1 00:00:01,480 --> 00:00:04,280 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of I 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:14,480 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh 3 00:00:14,640 --> 00:00:22,320 Speaker 1: astro Clark, and there's Charles after Burn, Bryant okay, and 4 00:00:22,520 --> 00:00:26,239 Speaker 1: Jerry Goose Roland is out there. Way do you call 5 00:00:26,280 --> 00:00:31,400 Speaker 1: me after burning because I'm gassy? Yep, although we've been 6 00:00:31,920 --> 00:00:33,720 Speaker 1: we've been tooting for a year straight and no one 7 00:00:33,840 --> 00:00:37,240 Speaker 1: even no, I don't care except us. Have you ever 8 00:00:37,360 --> 00:00:41,239 Speaker 1: set one of your ducks on fire? Have I ever 9 00:00:41,320 --> 00:00:43,760 Speaker 1: lit a fart? I was hoping to not use that word, 10 00:00:43,800 --> 00:00:47,680 Speaker 1: but yes, uh yeah, I used to. There was a 11 00:00:47,720 --> 00:00:50,360 Speaker 1: period in my youth where I thought that was just 12 00:00:50,400 --> 00:00:52,960 Speaker 1: about the funniest thing ever. And I still think it's 13 00:00:52,960 --> 00:00:55,200 Speaker 1: pretty hysterical. I just don't do it. I never thought 14 00:00:55,200 --> 00:00:57,640 Speaker 1: it was funny. I've always just been more wowed by it. 15 00:00:57,720 --> 00:01:01,040 Speaker 1: You know. It's I'm mean, the notion of it, now 16 00:01:01,080 --> 00:01:03,360 Speaker 1: as I've gotten older, is more funny than the act itself. 17 00:01:03,520 --> 00:01:06,520 Speaker 1: The notion that we can expel flammable cats from our 18 00:01:06,560 --> 00:01:09,399 Speaker 1: But it's pretty great. And then do you remember that 19 00:01:09,480 --> 00:01:13,039 Speaker 1: cautionary tale that um that if you lit it, it it 20 00:01:13,160 --> 00:01:17,000 Speaker 1: could travel up into your rectum and cook your inside 21 00:01:17,520 --> 00:01:20,640 Speaker 1: some sort of a reverse thing. There must have just 22 00:01:20,720 --> 00:01:24,720 Speaker 1: been like some I don't know, some department somewhere, some 23 00:01:24,840 --> 00:01:28,039 Speaker 1: obscure federal agency that was tasked with coming up with 24 00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:32,040 Speaker 1: fake cautionary tales to scare kids out of doing things 25 00:01:32,120 --> 00:01:36,080 Speaker 1: that where they weren't behaving, you know. Yeah, And I 26 00:01:36,120 --> 00:01:39,839 Speaker 1: think what my most cherished memories were the times where 27 00:01:40,680 --> 00:01:44,840 Speaker 1: people swore that it wasn't possible, that oh that you 28 00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:48,360 Speaker 1: couldn't light it, they wouldn't work. Yeah, So proving proving 29 00:01:48,440 --> 00:01:50,640 Speaker 1: that was always sort of the most fun because it 30 00:01:50,680 --> 00:01:54,600 Speaker 1: was just like hilarity ensued, and also you just got 31 00:01:54,600 --> 00:01:58,720 Speaker 1: to be like in your face, like literally come down here, 32 00:01:58,760 --> 00:02:01,320 Speaker 1: because I'm gonna light this in your face if you're 33 00:02:01,320 --> 00:02:04,200 Speaker 1: just so sure it's not going to catch fire. And 34 00:02:04,240 --> 00:02:05,760 Speaker 1: I always had a theory that it would get rid 35 00:02:05,800 --> 00:02:07,920 Speaker 1: of the smell kind of instantaneously too. I think it 36 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:09,760 Speaker 1: just burned it out. I think it did. So it's 37 00:02:09,760 --> 00:02:12,880 Speaker 1: really an efficient way of clearing the air. What are 38 00:02:12,919 --> 00:02:16,320 Speaker 1: we doing? Well, we're talking chuck about space junk and 39 00:02:16,360 --> 00:02:19,720 Speaker 1: actually not the band, the whole thing. What there's a 40 00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:22,000 Speaker 1: immediately had to look it up because I was going 41 00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:24,160 Speaker 1: to say a great band name, but there's a band 42 00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:27,160 Speaker 1: out of Buffalo named space Junk. Yeah, out of Buffalo. 43 00:02:27,680 --> 00:02:33,200 Speaker 1: I guess that. I guess that um that affords being mentioned. Sure, 44 00:02:33,560 --> 00:02:37,280 Speaker 1: sure um, Okay, So space Junk, not the band, the 45 00:02:37,320 --> 00:02:41,960 Speaker 1: actual stuff stuff floating around in space. It turns out 46 00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:43,440 Speaker 1: there's a lot of it. And I actually have a 47 00:02:43,440 --> 00:02:45,639 Speaker 1: little bit of an intro here. I'm gonna do a little, 48 00:02:45,760 --> 00:02:50,440 Speaker 1: um a little. It wasn't the lighting, No, that was 49 00:02:50,520 --> 00:02:55,880 Speaker 1: a pre showed tangent. Okay, I think it's that classification. 50 00:02:56,240 --> 00:02:58,600 Speaker 1: No UM. Back in the seventies, there is a guy 51 00:02:58,639 --> 00:03:01,400 Speaker 1: who worked for NASA called Donald Kessler, and he was 52 00:03:01,440 --> 00:03:04,560 Speaker 1: an interesting cat in and of himself, but one of 53 00:03:04,600 --> 00:03:08,080 Speaker 1: the claims to fame that he has is that his 54 00:03:08,200 --> 00:03:15,560 Speaker 1: name became synonymous with a um an unstoppable chain reaction 55 00:03:16,480 --> 00:03:21,480 Speaker 1: of collisions of space junk called the Kessler syndrome. And 56 00:03:21,520 --> 00:03:24,600 Speaker 1: the Kessler syndrome that Kessler came up with is based 57 00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:27,919 Speaker 1: on this idea that if you get enough stuff floating 58 00:03:27,919 --> 00:03:31,880 Speaker 1: around in orbit around Earth, eventually this stuff is going 59 00:03:31,960 --> 00:03:35,320 Speaker 1: to smash into other stuff up there because these things 60 00:03:35,320 --> 00:03:37,920 Speaker 1: are traveling at very high speeds, and when they smash 61 00:03:37,920 --> 00:03:41,160 Speaker 1: in another they're going to potentially break into more and 62 00:03:41,200 --> 00:03:43,400 Speaker 1: more pieces, and then those pieces are going to go 63 00:03:43,440 --> 00:03:45,360 Speaker 1: on and they're going to smash into other things, and 64 00:03:45,400 --> 00:03:48,040 Speaker 1: so this chain reaction will begin to where there's just 65 00:03:48,120 --> 00:03:51,560 Speaker 1: pieces constantly smashing into one another, and all of a 66 00:03:51,640 --> 00:03:54,840 Speaker 1: sudden were trapped on Earth because we can't make it 67 00:03:54,840 --> 00:03:58,839 Speaker 1: through the debris field we accidentally created. Hence the ks 68 00:03:59,160 --> 00:04:02,640 Speaker 1: the Kessler sin drome has struck again like a like 69 00:04:02,680 --> 00:04:04,720 Speaker 1: a far being lit in your face, but in the 70 00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:07,600 Speaker 1: face of humanity as a whole. Yeah, and I think 71 00:04:07,720 --> 00:04:11,640 Speaker 1: some some scientists these days say that parts of our 72 00:04:11,720 --> 00:04:14,080 Speaker 1: orbit are already like that, right, Yeah, there, Yes, So 73 00:04:14,200 --> 00:04:16,359 Speaker 1: Kessler was basically saying he made these predictions in the 74 00:04:16,440 --> 00:04:21,680 Speaker 1: seventies um and he he said, based at the rate 75 00:04:21,720 --> 00:04:25,200 Speaker 1: that we're going, will probably will reach a critical mass 76 00:04:25,320 --> 00:04:27,159 Speaker 1: or in about thirty to forty years. And a lot 77 00:04:27,240 --> 00:04:29,960 Speaker 1: of people said, well, we've reached that point, and I 78 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:34,120 Speaker 1: think Kessler is actually right. The thing is, we can't 79 00:04:34,160 --> 00:04:37,040 Speaker 1: really see everything that's up there, so we have to 80 00:04:37,080 --> 00:04:40,279 Speaker 1: make guesses and assumptions. We actually track a very respectable 81 00:04:40,320 --> 00:04:43,640 Speaker 1: amount of space chunk considering that we're just down here 82 00:04:43,680 --> 00:04:46,120 Speaker 1: on Earth, that we actually can track things going really 83 00:04:46,160 --> 00:04:49,760 Speaker 1: fast that are really small, traveling really far above the Earth. 84 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:52,120 Speaker 1: But there's a lot of it that's just too small 85 00:04:52,160 --> 00:04:54,440 Speaker 1: for our current technology to track. So we have to 86 00:04:54,440 --> 00:04:57,040 Speaker 1: make guesses about what all is up there. And it 87 00:04:57,120 --> 00:04:59,640 Speaker 1: looks like there's a lot of stuff up there, and 88 00:04:59,680 --> 00:05:02,840 Speaker 1: it's possible we have reached critical mass and this this 89 00:05:03,200 --> 00:05:08,120 Speaker 1: cascading collision, the chain reaction, it just hasn't started yet. Yeah, 90 00:05:08,160 --> 00:05:09,880 Speaker 1: I mean, I was just about to correct myself when 91 00:05:09,920 --> 00:05:12,080 Speaker 1: I said some people say it's already there, that I 92 00:05:12,120 --> 00:05:15,640 Speaker 1: didn't mean. It's all just so people understand it's already 93 00:05:15,680 --> 00:05:19,400 Speaker 1: like we can't travel through these places, but that process 94 00:05:19,440 --> 00:05:22,279 Speaker 1: has started such that it can't be reversed, Like even 95 00:05:22,320 --> 00:05:25,800 Speaker 1: if we stop launching anything, they're like, it's too late. Yeah, 96 00:05:25,800 --> 00:05:28,320 Speaker 1: once that chain reaction starts, I mean, there's nothing we 97 00:05:28,360 --> 00:05:30,600 Speaker 1: can do about it. I mean, we can't even get 98 00:05:30,600 --> 00:05:33,080 Speaker 1: a lot of the space chunk that's up there out now. 99 00:05:33,480 --> 00:05:36,360 Speaker 1: I can't imagine when they've started on a chain reaction. 100 00:05:36,400 --> 00:05:39,280 Speaker 1: That's got to make catching it even even more difficult. 101 00:05:39,400 --> 00:05:42,400 Speaker 1: So a lot of people say, well, let's do everything 102 00:05:42,440 --> 00:05:46,839 Speaker 1: we can to avoid that cascade inclusion that Kessler syndrome 103 00:05:46,920 --> 00:05:49,760 Speaker 1: from ever starting and a lot of people sitting out 104 00:05:49,800 --> 00:05:51,520 Speaker 1: there chuck, I'm guessing are like, wait, what are you 105 00:05:51,560 --> 00:05:54,640 Speaker 1: guys talking about with space Chunk? What is the space Chunk? Yes, 106 00:05:54,720 --> 00:05:58,240 Speaker 1: I'm well versed with the band from Buffalo. I have 107 00:05:58,360 --> 00:06:00,760 Speaker 1: all of their CDs. I got them all for free 108 00:06:01,120 --> 00:06:03,440 Speaker 1: just walking past this one street corner many times over 109 00:06:03,520 --> 00:06:08,880 Speaker 1: multiple years. But I don't know about the actual space junk. 110 00:06:08,880 --> 00:06:10,760 Speaker 1: And it never occurred to me that the band space 111 00:06:10,839 --> 00:06:14,960 Speaker 1: Junk is based on a real thing, right, so space 112 00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:17,279 Speaker 1: junk I kind of always assume people knew what this was. 113 00:06:17,320 --> 00:06:20,520 Speaker 1: But we've made that assumption before about things like I 114 00:06:20,520 --> 00:06:24,360 Speaker 1: don't know trees, and people said, why don't you just 115 00:06:24,400 --> 00:06:28,479 Speaker 1: grub what a tree is? Parrots? So, oh, by the way, 116 00:06:28,480 --> 00:06:30,520 Speaker 1: thanks for all the parrot pictures from all over the world. 117 00:06:31,080 --> 00:06:35,720 Speaker 1: Has been delightful. But space junk is you know, it 118 00:06:35,760 --> 00:06:38,479 Speaker 1: can be a lot of things. NASA actually has a 119 00:06:38,520 --> 00:06:41,360 Speaker 1: sort of a list that describes it better than we could. UM. 120 00:06:41,400 --> 00:06:44,840 Speaker 1: A lot of it is abandoned spacecraft or spacecraft that 121 00:06:44,880 --> 00:06:48,320 Speaker 1: doesn't work anymore, so we abandon it. Um. This can 122 00:06:48,360 --> 00:06:52,360 Speaker 1: be big, full spaceships, or it can be parts of spaceships. 123 00:06:52,400 --> 00:06:55,440 Speaker 1: Because as we'll learn and as you know, if you follow, 124 00:06:55,720 --> 00:06:58,240 Speaker 1: you know, if you're a rocket enthusiast, like those things 125 00:06:58,279 --> 00:07:00,440 Speaker 1: break apart, and we'll get to that, but there are 126 00:07:00,440 --> 00:07:03,600 Speaker 1: many pieces that are quite large that are just sort 127 00:07:03,600 --> 00:07:07,479 Speaker 1: of left up there until they come back down or 128 00:07:07,520 --> 00:07:10,760 Speaker 1: they hit something else. Um. Some of this stuff is, 129 00:07:11,560 --> 00:07:15,239 Speaker 1: like I said, parts of rockets that have broken apart, 130 00:07:15,560 --> 00:07:19,080 Speaker 1: usually upper stage, because that lower stage stuff breaks off 131 00:07:19,120 --> 00:07:22,360 Speaker 1: early enough to where it generally, you know, after a 132 00:07:22,360 --> 00:07:26,120 Speaker 1: few years, may tumble back towards Earth, burn up hopefully 133 00:07:26,600 --> 00:07:29,360 Speaker 1: so where nothing actually hits Earth, but that upper stage 134 00:07:29,400 --> 00:07:32,600 Speaker 1: stuff is kind of stuck up there. Yeah. Yeah, that's 135 00:07:32,640 --> 00:07:35,240 Speaker 1: that's one thing that you'll you'll find out about things 136 00:07:35,240 --> 00:07:38,880 Speaker 1: that we place into orbit. The further away from Earth 137 00:07:39,120 --> 00:07:43,480 Speaker 1: that this thing is circling the Earth, um, the the 138 00:07:43,520 --> 00:07:46,119 Speaker 1: longer it's going to take to come back down to Earth. 139 00:07:46,480 --> 00:07:49,280 Speaker 1: So that, yeah, because it's the force of gravity that 140 00:07:49,320 --> 00:07:53,280 Speaker 1: pulls these things in orbit back down to Earth eventually. Right. Yeah. 141 00:07:53,360 --> 00:07:56,880 Speaker 1: What else? Uh? What else do we have? Motor affluent? Yeah, 142 00:07:57,240 --> 00:08:00,520 Speaker 1: so a lot of unspent fuel, a lot of cocket fuel, 143 00:08:00,560 --> 00:08:03,200 Speaker 1: a solid fuel and then kids, I was looking it up, 144 00:08:03,240 --> 00:08:07,480 Speaker 1: that includes ammonium nitrate appropriately enough, but it all yeah, 145 00:08:07,840 --> 00:08:12,800 Speaker 1: um and enemy um. But it also includes gunpowder, black gunpowder. 146 00:08:12,880 --> 00:08:16,400 Speaker 1: That's what they use as solid rocket fuel sometimes, which 147 00:08:16,440 --> 00:08:19,120 Speaker 1: is like we've come really far, but also not far 148 00:08:19,160 --> 00:08:22,680 Speaker 1: at all, you know. Um. So there's canisters of of 149 00:08:22,760 --> 00:08:26,480 Speaker 1: gunpowder floating around up in space, which are particularly problematic 150 00:08:26,520 --> 00:08:29,200 Speaker 1: because not only can they break things apart, they can 151 00:08:29,280 --> 00:08:32,080 Speaker 1: really break things apart because they may explode when they 152 00:08:32,080 --> 00:08:35,880 Speaker 1: impact things going as fast as they travel. Uh. And 153 00:08:35,880 --> 00:08:38,280 Speaker 1: then the last thing, and we'll get to all the 154 00:08:38,320 --> 00:08:40,360 Speaker 1: detail about all this stuff and why it's dangerous. But 155 00:08:40,440 --> 00:08:43,439 Speaker 1: little bitty, little tiny things, little tiny flex of paint, 156 00:08:43,480 --> 00:08:47,840 Speaker 1: even millions of them, can cause a lot of damage. 157 00:08:48,320 --> 00:08:51,680 Speaker 1: I think there was, you know, reports from astronauts that say, 158 00:08:52,040 --> 00:08:53,480 Speaker 1: you know that work on the Hubble that are like, 159 00:08:53,559 --> 00:08:55,880 Speaker 1: this thing looks like it a car that's been through 160 00:08:55,920 --> 00:09:01,080 Speaker 1: a hailstorm. You know, it's just like getting constantly pelted, 161 00:09:01,480 --> 00:09:03,920 Speaker 1: and you think a speck of paint, who cares. But 162 00:09:03,960 --> 00:09:06,480 Speaker 1: when these things are going twenty something miles an hour, 163 00:09:07,040 --> 00:09:09,840 Speaker 1: it can cause some damage. Yeah. I think his famous 164 00:09:09,880 --> 00:09:12,920 Speaker 1: quote back to ground Control was this thing looks like 165 00:09:12,960 --> 00:09:20,760 Speaker 1: a seventy two nova. So when we when we The 166 00:09:20,760 --> 00:09:22,960 Speaker 1: thing about space junk is that you have to remember 167 00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:25,000 Speaker 1: is every single bit of it used to be here 168 00:09:25,040 --> 00:09:27,640 Speaker 1: on Earth, and every single bit of it was launched 169 00:09:27,640 --> 00:09:30,199 Speaker 1: by humans. That's just space junk. There's plenty of other 170 00:09:30,200 --> 00:09:33,880 Speaker 1: stuff out in space, like asteroids and comets and pieces 171 00:09:33,880 --> 00:09:37,839 Speaker 1: of rocks flying around. That's not space. Yeah, et s 172 00:09:37,880 --> 00:09:41,280 Speaker 1: flying around, Um, that's not space junk. Space junk is 173 00:09:41,320 --> 00:09:44,600 Speaker 1: specifically things that humans have launched into Earth. So there's 174 00:09:44,640 --> 00:09:49,280 Speaker 1: this whole kind of air of um oh, I don't 175 00:09:49,320 --> 00:09:51,560 Speaker 1: know the actual word for it, but that we've we've 176 00:09:51,600 --> 00:09:54,840 Speaker 1: done this to ourselves, like we've created our own problem 177 00:09:54,920 --> 00:09:57,280 Speaker 1: and now we we've made this bed that we have 178 00:09:57,400 --> 00:09:59,440 Speaker 1: to lie in or figure out how to get out 179 00:09:59,480 --> 00:10:02,679 Speaker 1: of because it's so human. Yeah, isn't it that, like 180 00:10:03,360 --> 00:10:08,400 Speaker 1: let's destroy the Earth, let's start destroying space because we 181 00:10:08,480 --> 00:10:10,040 Speaker 1: may want to live up there, so we might as 182 00:10:10,040 --> 00:10:12,160 Speaker 1: well pre destroy it before we get up there to 183 00:10:12,240 --> 00:10:17,120 Speaker 1: really destroy it. And it makes sense though early on 184 00:10:17,240 --> 00:10:22,360 Speaker 1: in the space programs, you know, starting in the with 185 00:10:22,440 --> 00:10:24,560 Speaker 1: the launch of Sputnik, that's when the whole thing started. 186 00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:27,560 Speaker 1: But you know, it makes sense that we had the 187 00:10:27,559 --> 00:10:29,920 Speaker 1: technology get things up there, but not to get them 188 00:10:29,960 --> 00:10:33,559 Speaker 1: back down, and we knew that eventually their their orbit 189 00:10:33,679 --> 00:10:35,880 Speaker 1: was going to decay, they would be pulled down into 190 00:10:35,880 --> 00:10:39,440 Speaker 1: the atmosphere where it would probably burn up. So that 191 00:10:39,520 --> 00:10:42,360 Speaker 1: made sense at the beginning of the space race. But 192 00:10:42,440 --> 00:10:45,480 Speaker 1: as we got better and better at technology, the idea 193 00:10:45,520 --> 00:10:50,600 Speaker 1: that we could just litter space became less and less acceptable. 194 00:10:51,480 --> 00:10:54,040 Speaker 1: The problem is it didn't really go away, Like, there's 195 00:10:54,080 --> 00:10:58,679 Speaker 1: still basically stuff that's being launched up there today that 196 00:10:58,720 --> 00:11:02,079 Speaker 1: has no way of being brought back down. It's just 197 00:11:02,160 --> 00:11:04,520 Speaker 1: like we'll just leave it up there until it runs 198 00:11:04,520 --> 00:11:06,800 Speaker 1: out of its useful life and then hope for the best. 199 00:11:06,880 --> 00:11:09,319 Speaker 1: That's kind of how a lot of stuff is being 200 00:11:09,360 --> 00:11:13,200 Speaker 1: launched into space right now, and it's particularly galling because 201 00:11:13,200 --> 00:11:15,840 Speaker 1: we have the technology to bring it back down. It 202 00:11:15,920 --> 00:11:18,000 Speaker 1: just makes the whole thing more expensive, and I think 203 00:11:18,040 --> 00:11:21,920 Speaker 1: that that's why a lot of um companies and countries 204 00:11:22,000 --> 00:11:28,080 Speaker 1: don't include that. Yeah, there's a saying among contractors, a joke, 205 00:11:28,400 --> 00:11:32,160 Speaker 1: if you will, among contractors who build houses and fix 206 00:11:32,240 --> 00:11:35,200 Speaker 1: up houses. If there's something wrong and that that they're 207 00:11:35,240 --> 00:11:38,560 Speaker 1: working on and there's the homeowners and around, they just say, 208 00:11:38,679 --> 00:11:42,000 Speaker 1: I can't see it from my house. I've not heard. 209 00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:45,440 Speaker 1: That's kind of what's been going on here for years 210 00:11:45,480 --> 00:11:48,559 Speaker 1: with I mean not only space agencies, but private companies 211 00:11:48,600 --> 00:11:53,280 Speaker 1: as we'll see, uh, Amazon and Tesla and all kinds 212 00:11:53,320 --> 00:11:55,880 Speaker 1: of companies have plans to put a lot of a 213 00:11:55,920 --> 00:11:59,120 Speaker 1: lot more things into space. And it made me wonder, like, 214 00:11:59,160 --> 00:12:01,480 Speaker 1: who's regulating this stuff. We'll get to all that, But 215 00:12:01,760 --> 00:12:06,520 Speaker 1: what's kind of cool is since seven when sput Nick 216 00:12:06,840 --> 00:12:10,920 Speaker 1: was launched into space, nor AD started cat cataloging this 217 00:12:11,040 --> 00:12:14,200 Speaker 1: stuff and numbering them and naming them, and sput Nick 218 00:12:14,320 --> 00:12:18,040 Speaker 1: is object number one. And you know they did, they 219 00:12:18,080 --> 00:12:19,800 Speaker 1: do a really good job of keeping track of a 220 00:12:19,880 --> 00:12:22,400 Speaker 1: lot of this stuff. Like you said, considering we're down 221 00:12:22,440 --> 00:12:26,920 Speaker 1: here and it's up there, it's not too bad. Things 222 00:12:26,920 --> 00:12:29,959 Speaker 1: started breaking apart though, and getting smaller and colliding with 223 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:33,280 Speaker 1: one another, creating hundreds and thousands of more smaller bits. 224 00:12:34,040 --> 00:12:36,960 Speaker 1: But we kind of, you know, our technology progress where 225 00:12:36,960 --> 00:12:40,360 Speaker 1: we could go smaller in our tracking abilities. And so 226 00:12:40,440 --> 00:12:44,120 Speaker 1: now the US Department of Defense started cattle logging anything 227 00:12:44,160 --> 00:12:49,960 Speaker 1: basically larger than I think a softball. I've seen grapefruit too, 228 00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:53,160 Speaker 1: so yeah, basically that size. If you're not familiar with softballs, 229 00:12:53,840 --> 00:12:56,920 Speaker 1: but you're crazy for citrus. It's grape fruit size too. 230 00:12:57,000 --> 00:12:58,560 Speaker 1: If you don't know either one of those, I'm sorry. 231 00:12:58,559 --> 00:13:01,160 Speaker 1: That's the best we can do. Maybe two of your 232 00:13:01,200 --> 00:13:03,120 Speaker 1: fists bawled up like good and I don't know how 233 00:13:03,160 --> 00:13:08,440 Speaker 1: big your fists are A good size snowball. Okay, somebody's like, 234 00:13:08,600 --> 00:13:11,000 Speaker 1: I'm from the Tropics, I don't know any of this stuff. 235 00:13:11,920 --> 00:13:14,920 Speaker 1: I'm from Buffalo. I know about snowballs and space jumps 236 00:13:15,400 --> 00:13:18,640 Speaker 1: and that catalog Chuck. By the way, it is pretty awesome. 237 00:13:18,679 --> 00:13:21,640 Speaker 1: It contains not just sput nick and all every satellite 238 00:13:21,679 --> 00:13:25,800 Speaker 1: ever created in every grapefruit size UM piece of debris. 239 00:13:26,120 --> 00:13:29,520 Speaker 1: But there's some other really interesting stuff in there too. UM. 240 00:13:29,640 --> 00:13:34,640 Speaker 1: The cremated remains or the canister containing the cremated remains 241 00:13:34,640 --> 00:13:37,600 Speaker 1: of Gene Roddenberry is one of them. The created star 242 00:13:37,679 --> 00:13:43,080 Speaker 1: trek UM, the Tesla roadster that UM SpaceX launched up. 243 00:13:43,840 --> 00:13:46,199 Speaker 1: That one. Yeah, especially when you start learning about the 244 00:13:46,200 --> 00:13:49,560 Speaker 1: space junk, you're like, this is not a good idea. Yeah, 245 00:13:49,559 --> 00:13:51,520 Speaker 1: what we don't need to do is just do like 246 00:13:51,720 --> 00:13:55,760 Speaker 1: pr stuff in space and then you know, like like 247 00:13:55,920 --> 00:14:01,160 Speaker 1: UM astronauts have lost entire boxes of tools on spacewalks 248 00:14:01,200 --> 00:14:04,280 Speaker 1: before UM and they're just out there floating around wrenches 249 00:14:04,320 --> 00:14:07,800 Speaker 1: and stuff like that. They're all in the catalog. They 250 00:14:07,880 --> 00:14:10,120 Speaker 1: cut that stuff tethered. You gotta tether it. Yeah, sometimes 251 00:14:10,160 --> 00:14:13,360 Speaker 1: that gets loose or they forget to tether it. Astro nuts. 252 00:14:13,840 --> 00:14:17,480 Speaker 1: They have hard days too, that's right. They have their 253 00:14:17,280 --> 00:14:21,080 Speaker 1: their B game on some days. But yeah, anything as 254 00:14:21,080 --> 00:14:24,840 Speaker 1: small as a softball. They're about twenty thou pieces orbiting 255 00:14:24,840 --> 00:14:27,960 Speaker 1: the Earth right now. And then there are about half 256 00:14:27,960 --> 00:14:31,840 Speaker 1: a million pieces the size of a marble or larger 257 00:14:31,880 --> 00:14:35,120 Speaker 1: that NASA is tracking. And then the paint flex just 258 00:14:35,760 --> 00:14:37,640 Speaker 1: good luck with that. There's millions of that and no one, 259 00:14:37,800 --> 00:14:40,280 Speaker 1: no one keeps track of it. Yeah, paint flexes, well, 260 00:14:40,320 --> 00:14:42,560 Speaker 1: just because we can't. We definitely would if we could, 261 00:14:42,600 --> 00:14:45,600 Speaker 1: but we just don't have the technology right now because 262 00:14:45,720 --> 00:14:48,000 Speaker 1: there's so so there's three orbits. I don't want to 263 00:14:48,040 --> 00:14:50,800 Speaker 1: do an episode on satellites one day, but just briefly, 264 00:14:51,040 --> 00:14:54,200 Speaker 1: but there's three orbits lowerth orbit, Middle Earth orbit UM, 265 00:14:54,280 --> 00:14:58,760 Speaker 1: not to be confused with the shire and um uh 266 00:14:59,280 --> 00:15:01,560 Speaker 1: g O sink in this orbit which is way up 267 00:15:01,600 --> 00:15:06,240 Speaker 1: there UM, and that's where your communication satellites are there, 268 00:15:06,240 --> 00:15:09,080 Speaker 1: GEO stationary. They basically if you stand in a spot 269 00:15:09,480 --> 00:15:12,200 Speaker 1: and could look up and there was a satellite ahead 270 00:15:12,240 --> 00:15:14,720 Speaker 1: of you or above, you would be there twenty four 271 00:15:14,760 --> 00:15:16,840 Speaker 1: hours a day, every day of the year. It's it's 272 00:15:16,880 --> 00:15:20,960 Speaker 1: it's it's moving in in line with one spot around 273 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:23,080 Speaker 1: the Earth, and to do that you have to be 274 00:15:23,120 --> 00:15:25,600 Speaker 1: really far out. The stuff that's further closer to the 275 00:15:25,640 --> 00:15:29,080 Speaker 1: Earth travels the fastest, and it seems that lower Earth 276 00:15:29,200 --> 00:15:32,440 Speaker 1: orbit is the most crowded too. So the things that 277 00:15:32,480 --> 00:15:35,280 Speaker 1: are in lower Earth orbit are traveling the fastest, and 278 00:15:35,320 --> 00:15:37,680 Speaker 1: there's the most of them because it's the easiest to 279 00:15:37,720 --> 00:15:42,120 Speaker 1: get to. Right, I feel like that's a pretty good 280 00:15:42,120 --> 00:15:46,920 Speaker 1: setup if you include our two lighting stories. So maybe 281 00:15:46,920 --> 00:15:48,480 Speaker 1: we should take a break and talk a little bit 282 00:15:48,480 --> 00:15:51,200 Speaker 1: about some of the things they're doing to mitigate this 283 00:15:51,320 --> 00:16:22,120 Speaker 1: right after this. All right, So, there's a lot of 284 00:16:22,120 --> 00:16:26,520 Speaker 1: space junk out there, a lot of collisions happening. Um. 285 00:16:26,560 --> 00:16:30,440 Speaker 1: When satellites collide, like I said, they can create just 286 00:16:30,840 --> 00:16:33,960 Speaker 1: a very much bigger problem by creating lots more smaller pieces. 287 00:16:34,840 --> 00:16:37,520 Speaker 1: And there are a few countries. The USA is one 288 00:16:37,520 --> 00:16:40,760 Speaker 1: of them, China's one, India's one that we have used 289 00:16:40,800 --> 00:16:44,680 Speaker 1: missiles before. They're called anti satellite weapons a SATs to 290 00:16:45,840 --> 00:16:49,680 Speaker 1: physically damage a satellite, and basically what they do it's 291 00:16:49,800 --> 00:16:52,640 Speaker 1: very you know, we all kind of laughed when Armageddon 292 00:16:52,680 --> 00:16:56,360 Speaker 1: came out about sending people up there to drill holes 293 00:16:56,640 --> 00:16:59,160 Speaker 1: and then drop bombs in it. But when you look 294 00:16:59,200 --> 00:17:01,760 Speaker 1: at some of these things that we've thought to do, 295 00:17:02,280 --> 00:17:04,560 Speaker 1: they're all kind of rudimentry like that, Like let's just 296 00:17:04,920 --> 00:17:07,680 Speaker 1: send something in there and ram it into a satellite. Yeah, 297 00:17:07,680 --> 00:17:10,880 Speaker 1: shoot a missile at that thing the old fashioned way. Yeah, 298 00:17:10,920 --> 00:17:14,200 Speaker 1: that's called a kinetic kill model, which is it's exactly 299 00:17:14,200 --> 00:17:17,240 Speaker 1: that you shoot a missile at a satellite or something 300 00:17:17,320 --> 00:17:20,080 Speaker 1: up in space and you blow it into smithereens a 301 00:17:20,440 --> 00:17:24,359 Speaker 1: is a yosemite. Sam would say, right, so, um, you 302 00:17:24,400 --> 00:17:27,159 Speaker 1: don't want to do this, but a lot of countries do, 303 00:17:27,359 --> 00:17:31,240 Speaker 1: like you listed, Um, they have not only just the technology, 304 00:17:31,240 --> 00:17:33,719 Speaker 1: but have actually done this, have run these tests. And 305 00:17:33,760 --> 00:17:36,480 Speaker 1: I think it's kind of a two show of twofold 306 00:17:36,520 --> 00:17:39,800 Speaker 1: Show of Force where you're showing that like I can 307 00:17:39,880 --> 00:17:44,080 Speaker 1: launch really technically sophisticated stuff up there that I don't 308 00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:46,160 Speaker 1: want anyone else to know about, and then I can 309 00:17:46,200 --> 00:17:49,800 Speaker 1: destroy it before you could ever possibly find out about it. 310 00:17:49,960 --> 00:17:52,440 Speaker 1: Or I don't like your satellite and what it's doing. 311 00:17:52,560 --> 00:17:54,040 Speaker 1: I'm going to shoot that thing out of the sky. 312 00:17:54,400 --> 00:17:56,479 Speaker 1: I just showed all of you that I'm capable of 313 00:17:56,520 --> 00:18:00,400 Speaker 1: doing it. So so it makes sense, so I guess 314 00:18:00,400 --> 00:18:02,960 Speaker 1: in a geopolitical way, but up in space it makes 315 00:18:03,119 --> 00:18:06,720 Speaker 1: zero sense because when you blow up a satellite or something, 316 00:18:07,040 --> 00:18:10,680 Speaker 1: you blow it up into thousands of pieces of um 317 00:18:10,720 --> 00:18:16,920 Speaker 1: that grapefruit, softball snowball size um uh debris, and then 318 00:18:17,240 --> 00:18:20,119 Speaker 1: millions of smaller pieces, and all of a sudden, the 319 00:18:20,160 --> 00:18:23,720 Speaker 1: population that catalog of space chunk just increased by ten 320 00:18:23,840 --> 00:18:27,240 Speaker 1: or fifteen or twenty um depending on how big the 321 00:18:27,280 --> 00:18:31,080 Speaker 1: explosion wasn't how much debris it created. Yeah, and you 322 00:18:31,200 --> 00:18:35,800 Speaker 1: might think, because there have been satellites launched basically continuously 323 00:18:35,960 --> 00:18:39,600 Speaker 1: for you know, many many decades now, that they're banging 324 00:18:39,600 --> 00:18:42,439 Speaker 1: into each other at a decent rate. But that's actually 325 00:18:42,520 --> 00:18:46,040 Speaker 1: not the case yet as far as actual satellite collisions. 326 00:18:46,119 --> 00:18:49,520 Speaker 1: In February two thousand nine, the very first one happened, 327 00:18:49,720 --> 00:18:53,080 Speaker 1: um the cosmos with a K, so you know where 328 00:18:53,119 --> 00:18:58,080 Speaker 1: that one's from. The twenty Cosmos out of Russia collided 329 00:18:58,080 --> 00:19:01,919 Speaker 1: and it was defunct, collided with I think a private 330 00:19:01,920 --> 00:19:05,000 Speaker 1: one from a US company called Irridium, which sounds like 331 00:19:05,040 --> 00:19:08,760 Speaker 1: a total sci fi movie, bad guy company. I know, 332 00:19:09,200 --> 00:19:10,960 Speaker 1: I don't actually know. It doesn't strike me like that. 333 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:12,439 Speaker 1: I get what you're saying, but I think it's a 334 00:19:12,480 --> 00:19:15,639 Speaker 1: very pleasant word. Okay. It makes me think of the 335 00:19:16,840 --> 00:19:21,919 Speaker 1: rainbow centrum vitamin logo kind of oh, Ridium find it 336 00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:26,359 Speaker 1: very Yeah, Well, one guy's evil corporation, there's another guy's 337 00:19:26,480 --> 00:19:30,720 Speaker 1: rainbow fighting. That's right. Uh. They were traveling at a 338 00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:33,720 Speaker 1: speed relative to each other about twenty two thousand miles 339 00:19:33,720 --> 00:19:38,880 Speaker 1: an hour and blew them up into you know, two 340 00:19:38,880 --> 00:19:42,520 Speaker 1: thousand pieces at least four inches in diameter, and then 341 00:19:42,560 --> 00:19:45,640 Speaker 1: like you said, thousands and thousands and millions of tinier 342 00:19:45,680 --> 00:19:48,280 Speaker 1: and tinier pieces. Right. So this is the first time 343 00:19:48,320 --> 00:19:51,720 Speaker 1: that was two thousand nine where they where two satellites 344 00:19:51,960 --> 00:19:54,560 Speaker 1: rammed into each other as as far as we know, 345 00:19:54,800 --> 00:19:56,800 Speaker 1: and I think it hasn't happened again yet right now. 346 00:19:57,160 --> 00:19:59,760 Speaker 1: But the thing is is, because there's so many satellites 347 00:19:59,840 --> 00:20:03,320 Speaker 1: up there and we're launching so many more, that um 348 00:20:03,359 --> 00:20:06,360 Speaker 1: that that it's going to happen again. It's just inevitable 349 00:20:06,400 --> 00:20:08,800 Speaker 1: that's going to happen again. Because you'll notice, you know, 350 00:20:08,800 --> 00:20:13,320 Speaker 1: while the Iridium satellite was operational, that Cosmos one was 351 00:20:13,359 --> 00:20:16,439 Speaker 1: in operational, meaning there's no way to control it or 352 00:20:16,480 --> 00:20:19,240 Speaker 1: move it. So the only way to avoid this collision 353 00:20:19,320 --> 00:20:22,879 Speaker 1: is for the Iridium controllers to move their's and I 354 00:20:22,880 --> 00:20:25,959 Speaker 1: guess they didn't have the warning or what why they 355 00:20:25,960 --> 00:20:28,240 Speaker 1: didn't move it, because there's as we'll see, there's a 356 00:20:28,520 --> 00:20:33,160 Speaker 1: there's collision maneuvers where you just basically move your satellite 357 00:20:33,160 --> 00:20:35,200 Speaker 1: out of the way if you think it's gonna gonna 358 00:20:35,320 --> 00:20:38,280 Speaker 1: hit something. But that didn't happen with this one. And 359 00:20:38,359 --> 00:20:41,200 Speaker 1: so because there's so many satellites that are defunct out 360 00:20:41,280 --> 00:20:44,520 Speaker 1: there that are traveling in opposite directions that really high speeds, 361 00:20:44,560 --> 00:20:47,320 Speaker 1: of course this is going to happen again. And the 362 00:20:47,400 --> 00:20:51,280 Speaker 1: Union of Concerned Scientists says that there's something like thirty 363 00:20:51,359 --> 00:20:55,199 Speaker 1: three I know they're great, UM thirty three hundred and 364 00:20:55,200 --> 00:20:59,520 Speaker 1: seventy two active satellites in orbit and at least three 365 00:20:59,600 --> 00:21:03,080 Speaker 1: thousand and more inactive satellites in orbit right now, So 366 00:21:03,119 --> 00:21:07,080 Speaker 1: it's definitely going to happen again. Yeah, I think the 367 00:21:07,160 --> 00:21:10,320 Speaker 1: Union of Concerned Scientists logo is I looked it up. 368 00:21:10,359 --> 00:21:14,960 Speaker 1: It's just UM a silhouette of two uh folded arms 369 00:21:15,520 --> 00:21:22,040 Speaker 1: with lab coat sleeves, scowling scowling arms. So yeah, it's 370 00:21:22,040 --> 00:21:25,400 Speaker 1: gonna happen again. I think there was one ESA official, 371 00:21:25,560 --> 00:21:29,160 Speaker 1: the European Space Agency, and this is paraphrasing, but said, 372 00:21:29,200 --> 00:21:32,320 Speaker 1: it's basically what we're doing. It's like every time a 373 00:21:32,359 --> 00:21:34,840 Speaker 1: ship goes out to see just leaving it out there, 374 00:21:34,880 --> 00:21:37,280 Speaker 1: like eventually this is going to be a real problem. 375 00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:40,080 Speaker 1: And I know that it's hard to imagine because it's 376 00:21:40,119 --> 00:21:42,480 Speaker 1: in space, but let me liken it to the ocean 377 00:21:42,560 --> 00:21:46,760 Speaker 1: and boats and it might get the your thick skulls. Yeah, um, 378 00:21:46,800 --> 00:21:49,880 Speaker 1: so yeah, it's it's basically a tragedy of the commons 379 00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:53,200 Speaker 1: that we're seeing right now. Um, but the commons are 380 00:21:53,200 --> 00:21:56,040 Speaker 1: becoming more and more crowded as the days go by. 381 00:21:56,080 --> 00:21:59,280 Speaker 1: That thirty three and seventy two active satellites in orbit, 382 00:21:59,400 --> 00:22:02,359 Speaker 1: I think that as of the beginning of the end 383 00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:06,320 Speaker 1: of that was a thousand more active satellites than there 384 00:22:06,320 --> 00:22:11,520 Speaker 1: were in two thousand nineteen, like exponentially. And one of 385 00:22:11,560 --> 00:22:15,080 Speaker 1: the reasons why it's picking up exponentially is that, um, 386 00:22:15,119 --> 00:22:17,440 Speaker 1: a lot of companies. I think there's at least eight 387 00:22:17,480 --> 00:22:21,000 Speaker 1: companies right now that have proposals to release um what 388 00:22:21,040 --> 00:22:25,240 Speaker 1: you're called mega constellations or swarms of satellites, and you 389 00:22:25,240 --> 00:22:28,280 Speaker 1: would you would need a swarm of satellites because these 390 00:22:28,320 --> 00:22:31,680 Speaker 1: things in lower Earth orbit travel so fast that if say, 391 00:22:31,720 --> 00:22:34,200 Speaker 1: like you're connected to one for your cell phone, it's 392 00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:36,960 Speaker 1: suddenly gone. So they handed off to the satellite behind 393 00:22:37,040 --> 00:22:38,960 Speaker 1: them and behind them and behind them, so that you'd 394 00:22:38,960 --> 00:22:42,200 Speaker 1: be continuous service. So the more of swarm of satellites 395 00:22:42,280 --> 00:22:45,600 Speaker 1: you have, the more connected you could be. And so 396 00:22:45,680 --> 00:22:51,240 Speaker 1: some of these proposals like um SpaceX is starlink swarm UM. 397 00:22:51,280 --> 00:22:55,520 Speaker 1: It aims to to create like global coverage of satellite 398 00:22:55,560 --> 00:22:59,080 Speaker 1: internet service, so everyone everywhere in the world will be 399 00:22:59,119 --> 00:23:02,359 Speaker 1: able to connect to really high speed WiFi because of 400 00:23:02,359 --> 00:23:04,760 Speaker 1: this swarm. So there's a benefit to it. But at 401 00:23:04,800 --> 00:23:10,280 Speaker 1: the same time, the SpaceX constellation requires twelve thousand satellites. 402 00:23:10,600 --> 00:23:13,479 Speaker 1: There's only called the swarm. There's only thirty three hundred 403 00:23:13,760 --> 00:23:16,840 Speaker 1: up there right now, and Elon Musk is saying that 404 00:23:16,840 --> 00:23:20,280 Speaker 1: he's going to add another twelve thousand just with his swarm. 405 00:23:20,320 --> 00:23:22,760 Speaker 1: So all of these satellites that are going up in 406 00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:25,520 Speaker 1: our in the process of going up, are about to 407 00:23:25,520 --> 00:23:27,760 Speaker 1: make the whole thing a lot more crowded. So yes, 408 00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:32,120 Speaker 1: the likelihood of a collision just is increasing, um by 409 00:23:32,480 --> 00:23:37,399 Speaker 1: by orders of magnitude every year from what I can tell. Yeah, 410 00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:40,200 Speaker 1: and you know, obviously one of the big risks here, 411 00:23:41,520 --> 00:23:44,720 Speaker 1: and we'll talk about all of them. Something falling on 412 00:23:44,840 --> 00:23:48,359 Speaker 1: to Earth and hurting people is one of the smaller risks, 413 00:23:48,440 --> 00:23:52,240 Speaker 1: even though that has happened when sky Lab very famously 414 00:23:52,280 --> 00:23:56,120 Speaker 1: fell out in the Western Australian outback. Um, but we'll 415 00:23:56,119 --> 00:23:58,320 Speaker 1: get to that. But that that's not the biggest risk. 416 00:23:58,359 --> 00:24:02,560 Speaker 1: The biggest risk is for for damage and collisions up there. 417 00:24:02,760 --> 00:24:04,879 Speaker 1: And we've got a lot of astronauts up there, we 418 00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:08,040 Speaker 1: have people living on space stations, we have people working 419 00:24:08,080 --> 00:24:11,439 Speaker 1: on that Hubble telescope. I mean, what't that was the 420 00:24:11,440 --> 00:24:14,199 Speaker 1: movie Gravity, right? That was space junk that caused their 421 00:24:14,240 --> 00:24:17,359 Speaker 1: whole thing, right, Yeah, they basically depicted a Kessler syndrome 422 00:24:17,520 --> 00:24:21,000 Speaker 1: chain reaction. Um, I guess the localized one in that 423 00:24:21,040 --> 00:24:23,639 Speaker 1: movie from from I had totally forgotten about it, but 424 00:24:23,680 --> 00:24:26,280 Speaker 1: I kept seeing references to it, so yeah, I kind 425 00:24:26,280 --> 00:24:28,199 Speaker 1: of remember it now, Like in that why she had 426 00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:33,720 Speaker 1: to take shelter somewhere with the ghost of George Clooney. Hey, 427 00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:36,320 Speaker 1: who wouldn't though, you know, did he even exist in 428 00:24:36,320 --> 00:24:39,879 Speaker 1: that movie? I don't remember. Yeah, is there a theory 429 00:24:39,920 --> 00:24:42,320 Speaker 1: that he was not real? No, I just didn't remember 430 00:24:42,359 --> 00:24:44,439 Speaker 1: if like he if like at the end they were 431 00:24:44,480 --> 00:24:46,680 Speaker 1: like and he never really existed, So he was there. 432 00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:50,360 Speaker 1: She was just remembering him later or imagining him there 433 00:24:50,440 --> 00:24:53,040 Speaker 1: later on, right, I think so? I mean I only 434 00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:57,560 Speaker 1: saw that once. Same here. Yeah. But Um, even stuff 435 00:24:57,600 --> 00:24:59,879 Speaker 1: like we said, as small as a paint flack, if 436 00:25:00,720 --> 00:25:03,960 Speaker 1: going twenty two thousand miles an hour, one centimeter paint 437 00:25:03,960 --> 00:25:07,960 Speaker 1: fleck can inflict enough damage as a or the same 438 00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:10,480 Speaker 1: amount as a five dred and fifty pound object going 439 00:25:10,480 --> 00:25:13,520 Speaker 1: about sixty miles an hour here on Earth. And if 440 00:25:13,520 --> 00:25:16,440 Speaker 1: that goes up to ten centimeters, it would be comparable 441 00:25:16,480 --> 00:25:21,760 Speaker 1: to a seven kilogram TNT blast paint flex paint fleck. 442 00:25:22,200 --> 00:25:27,120 Speaker 1: Marble's pretty amazing stuff if you think about it. Um. 443 00:25:27,200 --> 00:25:30,359 Speaker 1: And actually they've had to replace windows on the Space 444 00:25:30,359 --> 00:25:32,919 Speaker 1: Shuttle back when the Space Shuttle was in operation in 445 00:25:32,960 --> 00:25:36,280 Speaker 1: the US. UM, and they they there just be like 446 00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:41,399 Speaker 1: deep gouges and streaks um taken out of the windows. 447 00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:44,240 Speaker 1: And when they would analyze and they'd be like, that's 448 00:25:44,320 --> 00:25:48,040 Speaker 1: paint paint fleck did that. Yeah, And you know the 449 00:25:48,080 --> 00:25:50,399 Speaker 1: I S S And a lot of our work happens 450 00:25:50,440 --> 00:25:54,359 Speaker 1: below where most of this stuff is. But it's still 451 00:25:54,359 --> 00:25:56,800 Speaker 1: a danger. It is a danger. So one of the 452 00:25:56,800 --> 00:26:00,239 Speaker 1: reasons why it's a dangerous because again, um, the the 453 00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:03,320 Speaker 1: I S S is it. It's two hundred and fifty 454 00:26:03,359 --> 00:26:05,840 Speaker 1: miles above Earth, four hundred and three kilometers above the 455 00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:09,000 Speaker 1: surfaces in lower Earth orbit UM. But it is one 456 00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:12,520 Speaker 1: of the most vital pieces of space technology that's up 457 00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:14,879 Speaker 1: there right now. UM. So we want to protect it. 458 00:26:14,920 --> 00:26:17,600 Speaker 1: We want to keep the I S S safe. UM. 459 00:26:17,720 --> 00:26:19,920 Speaker 1: The problem is is that there's a lot of stuff 460 00:26:20,080 --> 00:26:23,720 Speaker 1: above it, and when that stuff eventually comes back down 461 00:26:23,800 --> 00:26:28,320 Speaker 1: to Earth, it might pass by the I s's coming down, 462 00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:31,000 Speaker 1: and then the stuff that's also in lower Earth orbit 463 00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:33,440 Speaker 1: around the I S S could run into it from 464 00:26:33,480 --> 00:26:36,639 Speaker 1: the side or from the opposite direction UM, or like 465 00:26:36,680 --> 00:26:39,679 Speaker 1: at a ninety degree plane. So the I S S 466 00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:43,480 Speaker 1: is constantly under threat. And NASA's UM and I think 467 00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:46,359 Speaker 1: the E s A. A bunch of different agencies that 468 00:26:46,520 --> 00:26:48,800 Speaker 1: use the I S S have come up with procedures 469 00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:52,320 Speaker 1: for basically moving it if if there's a high enough 470 00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:55,920 Speaker 1: chance that that a collision will occur. And when we 471 00:26:55,920 --> 00:26:58,439 Speaker 1: talk about high enough chance, we're saying, like one in 472 00:26:58,480 --> 00:27:02,760 Speaker 1: a hundred thousand chants is enough reason to move the 473 00:27:02,840 --> 00:27:05,760 Speaker 1: I S. S out of the way. Yeah, And they 474 00:27:05,760 --> 00:27:09,399 Speaker 1: came up with a pretty um I mean, it seems 475 00:27:09,400 --> 00:27:11,600 Speaker 1: pretty obvious, but it's a pretty smart way to determine 476 00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:14,200 Speaker 1: if it's dangerous or not. They said, we need to 477 00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:18,280 Speaker 1: get an area around these things where we can determine 478 00:27:18,280 --> 00:27:20,800 Speaker 1: if it's you know, basically a close call or not. 479 00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:23,720 Speaker 1: And we're gonna call it the pizza box because that's 480 00:27:23,720 --> 00:27:27,080 Speaker 1: what it looks like. And everybody loves pizza. Everyone knows 481 00:27:27,119 --> 00:27:29,679 Speaker 1: what pizzas. Do we have to describe that? Please? No, 482 00:27:31,160 --> 00:27:32,800 Speaker 1: we have an episode on pizza, so go listen to. 483 00:27:32,840 --> 00:27:35,000 Speaker 1: There's some guy eating a grapefruit. Is like, never heard 484 00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:38,879 Speaker 1: of pizza. But it's shaped like a pizza box, is 485 00:27:38,880 --> 00:27:42,679 Speaker 1: flat and it's rectangular. Uh, it's about thirty miles across, 486 00:27:42,720 --> 00:27:46,760 Speaker 1: a mile deep, thirty miles long. And the idea is that, 487 00:27:46,840 --> 00:27:50,320 Speaker 1: you know, imagine the I. S. S or whatever important 488 00:27:50,359 --> 00:27:53,199 Speaker 1: satellite in the middle of this pizza box in space. 489 00:27:54,080 --> 00:27:57,360 Speaker 1: And they say, if anything, if we predict anything will 490 00:27:57,359 --> 00:28:00,639 Speaker 1: come within the bounds of that pizza box, then that 491 00:28:00,680 --> 00:28:03,640 Speaker 1: means that we have to get together and and decide 492 00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:06,560 Speaker 1: what to do, at least not necessarily take the action, 493 00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:09,920 Speaker 1: because then you've got to determine the probability of collision. 494 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:12,320 Speaker 1: But that's when it gets their attention, I think, right. 495 00:28:12,359 --> 00:28:14,159 Speaker 1: So if they figure out that there's a one and 496 00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:20,600 Speaker 1: a hundred thousand chants of UM of collision and moving 497 00:28:20,680 --> 00:28:22,680 Speaker 1: the I S S isn't going to just be like, well, 498 00:28:22,760 --> 00:28:25,280 Speaker 1: the mission scrap now because we needed the I S 499 00:28:25,280 --> 00:28:28,040 Speaker 1: S three ft to the left, um, and now we 500 00:28:28,080 --> 00:28:30,280 Speaker 1: can't do anything, so just forget it, just forget the 501 00:28:30,280 --> 00:28:33,679 Speaker 1: whole thing. Um. They will move the I S S. 502 00:28:34,040 --> 00:28:36,440 Speaker 1: If there's a one in ten thousand chance of collision 503 00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:41,080 Speaker 1: um and it won't jeopardize the lives of the crew, 504 00:28:41,240 --> 00:28:44,120 Speaker 1: then they'll move the I S S. Mission be damned, Um, 505 00:28:45,040 --> 00:28:48,480 Speaker 1: they don't take that lightly. And then one other thing 506 00:28:48,480 --> 00:28:50,800 Speaker 1: they might do if they don't have time to move 507 00:28:50,840 --> 00:28:55,840 Speaker 1: the I S S, they'll put the crew into whatever 508 00:28:55,960 --> 00:28:58,600 Speaker 1: capsule brought them there. If the soy Use rocket that 509 00:28:58,760 --> 00:29:01,880 Speaker 1: that brought them there is docked, or if one of 510 00:29:01,920 --> 00:29:06,040 Speaker 1: SpaceX is Dragon capsules is docked. They'll they'll say, go 511 00:29:06,120 --> 00:29:09,160 Speaker 1: in there and hang out until this this uh predicted 512 00:29:09,720 --> 00:29:13,160 Speaker 1: m collision passes, but hang out there like it's like 513 00:29:13,200 --> 00:29:16,280 Speaker 1: a lifeboat basically. Form. Yeah, that's the one. The only 514 00:29:16,280 --> 00:29:17,880 Speaker 1: one that confused me a little bit. I mean, I 515 00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:21,280 Speaker 1: get the idea that that's a a good idea to 516 00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:24,640 Speaker 1: be sort of in the escape pod, but that escape 517 00:29:24,680 --> 00:29:27,680 Speaker 1: pod can also be crashed as well. Yes, good thinking. 518 00:29:27,800 --> 00:29:31,240 Speaker 1: You would make a very fine NASA flight engineer. Because, um, 519 00:29:31,280 --> 00:29:34,400 Speaker 1: I was reading an account of Scott Kelly, one of 520 00:29:34,400 --> 00:29:37,880 Speaker 1: the Kelly twins, the astronauts who are just so great. Um, 521 00:29:38,040 --> 00:29:39,840 Speaker 1: Scott Kelly was up on the I s s once 522 00:29:39,880 --> 00:29:42,720 Speaker 1: as a commander. I think when you're spending that year 523 00:29:42,760 --> 00:29:47,760 Speaker 1: in space, and um, there was a predicted collision that 524 00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:49,280 Speaker 1: was enough to tell them to go sit in the 525 00:29:49,320 --> 00:29:51,840 Speaker 1: Sayers rocket And they said, but don't close the hatch 526 00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:55,400 Speaker 1: because it's possible that the the capsule could get hit 527 00:29:55,960 --> 00:29:57,480 Speaker 1: and you might need to get out of the capsule 528 00:29:57,520 --> 00:30:00,040 Speaker 1: really quick too. But then you know, if the I 529 00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:02,520 Speaker 1: Sess this hit, you can close the hatch very quickly 530 00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:07,760 Speaker 1: and and um disembark. I guess, so, yes, yeah, I 531 00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:11,000 Speaker 1: wonder if they like, they did that for the very 532 00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:13,360 Speaker 1: first time. They said, just go get in the escape pod. 533 00:30:14,600 --> 00:30:17,400 Speaker 1: I'm simplifying things of course for Star Wars fans. And 534 00:30:17,440 --> 00:30:19,040 Speaker 1: they go get in the space pod and close the 535 00:30:19,080 --> 00:30:20,760 Speaker 1: door and they go they go, all right, we're all 536 00:30:20,760 --> 00:30:23,000 Speaker 1: good now, right, And then they look at each other 537 00:30:23,040 --> 00:30:25,920 Speaker 1: and they're like, not really, yeah, that it was were 538 00:30:25,960 --> 00:30:28,200 Speaker 1: just in another thing. It was an interesting account they were. 539 00:30:28,600 --> 00:30:30,800 Speaker 1: They were just kind of he said, it was a 540 00:30:30,800 --> 00:30:34,360 Speaker 1: little tense. But then the time the predicted time of 541 00:30:34,400 --> 00:30:37,600 Speaker 1: collision came and went, and you know, they were finally like, okay, 542 00:30:37,600 --> 00:30:39,680 Speaker 1: can we can we get out now? But he said 543 00:30:39,680 --> 00:30:41,120 Speaker 1: it was a little a little like it was very 544 00:30:41,200 --> 00:30:44,320 Speaker 1: quiet and they could just hear themselves in one another breathing, 545 00:30:44,320 --> 00:30:46,760 Speaker 1: and that was about it. But I mean, this dangerous 546 00:30:46,760 --> 00:30:49,520 Speaker 1: work and they understand this. But the goal is to 547 00:30:49,560 --> 00:30:52,680 Speaker 1: bring them all back always. But you know, when you 548 00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:54,840 Speaker 1: go into you know, it's like being a fire firefighter 549 00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:58,000 Speaker 1: or something. You know that there's a risk that you 550 00:30:58,080 --> 00:31:01,120 Speaker 1: might not come back. There's gotta be oh yeah, for sure. 551 00:31:01,240 --> 00:31:03,560 Speaker 1: I just want that to be as minimal as possible. Yes, 552 00:31:03,640 --> 00:31:07,040 Speaker 1: And they take extraordinary measures to make sure that that 553 00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:11,000 Speaker 1: it's as minimized as possible for sure. Should we take 554 00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:12,920 Speaker 1: another break? I think so, man, and we're going to 555 00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:15,120 Speaker 1: come back and talk about what to do about this 556 00:31:15,200 --> 00:31:47,760 Speaker 1: space junk problem. Okay, So, um, we I think have 557 00:31:47,960 --> 00:31:50,520 Speaker 1: established that space junk is kind of a problem, and 558 00:31:50,560 --> 00:31:53,000 Speaker 1: not just for the I S S, not just for satellites. 559 00:31:53,040 --> 00:31:54,760 Speaker 1: I think one thing we kind of left out is 560 00:31:55,120 --> 00:31:58,560 Speaker 1: if these satellites, you know, crash into each other, there's 561 00:31:58,600 --> 00:32:02,320 Speaker 1: somebody's dish TV gone, how are you gonna watch? Are 562 00:32:02,360 --> 00:32:04,920 Speaker 1: you gonna watch the Big Game? Then you're not. So 563 00:32:05,040 --> 00:32:07,960 Speaker 1: space chunk affects US one and all, um, and there's 564 00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:10,040 Speaker 1: all sorts of other things that could happen. Um, if 565 00:32:10,080 --> 00:32:12,880 Speaker 1: our satellites start going out, it's not something we want. 566 00:32:13,160 --> 00:32:15,000 Speaker 1: We also don't want the crew of the I S 567 00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:17,560 Speaker 1: S to get hurt. But also eventually in the future 568 00:32:17,880 --> 00:32:20,160 Speaker 1: when we go back to the Moon and then when 569 00:32:20,160 --> 00:32:23,240 Speaker 1: we travel beyond the Moon, um, we're gonna be needing 570 00:32:23,280 --> 00:32:26,520 Speaker 1: to go in and out of Earth's orbit and we 571 00:32:26,560 --> 00:32:28,600 Speaker 1: don't want there to be some crazy to brief field 572 00:32:28,640 --> 00:32:31,640 Speaker 1: that we have to navigate around or wait to pass 573 00:32:31,840 --> 00:32:34,360 Speaker 1: or whatever. So this is something we need to to 574 00:32:34,480 --> 00:32:38,600 Speaker 1: mitigate right now, and it is just beginning to be 575 00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:42,080 Speaker 1: something that um, some of the space agencies, not all 576 00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:45,400 Speaker 1: unfortunately in some countries, and some companies are starting to 577 00:32:45,440 --> 00:32:48,720 Speaker 1: take seriously and figure out how to mitigate. Yeah, I 578 00:32:48,720 --> 00:32:52,440 Speaker 1: mean think about space tourism and on these companies, they're like, hey, 579 00:32:52,440 --> 00:32:54,200 Speaker 1: how'd you like to fly up there for a hundred 580 00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:58,680 Speaker 1: thousand dollars and risk being plowed into by paint flex 581 00:32:59,320 --> 00:33:02,040 Speaker 1: Right a paint fl being taken out by a paint 582 00:33:02,040 --> 00:33:06,480 Speaker 1: flight is just undignified. Uh So the u N gets 583 00:33:06,520 --> 00:33:09,600 Speaker 1: involved a little bit and they say, hey, how about everyone, 584 00:33:10,040 --> 00:33:13,560 Speaker 1: all you companies sending satellites up there, why don't you 585 00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:17,800 Speaker 1: promise to remove these things at least twenty five years 586 00:33:18,720 --> 00:33:22,560 Speaker 1: after the end of their mission. And everyone said, sure, 587 00:33:22,800 --> 00:33:26,160 Speaker 1: we'll do that. U N. Um, how are you going 588 00:33:26,200 --> 00:33:28,480 Speaker 1: to enforce that? And the un says, I don't know, 589 00:33:28,920 --> 00:33:31,920 Speaker 1: we're asking nicely, though, all the space agencies kind of 590 00:33:32,200 --> 00:33:34,840 Speaker 1: slowly encircled the u N and then grabbed it and 591 00:33:34,880 --> 00:33:38,440 Speaker 1: gave it a wedgie. But people, I'm kind of joking, 592 00:33:38,440 --> 00:33:41,200 Speaker 1: But people in these agencies they do know it's a 593 00:33:41,240 --> 00:33:43,800 Speaker 1: problem they and they are coming up with things kind 594 00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:47,360 Speaker 1: of Armageddon style. I mean literally space Next is it 595 00:33:47,400 --> 00:33:50,680 Speaker 1: with you in that movie? I just always thought it 596 00:33:50,720 --> 00:33:53,160 Speaker 1: was the dumbest thing, Like, how am I supposed to 597 00:33:53,200 --> 00:33:56,200 Speaker 1: believe this? That this is how they're gonna solve this 598 00:33:56,280 --> 00:33:59,080 Speaker 1: problem by just blowing this thing up by drilling holes 599 00:33:59,080 --> 00:34:01,040 Speaker 1: in it and putting bombs in it. And then the 600 00:34:01,080 --> 00:34:02,880 Speaker 1: more I read about stuff like this, the more I 601 00:34:02,960 --> 00:34:05,880 Speaker 1: think that's an actual idea that they could do. Yeah. Yeah, 602 00:34:05,880 --> 00:34:09,520 Speaker 1: I mean we're like maybe a decade off from space mining, 603 00:34:09,680 --> 00:34:14,360 Speaker 1: I would guess, like mining asteroids. I just I feel like, uh, 604 00:34:14,480 --> 00:34:18,319 Speaker 1: I don't want to give Michael Bay credit for coming 605 00:34:18,400 --> 00:34:20,319 Speaker 1: up with a plausible thing, because I just still want 606 00:34:20,320 --> 00:34:24,239 Speaker 1: to say he's ridiculous. But it's not because they have 607 00:34:24,320 --> 00:34:28,040 Speaker 1: space nets and they have space harpoons and space magnets 608 00:34:28,120 --> 00:34:30,720 Speaker 1: and these are some of the things that they actually 609 00:34:30,880 --> 00:34:35,560 Speaker 1: use to drag these things, uh close enough to where 610 00:34:35,560 --> 00:34:38,560 Speaker 1: it falls out of orbit and then ideally burns up. Yeah, 611 00:34:38,640 --> 00:34:44,800 Speaker 1: like removed debris, right, yeah, removed debris was it was 612 00:34:44,880 --> 00:34:48,080 Speaker 1: kind of cool. The European Space Agency said, you know what, 613 00:34:48,239 --> 00:34:51,880 Speaker 1: we have this defunct satellite up there called the Vistat, 614 00:34:52,440 --> 00:34:53,960 Speaker 1: and why don't we just put a bounty on this 615 00:34:54,040 --> 00:34:56,560 Speaker 1: thing to see what people can come up with and 616 00:34:56,600 --> 00:34:58,960 Speaker 1: just say, you know, go hog wild and see what 617 00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:01,239 Speaker 1: you can see what you and do. Bruce Willis, Yeah, 618 00:35:01,320 --> 00:35:03,759 Speaker 1: you gotta tell them about Embasat and what it is 619 00:35:03,800 --> 00:35:07,000 Speaker 1: and what it's doing right now through space. Well, I 620 00:35:07,040 --> 00:35:09,840 Speaker 1: mean it's it's like a it's about the size of 621 00:35:09,840 --> 00:35:12,640 Speaker 1: a school bus and it's like it's being driven around 622 00:35:12,680 --> 00:35:16,120 Speaker 1: by a drunk yeah, like auto after he took some 623 00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:20,840 Speaker 1: rooms or something, totally spinning uncontrollably through space. It's like 624 00:35:20,880 --> 00:35:23,080 Speaker 1: actually one of the more dangerous things up there in 625 00:35:23,120 --> 00:35:26,719 Speaker 1: the space debris fields right now. Yeah, So they put 626 00:35:26,760 --> 00:35:29,640 Speaker 1: out this call said, who's got a good idea, feel 627 00:35:29,680 --> 00:35:32,000 Speaker 1: free to try it on the embasat if if you 628 00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:35,399 Speaker 1: want to get close to it. And uh, a group 629 00:35:35,440 --> 00:35:39,280 Speaker 1: from Surrey University came up with that removed debris system 630 00:35:39,360 --> 00:35:43,719 Speaker 1: where it was basically a ballistic module that attacked this 631 00:35:43,800 --> 00:35:47,800 Speaker 1: stuff with a harpoon and a net and pushes or 632 00:35:47,840 --> 00:35:50,520 Speaker 1: pulls it out of orbit and basically just kind of 633 00:35:50,520 --> 00:35:53,280 Speaker 1: speeds up the process. It's not like they literally drag 634 00:35:53,320 --> 00:35:55,880 Speaker 1: it back down to Earth and you know, stand on 635 00:35:55,920 --> 00:35:59,560 Speaker 1: it and get their picture taken. But they disrupted enough 636 00:35:59,600 --> 00:36:03,160 Speaker 1: to speak, eat up the process that would inevitably happen anyway. Yeah, 637 00:36:03,160 --> 00:36:05,200 Speaker 1: it's kind of close to that though, Like there's the 638 00:36:05,920 --> 00:36:08,600 Speaker 1: test that they ran in two thousand and eighteen, Like 639 00:36:08,640 --> 00:36:11,879 Speaker 1: the net was successful, the harpoon was successful. But then 640 00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:14,759 Speaker 1: there it's supposed to also deploy a drag net to 641 00:36:14,880 --> 00:36:17,640 Speaker 1: like slow the thing down and then make it, you know, 642 00:36:17,719 --> 00:36:21,319 Speaker 1: fall towards Earth. Um. But the drag net didn't didn't go, 643 00:36:21,640 --> 00:36:24,840 Speaker 1: but everything else did. Um. And then there was another company, 644 00:36:24,880 --> 00:36:27,960 Speaker 1: a Swiss company called clear Space that was working directly 645 00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:32,360 Speaker 1: with the ESA to launch clause little clause that go 646 00:36:32,520 --> 00:36:37,080 Speaker 1: seek and find um space junk, clamp onto it and 647 00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:40,279 Speaker 1: then just basically drag it down and uh, to its 648 00:36:40,320 --> 00:36:44,279 Speaker 1: own death. Kind of like you know, the the guy 649 00:36:44,360 --> 00:36:46,640 Speaker 1: that you just were you you pushed off the cliff 650 00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:48,520 Speaker 1: and he grabbed onto your ankle and then at the 651 00:36:48,600 --> 00:36:50,239 Speaker 1: last second he took you down with him, and you 652 00:36:50,320 --> 00:36:53,799 Speaker 1: both go. That's what this claw basically does to this 653 00:36:53,880 --> 00:36:58,399 Speaker 1: poor space chunk. Yeah. The magnet thing kind of and 654 00:36:59,200 --> 00:37:00,840 Speaker 1: we did a show in Magnets and I remember it 655 00:37:00,880 --> 00:37:03,239 Speaker 1: kind of broke my brain. But is there such a 656 00:37:03,280 --> 00:37:07,719 Speaker 1: thing as a magnet? That when it attracts things. There 657 00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:12,000 Speaker 1: to that question, when it attracts things that stick to 658 00:37:12,040 --> 00:37:16,000 Speaker 1: the magnet, those things also become magnetized. Oh that's a 659 00:37:16,040 --> 00:37:18,080 Speaker 1: great question. It's got it, because you know what I'm 660 00:37:18,080 --> 00:37:20,479 Speaker 1: getting at here is basically a magnet that just keeps 661 00:37:20,480 --> 00:37:23,720 Speaker 1: growing and growing and growing and just spinning through the universe, 662 00:37:23,760 --> 00:37:28,160 Speaker 1: collecting everything in its bath until it's this giant thing. Chuck. 663 00:37:28,239 --> 00:37:30,799 Speaker 1: That is the very title of the third album by 664 00:37:30,840 --> 00:37:34,880 Speaker 1: Buffalo Space Chunk. It was a long one, not as 665 00:37:34,880 --> 00:37:37,360 Speaker 1: long as Fiona Apples, but I think it's second place. 666 00:37:39,040 --> 00:37:40,560 Speaker 1: Her new album is great, by the way. I haven't 667 00:37:40,600 --> 00:37:44,520 Speaker 1: heard it, but I imagine she's a genius. But I 668 00:37:44,560 --> 00:37:46,719 Speaker 1: don't know. It's probably silly idea, or maybe just a 669 00:37:46,719 --> 00:37:50,960 Speaker 1: magnet big enough to collect enough stuff and then blow 670 00:37:51,040 --> 00:37:53,279 Speaker 1: that thing up, I would guess. I mean, I don't 671 00:37:53,280 --> 00:37:56,040 Speaker 1: think it's silly idea. I think magnets probably are the 672 00:37:56,080 --> 00:38:00,960 Speaker 1: wave of the future for this stuff because um, harpoons, claws, 673 00:38:01,760 --> 00:38:05,480 Speaker 1: all of these things work for say, intact satellites, large ones. 674 00:38:05,840 --> 00:38:07,640 Speaker 1: And by the way, the e s A backed off 675 00:38:07,680 --> 00:38:10,839 Speaker 1: of its imfacat bounty because it realized very quickly where 676 00:38:11,239 --> 00:38:13,799 Speaker 1: many years off from being able to take something that 677 00:38:13,920 --> 00:38:18,640 Speaker 1: large out of orbit. Um, but it is, it's still 678 00:38:19,080 --> 00:38:23,200 Speaker 1: hurling uncontrollably through space the size of a school bus. Um. 679 00:38:23,480 --> 00:38:27,640 Speaker 1: But the the that's still like large pieces that these 680 00:38:27,680 --> 00:38:31,120 Speaker 1: things take. And as we said, like smaller debris is 681 00:38:31,160 --> 00:38:33,480 Speaker 1: a real real problem up in space. So I could 682 00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:39,160 Speaker 1: see it being something like magnets or um whale sharks 683 00:38:39,400 --> 00:38:42,319 Speaker 1: filter teeth kind of thing, but up in space that 684 00:38:42,440 --> 00:38:45,360 Speaker 1: somehow collects debris in a bag. I don't know exactly, 685 00:38:45,480 --> 00:38:48,879 Speaker 1: like yeah, basically like treating it like krill. We need 686 00:38:48,880 --> 00:38:53,640 Speaker 1: a we need a robot space shark space whale whale 687 00:38:53,680 --> 00:38:57,600 Speaker 1: sharks years ago, of course. Can you imagine ever forgetting 688 00:38:57,640 --> 00:39:01,239 Speaker 1: that that was so long ago? Crazy? It really was. 689 00:39:01,280 --> 00:39:04,200 Speaker 1: It was a good decade, right, No, it had to be. 690 00:39:04,800 --> 00:39:08,120 Speaker 1: I'm just sort of marveling that we're still doing this. 691 00:39:10,080 --> 00:39:12,359 Speaker 1: You got a long time left too, So wake up, 692 00:39:13,040 --> 00:39:15,120 Speaker 1: I hope. So are you telling me to wake up 693 00:39:15,120 --> 00:39:19,080 Speaker 1: for everyone else? Everybody else? Okay? Um, there are also 694 00:39:19,800 --> 00:39:22,640 Speaker 1: de orbiting. I mean we have successfully in other companies 695 00:39:22,680 --> 00:39:25,840 Speaker 1: have successfully de orbited satellites. It is a thing. We 696 00:39:25,880 --> 00:39:29,839 Speaker 1: don't leave everything up there um SpaceX. I remember, you know, 697 00:39:30,200 --> 00:39:33,879 Speaker 1: very famously, they have the Falcon rocket that was able 698 00:39:33,920 --> 00:39:36,920 Speaker 1: to come back down to Earth and be and docking again. 699 00:39:37,040 --> 00:39:44,600 Speaker 1: It was super cool Don doing. Everybody's talking about him 700 00:39:44,640 --> 00:39:47,120 Speaker 1: that day too, and he loved it. Yeah, he made 701 00:39:47,120 --> 00:39:49,680 Speaker 1: the news. Um. Yeah, so that's actually a new best 702 00:39:49,719 --> 00:39:52,759 Speaker 1: practice is basically reuse stuff. Just get it back out, 703 00:39:53,040 --> 00:39:56,239 Speaker 1: and even if you can't reuse it again, like SpaceX 704 00:39:56,280 --> 00:39:59,440 Speaker 1: does with their boosters, at the very least make part 705 00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:03,719 Speaker 1: of launch satellite the um like like de orbiting the 706 00:40:03,800 --> 00:40:06,880 Speaker 1: upper stage of the rocket like immediately. There's no reason 707 00:40:06,920 --> 00:40:09,440 Speaker 1: to just leave your rocket parts up there anymore. Like 708 00:40:09,520 --> 00:40:12,520 Speaker 1: you can you can attach stuff to it, propulsion systems 709 00:40:12,719 --> 00:40:15,200 Speaker 1: to get it back down into Earth's atmosphere to burn 710 00:40:15,320 --> 00:40:17,680 Speaker 1: up if if you're not going to reuse it. So 711 00:40:17,760 --> 00:40:21,680 Speaker 1: that's a definite best practice that's emerging for sure. The 712 00:40:21,719 --> 00:40:24,799 Speaker 1: Falcon worked though, right, didn't that thing land safe? Dude? 713 00:40:24,800 --> 00:40:27,479 Speaker 1: I saw it with my own eyes. Yeah. I saw 714 00:40:27,480 --> 00:40:30,719 Speaker 1: the heavy M boosters land with my own eyes, and 715 00:40:30,960 --> 00:40:35,000 Speaker 1: he synchronized them. They came down at the same time, 716 00:40:35,200 --> 00:40:38,239 Speaker 1: landed at the same time after launching a rocket in 717 00:40:38,320 --> 00:40:42,239 Speaker 1: his face. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean that's really 718 00:40:42,239 --> 00:40:45,239 Speaker 1: cool though, and and uh, I gotta hand it to 719 00:40:45,280 --> 00:40:49,520 Speaker 1: that guy. He definitely thinks of things that don't see 720 00:40:49,560 --> 00:40:51,799 Speaker 1: impossible and somehow is able to make some possible, I know. 721 00:40:51,840 --> 00:40:53,719 Speaker 1: And that's I mean, that's another thing too. Like he 722 00:40:53,840 --> 00:40:56,879 Speaker 1: just like he there's a lot a lot you can 723 00:40:56,880 --> 00:41:00,320 Speaker 1: say about his personality, but some of his problems solving 724 00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:03,799 Speaker 1: skills make things seem like so it makes it look 725 00:41:03,840 --> 00:41:06,040 Speaker 1: like you turn to everybody else and be like, why 726 00:41:06,120 --> 00:41:08,759 Speaker 1: haven't you been doing this this whole time? Too? Like, 727 00:41:08,800 --> 00:41:12,200 Speaker 1: for example, is the starship the things can start faring 728 00:41:12,200 --> 00:41:15,439 Speaker 1: people the Moon and beyond. Eventually one of its things 729 00:41:15,520 --> 00:41:17,000 Speaker 1: is going to be when it comes back down to 730 00:41:17,040 --> 00:41:20,560 Speaker 1: Earth is to collect space chunk on the way or 731 00:41:20,680 --> 00:41:24,839 Speaker 1: um the Starlink satellite, SpaceX and Starling satellites, they're all 732 00:41:24,880 --> 00:41:28,760 Speaker 1: going to be able to autonomously move based on debris 733 00:41:28,800 --> 00:41:31,560 Speaker 1: tracking data here on Earth, so they'll just be able 734 00:41:31,600 --> 00:41:36,680 Speaker 1: to move themselves. Um. There's just like just basic stuff 735 00:41:36,719 --> 00:41:39,120 Speaker 1: that seems like why haven't we been doing this all along? 736 00:41:39,239 --> 00:41:42,960 Speaker 1: And I mean it's a it's a good question, you know. Uh, 737 00:41:43,120 --> 00:41:45,839 Speaker 1: it's been a while since you've fanboyd on Elon Musk. 738 00:41:45,920 --> 00:41:50,120 Speaker 1: I know, I've had some ups and down. Uh. You know, 739 00:41:50,160 --> 00:41:53,080 Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier that in seventy eight Skylab fell in 740 00:41:53,120 --> 00:41:58,560 Speaker 1: Western Australia, and uh, what we can't do as humans 741 00:41:58,600 --> 00:42:01,240 Speaker 1: to say, well, you know fell in the Australian outback. 742 00:42:01,280 --> 00:42:04,040 Speaker 1: It's very sparsely populated, so it's all good. Probably there 743 00:42:04,080 --> 00:42:07,480 Speaker 1: are people there, and there are ecosystems there, and it 744 00:42:07,640 --> 00:42:11,080 Speaker 1: is nature and the planet and it's it is a 745 00:42:11,120 --> 00:42:13,200 Speaker 1: big deal. Just because it didn't fall on New York 746 00:42:13,239 --> 00:42:16,800 Speaker 1: City or you know, downtown l A or something doesn't 747 00:42:16,840 --> 00:42:19,480 Speaker 1: mean it wasn't a problem. It was a problem. And 748 00:42:19,520 --> 00:42:23,600 Speaker 1: I think in twenty nineteen um NASA said that as 749 00:42:23,640 --> 00:42:27,400 Speaker 1: much as six of that I S S is going 750 00:42:27,440 --> 00:42:30,000 Speaker 1: to survive re entry when it eventually comes back down 751 00:42:30,080 --> 00:42:32,960 Speaker 1: to Earth. So when you have something like the I 752 00:42:33,200 --> 00:42:35,920 Speaker 1: S S whose ultimate fate is up in the air 753 00:42:36,000 --> 00:42:41,000 Speaker 1: still literally, um, you you have to plan to deorbit it. 754 00:42:41,120 --> 00:42:44,160 Speaker 1: Like you can't just leave something that big up there. Uh, 755 00:42:44,200 --> 00:42:46,680 Speaker 1: it's it would just create too much space debris. And 756 00:42:46,719 --> 00:42:50,839 Speaker 1: other space stations like the Mirror and China's Tiangong too, 757 00:42:51,200 --> 00:42:55,320 Speaker 1: I think one and two space labs both were brought down. Um, 758 00:42:55,480 --> 00:42:59,160 Speaker 1: and some of this stuff is going to survive. Like 759 00:42:59,200 --> 00:43:02,239 Speaker 1: you said, the space stations, UM, part of that is 760 00:43:02,280 --> 00:43:04,560 Speaker 1: going to survive. Some of the Mirror survived, some of 761 00:43:04,560 --> 00:43:07,400 Speaker 1: the Tiangong survived, and you don't want that that re 762 00:43:08,040 --> 00:43:12,560 Speaker 1: enactment of sky Lab. UM. So they've figured out that 763 00:43:12,640 --> 00:43:15,040 Speaker 1: if they crash land these things into like a really 764 00:43:15,080 --> 00:43:19,200 Speaker 1: remote part of the ocean, probably it will be fine. 765 00:43:19,280 --> 00:43:21,560 Speaker 1: And there's a point in the ocean in the in 766 00:43:21,600 --> 00:43:26,240 Speaker 1: the South Pacific Ocean called Point Nemo, and UH, NASA 767 00:43:26,280 --> 00:43:29,080 Speaker 1: and the other space agencies have been landing, crash landing 768 00:43:29,160 --> 00:43:33,600 Speaker 1: de orbited enormous stuff there for decades. But it wasn't 769 00:43:33,680 --> 00:43:41,440 Speaker 1: until that UH survey engineer UH named vourier uh Luca 770 00:43:41,520 --> 00:43:48,080 Speaker 1: Tala nice, thank you is Croatian. I believe UM use 771 00:43:48,160 --> 00:43:53,480 Speaker 1: this brand new software and triangulated the furthest spot from 772 00:43:53,600 --> 00:43:58,720 Speaker 1: land in the world. And he said, it's basically Point Nemo, 773 00:43:58,920 --> 00:44:01,720 Speaker 1: this area that this ace agencies have been using already 774 00:44:01,719 --> 00:44:05,600 Speaker 1: for decades. They had it basically right on the money. Yeah, So, 775 00:44:05,680 --> 00:44:08,919 Speaker 1: I mean it's four miles away from the nearest land mass. 776 00:44:08,920 --> 00:44:12,719 Speaker 1: It's supposedly the one point on Earth further away from 777 00:44:12,760 --> 00:44:16,719 Speaker 1: any other piece of land. And UH a little fun 778 00:44:16,800 --> 00:44:21,080 Speaker 1: tidbit about those that exact degree of longitude and latitude 779 00:44:21,160 --> 00:44:25,319 Speaker 1: is that HP Lovecraft wrote about the Old Ones where 780 00:44:25,320 --> 00:44:29,279 Speaker 1: the Old Ones live and actually gave coordinates. UM. That 781 00:44:29,320 --> 00:44:35,600 Speaker 1: we're really really close to these actual calculated coordinates. UM. 782 00:44:35,640 --> 00:44:37,759 Speaker 1: It's kind of great to think about that. But I 783 00:44:37,800 --> 00:44:40,439 Speaker 1: also think if you, if you had a good enough 784 00:44:40,600 --> 00:44:44,560 Speaker 1: flat map of the Earth, you could probably stand back 785 00:44:44,600 --> 00:44:47,800 Speaker 1: in eyeball what looks like it's furthest away from anything, 786 00:44:47,840 --> 00:44:50,000 Speaker 1: and you're probably close to Point Nemo, because that's what 787 00:44:50,120 --> 00:44:52,759 Speaker 1: NASA did. Yeah, that's basically what they did. And so 788 00:44:52,800 --> 00:44:54,680 Speaker 1: this area Point Nemo, I mean, the fact that it's 789 00:44:54,719 --> 00:44:57,080 Speaker 1: called Point Nemo makes you think, like, man, they've been 790 00:44:57,080 --> 00:45:02,120 Speaker 1: crash landing spacecraft in space Station and there for decades. 791 00:45:02,200 --> 00:45:04,560 Speaker 1: This must just be like the most amazing place to 792 00:45:04,600 --> 00:45:08,000 Speaker 1: go tour in like a sub. But the thing is, 793 00:45:08,320 --> 00:45:11,240 Speaker 1: when you crash land something like space Station, the debris 794 00:45:11,280 --> 00:45:14,440 Speaker 1: field that creates is coming into the ocean could be 795 00:45:14,800 --> 00:45:18,920 Speaker 1: almost a thousand miles long UM. And it's not like 796 00:45:19,000 --> 00:45:22,480 Speaker 1: they hit the target every single time, So it's actually 797 00:45:22,520 --> 00:45:27,600 Speaker 1: like a really huge, enormous tens of thousands, if not 798 00:45:27,760 --> 00:45:32,520 Speaker 1: millions of square miles wide UM. Area. That's what Point 799 00:45:32,560 --> 00:45:36,200 Speaker 1: Nemo is. It's kind of a misnomer, actually, yeah, because 800 00:45:36,200 --> 00:45:38,800 Speaker 1: I think people like, when is it going to start poking. 801 00:45:38,800 --> 00:45:42,279 Speaker 1: It's a little head above the ocean surface, like a 802 00:45:42,280 --> 00:45:46,200 Speaker 1: big stack of junk under there. Pretty cool though, it 803 00:45:46,360 --> 00:45:48,040 Speaker 1: is very cool. And also if you're like, well, what 804 00:45:48,080 --> 00:45:50,400 Speaker 1: about the fish, do not worry. It turns out the 805 00:45:50,400 --> 00:45:53,760 Speaker 1: Point Nemo is one of the least bio diverse parts 806 00:45:53,760 --> 00:45:58,399 Speaker 1: of the ocean around. And get this, Chuck, you want 807 00:45:58,400 --> 00:46:01,360 Speaker 1: a little cherry on top of our sunday here, I 808 00:46:01,400 --> 00:46:05,520 Speaker 1: would love that. I always love the cherry. Invisible has 809 00:46:05,600 --> 00:46:10,160 Speaker 1: not done an episode on Point Nemo. In your face, 810 00:46:10,880 --> 00:46:16,200 Speaker 1: Mr Mars, that's awesome. There's a recent episode that they 811 00:46:16,239 --> 00:46:20,640 Speaker 1: did on the movie theater Megaplex History. That's really great, 812 00:46:21,080 --> 00:46:25,759 Speaker 1: of course. I mean it's invisible. Yeah, you got anything else? 813 00:46:26,280 --> 00:46:28,480 Speaker 1: I got nothing else? All right? Well, if you want 814 00:46:28,480 --> 00:46:30,920 Speaker 1: to know more about space junk, to start reading about it. 815 00:46:30,960 --> 00:46:33,560 Speaker 1: There's a lot of really great articles out there. Uh. 816 00:46:33,600 --> 00:46:35,839 Speaker 1: And since I said that, it's time for listener mail, 817 00:46:38,840 --> 00:46:41,600 Speaker 1: I'm gonna call this what the writer called it. My 818 00:46:41,680 --> 00:46:44,800 Speaker 1: husband is jealous of Josh and Chuck. I hope you 819 00:46:44,840 --> 00:46:46,279 Speaker 1: guys are both well. I wanted to share with you 820 00:46:46,320 --> 00:46:49,800 Speaker 1: the Stuff you Should Know is having in unpleasant effect 821 00:46:49,800 --> 00:46:52,759 Speaker 1: on my marriage. You see, my husband works nights, and 822 00:46:52,800 --> 00:46:55,120 Speaker 1: while I'm a strong independent person who could hold my 823 00:46:55,160 --> 00:46:57,520 Speaker 1: own I still like to have a little background noise 824 00:46:57,560 --> 00:47:00,000 Speaker 1: to soothe me to sleep. Most nights, that means falling 825 00:47:00,000 --> 00:47:03,239 Speaker 1: asleep to the dulcet tones of maybe how the Black 826 00:47:03,239 --> 00:47:07,840 Speaker 1: Panther Party worked, or or a gami uh colin folding goodness. 827 00:47:08,520 --> 00:47:11,759 Speaker 1: Every morning, when my husband gets home, he begrudgingly acknowledges 828 00:47:11,800 --> 00:47:15,040 Speaker 1: the other men in the room and pauses my app However, 829 00:47:15,520 --> 00:47:17,560 Speaker 1: we hit a breaking point recently when he returned to 830 00:47:17,560 --> 00:47:20,279 Speaker 1: find the Stuff You Should Know in complete compendium of 831 00:47:20,360 --> 00:47:24,440 Speaker 1: mostly interesting things book open on his pillow with me 832 00:47:24,520 --> 00:47:28,840 Speaker 1: snuggled against it comfortably. Enraged, he tossed it on the 833 00:47:28,880 --> 00:47:32,600 Speaker 1: floor and we exchanged words. So yeah, you could say 834 00:47:32,640 --> 00:47:35,399 Speaker 1: my husband is super jelly of Josh and Chuck. All 835 00:47:35,400 --> 00:47:37,240 Speaker 1: that to say, here's a big thank you for keeping 836 00:47:37,239 --> 00:47:40,040 Speaker 1: me company and helping me, helping this gal sleep tight 837 00:47:40,080 --> 00:47:44,359 Speaker 1: every night. Lots of love to my main squeezes ray 838 00:47:44,560 --> 00:47:49,520 Speaker 1: she hers from Phoenix, All right, ray um. Hopefully that 839 00:47:49,600 --> 00:47:53,279 Speaker 1: was mostly tongue in cheek. I think so, I hope so. 840 00:47:53,800 --> 00:47:56,360 Speaker 1: I don't want to be a problem in anybody's marriage, 841 00:47:56,360 --> 00:48:01,000 Speaker 1: you know, No, just our own, right. Um, Thanks a lot, Ray, 842 00:48:01,120 --> 00:48:04,520 Speaker 1: and sleep tight as always. Hopefully you guys can work 843 00:48:04,520 --> 00:48:07,080 Speaker 1: it out. Maybe just get him to read the Stuff 844 00:48:07,080 --> 00:48:08,680 Speaker 1: you Should Know a book and he'll be like, no, 845 00:48:08,920 --> 00:48:11,160 Speaker 1: I want the book tonight, And that's what your problem. 846 00:48:11,840 --> 00:48:15,120 Speaker 1: That's the easiest thing is to convert him exactly. Uh. 847 00:48:15,120 --> 00:48:17,160 Speaker 1: And we have ways. You can sign up for our 848 00:48:17,800 --> 00:48:22,319 Speaker 1: brainwashing newsletter if you want some tips, that's right. Well, 849 00:48:22,320 --> 00:48:23,520 Speaker 1: if you want to get in touch with us like 850 00:48:23,640 --> 00:48:26,400 Speaker 1: Ray did, or sign up for our brainwashing newsletter, you 851 00:48:26,440 --> 00:48:28,800 Speaker 1: can send us an email send it off to stuff 852 00:48:28,920 --> 00:48:35,360 Speaker 1: podcast at iHeart radio dot com. Stuff you Should Know 853 00:48:35,480 --> 00:48:38,280 Speaker 1: is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts 854 00:48:38,360 --> 00:48:41,719 Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 855 00:48:41,840 --> 00:48:43,680 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.