WEBVTT - Ticket Out of Town: Commercial Spaceflight – Lab 077 0:00:00.800 --> 0:00:01.040 T t. 0:00:01.200 --> 0:00:04.000 There are two places we both say we don't want 0:00:04.000 --> 0:00:06.360 to mess around with. That's too deep in the ocean, 0:00:06.559 --> 0:00:08.680 that's right, and too far out into space. 0:00:09.440 --> 0:00:11.360 We don't know what's out there, and we don't know 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:15.920 it's down there. Okay, there you have it. The people 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:17.840 are like, oh, I would want to live in the 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:21.000 ocean at the I'm like, we don't know anything about 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:21.599 what's going. 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:24.800 Y'all laughing at SpongeBob. But a pineapple under the sea. 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:28.200 No thanks, Okay, you don't know what's down there, No 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:30.680 one does. We don't know what's in space, but people 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:31.840 are still trying to go there. 0:00:32.120 --> 0:00:35.600 Right. Just this Monday that just passed, NASA was supposed 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:39.480 to launch their Artemis moon rocket, but the launch was scrubbed, 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:42.839 so it's canceled due to technical difficulties because of a 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:46.960 fuel leak and some other things like a temperature issue 0:00:46.960 --> 0:00:47.720 with the engine. 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:51.680 When will we learn to see in space? We need 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:52.440 to cool it down? 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:53.840 When will we learn? 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:56.800 I'm TT and I'm Zakiyah. 0:00:56.480 --> 0:01:08.520 And from Spotify, this is Stop Labs. 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:26.560 Welcome to Dope Labs, a weekly podcast that makes this 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:29.839 hardcore science, pop culture, and a healthy dose of friendship. 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:34.080 This week, we're talking all about commercial space flights. 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:36.200 Before we even get into this too deep. 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:36.720 Uh huh. 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:39.959 I gotta know where everybody's landing. If you could go 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:42.200 to space, and I mean first class to space, not 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:45.360 in the cargo area. If you could go first class 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:48.600 to space, would you go T T? Would you go? 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:55.720 Ooh? I'm still very terrified of space, you know me. 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:58.280 I've said this in a few episodes, like the thought 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:01.720 of space scares me, honey, like it scares me, but 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:05.320 you know, the scientist in me is very curious what 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:08.600 it's like, if it'll be cool, you know. So I'm 0:02:08.680 --> 0:02:11.560 kind of on the fence. I'm gonna say yes because 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:13.200 I feel like I have to say yes. 0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:16.760 Oh, y'all bullying my friend, and to be in a space, I'm. 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:18.720 Gonna bully me. Y'all always bullying me. 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:24.800 Okay, now it's time for y'all to tell us would 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:26.840 you go to space? Yes or no? If you take 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:28.880 a look in the app right now, you'll see the 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:31.520 poll at the bottom. Let us know would you go 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:34.240 to space? Yes or no? And also jump in our 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:37.440 dms or respond to our story on Instagram because we 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:39.200 really do want to hear I want to know why 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:40.840 you're going or why you're not going. 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:42.639 You didn't say, are you going? 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:45.440 Oh, I'm in their life swim, We're terrified. 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:46.320 I'm going scared. 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:50.360 Okay, I'm going scared, straight to space. Everybody's going to space. 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:53.160 When William Shatner went, I said, hey, I think I'm eligible. 0:02:55.919 --> 0:02:58.200 Yeah, he took offense to everybody asking his age, but 0:02:58.200 --> 0:02:59.440 it's a valid question. 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:02.840 I mean, he's pretty much up there. So and how 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:04.560 do you get on the list? I saw Michael Strahan 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:05.560 went recently, I. 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:09.360 Don't know what the qualifications are, but Michael Strahan, William Shaddner, 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:10.840 I don't know who's next. 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:14.799 And that made us ask a lot of questions. Specifically, 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:17.799 we wanted to know more about the history of space exploration, 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:22.600 how commercial space flights impact space exploration, and what that 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:23.840 could mean for the future. 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:26.000 All right, let's get into the recitation. 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:39.360 So what do we know, Well, we are seeing quite 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:41.440 a bit of dust being kicked up from the private 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:46.400 space company SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic. Everybody is taking 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:48.400 this thing to space. 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:52.080 And like we said, they have been taking a lot 0:03:52.120 --> 0:03:55.520 of celebrities and the folks with the coin because going 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:56.560 to space is not. 0:03:56.640 --> 0:03:58.800 Cheap going across the country is not cheap. 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:00.400 Ain't no spirit flights to space? 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:04.520 Okay, you know there's not any spirit flights anymore anyway, Right, 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:06.880 they were just bought. Now, if I see Jeb Blue 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:09.400 going to space, you're taking on too many risks. That's 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:11.119 I'm going to tell anybody that has a ticket, that's 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:12.120 just you're taking it too far. 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:14.440 Right, this is gonna be a slingshot. They're gonna put 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:17.120 you in a slingshot and just let it happen. 0:04:17.680 --> 0:04:20.359 But even though we're joking around, there seems to be 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:24.760 a lot of excitement about and potential related to space exploration. 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:28.599 Absolutely, there's so much to be discovered in space. But 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:31.560 because we don't know that much, that means there's a 0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:35.520 lot of unknowns. So it kind of makes you go, 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:41.600 I don't know when you start thinking about just sending regular, regular, 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:43.760 regular people into. 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:46.520 Space, and so what do we want to know? So 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:47.400 I want to know. 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:50.560 Kind of the history of space exploration, who were the 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:54.000 first folks to think about space and what questions were 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:56.120 they asking and trying to answer? 0:04:56.400 --> 0:04:58.359 And I want to know how we got here. I 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:01.760 feel like I was just minding my business and then 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:05.600 everybody was going to space, like, was this secretly happening? 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:08.040 How did it become so popular? How did these people 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:10.840 get on these lists? You know, was there space flight 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:13.040 before Instagram when people couldn't post about it? 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:15.680 And I want to know what do we need to 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:18.880 be thinking about for the future. I mean, you know, 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:21.200 it's not going to just stop with those quick flights 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:23.400 up and down. Are people going to start trying to 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:27.160 living space? Are people going to be having hotels up there? 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:34.120 Is there going to be Spotify space? If so, sign 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:36.719 me up? Is that a part of my premium membership? 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:37.560 My subscription. 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:39.960 Let's jump into the dissection. 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:54.520 Our guest for today's Lab is doctor Jordan Beim. 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:57.160 I'm doctor Jordan Bim. I'm a space historian at the 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:00.440 University of Chicago. My research focuses on the hitt of 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:04.839 space medicine and astrobiology. The best spaceship is friendship. 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:08.039 Doctor Bim is working on a book called Anticipating the 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:11.040 Astronaut and it's all about the history of space medicine 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:14.520 pre NASA. It's coming out next year with MIT Press. 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:18.039 And since he's a space historian, we knew he could 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:21.400 take us back into time. Okay, so The first thing 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:24.200 that we wanted to know was when humans were first 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:27.520 thinking about going into space, what were they thinking about 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:29.960 and what did exploration look like. 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.599 We've been going to space for over sixty years, but 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:36.480 humans have been thinking about going to space for almost 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:39.080 as long as we have written records. The earliest space 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:42.520 sciences were visual observations of the cosmos, and that was 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:45.120 done just with the naked eye for many years, and 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:47.800 then starting in the sixteen hundreds, it was the telescope. 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:51.359 The telescope was the main instrument for exploring space until 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:54.479 the beginning of the twentieth century, and telescopes are still 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:58.080 important for space exploration today. Doctor Bim told us it 0:06:58.080 --> 0:07:00.479 wasn't until nineteen forty five, at the end of World 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:04.679 War Two, that we developed technology to actually reach space. 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:07.760 So most people think that space exploration starts with NASA, 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:10.240 which was founded in nineteen fifty eight. But what my 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:13.320 research as a space historian focuses on is this missing 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:16.080 ten years or so where it was actually done in 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:19.280 the military, mostly the US Air Force. And the context 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:22.760 there is the Cold War, which was a military competition 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:25.400 between the United States and the Soviet Union. It was 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:29.200 framed by the fear of nuclear annihilation and the delivery 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:32.280 of atomic weapons. Someone said, hey, instead of putting a 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:34.080 warhead on top of a rocket, what if we put 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:36.320 a little capsule and a human in there. What could 0:07:36.320 --> 0:07:36.840 we do with that? 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:37.640 Now? 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:38.520 Why would they say that? 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:43.720 That is not my next? No line up thinking. 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:45.360 Instead of a warhead, what about a real head? 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:56.000 Right like that, Doctor Bem shared, it's important to understand 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:59.840 how the military shaped the history of space exploration and research. 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:02.520 I always say history matters. You know, the past isn't 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:04.680 really past. The past is all around us, and that 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:07.280 counts for space as well. And it's my mission to 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:08.720 recover those missing stories. 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:12.120 One of those missing stories includes Werner von Bront, a 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:14.720 former Nazi and rocket engineer who was brought over to 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:16.880 the United States by our government as part of a 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:20.560 secret program called Operation Papercliff. And in this program, the 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:24.000 United States brought over sixteen hundred German scientists, regardless of 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:27.640 war crimes, to work against the Soviet Union and with 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:28.640 the United States. 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:30.840 And so many people know that Verner von Brown and 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:33.320 his team of Nazi rocket scientists built the rockets that 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:35.560 took us to the moon. But what most people don't 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:39.200 know is that doctors and psychologists came over as well, 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:41.840 and they worked on the human who would ride inside 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:44.439 that rocket. So the early history of the field of 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:46.959 space medicine, which I write about in the US Air Force, 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:50.920 it's not American doctors and psychologists, it's former Luftwaffe doctors 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:54.160 and psychologists. And they did not check their ideas about 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:57.200 the perfectibility of certain humans at Ellis Island. When they 0:08:57.200 --> 0:09:00.480 came to the United States, they wove that into knowledge 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:03.120 about the human body in the extreme environment of outer space. 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:06.160 So when you look at the first astronaut groups and 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:09.520 there are seven white male military test pilots, like all 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:11.720 the same size, you know, the only thing that's different 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:13.840 is like their haircut and their tie or something. It 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:16.280 kind of is this low key eugenics that gets in there, 0:09:16.640 --> 0:09:18.880 and we see the ripple effects of that. Even today, 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:21.720 we're still trying to fight for diversity and equity of 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:25.240 access to space because there has been this entrenched normal 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:28.240 of the sort of white male body as space normal, 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:28.760 which it's not. 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:32.080 You know, this gets back to what we talked about 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:36.840 with Angela sayani H in Skin Deep Lap twenty five. 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:39.200 Absolutely, how our. 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:43.160 Historical underpinnings, what was going on in the world at 0:09:43.160 --> 0:09:45.640 that time affects the science that was being done, and 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:47.640 we look back at it and say, the science doesn't 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:51.600 lie of what baby, The science is biased. Okay, absolutely, 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:54.440 and we're still reeling from those effects today. Yeah. 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:56.319 When you take a look back at all of the 0:09:56.360 --> 0:10:01.000 earliest you know, bright minds that people talk about in 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:05.520 reference Darwin, all these folks they were racist, and they 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:11.000 had verrely racist ideologies that they baked into their science, 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:14.360 and that was the science that was then canonized by 0:10:14.360 --> 0:10:17.880 the scientific community. So we accepted as fact. And there's 0:10:17.920 --> 0:10:21.400 science that's built on top of that. So even though 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:25.680 we are hundreds of years post those thoughts and we think, oh, 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:30.240 we're progressive, we're scientists. No, the roots, the foundation of 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:34.680 some of these scientific principles are biased and racist. 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:36.960 We even see this in entertainment where people are upset 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:42.079 about black people being in Marvel movies and being guardians 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:45.720 of the galaxy. Hey, we talked about space people and 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:47.560 you think they should all look like white man. That's 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:48.160 wild to me. 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:52.400 I also saw a raccoon that y'all don't have no 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:54.800 objections to that, or a piece of wood. I don't 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:57.800 watch these Marvel movies, So I don't really know, Like 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:01.480 there was a tree, that's all. But black folks aren't okay. 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:06.000 Something's happening here. Spoiler alert, it's racism. 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:08.760 So when we get to moving from warhead to human 0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:12.080 hit going to space, the first question scientists wanted to 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:15.640 answer was could the human body actually survive in space? 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:18.439 Can the human body survive the rigors of space travel, 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:23.000 which include intense acceleration and deceleration, exposure to low pressure 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:27.079 environments inside the cabin, perhaps temperature extremes of heat and cold, 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:27.959 things like that. 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:32.319 The United States began to answer these questions with Project Mercury, 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:36.280 NASA's first human space flight program, and it started in 0:11:36.360 --> 0:11:39.280 nineteen fifty eight and had its first flight, the Mercury 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:41.640 Redstone three, in nineteen sixty one. 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:44.440 And those early space flights proved that for a short 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:47.960 period of time, human body can survive those stresses. And 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:50.800 then as we moved into longer duration missions like the 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:53.280 famous Apollo missions that took us into deep space into 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:55.680 the Moon, we learned that the transit from the Earth 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:59.120 the Moon is possible. Remote field work on the extreme 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:01.800 environment of the lunar is possible. It's possible to do 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:04.640 science in these distant, hazardous places. 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:07.120 We've learned a lot in the past sixty years about 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:10.160 sending humans to space, but there's still so much to 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:14.160 learn and so many more open questions. For instance, we 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:17.480 don't know how well people will do in longer space flights, 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:20.240 like beyond a year, so it could be a while 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:25.040 before we're all thinking about living on Mars. 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:30.160 Okay, so let's recap. We've talked about how the history 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:32.800 of space exploration was rooted in the military, in some 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:37.240 problematic history in early space research, and since the Cold War, 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:41.800 space exploration and research has been more scientific inquiry focused. 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:45.000 With the founding of NASA, so in nineteen sixty nine 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:46.880 we put a man on the Moon and in nineteen 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:50.200 ninety eight we launched the International Space Station. But recently 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:53.320 we've seen a boom in commercial space flight opportunities offered 0:12:53.320 --> 0:12:54.480 by private companies. 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:58.800 We have seen this transformation from military to science now 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:01.520 to what I would call experience and experience that is 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:04.240 for sale. The thing that's really interesting is that the 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:06.920 answer to the question of what space is for, whether 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:10.199 it's for military, whether it's for science, whether it's for experience, 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:13.600 is always linked to who space is for. So it's 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:16.880 for military, then you send soldiers. If it's for science, 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:20.120 you send scientists, engineers, and doctors. And if it's for experience, 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:21.920 well then it's who has the money to pay for 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:24.880 that and who they select as their chosen companions. 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:28.120 That's a really interesting point. As the goals of space 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:32.959 exploration and travel shift, who is able to travel also changes. 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:36.840 Yeah, and while this shift to commercial space flight feels new, 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:40.839 it's actually been going on a lot longer, right under 0:13:40.880 --> 0:13:41.480 our noses. 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:45.240 The commercialization of space began about twenty years ago with 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:48.000 flights to the International Space Station that were sold by 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:51.439 a company called Space Adventures. When the Soviet Union collapsed 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:54.760 in nineteen ninety one, they had this space program and 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:57.360 all of a sudden they needed money. So, you know, 0:13:57.400 --> 0:13:59.520 they just tried to sell spare seats on their Soyu's 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:01.480 capsuless that's wild. 0:14:01.679 --> 0:14:03.600 So basically the government had a arc. 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:07.319 You could basically buy a seat on a Soyu's space 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:10.920 capsule launching from Russia, and about twenty or so people 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:13.400 chose that route, and it was maybe twenty million dollars 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:14.040 for a seat. 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:19.800 That's crowdfunding was twenty million for a seat. That's wild. 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:23.080 So doctor bim is saying that when I was on 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:29.479 AOL instant messenger, people were buying discount seats to crowdfund 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:33.480 their government to go to space. Ooh, like that's wild 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:33.720 to me. 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:36.240 It is, it is, I can't believe this was happening, 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:39.040 And it feels like no one knows. 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:40.240 Nobody knew. 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:42.200 So it wasn't like they were a company that created 0:14:42.200 --> 0:14:45.800 a whole new infrastructure. They were basically selling something they 0:14:45.840 --> 0:14:48.520 already had as a way to generate income to keep 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:49.720 their space program going. 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:53.520 Commercial spaceflight has expanded since the first Space Adventures flight 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:56.360 to the International Space Station in two thousand and one. 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:59.920 Today there are several companies that offer sub orbital or 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:03.960 low Earth orbit flights, and ticket prices start at four 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:07.160 hundred and fifty thousand dollars and go up from there. 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:11.520 What we've seen with SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic is 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:15.160 the creation of an entirely new sets of infrastructure, and 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:18.680 the key of this is reusability. And I'm sure we've 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:21.000 all seen those videos of those rockets coming back and 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:24.520 landing back on Earth with their stabilizers out. That is 0:15:24.640 --> 0:15:27.720 this sort of key technological innovation that is allowing these 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:31.600 companies to lower the price of a space launch, which 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:34.760 before was so expensive that it was really only governments 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:37.520 that could manage that. But now we're seeing, you know, 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:39.720 the ascent of the billionaire class coming out of the 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:43.400 Internet boom. They have money to basically start a space program, 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:46.360 which is crazy, but it's happening now. 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:49.640 I got to stop you, because while the price might 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:54.000 be getting lower, it's definitely not affordable. 0:15:54.560 --> 0:16:05.360 No affordable for Diddy. So let's say someone does have 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:08.320 the money to go to space, can anyone go? I 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:11.120 saw William Shatner went up there, and he's pretty old, 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:14.480 and I would hope that there is some health criteria 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:17.760 for space travel, not just the coins. But if there 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:19.280 isn't should there be? 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:22.920 He was ninety years old. And also Wally Funk, a 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:25.880 amazing woman pilot who was part of a very early 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:28.760 space medicine research program, got the chance to go to 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:30.400 space as well, and I believe she was eighty two 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:33.360 years old. So what we've seen is that people who 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:36.640 are not these sort of eugenic specimens that we were 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:39.320 sending to space in the nineteen sixties can also survive 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:42.360 at least a short duration spaceflight. But that doesn't mean 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:45.320 that anybody can go to space. Space does actually challenge 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:47.600 the human body in lots of ways. I'm not talking 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:50.160 about the vacuum of space, but the environment inside the 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:53.440 space capsule is usually a low pressure environment. There's the 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:57.440 problem of weightlessness or zero G. So there are aspects 0:16:57.480 --> 0:16:59.720 of the body that do need to be checked out beforehand, 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:01.840 because you don't want someone to become sick in space 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:03.760 or Heaven forbid, you know, die there. 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:07.520 I think something that we often overlook is that the 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:12.320 whole way we understand and study our bodies is with gravity. Like, 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:15.440 as we stand and exist here now, gravity is being 0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:17.600 enacted on us. That's a force that's enacted on us. 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:21.200 It ensures that our blood maintains an optimum blood pressure level. 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:24.120 Your heart is pumping to pump your blood up against 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:27.520 the force of gravity, your organs being situated, all of 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:29.639 your muscles, and your scalear structure, all that stuff is 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:32.160 operating under the pressure of gravity. But when you move 0:17:32.200 --> 0:17:35.240 to a gravity list environment or an environment that has 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:39.119 so little gravity that it's basically negligible, that changes things. 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:42.200 And you can imagine that over time being in that environment, 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:44.399 that will continue to change and affect how your body 0:17:44.400 --> 0:17:45.120 operates too. 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:47.760 My little sister, who is a very smart woman. She's 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:51.000 an aerospace engineer. She just did a zero gravity flight 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:53.280 and let me tell you, she said it was not 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:56.480 for the faint of heart. It was tough, like really 0:17:56.520 --> 0:17:58.480 tough on the body. She did really well and was 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:00.560 able to pull off all the experiences that she needed 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:03.760 to do. But the description it didn't sound like something 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:06.480 I wanted to do, Like, I don't like roller coasters. 0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:09.040 There's no way I'm finding zero G. 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:15.960 You know, another consideration beyond just like do you have 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:19.440 the stomach for it? Is the training and selection process 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:22.520 for commercial space flight. So you know, whenever I watch 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:25.800 these documentaries about people going to space and NASA, they 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:29.080 have years of training, and I know these people getting 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:32.359 on these flights are only getting a few days at best. 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:36.719 So even though the financial barriers are high, it feels 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:39.480 like the barrier to entry is lower because a few 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:44.919 days of training does not equal a few years. Okay, 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:47.600 So let's say you have the money and you're physically 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:50.119 cleared to go on a commercial space flight. 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:55.560 What are people doing up there? Well, what's on the itinerary? 0:18:56.000 --> 0:18:59.960 When people started going to space as tourists, they initially 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:03.000 were going on those Russian rockets to the International Space Station, 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:04.440 and there'd only be one of them at a time. 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:06.440 So you're basically going to be up on the space 0:19:06.440 --> 0:19:09.080 station with a bunch of professional astronauts. You're not really 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:10.760 going to be able to choose whatever you want to 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:12.439 do at any given moment. What you want to do 0:19:12.480 --> 0:19:15.280 has to fit in with their busy research schedules and 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:19.199 station upkeep schedules. But last September, when we saw the 0:19:19.240 --> 0:19:23.080 Inspiration four flight, which was an early SpaceX orbital flight 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:25.760 and was called the first all civilian space flight, that 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:28.480 was sort of a turning point where they could choose 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:31.080 whatever they wanted to do in that orbiting space capsule. 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:35.560 Yeah, and that flight, Inspiration four, was actually privately chartered 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:39.400 by a billionaire named Jared Isaacman, and it launched September 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:41.760 fifteenth of twenty twenty one, and the purpose of this 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:45.480 launch was to raise money for Saint Jude Children's Research Hospital. 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:48.240 And you know what's really interesting is that doctor Bim 0:19:48.280 --> 0:19:51.640 told us, people on that flight chose to reference back 0:19:51.680 --> 0:19:55.200 to the previous goals of space travel and exploration. 0:19:55.160 --> 0:19:57.720 So in their training, they always appeared in military jets. 0:19:57.760 --> 0:20:00.000 They always appeared dressed in like flight suits, as if 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:01.840 they were soldiers, and then when they were up there, 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:03.560 they made sure to tell everyone that they had a 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:06.080 scientific research program that they were doing. 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:09.960 I like this, So basically, so they're playing dress up. Yea, 0:20:11.119 --> 0:20:12.560 they think this is what they should do if they 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:13.159 go to space. 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:15.080 Yeah, It's like when you go to Paris and you 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:17.080 see the Eiffel Tower, or in New York when you 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:19.159 see the Empire State Building or a Times Square. 0:20:19.280 --> 0:20:21.520 It just felt like that was part of their generation 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:23.360 checklist for space vacation. 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:26.199 You got to get a beret when you're in Paris. 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:30.040 Doctor Bim says people shouldn't be ashamed to go to 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:32.000 space and not do science. 0:20:32.359 --> 0:20:34.840 I feel like there's some pressure to like perform or 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:36.960 like recreate the sort of hits of the past that 0:20:37.000 --> 0:20:40.080 people are expecting from like the cultural history of space exploration. 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:42.000 But like I'm waiting for someone who just wants to 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:43.359