WEBVTT - All Hands on Planetary Defense! 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.200 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.360 --> 0:00:15.800 Forward Thinking. Hey there, everybody, and welcomed you. Forward Thinking, 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:18.680 the podcast that looks at the future and says, how 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:21.280 can you just leave me standing alone in the world 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:26.280 that's so cold? I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Joe McCormick. 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:29.040 In today, we're going to be peering up into the 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:36.279 skies with horror, trepidations, with anxiety. Why would we do that? Well, Uh, 0:00:36.479 --> 0:00:40.400 we decided to revisit a topic we've talked about previously. 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:44.280 So back in August, we released an episode titled It's 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:47.879 Coming Right for Us, and that was about the dangers 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:52.480 of space objects colliding with Earth, like asteroids and meteors 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:55.520 and comets and that kind of stuff. And so we 0:00:55.640 --> 0:01:02.280 large pianos, very large ip really just the majority of 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:06.880 items that you can find in the ACME catalog. Wiley 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:10.120 coyote would get um. But we explored the potential options 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:13.600 of what we might do to deal with an oncoming 0:01:14.240 --> 0:01:19.000 space object. We were specifically looking into things like the 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:23.880 scenarios of deep impact and armageddon. Would that the answers 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:27.720 there makes sense, and specifically with armageddon, the answer is heck, no, 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:30.560 don't blow it up. It makes it worse. Do you 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:33.280 was Do you remember? Was this the episode where I 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:37.000 talked about the old movie The Day the Sky Exploded? 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:39.720 It may very well have been. I honestly did not 0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:43.120 go back and listen to the episodes. So, uh so 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:46.880 I want to say, yes, listeners can let us know 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:49.600 if we're wrong. But we wanted to talk a little 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:52.960 bit more about this today because I recently actually looked 0:01:53.040 --> 0:01:58.840 into an organization that is dedicated to discovering and ultimately 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:03.080 deflect doing space objects that are on a collision course 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:06.520 with Earth. I had not heard of them before, which 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:08.920 is odd. Or if I had, I don't remember it, 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:11.960 which is odd. You've heard of everything, well, I mean, 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:15.080 which is odd because we specifically researched this topic, and 0:02:15.200 --> 0:02:18.239 our research tends to be fairly exhaustive. Sure, it was 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:19.920 also a couple of years ago, though, and you know, 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:21.880 maybe maybe they hadn't had something big come out in 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:23.840 a couple of years or something like that. But yes, 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:29.040 so part of our Hey, scary stuff could fall on us, right, 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:32.320 So to refresh you about why is it scary that 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:36.640 stuff could fall on us? Uh? Collisions happen, right, big 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:40.280 stuff from space has collided with Earth in the past. 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:42.480 And it doesn't even have to be really big stuff. 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:44.840 It can be relatively small stuff, right, because it could 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:51.160 be moving wicked fast. This is a result of relativity. Yeah, well, 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:53.760 it's basic physics, even if we don't even have to 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:57.480 get into full relativity to understand that. Uh, that forces 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:00.840 mass times acceleration. Right, So if you're if you're moving 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:04.000 at a really high velocity, which is not acceleration obviously, 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:05.560 but if you're moving in a really high velocity and 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:07.040 you have a decent amount of mass, you're going to 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:10.280 you're going to give a lot of force when you 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:13.400 hit something. I guess that's correct. It's just regular physics. 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:16.600 I was thinking about the proposed space weapons that would 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:20.600 have just small, regular mass objects moving at relativistic speeds 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:24.200 to create like nuclear explosion, right impacts. Yeah, just to 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:27.480 shoot a peanut real hard and yeah at times. Yeah, 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:29.360 that's that's kind of like what we were talking about 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:33.040 just a second ago, but on steroids. So let's talk 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:35.040 about some of the collisions. There was one that happened 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:37.960 around sixty five point five million years ago, sixty six 0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:40.840 million years ago, who's counting really. Uh, that created a 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:46.280 pretty big crater on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mako, and 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:50.000 that's believed to be a major contributor to the mass 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:52.360 extinction that killed off the dinosaurs. Yeah, you'll often hear 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:55.680 about the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs, and uh, the 0:03:56.360 --> 0:04:00.240 space object that collided there with the Earth whatever was 0:04:00.640 --> 0:04:04.600 probably does seem to have been a major factor contributing 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:07.040 to the mass extinction of that time period, but it 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:09.600 probably wasn't the only one either, Right. That's why I 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:12.720 say contributing factor as opposed to this killed the dinosaurs, 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:14.960 because as it turns out, there were a lot of 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:18.840 different things that play that said, the cards were stacked 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:22.120 against the dinosaurs. I think the last time I read 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:24.640 about this issue, there was the belief that there was 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:31.160 a lot of volcanism and volcanism volcanic volcanic activity, climate 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:34.039 change around the same time. Sure, but you know, a 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:38.200 multi megaton event doesn't really help. By megaton, I mean 0:04:38.240 --> 0:04:41.000 mega tons of energy, right, Yeah, Yeah, that's that's that's 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:44.560 not an assistant. Yeah, that didn't That didn't alleviate the 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:49.800 volcanic activity. So to bring it up to a more 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:53.440 modern era, you know, let's let's let's skip ahead. You know, 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:56.719 sixty five and a half million years or so. Who's yeah, 0:04:56.720 --> 0:04:59.359 who's counting up to nineteen o eight. That's when we 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:03.480 had an event happened that we can actually look at 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:08.680 as an example of a relatively small space object colliding 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:12.120 with Earth. I'm talking about the Tunguska event. Now, unless 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:14.880 you're one of the people who believes this was actually 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:18.800 Nicola Tesla testing a secret super weapon, it wasn't. The 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:22.080 Tunguska event was a was a space rock. It was 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:25.440 a bowl eyed event from space that was not actually 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:28.840 that big. No, it measured around a hundred twenty feet 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:33.080 wide or thirty six point six meters, although there I've 0:05:33.120 --> 0:05:36.040 read other measurements that had it as big as forty 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:39.200 five ms, which you know, that's that's significant, but it's 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:43.039 still still not huge compared to the Earth, right, the 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:46.480 Earth is enormous. Something that's just just you know, thirty 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:50.479 six or thirty seven ms wide, that's nothing. Ten difference 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:52.600 of ten ms would make a really big difference when 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:55.760 you consider how fast this thing was going super fast, 0:05:55.800 --> 0:06:01.680 and it hit Uh in Siberia. Uh Uh a relatively 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:04.719 remote patch where there weren't any people living in that 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:07.040 immediate area, which is good because if they had been, 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:11.200 they wouldn't be for much longer. Uh. The the blast 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:15.559 stripped the trees of all of their limbs and bark 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:19.320 at ground zero, So the trees remain standing directly above 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:24.360 where the space rock essentially broke apart when it blasted over. 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:28.360 That's why I meant sorry, directly below. I have problems 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:32.120 with prepositions because because they believe it exploded in the atmosphere, yes, 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:34.919 exactly right, they believe it explodes in the atmosphere above 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:39.480 this region. So the trees directly below the explosion turned 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:43.119 into turned into toothpicks. The trees around them. Actually that 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:45.280 that's not fair. That makes it sound like they splintered 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:48.600 into toothpicks. They were stripped, they were the trees around 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:51.400 them were all flattened. They all laid down in a 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:55.320 radial pattern. So actually it's like they all fell backwards 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:59.279 in a circle, stretching out quite a bit. And like 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:04.240 like eighty million trees, million trees over eight hundred square 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:09.080 miles or seven square kilometers. It's that's an enormous amount 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:13.760 of space for something that again was relatively small, and 0:07:13.800 --> 0:07:17.200 there were some historical accounts from people who were somewhat 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:20.080 nearby at the time. Oh yeah, there was a story 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:22.720 about a guy who was essentially out on his front 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:25.840 porch when this thing happened and the blast when it 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:29.920 moved through. Uh. He reported that he felt a sensation 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:37.000 as if all of his skin had caught on fire. Yeah, 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:40.040 he was not, He was not. He was not relatively close. 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:44.640 He was pretty far away. Um. And so we were 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:47.280 lucky that it happened in such a remote area. There 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:50.920 were no known deaths as a result of this that 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:53.240 that have ever been reported from what I can tell, 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:55.880 So we were lucky. If it had happened over a 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:59.440 populated area, that story would obviously be very different. And 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:04.040 clearly a larger or more massive i should say, space 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:08.520 object would cause even more devastation should collide with Earth. 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:11.080 And there here's the thing. There are a lot of 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:13.400 them out there in the Solar system, right. There are 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:15.960 a lot of of of space objects that are the 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:21.120 size of the Tunguska Rock or bigger. And that was 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:22.920 the big concern. That was the thing we were talking 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:25.920 about in our previous episode, is that we need to 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:29.640 be able to find them, to track them, and if 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:34.240 necessary to somehow stop them from colliding with Earth, whether 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:37.280 that be a method of destroying them, which I think 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:41.360 we all agreed eventually probably is the least likely approach 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:47.160 because you're more likely to create a shotgun up. Blowing 0:08:47.160 --> 0:08:50.679 it up is probably not a good option, But usually 0:08:50.840 --> 0:08:52.640 it's how do you move it out of the way. 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:56.120 The smarter option is to deflect its trajectory right that 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:58.880 way you're you're pretty sure it's not going to hit you, 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:03.400 and and also you know, the further out you can 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:06.400 do it, the less you have to move the space 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:09.199 object right. So if the space object is if you're 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:12.040 detected that this thing is going to collide with the Earth, 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:14.160 but it won't be for another forty years, and you 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:18.040 can start your plan right now. You can go ahead 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:20.240 and launch a spacecraft to get there in a certain 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:22.760 amount of time and deflect it in some manner. And 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:24.800 we talked about a lot of those in the last episode. 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:28.280 We'll we'll concentrate on a specific approach the gravity tractor 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:31.160 in this one um and you don't have to pull 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:33.280 it very far, so you don't have to use as 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:36.200 much energy in the actual towing event. It still takes 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:38.720 a lot of energy to get there, but you don't 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:40.760 have to do as much when you're actually towing the 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:43.040 object out of the way. You just have to get 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:46.240 it off by like a degree and you're good. So 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:52.320 now it's time to talk about the Little Prince. And 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:54.680 this is why I chose that particular lyric for the 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:59.720 because he's the littlest Prince. Um, so we're the little 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:03.040 Prince is uh, have you read The Little Prince Joe? 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:09.880 Actually you haven't. Have you read Oh my gosh, guys beautiful. 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:12.480 You have to go and you have to read it 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:16.160 and then you have to cry. That kinda is part 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:19.079 of the deal. Um. That's a very sad, sweet story. 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:22.560 And generally speaking, I'm gonna just give a big overview. 0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:24.560 This story is told from the point of view of 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:27.800 a pilot who has crashed in the Sahara Desert and 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:31.040 he comes across a little boy who says that he's 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:34.080 from an asteroid. He lives on an asteroid, and he's 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:38.920 had these various adventures going to different uh asteroids within 0:10:38.960 --> 0:10:43.880 the Solar System and encountering different people before coming to Earth. 0:10:44.400 --> 0:10:48.520 And and through his adventures you you learn about very 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:53.280 common follies and flaws, things like being so self absorbed 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:56.720 that you never notice anything outside of yourself. Essentially, it 0:10:56.760 --> 0:10:59.679 was a kind of commentary on the sort of traps 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:03.200 a fall into, but children tend to be free of 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:06.360 because they have their childhood innocence. And it's almost like 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:09.280 a warning tale in many ways. Um In fact, I 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:12.280 would argue it's as relevant for adults as it is 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:17.560 for kids. So the pilot kind of guesses that the 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:21.599 Little Prince's asteroid is one that has specifically been identified 0:11:22.080 --> 0:11:26.600 and has been named B six one two. Now, the 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:28.760 reason why I give you that whole lead up is 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:32.680 that now there is a private nonprofit organization called the 0:11:32.840 --> 0:11:36.600 B six one to Foundation, and it is dedicated to 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:40.720 creating a real solution for possible Earth collisions with space 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:44.480 rocks or or space objects, comets, asteroids, that kind of thing. 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:47.280 And and here the thing that they're warning against is 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:50.360 giant things slamming into Earth at incredible speed. Yeah, and 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:53.640 they're specifically saying, you know, we can't ignore this. We 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:56.920 can't fall into the trap that the adults fall in 0:11:56.920 --> 0:11:59.720 in the novella The Little Prince. We cannot be those 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:03.880 But we have to open our eyes because otherwise, by 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:06.319 the time we realize there's a problem, it'll be too 0:12:06.360 --> 0:12:08.480 late to do anything about it. So we've got to 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:13.520 be proactive. And they they hope to avoid catastrophe by 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:16.960 adopting new ways to detect and deflect space objects on 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:22.120 collision trajectory. And they got started back in two thousand two. 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:25.680 Now that was a year after NASA had held its 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:29.560 first workshop at the NASA Johnson Space Center dedicated to 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:33.520 the concept of asteroid deflection. So two thousand one, NASA says, 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:35.960 you know, we really have to talk about this. And 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:40.480 a year later, UH, former astronauts, some astrophysicists, and some 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:44.400 other people all got together and created this organization B 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:49.200 six one two Foundation, And they get their money for 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:54.160 their projects through philanthropy. It's nonprofits, so they depend upon donations. 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:58.760 They actually say one of the most important UH things 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:02.200 that they're doing is they're set up a new means 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:08.160 of funding space work like that they're doing this through philanthropy, 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:12.360 that they're doing this through UH privatized space to to 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:17.240 use the the rockets from companies like SpaceX. They said, 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:20.360 you know, we're doing something that that hasn't been done before, 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:24.280 UH in the space industry, and we're setting a precedent, 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:26.920 and that could be just as important in several ways 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:30.559 to the work that we're planning on doing with detecting 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:36.080 and perhaps deflecting space rocks. So in two thousand and five, 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:40.320 the Foundation published a paper about creating a gravity tractor, 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:42.480 and we talked about this a bit in our previous episode. 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:45.280 So let's give a quick overview. Okay, I think this 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:48.160 is one of the most interesting proposals on on how 0:13:48.240 --> 0:13:51.360 to deflect body and coming for Earth, and and it 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:54.720 relies on the fact that this is something people often 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:58.320 forget about. All objects with mass exert a pull on 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:01.559 one another. So it's not us that the Earth pulls 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:04.800 you toward it. You also pull the Earth toward you, 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:07.640 just not by enough to matter. Yeah, not not by 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:10.719 very much. And gravity is a relatively weak force. Yes, 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:14.160 it's the weakest of the the four forces. That's why 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:16.199 we tend to look at things like astrophysics when we 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:19.120 want to talk about it. But but, but this actually 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:21.760 comes through in astrophysics and astronomy a lot. Like one 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:25.760 of the ways we can look for stars very far 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:29.760 away that have planets orbiting around them is to look 0:14:29.880 --> 0:14:33.240 and see if the planets orbiting the stars are actually 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:36.600 making the stars wobble a little bit, because as much 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:39.320 as the stars pull on the planets, the planets also 0:14:39.400 --> 0:14:42.120 pull on the star just a little bit. Yeah. So 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:45.120 here on Earth, obviously we don't notice that we happen 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:49.400 to be exerting this gravitational pull on the objects around us. 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:54.920 The Earth's gravity pretty much, uh, it drowns all that out, right, So, uh, 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:57.520 for instance, on the table that's in front of us 0:14:57.520 --> 0:14:59.400 here in the studio, we have a little box of 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:02.680 tiss shoes. I don't feel a pull toward that box 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:04.960 of tissues. That tissue, that box of tissues, if it 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:08.480 could feel, would not feel a pull towards me. The 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:11.640 Earth has pretty much got that downpad. But in space, 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:15.600 you can have two bodies to two bodies of mass 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:18.680 having this gravitational effect on one another. And of course 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:22.640 distance is important, right. The greater the distance, the less 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:24.840 effect they will have on each other. So you want 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:27.160 to have things to be close to one another in 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:30.200 order to affect them through gravity. Yeah, Jupiter has a 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:33.680 stronger gravitational pull than Earth does. But we're attracted to Earth, 0:15:33.720 --> 0:15:38.840 not Jupiter because it's closer. Yeah. So if uh so, 0:15:39.360 --> 0:15:41.880 when you think about this. You think gravity tractor, it 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:44.960 makes sense. You you create some form of spacecraft that 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:47.680 has a great deal of mass to it, or it 0:15:47.760 --> 0:15:51.360 can get mass in some creative way once it's out 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:54.720 in space, because obviously the more mass something has, the 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:57.160 more effort we must make to get it out into 0:15:57.200 --> 0:15:59.160 space in the first place. Share, But we launched like 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:00.920 a like a cottam r a ball and just let 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:03.680 it roll up a few things into its life, then 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:06.000 yes it can. Yeah. Or if it were to steal 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:09.520 part of the incoming object, yes, yeah, which NASA has 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:11.520 a plan about that and I'll talk about that towards 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:14.280 the end. Or maybe we just launch an enormous magnet 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:16.320 and just hope it grabs some of that space junk 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:21.040 that's orbiting Earth right now, or maybe someone else's communication satellites, 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:25.000 not ours, but maybe someone else's now. But seriously, seriously 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:27.600 to have enough mass so that you move the gravity 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:32.160 tractor close to the near Earth object or INDEO, and 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:34.360 then uh, I guess the idea is that the gravity 0:16:34.400 --> 0:16:38.440 tractor goes into orbit around this object. Yeah, and then 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:42.640 that the gravity that it exerts, the gravitational pull it 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:46.240 exerts on this object is enough to move it out 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:48.880 of that trajectory that it was in and thus move 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:51.680 it into a safe zone where it will not end 0:16:51.760 --> 0:16:53.960 up colliding with Earth. So it's kind of like if 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:56.200 somebody shot a bullet at you, and you could go 0:16:56.240 --> 0:16:59.120 into bullet time, like in the matrix, and shoot out 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:02.600 a little mag knit to follow the bullet along and 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:05.639 just throw it off course so that eventually misses you 0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:07.919 by the time it gets to where you are. Yeah, 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:11.480 and again, the further away the shooter is from you, 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:13.719 the less you need to move that bullet for that 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:17.200 to happen. Right, Um, same thing here, Like the further 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:21.360 away the the object is, the less you need to do, 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:23.480 the less work you need to do in order to 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:27.760 to get it into a safe trajectory. Uh. And it's 0:17:27.920 --> 0:17:30.240 it's a pretty clever idea. It's not something that we've 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:34.720 really put into practice, but it's something that that there's 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:37.120 no reason why it shouldn't work. I mean, obviously you'd 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:39.200 have to come up with a clever way to make 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:42.200 sure that anything you used to move the space rock 0:17:42.560 --> 0:17:46.040 didn't have another force pushing against it. So, for example, 0:17:46.400 --> 0:17:51.360 you wouldn't want to have thrusters on this spacecraft shooting 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:53.600 in the same direction that the the rock is in, 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:57.960 because then you have not just the gravitational force acting 0:17:58.040 --> 0:18:00.240 upon the two objects, but you have the thrust sting 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:03.760 force that could act upon the space rock, and then 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:08.159 you're not gonna get the effect that you wanted. Uh. 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:10.920 I've seen some interesting things where people actually talked about 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:15.359 using spacecraft using solar sales, and so they would actually 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:18.719 use a solar sale to help pull the spacecraft along 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:24.000 and tow behind it the space rock. Oh yeah, that's 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:26.680 sort of similar to one idea I remember reading about 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:28.000 in the past. I don't know if it's still on 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:30.000 the table, but it would be to essentially put a 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:34.199 large reflective surface on the sunword facing side of a 0:18:34.359 --> 0:18:37.439 moving object that would allow the solar wind, over a 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:40.680 long period of time to blow it off course. Yeah. Yeah, 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:44.640 there are a couple of other proposals that are similar 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:48.080 to that in various ways. Right. So, anyway, the gravity 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:52.119 tractor is an important part of the strategy that B 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:55.080 six one two has come up with, But just as important, 0:18:55.160 --> 0:18:58.320 or perhaps even you could argue more important, is coming 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:02.720 up with a way to identify and track more of 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:07.560 these large rocks and other types of space objects that 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:10.639 are in the Inner Solar System because we are working 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:14.600 on it, but we're not very far along. Yeah. So, 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:17.479 according to Ed lu who is a former astronaut and 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:19.840 he's the CEO of B six one two, there are 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:23.880 around half a million asteroids in the Inner Solar System 0:19:23.880 --> 0:19:27.200 that are larger than the space rock that hit Tunguska. 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:30.600 And we've identified a map about one per cent of 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:34.560 all of them. Well good, yeah, Well that's that's sure. 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:37.200 That means we need to do like a whole lot 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:40.320 of homework to get that other. So that's where that's 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:45.600 what brings us to their Sentinel project H. On June twelve, 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:48.879 the Foundation announced it would fund the development, construction, and 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:54.439 deployment of a new infrared space telescope called Sentinel, and 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:57.040 Sentinel will actually orbit the Sun. It won't orbit Earth. 0:19:57.400 --> 0:19:59.200 It will be put in its own orbit around the 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:03.199 Sun pretty much in the same orbital path as Venus. 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:08.200 So they're gonna shoot it out into space once it's done, uh, 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:10.960 and it will get a little gravity assist slingshot from 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:13.760 Venus to put it into its final orbit around the Sun, 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:17.200 and then it will position itself so that it's rear 0:20:17.359 --> 0:20:21.760 end is always facing the sun, and that its telescope 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:26.480 side is always facing out. It's not blinded by the sun, 0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:29.000 not blinded by not blinded by the light, wrapped up 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:32.840 like a deuce, another runner in the night. So yes, exactly, 0:20:32.880 --> 0:20:36.360 So it's pointing out into space, and the idea being 0:20:36.400 --> 0:20:38.800 that it could actually map out the entire night sky 0:20:39.080 --> 0:20:42.479 in this way uh multiple times, because you need to 0:20:42.880 --> 0:20:46.199 do it just to identify what stuff out there are 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:48.040 space rocks, but you also need to do it multiple 0:20:48.080 --> 0:20:50.160 times in order to figure out where are those going, 0:20:50.200 --> 0:20:52.920 what are their trajectories, where are they moving in comparison 0:20:52.960 --> 0:20:56.000 to everything else. So what is the idea about why 0:20:56.040 --> 0:20:58.960 will this be better at looking for small near Earth 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:03.000 objects than whatever kind of telescopes we currently have looking 0:21:03.000 --> 0:21:06.920 for them. Well, we don't have the problem of atmospheric 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:12.760 UH distortion. Obviously, when you have a telescope orbiting the Earth, 0:21:13.040 --> 0:21:15.920 there are going to be times where it cannot look 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:18.879 out outward into the inner Solar system. It's going to 0:21:18.920 --> 0:21:21.560 be looking towards the center of the Solar system, which 0:21:21.560 --> 0:21:23.560 means there's going to be downtime, right Like, there will 0:21:23.600 --> 0:21:25.840 be times that you would not be able to effectively 0:21:25.880 --> 0:21:28.520 get information either because the Earth is in the way, 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:30.159 the Moon is in the way, or the Sun is 0:21:30.200 --> 0:21:33.160 in the way. Having it on this other orbital path 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:37.199 further into the Solar system gives the telescope kind of 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:39.520 a wide angle view of what's going on in our 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:43.800 solar system, and it can detect teeny tiny objects within 0:21:43.840 --> 0:21:47.760 its field, like a single pixel might represent a space object. 0:21:48.400 --> 0:21:52.560 But because it's using this infrared telescope technology, it has 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:54.959 to do is pick up that reflection to figure out, 0:21:55.200 --> 0:21:59.479 well that's one UM. So they're actually partnering this. This 0:21:59.560 --> 0:22:01.520 is really happening. This isn't just a plan, this is 0:22:01.520 --> 0:22:06.119 actually going forward. There's a company Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colorado. 0:22:06.160 --> 0:22:09.000 They're designing and building the actual telescope, and they're using 0:22:09.000 --> 0:22:10.840 the same team of experts that worked on stuff like 0:22:10.840 --> 0:22:14.800 the Kepler space telescope. So the projected date of completion 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:20.760 is sometime around or eighteen, and they expect to use 0:22:20.920 --> 0:22:25.080 a space X Falcon nine rocket to launch the telescope 0:22:25.080 --> 0:22:28.439 into space, so again relying on private space industry to 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:33.800 get there. Um Now, every twenty six days, the sentinel 0:22:33.800 --> 0:22:36.240 will complete four pairs of observations of the night sky, 0:22:36.400 --> 0:22:39.200 and by kind of making a flipbook almost of these 0:22:39.240 --> 0:22:43.080 different pictures, researchers can see where these objects, you know, 0:22:43.080 --> 0:22:45.720 what are their trajectories, what are their orbits? Are there 0:22:45.760 --> 0:22:49.919 any that could potentially become into a collision course with Earth? 0:22:50.640 --> 0:22:54.720 And according to the folks over at the Foundation, they'll 0:22:54.760 --> 0:22:58.919 be able to project pathways as far out as a 0:22:59.000 --> 0:23:03.040 hundred years. So that's that's great because if you can 0:23:03.359 --> 0:23:06.159 really again I mean, we keep stressing it. If you 0:23:06.359 --> 0:23:09.720 detected early, it gives you way more options on how 0:23:09.760 --> 0:23:11.600 you deal with it and you don't have to use 0:23:11.640 --> 0:23:14.960