1 00:00:03,800 --> 00:00:06,680 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 2 00:00:06,720 --> 00:00:13,960 Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 3 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:17,080 Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamb, and my name is Julie Douglas. Julie, 4 00:00:17,079 --> 00:00:19,400 Speaker 1: you've been camping before, right, Yes, I have. So you 5 00:00:19,440 --> 00:00:22,000 Speaker 1: know the deal. Leave no trades, right, leave nothing behind 6 00:00:22,040 --> 00:00:23,880 Speaker 1: you bringing all your stuff, whether you're bringing in a 7 00:00:23,960 --> 00:00:27,480 Speaker 1: backpack or a whole truckload of camping equipment, you need 8 00:00:27,520 --> 00:00:31,040 Speaker 1: to leave with only your thing, taking only memories with you, 9 00:00:31,280 --> 00:00:34,919 Speaker 1: and leaving no litter behind, right, I mean, that's that's 10 00:00:34,920 --> 00:00:37,040 Speaker 1: the way it works. You don't just bury all your 11 00:00:37,040 --> 00:00:41,680 Speaker 1: pots and pants and then market Well yeah, well, I mean, okay, 12 00:00:41,680 --> 00:00:44,040 Speaker 1: if you're coming back at the same camping place, maybe 13 00:00:44,080 --> 00:00:46,239 Speaker 1: you could make that argument. But okay, I see, I 14 00:00:46,280 --> 00:00:48,600 Speaker 1: see a concept that you're coming up here. But the 15 00:00:48,600 --> 00:00:50,320 Speaker 1: whole idea is that we want to be able to 16 00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:53,320 Speaker 1: come back to that place and enjoy it in its 17 00:00:53,440 --> 00:00:55,920 Speaker 1: natural form without having to put up with a bunch 18 00:00:55,960 --> 00:00:59,680 Speaker 1: of litter and a bunch of garbage changing that environment. Now, 19 00:00:59,760 --> 00:01:02,160 Speaker 1: we generinally don't have to worry though about that potter 20 00:01:02,240 --> 00:01:05,440 Speaker 1: pan that Julie left behind at the campsite. Traveling at 21 00:01:05,480 --> 00:01:08,880 Speaker 1: immense speeds like five miles per second and smashing through 22 00:01:08,880 --> 00:01:10,920 Speaker 1: my crania right, clocking us in the head. I mean, 23 00:01:10,959 --> 00:01:13,960 Speaker 1: that's just not a problem here at our campsites on Earth. 24 00:01:14,080 --> 00:01:17,920 Speaker 1: But out there in the in the wild yonder it 25 00:01:18,040 --> 00:01:20,760 Speaker 1: is a problem, right, which is directly tied to this 26 00:01:20,840 --> 00:01:23,480 Speaker 1: idea of this big sky theory. Right, right, the big 27 00:01:23,480 --> 00:01:25,840 Speaker 1: sky theory. I mean, the answer is in the words there, 28 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:28,160 Speaker 1: big sky. There's a lot of sky, There's a lot 29 00:01:28,200 --> 00:01:31,880 Speaker 1: of space. It's huge. We couldn't possibly litter enough to 30 00:01:32,040 --> 00:01:34,640 Speaker 1: make space junk a problem, right, That was the old 31 00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:36,200 Speaker 1: way of looking at If you have a space mission 32 00:01:36,200 --> 00:01:39,119 Speaker 1: to go up there, solar panel floats off, no big deal, 33 00:01:39,200 --> 00:01:41,120 Speaker 1: there's plenty of room, some nuts and bolts fought in 34 00:01:41,200 --> 00:01:44,160 Speaker 1: the pockets, no big deal. Satellites dead, and I just 35 00:01:44,240 --> 00:01:46,120 Speaker 1: leave it there. This big sky theory, we can we 36 00:01:46,160 --> 00:01:49,040 Speaker 1: can just leave everything wherever it happens to die and 37 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:51,760 Speaker 1: it'll never be a problem. It'll never come home to roost, 38 00:01:52,040 --> 00:01:56,000 Speaker 1: this problem of space junk. Uh. But it is a 39 00:01:56,040 --> 00:01:59,680 Speaker 1: problem that has come home to roost. NASA has tracked 40 00:01:59,720 --> 00:02:03,360 Speaker 1: around on sixteen thousand bits of debris. That's a lot 41 00:02:03,880 --> 00:02:07,040 Speaker 1: measuring over ten sent meters about four inches, but there 42 00:02:07,080 --> 00:02:09,880 Speaker 1: are millions of smaller bits and pieces that are thought 43 00:02:09,919 --> 00:02:12,960 Speaker 1: to be swarming up in the cosmos. And the more 44 00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:16,280 Speaker 1: we've involved ourselves in orbit and an owner space, the 45 00:02:16,320 --> 00:02:19,000 Speaker 1: more stuff we wind up with up there. Like just 46 00:02:19,040 --> 00:02:21,120 Speaker 1: to look at sort of the timeline for this, if 47 00:02:21,160 --> 00:02:23,280 Speaker 1: we look back at two thousand and five, we had 48 00:02:23,320 --> 00:02:26,520 Speaker 1: a catalog of debris up there somewhere in the neighborhood 49 00:02:26,520 --> 00:02:28,760 Speaker 1: of ten thousand pieces, and that's just stuff that we 50 00:02:28,760 --> 00:02:32,440 Speaker 1: were tracking in New off Specifically, by two thousand ten, 51 00:02:32,520 --> 00:02:35,720 Speaker 1: that number had reached fifteen thousand, so it's risen by 52 00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:38,760 Speaker 1: five thousand pieces of space junk. And just that short 53 00:02:38,760 --> 00:02:41,280 Speaker 1: amount of time, and fast forward to today, you have 54 00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:44,560 Speaker 1: more and more players in the space game, involving themselves 55 00:02:44,600 --> 00:02:47,320 Speaker 1: in the space game and taking that the big sky 56 00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:51,040 Speaker 1: approach to space exploration. Well, especially when you get into 57 00:02:51,040 --> 00:02:54,240 Speaker 1: the privatized territory as well, right, this becomes a real issue. 58 00:02:54,680 --> 00:02:58,280 Speaker 1: The other issue is that space junk travels at speeds 59 00:02:58,440 --> 00:03:02,639 Speaker 1: up to seventeen thousand, five hundred miles per hour, So 60 00:03:02,760 --> 00:03:05,200 Speaker 1: that's fast enough for a tiny piece of debris to 61 00:03:05,280 --> 00:03:08,920 Speaker 1: damage a satellite or spacecraft it's really big concerned or 62 00:03:09,120 --> 00:03:11,919 Speaker 1: the International Space Station, which we will talk about later, 63 00:03:12,560 --> 00:03:14,760 Speaker 1: can finentially set up a chain reaction where you have 64 00:03:14,840 --> 00:03:18,560 Speaker 1: one pieces suddenly crashing into another and which causes debris 65 00:03:18,639 --> 00:03:21,400 Speaker 1: to spiral out from that to hit other pieces. In 66 00:03:21,440 --> 00:03:24,760 Speaker 1: many cases we're talking about dead objects hitting other pieces 67 00:03:24,760 --> 00:03:27,120 Speaker 1: of garbage. But then what happens when this stuff collides 68 00:03:27,160 --> 00:03:32,840 Speaker 1: with operative telecommunication satellites or exploratory missions or manned missions. 69 00:03:32,919 --> 00:03:35,240 Speaker 1: You can see where this becomes a very dangerous problem 70 00:03:35,400 --> 00:03:38,600 Speaker 1: very quickly. That's something called cascading collisions. This idea that 71 00:03:38,720 --> 00:03:40,720 Speaker 1: things are slamming into each other and just creating more 72 00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:43,560 Speaker 1: and more and more debris. So this has come home 73 00:03:43,600 --> 00:03:46,360 Speaker 1: to roost. And let's talk about back in the day. 74 00:03:46,480 --> 00:03:49,440 Speaker 1: Back in the seventies when this was just a theory, 75 00:03:50,040 --> 00:03:53,240 Speaker 1: and a guy named Donald Kessler, who was assigned to 76 00:03:53,280 --> 00:03:56,920 Speaker 1: the Environmental Effects Project Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center 77 00:03:56,960 --> 00:04:00,560 Speaker 1: in Houston, became very interested in the craft that was 78 00:04:00,600 --> 00:04:03,760 Speaker 1: abandoned and the void. Yeah, he wrote an important paper 79 00:04:03,880 --> 00:04:07,880 Speaker 1: at the time. It's become more important over time. Originally 80 00:04:07,960 --> 00:04:09,280 Speaker 1: he was having to really sort of shot on the 81 00:04:09,320 --> 00:04:11,280 Speaker 1: mountain to get people to listen to him, But he 82 00:04:11,280 --> 00:04:14,280 Speaker 1: wrote a paper called Collision Frequency of Artificial Satellites the 83 00:04:14,320 --> 00:04:17,520 Speaker 1: Creation of a good rebelt, and his argument was that 84 00:04:17,560 --> 00:04:20,520 Speaker 1: if we and this is early on, everyone else's seems 85 00:04:20,520 --> 00:04:23,960 Speaker 1: to be sticking to this big sky theory. But Kessler says, look, 86 00:04:24,279 --> 00:04:28,000 Speaker 1: if we don't start controlling this now, if we don't 87 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:30,960 Speaker 1: start mitigating the problem now, we are going to reach 88 00:04:30,960 --> 00:04:34,720 Speaker 1: a point where we basically have a belt of debris 89 00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:37,080 Speaker 1: around the planet. If you've ever seen the movie Wally, 90 00:04:37,640 --> 00:04:40,120 Speaker 1: the depictions of Earth in that which the Earth is 91 00:04:40,160 --> 00:04:42,840 Speaker 1: just so crowded with satellites that for anything to enter 92 00:04:43,040 --> 00:04:45,159 Speaker 1: or exit Or's atmosphere they have to sort of move 93 00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:47,839 Speaker 1: things out of the way. That's basically what he's talking about, 94 00:04:47,839 --> 00:04:51,279 Speaker 1: except in his scenario, we reach a point with that 95 00:04:51,520 --> 00:04:54,080 Speaker 1: to where we are stranded on Earth. Basically we are 96 00:04:54,080 --> 00:04:56,400 Speaker 1: suddenly limited by what we can do and what we 97 00:04:56,440 --> 00:04:59,760 Speaker 1: can explore in space. We kind of dig our own grave, 98 00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:03,880 Speaker 1: you will, by just clotting our atmosphere with all of 99 00:05:03,880 --> 00:05:06,520 Speaker 1: this junk. Yeah yeah, well not our atmosphere, but our uproar, 100 00:05:06,920 --> 00:05:09,080 Speaker 1: right right, I mean, it does constrain our ability to 101 00:05:09,279 --> 00:05:12,359 Speaker 1: explore the universe because it's kind of hard to launch 102 00:05:12,400 --> 00:05:14,000 Speaker 1: something and then know that it's going to be taken 103 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:17,400 Speaker 1: out by a story piece of space junk. But he 104 00:05:17,520 --> 00:05:19,800 Speaker 1: was basically saying, look, I estimate this to happen in 105 00:05:19,800 --> 00:05:23,240 Speaker 1: the thirty to forty years. Now. This was alarming. It 106 00:05:23,320 --> 00:05:26,000 Speaker 1: really was an eye opener. Even though people like our 107 00:05:26,080 --> 00:05:29,520 Speaker 1: thirsty Clark, who actually conceived a communication satellite, had talked 108 00:05:29,520 --> 00:05:31,720 Speaker 1: about this in the forties, I believe it was really 109 00:05:31,800 --> 00:05:35,000 Speaker 1: Kessler who spent the time looking out at the Cosmos 110 00:05:35,160 --> 00:05:37,280 Speaker 1: and looking through his telescope and saying, Okay, guys, this 111 00:05:37,360 --> 00:05:39,560 Speaker 1: is this is real polity. This is a bigger problem 112 00:05:39,560 --> 00:05:43,440 Speaker 1: than we thought. His vision of it was very apocular. 113 00:05:43,480 --> 00:05:45,200 Speaker 1: Who was who's talking about like a new dark Age? 114 00:05:45,440 --> 00:05:47,520 Speaker 1: Oh yeah he was. Yeah. He was actually saying that 115 00:05:47,560 --> 00:05:49,920 Speaker 1: it would take a civilization down to the studs. Yeah, 116 00:05:49,960 --> 00:05:52,120 Speaker 1: you know, he's fictioning it up a little bit, but 117 00:05:52,360 --> 00:05:54,440 Speaker 1: maybe not too much. You know, that is the idea 118 00:05:54,480 --> 00:05:56,320 Speaker 1: extrapolated to the denth degree. Right, you can take down 119 00:05:56,360 --> 00:05:58,680 Speaker 1: on the communication satellites and you know, all this sort 120 00:05:58,680 --> 00:06:01,200 Speaker 1: of technology that we do with today and our life 121 00:06:01,279 --> 00:06:04,200 Speaker 1: is predicated on, and you could really sort of fold 122 00:06:04,279 --> 00:06:07,960 Speaker 1: up humanity in the sense. But but we're we're not there. 123 00:06:08,080 --> 00:06:09,800 Speaker 1: I do want to say that NASA set up the 124 00:06:09,920 --> 00:06:15,039 Speaker 1: Orbital Debris Program Office in response to Cussler's paper, but 125 00:06:15,080 --> 00:06:16,440 Speaker 1: I'm not gonna say it's a two. It was a 126 00:06:16,440 --> 00:06:19,599 Speaker 1: toothless organization, but it wasn't It was didn't really seem 127 00:06:19,640 --> 00:06:21,839 Speaker 1: like a big concern. It's like, oh, yeah, this could happen, 128 00:06:21,880 --> 00:06:26,600 Speaker 1: and it's a theory, let's set a committee and uh, 129 00:06:26,920 --> 00:06:29,320 Speaker 1: I mean you know how that yeah, yeah, and the 130 00:06:29,360 --> 00:06:34,120 Speaker 1: guidelines they didn't really help to actually reduce space waste. 131 00:06:34,360 --> 00:06:38,320 Speaker 1: So here we are, thirty years later, right on time, 132 00:06:38,400 --> 00:06:40,520 Speaker 1: two thousand and nine, we have a couple of events 133 00:06:40,560 --> 00:06:44,120 Speaker 1: that really usher in this idea that Kessler didn't just 134 00:06:44,120 --> 00:06:46,560 Speaker 1: have a theory. It is a syndrome. And that's why 135 00:06:46,560 --> 00:06:49,320 Speaker 1: it's called custlers. Yeah. February ten, two thousand nine, we 136 00:06:49,400 --> 00:06:52,719 Speaker 1: had two satellites, Iridium thirty three, which is flying north 137 00:06:52,920 --> 00:06:56,040 Speaker 1: relaying a phone conversations. And then there was this long 138 00:06:56,120 --> 00:07:01,480 Speaker 1: retired Russian communication satellite called Cosmos and it's just tumbling 139 00:07:01,560 --> 00:07:04,239 Speaker 1: east and an uncontrolled orbit. So you have an active 140 00:07:04,480 --> 00:07:08,480 Speaker 1: satellite and an inactive satellite and then they collide. And 141 00:07:08,520 --> 00:07:10,120 Speaker 1: this was not even a collision that was on the 142 00:07:10,160 --> 00:07:12,560 Speaker 1: forecast because at this time we knew some of the 143 00:07:12,560 --> 00:07:14,160 Speaker 1: stuff that was going on there and we can sort 144 00:07:14,160 --> 00:07:17,520 Speaker 1: of excrapolate what might run into what what time. But 145 00:07:17,760 --> 00:07:20,640 Speaker 1: this wasn't even scheduled to happen, if you will. They 146 00:07:20,680 --> 00:07:23,239 Speaker 1: just ram into each other and of course just completely 147 00:07:23,280 --> 00:07:25,559 Speaker 1: annihilate each other, and they create all these other pieces 148 00:07:25,640 --> 00:07:28,320 Speaker 1: of debris. Right, they smashed into something like a two 149 00:07:28,360 --> 00:07:32,960 Speaker 1: thousand one pieces. And this is over the Siberian tundra. 150 00:07:33,120 --> 00:07:35,480 Speaker 1: And although it doesn't really affect us too much, I 151 00:07:35,480 --> 00:07:37,880 Speaker 1: mean I think there's some drop calls from this one collision. Right, 152 00:07:37,920 --> 00:07:40,600 Speaker 1: the fact of the matter is, again, this debris, this 153 00:07:40,640 --> 00:07:43,680 Speaker 1: cloud of debris was created, and we know that that 154 00:07:43,760 --> 00:07:46,320 Speaker 1: begets even more and more debris. And it was a 155 00:07:46,320 --> 00:07:48,920 Speaker 1: big wake up call. And according to wire dot com 156 00:07:49,080 --> 00:07:52,000 Speaker 1: Evan L. Schwartz great article in this he said that 157 00:07:52,080 --> 00:07:55,880 Speaker 1: each chard an orbiting cannonball capable of destroying yet another 158 00:07:56,000 --> 00:07:59,120 Speaker 1: hunk of high priced hardware. That's the real problem there, Yeah, 159 00:07:59,160 --> 00:08:03,000 Speaker 1: I mean expense going into any of these satellites, communications 160 00:08:03,080 --> 00:08:05,440 Speaker 1: or otherwise. So the idea that you just have junk 161 00:08:05,520 --> 00:08:09,000 Speaker 1: up there that could conceivably just wipe it out. People 162 00:08:09,280 --> 00:08:11,920 Speaker 1: suddenly started taking even more notice following this two thousand 163 00:08:11,920 --> 00:08:14,480 Speaker 1: and nine event. Yep, So pretty soon in a military 164 00:08:14,640 --> 00:08:17,120 Speaker 1: unit called the Space Surveillance Network was set up. They 165 00:08:17,120 --> 00:08:20,720 Speaker 1: began to monitor the debris by They were looking at 166 00:08:20,800 --> 00:08:24,600 Speaker 1: one thousand active satellites, three thousand, seven hundred inactive satellites 167 00:08:24,600 --> 00:08:28,640 Speaker 1: and rocket pieces, and another fifteen thousand, three hundred objects 168 00:08:28,680 --> 00:08:32,160 Speaker 1: the size of a fist or larger. And these numbers 169 00:08:32,240 --> 00:08:34,320 Speaker 1: started to bear out this idea that we could have 170 00:08:34,360 --> 00:08:38,360 Speaker 1: maybe seventy five collisions a day, and that doesn't include 171 00:08:38,400 --> 00:08:41,080 Speaker 1: the half million smaller pieces of debris the size of 172 00:08:41,120 --> 00:08:45,040 Speaker 1: a marble or larger, all of which is again capable 173 00:08:45,120 --> 00:08:47,360 Speaker 1: of just wiping out satellites or you know, other things 174 00:08:47,360 --> 00:08:50,360 Speaker 1: that are very valuable to us. Another key incident that happened, 175 00:08:50,360 --> 00:08:52,480 Speaker 1: and this is just a few months after the Cosmos 176 00:08:52,559 --> 00:08:55,240 Speaker 1: Iridium collision, and I think I imagine most of you 177 00:08:55,280 --> 00:08:57,320 Speaker 1: remember this. I remember it because working here at how 178 00:08:57,360 --> 00:09:00,760 Speaker 1: stuff works and anything news the inside I see that happens. 179 00:09:00,760 --> 00:09:03,360 Speaker 1: We suddenly latch onto a bit and this was big 180 00:09:03,360 --> 00:09:06,280 Speaker 1: news because two thousand nine, suddenly there's an object, piece 181 00:09:06,280 --> 00:09:10,200 Speaker 1: of space junk headed towards the International Space Station. So 182 00:09:10,559 --> 00:09:13,920 Speaker 1: this is an immensely expensive piece of equipment here. We're 183 00:09:13,920 --> 00:09:16,840 Speaker 1: talking in excess of a hundred billion dollars worth of equipment, 184 00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:20,160 Speaker 1: human beings on board, a lot invested in this. This 185 00:09:20,240 --> 00:09:23,480 Speaker 1: is part of our space legacy moving forward. And there's 186 00:09:23,520 --> 00:09:25,920 Speaker 1: a piece of junk headed towards it that could conceivably 187 00:09:26,040 --> 00:09:28,760 Speaker 1: white it all out. So we have to rush everybody 188 00:09:28,760 --> 00:09:32,840 Speaker 1: on board into essentially a lifeboat kind of a panic room, 189 00:09:33,040 --> 00:09:35,400 Speaker 1: right yeah, because they're like, all right, we might miss us, 190 00:09:35,440 --> 00:09:37,240 Speaker 1: but it might hit you, and if it hits us, 191 00:09:37,280 --> 00:09:39,680 Speaker 1: we're gonna have to somehow save you, guys. So get 192 00:09:39,679 --> 00:09:41,920 Speaker 1: into this lifeboat and want to see what happens. Now, 193 00:09:41,960 --> 00:09:45,000 Speaker 1: Luckily it missed by a few miles, but it's still 194 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:47,240 Speaker 1: in the vasts of space. I mean, that's like shaving 195 00:09:47,280 --> 00:09:48,920 Speaker 1: off a little piece of hair on your head there. 196 00:09:49,320 --> 00:09:51,240 Speaker 1: And it was like a couple of months after that, 197 00:09:51,440 --> 00:09:56,080 Speaker 1: another piece of space junk hurled towards the International Space Station, 198 00:09:56,160 --> 00:09:59,560 Speaker 1: this time missing them by just a mile. And this 199 00:09:59,640 --> 00:10:01,920 Speaker 1: frag meant would have had an impact equal to a 200 00:10:01,960 --> 00:10:04,120 Speaker 1: truck bomb. In fact, I've got a quote here from 201 00:10:04,200 --> 00:10:06,560 Speaker 1: Jack Bacon, he's a senior NASA scientist. He says, a 202 00:10:06,600 --> 00:10:10,079 Speaker 1: ten centimeter sphere of aluminum would be like seven kilograms 203 00:10:10,120 --> 00:10:13,240 Speaker 1: of T and T it would blow everything to smith rings. 204 00:10:13,440 --> 00:10:15,439 Speaker 1: I mean, we can shield these things to a certain degree. 205 00:10:15,480 --> 00:10:18,400 Speaker 1: There's a project at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston 206 00:10:18,520 --> 00:10:22,760 Speaker 1: where they basically take chunks of plastic and basically space 207 00:10:22,800 --> 00:10:26,080 Speaker 1: junk and they just fire them at shields and panels 208 00:10:26,080 --> 00:10:28,800 Speaker 1: to see exactly what the damages. And they're able to determine. 209 00:10:28,800 --> 00:10:31,120 Speaker 1: Within a certain size of space junk, they can sort 210 00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:34,680 Speaker 1: of shield something out. But when you're getting these larger pieces, 211 00:10:34,800 --> 00:10:38,760 Speaker 1: it becomes increasingly impossible to create a space vessel or 212 00:10:38,840 --> 00:10:41,480 Speaker 1: a satellite. They could withstand that kind of damage, right, right, 213 00:10:41,640 --> 00:10:44,000 Speaker 1: especially when you're talking about delicate of material such as 214 00:10:44,080 --> 00:10:46,600 Speaker 1: solar of cells. Yeah, and just to give everybody an 215 00:10:46,640 --> 00:10:48,319 Speaker 1: idea too, I mean we're talking again. I think you 216 00:10:48,360 --> 00:10:51,640 Speaker 1: talked about this, some tools or some nuts and bolts, 217 00:10:52,160 --> 00:10:55,400 Speaker 1: that kind of space junk to the size of rocket stages, 218 00:10:55,480 --> 00:10:59,880 Speaker 1: the size of school buses. There's an immense variety of 219 00:11:00,040 --> 00:11:02,800 Speaker 1: based junk up there. Now. One might ask doesn't all 220 00:11:02,800 --> 00:11:06,040 Speaker 1: this stuff eventually just fall into the Earth's atmosphere and 221 00:11:06,080 --> 00:11:08,280 Speaker 1: burn up, because that was part of the big sky 222 00:11:08,400 --> 00:11:10,240 Speaker 1: theory as well, that all right, if we'll leave something 223 00:11:10,320 --> 00:11:12,240 Speaker 1: up there, it's not gonna be a problem. And b 224 00:11:12,360 --> 00:11:14,559 Speaker 1: it's eventually just going to drift down and re enter 225 00:11:14,600 --> 00:11:17,800 Speaker 1: the Earth atmosphere and probably burn up and or land 226 00:11:17,840 --> 00:11:19,840 Speaker 1: in the middle of nowhere or more likely in the 227 00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:24,320 Speaker 1: middle of the ocean somewhere, which is what most reinering does. Occasionally, 228 00:11:24,320 --> 00:11:27,199 Speaker 1: something will fall on somebody's backyard and it's a local 229 00:11:27,240 --> 00:11:29,960 Speaker 1: news story, front page for the next five years. But 230 00:11:30,120 --> 00:11:31,960 Speaker 1: for the most part, yes, that's true, it just falls 231 00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:34,720 Speaker 1: in the middle of nowhere. But it can take decades 232 00:11:35,000 --> 00:11:38,360 Speaker 1: for something in orbit to actually re enter the atmosphere, 233 00:11:38,440 --> 00:11:40,640 Speaker 1: which is why you still have some of the original 234 00:11:40,640 --> 00:11:42,520 Speaker 1: satellites that went up there. I mean, they're all still 235 00:11:42,600 --> 00:11:46,080 Speaker 1: up there and again, and not all of them burn 236 00:11:46,160 --> 00:11:48,720 Speaker 1: up upon re entry, right, because it depends on the size, right, Right, 237 00:11:48,760 --> 00:11:50,959 Speaker 1: depends on the size of rocket stage. The size of 238 00:11:51,000 --> 00:11:53,760 Speaker 1: school bus isn't necessarily going to burn up there. So 239 00:11:53,800 --> 00:11:56,600 Speaker 1: we're gonna take a quick break and when we get back, 240 00:11:56,600 --> 00:11:59,600 Speaker 1: we're going to talk about this idea of how we 241 00:11:59,640 --> 00:12:03,960 Speaker 1: can in teen space junk and getting our janitorial services 242 00:12:04,040 --> 00:12:10,400 Speaker 1: up there and taking care of it. All Right, we're back. 243 00:12:10,400 --> 00:12:12,040 Speaker 1: I want to throw out another quick fact. This is 244 00:12:12,080 --> 00:12:15,400 Speaker 1: from the Wired article you mentioned earlier. But nineteen sixty 245 00:12:15,480 --> 00:12:18,439 Speaker 1: two that's when the kel Star one satellite relaid the 246 00:12:18,480 --> 00:12:21,680 Speaker 1: first phone call and TV signals across the Atlantic and 247 00:12:21,760 --> 00:12:24,320 Speaker 1: ended up failing the next year. So nine three this 248 00:12:24,320 --> 00:12:28,079 Speaker 1: thing dies. It's still up there, just up there doing nothing, 249 00:12:28,200 --> 00:12:31,600 Speaker 1: just a big piece of space junk floating around. And 250 00:12:31,600 --> 00:12:33,760 Speaker 1: and in the decades since, of course, we've rolled out 251 00:12:33,760 --> 00:12:35,280 Speaker 1: more and more stuff. Just to give you a little 252 00:12:35,280 --> 00:12:37,640 Speaker 1: idea about how we end up with that huge number 253 00:12:37,720 --> 00:12:40,480 Speaker 1: of fifteen thousand plot well, now it's up to sixteen 254 00:12:40,480 --> 00:12:43,080 Speaker 1: thousand pieces of space jump. Yeah. I mean it's really 255 00:12:43,080 --> 00:12:45,200 Speaker 1: hard to actually keep tabs on anyway, because, as we 256 00:12:45,200 --> 00:12:47,240 Speaker 1: talked about, it's you know, you have some particles that 257 00:12:47,280 --> 00:12:50,240 Speaker 1: are so small that you can't even really engage them 258 00:12:50,440 --> 00:12:52,600 Speaker 1: or track them. I should say. Another incident that kind 259 00:12:52,600 --> 00:12:54,800 Speaker 1: of woke everyone up to the dangers and the problems 260 00:12:54,920 --> 00:12:58,200 Speaker 1: posted by space Junk of January eleven, two thousand seven, 261 00:12:58,360 --> 00:13:01,760 Speaker 1: the Chinese government stayed this demonstration of its military might 262 00:13:01,840 --> 00:13:04,400 Speaker 1: by basically shooting down or not really shooting down, but 263 00:13:04,440 --> 00:13:07,400 Speaker 1: blowing up one of its retired satellites with something called 264 00:13:07,440 --> 00:13:10,840 Speaker 1: a kinetic kill vehicle, so to demonstrate that they had 265 00:13:10,840 --> 00:13:12,400 Speaker 1: the potential to take out a satellite, which in a 266 00:13:12,440 --> 00:13:15,840 Speaker 1: military scenario would be very valuable if you satellite our 267 00:13:15,920 --> 00:13:19,680 Speaker 1: keys to tall communication networks, to our ability to get 268 00:13:19,720 --> 00:13:22,920 Speaker 1: strategic information about what an enemy is doing. And they 269 00:13:22,920 --> 00:13:26,679 Speaker 1: were demonstrating, yes, we can take these out satellite killing technology. 270 00:13:26,800 --> 00:13:29,280 Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's been on the military playlist for 271 00:13:29,360 --> 00:13:32,000 Speaker 1: some time now. But they demonstrate this. They blow up 272 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:34,120 Speaker 1: this old satellite. Big deal, right, They're just shooting some 273 00:13:34,200 --> 00:13:36,240 Speaker 1: junk in the backyard. There are people out in the 274 00:13:36,240 --> 00:13:38,920 Speaker 1: sticks that do that every day. But when they shot 275 00:13:38,960 --> 00:13:42,719 Speaker 1: this thing, it blasted into three thousand trackable pieces. That's 276 00:13:42,720 --> 00:13:46,640 Speaker 1: just trackable pieces, but three thousands. So one military demonstration later, 277 00:13:46,760 --> 00:13:50,200 Speaker 1: that number we have that tally of measurable space junk 278 00:13:50,240 --> 00:13:53,160 Speaker 1: up there rises by three thousand pieces. Yeah, I mean 279 00:13:53,200 --> 00:13:56,040 Speaker 1: it was a total jerk move. I mean it's really irresponsible, 280 00:13:56,120 --> 00:13:58,600 Speaker 1: knowing what we know to a certain degree now. But 281 00:13:58,679 --> 00:14:01,320 Speaker 1: the problem with this is six percent of the pieces 282 00:14:01,320 --> 00:14:04,480 Speaker 1: have re entered the atmosphere. And here's the interesting thing. 283 00:14:04,679 --> 00:14:08,240 Speaker 1: Half of those pieces came down in the last twelve months, 284 00:14:09,200 --> 00:14:12,679 Speaker 1: and this has to do with increased solar activity, which 285 00:14:12,800 --> 00:14:15,440 Speaker 1: normally we kind of it's not something we get really 286 00:14:15,440 --> 00:14:18,480 Speaker 1: excited about in terms of like, yeah, increased solar activity. 287 00:14:18,600 --> 00:14:22,760 Speaker 1: This idea of solar maximum or peak activity could actually 288 00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:24,760 Speaker 1: be a boon to us in terms of cleaning up 289 00:14:24,800 --> 00:14:27,080 Speaker 1: space junk. Right, the Sun, as we've mentioned before, is 290 00:14:27,120 --> 00:14:29,760 Speaker 1: pumping out energy. It's pumping out energy of the Earth, 291 00:14:29,800 --> 00:14:33,240 Speaker 1: and some of this is shielded by our electromagnetic field, 292 00:14:33,240 --> 00:14:35,680 Speaker 1: but the rest of it actually reaches the Earth. Powers 293 00:14:35,720 --> 00:14:37,400 Speaker 1: the Earth gives us a lot of the stuff we need, 294 00:14:37,640 --> 00:14:39,440 Speaker 1: and if we have all the space junk floating around 295 00:14:39,440 --> 00:14:42,560 Speaker 1: out there, an increase in that solar activity can stir 296 00:14:42,680 --> 00:14:45,200 Speaker 1: things up a bit. Yeah. In fact, if we've got 297 00:14:45,200 --> 00:14:48,120 Speaker 1: these solar players in these kernal mass ejections, which by 298 00:14:48,120 --> 00:14:50,280 Speaker 1: the way, when I talk about this solar maximum, this 299 00:14:50,600 --> 00:14:53,240 Speaker 1: peak activity is eleven year period that is going to 300 00:14:53,560 --> 00:14:56,880 Speaker 1: come to fruition in I believe in terms of the 301 00:14:58,040 --> 00:15:02,040 Speaker 1: ultimate amount of solar activity. So I think of it 302 00:15:02,080 --> 00:15:04,680 Speaker 1: as blasting the atmosphere with heat with these solar players 303 00:15:04,680 --> 00:15:07,320 Speaker 1: and coronal mass ejections from you know, sort of raining 304 00:15:07,360 --> 00:15:11,520 Speaker 1: upon the Earth's atmosphere. This causes the atmosphere to expand, 305 00:15:12,080 --> 00:15:14,880 Speaker 1: and this expansion pushes some of the gas to higher altitudes, 306 00:15:14,920 --> 00:15:19,800 Speaker 1: which creates drag on orbiting space debris that causes it 307 00:15:19,840 --> 00:15:22,640 Speaker 1: to slow down. And then as the debris slows down 308 00:15:22,760 --> 00:15:25,560 Speaker 1: or gravity pulls it to the lower altitudes where the 309 00:15:25,560 --> 00:15:28,520 Speaker 1: atmosphere is even thicker. So then you get even more drag, right, 310 00:15:28,920 --> 00:15:31,960 Speaker 1: and then you get slower debris. So eventually debris re 311 00:15:32,200 --> 00:15:35,440 Speaker 1: enters the atmosphere sooner than it would without the solar influence. 312 00:15:35,480 --> 00:15:38,160 Speaker 1: And here's here's the good news. It burns up safely 313 00:15:38,240 --> 00:15:40,840 Speaker 1: for the most part. So that's why we've seen such 314 00:15:40,840 --> 00:15:45,160 Speaker 1: an influx of that Chinese satellite that those pieces coming in. 315 00:15:45,720 --> 00:15:48,800 Speaker 1: So there's this idea that the Sun could actually be 316 00:15:49,040 --> 00:15:52,200 Speaker 1: very helpful at least until when it when it reaches 317 00:15:52,240 --> 00:15:56,600 Speaker 1: its peak capacity or maximum output in the eleven year 318 00:15:56,640 --> 00:16:00,640 Speaker 1: period and helping us to keep taps on this of it. Okay, 319 00:16:00,760 --> 00:16:04,520 Speaker 1: so we're keeping tabs, we've been keeping tabs. Occasionally the 320 00:16:04,560 --> 00:16:08,840 Speaker 1: Sun might accidentally help out sort of solar hoovering. Yeah, 321 00:16:08,880 --> 00:16:11,240 Speaker 1: but what else are we doing, right, that's the big question. 322 00:16:11,280 --> 00:16:13,840 Speaker 1: We can exercise a little bit of forethought in the 323 00:16:13,840 --> 00:16:16,800 Speaker 1: way we plan missions and uh, you know, moving forward. 324 00:16:16,840 --> 00:16:18,520 Speaker 1: But there's still a lot of junk up there. What 325 00:16:18,640 --> 00:16:21,360 Speaker 1: are we doing give anything to clean it up? Well, 326 00:16:21,400 --> 00:16:25,720 Speaker 1: there's something called the Swiss Janitor satellite. This comes to 327 00:16:25,840 --> 00:16:29,640 Speaker 1: us from the Swiss Space Center at EPFL and that's 328 00:16:29,720 --> 00:16:32,520 Speaker 1: the launch of the clean Space one. This was back 329 00:16:32,560 --> 00:16:35,520 Speaker 1: in February, I believe, and it's a project that developed 330 00:16:35,520 --> 00:16:37,640 Speaker 1: and built the first installment of a family of what 331 00:16:37,720 --> 00:16:40,920 Speaker 1: they see as satellites that are especially designed to clean 332 00:16:40,960 --> 00:16:43,600 Speaker 1: up space debris. And the idea is to launch a 333 00:16:43,640 --> 00:16:48,080 Speaker 1: small grabber spacecraft to chase after orbiting pieces of space junk, 334 00:16:48,640 --> 00:16:51,720 Speaker 1: and then it'll attach itself to it de orbit and 335 00:16:51,760 --> 00:16:54,400 Speaker 1: the whole Incholado then re enters the atmosphere where it 336 00:16:54,440 --> 00:16:56,400 Speaker 1: burns up on re entry. There are a few other 337 00:16:56,440 --> 00:16:59,800 Speaker 1: plans to that involve basically micro satellites are many satellites 338 00:16:59,800 --> 00:17:03,760 Speaker 1: that around and essentially net this stuff up and kind 339 00:17:03,800 --> 00:17:06,359 Speaker 1: of form like not really a Katamari ball, but they 340 00:17:06,400 --> 00:17:08,640 Speaker 1: form a nice big sack of space traction then bring 341 00:17:08,680 --> 00:17:11,720 Speaker 1: it back to the atmosphere to Another tactic that we've 342 00:17:11,720 --> 00:17:14,480 Speaker 1: been using is making sure that we take retiring spacecraft 343 00:17:14,600 --> 00:17:17,320 Speaker 1: up to a graveyard orbit so that we know they're 344 00:17:17,320 --> 00:17:19,239 Speaker 1: going out of commission. Well, let's move them into an 345 00:17:19,320 --> 00:17:21,639 Speaker 1: orbit where they're not going to be interfering with anything. 346 00:17:21,640 --> 00:17:24,240 Speaker 1: It's actually active, okay, So just sort of pushing it 347 00:17:24,359 --> 00:17:26,959 Speaker 1: away from us a little bit more, right in the 348 00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:29,280 Speaker 1: same way that you move your junk car into the 349 00:17:29,320 --> 00:17:31,920 Speaker 1: backyard as opposed to leaving it in the front yard. 350 00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:34,159 Speaker 1: It's still there, you just can't see it from the 351 00:17:34,160 --> 00:17:37,320 Speaker 1: street right right, house values go up. There's this idea 352 00:17:37,440 --> 00:17:39,760 Speaker 1: of using little puffs of gas that I kind of like. 353 00:17:39,840 --> 00:17:42,080 Speaker 1: It's just from a team from the University of Michigan, 354 00:17:42,840 --> 00:17:46,919 Speaker 1: and they're thinking about using pulses of gas fired into 355 00:17:46,920 --> 00:17:50,200 Speaker 1: the path of debris and this would increase again the 356 00:17:50,280 --> 00:17:54,240 Speaker 1: drag on orbiting space junk, leaving it to plunge downward 357 00:17:54,480 --> 00:17:58,120 Speaker 1: into the Earth's atmosphere, and the pulses themselves would leave 358 00:17:58,160 --> 00:18:01,200 Speaker 1: no no trace. So there we get our our boy 359 00:18:01,200 --> 00:18:04,760 Speaker 1: scouts creta there, and it also leaves no solid material 360 00:18:04,800 --> 00:18:07,680 Speaker 1: in orbit. Another really interesting tactic that NASA is pretty 361 00:18:07,680 --> 00:18:10,600 Speaker 1: excited about comes from Tether's Unlimited. This is a Seattle 362 00:18:10,680 --> 00:18:13,800 Speaker 1: area space contractor and they've been working on this idea 363 00:18:13,840 --> 00:18:15,679 Speaker 1: for years. But their idea is to create this thing 364 00:18:15,680 --> 00:18:18,240 Speaker 1: called a wrestler, which is a mid sized vehicle about 365 00:18:18,240 --> 00:18:21,560 Speaker 1: four hundred pounds, and it piggybacks a ride on other satellites. 366 00:18:21,600 --> 00:18:24,280 Speaker 1: So it so the idea here is, let's cut some corners. 367 00:18:24,359 --> 00:18:26,360 Speaker 1: It'll just hit your ride with some sort of big 368 00:18:26,400 --> 00:18:30,560 Speaker 1: price e corporat or national supported telecommunication satellite launch or 369 00:18:30,880 --> 00:18:33,400 Speaker 1: or mission launch. And then once up there, it's saying 370 00:18:33,480 --> 00:18:36,480 Speaker 1: to pull off this really neat tethering technique. So it 371 00:18:36,480 --> 00:18:38,840 Speaker 1: goes into orbit and it sidles up to this piece 372 00:18:38,840 --> 00:18:42,640 Speaker 1: of space junk and it detaches an electrodynamic tether. This 373 00:18:42,720 --> 00:18:46,520 Speaker 1: is a wire mesh tail. It's up to six miles long, 374 00:18:46,960 --> 00:18:48,919 Speaker 1: and then it shoots an amp of current through that 375 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:51,840 Speaker 1: material and this current interacts with the Earth's magnetic field, 376 00:18:51,840 --> 00:18:54,720 Speaker 1: producing a drag effect that lowers the debris towards the 377 00:18:54,760 --> 00:18:57,160 Speaker 1: atmosphere and re entry. Yeah, and that one's really cool 378 00:18:57,200 --> 00:19:00,440 Speaker 1: because that seems pretty promising in the perspective of gathering 379 00:19:00,520 --> 00:19:02,720 Speaker 1: up debris, but not only that, just being able to 380 00:19:02,840 --> 00:19:06,399 Speaker 1: afford it. I think that was estimated somewhere in the 381 00:19:06,440 --> 00:19:10,119 Speaker 1: tens of millions whereas some of the other ideas and 382 00:19:10,240 --> 00:19:13,879 Speaker 1: projects we're talking in the billions. Yeah, they're saying this 383 00:19:13,920 --> 00:19:15,719 Speaker 1: one would just to do a test mission, mind you, 384 00:19:15,840 --> 00:19:17,760 Speaker 1: that would take out a few tons of trash, would 385 00:19:17,800 --> 00:19:20,800 Speaker 1: be tens of millions of dollars, which which again puts 386 00:19:20,800 --> 00:19:24,600 Speaker 1: this whole problem into perspective. Like like so many problems 387 00:19:25,240 --> 00:19:29,360 Speaker 1: that humans get themselves into on a personal or national scale, 388 00:19:29,720 --> 00:19:32,240 Speaker 1: you don't work on a problem early enough, it ends 389 00:19:32,280 --> 00:19:35,399 Speaker 1: up costing you far more later on, and it reaches 390 00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:37,200 Speaker 1: a point where you have to either pay that bill 391 00:19:37,480 --> 00:19:40,920 Speaker 1: or just be content with sticking where you are. Well. 392 00:19:40,960 --> 00:19:42,479 Speaker 1: And this is the kind of problem too, is just 393 00:19:42,520 --> 00:19:44,440 Speaker 1: like your house if you don't necessarily want to put 394 00:19:44,440 --> 00:19:46,960 Speaker 1: all your money into, you know, redoing the roof, but 395 00:19:47,080 --> 00:19:49,439 Speaker 1: you have to write because otherwise you're going to be 396 00:19:49,480 --> 00:19:51,600 Speaker 1: explicit to the elements. But that's not the cool thing 397 00:19:51,600 --> 00:19:54,000 Speaker 1: you see from the street. Same thing with Nassa's like, 398 00:19:54,280 --> 00:19:56,880 Speaker 1: that's not our flashy cool stuff. It really do need 399 00:19:56,960 --> 00:19:58,679 Speaker 1: to take care of the space chunk. The problem is 400 00:19:58,680 --> 00:20:01,439 Speaker 1: that they don't necessarily have a gigantic budget in the 401 00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:03,639 Speaker 1: first place, and it's certainly not something that they have 402 00:20:04,160 --> 00:20:07,960 Speaker 1: dedicated to this problem in the budget from last year, 403 00:20:08,040 --> 00:20:11,840 Speaker 1: they started the four thousand dollar research grants to try 404 00:20:11,880 --> 00:20:14,080 Speaker 1: to look into this, and that idea that you just 405 00:20:14,080 --> 00:20:17,760 Speaker 1: talked about was was in there and very viable. So 406 00:20:17,800 --> 00:20:20,400 Speaker 1: it's just a question about of when and how many 407 00:20:20,480 --> 00:20:23,280 Speaker 1: dollars are gonna lay down here, and then it's a 408 00:20:23,359 --> 00:20:27,320 Speaker 1: question of exponential numbers here. Again, this is from Evan L. Schwartz, 409 00:20:27,800 --> 00:20:30,720 Speaker 1: he says, and this is the Wired article waste management. 410 00:20:30,720 --> 00:20:34,720 Speaker 1: He says, it's proliferations based junk threatens not only current 411 00:20:34,720 --> 00:20:38,720 Speaker 1: in future space missions, but also global communications, mobile phone networks, 412 00:20:38,760 --> 00:20:44,280 Speaker 1: satellite television, radio broadcasts, weather tracking, military surveillance, even the 413 00:20:44,359 --> 00:20:47,399 Speaker 1: dashboard GPS devices that keep us from getting lost. The 414 00:20:47,480 --> 00:20:50,400 Speaker 1: number of manufactured objects cluttering the sky is now expected 415 00:20:50,440 --> 00:20:53,639 Speaker 1: to double every few years as large objects weaken and 416 00:20:53,680 --> 00:20:58,200 Speaker 1: split apart, and new collisions create more castlerian debris leading 417 00:20:58,240 --> 00:21:01,800 Speaker 1: to yet more collisions. So it's kind of a runaway 418 00:21:01,920 --> 00:21:05,200 Speaker 1: environment here. Yeah, and like we said before, it affects 419 00:21:05,400 --> 00:21:08,760 Speaker 1: modern life on so many levels. I mean telecommunications certainly, 420 00:21:08,760 --> 00:21:13,440 Speaker 1: space exploration, but national security. Just again, our entire tell 421 00:21:13,480 --> 00:21:16,880 Speaker 1: communications network, it is growing to depend on these satellites. 422 00:21:17,760 --> 00:21:19,639 Speaker 1: Now you could argue, I guess that if we had 423 00:21:19,680 --> 00:21:22,600 Speaker 1: a completely garbaged up orbit, if we had this good 424 00:21:22,680 --> 00:21:25,280 Speaker 1: rebout going on, then that it would be harder for 425 00:21:25,400 --> 00:21:28,320 Speaker 1: say like a vampire spaceship to drift into our atmosphere 426 00:21:28,320 --> 00:21:31,080 Speaker 1: and cause problems, or the or the head of a 427 00:21:31,119 --> 00:21:34,840 Speaker 1: planet sized transformer. Um, you know, good luck getting into 428 00:21:34,840 --> 00:21:37,920 Speaker 1: our junk up atmosphere and causing trouble for the denizens 429 00:21:37,920 --> 00:21:40,000 Speaker 1: of Earth. But on the other hand, we we might 430 00:21:40,040 --> 00:21:42,800 Speaker 1: be trapped in this dark age that Clark warned us about. 431 00:21:42,800 --> 00:21:45,240 Speaker 1: It's possible, But I mean, I think that the fact 432 00:21:45,320 --> 00:21:47,760 Speaker 1: that it's come to life and it's now a priority, 433 00:21:47,760 --> 00:21:50,720 Speaker 1: and that people are realizing that space junk may drop 434 00:21:50,800 --> 00:21:53,560 Speaker 1: in your backyard if it's not under control pretty soon 435 00:21:53,600 --> 00:21:57,840 Speaker 1: as a problem. Yeah. And if I know anything about 436 00:21:57,320 --> 00:22:00,760 Speaker 1: the human species, once we know that there's a problem 437 00:22:00,800 --> 00:22:02,920 Speaker 1: and we know that we've been causing it, we're really 438 00:22:02,960 --> 00:22:05,200 Speaker 1: good about fixing it and addressing it. So I think 439 00:22:05,200 --> 00:22:08,800 Speaker 1: you're right. Let's be optimistic about this. Okay, now, now 440 00:22:08,840 --> 00:22:12,400 Speaker 1: you're just being facetious. Let's just put that out there 441 00:22:12,400 --> 00:22:15,399 Speaker 1: on the line, all right, So there you go, space drunk, 442 00:22:16,200 --> 00:22:18,480 Speaker 1: Let's work on it. Let's come up with some ideas. 443 00:22:18,600 --> 00:22:21,040 Speaker 1: All right, I'm gonna have the robots stay in his 444 00:22:21,119 --> 00:22:23,199 Speaker 1: closet right now and not bring us out any of 445 00:22:23,240 --> 00:22:24,960 Speaker 1: our listener mail. So he has a bunch of it, 446 00:22:25,119 --> 00:22:27,480 Speaker 1: and I'm just gonna mention two quick things. First of all, 447 00:22:27,800 --> 00:22:31,440 Speaker 1: the Stuff to Blow your Kid's Mind video series. It 448 00:22:31,600 --> 00:22:34,440 Speaker 1: is live. We are linking to it. By the time 449 00:22:34,480 --> 00:22:37,240 Speaker 1: you hear this, it will have been live for a 450 00:22:37,240 --> 00:22:40,840 Speaker 1: week or so. Check it out ten episodes. In each episode, 451 00:22:40,960 --> 00:22:44,440 Speaker 1: Julie and I tackle a different science experiment that you 452 00:22:44,480 --> 00:22:47,120 Speaker 1: and or your child can try at home. We will 453 00:22:47,160 --> 00:22:50,360 Speaker 1: walk you through the basics of these different scientific properties, 454 00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:54,520 Speaker 1: ranging from volcanism to magnetism. You just go through it 455 00:22:54,560 --> 00:22:58,440 Speaker 1: from the personal perspective in the experiment, through the larger 456 00:22:58,560 --> 00:23:01,919 Speaker 1: world based experien ants, and then discuss how this connect 457 00:23:01,960 --> 00:23:04,399 Speaker 1: us to the cosmos. So the idea is, as the 458 00:23:04,440 --> 00:23:07,040 Speaker 1: title suggests, to blow your kid's mind or blow the 459 00:23:07,080 --> 00:23:09,560 Speaker 1: mind of the child and you. So check it out. 460 00:23:09,640 --> 00:23:12,479 Speaker 1: We're really proud of it and think it's a fine product. Also, 461 00:23:12,840 --> 00:23:14,919 Speaker 1: if you have really cool photos that you have taken, 462 00:23:15,640 --> 00:23:18,920 Speaker 1: something that blows your mind that it exists or exists 463 00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:21,439 Speaker 1: in the way that you've captured it on film, share 464 00:23:21,480 --> 00:23:23,480 Speaker 1: that with the world. Check out the Stuff to Blow 465 00:23:23,520 --> 00:23:27,359 Speaker 1: Your Mind photo contest. It's an upload tool. You can 466 00:23:27,440 --> 00:23:30,520 Speaker 1: upload your cool photo under various categories, including stuff like 467 00:23:30,560 --> 00:23:34,879 Speaker 1: gross and awesome. Upload that stuff, vote on your and 468 00:23:34,960 --> 00:23:38,160 Speaker 1: other images. You might even get to win an iPad. 469 00:23:38,440 --> 00:23:42,600 Speaker 1: What Yeah, can I upload something? No? Well, no, you 470 00:23:42,600 --> 00:23:45,760 Speaker 1: can upload something, just don't expect to win, all right, Yeah, 471 00:23:46,160 --> 00:23:47,600 Speaker 1: but still, I mean the fun thing about it is 472 00:23:47,640 --> 00:23:50,760 Speaker 1: just seeing these images and yeah, yeah, as if, this 473 00:23:50,800 --> 00:23:52,879 Speaker 1: recording is in its early stages, so there's still a 474 00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:55,199 Speaker 1: lot of images coming in, and I'm just I check 475 00:23:55,240 --> 00:23:56,720 Speaker 1: it out every day because I'm excited to see what 476 00:23:56,760 --> 00:23:58,720 Speaker 1: kind of stuff is going to show up there. There's 477 00:23:58,720 --> 00:24:00,880 Speaker 1: some really funny stuff shotting up. Well yeah, I mean 478 00:24:00,880 --> 00:24:03,520 Speaker 1: not just stuff that will knock your socks off, make 479 00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:06,560 Speaker 1: you reevaluate, you know, reality around you, but some some 480 00:24:06,680 --> 00:24:10,199 Speaker 1: good animal fun l L stuff. Yeah. And if you 481 00:24:10,280 --> 00:24:13,359 Speaker 1: upload something onto that feature that is related to a 482 00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:16,600 Speaker 1: podcast that we've recorded, share it on our Facebook account 483 00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:18,760 Speaker 1: and we'll we'll throw some votes at it, We'll spread 484 00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:21,000 Speaker 1: the word. So if you want to find us on Facebook, 485 00:24:21,080 --> 00:24:23,320 Speaker 1: we are Stuff to Blow your Mind on there. Just 486 00:24:23,560 --> 00:24:25,320 Speaker 1: search for it there, and if you want to find 487 00:24:25,359 --> 00:24:27,240 Speaker 1: us on Twitter, we are Blow the Mind and you 488 00:24:27,280 --> 00:24:29,960 Speaker 1: can always drop us a line at blew the Mind 489 00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:37,280 Speaker 1: at Discovery dot com. Be sure to check out our 490 00:24:37,280 --> 00:24:40,680 Speaker 1: new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how Stuff 491 00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:43,600 Speaker 1: Work staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing 492 00:24:43,680 --> 00:24:45,120 Speaker 1: possibilities of tomorrow.