Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science - Folksinger Peter Mayer Sings of the Cosmos

Episode Date: March 14, 2011

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Folksinger Peter Mayer gets it. The Cosmos, that is, this week on Planetary Radio. I'm standing on a planet, breathing in the atmosphere. Waves vibrating in the air are beating on my ears Welcome to Public Radio's travel show that takes you to the final frontier. I'm Matt Kaplan of the Planetary Society, and that's Peter Mayer's song, Ordinary Day. We'll talk with Peter and hear more of his music of the spheres on this special edition of our show, along with all our regular features.

I'll also tell you how to get one of Peter's songs for free. First up is Planetary Society Science and Technology Coordinator, Emily Lakdawalla. Emily, it was a busy, busy week in the Planetary Society blog, reports from the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, also the last landing of Discovery, but we really should talk a little bit about the earthquake in Japan. And we can do that, I think, because you are a geologist. Are we just lucky to have such a lively planet?

Well, I suppose it is a form of luck that we have a planet that's so geologically active that it has the internal heat sources in it and it rejuvenates its landscape in the way the earth does. But of course it has these terrible effects on the people and creatures living on its surface. And we saw that in Japan. Fortunately the Japanese are very good with their engineering, their modeling of earthquakes. They're the nations that has advanced the study of geophysics and tectonics so greatly that they've been able to engineer for these things. And it's amazing that the study of geophysics and tectonics so greatly that they've been able to engineer for these things. And it's amazing that the loss of life wasn't more than it was.

But it's always pretty terrifying to hear those reports, especially when you feel personal connections to a place, as I do with all of the reporting I've been doing on Hayabusa and Icaros and Akatsuki. I was keen to hear whether any of the space facilities had been damaged. And indeed, the Tsukuba mission control was damaged, but the launch facilities, the rocket assembly facility was not damaged, or at least not seriously damaged. So that was good news. I also learned that there was a planetary science conference happening in Sendai, Japan late last week, which was close to where the earthquake happened. And there are numerous scientists who I knew who

were there, and they've all reported safe as well. So I'm very relieved to hear that. Well, thank goodness for that. And our hearts go out to everyone who is dealing with that terrible situation right now. Just very quickly, is Earth unique in having such an active surface? Well, Earth is probably unique in having so many large earthquakes because it is the only planet that we know of that has plate tectonics. Plate tectonics is the process by which the motions of the mantle, the convection of the solid rocks in the mantle, are connected to the motion of the crust at the surface.

In most planets, the crust is so stiff and rigid that we don't get these plates moving around, smashing against each other and creating the forces that make these earthquakes. Most planets, even when they were geologically active, primarily had volcanism where the plates didn't move. There wouldn't have been a great deal of large earthquake activity at the surface. But then, of course, you have vast volcanic complexes like those on Mars at Olympus Mons and the Tharsis Montes. Mercury has planet-wide volcanism. Although Mercury is an interesting case because the whole planet, as the core is solidified, has shrunk.

And so there are a lot of thrust faults on Mercury's surface which have helped to shrink the crust. And those thrust faults would have been sites of earthquakes in the past for Mercury. And speaking of Mercury, a very big event about to happen. That's right. This is an event that we've been waiting for for six and a half years. The Messenger spacecraft, a very small Discovery-class mission, is going to finally arrive in orbit later this week. It launched a long time ago.

It passed by Earth again once, Venus twice, and Mercury three times before finally going into orbit in a very elliptical orbit this Thursday. So I'm looking forward to that. Exciting stuff to look forward to, absolutely. Emily, thanks so much for your report. We'll talk with you again next week. Thank you, Matt. Emily Lakdawalla is the Science and Technology Coordinator for the Planetary Society

and a contributing editor to Sky and Telescope magazine. Back with folk singer Pete Mayer, right after we hear from Bill. Hey, hey, Bill Nye the Planetary Guy here. This week, the big news in the United States is that the Decadal Survey Committee released its report. So the idea is the planetary community, people that explore planets, get together and decide what missions to try. It could be small missions, medium sized missions, and large missions. And the large missions are called the flagships. And the way

it's going right now, it looks like there would not be enough money for any flagship missions. And you would say as a voter and taxpayer with nuclear reactors exploding after tsunamis, well, who cares? Well, there'll be no mission to Uranus, no mission to Enceladus, this moon that might have liquid water on it, no mission to Titan. There'll be no mission out there with these big spacecraft that do remarkable things. That might not make too much difference in the scheme of things, but it might. If we don't keep exploring out into space, what does that say about us? It says, we're happy to stay home. We're fine. We're not going to go see what's over the hill. That is not our way, my friends. Humans have to keep looking. So here's what we have to do.

We have to work the problem from both ends. That is to say, one of the missions was evaluated by an independent company, and they determined that it would be worth more than $4.7 billion U.S. That's just too much money. Nobody's going to fund that. It takes too much money from all the rest of the programs. And then in the same way, we have to work the problem in the U.S. Congress and Senate to remind everybody that if you want to innovate, and Senate to remind everybody that if you want to innovate, if you want innovations in electronics, in rocket propulsion, in probably solar panels, in electronics miniaturization, if you want those advances and those innovations, you fund the space program. This has worked historically the last 50 years. So we are going to work the problem politically. We are going to work the problem from an engineering or technical standpoint. And we will find ways to explore the solar system, which will, I claim, change the world.

Thanks for listening. I've got to fly. Bill Nye the Planetary Guy. I live in 11 dimensions, 7 more than I can see. Matter equals light and I am made of energy. Seven more than I can see. Matter equals light and I am made of energy. It's all expanding from one microscopic grain. Guess it must be just An ordinary day

For me and Captain Kirk Every fact is so absurd In this science fiction world An ordinary day Singer-songwriter Peter Mayer's great tune about the wonder of it all called, what else, Ordinary Day. An ordinary day We talked just a few days ago at the home of a friend, just a few hours before this former Jesuit seminarian began a performance for a very enthusiastic audience at St. Matthew Ecumenical Catholic Church in Orange County. Pete, I want you to know I am thrilled to have you on Planetary Radio. scientists and engineers and get to talk to somebody like you, an artist who just seems to feel the same wonder that drives so many of these other folks who come on this show, the scientists and engineers, drives them to do what they do. This wonder for our world

and the universe. Well, thanks, Matt. I'm honored to be on this show, and I'm glad you think me worthy. Easily. Because I am only a folk musician, after all. But, no, I'm very honored, and I told you before we began that Carl Sagan, among others, has been a great inspiration to me. So that this is an outgrowth of his work and others is thrilling for me. That's always fascinated me. But in more recent years, I've really struggled, tried as an artist to learn about this scientific story of the universe

because it is indeed our story. It's my story as a living being. And to try and find a spiritual connection to that, to try and somehow express that in my songwriting and to find it for myself and then express what I find as a writer. I think you do it magnificently, which is what caught me when I quite by accident heard one of your songs for the first time on Sirius XM, actually. It was the song Ordinary Day. What I think really struck me about it was not just that it had a lot of real science, a lot of what we have learned quite recently, some of it about our cosmos. But this juxtaposition of the lives we all lead as we go around and make a living and do the things we have to do, and the wonder about the cosmos that is above us and inside us.

For me, the gist of that song is that we live in this really immense mystery. is that we live in this really immense mystery. I mean, we are sort of wired to survive and to be about the daily chores of survival, not always bringing our attention to bear on the mysteries and the beauty that's all around us and inside of us. I really believe that as modern people it's important for us to gain a relationship with these larger realities that are the context of our lives, thereby not only finding a more meaningful life, but also to be able to navigate reality itself, to gain the tools to understand the forces at work that brought us here

and that create the reality that we have to navigate into the future as a species. There are really tremendous inspirations, lessons that we can take from nature itself, which is really what we're talking about, right? Reality is really nature itself with it, with I like to think of with a capital N, the context for our lives. And, and if we can, if we can learn from that and, and sort of create a, I guess I might almost say a spiritual practice out of being attentive to that story and to the evolution

of the universe that's happening around us and within us. If we can take our cues from that story, I think that we will find true wisdom to be citizens of the earth and of the universe. There's no question that this seeking for knowledge can be profoundly disturbing to people. Still is today, has been for many, many years. Another song on your new CD, the most recent CD, Heaven Below, is called Do You Really Want to Know? And I was just captured by it. It has this set of lines, let knowledge like a breeze in through the door. Let knowledge like a breeze in through the door of your belief.

Go through the rooms and the corridors, knock cherished heirlooms to the floor. Adores Knock cherished heirlooms To the floor That wind can raise the roof Sometimes And leave you blinking At the sky So if you stare

Into this glass Beware that there's No going back. You say sunrise, but it will refuse. Instead, the earth itself will move and spin you around from dawn to dawn into the wonder of it all. The Pope comes up to Galileo and says, What do you see through that telescope there? And Galileo says,

Well, I'm seeing some pretty incredible stuff. You really want to know? Yeah, well, I think that it's a scary thing to have our foundational beliefs threatened. And that's not an easy experience for anybody to go through, and you have to either ignore the evidence in front of you, which human beings have a frighteningly powerful ability to do, is to just ignore something that's empirically established. Or if you say yes to it, if you give yourself to it, so to speak,

then you have to kind of reconfigure the way that you live your life and find comfort and meaning and inspiration. and find comfort and meaning and inspiration. But I do think that there is ample comfort and inspiration, all of the above, really, in the story of the universe as we've come to understand it. But that it's perhaps of a little different brand than what some of our religions have given us throughout the years. Maybe more akin to Buddhism. Buddhism talks about how we're just expressions of a greater whole.

And I think that that's what science has given us. A connection, a true connection to the world. A deep, apparent connection to everything else around us. And I think that there's plenty of spiritual food there, I guess you might say. And I tend to think that this story of the universe needs to enter the realm of spirituality for our lives because we are many of us spiritual beings. I guess you might say we, we, we want to feel like we belong at a deep level. And we want to, as, as religion says, reconnect, the word religion means reconnect.

We want to connect to the greater reality that is the context of our lives. And, and I, I think that there's very exciting offerings, I guess you might say, given by science and what science is telling us about our lives. We'll hear more of folk musician Peter Mayer and his music in a minute. This is Planetary Radio. I'm Robert Picardo. I traveled across the galaxy as the doctor in Star Trek Voyager. Then I joined the Planetary Society to become part of the real adventure of space exploration. The Society fights for missions that unveil the secrets of the solar system. It searches for other intelligences in the universe, and it built the first solar sail.

It also shares the wonder through this radio show, its website, and other exciting projects that reach around the globe. I'm proud to be part of this greatest of all voyages, and I hope you'll consider joining us. You can learn more about the Planetary Society at our website, planetary.org slash radio, or by calling 1-800-9-WORLDS. Planetary Radio listeners who aren't yet members

can join and receive a Planetary Radio t-shirt. Our nearly 100,000 members receive the internationally acclaimed Planetary Report magazine. That's planetary.org slash radio. The Planetary Society, exploring new worlds. Welcome back to Planetary Radio. I'm Matt Kaplan with a special edition of our show. We'll be back to our regular helping of hard science next week,

but there was something I wanted to share with you that is basic to much of why we do science. Few things are rarer than artists who find in science the sense of awe and wonder and connection many of us treasure in our fantastic universe. Folk singer Peter Mayer is one of these artists, and he wants to share that sense with the world. And fortunately, music, your music very much so, I think can help us to do that.

And I think you do that in another song that you sent me, My Soul, which has this terrific metaphor, not surprising from a Minnesotan, of snowflakes, a snowstorm representing the universe. A hundred billion snowflakes swirling in the cosmic storm. And each one is a galaxy, a billion stars or more. Each star is a million Earths, a giant fiery sun High up in some sky

Maybe shining on someone Deep inside a snowflake I am floating quietly I am infinitesimal, impossible to see Sitting in my tiny kitchen, in my tiny home, staring out my window at a universe of snow. But my soul is so much bigger than the very tiny me Reaches out into the snowstorm like a net into the sea Out to all the lovely places where my body cannot go

I touch that beauty and embrace it in the bosom of my soul and so brief and fleeting is this tiny life of mine like a single quarter note in the march of time but my soul is like the music It goes back to ancient days Back before it wore a human face Long before it bore my name Because my soul is so much older Than the everness in me It can describe the dawn of time Like a childhood memory

It is a spark that was begot Of the darkness long ago What my body has forgotten I remember in my soul That line about shining on someone the light of each one of the stars in those billions of galaxies really grabbed me.

I hate to bring it back down to this planet, but this planet's a good place. In fact, it's captured in your website, blueboat.net, which is where people can learn more about you, see some of the music, see the lyrics. It's also on iTunes, of course, and I assume many other places on the net. You are performing all over the place. Coming up in March, the end of March, in Seattle, you've got Seattle, Olympia, Washington, Lander, Wyoming. In April, you'll be in Texas. Later in April, London, Derry, New Hampshire, Binghamton, New York, and then finally back to Minnesota on May 11, St. Cloud, Minnesota. All of this, of course, is at blueboat.net.

Folk singers, still on the road. Yeah, I'm 47 years old and sometimes I'm shocked that I'm still able to play music for a living. I'm thrilled. I'm delighted. But yeah, I'm at it full time and I'm grateful, very grateful for that. We will go out with a bit more of My Soul from Peter Mayer, and he has also graciously given us permission to make the song available to you. We're going to have it at planetary.org slash radio,

where this show can always be found, the current episode can always be found, on the Planetary Society website. But I would encourage you also to visit his website, blueboat.net, and learn more. Peter, it has been delightful. Thanks so much. Thanks so much for having me, Matt. the ages melts the boundaries of projects for the Planetary Society. He's ready and waiting to go through the night sky with us and give away some interesting stuff. Welcome back.

Hi. Good to be back. Well, in the evening, you've got the special treat these days is Mercury, best apparition in the evening of the year. You can still see it for the next week or two near Jupiter. Jupiter will be the super bright object, very low in the west after sunset. And Mercury will be the other bright object that's not nearly as bright. So check those two out. In the evening sky, we've got Saturn rising in the early to mid-evening over in the east, looking yellowish, high overhead later in the evening. And in the pre-dawn, Venus still dominating over off in the east, super bright, star-like object.

We move on to this week in space history. It was 1975, somewhat appropriately, that Mariner 10 completed its third and final flyby of Mercury. And, of course, we've had to wait until this week when Messenger will go into orbit to have the first ever Mercury orbiter. Messenger has had a few flybys, but now we're going to finally get an orbiter at the closest planet. We've got to get Sean Solomon or somebody else back

from that mission real soon after it goes in orbit successfully, as we all hope and pray that it will. Indeed, indeed. We also had the first spacewalk occurred this week in 1965, Alexei Leonov. Let us move on to random space fact. Feeling a little diverse today. But in terms of space facts, let us turn to International Space Station once again.

When the Space Shuttle Discovery was docked there in late February and early March, it marked the only time in history that all four International Space Station partners had spacecraft docked at the station at one time. The U.S. and Russia, the European Space Agency, and Japan. Still only low Earth orbit, but it does start to make you think that we're a space-faring species when you hear stories like that. It is. It's busy, and I do want to point out that listener Georgie Petroff pointed me towards the busy clutter of spacecraft docked to the space station. Yeah, thank you, Georgie. We'll come back to that in a little bit. We go on to the trivia

contest. Speaking of Discovery, including the flight that Discovery just completed, how many times did the Discovery orbiter visit the International Space Station? How did we do? A lot of entries, not all of them right this time. Some people had some poor information, apparently, but I guess a lot of them wanted to get that Livio Radio Carmen device. It's not just the device, it's some software to go with it that makes it apparently abundantly easy to listen to programs like this one in your car as a podcast. A bit of variety in the responses this time, and I guess it depends on exactly your source and exactly how you define it, because some people said 11 trips.

But apparently that was 11 trips while the International Space Station had a crew. And, of course, in the very beginning, it did not really. It was just, you know, they were putting together the first Tinker Toys. But overall, the number that most people came up with, including our winner, is 13. Overall, the number that most people came up with, including our winner, is 13. Our winner, Ted Pearson. Ted Pearson of Trooper, Pennsylvania, did say 13 trips. Ilya Schwartz and others also pointed out that overall, Discovery, almost 27 years in service,

and I believe it was exactly 365 days in space. So we will congratulate Tad, and Tad is going to get that Karman device from Livio Radio, and we'll be giving away another one of those to the winner next week. Tricky, and 365 days, that's something else. I just can't remember what. Oh, yeah, there's some other relevant measure of something, but I can't... We'll think of it later. Yeah, whatever. Let's give the next trivia contest

following on with those spacecraft docked up there right now. What are they? So, as of now, Discovery's left, and as of when this show hits the streets on March 14, 2011, what spacecraft are currently docked with the International Space Station?

Go to planetary.org slash radio. Find out how to enter. And you have until the 21st of March, 2011, 2 p.m. on Monday, March 21st. And I didn't mention the prize. We have a terrific prize for the winner of this particular contest. Metro Flags. You can find them at www.metroflags.com. They have offered us, the boss there, Javier, has offered us a Mars flag.

And this is really cool. A two-foot by three-foot high-quality nylon Mars flag. I don't know that this is the one the Martians use. It's unofficial. But you can proudly display this big flag in your front window, across your cubicle, wherever you want. I mean, who would not want the flag of the Republic of Mars? Cool. Great. All right, everybody,

go out there, look up in the night sky, and think about looking up at the sky through a beautiful tree. Thank you. Good night. Beautiful tree flying the flag of Mars. He's Bruce Betts, the Director of Projects for the Planetary Society, and he joins us every week here

for What's Up. Planetary Society, and he joins us every week here for What's Up. Planetary Radio is produced by the Planetary Society in Pasadena, California, and made possible in part by a grant from the Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation. Clear skies and songs. Редактор субтитров А.Семкин Корректор А.Егорова