Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. And
Speaker 1: the first things first, let's we need to go ahead
Speaker 1: mention that we do have a new email address. If
Speaker 1: you're looking to send us good old fashioned email with
Speaker 1: or without the photo attachments and all all that fun stuff,
Speaker 1: you will want to contact us at blow the Mind
Speaker 1: at Discovery dot com. Previous one was at how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com, So it's the same email address, just
Speaker 1: at a different domain, Discovery. That's right, you go. The mothership. Yeah,
Speaker 1: speaking of motherships. Um, we are of course talking about
Speaker 1: Virgin Galactic in this particular episode. Uh, And I guess
Speaker 1: we were kind of uh excited to discuss this again
Speaker 1: because just last week and there was a story that
Speaker 1: was suddenly everywhere and I think it like it originated
Speaker 1: like the Sun or something like if you track it
Speaker 1: down to a tour it was. It was a British tabloid,
Speaker 1: but but still the idea got people talking because the
Speaker 1: idea was that record executives were interested in sending jay
Speaker 1: Z and Beyonce um up into a sub orbit aboard
Speaker 1: spaceship to the Virgin Galactic Space Tourism vessel so they
Speaker 1: could shoot a video. It's a wonderfully Um, It's just
Speaker 1: it's such a fun idea because I mean there's so
Speaker 1: many different angles. I don't know, there's sort of the
Speaker 1: one percent angle of just jay Z and Beyonce dropping
Speaker 1: four thousand dollars just to go into space and not
Speaker 1: look out the window. Like, I find that amazing. Uh.
Speaker 1: The idea also of them going into orbit and and
Speaker 1: maybe being a little stick al right, having their little
Speaker 1: vomit bags. Yeah, yeah, you know, and then and then
Speaker 1: trying to shoot a video around that I find kind
Speaker 1: of amusing. And I just the idea of jay Z
Speaker 1: and space is of course fantastic, especially if Beyonce it
Speaker 1: feels a little ill and Kanye ends up going up
Speaker 1: with him instead. You know, that's the one time that
Speaker 1: I would really want to be an extra. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'd totally be an extra on that video. Are you kidding?
Speaker 1: I mean, not only are you uh, you know, going
Speaker 1: into space, but that you're you're getting to watch, you know,
Speaker 1: celebrities vomit on themselves. Yeah, and don't normally have to
Speaker 1: pay pay quite a premium for that. What you'd be
Speaker 1: paying for quite a premium for that. I would be
Speaker 1: wiping vomit off my face. I just realized, So maybe
Speaker 1: I need to rethink that. But here's the deal. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is a possibility. It's it's right around the corner.
Speaker 1: Virgin Galactic has been saying that they're in the final
Speaker 1: phase of creating this great vessel and their spaceport, and
Speaker 1: some people are saying, well, maybe it'll happen in although
Speaker 1: more most likely will be but you know, with the U. S.
Speaker 1: Bace Shuttle program being put this is something to look
Speaker 1: forward to. Yeah, I mean, and I've I've spoken with
Speaker 1: interviewed Stephen Attenborough, the commercial director for Virgin Galactica back
Speaker 1: and I also talked to Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides,
Speaker 1: and uh, and they were both, you know, they were
Speaker 1: they were to get asked all the time and when's
Speaker 1: it going up? What's the date, and they're they're very
Speaker 1: hesitant to to throw it out any kind of date
Speaker 1: because then, you know, they if they say it's going
Speaker 1: to go up fourth quarter of then they're going to
Speaker 1: suddenly be sort of feel kind of beholden to that date,
Speaker 1: and this is not something they want to rush. They
Speaker 1: want to get this right because I mean, you were
Speaker 1: talking about, uh, traveling into SubOrbit. We're talking about traveling
Speaker 1: into space. Uh monumental you know first when we actually
Speaker 1: have the first commercial virgin plactic flight take off. So
Speaker 1: you know, they wanted to to look to work perfectly
Speaker 1: just if nothing else from a from a pr standpoint,
Speaker 1: well in a business model too, right yeah. Um, So,
Speaker 1: like I mean, let's talk a little bit about what
Speaker 1: suborbital flight is, which is what the vessel the craft
Speaker 1: will be going into. Right, We're talking about reaching an
Speaker 1: altitude of approximately sixty eight miles above the surface of
Speaker 1: the Earth um, and that is six point two miles
Speaker 1: above a boundary line, uh that we call the Carmen line,
Speaker 1: which by most definitions is where the atmosphere ends in
Speaker 1: outer space begins. Now it's important to stress here that
Speaker 1: there's there's no just like the Earth's atmosphere kind of
Speaker 1: just dies off gradually, and it varies exactly when the
Speaker 1: atmosphere would be ending and when space would be begin
Speaker 1: based on on on where you're looking in the various
Speaker 1: atmospheric conditions. But but also but basically it's just kind
Speaker 1: of dies off. It's like, imagine there's a bad smell
Speaker 1: in our room. There's not a point where the bad
Speaker 1: smell begins it ends, as much as where it fades away. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is also what we're talking about here, is sending
Speaker 1: a craft into space and bringing it back down without
Speaker 1: circling the Earth. And just so you guys know, now
Speaker 1: says X fifteen has ascended beyond the Carmon line only twice.
Speaker 1: And the higher you go, the higher the G forces
Speaker 1: are going to be on the way up and the
Speaker 1: way down. So um, this is mainly why this height
Speaker 1: is achievable to us right now, because it works within
Speaker 1: the confines of our own humanness, right in our ability
Speaker 1: to with stand G forces. Um. And also just that
Speaker 1: reentry it's really important on um, well, we know it's
Speaker 1: one of the biggest problems of engineering right right. And
Speaker 1: uh yeah, the ship that itself spaceship too is actually
Speaker 1: designed to go even higher than sixty eight miles. But
Speaker 1: you have to keep in mind again business model, this
Speaker 1: is about tourism. This is about reaching as many people
Speaker 1: as possible because you want to be able to sell
Speaker 1: them that pricey ticket. Uh so they The goal for
Speaker 1: Virgin Galactic has been to make it to wear. Human
Speaker 1: beings between the ages of twenty two and eighty eight
Speaker 1: would be fit enough to take the ride, so it
Speaker 1: wouldn't be one of these things where only people in
Speaker 1: their twenties and thirties, you know, in good hell, you know.
Speaker 1: This is not the astronaut program. This is space tourism,
Speaker 1: so the goals are a little different. So it's like
Speaker 1: the ultimate roller coaster for for a variety of ages. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: if Granny wants to go into the SubOrbit, Granny gets
Speaker 1: to go into SubOrbit. She's just gotta be able to
Speaker 1: PLoP down the cash. My favorite part of this is
Speaker 1: the way that Branson describes it, which is the sexiest
Speaker 1: spaceship ever. That's it's such a ridiculous concept because most
Speaker 1: spaceships are kind of phallic anyway. So I mean, it's like,
Speaker 1: I can't help but think of that. So he's like,
Speaker 1: you imagine saying, I'm going to create the most phallic
Speaker 1: spaceship imaginable. But I mean it's really it is a
Speaker 1: very attractive looking plane. And then they have the there's
Speaker 1: the White Knight that takes it up to uh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: let's talk about what this looks like, because it is
Speaker 1: sexy looking. Actually. Um, it is a vehicle that's designed
Speaker 1: to carry six passengers and two pilots. And if you're
Speaker 1: looking at it, it looks like it almost looks like
Speaker 1: three planes lined up together, right, yeah, Because the White
Speaker 1: Knight has two cabins yes to two fuselage bodies. It
Speaker 1: looks like like like two dragonflies holding hands. Oh that's pretty,
Speaker 1: that's beautiful. Um. And the White Knight, just you everybody
Speaker 1: knows it's not part of the actual craft that that
Speaker 1: shot into the ether there. It is actually the part
Speaker 1: that boost the craft up to fifty feet right right,
Speaker 1: in the same way as a space shuttle. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: it uses the booster. It would use the boosters to
Speaker 1: reach a certain altitude and then it would jetison the
Speaker 1: boosters and fly the rest of the way up. This
Speaker 1: is kind of like that, except the boosters. Instead of
Speaker 1: plumbing back to Earth, they go and land at an airport.
Speaker 1: Which I mean, that's that's pretty smart, right yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: far less waste, a lot more economically feasible. Um. And
Speaker 1: another way to look at it is and I think
Speaker 1: this is the way that Virgin galact tends to frame
Speaker 1: it is that the White Night is the launching platform
Speaker 1: for Spaceship two, but instead of the launching platform being
Speaker 1: on the ground, they fly the launching platform up to
Speaker 1: a high altitude itself, so it's you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: given in a ride and then it can walk the
Speaker 1: rest of the way and as a result that they
Speaker 1: use less fuel and their carbon footprint is far less. Um. So,
Speaker 1: the cabin measures an ample seven point five feet in
Speaker 1: diameter by twelve ft in length, and that seems to
Speaker 1: be enough room to float around, right. Yeah. And there
Speaker 1: are a lot of little porthole like windows just sort
Speaker 1: of scattered throughout, and those are measuring up to seventeen
Speaker 1: inches in diameter, about twice what your commercial aircraft window
Speaker 1: would be. Yeah, and not everybody's gonna get a lot
Speaker 1: of personal space, but like you said, you know, you're
Speaker 1: gonna be thrown up on each other potentially, so so
Speaker 1: you know, you might as well get a little cozy yeah. Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: you know, and this again, this is going to be
Speaker 1: a pretty big bonding experience for these six people anyway,
Speaker 1: yea um. And then the company has actually managed to
Speaker 1: sell more than four hundred and seventy tickets so far,
Speaker 1: each with a twenty thousand dollar minimum deposit. Uh. And
Speaker 1: of course this is without setting any sort of definitive
Speaker 1: launch date. Um. And some of the luminaries that will
Speaker 1: be on this space craft besides possibly jay Z and
Speaker 1: Biance of course, uh, Angelina and Julie and Brad Pitt
Speaker 1: on board. UM. Brian Singer, director of the first two
Speaker 1: X Men movies, Paris Hilton. Who, Um, well everyone knows
Speaker 1: Paris Hilton. Uh. We got royalty covered in the form
Speaker 1: of Prince Beatrice. We have science covered in the forum
Speaker 1: of Stephen Hawking. Uh we have and then another Hollywood legend,
Speaker 1: we have Tom Hanks on board and to a lesser extent,
Speaker 1: Victoria Principle spice girl. Oh yes, no, she's not a
Speaker 1: spice girl. I think she's from like the nineteen she's
Speaker 1: Dynasty or something like that. Yeah, I think she's just
Speaker 1: the one who who wanted to have a special space suit,
Speaker 1: like she wanted like a pink space suit or something
Speaker 1: like that. Was that was in the news at one point.
Speaker 1: Because for the most part, if it's virgin galactic related, um,
Speaker 1: you know, like space and science journalism, they're going to
Speaker 1: cover it um and and with good reason, because Virgin Galactic,
Speaker 1: I mean, Branson really throws his money and stuff, and
Speaker 1: they have great pr they have great images that they
Speaker 1: put out there for you well. And I have heard
Speaker 1: that their their commercial air flights are quite cushy in nice,
Speaker 1: so I can imagine that they would design a pink
Speaker 1: space suit for Victoria principle. Now, now you mentioned that
Speaker 1: it's twenty dollars reserved the ticket two hundred thousand, as
Speaker 1: the title of the podcast suggests at that to actually
Speaker 1: board the flight, like that's the full price, And you
Speaker 1: had an interesting tidbit about Salmahyak. Yeah, yeah, she actually
Speaker 1: reserved a ticket and presumably she lost her deposit later
Speaker 1: when she became a mother and decided that that was
Speaker 1: a really bad idea, which was kind of like, okay,
Speaker 1: I get it. You know, I'm a mother and I
Speaker 1: can understand like, oh, okay, if if something happens, that
Speaker 1: would be a travesty. But then we were discussing about
Speaker 1: how this is on par with irrational fears, and in
Speaker 1: particular flight right because we all know that it's far
Speaker 1: safer to fly than it is to get in your
Speaker 1: car and drive. Yeah, I mean not to discount the
Speaker 1: fact that, yes, this would be the suborbital flight, this
Speaker 1: would be pretty groundbreaking. But Richard Branson has I mean,
Speaker 1: here's the personal steak in this going well, I mean
Speaker 1: he's gonna be on that flight. But right, yeah, so,
Speaker 1: I mean that's the flight you would be on, Like
Speaker 1: you can safe on that flight, but on any terrestrial
Speaker 1: virgin light you know, or or or any random you know,
Speaker 1: drive across town like there is a huge engine figured
Speaker 1: though there's you know, a huge engine involved here too,
Speaker 1: but but just from a business standpoint, like well, like
Speaker 1: the version galactic engine is behind this thing taking off,
Speaker 1: I think you're gonna be okay. And if you're not,
Speaker 1: I mean you're gonna go out and the blaze of
Speaker 1: glory next to uh you know, Angelina Jolie and Brad
Speaker 1: Pitt m H. I don't know about that, um. And
Speaker 1: I think that the end result is that you're still
Speaker 1: going to be a flaming meat bag, and that that's
Speaker 1: where people have the problem with that, Like still in
Speaker 1: the hiyak, right, I don't want to become a flaming
Speaker 1: meat bag. Well, we're all gonna become meat bags. So
Speaker 1: I'm I'm like, let's do it in SubOrbit, let's let's
Speaker 1: do it above the common line. Well, and as we'll
Speaker 1: discuss later on, it's probably not you know, that's probably
Speaker 1: again in a rational fear that you could apply to
Speaker 1: trestual flight to you know, right, there's probably not even
Speaker 1: gonna be mass celebrity vomiting. Like I'm probably I'm overstating
Speaker 1: bat much less flaming celebrities. I'm just I'm just thinking
Speaker 1: about the image. Um, all right, in a moment here
Speaker 1: after there our break, we are going to talk about
Speaker 1: what you get for two hundred thousand dollars. All right,
Speaker 1: we're back. I should also point out, if we're talking
Speaker 1: about the famous individuals and tickets, it should be noted
Speaker 1: that that Shatner captain kirk fame of course, Uh, he
Speaker 1: was offered a free ticket by Branson but turned it
Speaker 1: down because he's too cool for school. I mean, what's
Speaker 1: up with that. I don't think he's too cool, but
Speaker 1: I don't know, he's just too old and curmaginally too.
Speaker 1: It's like I've got my gig, I've got my con gig.
Speaker 1: I don't I can't do it. Um, maybe you just
Speaker 1: hates flying, I mean because Ultimately it's a flight. Somebody
Speaker 1: he's just like, fly enough, okay, But it's a hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty minute flight. That's what we're talking about here.
Speaker 1: I mean, we're not talking about like going to the
Speaker 1: West coast. We're not talking about four hours here. Um.
Speaker 1: But do you know, just just to break it down,
Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty minute journey would be one thousand,
Speaker 1: three hundred thirty three dollars a minute. Are you guys
Speaker 1: tagging that? And um, what you also get in your
Speaker 1: two hundred thousand dollars. It's a three day training course
Speaker 1: in g force and afety training at the company's training
Speaker 1: facility in New Mexico. And as you said, the training
Speaker 1: exercises do indicate that of humans can can do this
Speaker 1: right between the ages of eight and Passengers after completing
Speaker 1: training will load onto a rocket ship attached to a
Speaker 1: carrier plane. That's the White Night that we've been talking to,
Speaker 1: the mother ship that will fly fifty feet into the
Speaker 1: air and then at that point, at about an hour
Speaker 1: in the rockets will detach and store more than three
Speaker 1: hundred thousand feet into the air. And this is when
Speaker 1: things get really serious because the environment inside the craft
Speaker 1: is changing really rapidly, because now you're hurtling through space
Speaker 1: close to four times the speed of sound and about
Speaker 1: thirty seconds okay, with five g s coming at you
Speaker 1: at this point. And I'm sorry, but I'm kind of
Speaker 1: this is I'm getting excited by this, right, this is
Speaker 1: really cool. And then and then when you begin to
Speaker 1: see earth of the window, right, Um, that's when the
Speaker 1: engine cuts off and it's complete silence and weightlessness is achieved.
Speaker 1: And that's when presumably like the little lights come on
Speaker 1: and say that you can take your seatbelt off. Uh,
Speaker 1: that's when you'll take off your seatbelt and experience zero
Speaker 1: gravity for a full five minutes. Yeah, and and and
Speaker 1: it's easy to sort of look at this and say,
Speaker 1: like five minutes. All right, you so you're gonna float
Speaker 1: around for five minutes? Big woop? Is that really worth
Speaker 1: two dollars? Surprise? Not not or unsurprisingly? Uh, the virgin
Speaker 1: lack of people I talked to said, yes, it will
Speaker 1: totally be worth that money. And uh, and certainly when
Speaker 1: you when you look at and then they make a
Speaker 1: strong case because they point out that that everyone who
Speaker 1: has gone into space, uh, and who has looked out
Speaker 1: of a portal and seen the Earth from above. It's
Speaker 1: changed their lives forever. Like it's not something where people
Speaker 1: are like, yeah, I went into space once, and you
Speaker 1: know it's like, really, you went too space. We've known
Speaker 1: each other ten years and you never mentioned that. No,
Speaker 1: this is the kind of thing that they mentioned all
Speaker 1: the time. Like you, if anything, you're sick of hearing
Speaker 1: about your friend Charlie going into space. You're like, go, really,
Speaker 1: you're gonna talk about how you get to see the
Speaker 1: Earth from above and you realize we're all, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: a brotherhood of man blah blah blah. We've heard it before.
Speaker 1: You know, it changes people. It's it is. I don't
Speaker 1: think there's any It may not be for everyone in
Speaker 1: the sense that not everyone is going to be willing
Speaker 1: to invest the money in it, but I I can't
Speaker 1: imagine anybody when we would go up there and see
Speaker 1: it so look out the windows, see the Earth, would
Speaker 1: experience microgravity and would regret the trip. I know. I'm
Speaker 1: just thinking that this is total billionaire cocktail uh fodder,
Speaker 1: like cocktail party, Like, oh well, I went Hella skiing
Speaker 1: last weekend and I's been a really because I just
Speaker 1: saw the Earth like you know from space. Yeah, it's definitely.
Speaker 1: I guess it's you know, it's pretty much aimed at
Speaker 1: the one percent, you know. But yeah, yeah, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say that. I'm gonna go with that. Except I mean
Speaker 1: I will say though, if they want somebody from the
Speaker 1: lower to actually you have a seat, I'm happy to
Speaker 1: it to be that person. Oh yeah, yeah, along, I
Speaker 1: absolutely agree. Um, you know, in the name of science
Speaker 1: research podcasting, Um I could. I could do that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would do it in a heartbeat. I mean especially
Speaker 1: if and if I had two dollars just sitting around
Speaker 1: and absolutely nothing else to do with that money. Like
Speaker 1: if two thousand dollars was nothing to me, then I
Speaker 1: could see myself buying a ticket. Yeah yeah, like ten
Speaker 1: ton of them, prer entire family. I do think it's
Speaker 1: a really incredible part of the whole flight. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: which some well not really people, but say some space
Speaker 1: organizations are doing well. I was just thinking that if
Speaker 1: you were super crazy rich, you could have some sort
Speaker 1: of event up like they're like get married or somebody
Speaker 1: will get married on vertictal actic. I know it will
Speaker 1: happen with the with the chair and everything. I don't
Speaker 1: think the light you bring it cool? Would that be
Speaker 1: in zero gravity? Based on this? But let's let's talk
Speaker 1: about a little bit more about the company UM and
Speaker 1: how this came to fruition the the spaceship to vehicle.
Speaker 1: Its predecessor had actually already explored suborbital space UM and
Speaker 1: claimed the ten million and a sorry X prize on
Speaker 1: October four in two thousand and four. This is actually
Speaker 1: what caught Sir Richard Branson's eye, m because you know,
Speaker 1: obviously this is something that he wanted to do and UM,
Speaker 1: this is a design that he has been working on
Speaker 1: with the people who are behind the engineering of that.
Speaker 1: So the thing that that is most critical though to
Speaker 1: the design is re entry because we talked about that
Speaker 1: a little bit before, right, Like, re entry is the
Speaker 1: hardest part of this because again the higher you go, um,
Speaker 1: I guess you could say, the harder you're gonna fall. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: you definitely you have to deal with the the intense
Speaker 1: physical challenges of re entry, the wear and tear that's
Speaker 1: going to inflict on the ship itself. Fiery re entry
Speaker 1: is is a phrase for a reason, right right, It
Speaker 1: just doesn't sound very pleasant, the air hitting the ship. No,
Speaker 1: but feathered re entry. Doesn't that sound wonderful? That sounds great.
Speaker 1: That sounds like something that would be offered in a hotel,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, feathery bed like they don't have a shower,
Speaker 1: it's like a heavenly shower in bath or whatever. You know.
Speaker 1: They have all these these cushy terminologies for things that
Speaker 1: aren't really that fantastic. But feathered landing that sounds great.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be concerned about a feathered landing. It sounds
Speaker 1: so much better than violent reentry and fiery entry. UM.
Speaker 1: It's been compared to the flight of a shuttlecock in
Speaker 1: Badminton and UM. It allows spaceship to to rely on
Speaker 1: aerodynamics and the laws of physics to control speed and altitude.
Speaker 1: And Spaceship two's ability to feather its tail section is
Speaker 1: the main safety feature here UM again one that allows
Speaker 1: a craft to return into this thick atmosphere from the
Speaker 1: edge of space. UM and the entire tail structure of
Speaker 1: the spaceship can actually be rotated upward to about sixty
Speaker 1: five degrees and then in this feathered configuration, automatic control
Speaker 1: of altitude with the fuselage parallel to the horizon is achieved.
Speaker 1: So this creates a really high drag as a space
Speaker 1: it descends through the upper regions of the atmosphere, so again,
Speaker 1: you know, going into and out of makes it a
Speaker 1: little bit more I guess you could say elegant, right
Speaker 1: and safe. That that's the main part of this. Branson
Speaker 1: says that the company spacecraft were built to exacting specifications
Speaker 1: and that they were able to mitigate a lot of
Speaker 1: the deletarious environmental effects of NASA's spaceship Shuttle program. And
Speaker 1: um he says that their technology, because it's brand new
Speaker 1: and not forty years old, we'll be able to put
Speaker 1: someone into space for less than their environmental price in
Speaker 1: an economy class ticket from London to New York and back.
Speaker 1: And they said, quote on top of that, we can
Speaker 1: put satellites into space for almost no carbon output because
Speaker 1: we're launching them from sixt rather than the land based
Speaker 1: satellite launches. So okay, this is where the possibilities start
Speaker 1: to grow a little bit more beyond just space tourism,
Speaker 1: right right, and and it really begins to look like
Speaker 1: the like the space tourism is kind of the leg
Speaker 1: up on not just the future of sending ultrawealthy celebrit
Speaker 1: these on a you know, their dream trip, but more on,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm getting a leg up on the next
Speaker 1: phase in the evolution of human space flight and space
Speaker 1: exploration itself. And that is why I mentioned earlier that
Speaker 1: that there was was somebody that was interested in booking
Speaker 1: an entire flight for kind of a party. But it's
Speaker 1: not it's an it's it's not about Mitzvah. That's uh,
Speaker 1: that's planned, but it's rather NASA. For a four point
Speaker 1: five million dollar deal, they've managed to charter a full
Speaker 1: flight from Virgin Galactic, which includes an option of two
Speaker 1: additional flights, and on each of those pounds of scientific
Speaker 1: experiments which in and out of it. So when I
Speaker 1: first read that, I was like, well that that doesn't
Speaker 1: really sound like much like what can you know, There's
Speaker 1: no way that a Virgin Galactic flight is anything, you know,
Speaker 1: on on par with a Space Shuttle flight. It's just,
Speaker 1: you know, you can be far limited in what you
Speaker 1: can do and how you can do it. But if
Speaker 1: you again, if you look at it from the standpoint
Speaker 1: of Virgin Galactic is being the leg up on the
Speaker 1: next phase of of space exploration and and where the
Speaker 1: the privatized version of space X oparation is going, then
Speaker 1: it makes a lot more sense. Well, and then you know,
Speaker 1: is that the model that in the United States works
Speaker 1: in terms of space exploration? Is it privatizing? Is that?
Speaker 1: Is that actually the answer? And not only that, is
Speaker 1: there going to be a possible you know, space port
Speaker 1: in in every state. Um. This also brings up the
Speaker 1: question about whether or not we'll have global high speed
Speaker 1: air and space travel, because you could you know, pretty
Speaker 1: much travel to anywhere in the Earth in two hours
Speaker 1: or less. Yeah, right, So this could change the landscape
Speaker 1: of travel entirely, like intercontinental ballistic commute. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: of course, the price would have to come down a bit, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it would. I mean that's the thing. I mean, this
Speaker 1: is kind of like the people who are talking about
Speaker 1: getting the ticket. You can think of them as the
Speaker 1: early adapters. Like before everyone you know got a like
Speaker 1: a certain smartphone, Um, there were only the people who
Speaker 1: had the interest and the funds to get said smartphones.
Speaker 1: So that's another way important thing to keep in mind
Speaker 1: when you're laughing at the prospect of of paying two
Speaker 1: d thousand dollars for anything that's not a a house,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, yeah, Well, and then all sudden me
Speaker 1: if our ten year old listeners, because I'm sure we've
Speaker 1: got something out there. I mean, by the time you're sixty,
Speaker 1: this might be a real possibility that you decide that
Speaker 1: you want to travel from you know, London to uh,
Speaker 1: I don't know, South America and under two hours and
Speaker 1: maybe the tickets a thousand bucks by then, who knows
Speaker 1: in a generation they'll take this for granted, that's right,
Speaker 1: that's right. But in terms of suborbital flight, another reason
Speaker 1: to do it is is something that we've touched on
Speaker 1: before is something called the overview effect, right, and uh,
Speaker 1: and this is the idea is I've kind of joked
Speaker 1: about it earlier when talking about the you know, this
Speaker 1: hypothetical astronaut friend who won't shut up about this trip
Speaker 1: into space. The idea that it changes you and uh
Speaker 1: in the overview effect is certainly part of that, the
Speaker 1: idea that that once you've you've seen the Earth from
Speaker 1: from orbit or in this case, sub orbit, that it
Speaker 1: changes something in you. It gives you some new perspective
Speaker 1: on what life means and and uh and and and
Speaker 1: maybe even how petty uh any of our different is
Speaker 1: are on Earth. A number of people have written about this,
Speaker 1: most famously the the no Tech science guy. No Edic
Speaker 1: Sciences founder um edgar Mitchell talks about this because apparently
Speaker 1: this is something that a lot of astronauts experience, right.
Speaker 1: He described the sensation um of looking at at the
Speaker 1: Earth gave him a profound sense of connectedness with a
Speaker 1: feeling of bliss and timelessness. He was overwhelmed by the experience.
Speaker 1: He became profoundly aware that each and every atom in
Speaker 1: the universe was connected in some way, and on seeing
Speaker 1: Earth from space, he had an understanding that all humans, animals,
Speaker 1: and systems were a part of the same thing, a
Speaker 1: synergistic whole. It was an interconnected euphoria. And this that
Speaker 1: that's the quote from um no Edics website talks about
Speaker 1: his whole impetus for for creating this no Edics science,
Speaker 1: which we won't go into. If you're interested in the
Speaker 1: check out our podcast on the overview effect. But again,
Speaker 1: there's this idea that you are so changed by this
Speaker 1: whole new perspective that you have about life and your
Speaker 1: role in it. And that's why I'm I'm actually really
Speaker 1: like no joking, Like I would really love to see
Speaker 1: entertainers like jay Z, like Kanye, go into SubOrbit, experience
Speaker 1: this and be changed. Not because I think there's anything
Speaker 1: wrong with the jay Z and Kanye in their current incarnations,
Speaker 1: but I would love to see Space jay Z and
Speaker 1: Space Kanye return. What would that be like? What would
Speaker 1: that that be for someone to take, For someone's whole
Speaker 1: creative flow to be reinvigorated by the overview effect, how
Speaker 1: would that affect their creative output? Well, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: part of me thinks that they might start dawning like
Speaker 1: monks robes or something, um, you know, and just giving
Speaker 1: up all good, all materialistic pursuit. Well, let's not get
Speaker 1: silly about it. But oh, you're right, you're right. Maybe
Speaker 1: just one diamond study here. I'm thinking maybe just maybe
Speaker 1: do some really cool tracks about how we're all brotherhood
Speaker 1: of man, that kind of thing. But I do wonder that,
Speaker 1: you know, to what extent can you really experience this?
Speaker 1: Because you know, when astronaut is talking about the over
Speaker 1: view fact, they're also talking about having been in space
Speaker 1: for a month or so or more, and and some
Speaker 1: of the ruling right, yeah, and some of the studies
Speaker 1: that we've looked at before and that that I had
Speaker 1: researched when they were talking about space euphoria popping up
Speaker 1: as a as a symptom, it was it was something
Speaker 1: that was occurring well into a lengthy stay in space,
Speaker 1: and that's just not something that's going to happen with
Speaker 1: virgin galactic yeah stage. But yeah, there's the whole question
Speaker 1: about work. Are you get enough oxygen to your brain?
Speaker 1: You know, because if you've been you know, sitting in
Speaker 1: a chair for ten hours for a month, you know
Speaker 1: your body is going to change. We've talked about that.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of things that happened to your brain
Speaker 1: and body. Now once space hotels are actually a possibility,
Speaker 1: you know, things may change a bit. And that's in
Speaker 1: space hotels are something that I mean, it's it's on
Speaker 1: the radar for everyone looking at this. It's certainly not
Speaker 1: gonna we're gonna get the initial space tourism stuff down first,
Speaker 1: but but humans staying in space for recreation, that's it's
Speaker 1: on the chart. There's gonna be a red roof in
Speaker 1: pretty soon in space some pretty through to the world,
Speaker 1: Howard Johnson's yeah, ho Jon Space. Alright, Well, let's uh,
Speaker 1: let's put that one to rest and call over the
Speaker 1: robot to see if we have any listener mail to read.
Speaker 1: All right, here is uh, here's an email from our listener,
Speaker 1: Rachel Rachel Rights, and this is hi, Julian Roberts. I
Speaker 1: wanted to tell you how much I have been enjoying
Speaker 1: your podcast. I buy nine miles a day to and
Speaker 1: from work and love listening to your podcast and audiobooks
Speaker 1: on my right. I've gotten caught up on my usual
Speaker 1: podcast and your podcast was recommended to me, and now
Speaker 1: I have been listening to archive of podcast. Thank you
Speaker 1: for giving me so many things to think about. In
Speaker 1: listening to your cheating podcast, I was shocked to hear
Speaker 1: the percentages of cheating that people admitted to. I'm really
Speaker 1: hoping my daughters and their friends can escape this trap,
Speaker 1: and I'm disappointed in how unlikely that may be. As
Speaker 1: for me, I did cheat once in high school, but
Speaker 1: never in college. I agree with suggestions. The suggestion in
Speaker 1: your podcast at school felt like something that was done
Speaker 1: to me in high school. In college was something I
Speaker 1: was choosing to do. My high school cheating stories when
Speaker 1: I've told my daughters, and one they thought was amusing.
Speaker 1: I was a senior in ap French taking the final.
Speaker 1: The teacher stood up during the final and told us
Speaker 1: in fringe that he was having a heart attack and
Speaker 1: needs to leave, which meant he left a class of
Speaker 1: under ten kids in a room alone taking a final.
Speaker 1: So we collaborated. We read out the questions and translated
Speaker 1: them and discussed them. Was it wrong? Absolutely? Should the
Speaker 1: administration have put someone in that room to supervise us? Yes.
Speaker 1: As an aside, the teacher was fine after his heart attack,
Speaker 1: and he taught us for a few more years. Thanks
Speaker 1: again for such a great podcast. It's wonderful. That's the
Speaker 1: kind of story I mean, it's I mean, on one hand,
Speaker 1: I mean, I can say I can certainly put myself
Speaker 1: in in her place, and then imagine myself in high
Speaker 1: school and suddenly the teacher is down, and you you
Speaker 1: and if and if, assuming that the teachers is cared for,
Speaker 1: and certainly he wasn't laying there before the whole time
Speaker 1: he he's out, the medical folks attending to him, and
Speaker 1: he may You're probably thinking, well, I really hope the
Speaker 1: best for him, But I'm also kind of thinking I'm
Speaker 1: hoping the best for me. I can imagine these folks
Speaker 1: quickly deciding, yeah, let's let's collaborate. Let's do it. Say
Speaker 1: they're a bunch of opportune this, right, you know, but
Speaker 1: I'm glad the teacher is all right, yeah, and that
Speaker 1: there was nothing fishy going on. But now, if this
Speaker 1: was after school special I think that perhaps that things
Speaker 1: wouldn't have turned out as well for the teacher and
Speaker 1: then this would have been some sort of storyline of morality. Right, yeah,
Speaker 1: as long as subsequent classes didn't try and exploit this
Speaker 1: by giving him a heart attack so that they could
Speaker 1: know that. Well, Hey, if you have anything you'd like
Speaker 1: to share with us, be it something about cheating or
Speaker 1: Virgin Galactic, let us know, you know, would you go
Speaker 1: up on Virgin Galactic? Are you planning to? And if
Speaker 1: you are Richard Branson and you're listening to this podcast,
Speaker 1: send me a ticket. I would like to go seriously
Speaker 1: call me. But the rest of you can contact us
Speaker 1: on Facebook and Twitter. We are Blow the Mind on
Speaker 1: Twitter and we are Stuff to Blow your Mind on
Speaker 1: Facebook and again. New email address, that's right, take note
Speaker 1: it is is Blow the Mind at Discovery dot com.
Speaker 1: Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff
Speaker 1: from the Future. Join how Stup Work staff as we
Speaker 1: explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow,