
00:30:29,640 --> 00:30:32,880
Speaker 1: picture what they're talking about. Yeah, thank goodness there there

551
00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:35,600
Speaker 1: are often visuals to go with it, because otherwise it

552
00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:37,440
Speaker 1: would be very difficult to get the idea from some

553
00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:39,680
Speaker 1: of the writeups. Yeah. I don't mean to call this

554
00:30:39,680 --> 00:30:42,840
Speaker 1: one out in particular, but it also the writing wasn't

555
00:30:42,920 --> 00:30:45,720
Speaker 1: amazing on it. But yeah, that that's sort of across

556
00:30:45,760 --> 00:30:49,000
Speaker 1: the board. But anyway, basically, what is envisioned in this

557
00:30:49,040 --> 00:30:51,880
Speaker 1: one is that the airplane would have rows of seats

558
00:30:51,920 --> 00:30:56,400
Speaker 1: that are enclosable into smaller capsules, and then these capsules

559
00:30:56,440 --> 00:31:00,440
Speaker 1: would sit on some kind of guide track in inside

560
00:31:00,480 --> 00:31:04,640
Speaker 1: the airplane fuselage, and when an emergency occurs, the hatches

561
00:31:04,680 --> 00:31:08,840
Speaker 1: and the fuselage pop open and the seat containing capsules

562
00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:11,680
Speaker 1: would be ejected. According to one diagram, I saw. It

563
00:31:11,720 --> 00:31:14,320
Speaker 1: looks like they would sort of blast out of the

564
00:31:14,320 --> 00:31:16,920
Speaker 1: bottom of the plane and an angle diagonal to the

565
00:31:16,960 --> 00:31:21,120
Speaker 1: plan's movement. But yeah, I have not seen anyone claiming

566
00:31:21,120 --> 00:31:25,600
Speaker 1: that they're going to make a passenger plane incorporating these designs. Yeah,

567
00:31:25,640 --> 00:31:28,800
Speaker 1: this particular design it it basically think of there being

568
00:31:28,840 --> 00:31:32,280
Speaker 1: a tiny train inside the airplane, like little train cars,

569
00:31:32,320 --> 00:31:35,440
Speaker 1: little subway cars that have your your seats in them, right,

570
00:31:35,560 --> 00:31:40,720
Speaker 1: and then if, if, if, if necessary, if the situation

571
00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:44,479
Speaker 1: gets dire, each of those train cars may be pooped

572
00:31:44,480 --> 00:31:48,080
Speaker 1: out of the airplane. Oh it's a good one, Okay.

573
00:31:48,080 --> 00:31:50,680
Speaker 1: So I found another one also that there were some

574
00:31:50,800 --> 00:31:54,760
Speaker 1: reports about another supposed design for a passenger plane escape system,

575
00:31:54,840 --> 00:31:59,640
Speaker 1: this one by a Ukrainian engineer named Vladimir Nikolayevich Tatarenko,

576
00:32:00,400 --> 00:32:04,120
Speaker 1: And there are some YouTube videos demonstrating the concept, complete

577
00:32:04,160 --> 00:32:08,360
Speaker 1: with inspiring quotes by Confucius and Einstein and uh so,

578
00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:11,720
Speaker 1: the demonstration in the videos shows that under this design,

579
00:32:11,960 --> 00:32:14,400
Speaker 1: what would happen is that the lower part of the

580
00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:20,479
Speaker 1: fuselage detaches from the engine and pilot section of the plane,

581
00:32:21,040 --> 00:32:24,840
Speaker 1: including the entire passenger cabin and luggage storage. So if

582
00:32:24,840 --> 00:32:27,320
Speaker 1: you imagine it. It's like you get into the cabin

583
00:32:27,400 --> 00:32:31,040
Speaker 1: of the plane, and that is a detachable section of

584
00:32:31,080 --> 00:32:34,640
Speaker 1: the plane that attaches to the wings and the pilot's

585
00:32:34,720 --> 00:32:39,200
Speaker 1: area through through a connector, and so an emergency happens,

586
00:32:39,280 --> 00:32:42,360
Speaker 1: the cabin of the plane essentially just detaches from the

587
00:32:42,360 --> 00:32:46,440
Speaker 1: fuselage and comes off. Parachutes extend from containers on the

588
00:32:46,480 --> 00:32:49,440
Speaker 1: top of the escape capsule, and the cabin comes down

589
00:32:49,480 --> 00:32:54,120
Speaker 1: for a soft landing on inflatable cushions. I have to say,

590
00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:56,560
Speaker 1: I'm I'm a little iffy about this one because I've

591
00:32:56,600 --> 00:32:59,640
Speaker 1: mostly seen it covered on like viral news type sites.

592
00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:02,960
Speaker 1: You know about these inventions, Robert. Sometimes you see inventions

593
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:06,360
Speaker 1: that are covered in trade press for whatever field the

594
00:33:06,400 --> 00:33:09,400
Speaker 1: inventions in, and they're covered in mainstream news, and then

595
00:33:09,440 --> 00:33:11,200
Speaker 1: there are the other ones that get picked up on

596
00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:14,760
Speaker 1: like ain't that cool dot com? Or something. This one's

597
00:33:14,840 --> 00:33:18,680
Speaker 1: more of the latter type and uh, and so I

598
00:33:18,720 --> 00:33:22,040
Speaker 1: haven't seen it in serious sources covering aviation technology. What

599
00:33:22,120 --> 00:33:24,720
Speaker 1: little coverage it has gotten in mainstream press appears to

600
00:33:24,760 --> 00:33:28,160
Speaker 1: be pretty skeptical of the practicality of the model. So

601
00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:31,840
Speaker 1: I wouldn't expect to be seeing this implemented in any

602
00:33:31,880 --> 00:33:37,160
Speaker 1: real airplanes. But there's a larger problem here, which is

603
00:33:37,200 --> 00:33:39,640
Speaker 1: that even if you could make escape pods on passenger

604
00:33:39,720 --> 00:33:44,080
Speaker 1: aircraft work, which with enough motivation and investment, I'm sure

605
00:33:44,080 --> 00:33:46,840
Speaker 1: you probably could, I don't think that any of these

606
00:33:46,880 --> 00:33:49,280
Speaker 1: are ever going to become a real thing. One of

607
00:33:49,280 --> 00:33:53,000
Speaker 1: the first problems is that when you picture the capsules

608
00:33:53,120 --> 00:33:56,760
Speaker 1: coming off, coming out of the plane and then deploying

609
00:33:56,840 --> 00:34:01,240
Speaker 1: parachutes to parachute down to safety, that helps sometimes, but

610
00:34:01,560 --> 00:34:06,680
Speaker 1: the vast majority of airplane accidents happened during takeoff, ascent, descent,

611
00:34:06,840 --> 00:34:10,120
Speaker 1: and landing when you are nearer to the ground, and

612
00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:13,680
Speaker 1: parachute supported capsules are just going to be less likely

613
00:34:13,719 --> 00:34:16,799
Speaker 1: to meet a happy end. We mentioned earlier problems about

614
00:34:16,840 --> 00:34:19,279
Speaker 1: like trying to deploy a parachute when you're very close

615
00:34:19,320 --> 00:34:22,160
Speaker 1: to the ground, it doesn't usually work right, And think

616
00:34:22,160 --> 00:34:24,319
Speaker 1: back to all these the capsules we discussed so far

617
00:34:24,360 --> 00:34:27,760
Speaker 1: in military aviation, these are ejection capsules. These are essentially

618
00:34:27,760 --> 00:34:31,600
Speaker 1: fancy ejection seats and versions of the ejection seat, which

619
00:34:31,600 --> 00:34:35,360
Speaker 1: of course launches the individual away from the plane generally

620
00:34:35,920 --> 00:34:39,319
Speaker 1: upward um And that I mean like, for instance, that

621
00:34:39,680 --> 00:34:42,640
Speaker 1: F one eleven example we saw where there is exceedingly

622
00:34:42,680 --> 00:34:46,720
Speaker 1: low altitude that the reason they survived is probably because

623
00:34:46,760 --> 00:34:49,520
Speaker 1: it launched the capsule up far enough for the parachute

624
00:34:49,520 --> 00:34:52,160
Speaker 1: to come into play for them. Right. Uh So I

625
00:34:52,200 --> 00:34:56,239
Speaker 1: found a twenty sixteen Boeing statistical summary compiling all the

626
00:34:56,239 --> 00:35:00,719
Speaker 1: fatal commercial aircraft accidents and in the world send while

627
00:35:00,760 --> 00:35:03,399
Speaker 1: it was between two thousand and six and twenty and

628
00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:06,279
Speaker 1: this only includes things that you would actually consider accidents,

629
00:35:06,320 --> 00:35:09,959
Speaker 1: not things like terrorists, bombs, or missile strikes. But during

630
00:35:09,960 --> 00:35:14,319
Speaker 1: this period, only twelve percent of their fatal accidents and

631
00:35:14,320 --> 00:35:19,239
Speaker 1: twenty four percent of onboard fatalities occurred during the cruise

632
00:35:19,360 --> 00:35:21,920
Speaker 1: portion of the flight, which is what this is when

633
00:35:21,920 --> 00:35:24,360
Speaker 1: the plane is that it's regular flying altitude. Most of

634
00:35:24,400 --> 00:35:26,640
Speaker 1: the time you're in the air is the cruise section. Yeah,

635
00:35:26,640 --> 00:35:28,520
Speaker 1: this is the part where you can get up, walk around,

636
00:35:28,600 --> 00:35:31,319
Speaker 1: go to the bathroom, and become increasingly annoyed at the

637
00:35:31,320 --> 00:35:33,920
Speaker 1: other people on the plane. Right, So this is going

638
00:35:33,960 --> 00:35:36,560
Speaker 1: to be the majority of your flight time, but the

639
00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:40,680
Speaker 1: minority of where accidents occur, the vast minority, About eighteen

640
00:35:40,719 --> 00:35:44,640
Speaker 1: percent of fatal accidents and fourteen percent of onboard fatalities

641
00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:48,760
Speaker 1: occurred during takeoff and climb, and about fifty nine percent

642
00:35:48,800 --> 00:35:52,160
Speaker 1: of fatal accidents and sixty one percent of onboard fatalities

643
00:35:52,160 --> 00:35:55,480
Speaker 1: happened during descent and landing. And so one thing you

644
00:35:55,520 --> 00:35:57,520
Speaker 1: know is from these stats is that if you do

645
00:35:57,640 --> 00:36:00,200
Speaker 1: happen to be in the rare midflight acts it in,

646
00:36:00,600 --> 00:36:02,799
Speaker 1: it is more likely to be a fatal one. That's

647
00:36:02,840 --> 00:36:05,840
Speaker 1: kind of intuitive, right, since it's twelve percent of the accidents,

648
00:36:05,840 --> 00:36:10,160
Speaker 1: but accounting of the fatalities, but they just happen a

649
00:36:10,200 --> 00:36:13,440
Speaker 1: lot less often. Most of the bad stuff happens near

650
00:36:13,680 --> 00:36:16,399
Speaker 1: or on the ground. Sometimes that you haven't even left

651
00:36:16,400 --> 00:36:18,720
Speaker 1: the ground. You're on the runway when something bad happens.

652
00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:21,040
Speaker 1: Uh And the closer yard of the ground, the more

653
00:36:21,280 --> 00:36:26,720
Speaker 1: useless a proposition like these escape pods becomes. Overall, flying

654
00:36:26,760 --> 00:36:30,080
Speaker 1: in airplanes is incredibly safe. You I know you've probably

655
00:36:30,080 --> 00:36:32,880
Speaker 1: heard stats about this before, how it's more dangerous to

656
00:36:32,920 --> 00:36:35,359
Speaker 1: be in a car than an aircraft by pretty much

657
00:36:35,400 --> 00:36:37,759
Speaker 1: every measure you can look at. I think this is true.

658
00:36:37,960 --> 00:36:40,680
Speaker 1: Uh So there are different ways to estimate the difference,

659
00:36:40,719 --> 00:36:42,640
Speaker 1: but here's one thing I found that puts it in

660
00:36:42,800 --> 00:36:46,160
Speaker 1: terms of lifetime risks. So the U s. National Safety

661
00:36:46,160 --> 00:36:50,480
Speaker 1: Council used its yearly injury statistics. They do this every

662
00:36:50,520 --> 00:36:53,800
Speaker 1: year to compile and odds of Dying chart, which is

663
00:36:53,800 --> 00:36:56,920
Speaker 1: a good idea, right. It ranks your lifetime chances of

664
00:36:56,960 --> 00:37:01,279
Speaker 1: being killed by particular things. So in fifteen they claim

665
00:37:01,320 --> 00:37:03,200
Speaker 1: that your odds of dying in a plane crash are

666
00:37:03,320 --> 00:37:06,720
Speaker 1: one in ninety six thousand, five hundred and sixty six.

667
00:37:07,400 --> 00:37:09,880
Speaker 1: And according to their data, you are much more likely

668
00:37:09,960 --> 00:37:13,480
Speaker 1: to be killed by electriccution that's one in twelve thousand,

669
00:37:13,480 --> 00:37:17,479
Speaker 1: two hundred, by a b wasp or hornet sting that's

670
00:37:17,560 --> 00:37:20,839
Speaker 1: one in fifty five thousand or so, or in a

671
00:37:20,880 --> 00:37:23,200
Speaker 1: motor vehicle crash, which is about one in a hundred

672
00:37:23,200 --> 00:37:25,920
Speaker 1: and twelve. And I might add that in two thousand

673
00:37:25,880 --> 00:37:28,680
Speaker 1: and eight, the same organization rated your lifetime chances of

674
00:37:28,760 --> 00:37:32,080
Speaker 1: dying in a space or air travel accident at one

675
00:37:32,120 --> 00:37:35,200
Speaker 1: in seven thousand, one hundred and seventy eight. So things

676
00:37:35,200 --> 00:37:39,000
Speaker 1: seem to be vastly improving. So your odds of dying

677
00:37:39,040 --> 00:37:42,719
Speaker 1: in an air travel accident are already exceedingly low. And

678
00:37:42,800 --> 00:37:45,560
Speaker 1: if you are in a fatal plane accident, it's most

679
00:37:45,600 --> 00:37:48,560
Speaker 1: likely to happen on the runway or at low altitude,

680
00:37:48,800 --> 00:37:51,840
Speaker 1: where an escape pod attached to parachutes is much less

681
00:37:51,880 --> 00:37:54,840
Speaker 1: likely to help you. UH. The parachutes just probably wouldn't

682
00:37:54,880 --> 00:37:57,280
Speaker 1: have time to unfold and decelerate you before you crash

683
00:37:57,320 --> 00:37:59,600
Speaker 1: into the ground or catch on fire. But of course,

684
00:37:59,600 --> 00:38:02,440
Speaker 1: another thing to consider is economics. We mentioned at the

685
00:38:02,440 --> 00:38:06,720
Speaker 1: beginning the economics of the military considerations. UH. Adding escape

686
00:38:06,760 --> 00:38:10,200
Speaker 1: pods to passenger planes means building new planes and making

687
00:38:10,239 --> 00:38:14,880
Speaker 1: them much heavier and bulkier, which decreases passenger payload capacity

688
00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:18,160
Speaker 1: increases fuel costs. If you want an airplane with an

689
00:38:18,239 --> 00:38:20,360
Speaker 1: escape pod, I think you're gonna need to be prepared

690
00:38:20,400 --> 00:38:23,120
Speaker 1: to pay the nine thousand dollars per ticket or whatever

691
00:38:23,239 --> 00:38:28,000
Speaker 1: it ends up costing. One more thing I wanted to consider.

692
00:38:28,360 --> 00:38:31,640
Speaker 1: I found an article in a publication called Defense One

693
00:38:31,719 --> 00:38:34,880
Speaker 1: which is from Atlantic Media, called why your plane can't

694
00:38:34,920 --> 00:38:38,040
Speaker 1: have an escape pod? And this offered one thing I

695
00:38:38,080 --> 00:38:40,759
Speaker 1: hadn't thought of that they author of this spoke to

696
00:38:41,120 --> 00:38:44,759
Speaker 1: somebody named David aiken whose director of Space systems the

697
00:38:44,800 --> 00:38:49,800
Speaker 1: Space Systems Laboratory at the University of Maryland, and Aikin said, quote,

698
00:38:49,800 --> 00:38:52,280
Speaker 1: you have to be careful you don't cause an accident

699
00:38:52,360 --> 00:38:56,960
Speaker 1: because of an inadvertent actuation of the safety system. It's

700
00:38:57,000 --> 00:39:00,759
Speaker 1: an accident that wouldn't happen without the safety system. That

701
00:39:00,800 --> 00:39:03,440
Speaker 1: didn't even cross my mind. But of course that's the case, right,

702
00:39:03,520 --> 00:39:06,239
Speaker 1: You could have lots because every time you activate an

703
00:39:06,280 --> 00:39:11,200
Speaker 1: injector system, you are increasing your likelihood of death in

704
00:39:11,239 --> 00:39:15,600
Speaker 1: an ejection incident. And uh, and the chance of you

705
00:39:15,719 --> 00:39:17,960
Speaker 1: dying in a passenger plane is already so low. It

706
00:39:18,040 --> 00:39:21,359
Speaker 1: just does not seem like a good cost benefit trade off. Yeah,

707
00:39:21,400 --> 00:39:23,880
Speaker 1: I mean, an ejection seat or an ejection capsule is

708
00:39:23,880 --> 00:39:29,000
Speaker 1: an incredibly dangerous device to have. Um. I believe if

709
00:39:29,040 --> 00:39:30,560
Speaker 1: you go to a you go to an air show

710
00:39:30,600 --> 00:39:33,840
Speaker 1: and somebody say, flies in a MiG or or some

711
00:39:33,920 --> 00:39:38,560
Speaker 1: sort of you know, older Now, a non military craft,

712
00:39:39,160 --> 00:39:41,799
Speaker 1: if it had an ejection seat in its previous life,

713
00:39:41,840 --> 00:39:45,200
Speaker 1: it probably does not have one today because it's just

714
00:39:45,239 --> 00:39:47,960
Speaker 1: not the kind of thing that a non military craft

715
00:39:48,400 --> 00:39:52,439
Speaker 1: should have. One last thing about passenger planes. All those

716
00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:55,280
Speaker 1: movies that show Air Force One with an escape pod,

717
00:39:55,719 --> 00:39:58,120
Speaker 1: the best of course, being as we mentioned earlier Escape

718
00:39:58,120 --> 00:40:00,720
Speaker 1: from New York, Donald Pleasants gets in the again. It's

719
00:40:00,719 --> 00:40:03,600
Speaker 1: it's wonderful. Are there others? Air Force one has an

720
00:40:03,680 --> 00:40:06,239
Speaker 1: escape pod? Here's one how about the movie Air Force One?

721
00:40:06,520 --> 00:40:08,640
Speaker 1: I never saw it? Is this where is this Harrison

722
00:40:08,719 --> 00:40:13,200
Speaker 1: Ford versus uh, Gary Oldman and Gary? Or is it Gary? Okay,

723
00:40:13,400 --> 00:40:16,000
Speaker 1: I can't remember. I want to say it's Gary Oldman

724
00:40:16,200 --> 00:40:19,239
Speaker 1: has president and Harrison Ford is the president. Okay, he's

725
00:40:19,239 --> 00:40:21,759
Speaker 1: the president. He's on Air Force one. Some terrorists get

726
00:40:21,800 --> 00:40:24,120
Speaker 1: on his plane. I think they're led by Gary Oldman

727
00:40:24,200 --> 00:40:26,480
Speaker 1: from what I remember. They attack him. He says, get

728
00:40:26,520 --> 00:40:29,640
Speaker 1: off my plane, and he fights them. And so this

729
00:40:29,760 --> 00:40:33,120
Speaker 1: came out in July n and I found a Time

730
00:40:33,239 --> 00:40:37,399
Speaker 1: CNN article from that summer reacting to the movie Air

731
00:40:37,440 --> 00:40:40,560
Speaker 1: Force One and comparing its Air Force one set to

732
00:40:40,600 --> 00:40:42,880
Speaker 1: the real Air Force one. Now and in the movie,

733
00:40:43,280 --> 00:40:46,600
Speaker 1: actually the plane has an escape pod. The article speaks

734
00:40:46,600 --> 00:40:49,480
Speaker 1: to a White House aid confirms there is no escape

735
00:40:49,480 --> 00:40:52,680
Speaker 1: pod in the real Air Force one, but apparently Bill

736
00:40:52,719 --> 00:40:56,239
Speaker 1: Clinton wanted one. Well you come in. I think they

737
00:40:56,239 --> 00:40:58,279
Speaker 1: were joking, that's what they said. Well, I mean he

738
00:40:58,360 --> 00:41:00,480
Speaker 1: come back to the economic model is one of the

739
00:41:00,480 --> 00:41:03,239
Speaker 1: cases where it would make sense right to have an

740
00:41:03,239 --> 00:41:09,920
Speaker 1: ejection capsule for the most powerful individual in the United States.

741
00:41:09,920 --> 00:41:13,359
Speaker 1: But I don't know how much does the president cost um.

742
00:41:13,400 --> 00:41:17,080
Speaker 1: I think there are there are price tag evaluations available

743
00:41:17,080 --> 00:41:19,640
Speaker 1: now on that topic, But it makes sense that they

744
00:41:19,880 --> 00:41:22,800
Speaker 1: might have one in that scenario, but apparently they don't. However,

745
00:41:22,880 --> 00:41:25,520
Speaker 1: would they let us know if there was one? Uh,

746
00:41:25,800 --> 00:41:28,239
Speaker 1: that's a good question. Maybe they're just psyching us out.

747
00:41:28,360 --> 00:41:32,680
Speaker 1: I have heard of certain situations with informational websites with

748
00:41:32,800 --> 00:41:36,520
Speaker 1: information about Air Force one being asked to, you know,

749
00:41:36,600 --> 00:41:40,440
Speaker 1: cut down on the detail. Yeah, wow, interest to the

750
00:41:40,440 --> 00:41:42,759
Speaker 1: great fun. Uh So, I don't know. You can you

751
00:41:42,760 --> 00:41:45,200
Speaker 1: can run with the conspiracy theories there. Maybe there's a

752
00:41:45,239 --> 00:41:48,879
Speaker 1: secret escape pot alright, Well, on that note, we're gonna

753
00:41:48,920 --> 00:41:51,880
Speaker 1: take a break, a quick break for you. We're actually

754
00:41:51,920 --> 00:41:54,520
Speaker 1: going to take a break for several days and then

755
00:41:54,600 --> 00:41:56,439
Speaker 1: come back in and finish this. So if we sound

756
00:41:56,480 --> 00:41:59,319
Speaker 1: a little different, if we sound better, healthier, if we

757
00:41:59,360 --> 00:42:01,440
Speaker 1: sound worse, of you sound a little sicker, well it's

758
00:42:01,440 --> 00:42:03,920
Speaker 1: because a few days past. But when we come back

759
00:42:03,960 --> 00:42:07,120
Speaker 1: few days contemplating the torture chamber. Yes, when we come back, though,

760
00:42:07,160 --> 00:42:11,359
Speaker 1: we are going to get into escape pods in space exploration,

761
00:42:11,520 --> 00:42:18,160
Speaker 1: both actual and the merely proposed. I'm at, I'm null,

762
00:42:18,320 --> 00:42:21,000
Speaker 1: I'm ben, and we are stuff they don't want you

763
00:42:21,080 --> 00:42:24,160
Speaker 1: to know. Each week we cover the latest and strangest

764
00:42:24,200 --> 00:42:28,080
Speaker 1: in fringe science, government cover ups, allegations at the paranormal,

765
00:42:28,200 --> 00:42:32,080
Speaker 1: and more. New episodes come out every Friday on iTunes, Spotify,

766
00:42:32,160 --> 00:42:39,920
Speaker 1: Google Play, and anywhere else you get your podcasts. All right,

767
00:42:39,960 --> 00:42:43,200
Speaker 1: we're back. So we've been talking about aviation, escape pods,

768
00:42:43,320 --> 00:42:47,040
Speaker 1: escape capsules. But what about outer space? Like that's the

769
00:42:47,320 --> 00:42:50,839
Speaker 1: next most dangerous environment. Like if if the air, if

770
00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:53,120
Speaker 1: the the upper atmosphere is not dangerous enough, let's go

771
00:42:53,360 --> 00:42:56,480
Speaker 1: beyond the upper atmosphere, let's go into orbit and possibly

772
00:42:56,560 --> 00:42:59,960
Speaker 1: rooms beyond. What do we do about escaping those situations? Well,

773
00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:02,759
Speaker 1: space is the natural home of the escape pod, isn't

774
00:43:02,800 --> 00:43:04,359
Speaker 1: it Because if we if we see it in sci

775
00:43:04,400 --> 00:43:06,800
Speaker 1: fi most often, like that's where you get in the capsule,

776
00:43:06,840 --> 00:43:09,839
Speaker 1: you blast down to tattooing or wherever that that that's

777
00:43:09,880 --> 00:43:13,440
Speaker 1: where we really see escape pods come to fruition. And

778
00:43:13,520 --> 00:43:16,440
Speaker 1: it is quite true that humans have designed escape pods

779
00:43:16,920 --> 00:43:19,600
Speaker 1: for spacecraft. Now, they're kind of different than they are

780
00:43:19,600 --> 00:43:22,440
Speaker 1: in the movies, because what happens in a movie like Oh,

781
00:43:22,520 --> 00:43:25,040
Speaker 1: I don't know, Aliens or something like that, where there

782
00:43:25,040 --> 00:43:27,799
Speaker 1: there are capsules that you're you're in deep space and

783
00:43:27,880 --> 00:43:30,480
Speaker 1: you get into a capsule to blast away from a

784
00:43:30,480 --> 00:43:34,160
Speaker 1: ship that is exploding or infested with aliens or something

785
00:43:34,239 --> 00:43:35,719
Speaker 1: like that, and then what do you do. You just

786
00:43:35,920 --> 00:43:39,919
Speaker 1: drift off into space. Well, there's no I mean, that's

787
00:43:39,960 --> 00:43:42,520
Speaker 1: not very useful as far as things go right now,

788
00:43:42,560 --> 00:43:45,560
Speaker 1: because we do not have deep rescue vehicles in deep

789
00:43:45,600 --> 00:43:48,920
Speaker 1: space operating between planets and star systems. This is one

790
00:43:48,920 --> 00:43:51,440
Speaker 1: of the ideas that came up in Pandora, is that

791
00:43:52,120 --> 00:43:54,239
Speaker 1: it's that everyone would would go mad on the ship,

792
00:43:54,320 --> 00:43:56,560
Speaker 1: and you'd go into your escape pods, and you blast

793
00:43:56,560 --> 00:43:58,439
Speaker 1: off in the escape pods, and then you just die

794
00:43:58,440 --> 00:44:01,239
Speaker 1: out there because nobody's coming to pick up exactly. I mean,

795
00:44:01,840 --> 00:44:05,680
Speaker 1: what's the point. But there may be a point if

796
00:44:05,719 --> 00:44:09,000
Speaker 1: you're talking about stuff that stays really close to Earth,

797
00:44:09,040 --> 00:44:11,799
Speaker 1: which almost all well all of our all of our

798
00:44:11,880 --> 00:44:15,239
Speaker 1: crewed spacecraft so far have So in the early days

799
00:44:15,280 --> 00:44:17,759
Speaker 1: of crewed space flight, there were a lot of proposals

800
00:44:17,800 --> 00:44:20,319
Speaker 1: for various types of escape pods, and I actually found

801
00:44:20,320 --> 00:44:23,520
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe this. I found an issue of Popular

802
00:44:23,600 --> 00:44:27,320
Speaker 1: Science from September nineteen sixty six with an article called

803
00:44:27,400 --> 00:44:31,439
Speaker 1: quote Lifeboats in Space, by none other than Dr Verner

804
00:44:31,560 --> 00:44:34,960
Speaker 1: von Braun all about the all about the subject of

805
00:44:35,200 --> 00:44:39,600
Speaker 1: rescue from orbital vehicles. Vernon von Braun, of course, the

806
00:44:40,640 --> 00:44:44,479
Speaker 1: famed former German rocket scientists who came to the US

807
00:44:44,520 --> 00:44:46,960
Speaker 1: after the War with I think you mostly stationed out

808
00:44:47,000 --> 00:44:50,520
Speaker 1: of Huntsville, Alabama, and uh yeah, contributed a great deal

809
00:44:50,800 --> 00:44:54,919
Speaker 1: to our space program. Yeah, so, von Braun says, so far,

810
00:44:55,000 --> 00:44:58,480
Speaker 1: and this is nineteen sixty six. Remember, space missions have

811
00:44:58,560 --> 00:45:00,880
Speaker 1: been very safe, but we're gonna have to expect that

812
00:45:00,960 --> 00:45:06,560
Speaker 1: at some point a crewed spacecraft will signal distress. What then,

813
00:45:06,840 --> 00:45:09,759
Speaker 1: I mean, imagine it's the nineteen sixties. What happens if

814
00:45:09,800 --> 00:45:13,640
Speaker 1: there's a problem, right, I mean, you have no recourse yet.

815
00:45:13,840 --> 00:45:17,680
Speaker 1: So what he's proposing is we need a space rescue program.

816
00:45:17,719 --> 00:45:20,000
Speaker 1: So he says, imagine a crew is stuck in a

817
00:45:20,040 --> 00:45:24,480
Speaker 1: spacecraft in lower th orbit caused by a malfunctioning retro rocket.

818
00:45:25,120 --> 00:45:29,000
Speaker 1: Von Braun essentially compares this to the situation of like

819
00:45:29,040 --> 00:45:32,040
Speaker 1: a fishing boat that gets stuck off shore at sea

820
00:45:32,120 --> 00:45:35,320
Speaker 1: and starts sinking. If you call for help, then evacuate

821
00:45:35,360 --> 00:45:38,200
Speaker 1: the crew into a lifeboat. You can probably be saved.

822
00:45:38,800 --> 00:45:42,560
Speaker 1: But we need to develop the equivalent structures for rescue

823
00:45:42,680 --> 00:45:46,520
Speaker 1: within space. You need to develop lifeboats and rescue vehicles

824
00:45:46,560 --> 00:45:49,440
Speaker 1: for space and orbital flight the same way you'd have

825
00:45:49,560 --> 00:45:52,759
Speaker 1: them for for the ocean, right off the coast. So

826
00:45:53,840 --> 00:45:56,080
Speaker 1: you would have to send the orbital equivalent of a

827
00:45:56,120 --> 00:46:00,440
Speaker 1: coastguard cutter essentially to rescue a spacecraft in trouble. But

828
00:46:00,560 --> 00:46:03,879
Speaker 1: that's difficult because you have to wait for an appropriate

829
00:46:03,960 --> 00:46:06,880
Speaker 1: launch window to allow a rendezvous between the two ships.

830
00:46:06,880 --> 00:46:10,000
Speaker 1: As we know from rocket launches, you can't just fly

831
00:46:10,239 --> 00:46:11,520
Speaker 1: up there, you know what I mean. It's not like

832
00:46:11,560 --> 00:46:14,480
Speaker 1: getting in a helicopter and heading off. That you're dealing

833
00:46:14,520 --> 00:46:19,880
Speaker 1: with with massively powerful velocities and great mass, So you

834
00:46:19,960 --> 00:46:22,759
Speaker 1: essentially have to aim your gun the right way to

835
00:46:22,880 --> 00:46:26,200
Speaker 1: start with. Yeah, it's an enormous undertaking. Yeah, and so

836
00:46:26,200 --> 00:46:28,680
Speaker 1: so you've got to get this rendezvous between the two ships.

837
00:46:28,840 --> 00:46:32,000
Speaker 1: And if the ship in distress is suffering a real emergency,

838
00:46:32,920 --> 00:46:35,200
Speaker 1: it might be too long for them to wait for

839
00:46:35,239 --> 00:46:37,719
Speaker 1: somebody on Earth to line up the trajectory of the

840
00:46:37,800 --> 00:46:41,839
Speaker 1: launch and wait for the correct launch window. Um. So, uh,

841
00:46:42,400 --> 00:46:45,480
Speaker 1: For example, a substantial number of spacecraft and emergencies we

842
00:46:45,600 --> 00:46:48,319
Speaker 1: just know are going to demand immediate rescue, they're going

843
00:46:48,360 --> 00:46:51,400
Speaker 1: to be very urgent. For example of Von Braun, it

844
00:46:51,480 --> 00:46:54,480
Speaker 1: gives the example of fire. This was back when NASA

845
00:46:54,880 --> 00:46:59,359
Speaker 1: was using oxygen environments and in its spacecraft. That don't

846
00:46:59,400 --> 00:47:03,000
Speaker 1: do that anymore, but yeah, exactly, and it led to

847
00:47:03,120 --> 00:47:06,520
Speaker 1: disasters in the history of the space program. Or another

848
00:47:06,560 --> 00:47:09,200
Speaker 1: thing might be penetration of the spacecraft by a heavy,

849
00:47:09,239 --> 00:47:11,960
Speaker 1: heavy meteoroid. You know, you get pelted with something, it

850
00:47:12,160 --> 00:47:15,360
Speaker 1: breaks through the hull, You've got to escape immediately. You

851
00:47:15,400 --> 00:47:19,640
Speaker 1: can't wait for rescue vehicle obviously, can collision with another

852
00:47:19,640 --> 00:47:22,640
Speaker 1: spacecraft would be a problem, or toxic fumes in the

853
00:47:22,680 --> 00:47:26,239
Speaker 1: cabin or maybe radiation contamination from he he gives the

854
00:47:26,280 --> 00:47:31,440
Speaker 1: example of an onboard nuclear power source. Wow, that sounds

855
00:47:31,440 --> 00:47:34,120
Speaker 1: pretty awful, but anyway, So von Bron concludes that we

856
00:47:34,160 --> 00:47:37,040
Speaker 1: need to think about the concept of lifeboats that allow

857
00:47:37,200 --> 00:47:41,560
Speaker 1: spacecraft crews to escape immediately on their own terms. So

858
00:47:41,600 --> 00:47:44,520
Speaker 1: he's what he's proposing is escape pods. And so I'm

859
00:47:44,520 --> 00:47:47,799
Speaker 1: going to mention a few that are illustrated alongside this

860
00:47:47,920 --> 00:47:51,279
Speaker 1: article from sixty six. And these illustrations are great, by

861
00:47:51,320 --> 00:47:54,440
Speaker 1: the way. So one example that he gives is, uh,

862
00:47:54,520 --> 00:47:57,960
Speaker 1: the emergency cocoon, and he says this is under test

863
00:47:58,000 --> 00:48:02,200
Speaker 1: by general electric quote shelter. He's shipwrecked spaceman in an

864
00:48:02,200 --> 00:48:07,080
Speaker 1: inflated fabric ball. Heat insulated by outer later outer layers

865
00:48:07,160 --> 00:48:12,480
Speaker 1: of aluminiumized plastic, thin silicon rubber lining retains oxygen carried

866
00:48:12,520 --> 00:48:17,000
Speaker 1: for breathing, but let's unwanted carbon dioxide and water vapor escape.

867
00:48:17,080 --> 00:48:19,319
Speaker 1: So they're putting you in a beach ball. Yeah, it's

868
00:48:19,320 --> 00:48:21,880
Speaker 1: like a survival bubble kind of the situation. You climb

869
00:48:21,880 --> 00:48:24,160
Speaker 1: into a beach ball, you blast off from your ship,

870
00:48:24,200 --> 00:48:26,279
Speaker 1: and you just float around in orbit in your beach

871
00:48:26,280 --> 00:48:29,520
Speaker 1: ball until the rescue vehicle can come up and get

872
00:48:29,560 --> 00:48:31,799
Speaker 1: to you, you know, when you can't remain in your ship.

873
00:48:32,280 --> 00:48:36,200
Speaker 1: The other one would be the quote separable shelter, and

874
00:48:36,239 --> 00:48:40,600
Speaker 1: this looks more like a huge thermus that everybody gets in. Right.

875
00:48:40,640 --> 00:48:42,960
Speaker 1: It also reminds like both of these remind me of

876
00:48:42,840 --> 00:48:46,279
Speaker 1: of like toys you can buy it ikea. The first one,

877
00:48:46,320 --> 00:48:48,080
Speaker 1: the ball. The second one is like one of these

878
00:48:48,080 --> 00:48:50,160
Speaker 1: little tunnels that you get where it's like a like

879
00:48:50,200 --> 00:48:52,480
Speaker 1: a fabric tunnel that you stretch out and then children

880
00:48:52,600 --> 00:48:55,759
Speaker 1: can crawl through. Yeah. So von Bron says that the

881
00:48:55,800 --> 00:48:58,879
Speaker 1: separable shelter. It holds five to fifteen men and can

882
00:48:58,920 --> 00:49:02,919
Speaker 1: serve as a life for large space vehicles of the future. Uh,

883
00:49:02,920 --> 00:49:05,680
Speaker 1: And it has rocket self propulsion that can boost it

884
00:49:05,760 --> 00:49:08,880
Speaker 1: to higher, longer lived orbit that allows more time for rescue.

885
00:49:09,800 --> 00:49:12,880
Speaker 1: So these are more like the sort of roomy escape

886
00:49:12,920 --> 00:49:16,360
Speaker 1: shuttles of sci fi movies, but they still require ultimate

887
00:49:16,520 --> 00:49:19,160
Speaker 1: rendezvous with the rescue vehicle that's going to gather the

888
00:49:19,200 --> 00:49:22,440
Speaker 1: crew and return to Earth under its own specifications. Right,

889
00:49:22,480 --> 00:49:24,359
Speaker 1: these things are not going to re enter the Earth's

890
00:49:24,400 --> 00:49:27,319
Speaker 1: atmosphere in their current form, right. What if you want

891
00:49:27,360 --> 00:49:29,480
Speaker 1: to make an escape pod that will get you all

892
00:49:29,560 --> 00:49:32,960
Speaker 1: the way home on your own, Well, that's gonna be

893
00:49:33,200 --> 00:49:36,400
Speaker 1: a different undertaking altogether, exactly. So it makes no sense

894
00:49:36,440 --> 00:49:39,320
Speaker 1: to have a full on re entry capable space ship

895
00:49:39,880 --> 00:49:43,160
Speaker 1: inside your regular spaceship, at least on the scale that

896
00:49:43,320 --> 00:49:46,840
Speaker 1: we create spaceships right now. Because spacecraft were then and

897
00:49:46,880 --> 00:49:51,239
Speaker 1: are still now totally optimized for weight and volume like that,

898
00:49:51,320 --> 00:49:54,360
Speaker 1: they tend to be very small, pack tight, and to

899
00:49:54,440 --> 00:49:57,240
Speaker 1: have as light as possible a design to make launch

900
00:49:57,280 --> 00:50:00,680
Speaker 1: economically feasible. For really crude under standing of this, if

901
00:50:00,719 --> 00:50:03,000
Speaker 1: you've never thought about it before. Just look at the

902
00:50:03,080 --> 00:50:06,920
Speaker 1: size of the orbiter vehicle itself compared to the size

903
00:50:06,960 --> 00:50:09,160
Speaker 1: of the rockets used to get it in orbit with

904
00:50:09,200 --> 00:50:12,919
Speaker 1: any given launch. It's hilarious. There's usually there's way more

905
00:50:12,960 --> 00:50:17,080
Speaker 1: fuel than there is spaceship um, and so it's not

906
00:50:17,200 --> 00:50:20,480
Speaker 1: feasible to make a spaceship within your spaceship to get

907
00:50:20,520 --> 00:50:23,560
Speaker 1: you home. So how could you make a self contained

908
00:50:23,600 --> 00:50:26,399
Speaker 1: re entry vehicle that would be very light and fit

909
00:50:26,480 --> 00:50:29,360
Speaker 1: in storage on the already cramped crew vehicles of the

910
00:50:29,440 --> 00:50:34,640
Speaker 1: nineteen sixties. Well, some geniuses in space design and aeronautics

911
00:50:34,719 --> 00:50:37,480
Speaker 1: in the nineteen sixties had a solution to this, and

912
00:50:37,520 --> 00:50:42,080
Speaker 1: it was inflatable options. So we already mentioned the beach

913
00:50:42,080 --> 00:50:44,200
Speaker 1: ball floating in space, but this would be the beach

914
00:50:44,280 --> 00:50:47,920
Speaker 1: ball that you re enter the burning atmosphere through or

915
00:50:48,000 --> 00:50:50,120
Speaker 1: I guess the atmosphere is not burning, but once you're

916
00:50:50,200 --> 00:50:53,920
Speaker 1: re entering the atmosphere high velocity, uh, you will be burning.

917
00:50:54,600 --> 00:50:57,640
Speaker 1: So the space historian James Oberg has a good article

918
00:50:57,680 --> 00:51:00,520
Speaker 1: about this from two thousand three called The po People

919
00:51:00,719 --> 00:51:04,120
Speaker 1: Nice Reference, published in Air and Space Magazine, and he

920
00:51:04,160 --> 00:51:05,920
Speaker 1: talks about how in the early days of the space

921
00:51:05,960 --> 00:51:10,520
Speaker 1: program researchers were experimenting with inflatable re entry vehicles, called

922
00:51:10,560 --> 00:51:15,600
Speaker 1: things like the inflatable micro meteoroid paraglider, And this wasn't

923
00:51:15,600 --> 00:51:18,600
Speaker 1: originally meant as an escape pod, but as a research

924
00:51:18,680 --> 00:51:21,160
Speaker 1: probe to fly up in space and get pelted by

925
00:51:21,200 --> 00:51:24,200
Speaker 1: micro medioroids, essentially to try to figure out, you know,

926
00:51:24,239 --> 00:51:26,719
Speaker 1: what's the density of solid objects in Earth, or but

927
00:51:26,840 --> 00:51:28,480
Speaker 1: if you go up in space, how often can you

928
00:51:28,520 --> 00:51:31,600
Speaker 1: expect to get hit by hard stuff? And so there

929
00:51:31,600 --> 00:51:34,000
Speaker 1: were research vehicles like this, but they also actually did

930
00:51:34,120 --> 00:51:39,719
Speaker 1: end up designing inflatable reentry vehicles, uh with with the

931
00:51:39,800 --> 00:51:43,960
Speaker 1: designs essentially resembling, as I already said, paragliders, but they

932
00:51:43,960 --> 00:51:46,040
Speaker 1: would have a heat shield of some kind so that

933
00:51:46,040 --> 00:51:48,080
Speaker 1: when you re enter the atmosphere you don't catch on

934
00:51:48,160 --> 00:51:52,160
Speaker 1: fire and burn up and explode. One of the designs

935
00:51:52,160 --> 00:51:55,360
Speaker 1: he mentioned is a modified ro Gallo wing, which is

936
00:51:55,400 --> 00:51:58,359
Speaker 1: basically a hang glider, but imagine sort of a hang

937
00:51:58,400 --> 00:52:01,480
Speaker 1: glider with struts. It instead of being made of metal,

938
00:52:01,880 --> 00:52:05,600
Speaker 1: are a fabric tube that gets inflated with gas to

939
00:52:05,680 --> 00:52:09,000
Speaker 1: such a high pressure that it becomes rigid. And so

940
00:52:09,520 --> 00:52:12,000
Speaker 1: that's what we're dealing with. But back to von Braun

941
00:52:12,120 --> 00:52:14,600
Speaker 1: in ninety in the nineteen sixty six because he's going

942
00:52:14,640 --> 00:52:18,719
Speaker 1: to point out, uh, some of these crazy personal reentry

943
00:52:18,800 --> 00:52:21,640
Speaker 1: vehicles that were under development at the time he was writing.

944
00:52:22,400 --> 00:52:25,719
Speaker 1: The first is the space parachute, which he says is

945
00:52:25,760 --> 00:52:29,719
Speaker 1: a is a concept from Douglas and essentially it's an

946
00:52:29,719 --> 00:52:32,640
Speaker 1: objector seat sort of like you would see in like

947
00:52:32,680 --> 00:52:35,239
Speaker 1: a like a fighter jet, you know, if you have

948
00:52:35,280 --> 00:52:38,560
Speaker 1: to eject, so you're in your seat, and then you've

949
00:52:38,600 --> 00:52:41,400
Speaker 1: got a retro rocket that you used to orient yourself

950
00:52:41,440 --> 00:52:44,799
Speaker 1: to de orbit to come down back into the atmosphere. Um,

951
00:52:45,040 --> 00:52:47,400
Speaker 1: and then you've got this what what he calls a

952
00:52:47,480 --> 00:52:52,240
Speaker 1: conical drags skirt that deploys for self self stabilizing reentry,

953
00:52:52,280 --> 00:52:55,520
Speaker 1: so sort of like a bowl extends around the seat. Yeah,

954
00:52:55,520 --> 00:52:57,560
Speaker 1: if you were to take like a very small baby doll,

955
00:52:57,640 --> 00:53:00,480
Speaker 1: like one about the size of you know, you know,

956
00:53:00,800 --> 00:53:03,160
Speaker 1: about half the size of your index finger, put it

957
00:53:03,200 --> 00:53:06,680
Speaker 1: in a large metal bowl or like a tinfoil boil bowl,

958
00:53:06,840 --> 00:53:10,080
Speaker 1: and dropped that bowl through a planetary atmosphere, that would

959
00:53:10,120 --> 00:53:12,960
Speaker 1: be what you'd be talking about here. Yeah, So that's

960
00:53:13,000 --> 00:53:15,680
Speaker 1: scary enough, But I want to get to the most

961
00:53:15,800 --> 00:53:20,360
Speaker 1: epically horrifying space escape capsule concept that I've come across

962
00:53:20,400 --> 00:53:23,439
Speaker 1: in the research for this episode. And so this thing

963
00:53:23,520 --> 00:53:27,440
Speaker 1: was called moose and it was developed by General Electric

964
00:53:27,440 --> 00:53:30,600
Speaker 1: in the nineteen sixties. And according to James Oberg again,

965
00:53:31,080 --> 00:53:35,600
Speaker 1: the acronym moose originally stood for he says, man out

966
00:53:35,600 --> 00:53:41,160
Speaker 1: of space easiest, But he's not an actual moose because no, okay,

967
00:53:41,200 --> 00:53:44,080
Speaker 1: but because we have had actual bears in a scape

968
00:53:44,239 --> 00:53:47,040
Speaker 1: escape pops capsules already in this episode. Thank you for

969
00:53:47,080 --> 00:53:49,359
Speaker 1: reminding me, Robert. But no, they did. As far as

970
00:53:49,400 --> 00:53:52,120
Speaker 1: I know, they did not test it on any ungulates.

971
00:53:52,239 --> 00:53:58,160
Speaker 1: Is a moose and ungulate? I think it is? Yeah, okay, okay, um,

972
00:53:58,280 --> 00:54:00,799
Speaker 1: I should know my ungulates better. But no, no, no,

973
00:54:00,880 --> 00:54:04,239
Speaker 1: So the name was changed to stand for it, like

974
00:54:04,280 --> 00:54:06,040
Speaker 1: they back renemmed it. You know, they said, No, what

975
00:54:06,280 --> 00:54:10,839
Speaker 1: actually stands for is manned orbital operations safety equipment, which

976
00:54:10,880 --> 00:54:14,279
Speaker 1: is a little tortured. But okay, I mean, you really

977
00:54:14,280 --> 00:54:16,319
Speaker 1: don't want to tell an astronaut that he or she

978
00:54:16,440 --> 00:54:20,239
Speaker 1: must climb into a device that's got the word easiest

979
00:54:20,360 --> 00:54:22,319
Speaker 1: in the title. Yeah. Well, but but I like the

980
00:54:22,360 --> 00:54:24,640
Speaker 1: idea of of summoning the idea of the moose for

981
00:54:24,719 --> 00:54:27,160
Speaker 1: your entry because the moose is rugged, the moose is tough.

982
00:54:27,200 --> 00:54:30,440
Speaker 1: The moose the moose is of you know, a stubborn,

983
00:54:30,480 --> 00:54:35,399
Speaker 1: willful creature, much like the astronauts zeal for life. Right,

984
00:54:35,600 --> 00:54:37,440
Speaker 1: So uh, and I do want to warn you you

985
00:54:37,480 --> 00:54:39,880
Speaker 1: should look up the moose to get some some of

986
00:54:39,880 --> 00:54:42,400
Speaker 1: the illustrations of this thing. But also you might have

987
00:54:42,440 --> 00:54:44,319
Speaker 1: some trouble if you're if you're trying to look it up,

988
00:54:44,360 --> 00:54:48,240
Speaker 1: because there is another NASA project called Moose that stands

989
00:54:48,280 --> 00:54:50,560
Speaker 1: for something totally different and appears to me to be

990
00:54:50,600 --> 00:54:53,640
Speaker 1: a completely different thing. So space program really as Moose

991
00:54:53,719 --> 00:54:55,480
Speaker 1: is coming out both this is a Ford nast that

992
00:54:55,560 --> 00:54:59,200
Speaker 1: discovered the rich pantheon of say Egyptian deities, so they

993
00:54:59,239 --> 00:55:03,400
Speaker 1: go to the are we'll just plunder this, uh, this mythology,

994
00:55:03,400 --> 00:55:06,920
Speaker 1: and then we don't have two things called moose. But okay,

995
00:55:06,960 --> 00:55:11,760
Speaker 1: here's the whole nightmare as described by by von Bronze article.

996
00:55:12,200 --> 00:55:15,600
Speaker 1: So it says quote self rescue moose a general electric

997
00:55:15,640 --> 00:55:19,520
Speaker 1: idea in cases astronaut in a plastic bag that fills

998
00:55:19,520 --> 00:55:23,720
Speaker 1: with polyurethane foam to assume re entry shape. He uses

999
00:55:23,760 --> 00:55:27,840
Speaker 1: retrorocket to de orbit, then discards it. Bag has foldable

1000
00:55:27,840 --> 00:55:31,560
Speaker 1: heat shield for re entry, and parachute that automatically unferrels

1001
00:55:31,560 --> 00:55:35,080
Speaker 1: itself for landing. So if you're having trouble picturing that,

1002
00:55:35,200 --> 00:55:38,480
Speaker 1: let me try to narrativise this a little bit. So

1003
00:55:38,680 --> 00:55:41,200
Speaker 1: here's the way it works. Major Tom realizes, Oh no,

1004
00:55:41,920 --> 00:55:45,160
Speaker 1: my spacecraft is on fire and my pure oxygen environment

1005
00:55:45,280 --> 00:55:48,279
Speaker 1: is raging out of control. Why did we do this? Well,

1006
00:55:48,400 --> 00:55:51,399
Speaker 1: no time for recriminations. I must climb into the escape pod.

1007
00:55:52,160 --> 00:55:55,279
Speaker 1: But really, the escape pod is a plastic bag with

1008
00:55:55,360 --> 00:56:00,680
Speaker 1: a foldable sheet of elastomeric ablative heat shielding material. And

1009
00:56:01,000 --> 00:56:03,760
Speaker 1: so he folds this thing out and the heat shield

1010
00:56:03,960 --> 00:56:06,880
Speaker 1: folds out to about one point eight meters in diameter.

1011
00:56:07,680 --> 00:56:11,920
Speaker 1: And then uh with him, He's got a canister of polyurethane.

1012
00:56:12,320 --> 00:56:15,440
Speaker 1: So he gets into the folded heat shield and he

1013
00:56:15,520 --> 00:56:18,480
Speaker 1: pulls a rip chord and this opens up the canister

1014
00:56:18,560 --> 00:56:22,000
Speaker 1: of polyurethane, which which fills it up, fills up the

1015
00:56:22,040 --> 00:56:25,280
Speaker 1: shield with polyurethane foam. So at this point the astronaut

1016
00:56:25,320 --> 00:56:29,120
Speaker 1: has entombed themselves within a lump of polyurethane. Yeah. Yeah,

1017
00:56:29,120 --> 00:56:31,920
Speaker 1: it's sort of the breaking bake style of escape pod creation.

1018
00:56:32,040 --> 00:56:35,319
Speaker 1: It's on the fly. Uh. So then you're out of

1019
00:56:35,320 --> 00:56:37,759
Speaker 1: the ship and Major Tom's floating in space in this

1020
00:56:37,880 --> 00:56:41,560
Speaker 1: bag on a bed of foam, and Major Tom fires

1021
00:56:41,640 --> 00:56:45,279
Speaker 1: a small canister of gas propellant to orient himself with

1022
00:56:45,360 --> 00:56:48,200
Speaker 1: the heat shield facing the proper direction for re entry,

1023
00:56:48,920 --> 00:56:51,400
Speaker 1: and then he discards the gas propellant and he uses

1024
00:56:51,440 --> 00:56:56,200
Speaker 1: a hand operated solid rocket engine to enter the atmosphere.

1025
00:56:56,640 --> 00:57:00,760
Speaker 1: So Tom Tom's in a bag on some foam, rocketing

1026
00:57:00,840 --> 00:57:04,920
Speaker 1: himself back to Earth by hand. There's a fabulous mcgever

1027
00:57:05,239 --> 00:57:08,759
Speaker 1: kind of yeah. So once in free fall in the atmosphere,

1028
00:57:08,800 --> 00:57:12,319
Speaker 1: he opens a chest mounted parachute and then comes down

1029
00:57:12,320 --> 00:57:15,279
Speaker 1: to the surface for a landing. And according to the

1030
00:57:15,400 --> 00:57:20,280
Speaker 1: Encyclopedia Astronautica, General Electric, General Electric conducted a bunch of

1031
00:57:20,320 --> 00:57:24,400
Speaker 1: tests and showed that the basic design of Moose worked,

1032
00:57:24,680 --> 00:57:27,400
Speaker 1: and they eventually tested it out on a falling scenario

1033
00:57:27,440 --> 00:57:31,360
Speaker 1: by dropping a test pilot in a moose six meters

1034
00:57:31,400 --> 00:57:33,920
Speaker 1: off of a bridge in Massachusetts, and they say that

1035
00:57:34,000 --> 00:57:37,880
Speaker 1: the test pilot survived the impact. Congratulations falling off a

1036
00:57:37,920 --> 00:57:42,000
Speaker 1: bridge in this thing. But anyway, Von Braun writes of

1037
00:57:42,160 --> 00:57:45,680
Speaker 1: this and quote the space parachute that both fold up

1038
00:57:45,720 --> 00:57:49,400
Speaker 1: for storage and a spacecraft both combine the characteristics of

1039
00:57:49,440 --> 00:57:52,840
Speaker 1: a life raft, a space suit, overcoat, and a cocoon,

1040
00:57:53,400 --> 00:57:56,200
Speaker 1: which is just putting it in such a soothing way.

1041
00:57:57,280 --> 00:57:58,959
Speaker 1: But then he goes on to point out that while

1042
00:57:59,000 --> 00:58:01,480
Speaker 1: self rescue device is like these, they will get you

1043
00:58:01,520 --> 00:58:04,840
Speaker 1: back down to Earth, maybe not every time, but you know,

1044
00:58:05,120 --> 00:58:07,760
Speaker 1: at least in theory they work, but they won't guarantee

1045
00:58:07,880 --> 00:58:10,520
Speaker 1: that you will survive once you land. I like that

1046
00:58:10,600 --> 00:58:12,880
Speaker 1: he points that out. This is a good point because

1047
00:58:12,920 --> 00:58:16,200
Speaker 1: this is supposedly why the Russians and the say used

1048
00:58:16,280 --> 00:58:19,240
Speaker 1: vehicle carried a survival pack up up and back to

1049
00:58:19,360 --> 00:58:22,920
Speaker 1: space containing guns and ammunition. There was at least one

1050
00:58:22,960 --> 00:58:26,959
Speaker 1: crash where there were there were wolves on the prow.

1051
00:58:27,200 --> 00:58:29,520
Speaker 1: So yeah, this gun, if you ever get a chance

1052
00:58:29,520 --> 00:58:31,680
Speaker 1: to read about it, is pretty interesting. So this the

1053
00:58:31,680 --> 00:58:35,120
Speaker 1: say used survival packet had a gun with three barrels

1054
00:58:35,160 --> 00:58:37,880
Speaker 1: and a folding stock, and they said it also worked

1055
00:58:37,920 --> 00:58:40,440
Speaker 1: as a shovel and had a swing out machete in it.

1056
00:58:40,760 --> 00:58:43,320
Speaker 1: And then it also fired three types of ammunition, which

1057
00:58:43,400 --> 00:58:48,120
Speaker 1: was rifle bullets, flares, and shotgun shells, which that sounds

1058
00:58:48,120 --> 00:58:50,600
Speaker 1: like a gun you'd have in a video game. Yeah,

1059
00:58:50,640 --> 00:58:53,720
Speaker 1: and again it's important to stress just the immense cost

1060
00:58:53,760 --> 00:58:56,520
Speaker 1: of taking anything into orbit. So the fact that this

1061
00:58:56,600 --> 00:58:59,520
Speaker 1: gun came on the journey and came back just in

1062
00:58:59,560 --> 00:59:03,160
Speaker 1: the event that it would be helpful, Um, you know,

1063
00:59:03,320 --> 00:59:05,760
Speaker 1: it says a lot. I'm so glad this never led

1064
00:59:05,800 --> 00:59:09,600
Speaker 1: to shotgun in machete battles in space on the space station. Well,

1065
00:59:09,640 --> 00:59:12,600
Speaker 1: you know, I I actually would love to do an episode,

1066
00:59:12,600 --> 00:59:15,400
Speaker 1: maybe a short episode, on this very topic, because there's

1067
00:59:15,440 --> 00:59:20,600
Speaker 1: some wonderful material out there about actual uh incidents of

1068
00:59:20,640 --> 00:59:23,439
Speaker 1: guns in space, but also some proposed ideas that never

1069
00:59:23,720 --> 00:59:27,320
Speaker 1: really took off. UH guns in space. Wow, that sounds

1070
00:59:27,320 --> 00:59:29,800
Speaker 1: like such a horrible idea. But but then again, I

1071
00:59:29,800 --> 00:59:32,040
Speaker 1: don't think this is stupid because, like we said, you

1072
00:59:32,040 --> 00:59:35,800
Speaker 1: can understand if you land way off course in the wilderness,

1073
00:59:35,920 --> 00:59:39,600
Speaker 1: it probably helps to have some survival equipment. Yeah indeed,

1074
00:59:39,600 --> 00:59:41,200
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, these things are gonna come down in

1075
00:59:41,240 --> 00:59:44,400
Speaker 1: the in the wilderness. Who might need some survival equipment

1076
00:59:44,400 --> 00:59:48,320
Speaker 1: of uh. And the moose actually came with some gear

1077
00:59:48,400 --> 00:59:51,120
Speaker 1: oriented towards on the ground survival as well, so it

1078
00:59:51,160 --> 00:59:54,360
Speaker 1: had a survival kit, food and water, plus things to

1079
00:59:54,400 --> 00:59:56,520
Speaker 1: help the astronaut be found. So it had a thing

1080
00:59:56,560 --> 00:59:58,760
Speaker 1: called us so far bomb that's so far as an

1081
00:59:58,760 --> 01:00:01,800
Speaker 1: acuronym uh, which is a device that uses an underwater

1082
01:00:01,920 --> 01:00:05,640
Speaker 1: explosion to allow precise signaling of your location to people

1083
01:00:05,640 --> 01:00:08,680
Speaker 1: who are listening for underwater sounds. It also had radar

1084
01:00:08,760 --> 01:00:13,120
Speaker 1: chaff and some flares and that The Popular Science article

1085
01:00:13,200 --> 01:00:17,280
Speaker 1: has this awesome illustration of the moose that Robert, I

1086
01:00:17,360 --> 01:00:20,200
Speaker 1: think you enjoyed it as much as I did. But oh,

1087
01:00:20,520 --> 01:00:24,520
Speaker 1: the astronaut has a very placid face in this picture

1088
01:00:24,600 --> 01:00:27,800
Speaker 1: where he's laying in this bed of foam that looks

1089
01:00:27,840 --> 01:00:31,200
Speaker 1: like it's just a blob that's gonna envelop him and

1090
01:00:31,240 --> 01:00:35,640
Speaker 1: digest him. Yeah, and the and and the the rockets

1091
01:00:35,720 --> 01:00:37,760
Speaker 1: that he's going to use to maneuver. It has the

1092
01:00:37,800 --> 01:00:40,400
Speaker 1: look kind of like a cross between a Hoover vacuum

1093
01:00:40,440 --> 01:00:44,120
Speaker 1: and like a divining ride. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. He's

1094
01:00:44,160 --> 01:00:49,080
Speaker 1: holding this big wishbone full of fire. But yeah, but

1095
01:00:49,080 --> 01:00:51,680
Speaker 1: this is great. I would love to see this utilized

1096
01:00:51,920 --> 01:00:54,360
Speaker 1: in um some sort of an action sequence, you know,

1097
01:00:55,240 --> 01:00:57,440
Speaker 1: the sort of do it yourself re entry where our

1098
01:00:57,480 --> 01:01:00,680
Speaker 1: action hero just has to grab these two canisters jump

1099
01:01:00,720 --> 01:01:03,880
Speaker 1: out of the of the spacecraft and just make their

1100
01:01:03,920 --> 01:01:05,880
Speaker 1: way back down to the here. Well, there are some

1101
01:01:05,960 --> 01:01:08,040
Speaker 1: great scenes in movies. I don't want to spoil anything

1102
01:01:08,120 --> 01:01:10,920
Speaker 1: about movies that exist because this usually is like the

1103
01:01:11,040 --> 01:01:13,400
Speaker 1: very end of the sci fi movie. But they involved

1104
01:01:13,440 --> 01:01:19,520
Speaker 1: things like this, like basically outside of vehicle maneuvering. That's

1105
01:01:19,720 --> 01:01:21,520
Speaker 1: very scary when you think about it. I mean, to

1106
01:01:21,600 --> 01:01:24,960
Speaker 1: be lost in space without any means of propulsion and

1107
01:01:25,120 --> 01:01:28,200
Speaker 1: safe reentry is is just a death sentence. Can we

1108
01:01:28,280 --> 01:01:29,720
Speaker 1: name any of those movies or it would be it

1109
01:01:29,760 --> 01:01:31,560
Speaker 1: would just be too much of a spoiler. Well, I know,

1110
01:01:31,720 --> 01:01:34,200
Speaker 1: I know, one of course is like gravity and oh yeah,

1111
01:01:34,200 --> 01:01:36,840
Speaker 1: they does have some some cool re entry stuff at

1112
01:01:36,840 --> 01:01:39,960
Speaker 1: the end. Yeah. There there's also some stuff. And in

1113
01:01:40,000 --> 01:01:42,960
Speaker 1: the Martian did you see them? Yeah, that's right, and

1114
01:01:43,000 --> 01:01:45,920
Speaker 1: there's some outside vehicle maneuvering. Okay, I think maybe in

1115
01:01:45,920 --> 01:01:47,560
Speaker 1: both those films, I was falling asleep towards the end

1116
01:01:47,560 --> 01:01:50,440
Speaker 1: of uh, you know, and it's but hey, we're not

1117
01:01:50,480 --> 01:01:53,760
Speaker 1: going to spoil and say whether the individual survived or not,

1118
01:01:53,840 --> 01:01:56,040
Speaker 1: because that, of course is the big big deal. It's

1119
01:01:56,080 --> 01:01:59,160
Speaker 1: one thing to initiate re entry, it's another thing to

1120
01:01:59,240 --> 01:02:01,560
Speaker 1: actually make it all the way to the Earth surface

1121
01:02:01,560 --> 01:02:04,320
Speaker 1: again and still be alive. Oh and I guess that

1122
01:02:04,360 --> 01:02:06,880
Speaker 1: does give away that I did finally see the Martian.

1123
01:02:07,000 --> 01:02:09,560
Speaker 1: People were asking after we did that how to Die

1124
01:02:09,560 --> 01:02:12,760
Speaker 1: on Mars episode, people were like, hey, have you read

1125
01:02:12,760 --> 01:02:14,600
Speaker 1: The Martian? I don't know if the movie was out yet,

1126
01:02:14,600 --> 01:02:16,320
Speaker 1: but when people were asking if I read the book

1127
01:02:16,360 --> 01:02:17,920
Speaker 1: because it covered a lot of the same stuff we

1128
01:02:17,920 --> 01:02:21,640
Speaker 1: talked about, it had not then that I have now,

1129
01:02:21,640 --> 01:02:23,520
Speaker 1: in keeping with that beach ball design we had we

1130
01:02:23,520 --> 01:02:28,200
Speaker 1: talked about earlier, there's actually a pre Challenger Shuttle era

1131
01:02:28,840 --> 01:02:32,479
Speaker 1: idea for a personal rescue enclosure or pre rescue ball.

1132
01:02:32,800 --> 01:02:36,320
Speaker 1: This is in like eighty six centimeter diameter high tech

1133
01:02:36,360 --> 01:02:39,320
Speaker 1: beach ball for transport of astronauts from space from from

1134
01:02:39,320 --> 01:02:42,920
Speaker 1: a spacecraft in distress to the space shuttle. Uh So

1135
01:02:43,000 --> 01:02:46,200
Speaker 1: crew members would climb into the ball, they'd assume a

1136
01:02:46,200 --> 01:02:49,480
Speaker 1: fetal position and maybe zipped inside by a space suited

1137
01:02:49,520 --> 01:02:51,960
Speaker 1: crew member. Huh So this is this is like what

1138
01:02:52,000 --> 01:02:54,600
Speaker 1: we were talking about towards the beginning of of Von

1139
01:02:54,640 --> 01:02:57,520
Speaker 1: Bronze article, where you you'd get into a some kind

1140
01:02:57,520 --> 01:03:01,080
Speaker 1: of survival capsule and just wait for rescue. Yeah and

1141
01:03:01,160 --> 01:03:03,320
Speaker 1: uh and again this was a pre Challenger project from

1142
01:03:03,320 --> 01:03:07,000
Speaker 1: a time during which Shuttle crews wore no space suits

1143
01:03:07,600 --> 01:03:11,400
Speaker 1: on board the Shuttle. Afterwards afterwards, however, they wore pressure

1144
01:03:11,400 --> 01:03:14,760
Speaker 1: suits during liftoff. Again, yeah, well that seems like a

1145
01:03:14,800 --> 01:03:18,680
Speaker 1: smart idea, but okay, So Moose and its contemporaries were

1146
01:03:18,720 --> 01:03:22,240
Speaker 1: basically shelved. But other space escape pod concepts came to

1147
01:03:22,320 --> 01:03:26,120
Speaker 1: the four and some of them were actually realized. Yeah. Yeah,

1148
01:03:26,200 --> 01:03:29,560
Speaker 1: For instance, there's the Jimini l s r S. So

1149
01:03:29,920 --> 01:03:32,640
Speaker 1: you know, obviously no one wanted to wind up stranded

1150
01:03:32,880 --> 01:03:36,080
Speaker 1: on the Moon, yet the risk of this happening were

1151
01:03:36,200 --> 01:03:39,600
Speaker 1: rather high during the Apollo Moon missions. As such, NASA

1152
01:03:39,640 --> 01:03:44,120
Speaker 1: designed the Gemini Lunar Surface Rescue Spacecraft l s r S,

1153
01:03:44,480 --> 01:03:46,640
Speaker 1: and the idea here is that in the event of

1154
01:03:46,680 --> 01:03:49,280
Speaker 1: the crew wound up stranded on the Moon, NASA could

1155
01:03:49,280 --> 01:03:52,320
Speaker 1: send this unmanned craft to their landing site that would

1156
01:03:52,360 --> 01:03:55,160
Speaker 1: be a thirty day trip, and then the two crew

1157
01:03:55,160 --> 01:03:57,240
Speaker 1: members could then board the craft to make a direct

1158
01:03:57,280 --> 01:04:00,280
Speaker 1: return to Earth. NASA also developed an of it all

1159
01:04:00,360 --> 01:04:03,920
Speaker 1: variant aimed at rescuing three individuals marooned in lunar orbit,

1160
01:04:04,040 --> 01:04:07,800
Speaker 1: as well as a lunar surface survival survival shelter model

1161
01:04:08,080 --> 01:04:10,479
Speaker 1: aimed at giving astronauts on the surface a little more

1162
01:04:10,520 --> 01:04:13,800
Speaker 1: time to await like a full blown, uh you know,

1163
01:04:13,880 --> 01:04:18,640
Speaker 1: manned rescue, and they eventually planned to produce a universal

1164
01:04:18,760 --> 01:04:21,560
Speaker 1: lunar rescue vehicle to perform all three tasks for a

1165
01:04:21,560 --> 01:04:24,760
Speaker 1: trio of astronauts. But this was one of this is

1166
01:04:24,800 --> 01:04:28,120
Speaker 1: one of those sort of later day Apollo ideas that

1167
01:04:28,280 --> 01:04:30,480
Speaker 1: really came about too late. Like our our interest in

1168
01:04:30,520 --> 01:04:33,480
Speaker 1: the moon was was going away at that point. Can

1169
01:04:33,520 --> 01:04:36,360
Speaker 1: you imagine though, actually being stuck on the surface of

1170
01:04:36,360 --> 01:04:39,360
Speaker 1: the Moon for thirty days waiting for It's crazy. It's

1171
01:04:39,400 --> 01:04:41,240
Speaker 1: like I was trying to sort of put it in

1172
01:04:41,360 --> 01:04:44,720
Speaker 1: terms of thinking about like my own household. So at

1173
01:04:44,720 --> 01:04:47,160
Speaker 1: our house, we we currently have two cars, new car

1174
01:04:47,160 --> 01:04:49,720
Speaker 1: and old car. And if I go, if I drive

1175
01:04:49,720 --> 01:04:52,520
Speaker 1: to the grocery store, if the car breaks down, a

1176
01:04:52,720 --> 01:04:54,800
Speaker 1: I can walk back from the grocery store, or my

1177
01:04:54,880 --> 01:04:56,880
Speaker 1: wife can come and pick me up in the car

1178
01:04:57,000 --> 01:04:58,840
Speaker 1: in the other car, or something to that effect, you know.

1179
01:04:59,320 --> 01:05:01,600
Speaker 1: But the this is a kind of situation where there's

1180
01:05:01,640 --> 01:05:04,840
Speaker 1: there's only one car, or it's gonna take or it's

1181
01:05:04,840 --> 01:05:06,640
Speaker 1: gonna take a tremendous amount of effort to get a

1182
01:05:06,680 --> 01:05:10,120
Speaker 1: second car available and then to gas it up and

1183
01:05:10,120 --> 01:05:12,080
Speaker 1: send it on its journey to pick you up at

1184
01:05:12,120 --> 01:05:14,680
Speaker 1: this impossible store and you're driving to the middle of

1185
01:05:14,680 --> 01:05:18,040
Speaker 1: the desert in Arizona. Yeah, yeah, it's um yeah. So

1186
01:05:18,080 --> 01:05:19,400
Speaker 1: I kept trying to put it in a sort of

1187
01:05:19,520 --> 01:05:23,800
Speaker 1: like logistical real life surface world terms, and uh, you know,

1188
01:05:23,880 --> 01:05:27,800
Speaker 1: some some models work that some just ultimately fall short

1189
01:05:27,840 --> 01:05:31,760
Speaker 1: of capturing the just severe isolation. Uh, Like the closest

1190
01:05:31,760 --> 01:05:34,000
Speaker 1: thing I guess would be to just uh to just

1191
01:05:34,040 --> 01:05:38,120
Speaker 1: set out to the middle of the Arctic Ocean, you know. Uh. Well, hey,

1192
01:05:38,160 --> 01:05:40,440
Speaker 1: so I've got a question. Yeah, what happens if you

1193
01:05:40,520 --> 01:05:44,360
Speaker 1: have to escape the International Space Station? Well, luckily there

1194
01:05:44,440 --> 01:05:48,000
Speaker 1: there is a way, so um yeah. So let's say

1195
01:05:48,000 --> 01:05:51,880
Speaker 1: you're in the International Space Station and uh, something catastrophic happens.

1196
01:05:51,880 --> 01:05:55,880
Speaker 1: Maybe there's space shrapnel or more problems with the station's toilets,

1197
01:05:55,880 --> 01:05:58,200
Speaker 1: and let's just get out of hand. What some of

1198
01:05:58,200 --> 01:06:02,880
Speaker 1: the ammunition for the so use uh survival kit just explodes, yeah,

1199
01:06:03,000 --> 01:06:04,840
Speaker 1: or you know, maybe just run out of vodka. Whatever

1200
01:06:04,880 --> 01:06:07,320
Speaker 1: to the dilemma, there is an escape craft on a hand,

1201
01:06:07,360 --> 01:06:10,960
Speaker 1: and it's one of those Russian soil us space capsules.

1202
01:06:11,000 --> 01:06:13,560
Speaker 1: So we first flew one to the I S S

1203
01:06:13,560 --> 01:06:16,120
Speaker 1: in two thousand and it's been it's been a fixture

1204
01:06:16,200 --> 01:06:19,520
Speaker 1: ever since. It can survive re entry as what as

1205
01:06:19,560 --> 01:06:22,800
Speaker 1: with the two thousand nine Space Junk scare. It can

1206
01:06:22,840 --> 01:06:27,760
Speaker 1: also provide just a safe refuge daring of the scare um.

1207
01:06:27,800 --> 01:06:31,520
Speaker 1: And following the two thousand three Columbia Shuttle disaster, the

1208
01:06:31,640 --> 01:06:34,720
Speaker 1: say us served as the primary means of transport to

1209
01:06:34,880 --> 01:06:37,960
Speaker 1: and from the I S S. Uh trip took up

1210
01:06:37,960 --> 01:06:39,840
Speaker 1: to two days and the trip back was a mere

1211
01:06:40,000 --> 01:06:43,240
Speaker 1: three point five hours. So this is the idea here

1212
01:06:43,400 --> 01:06:46,520
Speaker 1: with the SOUS is that it's kind of like, all right,

1213
01:06:46,560 --> 01:06:50,600
Speaker 1: I'm terrified of my car breaking down on my way

1214
01:06:50,720 --> 01:06:52,600
Speaker 1: to the store. Why don't I just keep a car

1215
01:06:52,720 --> 01:06:56,560
Speaker 1: at the store, ye, permanently, and then I can always

1216
01:06:56,640 --> 01:06:59,920
Speaker 1: drive that pack if something goes wrong. Um, that's kind

1217
01:07:00,080 --> 01:07:02,240
Speaker 1: of the the idea here. So the only thing is

1218
01:07:02,280 --> 01:07:04,960
Speaker 1: that up to so only up to three crew members

1219
01:07:05,200 --> 01:07:07,600
Speaker 1: can return to Earth from the I S S A

1220
01:07:07,680 --> 01:07:10,960
Speaker 1: board and so use t M A spacecraft. The vehicle

1221
01:07:11,480 --> 01:07:15,360
Speaker 1: lands on the flat steep of Kazakhstan in Central Asia.

1222
01:07:15,560 --> 01:07:18,280
Speaker 1: There again, the return takes about three and a half hours.

1223
01:07:18,600 --> 01:07:21,240
Speaker 1: And this is why you can you can only have

1224
01:07:21,480 --> 01:07:23,880
Speaker 1: three people on the I S. S at any given

1225
01:07:23,920 --> 01:07:27,600
Speaker 1: time unless there's another craft present, because you can only

1226
01:07:27,640 --> 01:07:30,280
Speaker 1: get three people out in an emergency. Right. If you

1227
01:07:30,280 --> 01:07:33,160
Speaker 1: have a fourth person there and you've got to evacuate,

1228
01:07:33,240 --> 01:07:34,800
Speaker 1: one of them is going to be taken the moose,

1229
01:07:35,080 --> 01:07:37,520
Speaker 1: right And it's yeah, it's I'm sorry, I'm just kidding.

1230
01:07:37,520 --> 01:07:40,160
Speaker 1: They don't actually have as far as far as we know,

1231
01:07:40,680 --> 01:07:42,840
Speaker 1: but but yeah, I mean, you can't clown card this thing.

1232
01:07:42,920 --> 01:07:44,720
Speaker 1: You can't just pack a bunch of people in there

1233
01:07:44,720 --> 01:07:46,840
Speaker 1: and have them sort of hold on to the sides

1234
01:07:46,880 --> 01:07:49,320
Speaker 1: of the capsule. You mean you have to there has

1235
01:07:49,480 --> 01:07:52,240
Speaker 1: you have to strap yourself in there. There's their oxygen

1236
01:07:52,920 --> 01:07:58,320
Speaker 1: logistics in place, So three people are less no more. Now,

1237
01:07:58,360 --> 01:08:00,360
Speaker 1: that's not to say we haven't looked in to other

1238
01:08:00,480 --> 01:08:03,720
Speaker 1: possibilities more I guess you could say refined possibilities than

1239
01:08:03,800 --> 01:08:08,320
Speaker 1: just having a three person spaceship on hand up there. Um.

1240
01:08:08,640 --> 01:08:12,160
Speaker 1: At one point NASA was looking into the X thirty eight.

1241
01:08:12,320 --> 01:08:15,120
Speaker 1: This was the I S. S Crew return vehicle. And

1242
01:08:15,160 --> 01:08:16,960
Speaker 1: this is a really cool design. It basically looked like

1243
01:08:16,960 --> 01:08:20,519
Speaker 1: a mini like Stubby Space Shuttle UM and and this

1244
01:08:20,560 --> 01:08:22,519
Speaker 1: would have this would have allowed them, you know, more

1245
01:08:22,560 --> 01:08:25,960
Speaker 1: individuals to U to return from I S S to Earth.

1246
01:08:26,920 --> 01:08:30,439
Speaker 1: But it was a pretty um, pretty costly program. According

1247
01:08:30,479 --> 01:08:34,200
Speaker 1: to a Wired magazine article from the time, the program

1248
01:08:34,280 --> 01:08:37,960
Speaker 1: had cost around five and ten million dollars so far,

1249
01:08:38,400 --> 01:08:41,559
Speaker 1: and then it was just fifty million shy of completing

1250
01:08:41,600 --> 01:08:47,560
Speaker 1: its flight test when basically under the Georgia W. Bush administration,

1251
01:08:47,960 --> 01:08:51,360
Speaker 1: UH Space and the and re visiting the Moon became

1252
01:08:52,320 --> 01:08:55,880
Speaker 1: devalued as an objective, so the X thirty eight went

1253
01:08:55,920 --> 01:08:59,680
Speaker 1: away as a possibility. Now. It's also worth noting that

1254
01:09:00,400 --> 01:09:03,920
Speaker 1: one of the more dangerous things about rocket propulsion into

1255
01:09:03,920 --> 01:09:05,920
Speaker 1: space is just taking off. It's kind of like with

1256
01:09:06,040 --> 01:09:08,479
Speaker 1: with aviation. Of course, that's the dangerous that that's that's

1257
01:09:08,479 --> 01:09:12,000
Speaker 1: when you have this enormous explosion strapped to the bottom

1258
01:09:12,000 --> 01:09:14,640
Speaker 1: of the craft propelling you up out of the atmosphere.

1259
01:09:14,960 --> 01:09:18,599
Speaker 1: So as as has become important in the past, having

1260
01:09:18,960 --> 01:09:22,400
Speaker 1: a means of ejecting the capsule from the top of

1261
01:09:22,439 --> 01:09:27,840
Speaker 1: that massive explosive rocket is often highly advisable. And as

1262
01:09:27,840 --> 01:09:32,120
Speaker 1: we're going more and more into into that launch style,

1263
01:09:32,280 --> 01:09:35,360
Speaker 1: we're seeing more and more of a return to that. UM,

1264
01:09:35,439 --> 01:09:38,200
Speaker 1: So in a way, we're going back to technology that

1265
01:09:38,240 --> 01:09:41,600
Speaker 1: we used with Mercury and Apollo spacecraft. We see this

1266
01:09:41,640 --> 01:09:44,120
Speaker 1: in the form of a basic launch escape system. So

1267
01:09:44,160 --> 01:09:47,240
Speaker 1: you have a top mounted rocket on the capsule that

1268
01:09:47,360 --> 01:09:49,679
Speaker 1: in the event of a mishap during takeoff can blast

1269
01:09:49,720 --> 01:09:52,200
Speaker 1: the man capsule clear of the rocket and allow it

1270
01:09:52,240 --> 01:09:55,599
Speaker 1: to parachute back to the surface. That seems very useful. Yeah,

1271
01:09:55,720 --> 01:09:58,800
Speaker 1: the sell Us uses this, uh, this technology, and there

1272
01:09:58,800 --> 01:10:00,960
Speaker 1: are a number of man's face craft that are currently

1273
01:10:01,400 --> 01:10:04,599
Speaker 1: in development, UH, several of which are capsule based and

1274
01:10:04,680 --> 01:10:06,519
Speaker 1: you know would also employ this. So we're talking about

1275
01:10:06,560 --> 01:10:11,040
Speaker 1: like UH, NASA's Ryan multi Purpose crew vehicle SpaceX. UH

1276
01:10:11,120 --> 01:10:14,439
Speaker 1: they're Dragon V two. There's also the the U S

1277
01:10:14,479 --> 01:10:18,880
Speaker 1: Bowing CST one hundred. UM. There's a there's a quote

1278
01:10:18,880 --> 01:10:21,840
Speaker 1: here that I found from SpaceX officials, and they said

1279
01:10:21,880 --> 01:10:24,360
Speaker 1: that it's similar to an ejection seat for a fighter pilot,

1280
01:10:24,360 --> 01:10:26,400
Speaker 1: but instead of ejecting the pilot out of the spacecraft,

1281
01:10:26,439 --> 01:10:29,200
Speaker 1: the entire spacecraft is ejected away from the launch vehicle.

1282
01:10:29,400 --> 01:10:31,840
Speaker 1: And that is something that I guess you can think

1283
01:10:31,880 --> 01:10:34,720
Speaker 1: of as as somewhat practical to do because of this

1284
01:10:34,800 --> 01:10:39,240
Speaker 1: inherent separation between the spacecraft capsule and the launch vehicle

1285
01:10:39,560 --> 01:10:42,680
Speaker 1: r itself. This is a natural division because they're going

1286
01:10:42,720 --> 01:10:46,559
Speaker 1: to be separating anyway at some point during the ascent. Correct. Yeah,

1287
01:10:46,560 --> 01:10:49,280
Speaker 1: they're there, their separate entities anyway. Yeah, all right, we're

1288
01:10:49,320 --> 01:10:51,160
Speaker 1: gonna take a quick break and when we come back,

1289
01:10:51,240 --> 01:10:53,559
Speaker 1: we are going to look at a few more escape

1290
01:10:53,560 --> 01:10:59,560
Speaker 1: pods for some stranger scenarios involving natural disasters. Want to

1291
01:10:59,600 --> 01:11:02,639
Speaker 1: position yourself for career success, Master the Fundamentals of Business

1292
01:11:02,640 --> 01:11:06,040
Speaker 1: with hb X Core, a three course online program developed

1293
01:11:06,040 --> 01:11:09,400
Speaker 1: by Harvard Business School faculty. Immerse yourself in real world

1294
01:11:09,400 --> 01:11:12,440
Speaker 1: case studies as you dive and do business analytics, Economics

1295
01:11:12,439 --> 01:11:15,479
Speaker 1: for Managers, and financial accounting. The three courses that Harvard

1296
01:11:15,479 --> 01:11:18,840
Speaker 1: Business School faculty determined we're essential to becoming fluent in

1297
01:11:18,840 --> 01:11:22,000
Speaker 1: the language of business. The innovative hb X online platform

1298
01:11:22,080 --> 01:11:24,120
Speaker 1: was developed from the ground up to foster real time

1299
01:11:24,120 --> 01:11:27,360
Speaker 1: peer to peer engagement and interaction. Complete the coursework on

1300
01:11:27,400 --> 01:11:29,960
Speaker 1: your own time while meeting regular deadlines, network with a

1301
01:11:30,000 --> 01:11:32,639
Speaker 1: global cohort of peers, and earn a credential from hb

1302
01:11:32,880 --> 01:11:35,959
Speaker 1: X and Harvard Business School. After successful completion of the program,

1303
01:11:36,280 --> 01:11:39,320
Speaker 1: boost your resume, grow your network, and advance your career

1304
01:11:39,439 --> 01:11:42,080
Speaker 1: with the hb X Core Credential from HBX and Harvard

1305
01:11:42,080 --> 01:11:45,800
Speaker 1: Business School. To learn more, visit about hb X dot

1306
01:11:45,800 --> 01:11:52,160
Speaker 1: com slash how stuff Works. So Joe YouTube, you grew

1307
01:11:52,240 --> 01:11:54,600
Speaker 1: up in like, uh, Middle Tennessee, didn't you? Or you

1308
01:11:54,720 --> 01:11:59,280
Speaker 1: or you didn't get a lot of tornadoes. In Chattanooga,

1309
01:11:59,479 --> 01:12:02,880
Speaker 1: we got tornadoes. Yeah. We actually tornadoes have been right

1310
01:12:02,960 --> 01:12:06,920
Speaker 1: through my parents neighborhood before, like right through the backyard. Okay,

1311
01:12:06,960 --> 01:12:10,040
Speaker 1: I wasn't there at the time, but it's it's definitely

1312
01:12:10,280 --> 01:12:12,920
Speaker 1: it can be scary when they whip through. Yeah. Indeed,

1313
01:12:12,960 --> 01:12:15,479
Speaker 1: I mean I haven't grown up in mill Tennessee. We

1314
01:12:15,560 --> 01:12:17,519
Speaker 1: had we had a lot of tornado scares as well,

1315
01:12:17,760 --> 01:12:20,160
Speaker 1: and so that that possibility was always in the back

1316
01:12:20,200 --> 01:12:22,439
Speaker 1: of my mind growing up, that you know, the tornado

1317
01:12:22,439 --> 01:12:23,720
Speaker 1: could come and what can you do? What can you

1318
01:12:23,720 --> 01:12:27,160
Speaker 1: do against the tornado? It's this titanic force of nature

1319
01:12:27,200 --> 01:12:30,240
Speaker 1: that's just gonna destroy everything in its path. Let's see,

1320
01:12:30,400 --> 01:12:32,439
Speaker 1: can we look to movies for inspiration? What do they

1321
01:12:32,479 --> 01:12:34,400
Speaker 1: do in that movie Twister? I believe they throw a

1322
01:12:34,439 --> 01:12:37,040
Speaker 1: candy bar in one direction and then run in the

1323
01:12:37,080 --> 01:12:39,920
Speaker 1: other and then so that they distract the tornado with

1324
01:12:39,960 --> 01:12:42,200
Speaker 1: the candy bar. I think that's how that went down.

1325
01:12:42,600 --> 01:12:45,280
Speaker 1: Uh No, generally in uh in tornado movies and in

1326
01:12:45,280 --> 01:12:48,320
Speaker 1: tornado reality, like, all you can do is find shelter,

1327
01:12:48,520 --> 01:12:50,559
Speaker 1: right if you have a if you have a storm shelter,

1328
01:12:50,720 --> 01:12:54,519
Speaker 1: if you have a a fortified storm basement. Um, you

1329
01:12:54,560 --> 01:12:58,080
Speaker 1: can run in there, flatch the door, and just ride

1330
01:12:58,120 --> 01:13:01,240
Speaker 1: it out. But it is very important, very important that

1331
01:13:01,280 --> 01:13:05,080
Speaker 1: your shelter be a high quality shelter, like a building

1332
01:13:05,120 --> 01:13:09,880
Speaker 1: with a foundation. Uh, not necessarily something like a trailer.

1333
01:13:09,920 --> 01:13:12,640
Speaker 1: In fact, I have often heard the advice given to

1334
01:13:12,800 --> 01:13:15,559
Speaker 1: people who are living in mobile homes and trailers anything

1335
01:13:15,600 --> 01:13:18,160
Speaker 1: that's not solidly anchored to the ground or built on

1336
01:13:18,200 --> 01:13:22,000
Speaker 1: a foundation, that you're better off not in the trailer

1337
01:13:22,040 --> 01:13:25,760
Speaker 1: than in it, because it essentially just turns into a

1338
01:13:25,840 --> 01:13:29,120
Speaker 1: death machine if a tornado comes through and you're inside

1339
01:13:29,120 --> 01:13:32,160
Speaker 1: a mobile home. Yes, so, I think we've all consumed images,

1340
01:13:32,920 --> 01:13:36,439
Speaker 1: be they mental images, cinematic or otherwise, of trailers and

1341
01:13:36,479 --> 01:13:39,400
Speaker 1: mobile homes just sucked up into the sky by deadly twisters,

1342
01:13:39,560 --> 01:13:44,000
Speaker 1: or certainly trailer parts that have been devastated by actual tornadoes.

1343
01:13:45,240 --> 01:13:47,320
Speaker 1: But what if you what if you actually had an

1344
01:13:47,439 --> 01:13:51,920
Speaker 1: escape pide for your trailer. Uh now, before you envision

1345
01:13:52,000 --> 01:13:55,240
Speaker 1: a rocket propelled trailer bathroom that blasts you away from

1346
01:13:55,240 --> 01:13:58,160
Speaker 1: the crumbling, wind griped trailer as it's you know, sucked

1347
01:13:58,160 --> 01:14:01,439
Speaker 1: into the sky and at all the debris. Um remember

1348
01:14:01,479 --> 01:14:04,559
Speaker 1: this as as as the twister sucks the trailer up

1349
01:14:05,040 --> 01:14:07,800
Speaker 1: into the air, what you want to do is stay

1350
01:14:07,840 --> 01:14:11,479
Speaker 1: firmly fixed to the ground. Sure, I mean that's ultimately

1351
01:14:11,520 --> 01:14:15,439
Speaker 1: the design of of any escape capsule is getting back

1352
01:14:15,439 --> 01:14:17,400
Speaker 1: to the surface of the Earth. But in this case,

1353
01:14:17,920 --> 01:14:19,559
Speaker 1: you're already on the surface, so you just need to

1354
01:14:19,600 --> 01:14:23,360
Speaker 1: remain there at all costs. So I'm following you so far.

1355
01:14:23,720 --> 01:14:26,519
Speaker 1: So where do escape pods come in? Well, as far

1356
01:14:26,560 --> 01:14:28,640
Speaker 1: as I know, this does not. This has has not

1357
01:14:28,720 --> 01:14:31,479
Speaker 1: been built yet. Maybe some individuals have have taken it

1358
01:14:31,560 --> 01:14:33,640
Speaker 1: upon themselves to build it. I hope so, and if

1359
01:14:33,680 --> 01:14:35,960
Speaker 1: they did, I would love to see the photos. But no,

1360
01:14:36,080 --> 01:14:38,519
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about We're going into the wildest

1361
01:14:38,560 --> 01:14:43,080
Speaker 1: corners of the patent internet. Yeah, particularly a patent for

1362
01:14:43,200 --> 01:14:47,599
Speaker 1: a tornado escope escape capsule for trailer homes. Yeah, it's

1363
01:14:47,640 --> 01:14:50,360
Speaker 1: it is, It's pretty ingenious. It's essentially a little safe

1364
01:14:50,439 --> 01:14:53,160
Speaker 1: room in your trailer, anchored to the ground, and it

1365
01:14:53,200 --> 01:14:56,200
Speaker 1: consists of the following. This is from the patent. First,

1366
01:14:56,240 --> 01:14:59,240
Speaker 1: an opening formed in the floor of the house trailer

1367
01:14:59,439 --> 01:15:03,160
Speaker 1: and position and directly below said internal compartment. So if

1368
01:15:03,160 --> 01:15:05,200
Speaker 1: you're in your compartment and underneath it there's like a

1369
01:15:05,200 --> 01:15:08,479
Speaker 1: hole on the floor, an escape capsule dimensioned it to

1370
01:15:08,560 --> 01:15:12,760
Speaker 1: be received and releasably supported within set internal compartment. And

1371
01:15:12,800 --> 01:15:16,720
Speaker 1: then you have a ground engaging anchor position beneath set

1372
01:15:16,760 --> 01:15:19,320
Speaker 1: internal compartment in the house trailer, and then a tether

1373
01:15:19,600 --> 01:15:24,160
Speaker 1: that's connected between the escape capsule and the grounding anchor.

1374
01:15:24,479 --> 01:15:28,160
Speaker 1: So it's it is like this fancy little capsule in

1375
01:15:28,240 --> 01:15:31,040
Speaker 1: your trailer, there's a hole in the trailer underneath it,

1376
01:15:31,080 --> 01:15:34,120
Speaker 1: and it's anchored to the ground firmly. Okay, so I

1377
01:15:34,160 --> 01:15:37,240
Speaker 1: said this is kind of ingenious, But I mean, if

1378
01:15:37,240 --> 01:15:39,120
Speaker 1: you're gonna go to the trouble to build this thing,

1379
01:15:39,200 --> 01:15:43,360
Speaker 1: why not just anchor your trailer to the ground. Well, yeah,

1380
01:15:43,479 --> 01:15:45,720
Speaker 1: you could. You could make that argument, and maybe that's

1381
01:15:45,760 --> 01:15:49,839
Speaker 1: why this wasn't built. But but the I guess the

1382
01:15:49,640 --> 01:15:51,560
Speaker 1: the argument here is this way you don't have to

1383
01:15:51,600 --> 01:15:53,400
Speaker 1: anchor the entire trailer to the ground. You used to

1384
01:15:53,439 --> 01:15:57,040
Speaker 1: anchor this one little safe room. Okay, Well maybe in fact,

1385
01:15:57,080 --> 01:15:58,920
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, I I assume most of

1386
01:15:58,960 --> 01:16:01,639
Speaker 1: the danger of being in a trailer or a mobile

1387
01:16:01,680 --> 01:16:04,080
Speaker 1: home when a tornado comes through comes from the fact

1388
01:16:04,120 --> 01:16:06,360
Speaker 1: that it's not anchored and can be tossed around. But

1389
01:16:06,439 --> 01:16:10,120
Speaker 1: maybe there is additional danger, uh from being in the trailer,

1390
01:16:10,200 --> 01:16:13,120
Speaker 1: like if the if essentially, if the building materials are

1391
01:16:13,120 --> 01:16:15,800
Speaker 1: not sturdy enough, does it does it get shredded and

1392
01:16:15,840 --> 01:16:17,960
Speaker 1: turned into a bunch of knives flying at you that

1393
01:16:17,960 --> 01:16:21,840
Speaker 1: were formerly the walls and ceiling. Yeah, I don't know,

1394
01:16:21,960 --> 01:16:26,080
Speaker 1: but but maybe maybe this would avert that. Yeah, and

1395
01:16:26,240 --> 01:16:28,479
Speaker 1: you know, and I guess also it's it's kind of

1396
01:16:28,479 --> 01:16:30,720
Speaker 1: comes back to that old seinfeld about why don't they

1397
01:16:30,760 --> 01:16:32,479
Speaker 1: just make the airplane out of whatever they made the

1398
01:16:32,520 --> 01:16:36,040
Speaker 1: black box out of? Right? Like some maybe it's just

1399
01:16:36,080 --> 01:16:39,760
Speaker 1: not it's not economically feasible to offer the trailer as

1400
01:16:39,800 --> 01:16:45,680
Speaker 1: a fully anchored, fully stormproof living option. But but what

1401
01:16:45,800 --> 01:16:47,519
Speaker 1: it Probably they probably don't do that because the airplane

1402
01:16:47,560 --> 01:16:49,640
Speaker 1: couldn't get off the ground, right, But but what if

1403
01:16:49,680 --> 01:16:52,320
Speaker 1: you could just have this warm, little capsule in the house.

1404
01:16:52,520 --> 01:16:54,840
Speaker 1: But then i'd also the thing is, anyone who's ever

1405
01:16:55,040 --> 01:17:00,120
Speaker 1: been in a trailer before, and I certainly have you,

1406
01:17:00,120 --> 01:17:02,280
Speaker 1: you don't have a lot of room in there anyway, right,

1407
01:17:02,400 --> 01:17:04,519
Speaker 1: So the other thing is, how do you sacrifice the

1408
01:17:04,600 --> 01:17:08,000
Speaker 1: room for this compartment unless you end up utilizing it

1409
01:17:08,040 --> 01:17:09,800
Speaker 1: for something else, like I guess you have to. You

1410
01:17:09,840 --> 01:17:11,680
Speaker 1: could use it as a closet, but then I can

1411
01:17:11,720 --> 01:17:14,160
Speaker 1: well imagine the scenario where someone looks out the window

1412
01:17:14,240 --> 01:17:16,320
Speaker 1: or they turn on the radio. Oh my goodness, there's

1413
01:17:16,360 --> 01:17:19,280
Speaker 1: a twister coming. I've got to clean out the closet

1414
01:17:19,320 --> 01:17:21,960
Speaker 1: because that is my only chance to survival. And so

1415
01:17:22,000 --> 01:17:24,160
Speaker 1: you're frantically trying to move everything out of the board

1416
01:17:24,160 --> 01:17:27,240
Speaker 1: games we never even played these, yeah, or you know,

1417
01:17:27,240 --> 01:17:29,640
Speaker 1: because other options, what you could have it be the bathroom.

1418
01:17:29,680 --> 01:17:32,240
Speaker 1: How would that work to have your your bathroom be

1419
01:17:32,240 --> 01:17:35,040
Speaker 1: the escape capsule. The showers? What I was thinking. You

1420
01:17:35,080 --> 01:17:37,639
Speaker 1: get into the shower and it's like a I don't

1421
01:17:37,680 --> 01:17:39,960
Speaker 1: know why the shower. I guess I don't know that

1422
01:17:40,760 --> 01:17:42,880
Speaker 1: because it's like a it's like a sealed off little

1423
01:17:42,920 --> 01:17:46,120
Speaker 1: box in a certain way. Yeah, Like okay, I could

1424
01:17:46,120 --> 01:17:48,839
Speaker 1: see that working and and you would you would probably

1425
01:17:48,880 --> 01:17:51,160
Speaker 1: not fill the shower up with just a bunch of

1426
01:17:51,280 --> 01:17:53,760
Speaker 1: junk in the meantime, and the fact that you would

1427
01:17:53,840 --> 01:17:57,759
Speaker 1: use the shower would make it remain an open option

1428
01:17:57,840 --> 01:18:00,640
Speaker 1: for a skate capsule. Then again, and you wouldn't want

1429
01:18:00,680 --> 01:18:03,000
Speaker 1: to be flying around inside the shower and bashing your

1430
01:18:03,000 --> 01:18:05,920
Speaker 1: head against the faucet, right, so you'd have to have

1431
01:18:06,000 --> 01:18:09,439
Speaker 1: like a shower like a padded padding and straps on

1432
01:18:09,479 --> 01:18:13,240
Speaker 1: the walls. In man a padded shower, they'll probably get

1433
01:18:13,240 --> 01:18:17,040
Speaker 1: a little mildewy, wouldn't it if the material was right.

1434
01:18:17,080 --> 01:18:18,800
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think we're up. We're updating the

1435
01:18:18,840 --> 01:18:22,559
Speaker 1: patent here. I think we have some great ideas. Okay, well,

1436
01:18:22,560 --> 01:18:26,280
Speaker 1: I've got another escape pod for a sort of escape

1437
01:18:26,280 --> 01:18:32,000
Speaker 1: pod for natural disasters, and these are tsunami survival capsules.

1438
01:18:32,439 --> 01:18:35,000
Speaker 1: There are multiple designs have come across for this. Yes,

1439
01:18:35,040 --> 01:18:37,640
Speaker 1: it sounds crazy, but I could find evidence of at

1440
01:18:37,680 --> 01:18:40,120
Speaker 1: least a couple of real companies that have created and

1441
01:18:40,200 --> 01:18:44,439
Speaker 1: manufactured tsunami escape pod. So. The first one is a

1442
01:18:44,439 --> 01:18:48,120
Speaker 1: product that was known as the Noah or Noah's Arc

1443
01:18:48,200 --> 01:18:52,160
Speaker 1: and it was created by a Japanese company called Cosmo Power.

1444
01:18:52,200 --> 01:18:55,880
Speaker 1: Almost ten years ago. I got some press in two

1445
01:18:55,920 --> 01:18:59,120
Speaker 1: thousand eleven, I assume related to the March two thousand

1446
01:18:59,160 --> 01:19:03,040
Speaker 1: eleven earthquake tsunami that hit Japan. But basically it looks

1447
01:19:03,080 --> 01:19:06,120
Speaker 1: like a giant yellow ball with a hatch and a

1448
01:19:06,160 --> 01:19:09,360
Speaker 1: little port hole window near the top. And the yellow

1449
01:19:09,360 --> 01:19:12,759
Speaker 1: color is strategic because it hopefully makes the escape capsule

1450
01:19:12,840 --> 01:19:15,880
Speaker 1: easier for rescuers to find once the devastation is over.

1451
01:19:16,600 --> 01:19:19,479
Speaker 1: Uh And the structure is made of enhanced fiberglass and

1452
01:19:19,560 --> 01:19:23,920
Speaker 1: the company claims it is strong enough to withstand earthquakes, hurricanes,

1453
01:19:24,000 --> 01:19:27,719
Speaker 1: and tsunamis. But so the obvious ideas a tsunami is coming,

1454
01:19:28,160 --> 01:19:29,800
Speaker 1: you've got one of these things. I don't know. I

1455
01:19:29,800 --> 01:19:31,680
Speaker 1: guess you would have it sitting out in your backyard

1456
01:19:31,760 --> 01:19:34,080
Speaker 1: or something. You'd want to have it a place where

1457
01:19:34,080 --> 01:19:36,479
Speaker 1: you can float free, wherever it is on the roof

1458
01:19:36,479 --> 01:19:39,400
Speaker 1: of the house maybe maybe, yeah, But everybody, you realize

1459
01:19:39,400 --> 01:19:42,120
Speaker 1: the tsunami is coming, you climb into this thing, and

1460
01:19:42,200 --> 01:19:45,280
Speaker 1: it has enough room inside to hold four adults. Inside

1461
01:19:45,280 --> 01:19:48,559
Speaker 1: there is a floor and a pole, just a metal

1462
01:19:48,600 --> 01:19:51,200
Speaker 1: pole going straight through the center of the sphere. And

1463
01:19:51,240 --> 01:19:53,759
Speaker 1: I guess that is to cling to while you're hoping

1464
01:19:53,800 --> 01:19:57,639
Speaker 1: this thing works. But anyway, according to an ABC News report,

1465
01:19:57,960 --> 01:20:01,040
Speaker 1: the shelters were selling for about four and dollars apiece

1466
01:20:01,520 --> 01:20:04,519
Speaker 1: in two thousand eleven. I don't know if this company

1467
01:20:04,600 --> 01:20:06,880
Speaker 1: still exists in any form, or if these things are

1468
01:20:06,880 --> 01:20:10,360
Speaker 1: still made, or if anybody has ever used one successfully,

1469
01:20:11,400 --> 01:20:14,920
Speaker 1: but there is one product. I'd make of it what

1470
01:20:15,040 --> 01:20:17,200
Speaker 1: you will the product, and they would. That's the thing too.

1471
01:20:17,200 --> 01:20:19,920
Speaker 1: There selling the product. They're selling the idea of the

1472
01:20:20,000 --> 01:20:22,439
Speaker 1: escape capsule more than anything, much like you know, much

1473
01:20:22,479 --> 01:20:25,760
Speaker 1: like a storm shelter or a bomb shelter. It's the

1474
01:20:25,920 --> 01:20:28,240
Speaker 1: idea that there is an escape. It's an idea that

1475
01:20:28,400 --> 01:20:33,120
Speaker 1: if the tsunami occurs, if the tornado occurs, if yeah,

1476
01:20:33,160 --> 01:20:36,720
Speaker 1: you know, nuclear armageddon occurs, there is some sort of

1477
01:20:36,760 --> 01:20:39,479
Speaker 1: an escape. There is some there's an escape capsule for

1478
01:20:39,520 --> 01:20:43,800
Speaker 1: this scenario that my my primitive parts of my brain

1479
01:20:43,920 --> 01:20:47,080
Speaker 1: can can feel good about. Yeah. Obviously I claim no

1480
01:20:47,160 --> 01:20:51,639
Speaker 1: expertise in how to survive high energy events, but looking

1481
01:20:51,680 --> 01:20:54,040
Speaker 1: at these things, I do have to wonder. It's like, Okay,

1482
01:20:54,080 --> 01:20:56,880
Speaker 1: so they float, that's good. You're you're not gonna get

1483
01:20:56,920 --> 01:20:59,760
Speaker 1: trapped underwater, hopefully, you know, So you're in this thing,

1484
01:20:59,840 --> 01:21:02,280
Speaker 1: you float up to the top eventually and be rescued.

1485
01:21:02,760 --> 01:21:05,120
Speaker 1: But also, you know, a tsunami is an incredibly high

1486
01:21:05,240 --> 01:21:09,120
Speaker 1: energy event, and so it's gonna have you bashing around

1487
01:21:09,160 --> 01:21:12,040
Speaker 1: at things. Now they can probably I guess, pad the

1488
01:21:12,120 --> 01:21:14,439
Speaker 1: inside of this thing, but you're also going to be

1489
01:21:14,520 --> 01:21:16,880
Speaker 1: in there with other people, and there's this metal pole

1490
01:21:16,960 --> 01:21:19,679
Speaker 1: for you to hold onto. I just wonder if when

1491
01:21:19,680 --> 01:21:21,479
Speaker 1: you open this thing up at the end, is it

1492
01:21:21,600 --> 01:21:23,880
Speaker 1: just going to be like a big bloody mess inside

1493
01:21:24,720 --> 01:21:27,120
Speaker 1: unless you pack a nut. Sorry for the horrible image,

1494
01:21:27,120 --> 01:21:29,320
Speaker 1: but unless you you do go complete clown car in

1495
01:21:29,360 --> 01:21:30,760
Speaker 1: this and you just make sure that you fill it

1496
01:21:30,840 --> 01:21:34,000
Speaker 1: up completely, and then some individuals survives, some don't. It's

1497
01:21:34,040 --> 01:21:35,840
Speaker 1: kind of like there's like not enough room for you

1498
01:21:35,880 --> 01:21:38,960
Speaker 1: to knock around. Yeah, yeah, you kind of you do,

1499
01:21:39,040 --> 01:21:42,639
Speaker 1: like the different species of ants that make barges out

1500
01:21:42,640 --> 01:21:47,200
Speaker 1: of themselves, you know. Well, anyway, there is another tsunami

1501
01:21:47,400 --> 01:21:50,720
Speaker 1: survival capsule. I came across a similar device created by

1502
01:21:50,760 --> 01:21:55,479
Speaker 1: aircraft engineers Julian Sharp and Scott Hill, And this one

1503
01:21:55,520 --> 01:21:58,120
Speaker 1: it's got its own website, And instead of being yellow,

1504
01:21:58,200 --> 01:22:01,240
Speaker 1: this is a red orange color. And instead of the

1505
01:22:01,280 --> 01:22:06,639
Speaker 1: minimalist floor and poll interior layout. The Survival Capsule has

1506
01:22:07,040 --> 01:22:09,840
Speaker 1: fitted seats with seat belts that look kind of like

1507
01:22:09,880 --> 01:22:13,719
Speaker 1: pilot's chairs, and it seats to to ten adults depending

1508
01:22:13,760 --> 01:22:15,760
Speaker 1: on the model. I just want to read off some

1509
01:22:15,840 --> 01:22:19,200
Speaker 1: of the standard features. UH. Safety seating with four point

1510
01:22:19,240 --> 01:22:23,400
Speaker 1: harness straps, storage space with sufficient for they say sufficient

1511
01:22:23,439 --> 01:22:27,000
Speaker 1: for five days, supply per person, supply of what I'm

1512
01:22:27,360 --> 01:22:33,320
Speaker 1: not quite sure, water storage, internal light, GPS, air ventilation

1513
01:22:33,439 --> 01:22:37,479
Speaker 1: vents uh that they say it's high visibility unit, color

1514
01:22:38,320 --> 01:22:43,720
Speaker 1: air supply tanks, hard restraint support, uh, watertight marine door

1515
01:22:44,040 --> 01:22:48,280
Speaker 1: and a marine standard window, little porthole. But then this

1516
01:22:48,439 --> 01:22:50,720
Speaker 1: was the thing that got me. They said, Okay, so

1517
01:22:51,280 --> 01:22:53,320
Speaker 1: all that stuff, Okay, you can see why you'd have

1518
01:22:53,360 --> 01:22:57,400
Speaker 1: all those things. But they've also got optional features they advertise,

1519
01:22:57,560 --> 01:23:01,719
Speaker 1: including surround sound music system. This would be a must,

1520
01:23:01,760 --> 01:23:04,120
Speaker 1: I think. And I've got to to two reasons here.

1521
01:23:04,560 --> 01:23:09,599
Speaker 1: First of all, ambient music has tremendous soothing qualities. Music

1522
01:23:09,600 --> 01:23:11,800
Speaker 1: for airports, Brian, you know, that's what we'll get you

1523
01:23:11,840 --> 01:23:14,559
Speaker 1: through time too, you know. And maybe he would have

1524
01:23:14,720 --> 01:23:17,400
Speaker 1: he would he would create a custom composition U you know,

1525
01:23:17,560 --> 01:23:22,880
Speaker 1: music for yeah, but yeah, you'll be able to calm

1526
01:23:22,920 --> 01:23:25,320
Speaker 1: yourself down. But the other thing is if you pay

1527
01:23:25,479 --> 01:23:28,960
Speaker 1: all you know, I'm guessing a fairly ridiculous sum for

1528
01:23:29,000 --> 01:23:32,680
Speaker 1: this upscale survival capsule. You might want to spend some

1529
01:23:32,760 --> 01:23:34,920
Speaker 1: time in it, like I would want to. I would

1530
01:23:34,920 --> 01:23:36,559
Speaker 1: if I had a stressful day, I'd want to go

1531
01:23:36,640 --> 01:23:39,519
Speaker 1: home and just climb into my survival capsule and maybe

1532
01:23:39,520 --> 01:23:43,840
Speaker 1: crank some tunes. I'm with you, Yeah, I can see it. Yeah,

1533
01:23:44,200 --> 01:23:46,320
Speaker 1: it can be your safe place. Okay, are what are

1534
01:23:46,320 --> 01:23:48,920
Speaker 1: my other options? I'm already on board for the music.

1535
01:23:48,960 --> 01:23:52,240
Speaker 1: You can pay up for dry powder, seat, toilet, Okay.

1536
01:23:52,800 --> 01:23:57,040
Speaker 1: So I don't know, because on one hand, we we

1537
01:23:57,160 --> 01:24:01,120
Speaker 1: all who have access to modern plumbing are very grateful

1538
01:24:01,280 --> 01:24:05,080
Speaker 1: for that that luxury. Many people throughout human history have

1539
01:24:05,160 --> 01:24:09,320
Speaker 1: not had such luxuries. But do you really want I

1540
01:24:09,360 --> 01:24:11,720
Speaker 1: don't know. I mean, on one hand, I guess it

1541
01:24:11,800 --> 01:24:14,160
Speaker 1: might be better than the alternative. But I'm just thinking

1542
01:24:14,160 --> 01:24:17,439
Speaker 1: about the idea of human waste slashing around in a

1543
01:24:17,479 --> 01:24:20,439
Speaker 1: survival capsule. I mean, I guess maybe it's going to

1544
01:24:20,520 --> 01:24:22,639
Speaker 1: be coming out either way, and it's just a question

1545
01:24:22,760 --> 01:24:24,880
Speaker 1: do you have a toilet or not? Yeah, when I'm

1546
01:24:24,920 --> 01:24:27,120
Speaker 1: wondering what this consists of, because it instantly makes me

1547
01:24:27,200 --> 01:24:30,479
Speaker 1: think of overnight canoe trip, the trips that I've been

1548
01:24:30,479 --> 01:24:33,400
Speaker 1: on where you were required by the park to have

1549
01:24:33,760 --> 01:24:37,280
Speaker 1: a toilet option on the canoe, and what what we

1550
01:24:37,320 --> 01:24:39,639
Speaker 1: had was, and instance, it's kind of an escape capsule.

1551
01:24:39,840 --> 01:24:42,360
Speaker 1: It was a folder's coffee can with kitty letter in it.

1552
01:24:42,960 --> 01:24:44,839
Speaker 1: In the event that you needed to use the restroom

1553
01:24:44,840 --> 01:24:46,880
Speaker 1: in there, you certainly could. It would not be fun,

1554
01:24:46,960 --> 01:24:50,000
Speaker 1: but it could be done. And just having it there,

1555
01:24:50,360 --> 01:24:52,360
Speaker 1: you know, made you feel a little easier and made

1556
01:24:52,360 --> 01:24:54,760
Speaker 1: the park rangers feel a little easier. I guess. So

1557
01:24:55,160 --> 01:24:58,280
Speaker 1: maybe it's all psychological, Yeah, I think. I mean that's

1558
01:24:58,320 --> 01:25:01,479
Speaker 1: that's a large part of any cape system. That's true. Yeah,

1559
01:25:01,560 --> 01:25:04,840
Speaker 1: you got to manage your mind. But then there's additional

1560
01:25:04,920 --> 01:25:08,160
Speaker 1: internal lighting. You can pay up for solar panel array

1561
01:25:08,400 --> 01:25:12,800
Speaker 1: that would that survive a tsunami external solar panel array

1562
01:25:12,880 --> 01:25:14,920
Speaker 1: and you're getting hit by a giant wave. I mean

1563
01:25:14,960 --> 01:25:18,000
Speaker 1: maybe if it was properly shielded with some sort of

1564
01:25:18,360 --> 01:25:21,479
Speaker 1: you know, like a like a really firm plexic glass

1565
01:25:21,520 --> 01:25:24,920
Speaker 1: kind of situation. I'm wondering about that. But then additional

1566
01:25:25,000 --> 01:25:28,800
Speaker 1: internal insulation acoustic and thermal. And then finally they've got

1567
01:25:28,880 --> 01:25:31,160
Speaker 1: color options. I I thought the whole point was we

1568
01:25:31,240 --> 01:25:34,000
Speaker 1: wanted to be visible, though, Yeah, well it's this red

1569
01:25:34,040 --> 01:25:36,200
Speaker 1: orange color. I mean the other one's a yellow color.

1570
01:25:36,200 --> 01:25:38,760
Speaker 1: I'd imagine either one could be visible, so maybe you

1571
01:25:38,800 --> 01:25:41,120
Speaker 1: can also be yellow. It would be horrible if you

1572
01:25:41,400 --> 01:25:44,800
Speaker 1: wanted to pick a survival capsule that was like, I

1573
01:25:44,880 --> 01:25:49,439
Speaker 1: don't know, seawater gray. Yeah, yeah, surely they wouldn't allow that.

1574
01:25:50,360 --> 01:25:52,479
Speaker 1: But maybe like zebra stripes. I could see where there

1575
01:25:52,560 --> 01:25:55,400
Speaker 1: might be some sort of custom eye catching color. You'd

1576
01:25:55,439 --> 01:25:59,400
Speaker 1: go for a racing stripe, yeah, NASCAR number. Though I

1577
01:25:59,400 --> 01:26:01,600
Speaker 1: do want to say, I mean, while the concept of

1578
01:26:01,600 --> 01:26:04,200
Speaker 1: these capsules is kind of funny to me, obviously, I mean,

1579
01:26:04,240 --> 01:26:08,680
Speaker 1: if you reckon it all with the real outcome of tsunami,

1580
01:26:08,720 --> 01:26:11,519
Speaker 1: I mean, these are some of the most devastating natural

1581
01:26:11,640 --> 01:26:14,920
Speaker 1: disasters in all the world and all of world history

1582
01:26:14,280 --> 01:26:17,880
Speaker 1: and uh and and it can be truly horrifying. And

1583
01:26:17,920 --> 01:26:20,040
Speaker 1: it's one of those things where you think, while there

1584
01:26:20,320 --> 01:26:22,439
Speaker 1: really is no great escape from this if you don't

1585
01:26:22,479 --> 01:26:26,640
Speaker 1: have fore warning. Um and so anybody who could design

1586
01:26:27,439 --> 01:26:31,960
Speaker 1: a viable tsunami survival capsule that people could really use

1587
01:26:32,040 --> 01:26:34,680
Speaker 1: to survive could be affordable to many. I mean, I

1588
01:26:34,720 --> 01:26:36,880
Speaker 1: think that would be a worthwhile thing to pursue. So

1589
01:26:36,920 --> 01:26:38,880
Speaker 1: I don't want to I don't want to just make

1590
01:26:38,960 --> 01:26:41,920
Speaker 1: jokes about what these people are doing. I don't know

1591
01:26:42,000 --> 01:26:44,720
Speaker 1: that the toilet seems a little funny to me. But

1592
01:26:44,720 --> 01:26:47,240
Speaker 1: but yeah, I mean, if you can actually make a

1593
01:26:47,320 --> 01:26:49,280
Speaker 1: capsule and you can get it to the people who

1594
01:26:49,280 --> 01:26:51,639
Speaker 1: are most vulnerable to tsunamis, I think that's a noble

1595
01:26:51,680 --> 01:26:54,559
Speaker 1: thing to do. Plus, let's face it, if you can't

1596
01:26:54,640 --> 01:26:58,280
Speaker 1: laugh about pooping in a coffee canister right on the

1597
01:26:58,360 --> 01:27:00,439
Speaker 1: on the on the escape barge, on the in the

1598
01:27:00,479 --> 01:27:03,559
Speaker 1: survival capsule, then what's the purpose of surviving? You know,

1599
01:27:03,760 --> 01:27:06,599
Speaker 1: because our humanity has to survive, and that entails being

1600
01:27:06,640 --> 01:27:09,400
Speaker 1: able to laugh at the prospect of pooping in a

1601
01:27:09,439 --> 01:27:13,599
Speaker 1: folder's canister. That humorous gesture would be the true presence

1602
01:27:13,600 --> 01:27:18,080
Speaker 1: of a happy spirit on board. Yes, alright, So one

1603
01:27:18,120 --> 01:27:21,160
Speaker 1: more example of an escape capsule to discuss here. So

1604
01:27:21,200 --> 01:27:23,679
Speaker 1: many of the capsules we've mentioned share the same mission

1605
01:27:23,760 --> 01:27:26,840
Speaker 1: right to return adventurous humans to the Earth's surface from

1606
01:27:26,880 --> 01:27:30,880
Speaker 1: a malfunctioning aircraft to the surface, etcetera. But what about

1607
01:27:30,880 --> 01:27:33,880
Speaker 1: when things go hey wire beneath the surface of the earth.

1608
01:27:33,920 --> 01:27:37,960
Speaker 1: Are you talking about underground core drilling vehicles like in

1609
01:27:38,080 --> 01:27:41,240
Speaker 1: the Core? Um, well, we're not quite there yet. Did

1610
01:27:41,360 --> 01:27:42,840
Speaker 1: they have an escape capsule, like some sort of I

1611
01:27:42,880 --> 01:27:45,120
Speaker 1: don't thing that came up. I'm sorry to say this.

1612
01:27:45,160 --> 01:27:48,479
Speaker 1: I've never seen the Core. Oh yeah, well it makes

1613
01:27:48,520 --> 01:27:52,040
Speaker 1: me this idea makes me think of the the terror

1614
01:27:52,080 --> 01:27:54,960
Speaker 1: dome on a teenage muntant Ninja turtles, right, because it

1615
01:27:55,000 --> 01:27:56,800
Speaker 1: would it would drill down, and I think they had

1616
01:27:57,000 --> 01:27:59,920
Speaker 1: they had the equivalent of like a little drill the

1617
01:28:00,040 --> 01:28:01,360
Speaker 1: vehicle that would come up that was kind of like

1618
01:28:01,400 --> 01:28:04,240
Speaker 1: an escape capsule that the foot soldiers would jump out

1619
01:28:04,240 --> 01:28:06,719
Speaker 1: of in the video game. Right. I don't remember anything

1620
01:28:06,760 --> 01:28:09,400
Speaker 1: about that, but I believe you well it was. It

1621
01:28:09,479 --> 01:28:12,280
Speaker 1: was fantastic and uh, you know, could probably not exist

1622
01:28:12,560 --> 01:28:15,400
Speaker 1: in real life, but here's an example of something that did. So.

1623
01:28:15,920 --> 01:28:19,840
Speaker 1: You can find various mining escape capsule patents out there,

1624
01:28:20,040 --> 01:28:23,280
Speaker 1: but the most notable deployment, real life deployment of so

1625
01:28:23,360 --> 01:28:25,680
Speaker 1: of one of these systems came in the wake of

1626
01:28:25,720 --> 01:28:28,559
Speaker 1: the two thousand ten Chilean mining acts. And do you

1627
01:28:28,600 --> 01:28:31,719
Speaker 1: remember when this occurred? I don't. I mean, I remember

1628
01:28:31,800 --> 01:28:35,800
Speaker 1: various mining accidents, but this one, the particulars of it

1629
01:28:35,840 --> 01:28:38,080
Speaker 1: don't stand out to me. So what happened here? So

1630
01:28:38,120 --> 01:28:41,439
Speaker 1: this was thirty three miners trapped seven hundred meters that's

1631
01:28:42,479 --> 01:28:46,160
Speaker 1: feet underground and uh and about five kilometers or three

1632
01:28:46,200 --> 01:28:49,519
Speaker 1: miles from the mind's interests entrants. So this was a

1633
01:28:49,560 --> 01:28:51,599
Speaker 1: pretty big deal. They made a movie about it recently,

1634
01:28:51,640 --> 01:28:53,479
Speaker 1: like I think they called it thirty three or the

1635
01:28:53,520 --> 01:28:58,280
Speaker 1: thirty three. Um. So they're they're trapped in this hostile environment. Um,

1636
01:28:58,280 --> 01:29:02,439
Speaker 1: it's it's hot down there, it's dark. Uh, it's cramped,

1637
01:29:02,479 --> 01:29:05,800
Speaker 1: and they've got to get out right. So to rescue them,

1638
01:29:05,960 --> 01:29:09,760
Speaker 1: what they did is they utilize steel rescue capsules. And

1639
01:29:09,800 --> 01:29:14,000
Speaker 1: these these were updated takes on the torpedo like doll

1640
01:29:14,120 --> 01:29:18,080
Speaker 1: bush bomb that have been employed since the mid nineteen fifties.

1641
01:29:18,120 --> 01:29:22,160
Speaker 1: Developed in Germany. Doll bush bomb, Yeah, that's what they

1642
01:29:22,200 --> 01:29:23,439
Speaker 1: called it because I guess it kind of looks like

1643
01:29:23,439 --> 01:29:25,360
Speaker 1: a bomb, kind of looks like a torpedo. And this

1644
01:29:25,439 --> 01:29:29,160
Speaker 1: was used. This was employed again in the mid nineteen

1645
01:29:29,240 --> 01:29:32,960
Speaker 1: fifties in a German mine. So they updated this. They

1646
01:29:33,040 --> 01:29:36,280
Speaker 1: dubbed it the Phoenix, and they were constructed by the

1647
01:29:36,360 --> 01:29:39,720
Speaker 1: Chilean Navy with design input from NASA, and they implemented

1648
01:29:39,760 --> 01:29:44,360
Speaker 1: most of NASA's changes. Uh So, when the when the

1649
01:29:44,400 --> 01:29:46,320
Speaker 1: mining accident occurred, this was you know, this was a

1650
01:29:46,360 --> 01:29:49,080
Speaker 1: big this was big news. It was captivating all the headlines.

1651
01:29:49,160 --> 01:29:52,600
Speaker 1: Everyone's really concerned. There's a lot of international attention and

1652
01:29:52,640 --> 01:29:55,719
Speaker 1: thus NASA's involvement as well. But I'm trying to imagine,

1653
01:29:55,720 --> 01:29:59,240
Speaker 1: like what does a mine a mine escape pod look like, Like,

1654
01:29:59,320 --> 01:30:01,799
Speaker 1: how does that work? It basically looks like a torpedo.

1655
01:30:01,840 --> 01:30:04,080
Speaker 1: And the idea is, all right, you're down there in

1656
01:30:04,120 --> 01:30:07,280
Speaker 1: this uh this subterranean environment, if we can get a

1657
01:30:07,320 --> 01:30:09,800
Speaker 1: shaft down there to you can we can potentially get

1658
01:30:09,840 --> 01:30:12,920
Speaker 1: you back up, or or if there's an adjacent shaft

1659
01:30:12,920 --> 01:30:14,799
Speaker 1: when we can somehow get you to that shaft, etcetera.

1660
01:30:15,160 --> 01:30:18,600
Speaker 1: So this, this Phoenix capsule consisted of again kind of

1661
01:30:18,640 --> 01:30:22,040
Speaker 1: like this torpedo looking device. Each one had retractable wheels

1662
01:30:22,040 --> 01:30:24,439
Speaker 1: to allow for a smoother ride to the surface, so

1663
01:30:24,479 --> 01:30:27,200
Speaker 1: the wheels would skit along the sides of the vertical

1664
01:30:27,240 --> 01:30:30,840
Speaker 1: shaft that you're you're being pulled back up. Each one

1665
01:30:30,920 --> 01:30:36,120
Speaker 1: have an oxygen supply, lighting, video, and voice communications reinforce

1666
01:30:36,320 --> 01:30:39,320
Speaker 1: roof to protect against foot rocks that are falling, because

1667
01:30:39,400 --> 01:30:43,920
Speaker 1: rocks could fall uh down the tunnel that you're ascending,

1668
01:30:44,240 --> 01:30:47,280
Speaker 1: and you need protection against those. Um. And also an

1669
01:30:47,360 --> 01:30:49,879
Speaker 1: escape hatch with a safety device to allow the passenger

1670
01:30:49,960 --> 01:30:53,599
Speaker 1: to lower themselves back down if the capsule became stuck

1671
01:30:53,720 --> 01:30:56,880
Speaker 1: on the way up, that would Yeah. So these were

1672
01:30:56,920 --> 01:31:00,400
Speaker 1: these were pretty These were pretty amazing devices. Um, and

1673
01:31:00,760 --> 01:31:03,000
Speaker 1: they've I think they were They were making the rounds

1674
01:31:03,000 --> 01:31:04,360
Speaker 1: for a little bit late, but a little bit because

1675
01:31:04,360 --> 01:31:05,640
Speaker 1: they were showing them off because they were able to

1676
01:31:05,640 --> 01:31:10,120
Speaker 1: successfully get everyone out of the mind using the Phoenix capsules. Really, yeah,

1677
01:31:10,200 --> 01:31:12,559
Speaker 1: this is weird. I'm feeling this field. I don't usually

1678
01:31:12,600 --> 01:31:17,280
Speaker 1: experience strong claustrophobia, but just now contemplating this, I'm overwhelmed.

1679
01:31:17,600 --> 01:31:19,840
Speaker 1: Well you should. You should definitely check out more about

1680
01:31:19,840 --> 01:31:21,599
Speaker 1: the story. There was a wonderful I want to say.

1681
01:31:21,600 --> 01:31:24,040
Speaker 1: It was an episode of the Ideas podcast out of

1682
01:31:24,080 --> 01:31:27,800
Speaker 1: Canada that into it. The I think they interviewed an

1683
01:31:27,800 --> 01:31:29,800
Speaker 1: author had written a book about it. I think it's

1684
01:31:29,840 --> 01:31:31,920
Speaker 1: the same book that the movie was based on, and

1685
01:31:31,920 --> 01:31:35,160
Speaker 1: they went into detail just talking about just how bad

1686
01:31:35,240 --> 01:31:38,400
Speaker 1: the situation was and like the attitudes among the the

1687
01:31:38,439 --> 01:31:41,559
Speaker 1: survivors and and what was going on top side as well.

1688
01:31:41,640 --> 01:31:44,439
Speaker 1: So it's a it's a really interesting human drama. I

1689
01:31:44,479 --> 01:31:46,200
Speaker 1: haven't seen the movie yet, but it kind of makes

1690
01:31:46,240 --> 01:31:49,360
Speaker 1: me want to see it. Interesting Alright, So we've talked

1691
01:31:49,400 --> 01:31:53,320
Speaker 1: about aviation escape pods, we've talked about space escapes pods,

1692
01:31:53,320 --> 01:31:57,280
Speaker 1: we've talked about whether related escape pods, mining escape pods. Uh,

1693
01:31:57,760 --> 01:32:01,640
Speaker 1: what we've possibly left out here, Um, you know, what

1694
01:32:01,680 --> 01:32:04,639
Speaker 1: they need is a human body escape pod for the brain.

1695
01:32:05,040 --> 01:32:09,040
Speaker 1: That's one of the cybernetic upgrades I'm hoping for. Yeah,

1696
01:32:09,479 --> 01:32:11,920
Speaker 1: or it sounds more like a spiritual upgrade as well.

1697
01:32:14,280 --> 01:32:16,719
Speaker 1: The brain. You get to maybe the brain upper nervous

1698
01:32:16,720 --> 01:32:21,840
Speaker 1: system is encased in a survival eject capsule. Something bad

1699
01:32:21,880 --> 01:32:23,960
Speaker 1: happens to the body, your brain kind of shoots out

1700
01:32:23,960 --> 01:32:28,080
Speaker 1: and waits for rescue. Huh. Well, I guess the a

1701
01:32:28,120 --> 01:32:30,559
Speaker 1: more slightly more believable version of this would be just

1702
01:32:30,600 --> 01:32:33,400
Speaker 1: the idea that that we would have our consciousness, our

1703
01:32:33,439 --> 01:32:37,360
Speaker 1: memories backed up somewhere digitally, so that every you know,

1704
01:32:37,439 --> 01:32:38,960
Speaker 1: I don't know how how how often would you want

1705
01:32:38,960 --> 01:32:40,719
Speaker 1: to be backed up? How much time are you willing

1706
01:32:40,760 --> 01:32:44,240
Speaker 1: to lose? In your life. Oh you know every week. Yeah,

1707
01:32:44,280 --> 01:32:47,360
Speaker 1: that's fine. So something happens, you just eject the SD card.

1708
01:32:48,080 --> 01:32:52,160
Speaker 1: Remember to save after every important life event, because you'd

1709
01:32:52,160 --> 01:32:54,920
Speaker 1: hate to be like, Oh, I just the birth of

1710
01:32:54,960 --> 01:32:57,120
Speaker 1: my first child and I forgot to save and then

1711
01:32:57,160 --> 01:32:59,400
Speaker 1: I got I got hit by a car and do

1712
01:32:59,600 --> 01:33:01,240
Speaker 1: you know, do't worry. It's not the biggest tragedy in

1713
01:33:01,240 --> 01:33:02,800
Speaker 1: the world because I now I have my body back,

1714
01:33:03,000 --> 01:33:06,960
Speaker 1: but I have no memory of the birth because I

1715
01:33:07,000 --> 01:33:09,320
Speaker 1: did not save immediately after. Or you could look at

1716
01:33:09,360 --> 01:33:11,120
Speaker 1: it the other way and say, if you don't save

1717
01:33:11,200 --> 01:33:14,240
Speaker 1: after every great event, you get to relive and rediscover

1718
01:33:14,320 --> 01:33:16,639
Speaker 1: the greatness of this great event over and over again.

1719
01:33:16,760 --> 01:33:18,559
Speaker 1: I guess if you can pull it off a second time.

1720
01:33:20,000 --> 01:33:22,280
Speaker 1: And isn't that the goal of any escape pod to

1721
01:33:22,920 --> 01:33:25,840
Speaker 1: give you the chance to have a second go at

1722
01:33:25,840 --> 01:33:29,719
Speaker 1: all of life's experiences. Well, we know we've not covered

1723
01:33:29,760 --> 01:33:33,840
Speaker 1: all of the great escape capsules, pods, survival vehicles that

1724
01:33:33,920 --> 01:33:36,000
Speaker 1: have ever been created. So if you've been thinking of

1725
01:33:36,040 --> 01:33:38,599
Speaker 1: one out there and you're like, oh, oh, oh, why

1726
01:33:38,600 --> 01:33:41,280
Speaker 1: aren't you talking about this, you should let us know. Yeah,

1727
01:33:41,360 --> 01:33:43,160
Speaker 1: let us know about the fictional ones. Let us know

1728
01:33:43,200 --> 01:33:46,160
Speaker 1: about the real life escape capsules. Let us know about

1729
01:33:46,640 --> 01:33:48,920
Speaker 1: some of the proposed ones that just haven't come to

1730
01:33:48,960 --> 01:33:51,439
Speaker 1: fruition yet. We would love to hear about them. And hey,

1731
01:33:51,520 --> 01:33:52,880
Speaker 1: let us know you want to hear. Do you want

1732
01:33:52,880 --> 01:33:57,200
Speaker 1: to hear an episode about fallout shelters? We could do it. Uh?

1733
01:33:57,360 --> 01:33:59,679
Speaker 1: Does that? Does that episode about the guns and under

1734
01:33:59,680 --> 01:34:02,200
Speaker 1: space interest you? Let us know we could do that

1735
01:34:02,280 --> 01:34:05,240
Speaker 1: episode as well. Really, it's it's all. It's all on

1736
01:34:05,280 --> 01:34:06,960
Speaker 1: the table, And if you want to get in touch

1737
01:34:07,000 --> 01:34:08,360
Speaker 1: with us, reach out to us at stuff to Blow

1738
01:34:08,400 --> 01:34:10,639
Speaker 1: your Mind dot com. That's our mothership. That's we find

1739
01:34:10,640 --> 01:34:12,920
Speaker 1: links out to our social media accounts, as well as

1740
01:34:12,960 --> 01:34:17,320
Speaker 1: various podcast episodes, blog post videos, you name it. And

1741
01:34:17,360 --> 01:34:19,040
Speaker 1: if you want to get in touch with this directly,

1742
01:34:19,120 --> 01:34:21,759
Speaker 1: you can do so. As always, that Blow the Mind

1743
01:34:21,880 --> 01:34:33,280
Speaker 1: and how stuff works dot com for more on this

1744
01:34:33,479 --> 01:34:36,000
Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works

1745
01:34:36,000 --> 01:34:59,240
Speaker 1: dot com