1 00:00:05,760 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Hey, Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name 2 00:00:07,840 --> 00:00:11,120 Speaker 1: is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And it's vault time. 3 00:00:11,160 --> 00:00:13,840 Speaker 1: We're going to climb into the vault, but actually it 4 00:00:13,880 --> 00:00:16,840 Speaker 1: appears to the vault is ceiling behind us and taking 5 00:00:16,880 --> 00:00:20,680 Speaker 1: off into space. Yes, because this is the escape Pod, Joe. Uh, 6 00:00:20,720 --> 00:00:26,239 Speaker 1: this episode from November is to the escape Pod. I 7 00:00:26,280 --> 00:00:28,600 Speaker 1: think we recorded this a week that you and I 8 00:00:28,680 --> 00:00:31,360 Speaker 1: were both kind of feeling like stopped the planet of 9 00:00:31,400 --> 00:00:34,360 Speaker 1: the Apes. I want to get off. Yeah. And plus 10 00:00:34,360 --> 00:00:37,479 Speaker 1: this one published on on on Thanksgiving, which I think 11 00:00:37,479 --> 00:00:40,080 Speaker 1: a lot of times, you know, it's holiday holiday travels, 12 00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:43,960 Speaker 1: the pressures of the American holidays. Uh, the call of 13 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:47,680 Speaker 1: the escape Pod is often, um, you know, siren like 14 00:00:47,840 --> 00:00:50,280 Speaker 1: and its power. But we also got to talk about 15 00:00:50,400 --> 00:00:52,080 Speaker 1: escape from New York and this one. So anytime you 16 00:00:52,120 --> 00:00:54,880 Speaker 1: get to anytime we get to talk about Escape from 17 00:00:54,880 --> 00:00:57,600 Speaker 1: New York, it's a good time. Yeah. The Donald pleasant 18 00:00:57,600 --> 00:01:00,480 Speaker 1: S egg I'm sure comes up. Well. I hope you 19 00:01:00,600 --> 00:01:07,920 Speaker 1: enjoy this classic episode about escape pods. Welcome to Stuff 20 00:01:07,959 --> 00:01:10,280 Speaker 1: to Blow your Mind from how Stuff Works dot Com. 21 00:01:10,319 --> 00:01:18,000 Speaker 1: I'll follow, Hey, Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 22 00:01:18,040 --> 00:01:20,800 Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick and Robert. 23 00:01:20,840 --> 00:01:23,400 Speaker 1: A lot of times on this podcast we end up 24 00:01:23,440 --> 00:01:27,240 Speaker 1: talking about instincts. Yes, we use our instincts to talk 25 00:01:27,280 --> 00:01:32,840 Speaker 1: about instincts, often worse. But one of any animal's deepest 26 00:01:32,880 --> 00:01:37,319 Speaker 1: instincts is the escape instinct. It's right down there with 27 00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:40,319 Speaker 1: the desire for food, water reproduction, but I would say 28 00:01:40,360 --> 00:01:44,360 Speaker 1: maybe even more immediate. And you can definitely see how 29 00:01:44,400 --> 00:01:47,199 Speaker 1: powerful it is by the way that escape instincts, even 30 00:01:47,200 --> 00:01:51,160 Speaker 1: in rational, really high functioning primates like human beings, can 31 00:01:51,240 --> 00:01:55,560 Speaker 1: totally short circuit rational thinking and lead to mass panics 32 00:01:55,600 --> 00:01:58,600 Speaker 1: that kill people. This happens all the time. Uh. And 33 00:01:58,720 --> 00:02:02,520 Speaker 1: so the escape rive, you know, the fight or flight impulse, 34 00:02:02,840 --> 00:02:06,320 Speaker 1: has been associated in neuroscience with the amygdala and the 35 00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:11,680 Speaker 1: autonomic nervous system, deep deep, primitive old parts of the brain, 36 00:02:11,800 --> 00:02:15,320 Speaker 1: the rat like hind brain, the reptile brain. Right, though 37 00:02:15,320 --> 00:02:18,960 Speaker 1: I have heard people disputing the term reptile brain, I 38 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:20,760 Speaker 1: do not refer to it as such, and from a 39 00:02:20,960 --> 00:02:24,760 Speaker 1: scientific standpoint, right, But but the idea of the the earlier, 40 00:02:24,880 --> 00:02:27,079 Speaker 1: more primitive parts of the brain that go way back 41 00:02:27,080 --> 00:02:30,720 Speaker 1: in evolutionary history, that is there and so escape is 42 00:02:30,720 --> 00:02:34,000 Speaker 1: is rooted down in those really primitive parts of the brain. 43 00:02:34,080 --> 00:02:39,040 Speaker 1: Is this fundamental, intractable part of human psychology, because think 44 00:02:39,040 --> 00:02:41,639 Speaker 1: about it. When you go into a room, even if 45 00:02:41,639 --> 00:02:44,560 Speaker 1: there's no cause of danger whatsoever, just say it's an 46 00:02:44,560 --> 00:02:47,200 Speaker 1: office Christmas party or something like that. Oh yeah, you 47 00:02:47,240 --> 00:02:49,200 Speaker 1: better believe I'm gonna have an escape planet an office. 48 00:02:49,520 --> 00:02:52,560 Speaker 1: Exactly what's the first thing you do in your mind? 49 00:02:52,680 --> 00:02:56,720 Speaker 1: If you're like me, it's probably unconscious. You're not consciously 50 00:02:56,760 --> 00:02:58,880 Speaker 1: thinking about it, but you do just sort of take 51 00:02:58,960 --> 00:03:01,400 Speaker 1: note of where all the eggs it's are ye in 52 00:03:01,440 --> 00:03:04,160 Speaker 1: the room? Do you do the same thing, Robert? Yeah, well, 53 00:03:04,160 --> 00:03:08,480 Speaker 1: I would say, like the physical exits, it's almost like 54 00:03:08,520 --> 00:03:12,440 Speaker 1: a subconscious thing. But I also will kind of have 55 00:03:12,680 --> 00:03:16,360 Speaker 1: like social exit strategies in mind as well, right right, 56 00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:18,760 Speaker 1: If this gets uncomfortable for any number of reasons, and 57 00:03:18,800 --> 00:03:22,960 Speaker 1: I'm not saying like office Christmas parties in particular are uncomfortable, 58 00:03:23,040 --> 00:03:25,480 Speaker 1: but like any social situation that I'm not like one 59 00:03:26,120 --> 00:03:29,720 Speaker 1: comfortable with, I'll have that escape hatch in the back 60 00:03:29,720 --> 00:03:31,760 Speaker 1: of my mind. You know, that's a really good point 61 00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:34,680 Speaker 1: because that kind of shows how our obsession with physical 62 00:03:34,840 --> 00:03:39,040 Speaker 1: escape extends even to our metaphors and our abstract thinking. 63 00:03:39,080 --> 00:03:42,200 Speaker 1: You know, you're in an awkward social situation, how do 64 00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:44,880 Speaker 1: I get out? You're in a bad relationship, and you think, 65 00:03:44,920 --> 00:03:46,680 Speaker 1: how do I find a way out of this? You're 66 00:03:46,680 --> 00:03:49,480 Speaker 1: not physically finding a way out, but that that's the 67 00:03:49,480 --> 00:03:52,040 Speaker 1: way your brain goes. It's like the hatch in the 68 00:03:52,080 --> 00:03:54,520 Speaker 1: top of an elevator or the roof of a school bus. 69 00:03:55,720 --> 00:03:59,000 Speaker 1: You're probably not gonna shinny up any any elevator shaft 70 00:03:59,520 --> 00:04:03,880 Speaker 1: cable today, but there's something comfortable about knowing that hatches there. 71 00:04:04,040 --> 00:04:08,080 Speaker 1: Though I have always kind of wanted to do that. Yeah, 72 00:04:08,080 --> 00:04:10,720 Speaker 1: but but it's true. I think, always somewhere deep in 73 00:04:10,760 --> 00:04:14,040 Speaker 1: your mind, there is a part of you, mostly unconscious, 74 00:04:14,360 --> 00:04:17,400 Speaker 1: that is obsessed with escape, and it's always doing the 75 00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:20,920 Speaker 1: pre calculations for an escape trajectory. How would I get 76 00:04:20,920 --> 00:04:22,760 Speaker 1: out of here? How how could I get out if 77 00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:26,359 Speaker 1: I had to? So, of course our obsession with escape 78 00:04:26,920 --> 00:04:30,400 Speaker 1: escape routes, flight from danger. It extends to our technology. 79 00:04:30,400 --> 00:04:34,520 Speaker 1: Our technology always reflects our psychology. So when we imagine 80 00:04:34,760 --> 00:04:38,440 Speaker 1: a rebel spaceship fleeing from the galactic empire, we also 81 00:04:38,480 --> 00:04:42,520 Speaker 1: imagine escape pods fleeing from the larger rebel ship. And 82 00:04:42,720 --> 00:04:45,600 Speaker 1: uh no, of course, no science fiction vessel is complete 83 00:04:45,600 --> 00:04:48,760 Speaker 1: without an escape pod. And I think at some point 84 00:04:48,839 --> 00:04:52,240 Speaker 1: this year, I bet, when times were rough and the 85 00:04:52,279 --> 00:04:55,600 Speaker 1: world seemed full of despair, you thought about an escape pod, 86 00:04:55,680 --> 00:04:58,520 Speaker 1: didn't you. Sometime this year many of us have found 87 00:04:58,560 --> 00:05:02,000 Speaker 1: ourselves idly wishing you could just get into the capsule 88 00:05:02,080 --> 00:05:05,039 Speaker 1: and blast away and leave everything behind. The one I 89 00:05:05,080 --> 00:05:08,640 Speaker 1: always come back to in in fiction is the escape 90 00:05:08,680 --> 00:05:14,600 Speaker 1: pod that that that president ideal President Donald Pleasants uses 91 00:05:15,080 --> 00:05:18,640 Speaker 1: um to escape from Air Force one in Escape from 92 00:05:18,680 --> 00:05:21,400 Speaker 1: New York. It's also my favorite, yeah, because it's it's 93 00:05:21,400 --> 00:05:24,440 Speaker 1: so comfy. It's an egg, yeah, and and Pleasants is 94 00:05:24,480 --> 00:05:26,520 Speaker 1: kind of egg like himself, so and it it's just 95 00:05:26,640 --> 00:05:29,479 Speaker 1: his perfect egg that he's able to get into an 96 00:05:29,680 --> 00:05:33,320 Speaker 1: escape from immediate danger into of course more immediate danger. Right. So, 97 00:05:33,360 --> 00:05:37,480 Speaker 1: if you haven't seen the movie President US, President Donald Pleasants, 98 00:05:37,480 --> 00:05:39,520 Speaker 1: which is kind of strange because he has a British accent, 99 00:05:40,160 --> 00:05:43,080 Speaker 1: he gets his plane, gets captured by terrorists who are 100 00:05:43,080 --> 00:05:45,080 Speaker 1: going to kill him and they're gonna crash the plane 101 00:05:45,120 --> 00:05:49,120 Speaker 1: into Manhattan. I believe it was kind of strange. But yeah, 102 00:05:49,160 --> 00:05:51,479 Speaker 1: so Donald pleasants gets into this big egg and he 103 00:05:51,480 --> 00:05:53,719 Speaker 1: gets shot out the back of his airplane to safety. 104 00:05:53,760 --> 00:05:56,800 Speaker 1: I think he says something to his doomed staff like main, 105 00:05:56,920 --> 00:06:01,920 Speaker 1: god watch over you all. But yeah, that's a great one. 106 00:06:02,120 --> 00:06:04,400 Speaker 1: But there are tons of great fictional escape pods there 107 00:06:04,440 --> 00:06:08,080 Speaker 1: in all kinds of James Bond movies. Always when Raker 108 00:06:08,160 --> 00:06:09,479 Speaker 1: had a great one that was kind of like a 109 00:06:09,640 --> 00:06:14,880 Speaker 1: like a sexy um bachelor pad, they're always like that. 110 00:06:14,960 --> 00:06:18,640 Speaker 1: There's some aquatics escape pods in James Bond movies too. 111 00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:22,000 Speaker 1: Why do the escape pods in these movies always have 112 00:06:22,080 --> 00:06:26,359 Speaker 1: like satin sheets and champagne coolers and curtains on the windows. 113 00:06:26,520 --> 00:06:28,760 Speaker 1: It's weird because they're kind of it's kind of there's 114 00:06:28,760 --> 00:06:32,040 Speaker 1: a sense of it being a a comfy little abode 115 00:06:32,360 --> 00:06:34,760 Speaker 1: and like a little bed, but also kind of like 116 00:06:34,760 --> 00:06:38,480 Speaker 1: a little casket. You know, it gets complicated, I guess 117 00:06:38,560 --> 00:06:42,120 Speaker 1: when you start teasing apart how we design our our 118 00:06:42,240 --> 00:06:44,960 Speaker 1: escape pods and how we design our our our coffins. 119 00:06:46,240 --> 00:06:48,440 Speaker 1: You're totally right. It is like a coffin. It's like 120 00:06:48,480 --> 00:06:52,840 Speaker 1: a sexy, sexy coffin. But of course, so we don't 121 00:06:52,839 --> 00:06:55,919 Speaker 1: have to look entirely to fiction for examples of escape pods, 122 00:06:55,920 --> 00:06:59,720 Speaker 1: because sometimes we really do build escape capsules of some 123 00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:05,200 Speaker 1: kind into our technologies, especially our vehicles. Um, but why 124 00:07:05,240 --> 00:07:08,680 Speaker 1: would you build escape capsules into real vehicles? Why not 125 00:07:08,800 --> 00:07:12,840 Speaker 1: just have a door? Well, that's kind of an obvious question. 126 00:07:12,920 --> 00:07:16,040 Speaker 1: It's a great question. Um. I think one of the 127 00:07:16,080 --> 00:07:17,760 Speaker 1: main area to look for an answer here is in 128 00:07:17,800 --> 00:07:19,800 Speaker 1: the room of aviation and a lot of We're gonna 129 00:07:19,840 --> 00:07:22,960 Speaker 1: go through several examples that are related to aviation or 130 00:07:23,400 --> 00:07:27,080 Speaker 1: or space exploration because we've all seen like the or 131 00:07:27,280 --> 00:07:29,400 Speaker 1: I don't know about we've all, but I've certainly seen 132 00:07:29,440 --> 00:07:31,320 Speaker 1: my fair share, and I know you've seen your fair 133 00:07:31,320 --> 00:07:35,440 Speaker 1: share of like old serial adventures from the thirties and forties, 134 00:07:35,760 --> 00:07:37,800 Speaker 1: where you have individuals trying to get off of a 135 00:07:37,840 --> 00:07:41,240 Speaker 1: crashing airplane and they're using an obvious set with just 136 00:07:41,360 --> 00:07:46,320 Speaker 1: in abnormally large fuselage, and they're walking with relative ease 137 00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:49,800 Speaker 1: down the aisle of this airplane to go jump out 138 00:07:49,920 --> 00:07:53,920 Speaker 1: of a door out of the the the portal with 139 00:07:54,040 --> 00:07:57,640 Speaker 1: their parachute. And of course, a crashing airplane or an 140 00:07:57,680 --> 00:08:00,680 Speaker 1: out of controlled airplane or airplane in peril is not 141 00:08:00,720 --> 00:08:04,000 Speaker 1: going to be that straightforward a situation generally, right, well, 142 00:08:04,040 --> 00:08:06,800 Speaker 1: I mean a passenger aircraft also are just not made 143 00:08:06,840 --> 00:08:09,280 Speaker 1: to be jumped out of. You can read the whole 144 00:08:09,360 --> 00:08:13,320 Speaker 1: dB Cooper story for yeah, for some more details on this. 145 00:08:13,960 --> 00:08:16,760 Speaker 1: So there's a basic need for an escape system be at, 146 00:08:16,840 --> 00:08:18,920 Speaker 1: and be at an ejection seat, which we're not really 147 00:08:18,960 --> 00:08:21,080 Speaker 1: going to get into ejection seats much here that we 148 00:08:21,360 --> 00:08:24,080 Speaker 1: should mention we're all familiar with ejector seats, right, Like 149 00:08:24,120 --> 00:08:26,800 Speaker 1: in top Gun, the ejector seat will propel you up 150 00:08:26,840 --> 00:08:30,320 Speaker 1: the pilot out of the failing aircraft. You deploy a parachute, 151 00:08:30,320 --> 00:08:32,960 Speaker 1: you get the pilot safely to the ground. But generally 152 00:08:32,960 --> 00:08:35,679 Speaker 1: the canopy comes off, though some there are models of 153 00:08:35,679 --> 00:08:37,760 Speaker 1: ejection seats where the canopy did not come off and 154 00:08:37,880 --> 00:08:40,160 Speaker 1: you just blast through the glass. But today we're talking 155 00:08:40,160 --> 00:08:43,480 Speaker 1: about escape pods. So when you need this enclosed space, 156 00:08:43,559 --> 00:08:45,679 Speaker 1: when does that come in? Well, it's gonna come when 157 00:08:45,720 --> 00:08:49,199 Speaker 1: you need added protection, certainly when you're dealing with higher altitude, 158 00:08:49,320 --> 00:08:52,280 Speaker 1: higher speed aircraft. And and of course this is just 159 00:08:52,320 --> 00:08:54,160 Speaker 1: on top of we we talked about, you know the 160 00:08:54,200 --> 00:08:56,720 Speaker 1: need for the individual, for the pilot, for the crew 161 00:08:56,720 --> 00:08:59,320 Speaker 1: member to have an escape plan. But of course, just 162 00:08:59,360 --> 00:09:02,960 Speaker 1: to boil down, like the basic economic idea here is 163 00:09:03,040 --> 00:09:06,920 Speaker 1: that human lives are more valuable than machines. Yeah, but 164 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:09,280 Speaker 1: not in like a moral sense, because most of these 165 00:09:09,280 --> 00:09:12,680 Speaker 1: are war machines designed to like drop nuclear payloads on 166 00:09:12,800 --> 00:09:15,360 Speaker 1: the whole cities. Know what means they cost more to train, 167 00:09:15,559 --> 00:09:18,800 Speaker 1: right right? You need you need highly trained specialist individuals 168 00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:21,760 Speaker 1: who are piloting these aircraft. And even though the aircraft 169 00:09:21,760 --> 00:09:24,200 Speaker 1: costs millions and millions of dollars if it goes down 170 00:09:24,200 --> 00:09:26,240 Speaker 1: in flames, at least you can say in since you're 171 00:09:26,280 --> 00:09:30,479 Speaker 1: saving the brain of the aircraft, you're saving the pilots 172 00:09:30,679 --> 00:09:34,800 Speaker 1: that fluid exactly. So let's look at some examples from 173 00:09:34,840 --> 00:09:38,319 Speaker 1: aviation history of these great Uh, what would you call 174 00:09:38,360 --> 00:09:41,000 Speaker 1: it if? If the pilot being saved from a failing 175 00:09:41,040 --> 00:09:44,160 Speaker 1: aircraft is like saving the brain, the escape pod is 176 00:09:44,200 --> 00:09:46,720 Speaker 1: like the jar that you put the brain in. Yeah, 177 00:09:46,760 --> 00:09:49,360 Speaker 1: So let's look at some of these jars. All right, Well, 178 00:09:49,360 --> 00:09:50,920 Speaker 1: so the first one we're gonna bring up, and we're 179 00:09:50,920 --> 00:09:52,440 Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna try and make sure that we have 180 00:09:52,640 --> 00:09:54,840 Speaker 1: images related to these on the landing page for this 181 00:09:54,840 --> 00:09:56,960 Speaker 1: episode of Stuff to Blow your mind, Dot com because 182 00:09:58,200 --> 00:10:00,360 Speaker 1: you're gonna we're gonna try and to describe everything, but 183 00:10:00,400 --> 00:10:02,800 Speaker 1: you know you're gonna you're gonna probably want some visuals. 184 00:10:03,280 --> 00:10:05,560 Speaker 1: So the first one we want to mention here is 185 00:10:05,640 --> 00:10:09,439 Speaker 1: the B fifty eight Hustler, the convey B fifty eight Hustler. 186 00:10:09,880 --> 00:10:12,880 Speaker 1: So this was a bomber that saw service nineteen sixty 187 00:10:12,960 --> 00:10:16,480 Speaker 1: through nineteen seventy. About hundred and sixteen were built. It 188 00:10:16,600 --> 00:10:18,760 Speaker 1: was a three man crew. This was a U s 189 00:10:18,800 --> 00:10:23,120 Speaker 1: Air Force US Air Force debuted nineteen fifty six, and 190 00:10:23,200 --> 00:10:27,240 Speaker 1: it was the US Air force Is first operational supersonic bomber. 191 00:10:27,760 --> 00:10:31,640 Speaker 1: It was visually notable because it had these awesome delta wings, 192 00:10:32,200 --> 00:10:35,320 Speaker 1: so it looked like an arrow um and it also 193 00:10:35,440 --> 00:10:38,520 Speaker 1: had a wasp waist fuselage. It was so thin that 194 00:10:38,600 --> 00:10:42,360 Speaker 1: it had to use external bomb pods. Gleaming chrome appearance 195 00:10:42,400 --> 00:10:44,480 Speaker 1: in most of the images you see of it, so yeah, 196 00:10:44,520 --> 00:10:47,200 Speaker 1: it looked like an arrowhead, though maybe an arrowhead either 197 00:10:47,679 --> 00:10:51,079 Speaker 1: pregnant with death or infected with explosive parasites. However you 198 00:10:51,120 --> 00:10:53,480 Speaker 1: want to frame it. It is a very weird and 199 00:10:53,640 --> 00:10:57,120 Speaker 1: very sexy looking aircraft. It's got this this tapered fuselage 200 00:10:57,160 --> 00:10:59,400 Speaker 1: like you're talking about is kind of thin, and the 201 00:10:59,520 --> 00:11:04,280 Speaker 1: in these straight, completely angular wings cutting through it, it's 202 00:11:04,320 --> 00:11:07,120 Speaker 1: cool to look at. Yeah, and I wanna I mention 203 00:11:07,200 --> 00:11:10,679 Speaker 1: this real quick quickly here if it sounds like if 204 00:11:10,960 --> 00:11:13,120 Speaker 1: some people might be thinking, oh, you're awfuly enthusiastic about 205 00:11:13,120 --> 00:11:16,640 Speaker 1: all these awful war machines, Robert, uh, I do have 206 00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:18,600 Speaker 1: to say that I grew up in a household where 207 00:11:18,640 --> 00:11:21,720 Speaker 1: my my dad was a big aviation enthusiast, and uh 208 00:11:21,960 --> 00:11:25,439 Speaker 1: I was really into aviation history, military aviation history. So 209 00:11:25,800 --> 00:11:27,839 Speaker 1: I grew up like with a lot of books about 210 00:11:27,960 --> 00:11:30,720 Speaker 1: these airplanes around, and it seems like there were always 211 00:11:30,800 --> 00:11:33,679 Speaker 1: documentaries on TV about these aircraft. So I have a 212 00:11:33,720 --> 00:11:37,960 Speaker 1: certain fondness for their designs. But back to the so yeah, 213 00:11:38,480 --> 00:11:43,320 Speaker 1: sexually looking aircraft. Uh. It initially boasted typical ejection seats, 214 00:11:43,360 --> 00:11:45,880 Speaker 1: so just blast the individual crew members out of the 215 00:11:45,960 --> 00:11:50,880 Speaker 1: imperiled aircraft. But ejection at supersonic speeds proved dangerous. So 216 00:11:51,040 --> 00:11:55,599 Speaker 1: Stanley Aircraft Corporation developed a retrofitted ejection capsule and in 217 00:11:55,800 --> 00:11:59,400 Speaker 1: late nineteen six two and this allowed aircrew to eject 218 00:11:59,520 --> 00:12:02,000 Speaker 1: safely it twice the speed of sound and from as 219 00:12:02,080 --> 00:12:07,600 Speaker 1: high as altitudes of seventy feet or roughly twenty one kilometers. 220 00:12:08,360 --> 00:12:10,400 Speaker 1: That does not sound like a condition in which you 221 00:12:10,440 --> 00:12:13,080 Speaker 1: would want to be ejected naked out of your right, 222 00:12:13,160 --> 00:12:15,720 Speaker 1: have your brain ejective naked or even in a flight 223 00:12:15,800 --> 00:12:19,400 Speaker 1: suit and in a chair. Right, So they came up 224 00:12:19,440 --> 00:12:22,800 Speaker 1: with this capsule. The capsule was essentially a clamshell hood 225 00:12:23,040 --> 00:12:26,880 Speaker 1: that closed over the ejection seat and it was I 226 00:12:26,960 --> 00:12:29,439 Speaker 1: found some some Gatty images on this, and the Getty 227 00:12:29,480 --> 00:12:32,599 Speaker 1: images a database, so some some work that went and 228 00:12:32,760 --> 00:12:35,839 Speaker 1: went into designing this, and it was apparently referred to 229 00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:39,240 Speaker 1: as the torture chamber during development because it I guess, 230 00:12:39,240 --> 00:12:41,120 Speaker 1: because it kind of looks like an Iron Maiden. It 231 00:12:41,320 --> 00:12:44,720 Speaker 1: really does. Yeah, So this capsule, you have the seat, 232 00:12:44,800 --> 00:12:46,920 Speaker 1: it's like a right angle kind of thing, which is 233 00:12:46,920 --> 00:12:49,280 Speaker 1: where the crew member would be I guess, but folded 234 00:12:49,400 --> 00:12:51,280 Speaker 1: over the top of it, it looks kind of like 235 00:12:51,440 --> 00:12:57,000 Speaker 1: a It's just this cascading series of metal bands coming down, 236 00:12:57,120 --> 00:12:59,920 Speaker 1: So it looks like a mask that a cinebyte would 237 00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:02,520 Speaker 1: where in one of the Hell raisor sequels, and the 238 00:13:02,600 --> 00:13:05,960 Speaker 1: cinembyte would be called like shutter face or something. Yeah, 239 00:13:06,120 --> 00:13:09,439 Speaker 1: it's reminiscent a little bit too of of a rolltop desk. 240 00:13:09,960 --> 00:13:13,280 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, like that, but metal. Yeah, so this 241 00:13:13,559 --> 00:13:16,400 Speaker 1: this that once it's over you, this thing was air tight, 242 00:13:16,640 --> 00:13:20,800 Speaker 1: had an independent oxygen supply supply system that ensured pressurization. 243 00:13:21,640 --> 00:13:23,760 Speaker 1: And this was but one of the things that was 244 00:13:23,800 --> 00:13:25,760 Speaker 1: it was far from fully automated, because I know, when 245 00:13:25,800 --> 00:13:27,439 Speaker 1: you're when you're hearing this, you're reading about it, you're 246 00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:29,360 Speaker 1: imagining like, oh, it shuts over you and then you 247 00:13:29,440 --> 00:13:32,880 Speaker 1: blast out like you're in a science fiction movie. But 248 00:13:33,040 --> 00:13:35,360 Speaker 1: it wasn't. The user still had a number of choices 249 00:13:35,520 --> 00:13:38,920 Speaker 1: after the clamshell shut. You could continue on to ejection, 250 00:13:39,640 --> 00:13:42,480 Speaker 1: or you could hold off until the plane made it 251 00:13:42,520 --> 00:13:46,440 Speaker 1: to a lower altitude that didn't demand the pressurization. UM. 252 00:13:46,920 --> 00:13:50,040 Speaker 1: The idea here being, you know that is still incredibly dangerous, 253 00:13:50,600 --> 00:13:54,000 Speaker 1: UM ejecting from the aircraft at high altitudes, even in 254 00:13:54,040 --> 00:13:56,760 Speaker 1: the capsule. So if the plane is not in just 255 00:13:56,880 --> 00:13:59,480 Speaker 1: complete peril, then maybe it makes sense to wait just 256 00:13:59,600 --> 00:14:02,360 Speaker 1: a minute, right um. And this is the thing we 257 00:14:02,400 --> 00:14:05,040 Speaker 1: should keep in mind throughout the episode. I mean, ejecting 258 00:14:05,160 --> 00:14:09,079 Speaker 1: from an aircraft, uh always comes with risks. You know, 259 00:14:09,320 --> 00:14:12,200 Speaker 1: when you eject from an aircraft to bail out, there 260 00:14:12,320 --> 00:14:15,000 Speaker 1: is a certain percent chance that you will be killed 261 00:14:15,080 --> 00:14:18,320 Speaker 1: by the ejection process. That's why it is a last resort, 262 00:14:18,480 --> 00:14:21,120 Speaker 1: is a violent last resort in a in a in 263 00:14:21,200 --> 00:14:26,040 Speaker 1: a terrible dangerous situation. Now, additionally, the pilot's capsule in 264 00:14:26,120 --> 00:14:29,480 Speaker 1: the Hustler contained the control stick and other necessary controls 265 00:14:29,520 --> 00:14:32,520 Speaker 1: to pilot the aircraft to that lower altitude, and then 266 00:14:32,600 --> 00:14:37,280 Speaker 1: communication was maintained capsule to capsule in the airplane. Uh 267 00:14:37,480 --> 00:14:41,320 Speaker 1: So it's this interesting, Um, I love how these capsules 268 00:14:41,360 --> 00:14:48,160 Speaker 1: are not immediate um, immediately exercised from the craft. They're 269 00:14:48,200 --> 00:14:50,520 Speaker 1: kind of a part of the craft in peril. So 270 00:14:51,320 --> 00:14:54,440 Speaker 1: what kind of test pilot would volunteer to be the 271 00:14:54,680 --> 00:14:58,440 Speaker 1: first test subject of the torture chamber. Well, it's interesting 272 00:14:58,520 --> 00:15:02,040 Speaker 1: and reading about these different tests because the thing you 273 00:15:02,120 --> 00:15:03,720 Speaker 1: had have you have a fair amount of testing. They 274 00:15:03,720 --> 00:15:06,400 Speaker 1: went into any of these extensive testing even uh, you 275 00:15:06,440 --> 00:15:09,400 Speaker 1: would have test pilots that are you know, trying them 276 00:15:09,400 --> 00:15:13,400 Speaker 1: out in some cases on the ground. Um, they're loading 277 00:15:13,440 --> 00:15:16,600 Speaker 1: them onto uh, you know, under propelled carts to just 278 00:15:16,640 --> 00:15:19,240 Speaker 1: see how they how the impact affects them. And in 279 00:15:19,320 --> 00:15:24,240 Speaker 1: the case of the hustlers ejection capsules, the U S 280 00:15:24,320 --> 00:15:27,680 Speaker 1: Air Force used Himalayan and American black bears to test 281 00:15:27,720 --> 00:15:30,280 Speaker 1: the ejection seats. Well, how did I hear you? Right? Yes, 282 00:15:30,520 --> 00:15:34,400 Speaker 1: say that again, Himalayan and American black bears. Uh, none 283 00:15:34,440 --> 00:15:36,520 Speaker 1: of them were killed during the tests. They only suffered 284 00:15:36,600 --> 00:15:39,520 Speaker 1: broken bones for what it's worth, and they were drugged. 285 00:15:40,440 --> 00:15:44,640 Speaker 1: But we're talking ejections at speeds of mock one point six, 286 00:15:45,120 --> 00:15:49,280 Speaker 1: um that's we know, or and also at altitudes of 287 00:15:49,520 --> 00:15:54,160 Speaker 1: forty five thousand feet. So yeah, the bears helped us 288 00:15:54,160 --> 00:15:56,600 Speaker 1: out in that regard. It's well hard to argue that 289 00:15:57,000 --> 00:16:00,320 Speaker 1: they volunteered, but I'm glad to hear that no bears 290 00:16:00,360 --> 00:16:02,480 Speaker 1: were killed in the making of this escape pod. Yeah, 291 00:16:02,520 --> 00:16:05,600 Speaker 1: at least we can say that, right. Um So after injection, 292 00:16:05,680 --> 00:16:08,160 Speaker 1: the capsule here featured a parachute, of course, as well 293 00:16:08,200 --> 00:16:11,000 Speaker 1: as shock absorbers and inflatable bladders to turn the thing 294 00:16:11,040 --> 00:16:13,200 Speaker 1: into a life raft if it fell in the water. 295 00:16:14,040 --> 00:16:15,920 Speaker 1: Uh So, in short, it was it was a pretty 296 00:16:16,720 --> 00:16:18,760 Speaker 1: pretty cool escape capsule. I think. I think it's one 297 00:16:18,800 --> 00:16:21,520 Speaker 1: of the better like just pure examples of of a 298 00:16:22,360 --> 00:16:26,040 Speaker 1: of an escape capsule in aviation history. There are actually 299 00:16:26,200 --> 00:16:29,960 Speaker 1: videos online of the tests of this escape capsule, of 300 00:16:30,040 --> 00:16:31,880 Speaker 1: it coming up out of the plane. You can see 301 00:16:31,880 --> 00:16:34,480 Speaker 1: it just rocketing up into the sky and shooting up 302 00:16:34,520 --> 00:16:37,160 Speaker 1: over the top of the plane as the plane passes underneath. 303 00:16:37,720 --> 00:16:40,960 Speaker 1: It's worth looking up. Yeah, there's also a fabulous periscope 304 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:45,160 Speaker 1: films documentary that's freely available on YouTube now that that 305 00:16:45,280 --> 00:16:47,680 Speaker 1: shows you exactly how it worked, and it had had 306 00:16:47,760 --> 00:16:52,280 Speaker 1: like some wonderful animations. They quoted Shakespeare and showed like 307 00:16:52,360 --> 00:16:55,840 Speaker 1: sort of a Disney documentary, hand paid but leafing through 308 00:16:55,960 --> 00:16:59,080 Speaker 1: a book of the works of Shakespeare just impeccably. You know, 309 00:16:59,280 --> 00:17:03,000 Speaker 1: nineteen five these pr project here, So do we know 310 00:17:03,240 --> 00:17:06,639 Speaker 1: how often people in the real world ejected from one 311 00:17:06,680 --> 00:17:09,480 Speaker 1: of these planes? And how well it worked? This was 312 00:17:09,560 --> 00:17:12,600 Speaker 1: a real revelation to me. There is a wonderful website, 313 00:17:12,640 --> 00:17:14,440 Speaker 1: and I say wonderful. It's it's a little long in 314 00:17:14,480 --> 00:17:17,840 Speaker 1: the tooth now it could it could benefit from redesign, 315 00:17:17,960 --> 00:17:20,320 Speaker 1: but this but the work that's gone into it is 316 00:17:20,359 --> 00:17:24,960 Speaker 1: pretty pretty awesome. It's ejection history dot org dot UK 317 00:17:26,040 --> 00:17:31,080 Speaker 1: and it's an attempt by the author and contributors to 318 00:17:31,680 --> 00:17:37,560 Speaker 1: catalog every ejection from from key aircraft and and and 319 00:17:37,920 --> 00:17:42,000 Speaker 1: and also rank like how how survivable each incident was, 320 00:17:42,800 --> 00:17:45,840 Speaker 1: So all in all, like some some aircraft have better 321 00:17:46,359 --> 00:17:49,159 Speaker 1: databases and others on this site, but it's it's a 322 00:17:49,280 --> 00:17:54,200 Speaker 1: real sobering look at the effectiveness of ejection seats and 323 00:17:54,440 --> 00:17:59,080 Speaker 1: ejection capsules, uh to determine, like to what center they 324 00:17:59,119 --> 00:18:02,160 Speaker 1: able to save live in the event of you know, catastrophe. 325 00:18:03,640 --> 00:18:06,000 Speaker 1: In the case of the Hustler, it looked like there's 326 00:18:06,040 --> 00:18:09,840 Speaker 1: something like thirty ejections total, with the majority of them 327 00:18:09,920 --> 00:18:13,800 Speaker 1: being survivals. So the torture chamber by and large worked, 328 00:18:14,040 --> 00:18:15,399 Speaker 1: it would seem too. I don't I don't have a 329 00:18:15,640 --> 00:18:18,720 Speaker 1: have a particular stat on it because the database doesn't 330 00:18:18,760 --> 00:18:22,880 Speaker 1: really present the information that that. Clearly it's not it's 331 00:18:22,880 --> 00:18:26,960 Speaker 1: not a modern spreadsheets sort of format. But certainly if 332 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:28,359 Speaker 1: you really have to have an answer to that, you 333 00:18:28,400 --> 00:18:30,960 Speaker 1: can go and and count them. Um. But yeah, the 334 00:18:31,040 --> 00:18:35,320 Speaker 1: Hustler an interesting plane, a great escape capsule. Get in 335 00:18:35,400 --> 00:18:38,320 Speaker 1: that cinebyte head. Okay, let's look at another one. How 336 00:18:38,359 --> 00:18:42,159 Speaker 1: about the XP seventy Valkyrie. Oh yeah, so this this 337 00:18:42,240 --> 00:18:45,119 Speaker 1: one's really cool too. So this was a prototype for 338 00:18:45,320 --> 00:18:48,240 Speaker 1: the B seventy. And this was another beautiful delta wing 339 00:18:48,320 --> 00:18:50,720 Speaker 1: bomber of the sixties, designed to be a high altitude 340 00:18:50,840 --> 00:18:54,719 Speaker 1: mock three bomber. It never actually entered service, so visually 341 00:18:54,800 --> 00:18:57,159 Speaker 1: it's most striking feature and the one that that if 342 00:18:57,240 --> 00:18:59,520 Speaker 1: you've looked at aviation pictures in the past, you might go, oh, 343 00:18:59,640 --> 00:19:02,760 Speaker 1: that air plant, it's uh, it's probably because it has 344 00:19:02,840 --> 00:19:07,600 Speaker 1: these two large canards which acted control surfaces. Essentially imagine 345 00:19:07,640 --> 00:19:10,600 Speaker 1: the so imagine the airplane is a bird. It has 346 00:19:10,640 --> 00:19:14,879 Speaker 1: two little wings right behind its ears. Um, those are 347 00:19:14,960 --> 00:19:18,680 Speaker 1: just you know, control surfaces essentially located behind the cockpit. 348 00:19:19,520 --> 00:19:22,560 Speaker 1: Performance Wise, however, the really crazy thing about the XP 349 00:19:22,680 --> 00:19:25,040 Speaker 1: seventy was that it was designed to fold its wings 350 00:19:25,200 --> 00:19:30,200 Speaker 1: down hearing supersonic flight and ride its own shock wave 351 00:19:30,640 --> 00:19:33,480 Speaker 1: quote much as a surfer rides in ocean wave. That's 352 00:19:33,480 --> 00:19:36,600 Speaker 1: a according to the NASA dot gov fact sheet on 353 00:19:36,680 --> 00:19:39,240 Speaker 1: this aircraft. Wow. So if you look at pictures of 354 00:19:39,320 --> 00:19:42,760 Speaker 1: this aircraft, it also is very visually striking. As you say, 355 00:19:42,880 --> 00:19:45,320 Speaker 1: I thought this one looks kind of like a paper plane. 356 00:19:45,640 --> 00:19:49,840 Speaker 1: It does. Like it's very white and very thin, extremely 357 00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:52,320 Speaker 1: thin as far as the wings go, has a paper 358 00:19:52,440 --> 00:19:55,000 Speaker 1: like kind of quality to it, except that the the 359 00:19:55,320 --> 00:19:57,440 Speaker 1: of course, the middle fuselage is kind of circular, but 360 00:19:57,520 --> 00:20:00,840 Speaker 1: otherwise it's it's dead ringer for paper plane. Yeah, it 361 00:20:00,840 --> 00:20:02,480 Speaker 1: looks it looks like a paper plane or a piece 362 00:20:02,520 --> 00:20:05,880 Speaker 1: of oregony, almost like an oregony crane. Yeah, I see 363 00:20:05,960 --> 00:20:09,879 Speaker 1: that too. So this airplane design came about in a 364 00:20:09,960 --> 00:20:13,879 Speaker 1: time of uncertain future for traditional bombers, and the Kennedy 365 00:20:13,920 --> 00:20:18,000 Speaker 1: administration ended up scrapping it, so it became a research aircraft, 366 00:20:18,280 --> 00:20:22,240 Speaker 1: largely for supersonic transport research looking into the idea of 367 00:20:22,320 --> 00:20:27,480 Speaker 1: using supersonic airline or supersonic sonic transport planes. In general, 368 00:20:27,800 --> 00:20:29,840 Speaker 1: it was the right shape, it was the right size, 369 00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:33,679 Speaker 1: and even though the program was scrapped, they had two prototypes, 370 00:20:33,720 --> 00:20:38,280 Speaker 1: so you had two XP seventy Valkyries, So it was 371 00:20:38,400 --> 00:20:42,040 Speaker 1: sort of a prototype concorde. Well it was like that. 372 00:20:42,160 --> 00:20:44,639 Speaker 1: Well it was totally a bomber, but but it was 373 00:20:44,720 --> 00:20:47,800 Speaker 1: the right size and it had enough in common with 374 00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:51,440 Speaker 1: the designs that were being looked at for commercial use 375 00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:55,639 Speaker 1: that it could be used to explore the possibilities there. So, 376 00:20:55,800 --> 00:20:59,000 Speaker 1: despite some of the problems, the early flights provided data 377 00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:03,200 Speaker 1: on a number of issues acing supersonic transport. These included 378 00:21:03,200 --> 00:21:08,960 Speaker 1: aircraft noise, operational problems, control system design, uh comparison of 379 00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:12,240 Speaker 1: winternal predictions with what actually happens during the course of flight, 380 00:21:12,920 --> 00:21:16,480 Speaker 1: high ALTITA to clear air turbulence, all of these issues. 381 00:21:16,480 --> 00:21:18,280 Speaker 1: I mean, this was there was still so much to 382 00:21:18,400 --> 00:21:22,600 Speaker 1: learn at the time about supersonic flight. But this one 383 00:21:22,640 --> 00:21:25,960 Speaker 1: did have an ejection capsule. Yes, back to the main point. 384 00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:28,320 Speaker 1: The reason we're talking about is that it did feature 385 00:21:28,320 --> 00:21:31,400 Speaker 1: an injection capsule and it had a clam clam shell 386 00:21:31,440 --> 00:21:34,199 Speaker 1: design similar to that that we discussed in the Hustler. 387 00:21:34,280 --> 00:21:37,399 Speaker 1: So they're bringing back shutter face, right, Yeah, shutter faces 388 00:21:37,440 --> 00:21:40,440 Speaker 1: in action that the ideally the chair that you're in 389 00:21:41,160 --> 00:21:44,399 Speaker 1: the cockpit seat, it kind of like folds back and 390 00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:48,160 Speaker 1: then the clam shell snaps over. Uh, and it contains 391 00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:51,919 Speaker 1: survival gear oxygen systems. It also contained the flight control 392 00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:55,080 Speaker 1: stick for the pilot and um, you know, it's very 393 00:21:55,160 --> 00:21:59,640 Speaker 1: much the same idea. We We only had two of these, 394 00:22:00,440 --> 00:22:03,920 Speaker 1: so it's there's not a lot of ejection data on it. 395 00:22:04,880 --> 00:22:08,639 Speaker 1: But there is one key incident that occurred with one 396 00:22:08,680 --> 00:22:12,560 Speaker 1: of the XP seventies, and that was a tragedy involving 397 00:22:13,080 --> 00:22:15,960 Speaker 1: one of them in nineteen sixty six. June eighth, nineteen 398 00:22:16,040 --> 00:22:19,760 Speaker 1: sixty six, the second of the two XP seventies crashed 399 00:22:19,920 --> 00:22:23,280 Speaker 1: following a mid air collision with the NASA's F one 400 00:22:23,320 --> 00:22:26,840 Speaker 1: oh four in Chase plane. How did that happen? Um, 401 00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:31,159 Speaker 1: They were essentially they were they were doing photographs of 402 00:22:31,880 --> 00:22:35,159 Speaker 1: the research that was being conducted and one plane got 403 00:22:35,200 --> 00:22:38,920 Speaker 1: too close to the other. And Yeah, it was pretty 404 00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:42,520 Speaker 1: pretty terrible accident because in the course of this, Joe Walker, 405 00:22:42,720 --> 00:22:45,159 Speaker 1: the F one oh four in pilot, he died in 406 00:22:45,240 --> 00:22:48,720 Speaker 1: the accident. Um Carl Cross, who was making his first 407 00:22:48,800 --> 00:22:51,240 Speaker 1: flight in the XP seventy, was unable to eject and 408 00:22:51,320 --> 00:22:55,200 Speaker 1: he died in the crash. North American test pilot Al White, 409 00:22:55,640 --> 00:22:58,840 Speaker 1: who had been with the XP seventy project since the beginning, 410 00:22:59,160 --> 00:23:03,320 Speaker 1: he act. He say he ejected in the capsule, but 411 00:23:03,800 --> 00:23:08,080 Speaker 1: he received serious injuries in the process because the clam 412 00:23:08,200 --> 00:23:11,000 Speaker 1: shell crushed his arm. So his arm was outside of 413 00:23:11,080 --> 00:23:14,200 Speaker 1: the clam shell and it was crushed. That is something 414 00:23:14,280 --> 00:23:17,760 Speaker 1: I've read about and these, uh, these aviation eject capsules, 415 00:23:17,880 --> 00:23:20,440 Speaker 1: is that they tend to if they close over you, 416 00:23:20,520 --> 00:23:23,680 Speaker 1: they have to close with extreme force. Uh, And so 417 00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:27,439 Speaker 1: you're always at risk of having injury from the actual 418 00:23:27,560 --> 00:23:31,879 Speaker 1: closing process of the capsule. Yeah, and certainly, you know, 419 00:23:32,680 --> 00:23:35,080 Speaker 1: going through that A that A that ejection website that 420 00:23:35,119 --> 00:23:38,880 Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier. You see this with with countless ejections. 421 00:23:39,560 --> 00:23:44,480 Speaker 1: Capsules are not where Sometimes individuals survive, sometimes they don't. 422 00:23:44,560 --> 00:23:47,200 Speaker 1: Sometimes they are minor, sometimes they are severe injuries that 423 00:23:47,240 --> 00:23:50,560 Speaker 1: are entailed in the course of escaping that aircraft. Okay, 424 00:23:50,600 --> 00:23:53,040 Speaker 1: let's look at another one. How about the General Dynamics 425 00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:56,840 Speaker 1: F one eleven ard Vark name, yes, the ard Vark, 426 00:23:56,960 --> 00:23:59,520 Speaker 1: this one. This one is a great, great aircraft. This 427 00:23:59,600 --> 00:24:01,680 Speaker 1: was one was one of always one of my favorites. 428 00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:05,960 Speaker 1: So this one was in service seven through for the 429 00:24:06,040 --> 00:24:08,800 Speaker 1: US Air Force. Of course, five hundred and sixty three 430 00:24:08,880 --> 00:24:12,159 Speaker 1: were produced, and uh it was. It was always a 431 00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:15,600 Speaker 1: favorite airplane of mind growing up because in probably in 432 00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:17,320 Speaker 1: part because I did have a toy version of it. 433 00:24:17,840 --> 00:24:20,240 Speaker 1: There you go, if you have that physical manifestation of 434 00:24:20,320 --> 00:24:21,800 Speaker 1: the thing as a kid, you can't help it be 435 00:24:21,800 --> 00:24:24,000 Speaker 1: a little more into it. But it was also just 436 00:24:24,200 --> 00:24:26,000 Speaker 1: like a little bit like a like it was just 437 00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:28,399 Speaker 1: a weird plane. It stood out from the other jets. 438 00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:32,280 Speaker 1: It effectively came off like a larger bomber version of 439 00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:34,639 Speaker 1: the F four Team Tomcat. The of course, you know 440 00:24:34,840 --> 00:24:36,840 Speaker 1: the top gun plane for anyone out there is not 441 00:24:37,520 --> 00:24:41,160 Speaker 1: not that familiar with with your jets, variable sweep wings 442 00:24:41,320 --> 00:24:45,560 Speaker 1: and coolest of all, kandem seating for the two man crew. Okay, 443 00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:47,920 Speaker 1: so if you have if you have top gun in mind, 444 00:24:47,960 --> 00:24:50,479 Speaker 1: of course you're going to imagine front and back seating 445 00:24:50,640 --> 00:24:53,200 Speaker 1: for the pilot and what the gunner? What are the 446 00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:56,240 Speaker 1: two people? I don't know my top gun, but yeah, 447 00:24:56,320 --> 00:24:58,680 Speaker 1: you'll have one in front and one directly behind. Yeah, 448 00:24:58,720 --> 00:25:00,639 Speaker 1: with multiple crews, you know you're off and talking about 449 00:25:00,720 --> 00:25:05,520 Speaker 1: the pilot, UM a navigator, pilot, co pilot, bombity or 450 00:25:05,560 --> 00:25:07,240 Speaker 1: you know, there are all these different roles depending on 451 00:25:07,320 --> 00:25:10,600 Speaker 1: what the airplane is, and in your your sleeker faster 452 00:25:10,760 --> 00:25:14,640 Speaker 1: designs such as fighter planes and interceptors and fighter bombers, 453 00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:18,160 Speaker 1: in some cases you're gonna have you know, one in front, 454 00:25:18,240 --> 00:25:22,000 Speaker 1: one behind. UM. Also with trainers. Trainer aircraft are often 455 00:25:22,119 --> 00:25:25,480 Speaker 1: like that. But this one had pilot co pilot pilot 456 00:25:25,520 --> 00:25:28,520 Speaker 1: setting right next to each other, just like a love seat, 457 00:25:28,640 --> 00:25:31,760 Speaker 1: just like a love seat. And uh, the cool part 458 00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:34,560 Speaker 1: here was the crew didn't have ejection seats or an 459 00:25:34,720 --> 00:25:38,639 Speaker 1: escape pod. Even the entire cabin of the F one 460 00:25:38,680 --> 00:25:42,320 Speaker 1: eleven ard Vark was an escape capsule, the McDonald escaped capsule, 461 00:25:42,359 --> 00:25:45,720 Speaker 1: and it looks something like a star treks uh shuttlecraft. Wow. 462 00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:49,119 Speaker 1: So we will see this idea repeated in a few minutes. 463 00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:53,320 Speaker 1: So when talking about some proposals for passenger aircraft, it 464 00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:56,840 Speaker 1: was so, yeah, think of think of a shuttlecraft. It 465 00:25:56,960 --> 00:25:59,359 Speaker 1: was self righting, it was water tight, it could be 466 00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:02,760 Speaker 1: used as a flow tation device. Um. So sorry you 467 00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:05,639 Speaker 1: said self righting. Not that's not riding with a d 468 00:26:05,800 --> 00:26:08,640 Speaker 1: but self righting, as in it would bob right side up. Yeah. 469 00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:10,560 Speaker 1: So it's a pretty cool little capsule. I mean, it 470 00:26:10,680 --> 00:26:14,280 Speaker 1: was the it was it was the entire crew cabin 471 00:26:14,359 --> 00:26:17,280 Speaker 1: really and so so how did it work? Well, if 472 00:26:17,320 --> 00:26:20,120 Speaker 1: we look to ejection history dot org dot UK, which 473 00:26:20,200 --> 00:26:23,360 Speaker 1: is the leading source of information on this sort of thing, um, 474 00:26:23,800 --> 00:26:26,919 Speaker 1: looks like there were about over a hundred injections logged 475 00:26:26,960 --> 00:26:30,000 Speaker 1: for the F one eleven during the course of its tenure, 476 00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:32,239 Speaker 1: and the survival rate looks pretty good. But again, it's 477 00:26:32,280 --> 00:26:33,840 Speaker 1: it's kind of sobering to look at a lot of 478 00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:36,280 Speaker 1: this data, especially when you can see the pictures of 479 00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:40,480 Speaker 1: the pilots that were involved. Sometimes the survivors sometimes um 480 00:26:40,960 --> 00:26:45,360 Speaker 1: casualties because you can you can have this great ejection 481 00:26:45,400 --> 00:26:48,520 Speaker 1: system in place, But you're still talking again about really 482 00:26:48,600 --> 00:26:53,399 Speaker 1: dangerous situations, uh, really parallel situations with a malfunctioning or 483 00:26:53,480 --> 00:26:56,720 Speaker 1: crashing aircraft. Sometimes it's in a war zone, and we're 484 00:26:56,720 --> 00:26:59,280 Speaker 1: talking about everything from bird strike that's when an airplane 485 00:26:59,320 --> 00:27:04,800 Speaker 1: strikes a bird, which can have just cataclysmic uh results 486 00:27:04,840 --> 00:27:07,520 Speaker 1: on the aircraft. You wouldn't think so, but yeah, I 487 00:27:07,560 --> 00:27:10,199 Speaker 1: mean the high speed bird a high speed plane, uh 488 00:27:10,800 --> 00:27:13,480 Speaker 1: versus and that meets a you know, the canopy of 489 00:27:13,520 --> 00:27:17,840 Speaker 1: the plane or the engine, So you have a bird strike, crashes, collisions, 490 00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:20,000 Speaker 1: engine problems. All these things happen in the course of 491 00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:23,840 Speaker 1: a plane's tenure of it, you know, is actually utilized 492 00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:26,680 Speaker 1: over the course of a decade or longer um. And 493 00:27:26,800 --> 00:27:31,080 Speaker 1: sometimes the sometimes the stories are just like fatally short, 494 00:27:31,200 --> 00:27:33,080 Speaker 1: you know, it's just like the plane had a malfunction 495 00:27:33,119 --> 00:27:35,600 Speaker 1: and it crashed and there's no sign that even an 496 00:27:35,640 --> 00:27:38,840 Speaker 1: ejection was even attempted. It just happened so fast that 497 00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:41,760 Speaker 1: other times they're pretty remarkable. There's a listing for a 498 00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:45,520 Speaker 1: in an October seven, nineteen seventy six ejection with the 499 00:27:45,680 --> 00:27:49,560 Speaker 1: ard Vark uh and it says quote capsule was fired 500 00:27:49,680 --> 00:27:52,399 Speaker 1: with the airplane about sixty degrees nose down at a 501 00:27:52,520 --> 00:27:56,879 Speaker 1: hundred feet or less. Uh So, like the it seems 502 00:27:56,880 --> 00:27:58,760 Speaker 1: like if this is in the last second, this may 503 00:27:58,800 --> 00:28:02,399 Speaker 1: even be past the last second. Yeah, and they but 504 00:28:02,480 --> 00:28:05,640 Speaker 1: they actually both crew members survived. There were no senti 505 00:28:05,720 --> 00:28:07,479 Speaker 1: for serious injuries. So this one was one that sort 506 00:28:07,520 --> 00:28:09,879 Speaker 1: of stood out as an anomaly of like a it 507 00:28:10,040 --> 00:28:11,640 Speaker 1: really seemed like it was going to go the other way, 508 00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:15,560 Speaker 1: but they survived thanks to the escape capsule. Okay, how 509 00:28:15,600 --> 00:28:19,840 Speaker 1: about one more? What about the Rockwell B one A Lancer. Yeah, 510 00:28:19,920 --> 00:28:22,840 Speaker 1: this one is this is another beautiful plane. I guess 511 00:28:22,920 --> 00:28:25,000 Speaker 1: kind of there's kind of an evolution here, and this 512 00:28:25,200 --> 00:28:27,960 Speaker 1: is the form that we still find in service today. 513 00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:30,879 Speaker 1: Uh and uh it's it's likely going to remain in 514 00:28:30,960 --> 00:28:34,760 Speaker 1: service tool around twenty I think of the current estimates. Here. 515 00:28:34,920 --> 00:28:38,600 Speaker 1: The U. S. Air Force uh B one Lancer, So 516 00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:41,840 Speaker 1: the Air Force had four B one a's built. This 517 00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:44,680 Speaker 1: was the first model and uh then they ended up 518 00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:47,000 Speaker 1: doing a hundred B one bs. The first three B 519 00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:50,600 Speaker 1: one as featured an escape capsule that ejected the cockpit 520 00:28:50,760 --> 00:28:53,560 Speaker 1: with all four crew members inside it, much like we 521 00:28:53,640 --> 00:28:55,920 Speaker 1: saw with the Ard vark, so just you know that 522 00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:59,040 Speaker 1: the next evolution of the art, VARK was present here. 523 00:28:59,480 --> 00:29:02,120 Speaker 1: But then B one A was equipped with a conventional 524 00:29:02,160 --> 00:29:05,080 Speaker 1: ejectian seat for for each crew member, so they ended 525 00:29:05,160 --> 00:29:09,920 Speaker 1: up scrapping the the full escape capsule design in favor 526 00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:13,720 Speaker 1: of more traditional ejection seats. So that was kind of 527 00:29:13,800 --> 00:29:17,600 Speaker 1: like the end of the the golden age of the 528 00:29:17,760 --> 00:29:20,000 Speaker 1: ejection capsule, I guess you would say, at least from 529 00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:24,560 Speaker 1: a military aviation standpoint. And apparently it was only used once. 530 00:29:24,840 --> 00:29:28,320 Speaker 1: I mean, you only had what three aircraft that featured it, 531 00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:34,800 Speaker 1: But there was an August incident escape pod parachutes didn't 532 00:29:34,840 --> 00:29:38,040 Speaker 1: deploy fully in the module impacted in a right nose 533 00:29:38,160 --> 00:29:40,920 Speaker 1: a low altitude. One crew member was killed, two others 534 00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:44,160 Speaker 1: were severely injured. So the one use of it, again 535 00:29:44,280 --> 00:29:47,920 Speaker 1: during its limited rollout, uh was was very much a 536 00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:50,239 Speaker 1: mixed back. So one of the big takeaways from all 537 00:29:50,280 --> 00:29:53,640 Speaker 1: these stories in military aviation history is yet again we 538 00:29:53,880 --> 00:29:56,560 Speaker 1: said this earlier, but even if you make it into 539 00:29:56,600 --> 00:29:59,720 Speaker 1: the escape pod, it's not a sure thing. It's still 540 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:02,840 Speaker 1: a dangerous world out there between you and the ground. 541 00:30:03,320 --> 00:30:07,280 Speaker 1: I guess most of the dangers at the ground. But yeah, 542 00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:09,200 Speaker 1: but but yeah, it's a dangerous environment. You're not really 543 00:30:09,240 --> 00:30:11,680 Speaker 1: supposed to be up there, and the thing that got 544 00:30:11,760 --> 00:30:15,760 Speaker 1: you there is malfunctioning or crashing. So Joe, I flew 545 00:30:15,800 --> 00:30:18,720 Speaker 1: a few times this year. Uh where was my injection seat? 546 00:30:19,680 --> 00:30:21,880 Speaker 1: It's a total bummer, isn't it that you do not 547 00:30:22,120 --> 00:30:25,840 Speaker 1: get an escape pod in a regular passenger aircraft? I 548 00:30:25,960 --> 00:30:29,280 Speaker 1: want my money back. No, actually I don't, because I 549 00:30:29,400 --> 00:30:32,840 Speaker 1: arrived safely and so you know, it's fine. Uh So, 550 00:30:33,120 --> 00:30:35,360 Speaker 1: there are a few patents that there. There is a 551 00:30:35,480 --> 00:30:37,480 Speaker 1: reason that I'm going to get to in a minute 552 00:30:37,520 --> 00:30:40,520 Speaker 1: why you don't usually see this in passenger aircraft. But 553 00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:43,080 Speaker 1: first I just want to look at a couple of examples. 554 00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:46,520 Speaker 1: One is a patent that I found filed January two 555 00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:52,880 Speaker 1: eleven by Tatiana ivan Ivna dimon Chuk, who wrote this 556 00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:56,760 Speaker 1: patent for quote method for the mass emergency evacuation of 557 00:30:56,840 --> 00:31:01,680 Speaker 1: passengers from air transport and aeroplane with equipment for rescuing 558 00:31:01,760 --> 00:31:05,800 Speaker 1: passengers in an emergency situation. I have to just comment 559 00:31:05,920 --> 00:31:08,480 Speaker 1: reading a bunch of patents for this episode. Man, the 560 00:31:08,640 --> 00:31:12,760 Speaker 1: writing style of most patents is so awful. It as 561 00:31:12,800 --> 00:31:15,880 Speaker 1: if they're written explicitly to make it hard to picture 562 00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:18,880 Speaker 1: what they're talking about. Yeah, thank goodness there there are 563 00:31:18,960 --> 00:31:21,720 Speaker 1: often visuals to go with it, because otherwise it would 564 00:31:21,720 --> 00:31:23,400 Speaker 1: be very difficult to get the idea from some of 565 00:31:23,440 --> 00:31:25,680 Speaker 1: the writeups. Yeah, I don't mean to call this one 566 00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:29,240 Speaker 1: out in particular, but it also the writing wasn't amazing 567 00:31:29,400 --> 00:31:31,880 Speaker 1: on it. But yeah, that that's sort of across the board. 568 00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:35,160 Speaker 1: But anyway, basically what is envisioned in this one is 569 00:31:35,240 --> 00:31:38,080 Speaker 1: that the airplane would have rows of seats that are 570 00:31:38,320 --> 00:31:42,800 Speaker 1: enclosable into smaller capsules, and then these capsules would sit 571 00:31:42,960 --> 00:31:47,640 Speaker 1: on some kind of guide track inside the airplane fuselage, 572 00:31:48,160 --> 00:31:51,440 Speaker 1: and when an emergency occurs, the hatches and the fuselage 573 00:31:51,600 --> 00:31:55,720 Speaker 1: pop open and these seat containing capsules would be ejected. 574 00:31:55,840 --> 00:31:58,120 Speaker 1: According to one diagram I saw, it looks like they 575 00:31:58,160 --> 00:32:00,640 Speaker 1: would sort of blast out to the bottom of the 576 00:32:00,720 --> 00:32:04,960 Speaker 1: plane and an angle diagonal to the plane's movement. But yeah, 577 00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:07,560 Speaker 1: I have not seen anyone claiming that they're going to 578 00:32:07,720 --> 00:32:12,040 Speaker 1: make a passenger plane incorporating these designs. Yeah, this particular 579 00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:15,080 Speaker 1: design it it basically think of there being a tiny 580 00:32:15,240 --> 00:32:18,800 Speaker 1: train inside the airplane, like little train cars, little subway 581 00:32:18,840 --> 00:32:21,480 Speaker 1: cars that have your your seats in them right, and 582 00:32:21,560 --> 00:32:27,200 Speaker 1: then if if, if, if necessary, if the situation gets dire, 583 00:32:27,560 --> 00:32:30,560 Speaker 1: each of those train cars may be pooped out of 584 00:32:30,600 --> 00:32:34,120 Speaker 1: the airplane. Oh it's a good one, okay, So I 585 00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:37,320 Speaker 1: found another one also that there were some reports about 586 00:32:37,360 --> 00:32:40,760 Speaker 1: another supposed design for a passenger plane escape system, this 587 00:32:40,880 --> 00:32:46,280 Speaker 1: one by a Ukrainian engineer named Vladimir Nikolayevitch Tatarenko, and 588 00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:50,040 Speaker 1: there are some YouTube videos demonstrating the concept, complete with 589 00:32:50,120 --> 00:32:54,320 Speaker 1: inspiring quotes by Confucius and Einstein and uh so. The 590 00:32:54,400 --> 00:32:57,880 Speaker 1: demonstration in the videos shows that under this design, what 591 00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:01,080 Speaker 1: would happen is that the lower part of the fuselage 592 00:33:01,920 --> 00:33:06,320 Speaker 1: detaches from the engine and pilot section of the plane, 593 00:33:06,920 --> 00:33:10,680 Speaker 1: including the entire passenger cabin and luggage storage. So if 594 00:33:10,720 --> 00:33:13,320 Speaker 1: you imagine, it's like you get into the cabin of 595 00:33:13,400 --> 00:33:17,000 Speaker 1: the plane, and that is a detachable section of the 596 00:33:17,080 --> 00:33:20,880 Speaker 1: plane that attaches to the wings and the pilot's area 597 00:33:21,760 --> 00:33:25,200 Speaker 1: through through a connector, and so an emergency happens, the 598 00:33:25,520 --> 00:33:28,880 Speaker 1: cabin of the plane essentially just detaches from the fuselage 599 00:33:28,960 --> 00:33:32,520 Speaker 1: and comes off. Parachutes extend from containers on the top 600 00:33:32,600 --> 00:33:35,400 Speaker 1: of the escape capsule, and the cabin comes down for 601 00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:39,960 Speaker 1: a soft landing on inflatable cushions. I have to say, 602 00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:42,400 Speaker 1: I'm I'm a little iffy about this one because I've 603 00:33:42,440 --> 00:33:45,520 Speaker 1: mostly seen it covered on like viral news type sites. 604 00:33:45,600 --> 00:33:48,480 Speaker 1: You know about these inventions, Robert. Sometimes you see inventions 605 00:33:48,880 --> 00:33:52,160 Speaker 1: that are covered in trade press for whatever field the 606 00:33:52,240 --> 00:33:55,280 Speaker 1: inventions in, and they're covered in mainstream news, and then 607 00:33:55,320 --> 00:33:57,000 Speaker 1: there are the other ones that get picked up on 608 00:33:57,160 --> 00:34:00,640 Speaker 1: like ain't that cool dot com? Or something. This one's 609 00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:04,480 Speaker 1: more of the latter type, and uh, and so I 610 00:34:04,560 --> 00:34:07,880 Speaker 1: haven't seen it in serious sources covering aviation technology. What 611 00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:10,560 Speaker 1: little coverage it has gotten in mainstream press appears to 612 00:34:10,640 --> 00:34:14,000 Speaker 1: be pretty skeptical of the practicality of the model. So 613 00:34:14,080 --> 00:34:17,640 Speaker 1: I wouldn't expect to be seeing this implemented in any 614 00:34:17,760 --> 00:34:23,000 Speaker 1: real airplanes. But there's a larger problem here, which is 615 00:34:23,080 --> 00:34:25,480 Speaker 1: that even if you could make escape pods on passenger 616 00:34:25,600 --> 00:34:29,879 Speaker 1: aircraft work, which with enough motivation and investment, I'm sure 617 00:34:29,920 --> 00:34:32,680 Speaker 1: you probably could, I don't think that any of these 618 00:34:32,719 --> 00:34:35,120 Speaker 1: are ever going to become a real thing. One of 619 00:34:35,160 --> 00:34:38,880 Speaker 1: the first problems is that when you picture the capsules 620 00:34:38,960 --> 00:34:42,560 Speaker 1: coming off, coming out of the plane and then deploying 621 00:34:42,680 --> 00:34:46,840 Speaker 1: parachutes to parachute down to safety. That might help sometimes, 622 00:34:47,040 --> 00:34:51,800 Speaker 1: but the vast majority of airplane accidents happened during takeoff, ascent, 623 00:34:52,160 --> 00:34:55,600 Speaker 1: decent and landing, when you are nearer to the ground, 624 00:34:55,840 --> 00:34:59,080 Speaker 1: and parachute supported capsules are just going to be less 625 00:34:59,200 --> 00:35:02,360 Speaker 1: likely to me to happy end, we mentioned earlier problems 626 00:35:02,400 --> 00:35:04,839 Speaker 1: about like trying to deploy a parachute when you're very 627 00:35:04,880 --> 00:35:07,600 Speaker 1: close to the ground, it doesn't usually work. Right, And 628 00:35:07,800 --> 00:35:10,160 Speaker 1: think back to all these the capsules we discussed so far. 629 00:35:10,200 --> 00:35:13,560 Speaker 1: In military aviation, these are rejection capsules. These are essentially 630 00:35:13,640 --> 00:35:17,439 Speaker 1: fancy ejection seats, in versions of the ejection seat, which 631 00:35:17,480 --> 00:35:21,160 Speaker 1: of course launches the individual away from the plane generally 632 00:35:21,800 --> 00:35:25,120 Speaker 1: upward um. And that I mean like, for instance, that 633 00:35:25,560 --> 00:35:28,440 Speaker 1: F one eleven example we saw where there is exceedingly 634 00:35:28,560 --> 00:35:32,520 Speaker 1: low altitude, but the reason they survived is probably because 635 00:35:32,640 --> 00:35:35,360 Speaker 1: it launched the capsule up far enough for the parachute 636 00:35:35,400 --> 00:35:38,000 Speaker 1: to come into play for them. Right. Uh So, I 637 00:35:38,080 --> 00:35:42,040 Speaker 1: found a twenty sixteen Boeing statistical summary compiling all the 638 00:35:42,120 --> 00:35:46,560 Speaker 1: fatal commercial aircraft accidents in in the world since while 639 00:35:46,600 --> 00:35:49,400 Speaker 1: it was between two thousand and six and and this 640 00:35:49,520 --> 00:35:52,239 Speaker 1: only includes things that you would actually consider accidents, not 641 00:35:52,400 --> 00:35:56,360 Speaker 1: things like terrorists, bombs or missile strikes. But during this period, 642 00:35:56,600 --> 00:36:01,200 Speaker 1: only twelve percent of their fatal accident and two percent 643 00:36:01,360 --> 00:36:06,120 Speaker 1: of onboard fatalities occurred during the cruise portion of the flight, 644 00:36:06,239 --> 00:36:08,320 Speaker 1: which is what this is when the plane is that 645 00:36:08,400 --> 00:36:10,840 Speaker 1: it's regular flying altitude. Most of the time you're in 646 00:36:10,920 --> 00:36:12,759 Speaker 1: the air, is the cruise section. Yeah, this isn't the 647 00:36:12,800 --> 00:36:14,600 Speaker 1: part where you can get up, walk around, go to 648 00:36:14,680 --> 00:36:17,560 Speaker 1: the bathroom, and become increasingly annoyed at the other people 649 00:36:17,600 --> 00:36:19,960 Speaker 1: on the plane. Right, so this is going to be 650 00:36:20,080 --> 00:36:23,560 Speaker 1: the majority of your flight time, but the minority of 651 00:36:23,719 --> 00:36:26,960 Speaker 1: where accidents occur, the vast minority, About eighteen percent of 652 00:36:27,040 --> 00:36:31,080 Speaker 1: fatal accidents and fourteen percent of onboard fatalities occurred during 653 00:36:31,120 --> 00:36:35,080 Speaker 1: takeoff and climb, and about fifty nine percent of fatal 654 00:36:35,160 --> 00:36:38,560 Speaker 1: accidents and sixty one percent of onboard fatalities happened during 655 00:36:38,640 --> 00:36:41,640 Speaker 1: descent and landing. And so one thing you know is 656 00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:43,920 Speaker 1: from these stats is that if you do happen to 657 00:36:44,040 --> 00:36:47,400 Speaker 1: be in the rare midflight accident, it is more likely 658 00:36:47,480 --> 00:36:49,759 Speaker 1: to be a fatal one. That's kind of intuitive, right 659 00:36:49,920 --> 00:36:52,080 Speaker 1: since it's twelve percent of the accidents, but a kind 660 00:36:52,120 --> 00:36:55,960 Speaker 1: of percent of the fatalities, but they just happen a 661 00:36:56,040 --> 00:36:59,279 Speaker 1: lot less often. Most of the bad stuff happens near 662 00:36:59,520 --> 00:37:02,239 Speaker 1: or on the ground, sometimes that you haven't even left 663 00:37:02,239 --> 00:37:05,120 Speaker 1: the ground. You're on the runway when something bad happens. Uh, 664 00:37:05,200 --> 00:37:06,879 Speaker 1: And the closer y ared of the ground, the more 665 00:37:07,120 --> 00:37:12,560 Speaker 1: useless a proposition like these escape pods becomes. Overall, flying 666 00:37:12,600 --> 00:37:16,120 Speaker 1: in airplanes is incredibly safe. I know you've probably heard 667 00:37:16,160 --> 00:37:18,800 Speaker 1: stats about this before, how it's more dangerous to be 668 00:37:18,880 --> 00:37:21,520 Speaker 1: in a car than an aircraft by pretty much every 669 00:37:21,600 --> 00:37:23,640 Speaker 1: measure you can look at. I think this is true. 670 00:37:24,239 --> 00:37:26,600 Speaker 1: So there are different ways to estimate the difference. But 671 00:37:26,760 --> 00:37:28,839 Speaker 1: here's one thing I found that puts it in terms 672 00:37:28,880 --> 00:37:33,200 Speaker 1: of lifetime risks. So the US National Safety Council used 673 00:37:33,239 --> 00:37:36,680 Speaker 1: its yearly injury statistics. They do this every year to 674 00:37:36,920 --> 00:37:40,640 Speaker 1: compile and odds of dying chart, which is a good idea, right. 675 00:37:40,920 --> 00:37:45,080 Speaker 1: It ranks your lifetime chances of being killed by particular things. 676 00:37:45,640 --> 00:37:48,120 Speaker 1: So in they claim that your odds of dying in 677 00:37:48,200 --> 00:37:51,279 Speaker 1: a plane crash are one in ninety six thousand, five 678 00:37:51,400 --> 00:37:54,600 Speaker 1: hundred and sixty six. And according to their data, you 679 00:37:54,680 --> 00:37:58,160 Speaker 1: are much more likely to be killed by electricution that's 680 00:37:58,239 --> 00:38:01,760 Speaker 1: one in twelve thousand, two hundred, by a b wasp 681 00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:05,440 Speaker 1: or hornet sting that's one in fifty five thousand or so, 682 00:38:06,239 --> 00:38:08,440 Speaker 1: or in a motor vehicle crash, which is about one 683 00:38:08,480 --> 00:38:11,040 Speaker 1: in a hundred and twelve. And I might add that 684 00:38:11,160 --> 00:38:13,520 Speaker 1: in two thousand and eight, the same organization rated your 685 00:38:13,600 --> 00:38:16,480 Speaker 1: lifetime chances of dying in a space or air travel 686 00:38:16,560 --> 00:38:20,680 Speaker 1: accident at one in seven thousand, one seventy eight. So 687 00:38:20,840 --> 00:38:24,560 Speaker 1: things seem to be vastly improving. So your odds of 688 00:38:24,640 --> 00:38:27,960 Speaker 1: dying in an air travel accident are already exceedingly low. 689 00:38:28,360 --> 00:38:31,080 Speaker 1: And if you are in a fatal plane accident, it's 690 00:38:31,160 --> 00:38:34,360 Speaker 1: most likely to happen on the runway or at low altitude, 691 00:38:34,680 --> 00:38:37,680 Speaker 1: where an escape pod attached to parachutes is much less 692 00:38:37,719 --> 00:38:40,720 Speaker 1: likely to help you. UH. The parachutes just probably wouldn't 693 00:38:40,719 --> 00:38:43,120 Speaker 1: have time to unfold and decelerate you before you crash 694 00:38:43,200 --> 00:38:45,439 Speaker 1: into the ground or catch on fire. But of course, 695 00:38:45,520 --> 00:38:48,279 Speaker 1: another thing to consider is economics. We mentioned at the 696 00:38:48,280 --> 00:38:52,600 Speaker 1: beginning the economics of the military considerations. UH. Adding escape 697 00:38:52,600 --> 00:38:56,000 Speaker 1: pods to passenger planes means building new planes and making 698 00:38:56,120 --> 00:39:00,200 Speaker 1: them much heavier and bulkier, which decreases passenger pay load 699 00:39:00,239 --> 00:39:03,840 Speaker 1: capacity increases fuel costs. If you want an airplane with 700 00:39:03,880 --> 00:39:05,640 Speaker 1: an escape pod, I think you're going to need to 701 00:39:05,680 --> 00:39:08,320 Speaker 1: be prepared to pay the nine thousand dollars per ticket 702 00:39:08,440 --> 00:39:12,920 Speaker 1: or whatever it ends up costing. One more thing I 703 00:39:12,960 --> 00:39:16,440 Speaker 1: wanted to consider. I found an article in a publication 704 00:39:16,520 --> 00:39:19,640 Speaker 1: called Defense One, which is from Atlantic Media, called why 705 00:39:19,800 --> 00:39:23,440 Speaker 1: your plane can't have an escape pod? And this offered 706 00:39:23,480 --> 00:39:25,880 Speaker 1: one thing I hadn't thought of that The author of 707 00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:29,120 Speaker 1: this spoke to somebody named David Aiken who's director of 708 00:39:29,200 --> 00:39:33,760 Speaker 1: Space Systems, the Space System's Laboratory at the University of Maryland, 709 00:39:34,320 --> 00:39:36,640 Speaker 1: and Aikin said, quote, you have to be careful you 710 00:39:36,760 --> 00:39:40,759 Speaker 1: don't cause an accident because of an inadvertent actuation of 711 00:39:40,880 --> 00:39:44,880 Speaker 1: the safety system. It's an accident that wouldn't happen without 712 00:39:44,960 --> 00:39:47,840 Speaker 1: the safety system. That didn't even cross my mind. But 713 00:39:47,920 --> 00:39:50,399 Speaker 1: of course that's the case, right. You could have lots 714 00:39:50,600 --> 00:39:53,960 Speaker 1: because every time you activate an ejector system, you are 715 00:39:54,600 --> 00:40:00,160 Speaker 1: increasing your likelihood of death in an ejection incident. And uh, 716 00:40:00,360 --> 00:40:02,800 Speaker 1: and the chance of you dying in a passenger plane 717 00:40:02,880 --> 00:40:04,840 Speaker 1: is already so low. It just does not seem like 718 00:40:04,920 --> 00:40:07,880 Speaker 1: a good cost benefit trade off. Yeah. I mean, an 719 00:40:07,920 --> 00:40:11,040 Speaker 1: ejection seat or an ejection capsule is an incredibly dangerous 720 00:40:11,480 --> 00:40:15,160 Speaker 1: device to have. Um. I believe if you go to 721 00:40:15,200 --> 00:40:17,120 Speaker 1: a you go to an air show and somebody say 722 00:40:17,160 --> 00:40:20,560 Speaker 1: flies in a MiG or or some sort of you know, 723 00:40:21,480 --> 00:40:25,759 Speaker 1: older Now, a non military craft, if it had an 724 00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:28,560 Speaker 1: ejection seat in its previous life, it probably does not 725 00:40:28,719 --> 00:40:31,520 Speaker 1: have one today because it's just not the kind of 726 00:40:31,600 --> 00:40:36,120 Speaker 1: thing that a non military craft should have. One last 727 00:40:36,160 --> 00:40:39,279 Speaker 1: thing about passenger planes. All those movies that show Air 728 00:40:39,400 --> 00:40:42,319 Speaker 1: Force one with an escape pod, the best of course 729 00:40:42,400 --> 00:40:44,920 Speaker 1: being as we mentioned earlier, Escape from New York. Donald 730 00:40:44,920 --> 00:40:47,560 Speaker 1: Pleasants gets in the egg and it's it's wonderful. Are 731 00:40:47,640 --> 00:40:50,560 Speaker 1: there others? Air Force one has an escape pod? Here's one? 732 00:40:50,680 --> 00:40:53,000 Speaker 1: How about the movie Air Force One? I never saw it? 733 00:40:53,120 --> 00:40:56,840 Speaker 1: Is this? Where is this Harrison Ford versus uh, Gary 734 00:40:56,880 --> 00:40:59,880 Speaker 1: Oldman and Gariel Or is it Gary? Okay? I can't remember. 735 00:41:00,560 --> 00:41:03,480 Speaker 1: I want to say it's Gary Oldman has president? Harrison 736 00:41:03,520 --> 00:41:05,880 Speaker 1: Ford is the president. Okay, he's the president. He's on 737 00:41:06,040 --> 00:41:08,440 Speaker 1: Air Force One. Some terrorists get on his plane. I 738 00:41:08,520 --> 00:41:10,760 Speaker 1: think they're led by Gary Oldman from what I remember. 739 00:41:10,800 --> 00:41:13,800 Speaker 1: They attack him. He says, get off my plane and 740 00:41:14,120 --> 00:41:16,479 Speaker 1: he fights them. And so this came out in July, 741 00:41:17,880 --> 00:41:21,480 Speaker 1: and I found a Time CNN article from that summer 742 00:41:21,760 --> 00:41:25,200 Speaker 1: reacting to the movie Air Force One and comparing its 743 00:41:25,239 --> 00:41:28,080 Speaker 1: Air Force one set to the real Air Force one. Now, 744 00:41:28,160 --> 00:41:31,319 Speaker 1: in the movie, actually the plane has an escape pod. 745 00:41:31,640 --> 00:41:34,520 Speaker 1: The article speaks to a White House aid confirms there 746 00:41:34,680 --> 00:41:36,799 Speaker 1: is no escape pod in the real Air Force one, 747 00:41:37,719 --> 00:41:41,520 Speaker 1: but apparently Bill Clinton wanted one. Well you come in. 748 00:41:41,680 --> 00:41:43,839 Speaker 1: I think they were joking, that's what they said. Well, 749 00:41:43,880 --> 00:41:45,800 Speaker 1: I mean you come back to the economic model. This 750 00:41:45,920 --> 00:41:47,680 Speaker 1: is one of the cases where it would make sense 751 00:41:47,840 --> 00:41:53,759 Speaker 1: right to have an ejection capsule for the most powerful 752 00:41:54,200 --> 00:41:56,560 Speaker 1: individual in the United States. I don't know how much 753 00:41:56,600 --> 00:42:00,319 Speaker 1: does the president cost um. I think there are there 754 00:42:00,360 --> 00:42:04,400 Speaker 1: are price tag evaluations available now on that topic. But 755 00:42:04,600 --> 00:42:07,160 Speaker 1: it makes sense that they might have one in that scenario, 756 00:42:07,239 --> 00:42:09,600 Speaker 1: But apparently they don't. However, would they let us know 757 00:42:09,760 --> 00:42:12,640 Speaker 1: if there was one? Uh, that's a good quition. Maybe 758 00:42:12,680 --> 00:42:15,200 Speaker 1: they're just psyching us out. I have heard of certain 759 00:42:15,280 --> 00:42:20,120 Speaker 1: situations with informational websites with information about Air Force One 760 00:42:21,040 --> 00:42:23,680 Speaker 1: being asked to, you know, cut down on the detail. 761 00:42:23,960 --> 00:42:27,560 Speaker 1: Really yeah, wow, interest to the great fun Uh so 762 00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:29,320 Speaker 1: I don't know. You can you can run with the 763 00:42:29,320 --> 00:42:33,920 Speaker 1: conspiracy theories there, maybe there's a secret escape pod. Alright, Well, 764 00:42:33,920 --> 00:42:35,759 Speaker 1: on that note, we're going to take a break, a 765 00:42:35,880 --> 00:42:38,400 Speaker 1: quick break for you. We're actually going to take a 766 00:42:38,440 --> 00:42:41,000 Speaker 1: break for several days, and they come back in and 767 00:42:41,080 --> 00:42:43,319 Speaker 1: finish this. So if we sound a little different, if 768 00:42:43,360 --> 00:42:45,960 Speaker 1: we sound better, healthier, if we sound worse, if you 769 00:42:46,000 --> 00:42:48,760 Speaker 1: sound a little sicker, well it's because a few days past. 770 00:42:49,080 --> 00:42:51,920 Speaker 1: But when we come back few days contemplating the torture chamber. Yes, 771 00:42:52,080 --> 00:42:53,839 Speaker 1: when we come back, though, we were going to get 772 00:42:53,920 --> 00:42:59,320 Speaker 1: into escape pods in space exploration, both actual and the 773 00:42:59,440 --> 00:43:07,080 Speaker 1: merely host. All right, we're back. So we've been talking 774 00:43:07,160 --> 00:43:12,600 Speaker 1: about aviation, escape pods, escape capsules, But what about outer space, 775 00:43:12,680 --> 00:43:16,040 Speaker 1: Like that's the next most dangerous environment. Like if if 776 00:43:16,080 --> 00:43:18,680 Speaker 1: the air, if the the upper atmosphere is not dangerous enough, 777 00:43:18,760 --> 00:43:21,399 Speaker 1: let's go beyond the upper atmosphere, let's go into orbit 778 00:43:21,760 --> 00:43:24,800 Speaker 1: and possibly rooms beyond. What do we do about escaping 779 00:43:24,880 --> 00:43:27,800 Speaker 1: those situations? Well, space is the natural home of the 780 00:43:27,960 --> 00:43:29,879 Speaker 1: escape pod, isn't it, Because if we if we see 781 00:43:29,880 --> 00:43:31,920 Speaker 1: it in sci fi most often, like that's where you 782 00:43:31,960 --> 00:43:34,440 Speaker 1: get in the capsule, you blast down to tattooing or 783 00:43:34,480 --> 00:43:37,560 Speaker 1: wherever that that. That's where we really see escape pods 784 00:43:37,680 --> 00:43:40,920 Speaker 1: come to fruition. And it is quite true that humans 785 00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:44,840 Speaker 1: have designed escape pods for spacecraft. Now, they're kind of 786 00:43:44,920 --> 00:43:46,800 Speaker 1: different than they are in the movies, because what happens 787 00:43:46,800 --> 00:43:49,800 Speaker 1: in a movie like oh, I don't know, aliens or 788 00:43:49,960 --> 00:43:52,440 Speaker 1: something like that, where there there are capsules that you're 789 00:43:52,480 --> 00:43:54,880 Speaker 1: you're in deep space and you get into a capsule 790 00:43:55,000 --> 00:43:58,279 Speaker 1: to blast away from a ship that is exploding or 791 00:43:58,400 --> 00:44:00,839 Speaker 1: infested with aliens or some thing like that, and then 792 00:44:00,920 --> 00:44:03,080 Speaker 1: what do you do? You just drift off into space. 793 00:44:03,120 --> 00:44:06,840 Speaker 1: So well, there's no I mean, that's not very useful 794 00:44:06,920 --> 00:44:09,040 Speaker 1: as far as things go right now, because we do 795 00:44:09,200 --> 00:44:12,920 Speaker 1: not have deep rescue vehicles in deep space operating between 796 00:44:13,000 --> 00:44:15,480 Speaker 1: planets and star systems. This is one of the ideas 797 00:44:15,520 --> 00:44:18,800 Speaker 1: that came up in Pandora, is that is that everyone 798 00:44:18,840 --> 00:44:20,719 Speaker 1: would would go mad on the ship and you'd go 799 00:44:20,760 --> 00:44:22,840 Speaker 1: into your escape pods and you blast off in the 800 00:44:23,000 --> 00:44:25,080 Speaker 1: escape pods, and then you just die out there because 801 00:44:25,120 --> 00:44:28,120 Speaker 1: nobody's coming to pick you up exactly. I mean, what's 802 00:44:28,160 --> 00:44:31,919 Speaker 1: the point. But there may be a point if you're 803 00:44:31,960 --> 00:44:35,239 Speaker 1: talking about stuff that stays really close to Earth, which 804 00:44:35,280 --> 00:44:38,160 Speaker 1: almost all well all of our all of our crewed 805 00:44:38,239 --> 00:44:41,320 Speaker 1: spacecraft so far have So in the early days of 806 00:44:41,400 --> 00:44:43,840 Speaker 1: crewed space flight, there were a lot of proposals for 807 00:44:44,000 --> 00:44:46,360 Speaker 1: various types of escape pods, and I actually found I 808 00:44:46,400 --> 00:44:50,040 Speaker 1: couldn't believe this. I found an issue of Popular Science 809 00:44:50,560 --> 00:44:53,720 Speaker 1: from September nineteen sixty six with an article called quote 810 00:44:53,920 --> 00:44:58,080 Speaker 1: lifeboats in Space by none other than Dr Werner von Braun, 811 00:44:58,640 --> 00:45:02,080 Speaker 1: all about the all about the subject of rescue from 812 00:45:02,200 --> 00:45:07,560 Speaker 1: orbital vehicles. Vernon von Broun, of course, the famed former 813 00:45:07,640 --> 00:45:10,800 Speaker 1: German rocket scientists who came to the US after the 814 00:45:10,840 --> 00:45:13,960 Speaker 1: war with I think you've mostly stationed out of Huntsville, Alabama, 815 00:45:14,560 --> 00:45:18,640 Speaker 1: and uh yeah, contributed a great deal to our space program. Yeah, 816 00:45:18,760 --> 00:45:22,160 Speaker 1: so von Braun says, so far, and this is nineteen 817 00:45:22,239 --> 00:45:25,360 Speaker 1: sixty six. Remember, space missions have been very safe. But 818 00:45:25,560 --> 00:45:28,239 Speaker 1: we're gonna have to expect that at some point a 819 00:45:28,480 --> 00:45:33,600 Speaker 1: crewed spacecraft will signal distress. What then, I mean, imagine 820 00:45:33,680 --> 00:45:37,239 Speaker 1: it's the nineteen sixties. What happens if there's a problem, right, 821 00:45:37,560 --> 00:45:40,359 Speaker 1: I mean, you have no recourse yet. So what he's 822 00:45:40,360 --> 00:45:44,239 Speaker 1: proposing is we need a space rescue program. So he says, 823 00:45:44,320 --> 00:45:47,320 Speaker 1: imagine a crew is stuck in a spacecraft in lower 824 00:45:47,360 --> 00:45:51,600 Speaker 1: th orbit caused by a malfunctioning retro rocket. Von Braun 825 00:45:51,760 --> 00:45:55,560 Speaker 1: essentially compares this to the situation of like a fishing 826 00:45:55,640 --> 00:45:59,040 Speaker 1: boat that gets stuck off shore at sea and starts sinking. 827 00:45:59,520 --> 00:46:01,879 Speaker 1: If you call for help and evacuate the crew into 828 00:46:01,920 --> 00:46:05,319 Speaker 1: a lifeboat, you can probably be saved. But we need 829 00:46:05,400 --> 00:46:09,520 Speaker 1: to develop the equivalent structures for rescue within space. You 830 00:46:09,640 --> 00:46:13,320 Speaker 1: need to develop lifeboats and rescue vehicles for space and 831 00:46:13,520 --> 00:46:16,719 Speaker 1: orbital flight the same way you'd have them for for 832 00:46:17,040 --> 00:46:20,160 Speaker 1: the ocean, right off the coast. So you would have 833 00:46:20,239 --> 00:46:23,800 Speaker 1: to send the orbital equivalent of a coastguard cutter essentially 834 00:46:24,120 --> 00:46:27,800 Speaker 1: to rescue a spacecraft in trouble. But that's difficult because 835 00:46:27,880 --> 00:46:30,880 Speaker 1: you have to wait for an appropriate launch window to 836 00:46:30,960 --> 00:46:33,200 Speaker 1: allow a rendezvous between the two ships. As we know 837 00:46:33,360 --> 00:46:36,680 Speaker 1: from rocket launches, you can't just fly up there, you 838 00:46:36,719 --> 00:46:37,920 Speaker 1: know what I mean. It's not like getting in a 839 00:46:38,040 --> 00:46:42,160 Speaker 1: helicopter and heading off. That you're dealing with with massively 840 00:46:42,480 --> 00:46:46,680 Speaker 1: powerful velocities and great mass, so you essentially have to 841 00:46:46,800 --> 00:46:49,879 Speaker 1: aim your gun the right way to start with. Yeah, 842 00:46:49,880 --> 00:46:52,560 Speaker 1: it's an enormous undertaking. Yeah, and so, so you've got 843 00:46:52,640 --> 00:46:55,200 Speaker 1: to get this rendezvous between the two ships. And if 844 00:46:55,280 --> 00:46:58,960 Speaker 1: the ship in distress is suffering a real emergency, it 845 00:46:59,080 --> 00:47:01,600 Speaker 1: might be too long for them to wait for somebody 846 00:47:01,680 --> 00:47:04,160 Speaker 1: on Earth to line up the trajectory of the launch 847 00:47:04,200 --> 00:47:07,759 Speaker 1: and wait for the correct launch window. Um so uh. 848 00:47:08,400 --> 00:47:11,440 Speaker 1: For example, a substantial number of spacecraft and emergencies we 849 00:47:11,600 --> 00:47:14,319 Speaker 1: just know are going to demand immediate rescue. They're going 850 00:47:14,360 --> 00:47:17,400 Speaker 1: to be very urgent. For example of von Braun. It 851 00:47:17,480 --> 00:47:20,440 Speaker 1: gives the example of fire. This was back when NASA 852 00:47:20,920 --> 00:47:25,359 Speaker 1: was using oxygen environments and in its spacecraft. That don't 853 00:47:25,400 --> 00:47:29,719 Speaker 1: do that anymore. Yeah, exactly, and it led to disasters 854 00:47:29,800 --> 00:47:32,640 Speaker 1: in the history of the space program. Or another thing 855 00:47:32,760 --> 00:47:36,160 Speaker 1: might be penetration of the spacecraft by a heavy, heavy meteoroid. 856 00:47:36,239 --> 00:47:38,719 Speaker 1: You know, you get pelted with something, it breaks through 857 00:47:38,800 --> 00:47:41,879 Speaker 1: the hull. You've got to escape immediately. You can't wait 858 00:47:41,960 --> 00:47:46,439 Speaker 1: for rescue vehicle obviously, can collision with another spacecraft would 859 00:47:46,480 --> 00:47:49,200 Speaker 1: be a problem, or toxic fumes in the cabin or 860 00:47:49,280 --> 00:47:52,960 Speaker 1: maybe radiation contamination from He gives the example of an 861 00:47:53,040 --> 00:47:58,560 Speaker 1: onboard nuclear power source. Wow, that sounds pretty awful, but anyway, 862 00:47:58,600 --> 00:48:00,839 Speaker 1: So von Broun concludes that we need to think about 863 00:48:00,880 --> 00:48:04,880 Speaker 1: the concept of lifeboats that allow spacecraft crews to escape 864 00:48:04,880 --> 00:48:08,640 Speaker 1: immediately on their own terms. So he's what he's proposing 865 00:48:08,800 --> 00:48:11,200 Speaker 1: is escape pods. And so I'm going to mention a 866 00:48:11,280 --> 00:48:15,319 Speaker 1: few that are illustrated alongside this article from sixty six. 867 00:48:15,400 --> 00:48:18,279 Speaker 1: And these illustrations are great, by the way. So one 868 00:48:18,360 --> 00:48:23,080 Speaker 1: example that he gives is the emergency cocoon, and he says, 869 00:48:23,120 --> 00:48:26,960 Speaker 1: this is under test by General Electric quote shelters shipwrecked 870 00:48:27,040 --> 00:48:31,640 Speaker 1: spaceman in an inflated fabric ball, heat insulated by outer 871 00:48:31,800 --> 00:48:36,960 Speaker 1: later outer layers of aluminiumized plastic thin silicon rubber lining 872 00:48:37,040 --> 00:48:41,600 Speaker 1: retains oxygen carried for breathing, but let's unwanted carbon dioxide 873 00:48:41,680 --> 00:48:44,320 Speaker 1: and water vapor escape. So they're putting you in a 874 00:48:44,360 --> 00:48:46,840 Speaker 1: beach ball. Yeah, it's like a survival bubble kind of 875 00:48:46,840 --> 00:48:49,360 Speaker 1: the situation. You climb into a beach ball, you blast 876 00:48:49,440 --> 00:48:51,360 Speaker 1: off from your ship, and you just float around in 877 00:48:51,480 --> 00:48:54,600 Speaker 1: orbit in your beach ball until the rescue vehicle can 878 00:48:54,840 --> 00:48:56,719 Speaker 1: come up and get to you, you know, when you 879 00:48:56,800 --> 00:48:59,160 Speaker 1: can't remain in your ship. The other one would be 880 00:48:59,640 --> 00:49:04,040 Speaker 1: the separable shelter and This looks more like a huge 881 00:49:04,520 --> 00:49:07,600 Speaker 1: thermus that everybody gets in. Right. It also reminds like 882 00:49:07,680 --> 00:49:09,840 Speaker 1: both of these remind me of like toys you can 883 00:49:09,880 --> 00:49:13,200 Speaker 1: buy it ikea. The first one of ball. This second 884 00:49:13,239 --> 00:49:15,160 Speaker 1: one is like one of these little tunnels that you get. 885 00:49:15,480 --> 00:49:17,279 Speaker 1: Who It's like a like a fabric tunnel that you 886 00:49:17,360 --> 00:49:20,440 Speaker 1: stretch out and then children can crawl through. Yeah. So 887 00:49:20,760 --> 00:49:23,560 Speaker 1: von Brand says that the separable shelter it holds five 888 00:49:23,640 --> 00:49:26,120 Speaker 1: to fifteen men and can serve as a life raft 889 00:49:26,200 --> 00:49:29,160 Speaker 1: for large space vehicles of the future. Uh, And it 890 00:49:29,239 --> 00:49:32,160 Speaker 1: has rocket self propulsion that can boost it to higher, 891 00:49:32,320 --> 00:49:35,840 Speaker 1: longer lived orbit that allows more time for rescue. So 892 00:49:36,640 --> 00:49:39,360 Speaker 1: these are more like the sort of roomy escape shuttles 893 00:49:39,400 --> 00:49:43,120 Speaker 1: of sci fi movies. But they still require ultimate rendezvous 894 00:49:43,160 --> 00:49:45,399 Speaker 1: with the rescue vehicle that's going to gather the crew 895 00:49:45,800 --> 00:49:48,600 Speaker 1: and return to Earth under its own specifications. Right, These 896 00:49:48,640 --> 00:49:50,920 Speaker 1: things are not going to re enter the Earth's atmosphere 897 00:49:51,000 --> 00:49:53,400 Speaker 1: in their current form. Right. What if you want to 898 00:49:53,440 --> 00:49:55,600 Speaker 1: make an escape pod that will get you all the 899 00:49:55,680 --> 00:49:59,239 Speaker 1: way home on your own, Well, that's gonna be a 900 00:49:59,280 --> 00:50:02,480 Speaker 1: different undertake altogether, exactly. So it makes no sense to 901 00:50:02,560 --> 00:50:06,440 Speaker 1: have a full on re entry capable space ship inside 902 00:50:06,560 --> 00:50:09,360 Speaker 1: your regular spaceship, at least on the scale that we 903 00:50:09,480 --> 00:50:13,040 Speaker 1: create spaceships right now. Because spacecraft were then and are 904 00:50:13,080 --> 00:50:17,200 Speaker 1: still now totally optimized for weight and volume like that, 905 00:50:17,320 --> 00:50:20,320 Speaker 1: they tend to be very small, pack tight, and to 906 00:50:20,440 --> 00:50:23,200 Speaker 1: have as light as possible a design to make launch 907 00:50:23,280 --> 00:50:26,839 Speaker 1: economically feasible. For really crude understanding of this, if you've 908 00:50:26,880 --> 00:50:29,480 Speaker 1: never thought about it before, just look at the size 909 00:50:29,719 --> 00:50:33,000 Speaker 1: of the orbiter vehicle itself compared to the size of 910 00:50:33,080 --> 00:50:35,399 Speaker 1: the rockets used to get it in orbit with any 911 00:50:35,440 --> 00:50:39,240 Speaker 1: given launch. It's hilarious. There's usually there's way more fuel 912 00:50:39,280 --> 00:50:43,600 Speaker 1: than there is spaceship um, and so it's not feasible 913 00:50:43,680 --> 00:50:46,879 Speaker 1: to make a spaceship within your spaceship to get you home. 914 00:50:47,480 --> 00:50:50,080 Speaker 1: So how could you make a self contained re entry 915 00:50:50,200 --> 00:50:53,239 Speaker 1: vehicle that would be very light and fit in storage 916 00:50:53,320 --> 00:50:57,040 Speaker 1: on the already cramped crew vehicles of the nineteen sixties. Well, 917 00:50:57,320 --> 00:51:01,320 Speaker 1: some geniuses in space design and aeronautics in the nineteen 918 00:51:01,360 --> 00:51:05,240 Speaker 1: sixties had a solution to this, and it was inflatable options. 919 00:51:06,719 --> 00:51:09,080 Speaker 1: So we already mentioned the beach ball floating in space, 920 00:51:09,200 --> 00:51:11,040 Speaker 1: but this would be the beach ball that you re 921 00:51:11,320 --> 00:51:14,840 Speaker 1: enter the burning atmosphere through or I guess the atmosphere 922 00:51:14,920 --> 00:51:17,280 Speaker 1: is not burning, but once you're re entering the atmosphere 923 00:51:17,400 --> 00:51:21,960 Speaker 1: high velocity, you will be burning. So the space historian 924 00:51:22,080 --> 00:51:24,520 Speaker 1: James Oberg has a good article about this from two 925 00:51:24,600 --> 00:51:28,279 Speaker 1: thousand three called the Pod People Nice Reference, published in 926 00:51:28,400 --> 00:51:30,800 Speaker 1: Air and Space magazine, and he talks about how in 927 00:51:30,840 --> 00:51:33,719 Speaker 1: the early days of the space program, researchers were experimenting 928 00:51:33,800 --> 00:51:38,120 Speaker 1: with inflatable re entry vehicles called things like the inflatable 929 00:51:38,239 --> 00:51:42,719 Speaker 1: micro meteoroid paraglider. And this wasn't originally meant as an 930 00:51:42,880 --> 00:51:45,759 Speaker 1: escape pod, but as a research probe to fly up 931 00:51:45,800 --> 00:51:48,719 Speaker 1: in space and get pelted by micro medieroids, essentially to 932 00:51:48,840 --> 00:51:51,160 Speaker 1: try to figure out, you know, what's the density of 933 00:51:51,280 --> 00:51:53,319 Speaker 1: solid objects in Earth or but if you go up 934 00:51:53,320 --> 00:51:55,359 Speaker 1: in space, how often can you expect to get hit 935 00:51:55,480 --> 00:51:58,800 Speaker 1: by hard stuff? And so there were research vehicles like this, 936 00:51:58,920 --> 00:52:02,080 Speaker 1: but they also actually it end up designing inflatable re 937 00:52:02,360 --> 00:52:07,640 Speaker 1: entry vehicles, uh with with the designs essentially resembling as 938 00:52:07,680 --> 00:52:10,600 Speaker 1: I already said, paragliders, but they would have a heat 939 00:52:10,640 --> 00:52:12,680 Speaker 1: shield of some kind so that when you re enter 940 00:52:12,760 --> 00:52:15,279 Speaker 1: the atmosphere you don't catch on fire and burn up 941 00:52:15,320 --> 00:52:19,239 Speaker 1: and explode. One of the designs he mentions is a 942 00:52:19,320 --> 00:52:22,680 Speaker 1: modified rog Gallo wing, which is basically a hang glider, 943 00:52:23,120 --> 00:52:25,960 Speaker 1: but imagine sort of a hang glider with struts that, 944 00:52:26,120 --> 00:52:29,680 Speaker 1: instead of being made of metal, are a fabric tube 945 00:52:29,800 --> 00:52:32,560 Speaker 1: that gets inflated with gas to such a high pressure 946 00:52:32,640 --> 00:52:36,520 Speaker 1: that it becomes rigid. And so that's what we're dealing with. 947 00:52:36,760 --> 00:52:39,400 Speaker 1: But back to von Braun in nine in the nineteen 948 00:52:39,480 --> 00:52:41,960 Speaker 1: sixty six because he's going to point out, uh, some 949 00:52:42,160 --> 00:52:46,240 Speaker 1: of these crazy personal reentry vehicles that were under development 950 00:52:46,320 --> 00:52:49,279 Speaker 1: at the time he was writing. The first is the 951 00:52:49,440 --> 00:52:52,640 Speaker 1: space parachute, which he says is a is a concept 952 00:52:52,719 --> 00:52:57,120 Speaker 1: from Douglas and essentially it's an ejector seat sort of 953 00:52:57,200 --> 00:52:59,920 Speaker 1: like you would see in like a like a five 954 00:53:00,080 --> 00:53:01,840 Speaker 1: or jet, you know, if you have to eject, so 955 00:53:01,920 --> 00:53:05,160 Speaker 1: you're in your seat, and then you've got a retro 956 00:53:05,360 --> 00:53:08,080 Speaker 1: rocket that you used to orient yourself to de orbit 957 00:53:08,239 --> 00:53:11,400 Speaker 1: to come down back into the atmosphere. Um. And then 958 00:53:11,520 --> 00:53:14,520 Speaker 1: you've got this what what he calls a conical drag 959 00:53:14,800 --> 00:53:18,680 Speaker 1: skirt that deploys for self stabilizing reentry, so sort of 960 00:53:18,760 --> 00:53:21,680 Speaker 1: like a bowl extends around the seat. Yeah, if you 961 00:53:21,719 --> 00:53:23,680 Speaker 1: were to take like a very small baby doll, like 962 00:53:23,800 --> 00:53:26,440 Speaker 1: one about the size of you know, uh, you know, 963 00:53:26,800 --> 00:53:29,120 Speaker 1: about half the size of your index finger, put it 964 00:53:29,200 --> 00:53:32,640 Speaker 1: in a large metal bowl or like a tinfoil boil bowl, 965 00:53:32,840 --> 00:53:36,080 Speaker 1: and drop that bowl through a planetary atmosphere. That would 966 00:53:36,120 --> 00:53:39,000 Speaker 1: be what you'd be talking about here. Yeah, so that's 967 00:53:39,000 --> 00:53:41,640 Speaker 1: scary enough. But I want to get to the most 968 00:53:41,800 --> 00:53:46,320 Speaker 1: epically horrifying space escape capsule concept that I've come across 969 00:53:46,400 --> 00:53:49,080 Speaker 1: in the in research for this episode. And so this 970 00:53:49,239 --> 00:53:52,880 Speaker 1: thing was called moose and it was developed by General 971 00:53:52,960 --> 00:53:56,560 Speaker 1: Electric in the nineteen sixties. And according to James Oberg again, 972 00:53:57,080 --> 00:54:01,560 Speaker 1: the acronym moose originally stood for He says, man out 973 00:54:01,600 --> 00:54:07,120 Speaker 1: of Space Easiest is not an actual moose because no, okay, 974 00:54:07,160 --> 00:54:10,800 Speaker 1: but because we have had actual bears in escape pops 975 00:54:10,840 --> 00:54:14,040 Speaker 1: capsules already in this episode. Thank you for reminding me, Robert. 976 00:54:14,120 --> 00:54:15,759 Speaker 1: But no, they did as far as I know, they 977 00:54:15,800 --> 00:54:18,959 Speaker 1: did not test it on any ungulates. Is a moose 978 00:54:19,000 --> 00:54:23,160 Speaker 1: and ungulate I think it is? Yeah, okay, okay, um, 979 00:54:24,280 --> 00:54:26,719 Speaker 1: I should know my ungulates. But but no, no, no, 980 00:54:26,880 --> 00:54:30,200 Speaker 1: So the name was changed to stand for it like 981 00:54:30,280 --> 00:54:32,040 Speaker 1: they back renimmed it. You know they said, No, what 982 00:54:32,280 --> 00:54:36,799 Speaker 1: actually stands for is manned orbital operations safety equipment, which 983 00:54:36,880 --> 00:54:39,920 Speaker 1: is a little tortured. But okay, yeah, I mean you 984 00:54:40,040 --> 00:54:42,200 Speaker 1: really don't want to tell an astronaut that he or 985 00:54:42,239 --> 00:54:45,560 Speaker 1: she must climb into a device that's got the word 986 00:54:45,640 --> 00:54:48,160 Speaker 1: easiest in the title. Yeah. Well, but but I like 987 00:54:48,239 --> 00:54:50,600 Speaker 1: the idea of summoning the idea of the Moose for 988 00:54:50,719 --> 00:54:53,120 Speaker 1: your entry, because the Moose is rugged, the Moose is tough, 989 00:54:53,200 --> 00:54:56,400 Speaker 1: the moose, the moose is a you know, a stubborn, 990 00:54:56,480 --> 00:55:01,359 Speaker 1: willful creature, much like the astronauts. Uh zeal for life. Right, 991 00:55:01,600 --> 00:55:03,400 Speaker 1: so uh, and I do want to warn you you 992 00:55:03,480 --> 00:55:05,840 Speaker 1: should look up the Moose to get some some of 993 00:55:05,880 --> 00:55:08,320 Speaker 1: the illustrations of this thing. But also you might have 994 00:55:08,440 --> 00:55:10,279 Speaker 1: some trouble if you're if you're trying to look it up, 995 00:55:10,360 --> 00:55:14,200 Speaker 1: because there is another NASA project called Moose that stands 996 00:55:14,280 --> 00:55:16,520 Speaker 1: for something totally different and appears to me to be 997 00:55:16,600 --> 00:55:19,640 Speaker 1: a completely different thing. So space program really as Moose 998 00:55:19,719 --> 00:55:22,040 Speaker 1: is coming out both this is a fort NASA discovered 999 00:55:22,160 --> 00:55:25,880 Speaker 1: the rich pantheon of say Egyptian deities. Why we'll just 1000 00:55:25,960 --> 00:55:29,600 Speaker 1: start we'll just plunder this, uh, this mythology and then 1001 00:55:29,640 --> 00:55:33,240 Speaker 1: we don't have two things called moose. But okay, here's 1002 00:55:33,280 --> 00:55:37,720 Speaker 1: the whole nightmare, as described by by von Bronze article. 1003 00:55:38,200 --> 00:55:41,560 Speaker 1: So it says, quote self rescue moose a general electric 1004 00:55:41,640 --> 00:55:45,480 Speaker 1: idea in cases, astronaut in a plastic bag that fills 1005 00:55:45,520 --> 00:55:49,680 Speaker 1: with polyurethane foam to assume re entry shape. He uses 1006 00:55:49,760 --> 00:55:53,800 Speaker 1: retrorocket to de orbit, then discards it. Bag has foldable 1007 00:55:53,840 --> 00:55:57,520 Speaker 1: heat shield for re entry and parachute that automatically inferls 1008 00:55:57,560 --> 00:56:01,080 Speaker 1: itself for landing. So if you're having trouble picturing that, 1009 00:56:01,200 --> 00:56:04,360 Speaker 1: let me try to narrativise this a little bit. So 1010 00:56:04,680 --> 00:56:07,160 Speaker 1: here's the way it works. Major Tom realizes, oh no, 1011 00:56:07,920 --> 00:56:11,080 Speaker 1: my spacecraft is on fire and my pure oxygen environment 1012 00:56:11,280 --> 00:56:14,239 Speaker 1: is raging out of control. Why did we do this? Well, 1013 00:56:14,400 --> 00:56:17,399 Speaker 1: no time for recriminations. I must climb into the escape pod. 1014 00:56:18,160 --> 00:56:21,239 Speaker 1: But really, the escape pod is a plastic bag with 1015 00:56:21,360 --> 00:56:26,279 Speaker 1: a foldable sheet of elastomeric ablative heat shielding material. And 1016 00:56:27,000 --> 00:56:29,760 Speaker 1: so he folds this thing out and the heat shield 1017 00:56:29,960 --> 00:56:32,840 Speaker 1: folds out to about one point eight meters in diameter, 1018 00:56:33,680 --> 00:56:37,840 Speaker 1: and then uh with him, He's got a canister of polyurethane. 1019 00:56:38,320 --> 00:56:41,400 Speaker 1: So he gets into the folded heat shield and he 1020 00:56:41,520 --> 00:56:44,440 Speaker 1: pulls a rip chord and this opens up the canister 1021 00:56:44,560 --> 00:56:48,000 Speaker 1: of polyurethane, which which fills it up, fills up the 1022 00:56:48,040 --> 00:56:51,240 Speaker 1: shield with polyurethane foam. So at this point the astronaut 1023 00:56:51,320 --> 00:56:55,080 Speaker 1: has entombed themselves within a lump of polyurethane. Yeah. Yeah, 1024 00:56:55,120 --> 00:56:57,200 Speaker 1: it's sort of the break and bake style of escape 1025 00:56:57,200 --> 00:57:01,080 Speaker 1: pod creation. It's on the fly. Uh. So then you're 1026 00:57:01,080 --> 00:57:03,440 Speaker 1: out of the ship and Major Tom's floating in space 1027 00:57:03,520 --> 00:57:06,640 Speaker 1: in this bag on a bed of foam, and Major 1028 00:57:06,719 --> 00:57:10,480 Speaker 1: Tom fires a small canister of gas propellant to orient 1029 00:57:10,680 --> 00:57:13,640 Speaker 1: himself with the heat shield facing the proper direction for 1030 00:57:13,760 --> 00:57:16,840 Speaker 1: re entry, and then he discards the gas propellant and 1031 00:57:16,960 --> 00:57:21,280 Speaker 1: he uses a hand operated solid rocket engine to enter 1032 00:57:21,400 --> 00:57:25,720 Speaker 1: the atmosphere. So Tom Tom's in a bag on some foam, 1033 00:57:26,280 --> 00:57:30,440 Speaker 1: rocketing himself back to Earth by hand. There's a fabulous 1034 00:57:30,520 --> 00:57:34,040 Speaker 1: mcgever kind of yeah. So, once in free fall in 1035 00:57:34,080 --> 00:57:37,720 Speaker 1: the atmosphere, he opens a chest mounted parachute and then 1036 00:57:37,800 --> 00:57:41,000 Speaker 1: comes down to the surface for a landing. And according 1037 00:57:41,080 --> 00:57:45,880 Speaker 1: to the Encyclopedia Astronautica, General Electric, General Electric conducted a 1038 00:57:45,960 --> 00:57:49,400 Speaker 1: bunch of tests and showed that the basic design of 1039 00:57:49,520 --> 00:57:52,440 Speaker 1: moose worked, and they eventually tested it out on a 1040 00:57:52,560 --> 00:57:56,080 Speaker 1: falling scenario by dropping a test pilot in a moose 1041 00:57:56,680 --> 00:57:59,440 Speaker 1: six meters off of a bridge in Massachusetts, and they 1042 00:57:59,560 --> 00:58:03,600 Speaker 1: say that the test pilot survived the impact. Congratulations falling 1043 00:58:03,640 --> 00:58:07,400 Speaker 1: off a bridge in this thing. But anyway, Von Braun 1044 00:58:07,520 --> 00:58:11,040 Speaker 1: writes of this and quote the space parachute that both 1045 00:58:11,160 --> 00:58:14,160 Speaker 1: fold up for storage and a spacecraft both combine the 1046 00:58:14,280 --> 00:58:18,040 Speaker 1: characteristics of a life raft, a space suit, overcoat and 1047 00:58:18,200 --> 00:58:20,880 Speaker 1: a cocoon, which is just putting it in such a 1048 00:58:20,960 --> 00:58:24,560 Speaker 1: soothing way. But then he goes on to point out 1049 00:58:24,640 --> 00:58:27,360 Speaker 1: that while self rescue devices like these they will get 1050 00:58:27,400 --> 00:58:30,400 Speaker 1: you back down to Earth, maybe not every time, but 1051 00:58:30,600 --> 00:58:33,000 Speaker 1: you know, at least in theory they work, but they 1052 00:58:33,040 --> 00:58:36,160 Speaker 1: won't guarantee that you will survive once you land. I 1053 00:58:36,280 --> 00:58:38,320 Speaker 1: like that he points that out. This is a good 1054 00:58:38,360 --> 00:58:41,560 Speaker 1: point because this is supposedly why the Russians and the 1055 00:58:41,640 --> 00:58:44,840 Speaker 1: say used vehicle carried a survival pack up up and 1056 00:58:44,920 --> 00:58:48,440 Speaker 1: back to space containing guns and ammunition. There was at 1057 00:58:48,520 --> 00:58:52,480 Speaker 1: least one crash where there were there were wolves on 1058 00:58:52,600 --> 00:58:55,200 Speaker 1: the prow. Yeah, this gun, if you ever get a 1059 00:58:55,280 --> 00:58:57,280 Speaker 1: chance to read about it, is pretty interesting. So this, 1060 00:58:57,600 --> 00:59:00,560 Speaker 1: the say used survival packet had a gun with three 1061 00:59:00,640 --> 00:59:03,560 Speaker 1: barrels and a folding stock, and they said it also 1062 00:59:03,640 --> 00:59:06,040 Speaker 1: worked as a shovel and had a swing out machete 1063 00:59:06,160 --> 00:59:09,120 Speaker 1: in it. And then it also fired three types of ammunition, 1064 00:59:09,160 --> 00:59:13,720 Speaker 1: which was rifle bullets, flares, and shotgun shells, which that 1065 00:59:13,800 --> 00:59:16,520 Speaker 1: sounds like a gun you'd have in a video game. Yeah. 1066 00:59:16,640 --> 00:59:19,680 Speaker 1: And again it's important to stress just the immense cost 1067 00:59:19,760 --> 00:59:22,440 Speaker 1: of taking anything into orbit. So the fact that this 1068 00:59:22,600 --> 00:59:25,480 Speaker 1: gun came on the journey and came back just in 1069 00:59:25,560 --> 00:59:29,120 Speaker 1: the event that it would be helpful, Um, you know, 1070 00:59:29,320 --> 00:59:31,720 Speaker 1: it says a lot. I'm so glad this never led 1071 00:59:31,800 --> 00:59:35,600 Speaker 1: to shotgun and machete battles in space on the space station. Well, 1072 00:59:35,640 --> 00:59:38,560 Speaker 1: you know, I actually would love to do an episode, 1073 00:59:38,600 --> 00:59:41,400 Speaker 1: maybe a short episode, on this very topic, because there's 1074 00:59:41,440 --> 00:59:46,560 Speaker 1: some wonderful material out there about actual, uh incidents of 1075 00:59:46,640 --> 00:59:49,360 Speaker 1: guns in space, but also some proposed ideas that never 1076 00:59:49,720 --> 00:59:53,280 Speaker 1: really took off. UH guns in space. Wow, that sounds 1077 00:59:53,320 --> 00:59:55,720 Speaker 1: like such a horrible idea, But but then again, I 1078 00:59:55,800 --> 00:59:58,000 Speaker 1: don't think this is stupid because, like we said, you 1079 00:59:58,040 --> 01:00:01,760 Speaker 1: can understand if you land way off course in the wilderness, 1080 01:00:01,920 --> 01:00:05,520 Speaker 1: it probably helps to have some survival equipment. Yeah, indeed, 1081 01:00:05,600 --> 01:00:07,160 Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, these things are gonna come down in 1082 01:00:07,240 --> 01:00:10,960 Speaker 1: the in the wilderness. Who might need some survival equipment. Uh. 1083 01:00:11,040 --> 01:00:15,400 Speaker 1: And the moose actually came with some gear oriented towards 1084 01:00:15,520 --> 01:00:17,400 Speaker 1: on the ground survival as well, So it had a 1085 01:00:17,480 --> 01:00:20,640 Speaker 1: survival kit, food and water, plus things to help the 1086 01:00:20,720 --> 01:00:22,960 Speaker 1: astronaut be found. So it had a thing called us 1087 01:00:23,000 --> 01:00:26,080 Speaker 1: so far bomb that's so far as an acurnym, which 1088 01:00:26,120 --> 01:00:29,240 Speaker 1: is a device that uses an underwater explosion to allow 1089 01:00:29,400 --> 01:00:32,200 Speaker 1: precise signaling of your location to people who are listening 1090 01:00:32,280 --> 01:00:35,360 Speaker 1: for underwater sounds. It also had radar chaff and some 1091 01:00:35,520 --> 01:00:40,240 Speaker 1: flares and that The Popular Science article has this awesome 1092 01:00:40,360 --> 01:00:44,040 Speaker 1: illustration of the moose that Robert, I think you enjoyed 1093 01:00:44,080 --> 01:00:47,840 Speaker 1: it as much as I did. But the astronaut has 1094 01:00:47,880 --> 01:00:51,440 Speaker 1: a very placid face in this picture where he's laying 1095 01:00:51,560 --> 01:00:54,320 Speaker 1: in this bed of foam that looks like it's just 1096 01:00:54,440 --> 01:00:59,360 Speaker 1: a blob that's gonna envelop him and digest him. Yeah, 1097 01:00:59,480 --> 01:01:02,080 Speaker 1: and the um and and the rockets that he's going 1098 01:01:02,120 --> 01:01:04,600 Speaker 1: to use to maneuver. It has the look kind of 1099 01:01:04,600 --> 01:01:07,000 Speaker 1: like a cross between a Hoover vacuum and like a 1100 01:01:07,080 --> 01:01:10,800 Speaker 1: divining rod. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, he's holding this big 1101 01:01:10,880 --> 01:01:15,520 Speaker 1: wishbone full of fire. But yeah, but this is great. 1102 01:01:15,520 --> 01:01:19,040 Speaker 1: I would love to see this utilized in some sort 1103 01:01:19,040 --> 01:01:21,640 Speaker 1: of an action sequence, you know, the sort of do 1104 01:01:21,760 --> 01:01:24,360 Speaker 1: it yourself re entry where our action hero just has 1105 01:01:24,400 --> 01:01:27,800 Speaker 1: to grab these two canisters, jump out of the of 1106 01:01:27,880 --> 01:01:30,600 Speaker 1: the spacecraft and just make their way back down to 1107 01:01:30,680 --> 01:01:32,920 Speaker 1: the here. Well, there are some great scenes in movies. 1108 01:01:32,960 --> 01:01:35,520 Speaker 1: I don't want to spoil anything about movies that exist 1109 01:01:35,600 --> 01:01:37,840 Speaker 1: because this usually is like the very end of the 1110 01:01:37,880 --> 01:01:40,120 Speaker 1: sci fi movie. But they involved things like this, like 1111 01:01:40,960 --> 01:01:46,520 Speaker 1: basically outside of vehicle maneuvering. That's very scary when you 1112 01:01:46,600 --> 01:01:48,520 Speaker 1: think about it. I mean, to be lost in space 1113 01:01:48,600 --> 01:01:52,480 Speaker 1: without any means of propulsion and safe reentry is is 1114 01:01:52,640 --> 01:01:54,880 Speaker 1: just a death sentence. Can we name any of those 1115 01:01:54,880 --> 01:01:56,240 Speaker 1: movies or it would be it would just be too 1116 01:01:56,320 --> 01:01:58,200 Speaker 1: much of a spoiler. Well, I know, I know. One 1117 01:01:58,280 --> 01:02:01,200 Speaker 1: of course is like gravity and Mues have some some 1118 01:02:01,360 --> 01:02:04,040 Speaker 1: cool re entry stuff at the end. Yeah. There there's 1119 01:02:04,080 --> 01:02:08,160 Speaker 1: also some stuff. And in the Martian did you see them? Yeah, 1120 01:02:08,160 --> 01:02:11,400 Speaker 1: that's right, and there's some outside vehicle maneuvering. Okay, I 1121 01:02:11,440 --> 01:02:13,120 Speaker 1: think maybe in both those films. I was falling asleep 1122 01:02:13,120 --> 01:02:16,200 Speaker 1: towards the end. Uh you know, and it's but hey, 1123 01:02:16,280 --> 01:02:18,800 Speaker 1: we're not going to spoil and say whether the individual 1124 01:02:18,960 --> 01:02:21,040 Speaker 1: survived or not, because that, of course is the big, 1125 01:02:21,400 --> 01:02:24,560 Speaker 1: big deal. It's one thing to initiate re entry. It's 1126 01:02:24,600 --> 01:02:26,520 Speaker 1: another thing to actually make it all the way to 1127 01:02:26,760 --> 01:02:29,800 Speaker 1: the Earth surface again and still be alive. Oh and 1128 01:02:29,880 --> 01:02:32,200 Speaker 1: I guess that does give away that I did finally 1129 01:02:32,240 --> 01:02:34,480 Speaker 1: see The Martian. People were asking after we did that 1130 01:02:34,960 --> 01:02:38,080 Speaker 1: how to Die on Mars episode, people were like, hey, 1131 01:02:38,240 --> 01:02:39,800 Speaker 1: have you read The Martian? I don't know if the 1132 01:02:39,840 --> 01:02:41,640 Speaker 1: movie was out yet, but when people were asking if 1133 01:02:41,680 --> 01:02:43,240 Speaker 1: I read the book because it covered a lot of 1134 01:02:43,280 --> 01:02:45,480 Speaker 1: the same stuff we talked about. Yeah, it had not then, 1135 01:02:45,560 --> 01:02:48,640 Speaker 1: but I have now. In keeping with that beach ball 1136 01:02:48,680 --> 01:02:51,360 Speaker 1: design we had we talked about earlier, there's actually a 1137 01:02:52,120 --> 01:02:57,000 Speaker 1: pre Challenger Shuttle era idea for a personal rescue enclosure 1138 01:02:57,120 --> 01:03:00,400 Speaker 1: or pre rescue ball. This was in like eight success 1139 01:03:00,520 --> 01:03:04,240 Speaker 1: centimeter diameter high tech beach ball for transport of astronauts 1140 01:03:04,320 --> 01:03:07,240 Speaker 1: from space from from a spacecraft in distress to the 1141 01:03:07,320 --> 01:03:11,520 Speaker 1: space shuttle. Uh So crew members would climb into the ball, 1142 01:03:11,560 --> 01:03:14,240 Speaker 1: they'd assume a fetal position and they'd be zipped inside 1143 01:03:14,360 --> 01:03:17,160 Speaker 1: by a space suited crew member. Huh, so this is 1144 01:03:17,360 --> 01:03:19,000 Speaker 1: this is like what we were talking about towards the 1145 01:03:19,040 --> 01:03:22,200 Speaker 1: beginning of of Von Bronze article, where you you'd get 1146 01:03:22,280 --> 01:03:25,120 Speaker 1: into a some kind of survival capsule and just wait 1147 01:03:25,200 --> 01:03:27,920 Speaker 1: for rescue. Yeah and uh and again this was a 1148 01:03:27,960 --> 01:03:31,200 Speaker 1: pre Challenger project from a time during which Shuttle crews 1149 01:03:31,240 --> 01:03:36,360 Speaker 1: wore no space suits on board the Shuttle afterwards. Afterwards, however, 1150 01:03:36,440 --> 01:03:40,200 Speaker 1: they wore pressure suits during liftoff. Again. Yeah, well that 1151 01:03:40,280 --> 01:03:43,480 Speaker 1: seems like a smart idea. But okay, So Moose and 1152 01:03:43,640 --> 01:03:47,000 Speaker 1: its contemporaries were basically shelved, but other space escape pod 1153 01:03:47,240 --> 01:03:49,480 Speaker 1: concepts came to the four and some of them were 1154 01:03:49,560 --> 01:03:53,880 Speaker 1: actually realized. Yeah. Yeah. For instance, there's the Jim and 1155 01:03:54,000 --> 01:03:56,640 Speaker 1: I l s r S. So you know, obviously no 1156 01:03:56,720 --> 01:03:59,360 Speaker 1: one wanted to go wind up stranded on the Moon, 1157 01:04:00,280 --> 01:04:02,920 Speaker 1: yet the risk of this happening were rather high during 1158 01:04:02,960 --> 01:04:06,640 Speaker 1: the Apollo Moon missions. As such, NASA designed the Gemini 1159 01:04:06,880 --> 01:04:11,120 Speaker 1: Lunar Surface Rescue Spacecraft l s r S. And the 1160 01:04:11,200 --> 01:04:12,960 Speaker 1: idea here is that in the event of the crew 1161 01:04:13,000 --> 01:04:15,560 Speaker 1: wound up stranded on the Moon, NASA could send this 1162 01:04:15,720 --> 01:04:18,440 Speaker 1: unmanned craft to their landing site that would be a 1163 01:04:18,520 --> 01:04:21,680 Speaker 1: thirty day trip, and then the two crew members could 1164 01:04:21,720 --> 01:04:24,000 Speaker 1: then board the craft to make a direct return to Earth. 1165 01:04:24,720 --> 01:04:27,880 Speaker 1: NASA also developed an orbital variant aimed at rescuing three 1166 01:04:27,960 --> 01:04:31,080 Speaker 1: individuals marooned in lunar orbit, as well as a lunar 1167 01:04:31,200 --> 01:04:35,360 Speaker 1: surface survival survival shelter model aimed at giving astronauts on 1168 01:04:35,400 --> 01:04:38,120 Speaker 1: the surface a little more time to await like a 1169 01:04:38,240 --> 01:04:42,680 Speaker 1: full blown, uh, you know, manned rescue, and they eventually 1170 01:04:42,760 --> 01:04:46,280 Speaker 1: planned to produce a universal lunar rescue vehicle to perform 1171 01:04:46,360 --> 01:04:50,040 Speaker 1: all three tasks for a trio of astronauts. But this 1172 01:04:50,280 --> 01:04:51,680 Speaker 1: was one of this one of those sort of later 1173 01:04:51,960 --> 01:04:55,600 Speaker 1: day Apollo ideas that really came about too late. Like 1174 01:04:55,720 --> 01:04:58,560 Speaker 1: our our interest in the Moon was was going away 1175 01:04:58,600 --> 01:05:01,280 Speaker 1: at that point. Can you imagine and though actually being 1176 01:05:01,400 --> 01:05:03,479 Speaker 1: stuck on the surface of the Moon for thirty days 1177 01:05:03,600 --> 01:05:06,200 Speaker 1: waiting for you it's crazy. It's like I was trying 1178 01:05:06,240 --> 01:05:08,320 Speaker 1: to sort of put it in terms of thinking about 1179 01:05:08,360 --> 01:05:11,320 Speaker 1: like my own household. So at our house, we we 1180 01:05:11,440 --> 01:05:14,440 Speaker 1: currently have two cars, new car and old car. And 1181 01:05:14,720 --> 01:05:16,600 Speaker 1: if I go, if I drive to the grocery store, 1182 01:05:16,880 --> 01:05:19,360 Speaker 1: if the car breaks down, a I can walk back 1183 01:05:19,400 --> 01:05:21,440 Speaker 1: from the grocery store, or my wife can come and 1184 01:05:21,520 --> 01:05:23,520 Speaker 1: pick me up in the car in the other car, 1185 01:05:23,680 --> 01:05:26,080 Speaker 1: or something to that effect. You know. But this is 1186 01:05:26,120 --> 01:05:28,560 Speaker 1: a kind of situation where there's there's only one car, 1187 01:05:30,000 --> 01:05:31,680 Speaker 1: or it's gonna take or it's gonna take a tremendous 1188 01:05:31,680 --> 01:05:34,440 Speaker 1: amount of effort to get a second car available, and 1189 01:05:34,640 --> 01:05:36,760 Speaker 1: then to gas it up and send it on its 1190 01:05:36,840 --> 01:05:39,360 Speaker 1: journey to pick you up at this impossible store and 1191 01:05:39,440 --> 01:05:42,800 Speaker 1: you're driving to the middle of the desert in Arizona. Yeah, yeah, 1192 01:05:42,960 --> 01:05:44,800 Speaker 1: it's um yeah. So I kept trying to put it 1193 01:05:44,880 --> 01:05:48,680 Speaker 1: in in sort of like logistical, real life surface world terms, 1194 01:05:48,760 --> 01:05:51,280 Speaker 1: and uh, you know, some some models work, but some 1195 01:05:51,520 --> 01:05:56,280 Speaker 1: just ultimately fall short of capturing the just severe isolation. 1196 01:05:57,120 --> 01:05:58,720 Speaker 1: Like the closest thing I guess would be to just 1197 01:05:59,400 --> 01:06:01,840 Speaker 1: to set out to the middle of the Arctic Ocean, 1198 01:06:01,960 --> 01:06:05,439 Speaker 1: you know. Uh. Well, hey, so I've got a question. Yeah, 1199 01:06:05,560 --> 01:06:09,439 Speaker 1: what happens if you have to escape the International Space Station? Well, 1200 01:06:09,720 --> 01:06:13,600 Speaker 1: luckily there there is a way, so um yeah, So 1201 01:06:13,720 --> 01:06:16,200 Speaker 1: let's say are in the International Space Station and uh, 1202 01:06:16,440 --> 01:06:20,400 Speaker 1: something catastrophic happens, maybe there's space shrapnel or more problems 1203 01:06:20,480 --> 01:06:23,000 Speaker 1: with the station's toilets, and those just get out of hand. 1204 01:06:23,680 --> 01:06:26,800 Speaker 1: What some of the ammunition for the soy Use survival 1205 01:06:26,920 --> 01:06:29,920 Speaker 1: kit just explodes, yeah, or you know, maybe just run 1206 01:06:30,000 --> 01:06:32,040 Speaker 1: out of vodka. Whatever to the dilemma. There is an 1207 01:06:32,160 --> 01:06:34,440 Speaker 1: escape craft on a hand, and it's one of those 1208 01:06:34,680 --> 01:06:38,520 Speaker 1: Russian so use the space capsules. So we first flew 1209 01:06:38,600 --> 01:06:40,400 Speaker 1: one to the I S. S in two thousand and 1210 01:06:40,480 --> 01:06:43,440 Speaker 1: it's been it's been a fixture ever since. It can 1211 01:06:43,480 --> 01:06:46,840 Speaker 1: survive re entry as what as with the two thousand 1212 01:06:47,160 --> 01:06:49,560 Speaker 1: nine Space Junks scare, it can also provide just a 1213 01:06:49,640 --> 01:06:54,720 Speaker 1: safe refuge daring of the scare um. And following the 1214 01:06:54,840 --> 01:06:58,720 Speaker 1: two thousand three Columbia Shuttle disaster, the soy Use served 1215 01:06:58,800 --> 01:07:01,360 Speaker 1: as the primary means of transport to and from the 1216 01:07:01,440 --> 01:07:04,480 Speaker 1: I S. S U. The trip took up to two days, 1217 01:07:04,520 --> 01:07:07,160 Speaker 1: and the trip back was a mere three point five hours. 1218 01:07:07,720 --> 01:07:10,360 Speaker 1: So this is the idea here with the so us 1219 01:07:10,720 --> 01:07:13,360 Speaker 1: is that it's kind of like, all right, I'm terrified 1220 01:07:13,520 --> 01:07:17,320 Speaker 1: of my car breaking down on my way to the store. 1221 01:07:17,400 --> 01:07:21,200 Speaker 1: Why don't I just keep a car at the store, ye, permanently, 1222 01:07:21,800 --> 01:07:23,680 Speaker 1: and then I can always drive that pack if something 1223 01:07:23,760 --> 01:07:27,160 Speaker 1: goes wrong. Um, that's kind of the the idea here. 1224 01:07:27,320 --> 01:07:29,240 Speaker 1: So the only thing is that up to so only 1225 01:07:29,440 --> 01:07:32,520 Speaker 1: up to three crew members can return to Earth from 1226 01:07:32,600 --> 01:07:34,640 Speaker 1: the I S S a board of so US t 1227 01:07:34,800 --> 01:07:39,240 Speaker 1: M A spacecraft. The vehicle lands on the flat steep 1228 01:07:39,360 --> 01:07:42,880 Speaker 1: of Kazakhstan in Central Asia. There again, the return takes 1229 01:07:42,960 --> 01:07:45,439 Speaker 1: about three and a half hours. And this is why 1230 01:07:46,040 --> 01:07:48,480 Speaker 1: you can you can only have three people on the 1231 01:07:48,600 --> 01:07:51,120 Speaker 1: I S S at any given time unless there's another 1232 01:07:51,240 --> 01:07:54,640 Speaker 1: craft present, because you can only get three people out 1233 01:07:54,760 --> 01:07:57,080 Speaker 1: in an emergency. Right. If you have a fourth person 1234 01:07:57,160 --> 01:07:59,680 Speaker 1: there and you've got to evacuate, one of them is 1235 01:07:59,680 --> 01:08:01,800 Speaker 1: going to be taken the moose, right And it's yeah, 1236 01:08:01,800 --> 01:08:04,280 Speaker 1: it's I'm sorry, I'm just kidding. They don't actually have 1237 01:08:04,400 --> 01:08:07,320 Speaker 1: as far as far as we know, but but yeah, 1238 01:08:07,360 --> 01:08:09,240 Speaker 1: I mean, you can't clown card this thing. You can't 1239 01:08:09,280 --> 01:08:10,920 Speaker 1: just pack a bunch of people in there and have 1240 01:08:11,000 --> 01:08:13,520 Speaker 1: them sort of hold on to the sides of the capsule. 1241 01:08:13,600 --> 01:08:15,720 Speaker 1: You mean, you have to there has you have to 1242 01:08:15,800 --> 01:08:19,920 Speaker 1: strap yourself in there. There's their oxygen logistics in place, 1243 01:08:20,360 --> 01:08:24,600 Speaker 1: so three people are less no more. Now, that's not 1244 01:08:24,680 --> 01:08:27,600 Speaker 1: to say we haven't looked into other possibilities. More I 1245 01:08:27,640 --> 01:08:31,200 Speaker 1: guess you could say refined possibilities than just having a 1246 01:08:31,360 --> 01:08:34,960 Speaker 1: three person spaceship on hand up there. Um. At one 1247 01:08:35,080 --> 01:08:38,360 Speaker 1: point NASA was looking into the X thirty eight. This 1248 01:08:38,560 --> 01:08:41,200 Speaker 1: was the I S S Crew return vehicle, and this 1249 01:08:41,360 --> 01:08:43,000 Speaker 1: is a really cool design. It basically looked like a 1250 01:08:43,120 --> 01:08:46,800 Speaker 1: mini like stubby Space Shuttle, UM and and this would 1251 01:08:46,800 --> 01:08:49,160 Speaker 1: have this would have allowed them, you know, more individuals 1252 01:08:49,360 --> 01:08:53,360 Speaker 1: to return from I S S to Earth. But it 1253 01:08:53,479 --> 01:08:57,080 Speaker 1: was a pretty pre costly program. According to a Wired 1254 01:08:57,320 --> 01:09:01,000 Speaker 1: magazine article from the time, the program had cost around 1255 01:09:01,080 --> 01:09:05,640 Speaker 1: five million dollars so far, and then it was just 1256 01:09:05,840 --> 01:09:10,440 Speaker 1: fifty million shy of completing its flight test. When basically 1257 01:09:10,720 --> 01:09:15,200 Speaker 1: under the Georgia W. Bush administration, UH space and the 1258 01:09:15,360 --> 01:09:19,840 Speaker 1: and re visiting the Moon became devalued as an objective, 1259 01:09:20,760 --> 01:09:24,479 Speaker 1: so the X thirty eight went away as a possibility. Now. 1260 01:09:24,560 --> 01:09:27,400 Speaker 1: It's also worth noting that one of the more dangerous 1261 01:09:27,439 --> 01:09:31,320 Speaker 1: things about rocket propulsion into space is just taking off. 1262 01:09:31,400 --> 01:09:33,280 Speaker 1: It's kind of like with with aviation. Of course, that's 1263 01:09:33,320 --> 01:09:35,719 Speaker 1: the dangerous stent. That's that's when you have this enormous 1264 01:09:36,000 --> 01:09:39,439 Speaker 1: explosion strapped to the bottom of the craft propelling you 1265 01:09:39,560 --> 01:09:43,040 Speaker 1: up out of the atmosphere. So as as has become 1266 01:09:43,040 --> 01:09:46,080 Speaker 1: important in the past, having a means of ejecting the 1267 01:09:46,160 --> 01:09:50,560 Speaker 1: capsule from the top of that massive explosive rocket is 1268 01:09:50,600 --> 01:09:54,960 Speaker 1: often highly advisable. And as we're going more and more 1269 01:09:55,680 --> 01:09:59,519 Speaker 1: into into that launch style, we're seeing more and more 1270 01:09:59,560 --> 01:10:02,680 Speaker 1: of a earned to that UM. So in a way, 1271 01:10:02,800 --> 01:10:05,519 Speaker 1: we're going back to technology that we used with Mercury 1272 01:10:05,560 --> 01:10:08,120 Speaker 1: and Apollo spacecraft. We see this in the form of 1273 01:10:08,200 --> 01:10:10,679 Speaker 1: a basic launch escape system. So you have a talk 1274 01:10:10,920 --> 01:10:13,880 Speaker 1: mounted rocket on the capsule that in the event of 1275 01:10:13,920 --> 01:10:16,920 Speaker 1: a mishap during takeoff, can blast the man capsule clear 1276 01:10:16,960 --> 01:10:19,120 Speaker 1: of the rocket and allow it to parachute back to 1277 01:10:19,200 --> 01:10:22,200 Speaker 1: the surface. That seems very useful. Yeah, the sell Us 1278 01:10:22,320 --> 01:10:25,320 Speaker 1: uses this, UH, this technology, and there are a number 1279 01:10:25,360 --> 01:10:29,000 Speaker 1: of man spacecraft that are currently in development, UH, several 1280 01:10:29,080 --> 01:10:31,280 Speaker 1: of which are capsule based and you know would also 1281 01:10:31,320 --> 01:10:34,479 Speaker 1: employ this. So we're talking about like UH, NASA's Ryan 1282 01:10:34,600 --> 01:10:38,320 Speaker 1: Multi Purpose Crew Vehicle SpaceX. UH they're Dragon V two. 1283 01:10:38,760 --> 01:10:42,840 Speaker 1: There's also the the U S Bowing CST one hundred. UM. 1284 01:10:43,560 --> 01:10:45,800 Speaker 1: There's a there's a quote here that I found from 1285 01:10:45,880 --> 01:10:49,240 Speaker 1: SpaceX officials and they said it's similar to an injection 1286 01:10:49,320 --> 01:10:51,240 Speaker 1: seat for a fighter pilot, but instead of ejecting the 1287 01:10:51,280 --> 01:10:54,000 Speaker 1: pilot out of the spacecraft, the entire spacecraft is ejected 1288 01:10:54,040 --> 01:10:56,280 Speaker 1: away from the launch vehicle. And that is something that 1289 01:10:56,360 --> 01:10:59,280 Speaker 1: I guess you can think of as as somewhat practical 1290 01:10:59,400 --> 01:11:03,560 Speaker 1: to do cause of this inherent separation between the spacecraft 1291 01:11:03,680 --> 01:11:08,000 Speaker 1: capsule and the launch vehicle itself. This is a natural division, 1292 01:11:08,120 --> 01:11:10,920 Speaker 1: because they're going to be separating anyway at some point 1293 01:11:11,040 --> 01:11:14,599 Speaker 1: during the ascent. Correct, Yeah, they're they're they're separate entities anyway. Yeah, 1294 01:11:14,800 --> 01:11:16,639 Speaker 1: all right, we're gonna take a quick break and when 1295 01:11:16,640 --> 01:11:18,560 Speaker 1: we come back, we are going to look at a 1296 01:11:18,680 --> 01:11:29,679 Speaker 1: few more escape pods for some stranger scenarios involving natural disasters. So, Joe, 1297 01:11:29,880 --> 01:11:32,880 Speaker 1: you grew up in like Middle Tennessee, didn't you? Or 1298 01:11:32,920 --> 01:11:37,920 Speaker 1: you or not? A lot of tornadoes in Chattanooga. We 1299 01:11:38,200 --> 01:11:41,479 Speaker 1: got tornadoes. Yeah, we actually tornadoes have been right through 1300 01:11:41,560 --> 01:11:45,280 Speaker 1: my parents neighborhood before, like right through the backyard. Okay, 1301 01:11:45,320 --> 01:11:48,360 Speaker 1: I wasn't there at the time, but it's it's definitely 1302 01:11:48,680 --> 01:11:51,240 Speaker 1: it can be scary when they whip through. Yeah. Indeed, 1303 01:11:51,320 --> 01:11:53,559 Speaker 1: I mean I I haven't grown up in Middle Tennessee. 1304 01:11:53,760 --> 01:11:55,760 Speaker 1: We had we had a lot of tornado scares as well, 1305 01:11:56,120 --> 01:11:58,479 Speaker 1: and so that that possibility was always in the back 1306 01:11:58,560 --> 01:12:01,240 Speaker 1: of my mind growing up. You know, the tornado could common. 1307 01:12:01,320 --> 01:12:02,960 Speaker 1: What can you do? What can you do against the tornado? 1308 01:12:03,240 --> 01:12:06,000 Speaker 1: It this titanic force of nature that's just going to 1309 01:12:06,080 --> 01:12:09,200 Speaker 1: destroy everything in its path. Let's see, can we look 1310 01:12:09,280 --> 01:12:11,080 Speaker 1: to movies for inspiration? What do they do in that 1311 01:12:11,160 --> 01:12:13,920 Speaker 1: movie Twister? I believe they throw a candy bar in 1312 01:12:14,040 --> 01:12:16,360 Speaker 1: one direction and then run in the other, and then 1313 01:12:16,640 --> 01:12:19,200 Speaker 1: so that they distract the tornado with the candy blocks. Right, 1314 01:12:19,400 --> 01:12:21,879 Speaker 1: I think that's how that went down. Uh No, generally 1315 01:12:22,000 --> 01:12:24,760 Speaker 1: in uh in tornado movies and in tornado reality, like, 1316 01:12:24,880 --> 01:12:27,240 Speaker 1: all you can do is find shelter. Right, if you 1317 01:12:27,320 --> 01:12:29,280 Speaker 1: have a if you have a storm shelter, if you 1318 01:12:29,360 --> 01:12:33,360 Speaker 1: have a a fortified storm basement, Um, you can run 1319 01:12:33,439 --> 01:12:36,760 Speaker 1: in there, blatch the door, and just ride it out. 1320 01:12:36,960 --> 01:12:40,160 Speaker 1: But it is very important, very important that your shelter 1321 01:12:40,520 --> 01:12:44,360 Speaker 1: be a high quality shelter, like a building with a foundation. 1322 01:12:45,080 --> 01:12:48,800 Speaker 1: Uh not necessarily something like a trailer. In fact, I 1323 01:12:48,880 --> 01:12:51,800 Speaker 1: have often heard the advice given to people who are 1324 01:12:51,880 --> 01:12:54,920 Speaker 1: living in mobile homes and trailers, anything that's not solidly 1325 01:12:55,000 --> 01:12:57,880 Speaker 1: anchored to the ground or built on a foundation that 1326 01:12:58,360 --> 01:13:00,880 Speaker 1: you're better off not in the trailer than in it, 1327 01:13:01,120 --> 01:13:05,640 Speaker 1: because it essentially just turns into a death machine if 1328 01:13:05,680 --> 01:13:08,679 Speaker 1: a tornado comes through and you're inside a mobile home. Yeah, 1329 01:13:08,680 --> 01:13:12,439 Speaker 1: so I think we've all consumed images'd be they mental images, 1330 01:13:12,520 --> 01:13:16,000 Speaker 1: cinematic or otherwise, of trailers and mobile homes just sucked 1331 01:13:16,080 --> 01:13:19,160 Speaker 1: up into the sky by deadly twisters, or certainly trailer 1332 01:13:19,200 --> 01:13:23,880 Speaker 1: parks that have been devastated by actual tornadoes. But what 1333 01:13:24,000 --> 01:13:26,439 Speaker 1: have you what have you actually had an escape pode 1334 01:13:26,720 --> 01:13:30,960 Speaker 1: for your trailer? Uh? Now, before you envision a rocket 1335 01:13:31,040 --> 01:13:34,320 Speaker 1: propelled trailer bathroom that blasts you away from the crumbling, 1336 01:13:34,520 --> 01:13:36,800 Speaker 1: wind gripped trailer as it's you know, sucked into the 1337 01:13:36,840 --> 01:13:41,000 Speaker 1: sky amid all the debris. Um, remember this as as 1338 01:13:41,120 --> 01:13:44,040 Speaker 1: as a twister sucks the trailer up into the air, 1339 01:13:44,640 --> 01:13:47,240 Speaker 1: what you want to do is stay firmly fixed to 1340 01:13:47,320 --> 01:13:50,519 Speaker 1: the ground. Sure, I mean that's ultimately the design of 1341 01:13:50,840 --> 01:13:54,320 Speaker 1: any escape capsule is getting me back to the surface 1342 01:13:54,360 --> 01:13:56,920 Speaker 1: of the earth. But in this case, you're already on 1343 01:13:56,960 --> 01:13:58,599 Speaker 1: the surface, so you just need to remain there at 1344 01:13:58,600 --> 01:14:02,599 Speaker 1: all costs. So I'm following you so far, So where 1345 01:14:02,640 --> 01:14:05,240 Speaker 1: do escape pods come in. Well, as far as I know, 1346 01:14:05,400 --> 01:14:07,760 Speaker 1: this does not. This has has not been built yet. 1347 01:14:08,120 --> 01:14:10,640 Speaker 1: Maybe some individuals have have taken it upon themselves to 1348 01:14:10,680 --> 01:14:12,400 Speaker 1: build it. I hope so, and if they did, I 1349 01:14:12,479 --> 01:14:14,680 Speaker 1: would love to see the photos. But no, we're going 1350 01:14:14,720 --> 01:14:17,439 Speaker 1: to talk about We're going into the wildest corners of 1351 01:14:17,520 --> 01:14:22,400 Speaker 1: the patent internet. Yeah, particularly a patent for a tornado 1352 01:14:22,600 --> 01:14:26,240 Speaker 1: escope escape capsule for trailer homes. Yeah, it's it is. 1353 01:14:26,280 --> 01:14:29,120 Speaker 1: It's pretty ingenious. It's essentially a little safe room in 1354 01:14:29,200 --> 01:14:32,040 Speaker 1: your trailer, anchored to the ground, and it consists of 1355 01:14:32,120 --> 01:14:35,200 Speaker 1: the following. This is from the patent. First, an opening 1356 01:14:35,320 --> 01:14:38,479 Speaker 1: formed in the floor of the house trailer and positioned 1357 01:14:38,479 --> 01:14:42,080 Speaker 1: directly below said internal compartment, So if you're in your 1358 01:14:42,120 --> 01:14:44,160 Speaker 1: compartment and underneath it there's like a hole in the floor. 1359 01:14:44,880 --> 01:14:49,080 Speaker 1: An escape capsule dimensioned to be received and releasably supported 1360 01:14:49,120 --> 01:14:52,439 Speaker 1: within set internal compartment. And then you have a ground 1361 01:14:52,560 --> 01:14:57,000 Speaker 1: engaging anchor position beneath set internal compartment in the house trailer, 1362 01:14:57,040 --> 01:14:59,920 Speaker 1: and then a tether that's connected between the escape capsule 1363 01:15:00,360 --> 01:15:04,640 Speaker 1: and the grounding anchor. So it's it is like this 1364 01:15:04,840 --> 01:15:08,320 Speaker 1: fancy little capsule in your trailer. There's a hole in 1365 01:15:08,400 --> 01:15:11,679 Speaker 1: the trailer underneath it, and it's anchored to the ground firmly. Okay, 1366 01:15:11,760 --> 01:15:15,439 Speaker 1: so I said, this is kind of ingenious. But I mean, 1367 01:15:15,479 --> 01:15:17,439 Speaker 1: if you're gonna go to the trouble to build this thing, 1368 01:15:17,600 --> 01:15:21,720 Speaker 1: why not just anchor your trailer to the ground. Well, yeah, 1369 01:15:21,840 --> 01:15:24,080 Speaker 1: you can. You can make that argument, and maybe that's 1370 01:15:24,120 --> 01:15:27,840 Speaker 1: why this wasn't built. But but the I guess the 1371 01:15:28,040 --> 01:15:29,840 Speaker 1: the the argument here is this way, you don't have 1372 01:15:29,920 --> 01:15:31,680 Speaker 1: to anchor the entire trailer to the ground. You just 1373 01:15:31,800 --> 01:15:35,360 Speaker 1: anchor this one little safe him. Okay, well maybe in fact, 1374 01:15:35,439 --> 01:15:37,280 Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, I I assume most of 1375 01:15:37,360 --> 01:15:40,000 Speaker 1: the danger of being in a trailer or a mobile 1376 01:15:40,080 --> 01:15:42,439 Speaker 1: home when a tornado comes through comes from the fact 1377 01:15:42,479 --> 01:15:44,720 Speaker 1: that it's not anchored and can be tossed around. But 1378 01:15:44,800 --> 01:15:48,479 Speaker 1: maybe there is additional danger, uh, from being in the trailer, 1379 01:15:48,600 --> 01:15:51,479 Speaker 1: Like if the if essentially, if the building materials are 1380 01:15:51,520 --> 01:15:54,160 Speaker 1: not sturdy enough, does it does it get shredded and 1381 01:15:54,240 --> 01:15:56,280 Speaker 1: turned into a bunch of knives flying at you that 1382 01:15:56,360 --> 01:16:00,080 Speaker 1: were formerly the walls and ceiling. Yeah, I don't know, 1383 01:16:00,360 --> 01:16:03,760 Speaker 1: but but maybe maybe this would avert that. Yeah, and 1384 01:16:04,640 --> 01:16:06,800 Speaker 1: you know, and I guess also it's It's kind of 1385 01:16:06,840 --> 01:16:09,080 Speaker 1: comes back to that old Seinfeldt about why don't they 1386 01:16:09,120 --> 01:16:10,840 Speaker 1: just make the airplane out of whatever they made the 1387 01:16:10,880 --> 01:16:14,360 Speaker 1: black box out of? Right? Like some maybe it's just 1388 01:16:14,479 --> 01:16:18,120 Speaker 1: not it's not economically feasible to offer the trailer as 1389 01:16:18,160 --> 01:16:23,840 Speaker 1: a fully anchored, fully storm proof living option. But but 1390 01:16:24,000 --> 01:16:25,600 Speaker 1: what it Probably they probably don't do that because the 1391 01:16:25,600 --> 01:16:27,800 Speaker 1: airplane couldn't get off the ground, right, But but what 1392 01:16:27,920 --> 01:16:30,240 Speaker 1: if you could just have this one little capsule in 1393 01:16:30,320 --> 01:16:32,439 Speaker 1: the house. But then I'd also that The thing is, 1394 01:16:32,479 --> 01:16:35,920 Speaker 1: anyone who's ever been in a trailer before, and I 1395 01:16:36,040 --> 01:16:39,320 Speaker 1: certainly have you, you don't have a lot of room 1396 01:16:39,360 --> 01:16:41,920 Speaker 1: in there anyway. So the other thing is, how do 1397 01:16:42,000 --> 01:16:45,600 Speaker 1: you sacrifice the room for this compartment unless you end 1398 01:16:45,680 --> 01:16:47,640 Speaker 1: up utilizing it for something else, like I guess you 1399 01:16:47,720 --> 01:16:49,560 Speaker 1: have to. You could use it as a closet, But 1400 01:16:49,640 --> 01:16:52,000 Speaker 1: then I can well imagine the scenario where someone looks 1401 01:16:52,040 --> 01:16:53,840 Speaker 1: out the window or they turn on the radio, Oh 1402 01:16:53,920 --> 01:16:56,800 Speaker 1: my goodness, there's a twister coming. I've got to clean 1403 01:16:56,840 --> 01:16:59,560 Speaker 1: out the closet because that is my only chance to 1404 01:16:59,640 --> 01:17:01,840 Speaker 1: survive evil. And so you're frantically trying to move everything 1405 01:17:01,920 --> 01:17:04,599 Speaker 1: out of the board. Games. We never even play these, yeah, 1406 01:17:05,240 --> 01:17:07,080 Speaker 1: or you know, because other options, what you could have 1407 01:17:07,120 --> 01:17:09,280 Speaker 1: it be the bathroom. How would that work to have 1408 01:17:09,439 --> 01:17:12,640 Speaker 1: your your bathroom be the escape capsule? The showers? What 1409 01:17:12,760 --> 01:17:14,920 Speaker 1: I was thinking. You get into the shower and it's 1410 01:17:14,960 --> 01:17:17,880 Speaker 1: like a I don't know why the shower I guess 1411 01:17:17,880 --> 01:17:20,320 Speaker 1: I don't know, because it's like a it's like a 1412 01:17:20,400 --> 01:17:24,240 Speaker 1: sealed off little box in a certain way. Yeah, Like, okay, 1413 01:17:24,240 --> 01:17:26,479 Speaker 1: I could see that working, and and you would You 1414 01:17:26,479 --> 01:17:29,080 Speaker 1: would probably not fill the shower up with just a 1415 01:17:29,240 --> 01:17:31,760 Speaker 1: bunch of junk in the meantime, and the fact that 1416 01:17:31,840 --> 01:17:35,360 Speaker 1: you would use the shower would make it remain an 1417 01:17:35,400 --> 01:17:38,839 Speaker 1: open option for escape capsule. Right. Then again, you wouldn't 1418 01:17:38,880 --> 01:17:41,160 Speaker 1: want to be flying around inside the shower and bashing 1419 01:17:41,240 --> 01:17:44,160 Speaker 1: your head against the faucet, right, So you'd have to 1420 01:17:44,200 --> 01:17:47,800 Speaker 1: have like a shower like at padding and straps on 1421 01:17:47,840 --> 01:17:51,200 Speaker 1: the walls, strap yourself in man a padded shower. They'll 1422 01:17:51,200 --> 01:17:55,000 Speaker 1: probably get a little mildewy, wouldn't it if the material 1423 01:17:55,120 --> 01:17:57,160 Speaker 1: was right? I don't know. I think we're updating the 1424 01:17:57,200 --> 01:18:00,920 Speaker 1: patent here. I think we have some great ideas. Uh okay, well, 1425 01:18:00,960 --> 01:18:04,639 Speaker 1: I've got another escape pod for a sort of escape 1426 01:18:04,680 --> 01:18:10,360 Speaker 1: pod for natural disasters, and these are tsunami survival capsules. 1427 01:18:10,840 --> 01:18:13,360 Speaker 1: There are multiple designs have come across for this. Yes, 1428 01:18:13,439 --> 01:18:16,000 Speaker 1: it sounds crazy, but I could find evidence of at 1429 01:18:16,080 --> 01:18:18,439 Speaker 1: least a couple of real companies that have created and 1430 01:18:18,560 --> 01:18:22,760 Speaker 1: manufactured tsunami escape pod. So the first one is a 1431 01:18:22,840 --> 01:18:26,479 Speaker 1: product that was known as the Noah or Noah's Arc 1432 01:18:26,600 --> 01:18:29,919 Speaker 1: and it was created by a Japanese company called Cosmo 1433 01:18:30,040 --> 01:18:33,960 Speaker 1: Power almost ten years ago. I got some press in 1434 01:18:34,040 --> 01:18:37,160 Speaker 1: two thousand eleven, I assume related to the March two 1435 01:18:37,200 --> 01:18:40,919 Speaker 1: thousand eleven earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan. But basically 1436 01:18:41,040 --> 01:18:44,000 Speaker 1: it looks like a giant yellow ball with a hatch 1437 01:18:44,280 --> 01:18:47,320 Speaker 1: and a little porthole window near the top. And the 1438 01:18:47,400 --> 01:18:50,639 Speaker 1: yellow color is strategic because it hopefully makes the escape 1439 01:18:50,680 --> 01:18:54,240 Speaker 1: capsule easier for rescuers to find once the devastation is over. 1440 01:18:54,960 --> 01:18:57,800 Speaker 1: Uh And the structure is made of enhanced fiberglass and 1441 01:18:57,920 --> 01:19:02,240 Speaker 1: the company claims it is strong enough to withstand earthquakes, hurricanes, 1442 01:19:02,400 --> 01:19:06,040 Speaker 1: and tsunamis. But so the obvious ideas of tsunami is coming, 1443 01:19:06,560 --> 01:19:08,160 Speaker 1: you've got one of these things, I don't know, I 1444 01:19:08,160 --> 01:19:10,000 Speaker 1: guess you would have it sitting out in your backyard 1445 01:19:10,160 --> 01:19:12,439 Speaker 1: or something. You'd want to have it a place where 1446 01:19:12,479 --> 01:19:14,840 Speaker 1: you could float free, wherever it is on the roof 1447 01:19:14,880 --> 01:19:17,759 Speaker 1: of the house. Maybe maybe yeah, But everybody, you realize 1448 01:19:17,800 --> 01:19:20,439 Speaker 1: the tsunami is coming. You climb into this thing, and 1449 01:19:20,560 --> 01:19:23,599 Speaker 1: it has enough room inside to hold four adults. Inside. 1450 01:19:23,680 --> 01:19:26,880 Speaker 1: There is a floor and a pole, just a metal 1451 01:19:27,000 --> 01:19:29,519 Speaker 1: pole going straight through the center of the sphere. And 1452 01:19:29,600 --> 01:19:32,080 Speaker 1: I guess that is to cling to while you're hoping 1453 01:19:32,160 --> 01:19:35,960 Speaker 1: this thing works. But anyway, according to an ABC News report, 1454 01:19:36,320 --> 01:19:39,360 Speaker 1: the shelters were selling for about four thousand dollars apiece 1455 01:19:39,920 --> 01:19:42,839 Speaker 1: in two thousand eleven. I don't know if this company 1456 01:19:42,960 --> 01:19:45,240 Speaker 1: still exists in any form, or if these things are 1457 01:19:45,240 --> 01:19:48,720 Speaker 1: still made, or if anybody has ever used one successfully, 1458 01:19:49,760 --> 01:19:53,280 Speaker 1: But there is one product. I'd make of it what 1459 01:19:53,439 --> 01:19:55,519 Speaker 1: you will the product, and they would. That's the thing too, 1460 01:19:55,560 --> 01:19:58,280 Speaker 1: there selling the product. They're selling the idea of the 1461 01:19:58,360 --> 01:20:00,519 Speaker 1: skate a capsule more than anything, much like you know, 1462 01:20:00,680 --> 01:20:04,000 Speaker 1: much like a storm shelter or a bomb shelter. It's 1463 01:20:04,080 --> 01:20:06,360 Speaker 1: the idea that there is an escape. It's an idea 1464 01:20:06,520 --> 01:20:11,120 Speaker 1: that if the tsunami occurs, if the tornado occurs, if yeah, 1465 01:20:11,520 --> 01:20:14,920 Speaker 1: you know, nuclear armageddon occurs, there is some sort of 1466 01:20:15,160 --> 01:20:17,719 Speaker 1: an escape, There is some so there's an escape capsule 1467 01:20:17,800 --> 01:20:21,760 Speaker 1: for this scenario that my my primitive parts of my 1468 01:20:21,880 --> 01:20:25,320 Speaker 1: brain can can feel good about. Yeah. Obviously I claim 1469 01:20:25,360 --> 01:20:28,560 Speaker 1: no expertise in how to survive high energy events, but 1470 01:20:29,280 --> 01:20:31,679 Speaker 1: I looking at these things, I do have to wonder. 1471 01:20:31,760 --> 01:20:34,559 Speaker 1: It's like, okay, so they float, that's good. You're you're 1472 01:20:34,600 --> 01:20:37,680 Speaker 1: not gonna get trapped underwater hopefully, you know, so you're 1473 01:20:37,720 --> 01:20:39,759 Speaker 1: in this thing, you'll float up to the top eventually 1474 01:20:39,880 --> 01:20:42,640 Speaker 1: and be rescued. But also, you know, a tsunami is 1475 01:20:42,640 --> 01:20:46,120 Speaker 1: an incredibly high energy event, and so it's gonna have 1476 01:20:46,280 --> 01:20:49,800 Speaker 1: you bashing around at things. Now they can probably I guess, 1477 01:20:49,920 --> 01:20:52,640 Speaker 1: pad the inside of this thing, but you're also going 1478 01:20:52,680 --> 01:20:54,479 Speaker 1: to be in there with other people, and there's this 1479 01:20:54,600 --> 01:20:57,479 Speaker 1: metal pole for you to hold onto. I just wonder 1480 01:20:57,560 --> 01:20:59,600 Speaker 1: if when you open this thing up at the end, 1481 01:20:59,720 --> 01:21:01,360 Speaker 1: is it is going to be like a big bloody 1482 01:21:01,439 --> 01:21:05,439 Speaker 1: mess inside unless you pack enough. Sorry for the horrible image, 1483 01:21:05,520 --> 01:21:07,519 Speaker 1: but unless you do, you do go complete clown car 1484 01:21:07,600 --> 01:21:09,040 Speaker 1: in this and you just make sure that you fill 1485 01:21:09,080 --> 01:21:12,240 Speaker 1: it up completely, and then some individuals survives, some don't. 1486 01:21:12,240 --> 01:21:14,080 Speaker 1: It's kind of like there's like not enough room for 1487 01:21:14,120 --> 01:21:17,320 Speaker 1: you to knock around. Yeah, yeah, you kind of. You do, 1488 01:21:17,439 --> 01:21:20,960 Speaker 1: like the different species of ants that make barges out 1489 01:21:21,000 --> 01:21:25,600 Speaker 1: of themselves, you know. Well, anyway, there is another tsunami 1490 01:21:25,800 --> 01:21:29,080 Speaker 1: survival capsule that came across a similar device created by 1491 01:21:29,120 --> 01:21:33,840 Speaker 1: aircraft engineers Julian Sharp and Scott Hill. And this one 1492 01:21:33,920 --> 01:21:36,439 Speaker 1: it's got its own website. And instead of being yellow, 1493 01:21:36,560 --> 01:21:39,200 Speaker 1: this is a red orange color. And instead of the 1494 01:21:39,680 --> 01:21:45,000 Speaker 1: minimalist floor and poll interior layout, the survival capsule has 1495 01:21:45,439 --> 01:21:48,160 Speaker 1: fitted seats with seat belts that look kind of like 1496 01:21:48,280 --> 01:21:52,080 Speaker 1: pilot's chairs, and it seats to to ten adults depending 1497 01:21:52,120 --> 01:21:54,120 Speaker 1: on the model. I just want to read off some 1498 01:21:54,200 --> 01:21:57,559 Speaker 1: of the standard features. Uh. Safety seating with four point 1499 01:21:57,640 --> 01:22:01,759 Speaker 1: harness straps, storage space with efficient for they say sufficient 1500 01:22:01,840 --> 01:22:05,679 Speaker 1: for five days, supply per person, supply of what I'm 1501 01:22:05,720 --> 01:22:11,640 Speaker 1: not quite sure, water storage, internal light, GPS, air ventilation 1502 01:22:11,840 --> 01:22:15,840 Speaker 1: vents uh that they say it's high visibility unit, color, 1503 01:22:16,680 --> 01:22:22,120 Speaker 1: air supply tanks, hard restraints support uh, watertight marine door 1504 01:22:22,400 --> 01:22:26,519 Speaker 1: and a marine standard window, little porthole. But then this 1505 01:22:26,800 --> 01:22:28,960 Speaker 1: was the thing that got me. They said, Okay, so 1506 01:22:29,680 --> 01:22:31,640 Speaker 1: all that stuff Okay, you can see why you'd have 1507 01:22:31,720 --> 01:22:35,800 Speaker 1: all those things. But they've also got optional features they advertise, 1508 01:22:35,960 --> 01:22:40,040 Speaker 1: including surround sound music system. This would be a must, 1509 01:22:40,120 --> 01:22:42,840 Speaker 1: I think, And I've got to to two reasons here. Okay. 1510 01:22:42,960 --> 01:22:47,560 Speaker 1: First of all, ambient music has a tremendous soothing qualities. 1511 01:22:47,680 --> 01:22:49,920 Speaker 1: Music for airports, bran, you know, and that's what will 1512 01:22:49,960 --> 01:22:52,880 Speaker 1: get you through, you know. And maybe he would have 1513 01:22:53,120 --> 01:22:55,720 Speaker 1: he would he would create a custom composition, you know, 1514 01:22:55,920 --> 01:23:01,240 Speaker 1: music for yeah, but yeah, you'll be able to calm 1515 01:23:01,320 --> 01:23:03,679 Speaker 1: yourself down. But the other thing is, if you pay 1516 01:23:04,479 --> 01:23:07,439 Speaker 1: you know, I'm guessing a fairly ridiculous sum for this 1517 01:23:08,120 --> 01:23:11,360 Speaker 1: upscale survival capsule, you might want to spend some time 1518 01:23:11,400 --> 01:23:13,439 Speaker 1: in it, like I would want to. I would if 1519 01:23:13,439 --> 01:23:14,880 Speaker 1: I had a stressful day. I don't want to go 1520 01:23:15,040 --> 01:23:17,880 Speaker 1: home and just climb into my survival capsule and maybe 1521 01:23:17,920 --> 01:23:22,160 Speaker 1: crank some tunes. I'm with you, I can see it. Yeah, 1522 01:23:22,560 --> 01:23:24,760 Speaker 1: it can be your safe place. Okay, what are my 1523 01:23:24,800 --> 01:23:27,360 Speaker 1: other options? I'm already on board for the music. You 1524 01:23:27,439 --> 01:23:31,240 Speaker 1: can pay up for dry powder, seat toilet, Okay. So 1525 01:23:32,320 --> 01:23:35,680 Speaker 1: I don't know, because on one hand, we we all 1526 01:23:36,520 --> 01:23:39,720 Speaker 1: who have access to modern plumbing or very grateful for 1527 01:23:40,040 --> 01:23:43,600 Speaker 1: that that luxury. Many people throughout human history have not 1528 01:23:43,720 --> 01:23:48,000 Speaker 1: had such luxuries. But do you really want I don't know. 1529 01:23:48,120 --> 01:23:50,439 Speaker 1: I mean, on one hand, I guess it might be 1530 01:23:50,560 --> 01:23:52,840 Speaker 1: better than the alternative, But I'm just thinking about the 1531 01:23:52,920 --> 01:23:57,000 Speaker 1: idea of human waste slashing around in a survival capsule. 1532 01:23:57,640 --> 01:23:59,240 Speaker 1: I mean, I guess maybe it's going to be coming 1533 01:23:59,280 --> 01:24:01,360 Speaker 1: out either way, and it's just a question do you 1534 01:24:01,439 --> 01:24:03,720 Speaker 1: have a toilet or not? Yeah, And I'm wondering what 1535 01:24:03,840 --> 01:24:05,880 Speaker 1: this consists of, because it instantly makes me think of 1536 01:24:06,560 --> 01:24:09,599 Speaker 1: overnight canoe trip, the trips that I've been on where 1537 01:24:09,760 --> 01:24:12,679 Speaker 1: you were required by the park to have a toilet 1538 01:24:12,760 --> 01:24:16,160 Speaker 1: option on the canoe, and what what we had was, 1539 01:24:16,320 --> 01:24:18,400 Speaker 1: and instance, it's kind of an escape capsule. It was 1540 01:24:18,560 --> 01:24:21,360 Speaker 1: a folder's coffee can with kitty letter in it. In 1541 01:24:21,479 --> 01:24:23,479 Speaker 1: the event that you needed to use the restroom in there, 1542 01:24:23,560 --> 01:24:25,519 Speaker 1: you certainly could. It would not be fun, but it 1543 01:24:25,600 --> 01:24:28,880 Speaker 1: could be done. And just having it there, you know, 1544 01:24:29,000 --> 01:24:30,960 Speaker 1: made you feel a little easier and made the park 1545 01:24:31,080 --> 01:24:33,920 Speaker 1: rangers feel a little easier. I guess. So maybe it's 1546 01:24:33,960 --> 01:24:37,040 Speaker 1: all psychological, Yeah, I think, I mean, that's that's a 1547 01:24:37,160 --> 01:24:39,960 Speaker 1: large part of any escape system. That's true. Yeah, you 1548 01:24:40,040 --> 01:24:44,120 Speaker 1: got to manage your mind. But then there's additional internal lighting. 1549 01:24:44,200 --> 01:24:47,479 Speaker 1: You can pay up for solar panel array that would 1550 01:24:47,520 --> 01:24:51,479 Speaker 1: that survive a tsunami external solar panel array and you're 1551 01:24:51,479 --> 01:24:53,720 Speaker 1: getting hit by a giant wave. I mean maybe if 1552 01:24:53,760 --> 01:24:56,880 Speaker 1: it was properly shielded with some sort of you know, 1553 01:24:57,479 --> 01:25:00,960 Speaker 1: like a like a really firm plexiglass of situation. I'm 1554 01:25:01,000 --> 01:25:05,559 Speaker 1: wondering about that. But then additional internal insulation acoustic and thermal. 1555 01:25:05,760 --> 01:25:08,840 Speaker 1: And then finally they've got color options. And I thought 1556 01:25:08,880 --> 01:25:11,479 Speaker 1: the whole point was we wanted to be visible though, Yeah, 1557 01:25:11,520 --> 01:25:13,599 Speaker 1: well it's this red orange color. I mean, the other 1558 01:25:13,640 --> 01:25:16,439 Speaker 1: one's a yellow color. I'd imagine either one could be visible, 1559 01:25:16,560 --> 01:25:18,680 Speaker 1: so maybe you can also be yellow. It would be 1560 01:25:18,760 --> 01:25:21,920 Speaker 1: horrible if you wanted to pick a survival capsule that 1561 01:25:22,080 --> 01:25:26,960 Speaker 1: was like, I don't know, seawater gray. Yeah, yeah, surely 1562 01:25:26,960 --> 01:25:30,080 Speaker 1: they wouldn't allow that. But maybe like zebra stripes, I 1563 01:25:30,120 --> 01:25:32,280 Speaker 1: could see where there might be some sort of custom 1564 01:25:32,760 --> 01:25:35,240 Speaker 1: I catching color. You'd go for a racing stripe, yea 1565 01:25:35,800 --> 01:25:38,840 Speaker 1: NASCAR number, though, I do want to say, I mean, 1566 01:25:38,920 --> 01:25:41,479 Speaker 1: while the concept of these capsules is kind of funny 1567 01:25:41,520 --> 01:25:44,120 Speaker 1: to me, obviously I mean, if you reckon it all 1568 01:25:44,280 --> 01:25:48,160 Speaker 1: with the real outcome of a tsunami, I mean, these 1569 01:25:48,200 --> 01:25:50,960 Speaker 1: are some of the most devastating natural disasters in all 1570 01:25:51,040 --> 01:25:54,080 Speaker 1: the world and all of world history and uh and 1571 01:25:54,439 --> 01:25:56,800 Speaker 1: and it can be truly horrifying. And it's one of 1572 01:25:56,880 --> 01:25:59,200 Speaker 1: those things where you think, while there really is no 1573 01:25:59,360 --> 01:26:01,679 Speaker 1: great escape from this if you don't have for warning. 1574 01:26:02,400 --> 01:26:07,840 Speaker 1: Um and so, anybody who could design a viable tsunami 1575 01:26:08,240 --> 01:26:11,240 Speaker 1: survival capsule that people could really use to survive could 1576 01:26:11,280 --> 01:26:13,639 Speaker 1: be affordable too many. I mean, I think that would 1577 01:26:13,680 --> 01:26:15,800 Speaker 1: be a worthwhile thing to pursue. So I don't want to. 1578 01:26:16,320 --> 01:26:18,360 Speaker 1: I don't want to just make jokes about what these 1579 01:26:18,400 --> 01:26:21,760 Speaker 1: people are doing. I don't know, the toilet seems a 1580 01:26:21,760 --> 01:26:24,439 Speaker 1: little funny to me, but but yeah, I mean, if 1581 01:26:24,520 --> 01:26:26,840 Speaker 1: you can actually make a capsule and you can get 1582 01:26:26,920 --> 01:26:29,200 Speaker 1: it to the people who are most vulnerable to tsunamis, 1583 01:26:29,240 --> 01:26:31,400 Speaker 1: I think that's a noble thing to do. Plus, let's 1584 01:26:31,439 --> 01:26:34,280 Speaker 1: face it, if if you can't laugh about pooping in 1585 01:26:34,360 --> 01:26:37,240 Speaker 1: a coffee canister right on the on the on the 1586 01:26:37,400 --> 01:26:40,479 Speaker 1: escape barge, on the in the survival capsule, then what's 1587 01:26:40,520 --> 01:26:43,280 Speaker 1: the purpose of surviving? You know, because our humanity has 1588 01:26:43,320 --> 01:26:46,400 Speaker 1: to survive, and that entails being able to laugh at 1589 01:26:46,439 --> 01:26:49,559 Speaker 1: the prospect of pooping in a folder's canister. That humorous 1590 01:26:49,640 --> 01:26:52,799 Speaker 1: gesture would be the true presence of a happy spirit 1591 01:26:52,920 --> 01:26:57,120 Speaker 1: on board. Alright, So I have one more example of 1592 01:26:57,160 --> 01:26:59,880 Speaker 1: an escape capsule to discuss here. So many of the 1593 01:27:00,200 --> 01:27:02,719 Speaker 1: capsules we've mentioned share the same mission, right to return 1594 01:27:02,760 --> 01:27:06,560 Speaker 1: adventurous humans to the Earth's surface from a malfunctioning aircraft 1595 01:27:06,800 --> 01:27:09,800 Speaker 1: to the surface, etcetera. But what about when things go 1596 01:27:09,960 --> 01:27:12,519 Speaker 1: hey wire beneath the surface of the Earth. Are you 1597 01:27:12,640 --> 01:27:18,360 Speaker 1: talking about underground core drilling vehicles like in the Core? Um, well, 1598 01:27:18,400 --> 01:27:20,679 Speaker 1: we're not quite there yet. Did they have an escape capsule, 1599 01:27:20,720 --> 01:27:23,040 Speaker 1: like some sort of thing that came up. I'm sorry 1600 01:27:23,080 --> 01:27:25,320 Speaker 1: to say this. I've never seen the Core. Oh yeah, 1601 01:27:26,040 --> 01:27:29,000 Speaker 1: well it makes me this idea makes me think of 1602 01:27:29,160 --> 01:27:32,960 Speaker 1: the the terror dome on a teenage muntant Ninja turtles, right, 1603 01:27:33,040 --> 01:27:34,800 Speaker 1: because it would it would drill down, and I think 1604 01:27:34,840 --> 01:27:37,519 Speaker 1: they had they had the equivalent of like a a 1605 01:27:37,560 --> 01:27:39,640 Speaker 1: little drill vehicle that would come up that was kind 1606 01:27:39,640 --> 01:27:42,200 Speaker 1: of like an escape capsule that the foot soldiers would 1607 01:27:42,240 --> 01:27:44,360 Speaker 1: jump out of in the video game. Right, I don't 1608 01:27:44,400 --> 01:27:47,439 Speaker 1: remember anything about that, but I believe you well it was. 1609 01:27:47,720 --> 01:27:50,200 Speaker 1: It was fantastic and uh, you know, could probably not 1610 01:27:50,320 --> 01:27:52,960 Speaker 1: exist in real life, but here's an example of something 1611 01:27:53,000 --> 01:27:57,120 Speaker 1: that did. So you can find various mining escape capsule 1612 01:27:57,280 --> 01:28:00,680 Speaker 1: patents out there, but the most notable deployment it real 1613 01:28:00,800 --> 01:28:03,360 Speaker 1: life deployment of so of one of these systems came 1614 01:28:03,439 --> 01:28:06,599 Speaker 1: in the wake of the two thousand ten Chilean mining acts. 1615 01:28:06,680 --> 01:28:09,479 Speaker 1: And do you remember when this occurred. I don't. I mean, 1616 01:28:09,560 --> 01:28:13,920 Speaker 1: I remember various mining accidents, but this one, the particulars 1617 01:28:14,000 --> 01:28:16,000 Speaker 1: of it don't stand out to me. So what happened here, 1618 01:28:16,320 --> 01:28:19,559 Speaker 1: So this was thirty three miners trapped seven hundred meters 1619 01:28:19,640 --> 01:28:24,240 Speaker 1: that's feet underground and uh and about five kilometers or 1620 01:28:24,320 --> 01:28:27,720 Speaker 1: three miles from the mind's interests entrants. So this was 1621 01:28:27,880 --> 01:28:29,920 Speaker 1: a pretty big deal. They made a movie about it recently, 1622 01:28:30,040 --> 01:28:31,800 Speaker 1: like I think they caught it thirty three or the 1623 01:28:31,880 --> 01:28:36,479 Speaker 1: thirty three. Um, so they're they're trapped in this hostile environment. Um, 1624 01:28:36,680 --> 01:28:40,799 Speaker 1: it's it's hot down there, it's dark. Uh, it's cramped, 1625 01:28:40,840 --> 01:28:43,800 Speaker 1: and they've got to get out right, So to rescue them, 1626 01:28:44,320 --> 01:28:48,080 Speaker 1: what they did is they utilize steel rescue capsules and 1627 01:28:48,200 --> 01:28:52,400 Speaker 1: these these were updated takes on the torpedo like doll 1628 01:28:52,479 --> 01:28:56,439 Speaker 1: Busch bomb that have been employed since the mid nineteen fifties. 1629 01:28:56,479 --> 01:29:00,360 Speaker 1: Developed in Germany. Doll bush bomb. Yeah, that's what they 1630 01:29:00,600 --> 01:29:01,800 Speaker 1: called it because I guess it kind of looks like 1631 01:29:01,800 --> 01:29:03,640 Speaker 1: a bomb, kind of looks like a torpedo. And this 1632 01:29:03,800 --> 01:29:07,559 Speaker 1: was used. This was employed again in the mid nineteen 1633 01:29:07,600 --> 01:29:11,280 Speaker 1: fifties in a German mine. So they updated this. They 1634 01:29:11,400 --> 01:29:14,640 Speaker 1: dubbed it the Phoenix and they were constructed by the 1635 01:29:14,720 --> 01:29:18,080 Speaker 1: Chilean Navy with design input from NASA, and they implemented 1636 01:29:18,160 --> 01:29:22,519 Speaker 1: most of NASA's changes. Uh So, when the when the 1637 01:29:22,800 --> 01:29:24,680 Speaker 1: mining accident occurred, this was you know, this was a 1638 01:29:24,720 --> 01:29:27,440 Speaker 1: big this is big news. It was captivating all the headlines. 1639 01:29:27,520 --> 01:29:30,920 Speaker 1: Everyone's really concerned. There's a lot of international attention and 1640 01:29:31,040 --> 01:29:34,080 Speaker 1: thus NASA's involvement as well. But I'm trying to imagine, 1641 01:29:34,120 --> 01:29:37,560 Speaker 1: like what does a mine, a mine escape pod look like? Like, 1642 01:29:37,680 --> 01:29:40,120 Speaker 1: how does that work? It basically looks like a torpedo. 1643 01:29:40,200 --> 01:29:42,439 Speaker 1: And the idea is, all right, you're down there in 1644 01:29:42,479 --> 01:29:46,000 Speaker 1: this this subterranean environment. If we can get a shaft 1645 01:29:46,080 --> 01:29:48,240 Speaker 1: down there to you and we can potentially get you 1646 01:29:48,360 --> 01:29:51,320 Speaker 1: back up or or if there's an adjacent shaft and 1647 01:29:51,400 --> 01:29:53,880 Speaker 1: we can somehow get you to that shaft, etcetera. So this, 1648 01:29:54,439 --> 01:29:57,040 Speaker 1: this Phoenix capsule consisted of again look kind of like 1649 01:29:57,080 --> 01:30:00,479 Speaker 1: this torpedo looking device. Each one had retractable wheels to 1650 01:30:00,560 --> 01:30:02,920 Speaker 1: allow for a smoother ride to the surface, so the 1651 01:30:02,920 --> 01:30:05,920 Speaker 1: wheels would skit along the sides of the vertical shaft 1652 01:30:06,000 --> 01:30:09,320 Speaker 1: that you're you're being pulled back up. Each one have 1653 01:30:09,560 --> 01:30:14,920 Speaker 1: an oxygen supply, lighting, video and voice communications, reinforce roof 1654 01:30:15,080 --> 01:30:17,679 Speaker 1: to protect against a foot rocks that are falling, because 1655 01:30:17,760 --> 01:30:22,280 Speaker 1: rocks could fall uh down the tunnel that you're ascending 1656 01:30:22,640 --> 01:30:25,600 Speaker 1: and you need protection against those. Um. And also an 1657 01:30:25,760 --> 01:30:28,240 Speaker 1: escape hatch with a safety device to allow the passenger 1658 01:30:28,320 --> 01:30:31,920 Speaker 1: to lower themselves back down if the capsule became stuck 1659 01:30:32,080 --> 01:30:35,080 Speaker 1: on up. God, that would be scary. Yeah. So these 1660 01:30:35,120 --> 01:30:38,240 Speaker 1: were these were pretty These were pretty amazing little devices. Um, 1661 01:30:38,600 --> 01:30:41,040 Speaker 1: and they've I think they were they were making the 1662 01:30:41,120 --> 01:30:42,720 Speaker 1: rounds for a little bit, like a little bit because 1663 01:30:42,720 --> 01:30:44,000 Speaker 1: they were showing them off because they were able to 1664 01:30:44,000 --> 01:30:48,400 Speaker 1: successfully get everyone out of the mind using the Phoenix capsules. Really, yeah, 1665 01:30:48,560 --> 01:30:51,480 Speaker 1: this is weird. I'm feeling this. I don't usually experience 1666 01:30:51,760 --> 01:30:56,120 Speaker 1: strong clustrophobia. But just now contemplating this, I'm overwhelmed. Well 1667 01:30:56,160 --> 01:30:58,479 Speaker 1: you should. You should definitely check out more about the story. 1668 01:30:58,520 --> 01:31:00,240 Speaker 1: There was a wonderful I want to say, was an 1669 01:31:00,280 --> 01:31:04,880 Speaker 1: episode of the Ideas podcast out of Canada that into 1670 01:31:04,920 --> 01:31:06,840 Speaker 1: it that I think the interviewed an author had written 1671 01:31:06,840 --> 01:31:08,719 Speaker 1: a book about it. I think it's the same book 1672 01:31:08,760 --> 01:31:10,800 Speaker 1: that the movie was based on, and they went into 1673 01:31:10,840 --> 01:31:14,519 Speaker 1: detail just talking about just how bad the situation was, 1674 01:31:14,760 --> 01:31:18,400 Speaker 1: and like the attitudes among the survivors and and what 1675 01:31:18,600 --> 01:31:20,560 Speaker 1: was going on top side as well. So it's a 1676 01:31:20,680 --> 01:31:23,360 Speaker 1: it's a really interesting human drama. I haven't seen the 1677 01:31:23,400 --> 01:31:24,880 Speaker 1: movie yet, but it kind of makes me want to 1678 01:31:24,920 --> 01:31:29,000 Speaker 1: see it. Interesting all right, So we've talked about aviation 1679 01:31:29,280 --> 01:31:32,080 Speaker 1: escape pods, we've talked about space escapes pods, we've talked 1680 01:31:32,080 --> 01:31:36,720 Speaker 1: about whether related escape pods, mining escape pods. What we 1681 01:31:36,760 --> 01:31:40,160 Speaker 1: have possibly left out here, Um, you know, what they 1682 01:31:40,200 --> 01:31:43,000 Speaker 1: need is a human body escape pod for the brain. 1683 01:31:43,400 --> 01:31:47,360 Speaker 1: That's one of the cybernetic upgrades I'm hoping for. Yeah, 1684 01:31:47,880 --> 01:31:50,439 Speaker 1: or it sounds more like a spiritual upgrade as well. No, 1685 01:31:51,439 --> 01:31:54,080 Speaker 1: essentially is right the brain you get to maybe the 1686 01:31:54,120 --> 01:31:59,599 Speaker 1: brain upper nervous system is encased in a survival eject capsule. Okay, 1687 01:31:59,720 --> 01:32:01,760 Speaker 1: something bad happens to the body, your brain kind of 1688 01:32:01,800 --> 01:32:04,320 Speaker 1: shoots out and waits for rescue. Huh. Well, I guess 1689 01:32:04,400 --> 01:32:08,720 Speaker 1: the A more slightly more believable version of this would 1690 01:32:08,720 --> 01:32:11,560 Speaker 1: be just the idea that that we would have our consciousness, 1691 01:32:11,640 --> 01:32:15,720 Speaker 1: our memories backed up somewhere digitally, so that every you know, 1692 01:32:15,800 --> 01:32:17,360 Speaker 1: I don't know how how often would you want to 1693 01:32:17,400 --> 01:32:19,160 Speaker 1: be backed up? How much time are you willing to 1694 01:32:19,280 --> 01:32:22,599 Speaker 1: lose in your life? Oh? You know every week? Yeah, 1695 01:32:22,640 --> 01:32:26,120 Speaker 1: that's fine. So something happens, you just eject the SD card. Yeah, 1696 01:32:26,439 --> 01:32:30,519 Speaker 1: remember to save after every important life event, because you'd 1697 01:32:30,520 --> 01:32:33,280 Speaker 1: hate to be like, Oh, I just the birth of 1698 01:32:33,320 --> 01:32:35,479 Speaker 1: my first child, and I forgot to save and then 1699 01:32:35,520 --> 01:32:37,720 Speaker 1: I got I got hit by a car, And do 1700 01:32:37,960 --> 01:32:39,600 Speaker 1: you know, don't worry. It's not the biggest tragedy in 1701 01:32:39,640 --> 01:32:41,160 Speaker 1: the world, because I now I have my body back, 1702 01:32:41,400 --> 01:32:45,200 Speaker 1: but I have no memory of the birth because I 1703 01:32:45,400 --> 01:32:47,720 Speaker 1: did not save immediately after. Or you could look at 1704 01:32:47,720 --> 01:32:49,479 Speaker 1: it the other way and say, if you don't save 1705 01:32:49,560 --> 01:32:52,600 Speaker 1: after every great event, you get to relive and rediscover 1706 01:32:52,720 --> 01:32:54,920 Speaker 1: the greatness of this great event over and over again. 1707 01:32:55,120 --> 01:32:56,920 Speaker 1: I guess if you can pull it off a second time. 1708 01:32:58,400 --> 01:33:00,680 Speaker 1: And isn't that the goal of any gate pod to 1709 01:33:01,280 --> 01:33:04,200 Speaker 1: give you the chance to have a second go at 1710 01:33:04,200 --> 01:33:08,040 Speaker 1: all of life's experiences. Well, we know we've not covered 1711 01:33:08,120 --> 01:33:12,200 Speaker 1: all of the great escape capsules, pods, survival vehicles that 1712 01:33:12,280 --> 01:33:14,320 Speaker 1: have ever been created. So if you've been thinking of 1713 01:33:14,400 --> 01:33:17,320 Speaker 1: one out there and you're like, oh, why aren't you 1714 01:33:17,360 --> 01:33:19,800 Speaker 1: talking about this? You should let us know. Yeah, let 1715 01:33:19,880 --> 01:33:21,840 Speaker 1: us know about the fictional ones. Let us know about 1716 01:33:21,920 --> 01:33:25,040 Speaker 1: the real life escape capsules. Let us know about some 1717 01:33:25,200 --> 01:33:28,040 Speaker 1: of the proposed ones that just haven't come to fruition yet. 1718 01:33:28,520 --> 01:33:30,000 Speaker 1: We would love to hear about them. And hey, let 1719 01:33:30,080 --> 01:33:31,320 Speaker 1: us know you want to hear. Do you want to 1720 01:33:31,360 --> 01:33:34,519 Speaker 1: hear an episode about fallout shelters? We could do it. Uh? 1721 01:33:35,720 --> 01:33:38,040 Speaker 1: Does that? Does that episode about the guns and under 1722 01:33:38,080 --> 01:33:40,560 Speaker 1: space interest you? Let us know we could do that 1723 01:33:40,640 --> 01:33:43,600 Speaker 1: episode as well. Really, it's it's all, it's all on 1724 01:33:43,680 --> 01:33:45,320 Speaker 1: the table. And if you want to get in touch 1725 01:33:45,320 --> 01:33:46,760 Speaker 1: with us, reach out to us as stuff to blow 1726 01:33:46,800 --> 01:33:49,000 Speaker 1: your mind. Dot com that's our mothership. That's we find 1727 01:33:49,040 --> 01:33:51,280 Speaker 1: links out to our social media accounts, as well as 1728 01:33:51,360 --> 01:33:55,680 Speaker 1: various podcast episodes, Blog post videos, you name it, and 1729 01:33:55,720 --> 01:33:57,360 Speaker 1: if you want to get in touch with this directly 1730 01:33:57,520 --> 01:33:59,960 Speaker 1: you can do so. As always that blow the mind. 1731 01:34:00,000 --> 01:34:11,519 Speaker 1: Mind at how stuff works dot com for more on 1732 01:34:11,640 --> 01:34:14,080 Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff 1733 01:34:14,120 --> 01:34:27,200 Speaker 1: works dot com by Believe the Big Do