Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science - A New Congressional Caucus Backs Planetary Science

Episode Date: February 14, 2018

Republican Randy Hultgren and Democrat Derek Kilmer celebrate formation of the new bipartisan, bicameral caucus of US representatives and senators. They have united behind exploration of our and other solar systems. Bill Nye shares his eye and ear witness account of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch and landing. The new What’s Up space trivia contest takes its inspiration from the Tesla Roadster now on its way to Mars.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, Congress people love space too! This week on Planetary Radio. Welcome. I'm Matt Kaplan of the Planetary Society, with more of the human adventure across our solar system and beyond. A new Congressional Caucus is bringing together Republicans and Democrats, members of the House and Senators, and elected representatives from throughout the USA. We'll spend a few surprisingly happy minutes with Republican Randy Hultgren and Democrat Derek Kilmer. You want nonpartisan? Look no further than the Planetary Society's Bruce Betts.

He's back with the latest news, the choicest random space facts, and the most rewarding of space trivia contests. Right up front is another visit with the CEO of the Planetary Society, Bill Nye the Science Guy, is back from watching the SpaceX Falcon Heavy do its thing. Bill, I am so envious of you and Jason Davis, our colleague Jason, who wrote about the Falcon Heavy launch that both of you got to witness. Not just the launch, damn it,

but the landing in the blog at planetary.org. What were your impressions? Well, it was fantastic. So everybody understand SpaceX, Matt, was able to strap together three Falcon 9 first stages. And Falcon 9 has nine engines. There are 27 first stage engines. So it was a very powerful rocket.

I guess not quite as powerful as the space shuttle at full throttle, but crazy powerful rocket lifting a relatively lightweight payload to it. Elon Musk's first Tesla Roadster. And on camera years ago, I got to drive a Tesla Roadster. It was in turn virtually a rocket. Anyway, everybody was very impressed with the launch and this payload got into space. I mean, everybody understands landing on the past perfectly is very cool and it's very reasonable as part of the future, but let's not forget that they threw a payload into an enormous orbit around the sun that my understanding is crosses both the Earth's orbit and Mars's orbit.

But that's it. You're looking up at the sky. You know these things are supposed to be reentering the atmosphere. And you see these orange flames, these bright, bright, bright orange flames way, way, way up above you. And then they disappear for a while. I don't have the eyesight I had as a young fighter pilot, but it's still pretty good. You can't see them for a while. And then the flames come back on very near the ground and they slow down very fast and land, settle right down, almost like helicopter pads, helipads. And then I was there on the balcony of the Apollo Saturn V Visitor Center with a bunch of other

people, including our beloved Buzz Aldrin. And we're standing there and I guess, well, maybe there are not going to be sonic booms this time. People were remarking. I mean, it's a long time, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, pow, pow, pow, pow. You hear double sonic booms this time? People were remarking. I mean, it's a long time, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, pow, pow, pow, pow. You hear double sonic booms. So if you're at an air show and a supersonic plane goes by, a fighter plane, you'll hear a sonic boom, but really in there are two sonic booms, one from the nose of the aircraft and one from the tail. And they're usually just too close together. You can't distinguish them. These boosters are so long that you can hear the front and the back. And then there's supposed to be a third one from the rocket nozzle to light a supersonic engine on a rocket ship going supersonic speeds will also produce a sonic boom. But it's too close, I think, to the

after the tail sonic boom for a human ear to distinguish, especially we were three kilometers away. We were over two miles away. But it's spectacular. Anyway, everybody says that this is the future and this is great. But in order to make it profitable, SpaceX has to get its launch cadence, as it's called, rockets per year, up to about 30. They may be able to do that. It's really spectacular. And right now, they say, people who study this say SpaceX is about a billion dollars in the hole.

In other words, they've spent a billion dollars to produce rocket launches that might cost only, if I can use the term, only $90 million. But we'll see. It's exciting. It's revolutionizing. It's changing the way people think about rockets. And, Matt, as you drive in now, there's this enormous blue and white building that is Blue Origins. blue and white building that is Blue Origins. So you have very wealthy immigrant Elon Musk started this company because he thinks rockets and space are cool and he's all into going to Mars.

And then this other crazy wealthy guy who invented Amazon, Jeff Bezos, is chasing him. So these two guys and their companies are chasing each other. It's really going to be a very exciting time in space exploration, because if we can really lower the cost of rockets, make them cheaper to own and operate, it will enable all sorts of fantastic planetary missions as well. And as you know, two things that make me stay awake at night. I want the Earth to not get hit with an asteroid, and I want to find life on another world in my lifetime. And if these rockets can lower the cost of accomplishing those missions, I am all in, man. You go, SpaceX. You go, Blue Origin. I can think of one more reason to celebrate,

because this successful mission of the first Falcon Heavy brings us a little bit closer to you-know-what. That's right. So our second light sail spacecraft is on the next Falcon Heavy. Even though the central core missed its drone ship by a little bit. The main payload is perfectly in orbit. So LightSail 2 is on the second Falcon Heavy. If you're a listener, if you're a member, come on down to the Cape. When is it going to be, Bill? We don't know yet. But as soon as SpaceX and NASA and the people who run the launch complex let us know, by the way, this great launch from the same launch pad as the Apollo missions, for crying out loud, is historic and wonderful.

So come on down to the Cape. We're going to have a wild party for LightSail 2. I want to be there for that one. Thank you, Bill. Thank you, Matt. Bill Nye is the CEO of the Planetary Society. On now to a couple of Congress, members of Congress, who Bill actually was just talking with a few days ago. We talked about that on last week's show.

Bill likes to say that space exploration brings people together. We have the proof. On the morning of February 7th, with partisan speeches and angry divisions over a multitude of issues just meters away, the Honorable Randy Holcren and the Honorable Derek Kilmer arrived at the U.S. House of Representatives audio studio. On the other end of the telephone line was yours truly. Randy and Derek, they insisted I use their first names, by the way, Randy and Derek are part of the new Planetary Science Caucus. Randy, a founding member of the caucus, is a Republican

representing the 14th District of Illinois, about an hour's drive west of Chicago and Lake Michigan. Derek is a Democrat representing the state of Washington's 6th District, stretching from the Pacific Coast to Bainbridge Island across from Seattle. He co-chairs the caucus with Texas Republican John Culberson, who joined us on Planetary Radio in December of 2015. My conversation with them started right where Bill Nye ended a few moments ago. Good morning, gentlemen. We are honored to have you as our guests here on Planetary Radio. Thank you for joining us. You bet. Great to be with you. Yeah, really good to be with you. This is great.

I have good news. There will be no questions regarding immigration government shutdowns or memos. Wow, that's the first. Thank you. I thought you might appreciate that. There was something else which I didn't know we'd be able to talk about today. It was kind of a crapshoot, but let's start with something that, as we speak, just happened yesterday, and that was the successful launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy. I just want to get your thoughts. the SpaceX Falcon Heavy. I just want to get your thoughts. This is Derek, and I guess I'll just kick off. I think it's a great preview of the future for us. I consistently believe we should be talking about space with a sense of optimism about the future, not simply with a sense of nostalgia. So I think it's good news. Obviously, it was a flawless launch, and by just about every measure, it was a success

and shows that we're just at the beginning of this new space age. Randy? Same. You know, it just was very exciting, so powerful, and just so cool. You know, I think that's what excites me about it is this spark that we're seeing lit, especially among young people. I'm a part of a couple different caucuses. Another one is the STEM caucus and trying to get young people interested in science and technology, engineering, and math.

There's nothing like space and rockets to get people interested and excited. And it's amazing to me how it went so well. And then, again, to see that picture, I'll never forget, of those two boosters coming down simultaneously and landing next to each other. You know, there's a little bump in the middle booster not quite making the landing. I guess it was about a 300-mile-an-hour impact, Elon Musk said. But they weren't expecting much out of that one anyhow. But these two side boosters, just the flawlessness of that and this possibility of reusability and affordability, so many new opportunities that come with such a powerful rocket,

once again, getting up into space. So really cool, really exciting, and great, great new opportunities coming from it. As this happened, I was in a room full of planetary scientists who are working toward putting a terrific camera, the main camera that will go on the new Mars 2020 rover. And as you might imagine, everything came to a halt as we put the launch up on the big screen in the conference room at that university we were meeting at, Arizona State. It was pretty thrilling. I asked them afterward, I told them that I would be talking with members of this new Planetary Science Caucus today, and I asked them if they had a message that they wanted me to convey to you.

They said that the primary message was one of gratitude. They wanted to thank you for the support that's been provided already for planetary science. And I said, well, what would you ask for? And they said, well, what would you ask for? And they said, stability. And they said that's what has allowed the Mars program in particular to proceed at such a terrific pace in recent years. And the fact that they're able to plan and build mission on mission. I wonder if that is something that you're hoping, one of the goals for this new caucus. Yeah, this is Randy. I'll jump in quick, but I absolutely agree with them. I'm very excited, and I think this is great news,

but the biggest message for me, too, is we've got to figure out budgeting. You made the joke at the beginning, but it is so true of how ridiculous continuing resolutions are and how harmful they are, especially to important research programs, things that you can't plan week by week. You've got to be looking out a year, two years, five years, 10 years, and the reality that every other country is doing so much better than we are of pre-funding research and science. Derek and I have talked about this for a long time that we've got to change. And maybe this is the point or the issue that can help us with our colleagues to say this is really counterproductive. We are fostering

instability in something that needs that certainty and confidence, especially when we're looking for potential international collaboration. And I would just add, I think that's clearly one of the goals of this caucus is to raise awareness about the value of federal investment in space, in science, in STEM education, as Randy's led so well on, and to also highlight the fact that innovation and jobs will come from it. I'll just add this too. I mean, you contrast the point in time that we're in right now with what we saw decades ago after Sputnik, where it really became a national mission, in part because the perception of really an existential threat. I think we can contrast that now, unfortunately, with sort of the lack of a national mission, the lack of attention and investment in our nation's capital. national mission, the lack of attention and investment in our nation's capital. But beyond that, rather than viewing this as an existential threat, I think there's just so much opportunity.

There's innovation, there's jobs that can come from this if we shine a bright light on the value of it. Let me take it back to basics, because I think there are a lot of listeners who probably have heard of a caucus or caucuses in Congress and know that it's some kind of a grouping of members. But what really is a caucus and why do they form? A caucus is a group of legislators that share a common legislative objective. And as Randy said, maybe that's around STEM education. I'm part of a number of caucuses. I'm part of the AI and robotics caucuses because I'm trying to get in the good graces of our robot overlords early. You know, I'm part of some bipartisan caucuses, the Problem Solvers Caucus, the Bipartisan Working Group that are really formed to try to find ways to find some common ground on issues

rather than just seeing the persistent duking it out in our nation's capital. And I think this caucus is really focused on the Planetary Society's three pillars of creating and educating and advocating. The goal of this is bipartisan, bicameral, and really trying to shine a light on the value of American investment in space. Yeah, I'd echo that. This is Randy. Caucuses are unique in that they are really member-driven. So members of Congress who have an interest and want to find others who share that interest can come together, like Derek said, in a bipartisan way. The different committees that we serve on certainly are important, but oftentimes there's other agendas that are laid out that us rank-and-file members of Congress don't have as

much say in. With the caucus, there is opportunity to have some of the freedom and flexibility to go a little deeper, to be a little bit more strategic in how we can pursue goals. They do have an impact. There's an opportunity for us. If you've got 10, 15, 20, 30, 50 members who are in a caucus, that can have an impact, certainly on what our committees are going to do and what leadership is going to do. So for me, it's been very refreshing, a place to go a little bit deeper and geek out a little bit of really digging into some areas that we have interest in

that, for whatever reason, the committees aren't spending as much time on as we would like. Derek, you mentioned that this caucus is bipartisan and bicameral, so that you've got members joining from that group that meets at the other end of Capitol Hill in the Senate. Does that make this kind of a rare thing? Are there very many caucuses that have those qualities? There's not a lot that are bipartisan and bicameral. So that is indeed unique. And then obviously, the subject area, the focus of this caucus is unique as well. You know, I think there is a real desire to set ambitious goals in space with an acknowledgement that it helps our economy on Earth. Again, there's so much opportunity here if we focus on the good work that can be done here, both with federal investment, by supporting private industry.

You know, I think this is the only caucus that's really underscoring that focus. Randy, this would be a good time for me to thank you. I did that in the opening, but I want to do it again for stepping in at the last moment when your colleague, John Culberson of Texas, simply couldn't make it to Capitol Hill today because of the ice storm that has hit you folks. He, of course, is a co-chair of this new caucus with Derek. You're one of the original members. I think you've already talked about why joining this caucus was so important to you. Derek, if you don't mind, why become a leader of this group? You guys are obviously

members of many other caucuses, as you said, to say nothing of all the committees that you're on. are obviously members of many other caucuses, as you said, to say nothing of all the committees that you're on. I assume this means some degree of additional work. Sure. You know, I've always been into space. I served in my first term on the space subcommittee under the science committee. I'm now on the appropriations committee and on the subcommittee called Commerce, Justice, and Science, which also has purview over NASA funding. and science, which also has purview over NASA funding. I'm totally a space nerd, super into Star Wars. I'm also a big believer in STEM education. I will tell you, one of the coolest experiences I've had in public service was at a school in my district, Key Peninsula Middle School,

which was a NASA Explorer school. They had NASA astronauts come every year to meet with the students there. And I still remember one year we had an astronaut come in and she had a PowerPoint and she started it with what looked to me like a giant black circle on a white screen. And she asked the students, does anyone know what this is? And all the students raised their hands, and people guessed various things. And after several missed fires, she said, it's a giant hole. And then she said, does anyone want to guess where it is? And a couple kids guessed, and then finally someone guessed Mars.

And she said, that's right, it's a giant hole on Mars. And she said, does anyone want to guess what caused it? All the kids raised their hands and made various guesses, and she said, do's right, it's a giant hole on Mars. And she said, does anyone want to guess what caused it? All the kids raised their hands and made various guesses, and she said, do you know the truth? We don't know. And she says, do you want to know how deep it is? And all the kids started guessing. And then she said, we don't know that either.

And I remember walking out of that middle school, and I called up my wife, and I said, did you know that there's a giant hole on Mars, and we don't know how deep it is is and we don't know what caused it? You know, immediately, like, I wanted to go back in time and become an astronaut. And I watched these kids just get so excited. So that is something unique about space. The level of innovation that we've seen come out of NASA, you know, it's urban legend that NASA invented Tang, but beyond that, it's been pretty central to things like GPS and LEDs and the cameras and batteries in space. I'm hopeful that this caucus can shift that away from nostalgia and more towards one of optimism,

the idea that we can not just talk about history but kind of write some new chapters in this story. Randy, before you jump in, most important question of the day, Star Trek or Star Wars? I'm more a Star Wars guy. Yeah, but I knew I liked Randy. I really do. Derek is a great friend and it's one of these frustrating misperceptions that people have is that we don't like each other up here

that we're always fighting there's so many great people and my favorite parts about this job is being able to meet people like derrick i don't know any other way we would have been able to become friends other than having the privilege of being able to serve in the House of Representatives. They had the great privilege of being at a SpaceX launch earlier this year. And just to physically see that launch, but then also the landing of the booster, again, it sparked hours and hours of conversation with my teenage boys, which sometimes is tough having those type of things to be talking about. But it was awesome. We had such a great time. And they are so inspired by this stuff.

And that, again, there's so many positive ripple effects. The other thing that I'm excited about with this caucus is maybe we are at a place that we've never been before of having this very good, honest dialogue of what we must do, what government needs to be a part of, and what the private sector can do. I'm encouraged with the launch yesterday that there's amazing things that the private sector can do, that SpaceX has done, and a lot of other entities out there are doing some really great things. But I still think there's a vital role for government and for NASA. I'm Republican, conservative Republican, and yet absolutely 100% supportive of research and finding every day that struggle of what must we do,

because no private entity or individual is able to do it. And I think, again, that's what NASA has always been about and want to make sure we continue to keep that focus. And I think the caucus can help lead that discussion of making sure that we are doing what we must do as government representatives. Congressman Randy Holcren, he and his colleague Derek Kilmer, will tell us more about the new Planetary Science Caucus in a minute. This is Planetary Radio. Hi, this is Casey Dreyer, the Director of Space Policy here at the Planetary Society. And I wanted to let you know that right now,

Congress is debating the future of NASA's budget. The House has proposed to increase NASA's budget and also increase planetary science in 2018. The Senate, however, has proposed to cut both.

You can make your voice heard right now. We've made it easy to learn more if you go to planetary.org slash petition2017. Thank you. You can share your passion for space exploration by giving someone a gift membership to the Planetary Society. This holiday season or any time of year. Your friend or loved one would join us as we nurture new and exciting science,

advocate for space, and educate the world. The gift of space starts at planetary.org forward slash give space. That's planetary.org forward slash give space. Because come on, it's space. Welcome back to Planetary Radio. I'm Matt Kaplan with more of my conversation with two members of the U.S. House of Representatives who sit on opposite sides of the aisle but are united in their love of space exploration. Randy Hulkerin is a Republican. Derek Kilmer is a Democrat. It's Derek you'll hear responding first to my next question. As you guys know, Bill Nye was up on the Hill last week, was in the galleries for the State of the Union,

but spent hours walking the office buildings saying hi to your colleagues. He told me that everywhere he turned, members were telling him, oh, whoa, the caucus is coming together. Yeah, absolutely. I'm going to join up. Are you seeing a lot of interest? Well, I wouldn't be surprised if this really took off. I can't thank Bill enough for his outreach last week. We had a meeting in my office, and then right afterward, one of our colleagues from Virginia came to have a meeting with me. And before he could step in the

door, Bill was like, do you know about the caucus? I want to get you involved in the caucus. So he's a great evangelist for this, and I think he has credibility. Everybody loves Bill Nye, and I will say Bill Nye's approval rating is probably substantially higher than that of Congress, which is not saying a lot. We rank slightly below head life and colonoscopies as a group. So at last check, we're hovering, I think, around 15, 20 members combined with the House and the Senate. But we really are going to work recruiting people to get involved with this because, to Randy's earlier point, one of the values of caucuses is it's an opportunity to get people who might serve on different committees. I mean, Randy's been a real leader on the science committee. Congressman Culberson chairs the subcommittee that's in charge of NASA funding.

But listen, this is an opportunity for people who may not serve on a science-oriented committee or a space-oriented committee to scratch that itch and to get involved and to show their support for these issues, too. Yeah, I would say, this is Randy, that we can get typecast here pretty quickly and kind of put in a box of the committees that you serve on. And that's important. So much work needs to happen in the committees. But it's one of those opportunities that caucuses bring for us to let people dive into the things that they really are interested in and really have a passion for. And it was so fun to have Bill Nye up here last week. He just is magnetic as far as his energy and excitement and enthusiasm and was so fun. I sat down with him.

He was the one that asked me to join the caucus. About 15 seconds I said yes, and he said, okay, we're done. I was like, no, no, we're not done. I want to talk about some more stuff. You can't leave. So he was ready to move on to the next meeting. He checked me off the list. But then one of the really cool things was I got a chance to be with him a little bit later on, right before the speech, we grabbed some food. When I brought my guest, who happens to be a young man from my district, who's a third year at the Naval Academy, wants to be in marine aviation. But through that talk and through the connections with Bill and others, now he's really

interested in NASA. And so we'll see where it goes. But again, so cool how infectious this is in a good way of really getting people hooked and excited and looking for ways to get involved. Bill is awesome at that. I couldn't agree more. As you might expect, the Planetary Society, we're pretty happy to see a caucus created around planetary science. But to play devil's advocate for a moment, there's a lot more going on with space exploration. Why is this caucus so focused on planetary science? There is a need to have that focus. I wish John could be here because he is so good, John Culbertson, talking about his passion with Europa. And I had the privilege of being out at the grand finale of Cassini a few months ago, just incredible. But with us getting so busy, you mentioned that kind

of the start of your question here, I think it is, again, challenging to have focus. There's so many things that pull us in so many different directions. My hope is through this caucus, that we can continually bring back necessary focus, that it's going to take all of our time, but regular focus and regular time and every opportunity we have in appropriations, in other discussions or legislation that comes up, seeing is there an aspect to this with planetary discovery, planetary exploration that we ought to be thinking about. I just add, I think planetary science really brings out the best in America. You know, our efforts to get to the moon created a more competitive American economy.

That is undeniable. And in addition to the direct jobs that you see from space exploration, there's the technology that it yields. There's the just idealism to get to the moon, now going to Mars, that motivates young people to study science, technology, engineering, and math. And that makes our country stronger. You know, we are absolutely seeing that in my neck of the woods. You know, Washington State is kind of becoming the Silicon Valley of space with all of these innovative companies, everything from Blue Origin, SpaceX, Stratolaunch. Planetary Resources.

Planetary Resources. You know, all of these guys are doing really innovative stuff. Some of it seems like it's out of a science fiction book, but it's creating excitement. It's creating jobs. And, again, I think there's a real appreciation out of this caucus that space is a part of America's mission focus. And it's part of what brings out the best in our country. Yeah, I absolutely agree. I think it is almost part of our DNA as a country, as a nation, and as a world. And it has that opportunity. When so many things divide, this is one of those

things I think that truly can bring us together. What are the two of you most looking forward to in the next, I don't know, five to 10 years of U.S. activity, exploration out beyond our own planet? I'm excited just the next few months, and I think yesterday was a big day for planetary society and a lot of the work with LightSail and the potential for LightSail launch in May, I think, is what Bill was talking about. Fingers crossed, yeah. Yeah, we'll see. But, you know, again, that is so cool, and that next step.

To me, it's this building of momentum that I'm most excited about. Mars, as Derek talked about, is very compelling. So much unknown there, so much potential. I talk about that they really, literally could be the crew on the ship that goes to Mars. In their eyes, light up. And I'm jealous. I'm going to be way too old. So I want to be part of that. But you know what? We can be part of it by doing our part to make sure that their generation maybe could do something unbelievable.

Derek? I'm hoping that a really senior Randy Holgren can go to Mars. I would echo Randy's comments, particularly at the end there. We just had, within the last few months, one of the really cool thing in my district, at a movie theater in Gig Harbor, Washington, they did an uplink to the space station. Hearing these young people, both during and afterwards, just have such a level of excitement. And that notion, you know, to be told by astronauts on the space station, your generation can be the ones who take us to Mars, I think that's just incredibly exciting. And right now I have two kids. I've got an 11-year-old who wants to be either a computer coder or an architect.

I have an 8-year-old who wants to be a princess. But I think after I told her about the uplink to the space station, she said, well, maybe I want to go to Mars. So, hey, Mars is going to need a princess. You bet. Gentlemen, thank you so much for taking all of this time and also for taking on these new roles in the brand-new Planetary Science Caucus. Best of luck. I hope that we can check back in

and check on the progress of the caucus just as we check in on the progress of space exploration every week. Thank you so much. It's really been a fun time to be with you, and we are so excited about all that's happening. And thanks for the Planetary Society's involvement, too. We hope everybody stays involved and engaged with it, and we know Bill Nye will. Yes, we do. You bet.

We've been talking with the Honorable Randy Holcren, an original member of the new Planetary Science Caucus in the House of Representatives. He represents the 14th District of Illinois. And Derek Kilmer, a co-chair of that new caucus who represents Washington's

6th District. Time for What's Up on Planetary Radio. Bruce Betts is the Director of Science and Technology for the Planetary Society. He joins us, not in person this time. We're back doing it online. But you sound good. How are you? Hunky-dory, peachy, keen, swell. How about you, Matt?

Not quite that good. I'm good. I'm okay. I'll leave it at that. All right. All right. Tell us about the night sky. You want to challenge, try to find Venus coming up in the evening west shortly after sunset.

Could be tricky for another week or two, but it will start coming up in the west in the evening for the next few months and will be super bright. And then in the pre-dawn, we've got our three-planet show. Jupiter farthest up in the east or southeast looking super bright. You draw a line down to the lower left, you'll get to Mars, but don't confuse it with Antares, the star of Scorpius. And then further to the lower left, you will find Saturn looking kind of yellowish. The Martians hate being confused with Antares. Oh, I know. It's so irritating for them. It actually caused the debacle of 1065 AD. That one's not in the Wikipedia. I will tell people later where they can look that up. Okay. We move on to this week in space history. It was this week, five years ago, that over Chelyabinsk, Russia, a roughly 18 to 20 meter asteroid entered the atmosphere at high

speeds and exploded and the shockwave ended up injuring over a thousand people, breaking a lot of windows. This was also the same day that most of the rest of the world learned how many Russians have dashboard cameras. It's true. We had some beautiful views, thanks to that. All right. They started a trend, I guess.

We move on to random space fact. We had a lot of reactions to the impressions we did last week to introduce random space fact. Mel Powell, who came up with those, he reminded me that he sent, I don't know when, I never used it. I never played it for you. His wife introducing random space fact in Japanese. And we also got a request from someone who wants to hear it in Klingon. We never did that, did we? No, we did not. I'm going to call the Klingon Language Institute and see if they can help us out. Thank you.

You're so welcome. Kapla. Kapla. So moving on to the fact, we just passed, as we discussed on the show, the 60th anniversary of the launch of the first U.S. satellite, Explorer 1. And we just had the first launch of a Falcon Heavy. Well, a Falcon Heavy in reusable configuration like this launch was could carry about 2,500 Explorer 1s to low Earth orbit. could carry about 2,500 Explorer 1s to low Earth orbit. We have a similar note from a listener that we will contest after that we'll get to in a moment. But that's terrific. Thank you. You're welcome. Speaking of Explorer 1, in the trivia contest, I asked you what type of rocket launched the first U.S. satellite, Explorer 1.

How'd we do, Matt? Huge response and some confusion over this. Now, I think I said two weeks ago when you posed this question, I knew the answer. I'd have been wrong because I grew up reading and being told that it was a Jupiter-C rocket booster that put Explorer 1 in space. Not exactly correct. Would you tell us the real story? Well, they defined it as a Juno-1 rocket. They made some slight changes to the Jupiter-C

for this launch, I believe. And I know you said our listeners told us involving an upper stage. And so they actually redesignated the Jupiter-C as a Juno-1 because of these differences. Some people like Mark Sulfridge in Boise, Idaho, talked about this and also said that both the Jupiter-C and the Juno-1, not surprisingly, descendants of the V-2 rocket from World War II. Not surprising since Wernher von Braun was responsible for this whole line of rocketry. But let's get to our winner for this week. He was chosen by Random.org. He's

in Glen Oaks, New York. It's long-time listener, first-time winner as far as I know. Setupong, I will do my best with this, Koziatrakul. That was perfect. Thank you very much. We'll see if he agrees. He said, yes, indeed, it was the Juno-1. So, Setapong, you have won yourself a Planetary Society t-shirt and a 200-point itelescope.net account.

So, congratulations. Congratulations. Eric O'Day in Medford, Massachusetts, he said that this is the one that's kind of similar to your random space fact. He said the carrying capacity of the Juno-1 payload capacity to low Earth orbit was a staggering 24 pounds. And I think somebody else, a couple of other people said it was more like 30 pounds, but whatever, in that range. He said, less than 10 years later, the Saturn V had a launch capacity that could carry four fully fueled Juno-1 boosters into orbit. I love it. Here's a little tidbit of useless info, says Joshua Guarino in Plainfield, Illinois. And I checked it out. He's right. Did you know that the know-it-all kid in the Polar Express movie is wearing Jupiter C pajamas? It's true. No, I did not recall that, nor did I apparently notice it.

Finally, from Martin Hajoski in Houston, Texas, he says, despite rumors, as far as I could tell, there is no truth to the story that Wernher von Braun's cherry red 1957 Thunderbird Roadster was inside the final stage. Well done. Well timed. Now we're ready to go on. All right. Speaking of roadsters and rockets, there was, of course, the launch of a Tesla into space with Falcon Heavy., leading to my question. What was the last wheeled vehicle launch of a successful wheeled vehicle into space where success, as defined by me, which is different, is defined as driving on another world? So the last wheeled vehicle launch of a successful wheeled vehicle into space,

go to planetary.org slash radio contest. We have, well, we don't have, but you have until the 21st. That'd be Wednesday, February 21st at 8 a.m. Pacific time to get us the answer. That wonderful prize package can once again be yours if you get it right and you're picked by random.org. And we'll read your name on the air. It's a Planetary Society t-shirt intersecting Earth and Mars with the Planetary Society at the intersection of that Venn diagram, and a 200-point itelescope.net account. Great stuff from iTelescope. By the way, something I forgot to mention to the boss, to Bill Nye earlier today. We're going to post

on the show page for this week at planetary.org slash radio. The eye telescope folks, an astronomer, there actually were several using their network who found what they're pretty sure was the roadster going across the star field. And there's actually an animation where you can see it, and it's changing in brightness, apparently because the car was tumbling by that point. It's really pretty fascinating, and I haven't seen this stuff anyplace else. There actually has been some data coming out of other telescopes showing images, and also now they've got some nice scientific plots of the period, so the rotation period at about four revolutions per minute, more than we needed to know. Well, excuse me. You're obviously and always better informed.

Anyway, itelescope.net, a 200-point account from that network of telescopes around the world. Maybe you can find the Roadster if you're the winner or sign up for your own account. And with that, I think we're done. All right, everybody go out there, look up the night sky and think about whether ski jumpers have to worry about hitting birds. Thank you and good night. Judging from what I've seen of the Olympics so far, those would be frozen chickens they're running into. I'm so scared. Who's launching the frozen chickens? I'm so scared. Who's launching the frozen chickens? That's Bruce Betts. He's no chicken when it comes to space exploration.

He's the director of science and technology for the Planetary Society, who joins me every week for What's Up. I got a thoughtful note from a 12-year-old listener the other day. He has been considering dark matter and other cosmic wonders. When I sat down to respond, I discovered his message had apparently been swallowed by a wormhole. I hope he'll try again. A couple of other notes before I go. A special space policy edition of our show is days away. We'll dive deep into the Trump administration's proposed 2019 NASA budget. Lastly, those of you who attended, watched, or heard our live Cassini mission tribute also heard that great

closing number by the Amoeba people called Cassini Dive Go. The monocelular band members now have a Kickstarter campaign underway for creation of their new rock and science album, The Fossil Record. Enough said, I'm sure. Planetary Radio is produced by the Planetary Society in Pasadena, California, and is made possible by its citizen members. Mary Liz Bender is our associate producer. Yep, she's new. Josh Doyle composed our theme, which was arranged and performed by Peter Schlosser. I'm Matt Kaplan. Clear skies.