WEBVTT - Strange Stuff We Sent To Space 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:12.319 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. He there, 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:15.680 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.720 --> 0:00:19.360 I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio. And how the tech 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:24.160 are you? You know, if you spend enough time with 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:29.760 a young kid, like you know, four or five, then 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:32.960 you're likely to get pulled into a conversation at which 0:00:32.960 --> 0:00:36.199 the kid starts asking about how the world works and 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:40.520 then just keeps ongoing and every answer you provide leads 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:44.720 to more questions. This can actually be funny, It can 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:48.960 end up being confusing, It could be frustrating. Sometimes it 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:52.280 can get intimidating once you start to reach the limits 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:56.640 of your own knowledge and understanding. You've got this inquisitive 0:00:56.720 --> 0:00:59.840 child trying to make sense of the world around that 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:05.360 they're looking to you as the authority on all things everywhere, 0:01:05.880 --> 0:01:08.520 and you are perilously close to admitting that you don't 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:10.399 actually know how it all works. And we're all just 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:13.280 really doing the best we can, and we're making up 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:15.600 a lot of this stuff as we go along the way. 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:20.199 Maybe I'm projecting here, but my point is that kids 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:24.440 have this deep desire to know how stuff works and 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:28.959 why things are the way they are, and this same 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:33.680 spirit underlies the core of science. You know, we use 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:38.120 this process and we use documentation, and we use hypotheses 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:41.400 and tests to get a better handle on what's going 0:01:41.440 --> 0:01:43.360 on and why. But at the heart of it all 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:48.600 are these questions. And sometimes the answers we find open 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:52.279 up a whole new array of questions, and that gets 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:58.480 exciting and sometimes a little exhausting and sometimes scary. Now 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:02.800 that is a why old preamble to this very very 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:07.120 goofy episode, because we're going to talk about some of 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:12.760 the strangest stuff we've sent. Keep in mind, sending stuff 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:17.520 into space is wicked expensive. Every pound of payload you 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:20.320 add requires a certain amount of fuel, and that fuel 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:24.640 is costly, Like it is a non trivial thing to 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:28.520 add to a payload that's going to be sent into 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:33.280 outer space. Privatized space industry has changed this a little bit, 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:38.040 but it's still wicked expensive, which makes it even more 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:42.440 interesting when you have some very weird stuff having been 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:47.200 sent up there. Now, some of this stuff could sound arbitrary, 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:51.720 or it's you know, a goof or it was some 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:57.200 form of promotion or maybe a symbolic gesture, and those 0:02:57.240 --> 0:03:00.200 are often fair assessments. There will be cases, as we 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:03.920 talk about in this episode, where undeniably it was not 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:08.600 for some noble cause. However, we also have had some 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:11.920 weird stuff we've sent up that you know, once you 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:15.239 get it out into space, you realize it behaves differently. 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:18.120 And that was the point that we sent the stuff 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:22.160 up in order to see how it's affected, to understand 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:28.440 why it's different, how this could be useful in the future. Now, 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:31.280 as I said, not everything we're going to cover today 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:34.080 is useful. A lot of it's not. But as Little 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:37.640 Red Riding Hood once said, I know things now, many 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:42.400 valuable things that I hadn't known before. And some of 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:44.760 these things include the links to which companies or rich 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:48.720 people will go in order to promote stuff or get 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:53.720 a big pr splash sometimes to the moon is being literal, y'all. 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:59.520 So in no particular order, I'm not going chronologically or 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:05.080 in order of craziness. I guess here are some of 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:07.680 the weird things that have made the journey up to 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:11.000 space for one reason or another. Some of these things 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:13.840 returned to Earth, some of them were left up there. 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:15.880 And we're going to start off with one of the 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:20.400 strangest critters on the planet the tartar grade. Now tartar 0:04:20.440 --> 0:04:24.560 grades are tiny. They measure less than a millimeter in length. 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:27.159 Typically you're going to be using a microscope to really 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:31.880 observe these little critters. Now magnified. They kind of look 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:36.000 like puffy, eight legged creatures that you would expect to 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:38.360 see on an episode of Doctor Who. They have a 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:41.320 mouth that looks kind of like a vacuum cleaner attachment. 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:45.880 They're sort of cute. I think it just depends upon 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:49.159 what you think of as cute. I think they look 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:52.480 kind of cute, but other people might think they look horrifying. 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:57.680 And they are resilient creatures, that is putting it lightly. 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:04.320 They can survive an in readibly harsh conditions from extreme temperatures, 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:09.200 either extreme cold, like colder than any normal organism could survive, 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:13.279 or extreme heat. They can survive beyond the temperature of boiling. 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:18.479 They can also survive insane amounts of pressure. They also 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:24.000 can survive exposure to nuclear radiation. They can survive for 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:27.440 long periods without any water, and they do this by 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:30.920 entering what's called a ton state. It's kind of like 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:35.560 suspended animation. They curl up, they tuck their legs in 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:39.919 their head and curl up into a ball, and essentially 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:44.839 biological processes halt. In fact, their cells end up creating 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:50.280 these matrices that keep all of their DNA intact, because otherwise, 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:53.360 if they dried out enough, things like that would deteriorate. 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:57.720 But effectively they put scaffolding in place. I mean they 0:05:57.720 --> 0:06:01.120 don't put it. It happens by natural process, but this 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:04.599 sort of scaffolding forms inside their cells that holds everything 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:09.520 in place. While this creature goes into suspended animation and 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:12.800 it can stay like that for ages. Then when it 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:17.680 encounters water again, the water dissolved, these matrix seas from 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:20.800 inside the cells and the cells return to their normal state. 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:22.880 They come out of the ton state. They go back 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:26.000 to being a happy little water bear. Oh that's by 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:29.240 the way. Another name for tartar grades is water bears. Now, 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:33.840 these critters can be found on every continent here on Earth, 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:38.400 including Antarctica. Also, they can be found in oceans, they 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:40.960 can be found in fresh water. They could probably be 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:44.880 found in your yard. And there are thousands of species 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:48.279 of Tartar grades and they're super cool. But then there 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:52.080 was a question if these suckers are that resilient, and 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:57.720 they have shown an incredible ability to survive even the 0:06:57.760 --> 0:07:02.520 harshest of conditions. Would they survive if they were exposed 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:07.159 to the vacuum of space, Well, that was a question 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:10.520 that scientists wanted answers too, and so in two thousand 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:15.560 and seven, the European Space Agency sent up a packet 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:19.600 of Tarta grades as one of many experiments conducted during 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:22.760 a mission. And the Tartar grades were exposed to the 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:26.880 vacuum of space, even to cosmic radiation. This is stuff 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:28.560 that could really mess up a human. I mean, the 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:31.360 vacuum of space. If you're exposed to at for any 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:33.920 length of time, you're going to be messed up, to 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:38.640 be certain, and probably dead. Cosmic radiation could cause really 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:41.440 big problems down the road, which is one of the 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:46.200 main concerns we have about designing long term space missions 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:48.880 in a way that's safe for the people who are 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:53.760 aboard them. But sure enough, upon retrieval, these Tartar grades 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:57.280 were found to survive the process with no real ill effects. 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:02.160 Some folks even speculated that maybe tartar grades actually are 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:07.880 not terrestrial creatures, that they had arrived on Earth by 0:08:08.240 --> 0:08:11.640 hitching rides on material that ultimately crashed into the planet. 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:15.600 There are a lot of theories that perhaps the seeds 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:20.520 of life on Earth actually came from outer space. However, 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:23.840 scientists have ruled that out for tarte grades. They found 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:28.000 that tartar grades did in fact originate here on Earth. 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:32.160 So while you might hypothesize that they could have survived 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:34.560 a trip through space until landing on a plant that 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:38.079 has water, that's not what actually happened. That being said, 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:43.960 tartar grades might play a part in experimenting with organisms 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:47.680 to see if they could survive on other planets in 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:51.120 the future. You know, a planet that might be harsh 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:54.600 for most organisms might actually be a suitable place for 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:58.959 tartar grades. That's really far off in the future, if 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:02.400 it ever happens at all, but it is a possibility now. 0:09:02.400 --> 0:09:05.560 When it comes to unlikely astronauts, dinosaurs, I would say 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:08.280 would be way up there. I mean, for one thing, 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:11.319 they've been extinct for millions of years, so it's really 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:13.880 hard to get one to commit to the strict training 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:17.400 regiment of becoming an astronaut. Now, this has not stopped 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:20.840 dinosaurs from getting into space. They've actually done it a 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:23.240 couple of times, not on their own as it turns out, 0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:25.600 had a lot of help from US. So the first 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:29.120 time was in nineteen eighty five, a physicist named Lauren 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:33.000 Acton had applied for and secured the role of payload 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:38.080 specialist for a Space Shuttle mission designated STS fifty one. 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:42.679 F Acton's area of interest was in solar activity. He 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:47.079 was keenly interested in studying the Sun, particularly to learn 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:49.679 if there were ways to predict events like coronal mass 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:54.079 ejections that could potentially impact communication systems back here on Earth. 0:09:54.960 --> 0:09:58.920 He was also from Montana, a state that happens to 0:09:58.960 --> 0:10:03.960 be rich dinosaur fossils, and that might be why he 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:10.520 brought some fossilized bone and eggshell fragments from a Miasaura peeblesaurum. 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:12.880 And I have no idea if I'm saying that correctly, 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:16.920 but it's a dinosaur that fed their nesting young. So 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:19.640 they would build a nest, they would lay eggs, the 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:22.280 eggs would hatch, and the dinosaurs would continue to care 0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:25.080 for their young. This kind of flew in the face 0:10:25.160 --> 0:10:28.720 of preconceived ideas about dinosaurs, and a lot of folks 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:31.720 had just assumed they would lay their eggs, wait until 0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:35.760 they hatched, and then you know you're out of the home. Kids, 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:38.680 go have some good luck and get out of the house. 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:43.040 That's not how these dinosaurs operated. It's also, by the way, 0:10:43.080 --> 0:10:46.480 the official state fossil for Montana, so it kind of 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:50.120 was a representation of home and of science. So it 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:52.920 was a very symbolic sort of thing. I would love 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:55.600 to say that the astronauts did some crazy experiments with 0:10:55.640 --> 0:10:59.439 those dinosaur fossils, but again it was more symbolic than scientific, 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:04.880 but really cool a neat gesture. It's also not the 0:11:04.920 --> 0:11:08.400 only time that dinosaur fossils have made the journey into orbit. 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:11.720 In nineteen ninety eight, the Endeavor space shuttle carried a 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:15.560 seal a physicist skull to the Mere Space Station. Again, 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:19.559 I could be completely mispronouncing this. At the Carnegie Museum 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:24.800 loaned the skull to the to NASA and the astronauts 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:26.720 promise they would take very, very good care of it, 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:28.920 and sure enough, they returned the skull safe and sound 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:31.600 at the conclusion of the mission. As for why they 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:33.760 wanted to take the skull up there, I mean, I'm 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:37.920 guessing it was to promote science. In twenty fourteen, NASA 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:40.320 included a fossil belonging to a t Rex on a 0:11:40.360 --> 0:11:43.960 test flight for the Orion spacecraft. Now as a test flight, 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:47.839 there were no human crew aboard this spacecraft, but it 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:50.840 was the first time that the Orion spacecraft would enter orbit. 0:11:51.120 --> 0:11:54.160 The mission lasted four hours. The spacecraft made two orbits 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:57.400 of the Earth before re entering the atmosphere. The fossil 0:11:57.480 --> 0:12:00.000 was on loan from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:02.960 and the Orion capsule is now on display at the 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:05.840 Kennedy Space Center of Visitor Complex. By the way, I 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:09.800 highly recommend visiting the Kennedy Space Center. My partner and 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:12.200 I went there on a whim one year. We ended 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:15.199 up becoming annual pass holders, even though we knew there 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:17.280 was very little chance we would be able to get 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:21.040 back within that year. We just were so thrilled with it. 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:24.240 It was so inspirational. If you are at all interested 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:27.320 in rocketry or space, you have got to go. I 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:30.559 got very emotional just looking at the various spacecraft and 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:33.800 launch vehicles, because sometimes you have to remind yourself that 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:38.480 humans are capable of really incredible things when we dedicate 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:42.719 ourselves to it. That's also not the end of dinosaurs 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:46.640 in space. More recently, Blue Origin, which is Jeff Bezos's 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:50.800 private space company, sent fossilized dinosaur bones to space as 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:53.839 part of the Huntsville Science Festival and an initiative called 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:58.400 Dream Big Alabama. These fossils were on a suborbital flight, 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:00.560 so they didn't get to circle the planet like the 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:05.800 previous cases. They were from a family of raptors, and 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:07.760 this was all part of an effort to promote science 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:10.600 and get people excited about stems subjects, and you know, 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:14.480 inspiration is a really important goal. Okay, we got more 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:17.160 crazy stuff that we've sent into space to talk about. 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:19.640 Before we get to that, let's take a quick break. 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:32.400 We're back and we are going to transition away from 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:38.720 dinosaurs to bacteria. So let's talk about salmonella. This family 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:42.880 of bacteria are perhaps best known as pathogens. You know, 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:46.360 you've probably heard about needing to be careful around food, 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:50.800 make sure making sure that you don't end up contracting salmonella. 0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:56.360 Salmonella can invade your cells and make you really, really sick. Typically, 0:13:56.440 --> 0:14:01.920 humans can become infected with salmonella through food poisoning. It 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:04.880 gets more specific than that, but it also gets really icky. 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:10.239 Let's just say that if the facility that is processing 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:15.520 your food or preparing your food isn't following good cleanliness procedures. 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:19.520 You have yourself some potential salmonella outbreaks on your hands, 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:22.240 and these can be really serious. They can even be 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:26.480 life threatening in severe cases. So salmonella is no joke, right, 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:31.000 So why did we send it into space? Well, scientists 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:34.040 want to see what affects salmonella might experience in a 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:41.080 microgravity environment, because if we are serious about human space exploration, 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:47.760 particularly long term human space exploration, including colonization, it would 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:53.120 be really beneficial to understand what might happen with infectious diseases, 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:57.840 including stuff like salmonella. It's a pretty long way to 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:01.000 the nearest minute clinic once you're out in space, after all, 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:06.080 So getting an understanding of this is critical to ensuring 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:10.680 success for future missions. So in twenty twenty one, scientists 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:15.000 did a pair of experiments. One of them took place 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:18.160 here on Earth, the other took place aboard the International 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:22.160 Space Station. Now the Earth one was essentially the control 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:26.720 and in both experiments, scientists took some human cells and 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:32.280 they infected these cells with pathogens salmonella. Scientists already knew 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:37.040 that organic cells undergo changes when in microgravity. We had 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:40.440 already made this observation. We know, you know, when people 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:42.200 go up into space and they spend a lot of 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:47.640 time there, they biologically change. Those changes can be on 0:15:47.680 --> 0:15:50.720 the macro level and noticeable things like you know, muscle 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:54.160 loss because you're no longer supporting your weight because you're 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:56.840 in a microgravity environment, but they could be all the 0:15:56.840 --> 0:15:59.640 way down to a cellular level. So what would happen 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:05.080 with human cells infected with salmonella in microgravity? Well, the 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:09.640 conclusions aren't quite as definitive as we would like. This 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:13.640 is because the experiment itself had a couple of problems 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:16.960 along the way. So not all the samples that were 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:20.040 sent to space came back in good enough condition to 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:22.520 do a full analysis on them. So that's part of 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:26.920 the problem is that we don't have the full collection 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:31.720 of cells to look at. There's another issue because the 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:35.600 International Space Station version of the experiment had a slightly 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:40.480 different but potentially significant different amount of pathogen introduced to 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:43.800 the control sample so or to the human cells, as 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:47.120 opposed to the Earth one. So in other words, if 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:51.400 you haven't used exactly the same amount of pathogen in 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:55.360 the cells that an alone could affect the outcome of 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:59.520 the experiment, So there's you know, you can't have firm 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:05.879 conclusion because you didn't have truly equal experiments on Earth 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:10.480 and in the space station. However, with those qualifiers in mind, 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:13.680 the scientists found that salmonella appeared to be more virulent 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:18.760 in a microgravity environment. That's pretty concerning, right, for bacteria 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:22.840 to become more virulent. But in addition, the human cells 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:26.600 appeared to upregulate, So in other words, the cells were 0:17:26.680 --> 0:17:31.480 ramping up their response to infection, primarily by upregulating genes 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:36.800 related to inflammation, which is a response to infection. The 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:40.639 findings have helped expand our understanding of how the humans 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:45.480 would respond to infectious diseases in space. That this could 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:49.000 be very, very different. Therefore, we need to learn more 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:53.280 about it to be prepared for those eventualities that would 0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:56.399 be awfully handy once we start sending people on longer 0:17:56.440 --> 0:18:00.159 missions to distant places in the future. Another question that 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:04.040 I think everyone has rattling around in the back of 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:08.199 their mind, perhaps not even consciously, but I know that 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:12.160 it has to be gnawing at everyone is how does 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:19.080 the environment of space affect lego minifigs. Okay, again, probably 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:23.320 I'm projecting here, but we have sent lego minifigs to space, 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:29.120 specifically three minifigs, two representing the mythological figures of Jupiter 0:18:29.440 --> 0:18:33.159 and Juno, Roman deities who, if you prefer the Greek versions, 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:38.080 are similar to Zeus and Hera. The other minifig represents 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:41.480 the not at all mythological figure and actual real world 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:48.520 historical figure of Galileo Galilei. So why were these lego 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:52.800 figures sent into space? Well, these were actually loaded onto 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:59.080 the spacecraft Juno. Juno was sent from Earth to travel 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:03.919 to the orbit of Jupiter. So thematically there is a 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:07.960 connection because you have the figure of Jupiter and his 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:12.800 wife Juno. These are obviously associated with the planet Jupiter, 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:18.040 and then Galileo historically made some really important observations about 0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:22.399 the planet Jupiter. So these minifigs are really symbolic and 0:19:22.520 --> 0:19:25.600 kind of a fun touch to include with this spacecraft. 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:30.280 The spacecraft has been in orbit around Jubiter since July fourth, 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:33.639 twenty sixteen. That's not when it launched, that's when it 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:37.280 arrived at Jupiter. It actually took oh, I don't know, 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:40.879 almost five years to get from Earth to Jupiter. It 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:44.720 actually launched on August fifth, twenty eleven. So that is 0:19:44.760 --> 0:19:47.680 a very long space journey, right, I mean, you think 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:51.840 most most human endeavors in space can be measured in 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:56.240 weeks or months, A couple in a year or more, 0:19:56.280 --> 0:19:59.000 but only a few examples of that. But this was 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:02.200 five years of traveling through space to get to the destination. 0:20:02.720 --> 0:20:06.439 The Juno spacecraft continues to make observations around Jupiter to 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:09.280 this day. It's in a polar orbit around the planet. 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:13.320 It has continued its mission beyond the planned seven years scope. 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:17.119 So it's another great example of a NASA mission that 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:23.920 manages to continue to provide US scientific data beyond the 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:28.760 planned mission. Currently, the long term plan here is to 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:33.720 keep Juno in orbit around Jupiter until late twenty twenty five, 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:36.680 and at that point the spacecraft will be de orbited 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:42.199 on purpose to enter Jupiter's atmosphere. The minifigs will truly 0:20:42.320 --> 0:20:44.639 enter the realm of myth at that point. I do 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:49.160 not expect them to survive that travel. Godspeed you tiny 0:20:49.240 --> 0:20:52.480 plastic heroes. In fact, a lot of different toys have 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:56.840 been sent up to space. Santa probably goes there every Christmas, right, 0:20:56.880 --> 0:20:58.480 I mean, that's probably how he's able to get to 0:20:58.520 --> 0:21:04.280 all the different people Christmas. He it's orbit. But other 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:07.080 space missions have also brought toys along for the ride. 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:11.359 One such toy was a Buzz Lightyear action figure, you 0:21:11.359 --> 0:21:14.160 know Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story series. In two 0:21:14.200 --> 0:21:17.919 thousand and eight, the action figure hitched a ride aboard 0:21:17.960 --> 0:21:21.040 the Space Shuttle Discovery as part of an initiative to 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:26.080 get kids excited about space in particular, but science in general, 0:21:26.560 --> 0:21:29.760 and Disney and NASA actually partnered together to create some 0:21:29.920 --> 0:21:35.880 interactive experiences like games and work assignment type of stuff 0:21:36.480 --> 0:21:39.800 that involved Buzz Lightyear in an effort to trick kids 0:21:39.800 --> 0:21:43.959 into learning stuff. Buzz's journey brought him to the International 0:21:44.000 --> 0:21:48.600 Space Station. He stayed on the ISS for fifteen months 0:21:49.200 --> 0:21:52.440 before returning to Earth, and again he hitched a ride 0:21:52.440 --> 0:21:55.399 on Space Shuttle Discovery. It's just obviously a very different 0:21:55.400 --> 0:21:57.760 mission because it was a year and a half, well 0:21:57.800 --> 0:21:59.439 not quite a year and a half later, but a 0:21:59.520 --> 0:22:02.959 year and some change later. The toy even got his 0:22:03.000 --> 0:22:07.320 own parade Walt Disney World. Upon being once more shackled 0:22:07.359 --> 0:22:11.080 with the surly bonds of Earth. I love that I 0:22:11.119 --> 0:22:13.240 wish I had been at Disney world when that had happened, 0:22:13.280 --> 0:22:16.600 Just to watch a parade with an action figure of 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:21.520 buzz Lightyear, I'm guessing on some sort of vehicle being 0:22:21.600 --> 0:22:25.200 celebrated as a returning hero. I wonder if the person 0:22:25.200 --> 0:22:27.960 who was wearing the buzz Lightyear costume that day felt 0:22:28.000 --> 0:22:31.400 like they were being overshadowed by a figure a fraction 0:22:31.520 --> 0:22:35.040 of their height. I guess I should also mention that 0:22:35.160 --> 0:22:40.480 the child aka Grogu aka his real name Baby Yoda, 0:22:40.560 --> 0:22:43.960 has also made the trip to space for reels. In 0:22:44.040 --> 0:22:49.360 twenty twenty, a SpaceX Dragon capsule completed the first operational 0:22:49.400 --> 0:22:52.600 flight of a Dragon capsule carrying a crew to the 0:22:52.640 --> 0:22:56.679 International Space Station and a cute plush toy, a Baby Yoda, 0:22:57.119 --> 0:23:00.840 was tagging along for the ride. It was both a 0:23:00.880 --> 0:23:05.440 morale booster and a quote unquote microgravity indicator, at least 0:23:05.480 --> 0:23:08.639 according to the reports I read. I guess that means 0:23:09.040 --> 0:23:11.720 that when you see Baby Yoda's floating around the capsule, 0:23:11.760 --> 0:23:16.360 you're in microgravity, and when he plummets to whatever surface 0:23:16.480 --> 0:23:21.120 is down, then you're out of microgravity again. At least 0:23:21.119 --> 0:23:25.560 I guess it's what a microgravity indicator is. Okay, I've 0:23:25.600 --> 0:23:28.200 got a few more weird things that we've sent up 0:23:28.240 --> 0:23:31.600 into space that we should talk about before we jump 0:23:31.680 --> 0:23:35.920 onto these final little entries in our Goofy episode today, 0:23:36.040 --> 0:23:49.800 let's take another quick break. Okay, so you probably know 0:23:50.400 --> 0:23:54.720 that astronaut food is famous for not being terribly appetizing. 0:23:54.960 --> 0:23:57.480 I want to say that, for the longest time, the 0:23:57.920 --> 0:24:02.200 astronaut meal that was considered the best was the spicy 0:24:02.240 --> 0:24:06.800 shrimp cocktail because it had enough flavor to kind of 0:24:06.840 --> 0:24:11.399 punch through the perpetual head cold that astronauts develop when 0:24:11.400 --> 0:24:13.080 they're out in space. Because you know, all of your 0:24:13.359 --> 0:24:17.119 tissues kind of swell a bit when you're out in space, 0:24:18.040 --> 0:24:20.639 and this in an intern affects your sense of smell 0:24:20.920 --> 0:24:23.000 and your sense of taste, and so a lot of 0:24:23.040 --> 0:24:25.760 food just ends up not tasting like much of anything. 0:24:26.080 --> 0:24:28.840 So you have to have stuff that has really strong 0:24:28.880 --> 0:24:32.639 flavors to kind of punch through it. All. Well, a 0:24:32.640 --> 0:24:36.040 lot of astronauts are not super crazy about the foods necessarily, 0:24:36.640 --> 0:24:38.639 and you know, you also have to be really careful 0:24:38.680 --> 0:24:42.400 with it because obviously anything that would escape a container 0:24:42.520 --> 0:24:46.119 could potentially create problems for the electronics aboard spacecraft and 0:24:46.160 --> 0:24:50.120 space stations and the like. Well, astronaut John Young got 0:24:50.119 --> 0:24:53.000 a real talking to you about his own choice of 0:24:53.160 --> 0:24:58.400 contrabrand food that he smuggled aboard the Gemini three spacecraft 0:24:58.600 --> 0:25:04.080 way back in nineteen because he got settled into the 0:25:04.119 --> 0:25:09.920 Gemini three with his commander, Virgil Gus Grissom, while having 0:25:10.119 --> 0:25:14.320 a secret corned beef sandwich hidden away in one of 0:25:14.320 --> 0:25:16.840 the pockets of his space suit, and a couple of 0:25:16.840 --> 0:25:21.080 hours into their mission, he pulled it out and offered 0:25:21.119 --> 0:25:25.160 some to his commander, and together they took a couple 0:25:25.200 --> 0:25:28.159 of bites of the sandwich while ignoring the food that 0:25:28.240 --> 0:25:33.400 NASA had actually included for their space flight. However, very 0:25:33.440 --> 0:25:37.159 early on they realized that, oh, this does mean that 0:25:37.200 --> 0:25:40.520 we're creating crumbs, and these crumbs are just free floating 0:25:40.800 --> 0:25:44.720 around the capsule and in a worst case scenario, they 0:25:44.760 --> 0:25:49.320 could potentially interfere with the electronic systems we have and 0:25:49.359 --> 0:25:55.200 then it's crisis by corned beef sandwich. So they tucked 0:25:55.200 --> 0:25:59.359 the sandwiches away and they continue the rest of their mission. However, 0:26:00.000 --> 0:26:05.200 ASSA was now aware of the contraband sandwich, so when 0:26:05.240 --> 0:26:10.240 they did return to Earth safely, they later were required 0:26:10.440 --> 0:26:16.040 to attend a very serious debriefing with a whole bunch 0:26:16.040 --> 0:26:18.840 of people who were very very cross with them for 0:26:19.080 --> 0:26:23.879 introducing corned beef to the capsule of the Gemini three spacecraft. 0:26:24.600 --> 0:26:27.920 They said that at the time it was very intense, 0:26:28.080 --> 0:26:32.440 but in retrospect, with enough time having passed since it happened, 0:26:33.080 --> 0:26:37.639 it's just sort of absurdly funny and I could appreciate 0:26:37.720 --> 0:26:44.040 that now. Other food that has been outside the norm 0:26:44.080 --> 0:26:46.119 that has made the trip up to space include a 0:26:46.200 --> 0:26:49.520