Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science - Live at the Space Tech Expo with Bill Nye, Xcor and Zero-G

Episode Date: May 27, 2013

PlanRad Live takes to the road again, this time visiting the Space Tech Expo in Long Beach, California for a conversation with enthusiastic team members at Xcor Aerospace, where they are building the Lynx spaceplane, and the Zero Gravity Corporation, whose “G-Force One” plane has allowed thousands of men and women to experience weightlessness. Bill Nye joined the fun on stage, and Bruce Betts arrived with t-shirts for the winners of the live What’s Up space trivia contest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Live from the Space Tech Expo in beautiful Long Beach, California, this is Planetary Radio Live! Here's the host of Planetary Radio, Matt Kaplan. Welcome to the travel show that takes you to the final frontier. As you just heard, we're at the Seaside Convention Center in Long Beach, where the second Space Tech Expo will be wrapping up in a couple of hours. You may be able to hear the activity on the exhibit floor in the background here. That's where scores of companies are showing off their hardware, software, and services that are the bedrock of all activity in space.

Later today, I'll welcome Bruce Betts for an on-stage edition of What's Up, including the chance for a few people in our audience to play the space trivia game. Emily Lochtewell is on the road this week, but she'll be back with us on next week's show. Right now, I want to welcome my boss, the CEO of the Planetary Society. Ladies and gentlemen, it's Bill Nye the Science Guy. Thank you, Matt. Thank you. Welcome to Planetary Radio. You spoke here at the expo this morning, didn't you?

Yes, a man can dream. Yeah, we talked about the need someday soon to deflect an asteroid and how the Planetary Society has this fabulous scheme to do it using the laser bees. You're an engineer. Do you get a kick out of being at something like this with all these gadgets and doodads? Oh, you're making fun of me, yes. So the gadgets and I just love my beloved 316 stainless steel. I can't get enough of that.

It's all over the place. All these beautiful hydraulic valves, fuel valves, little propulsion systems, let alone all the time. And you can get some software to run your space mission. It's all here. Not all, but almost all. Almost all. Haven't you dreamt of getting up there yourself, going into space for a long time?

No, like I didn't prompt you with these questions. No, you did not. Yes, yeah, I applied to be an astronaut four times. And it's just really hard now. You know, they start with how many PhDs do you have? And the first, you know, it's like 100. These guys who become astronauts now are just extraordinary. So with that said, Matt, I think I know what you're driving at.

Yeah, it's just a segue coming. There might be a much quicker, in many ways more exciting way to get to space. But haven't you done, I mean how close have you come? Haven't you had something of a zero-g experience? Oh yeah, oh I've done zero-g in a beach craft airplane. So I don't know if you guys have ever done this, you get the plane up pretty high and then you just start going downhill really fast at the same speed that an apple, I had an apple on a spring scale for the Science Guy show. It was good, it was very effective. But you'll notice if you look out the windshield,

wow, there's the ground coming right up. Yeah, and so then you want to pull up, and then you, so you do a half dozen of those, the camera guy's throwing up, and it's just, it's cool. It would be more fun to get up in space and drift around for a few minutes, yes? Yeah. Well, I think we may just be able to talk about how that opportunity is rapidly approaching. And actually, one of our special guests up here on the stage has been offering that opportunity for some time,

at least the zero-g opportunity. So you could train? Yes, hypothetically. Not even hypothetically, in reality. We've been joined by a couple of folks who have made careers out of getting more people into space or of giving them an experience that may be the next best thing. Michelle Peters is Director of Research and Education for Zero-G Corporation,

the only company on our planet right now that provides the opportunity to experience true weightlessness without going into space. They've been doing this for nearly nine years, flying their specially modified Boeing 727. Thousands of men and women have flown on G-Force One, including celebrities ranging from Martha Stewart to Stephen Hawking. G-Force One, including celebrities ranging from Martha Stewart to Stephen Hawking. They've experienced not just zero-G, these passengers on that 727, but simulated Martian and lunar gravity as the plane swoops through its parabolic trajectory. Please help us welcome Michelle Peters.

Thank you. Hi, Matt. All right, so Michelle, didn't you just award a free ride to some lucky so-and-so here at the Expo? We sure did. And I don't know whether I can forgive you for not drawing my business card out. I hope you'll forgive me someday. I want to ask you about Zero-G's impressive education and research activities, since that's what you do. But I also realized just this morning that Zero-G may have provided another important service.

Do you think that you've come up with the model for companies like X-Core, that we'll be talking about in a moment, sort of a business model, really, for companies that will soon start flying, paying customers right up into space? Well, we're definitely very excited that we've been able to bring the experience of weightlessness to the general public. The access to weightlessness, space environments, Martian lunar gravities, has never really been this widely available to just about anyone any time previously. With Zero-G, anybody eight years of age and older can come and fly with us. And now that we are starting to see these other opportunities coming up from a couple

of companies at least, you guys are still going to be at a very different price point. Well, we are. We're not going as high. And the flight profile is quite a bit different. The experience of weightlessness is essentially the same. However, there are lots of opportunities for research, for education, for adventure travelers. All of these better prepare the individual and the public at large for eventually going to space, be it XCOR or on orbit or Mars or the moon someday. One of these companies that may be studying the example set by Zero-G is XCOR Aerospace, based out in California's Mojave Desert,

where they are really just a few hundred feet away from their competition at Virgin Galactic, where they're finishing Spaceship Two. Longtime Planetary Radio listeners may remember a couple of past shows that have featured X-Core and its spacecraft, the Lynx. Bill, I think you got another chance to sit in that Lynx mock-up that's here on the floor. Not yet. I leaned on it, though. It's very cool, you guys. It's the dream. It takes off from, I don't want to, Andrew will talk about it, it takes off from a runway using rocket fuel. You don't need two spacecraft. You don't need two different fuel tanks. You don't need all the

stuff that a guy my age might have expected. It's like the dream come true, if it really works. So that Andrew that Bill mentioned is Andrew Nelson. He's the chief operating officer and vice president of business development for XCOR Aerospace. He leads the business team that, among other things, is establishing commercial operations at locations around the U.S. and the world. He also came up with a concept called wet lease that is at the core of the business development plan for the Lynx. Andrew, welcome to Planetary Radio. Thank you, Governor Kaplan. So, all right, you know what I have to ask right up front. How long before individuals with the money are going to start riding those suborbital trips into space on the Lynx?

Well, we're hoping to enter the flight test program toward the end of this year. And if it's a good flight test program, 9 to 12 months later, you too can fly to the edge of space. What does it look like a ticket's going to cost? $95,000, which actually gets you more than just the flight. You have three or four days of exciting training. One of those experiences may be the Zero-G aircraft. You'll be also doing some high-G training, some medical screening, Rocket 101, learn how to wear a real pressure suit. You're going to spend time with 10 or 15 people just like yourself who are really excited about going to space.

Interesting that you mentioned that Zero-G, Michelle's group, may play a part in this training regimen. Absolutely. Well, I think it's very valuable for people to experience the weightless aspect to really understand what it's going to be like because when you have main engine cutoff at Lynx, you're going to have instant silence, but also you're going to feel instant weightlessness. And that's going to last for about six or seven minutes. And it'd be great for you to really know how that feels before you

get there. Now in the Lynx, it's kind of like the cockpit of a military aircraft. Is the passengers going to be in the right-hand seat? They're going to be in the right-hand seat. They're going to fly just as a co-pilot might. In fact, they aren't just going to be passengers. They will be participants. going to fly just as a co-pilot might. In fact, they aren't just going to be passengers. They will be participants. So you'll be trained to do a few things. We have a little camera there that shows the rocket plume, and we want you to monitor that a bit and help the pilot out. If you see something not right, then let us know. What is this wet lease concept that I mentioned? Well, it's a way for people to enter the space line industry or for a country to have

an instant manned space flight program for just the purchase. But we end up doing all the servicing. We provide the fuel, thus the WET, insurance, crew, and pilots. Let me get it straight. You're talking about other nations that you could never really expect to have a human space flight program of their own could buy a Lynx? Well, they would W wet lease a Lynx. We would still own it, but it would be a long-term lease. But absolutely, an instant manned space flight program for probably a lot less money than their president's jet that they're flying around in.

So let me ask you, when I rent a car and they say, do you want the fuel option, that's a wet lease? That would be considered a wet lease, the fuel option. That's just a subtlety. You get a rider on your car insurance policy. Well, there's a lot of riders on a rental car policy, but that's what it means. I buy the gas with the car. Absolutely, yeah, that's correct. I lease the car.

I'm also leasing a tank of gas. Exactly the same. Is it going to be like the rental car companies? You try and get the people to buy the tank up front and not get it on the trip? They don't have a choice. Yeah, but it would be like us starting an airline. We wouldn't go out and buy a 737. We'd go lease one with all of the bells and whistles, and we'd start flying to Cozumel.

Michelle, Andrew, among the things that you guys, your companies at least, have in common is a commitment to doing research while you're up there. Michelle, you guys have been doing this for a long time. What are some examples of some of the science that has been conducted on GeForce One? Well, commercially speaking, we've had research payloads that include some hardware for commercial space. We've also had non-contact, non-invasive hemodynamic monitoring, which essentially is a means to determine the flow of fluids within the body cavity without actually having to perform an invasive surgery.

Useful for EVA during spaceflight, miners, and a variety of other applications. Regolith testing, low-velocity impact, a wide variety of research that's been conducted. Who are some of the clients that have bought these rides and brought their experiments, their work on the plane? MIT, Harvard, the University of Basel in Switzerland, NovaWorks, Ball Aerospace and Technologies, Switzerland, NovaWorks, Ball Aerospace and Technologies, Aerogel, Alteas Inc., corporations, universities, individual inventors that want to test their ideas, any number of people.

Bill, can't we come up with an, I think we really have to come up with an experiment, don't we? Yeah, we need to have an experiment, and I think we're going to need some people to ride with it to make sure that it's working. I can think of a couple that are here on stage that might need to have an experiment, and I think we're going to need some people to ride with it to make sure that it's working. I can think of a couple that are here on stage that might need to perform the experiment on the research. Let me ask you. When I did this thing on the Science Guy show I mentioned earlier, we get 4.5, 5 seconds of zero G. How long do you get in a 727? On our flights, you'll get about 27 seconds of weightlessness, followed by 30-ish seconds of 1.8 Gs, followed by 30 seconds of weightlessness, followed by 30 seconds.

That's cool. It's very cool. Was I right about simulating the low G environments as well? I've heard about Martian gravity. They're actually not simulated. I've heard about Martian gravity. They're actually not simulated. It is the same gravity level that you would experience on Mars or on the moon or on orbit.

It's physics. Einstein would be proud. Well, or actually Isaac Newton. It's all good. It's all good. And isn't research a big part of XCOR's business plan as well? Absolutely. The Lynx, because of its size and low cost of operation, is a fabulous platform for research. The right seat where a participant

can sit can be taken out, and two shuttle mid-deck locker-sized racks can be put there. Behind the pilot seat, there's a small box where 25 kilograms of payload can go. We even have some cowlings on the back near the engines where you can actually expose things to the upper atmosphere, collect samples, or test your electronics or whatever in the vacuum of space. I'll give you another example. Alan Stern, who has been on this radio show Lord knows how many times, he, I know, is training to take rides with you guys, but he showed me or directed me to a shot of the Lynx with this interesting cowl on top that contained a telescope? That's right.

So in our Lynx Mark III version, so the first production derivative, we'll have a large pod. Some people call it the Mill Pod, but I would never call it a mother-in-law pod. And it's quite large, and you can have a telescope there, or you can have a suborbital launcher. Sorry, an orbital launcher. You can put a CubeSat into low-Earth orbit. Really?

Yeah, absolutely. And so it's going to be a very exciting capability in the future. It can hold up to about 650 kilograms of payload. If only I knew somebody who had a CubeSat that needed a run. But you said 650 kilograms? Is that what you said? Yes, sir. That's huge.

That's a lot of weight. It's bigger than me. Yeah. But I'm just trying to think. But, I mean, for example, Matt, what was the mass of, what is the mass of New Horizons on the way to Pluto? Oh, man. I'm going to turn to Bruce Fetze if he has any idea.

I mean, it's a relatively small spacecraft. It's less than half a ton. You're taking over a ton. We'll find out for Bruce if he knows when we do what's up. But what we want to make sure is that's not the payload weight. That's the total weight of the launcher and the payload, et cetera. But we can certainly get 12 to 14 kilograms to low Earth orbit, 300 nautical miles, circular, low angle of inclination.

Polar, about 6 to 7 kilograms. So that's still a lot. You can do a lot with research. That could change the world. Or worlds. How big a role is education going to play in XCORUS future? Is this a priority? Absolutely, it is a strong priority.

We actually are working now with a couple school districts that are pulling together programs to fly experiments with us. I've mentioned many times, in this spot behind the pilot, these small tissue box size experiments they could do for $1,000 so the kids can go out, raise money with bake sales and what not. Kickstarter. Yeah, Kickstarter. And then go fly their own experiment. They learn entrepreneurship, science, and how to have a great time. One of your colleagues told me that your big boss, the CEO and chairman, that this is a big deal for

him. It's a big deal for Jeff. It's a big deal for all of us because we know what spurred us to do what we're doing. And it was somehow interacting with scientists or the moon program or whatever it was. And we want to pass that on. When you have a good strong science educated population, you become an innovative culture and that's really what drives our economy. Michelle, you're nodding your head. I know Zero-G, wasn't this a big part of the mission there for a long time? Absolutely. And in agreement with Andrew, inspiring the kids through an exciting opportunity like

going to space or doing experiments in space is tremendous. We worked for six years with the Northrop Grumman Foundation to train more than 1,500 middle school math and science teachers. And they would take those experiments that they did on the airplane back into the classroom. And through that program, we're able to reach over a million and a half middle school math and science. And they're still using the curriculum today that they started using in 2006. It's fantastic. This is like the tapes of the Science Guy show that are on every sixth grade science teacher's shelf around the country.

Let me just say it was Carl Sagan who said to me, to my face, as we say in junior high school, he said to my face, focus on pure science because technology is going to change. And so if you make videos about the physics of zero-g flight, it's going to be true presumably as long as people are flying in the Earth's atmosphere. So let's work together. What do you say, everybody? I like that. Michelle, you said you have some new initiative coming up atmosphere. So let's work together. What do you say everybody? I like that. Absolutely. Michelle, you said you have some new initiative coming up that kind of fits into the stuff we've been hearing from Andrew as well.

We do. It actually fits into education, research, space travel. We are working with other organizations to develop space training programs, specifically to teach people how to function in microgravity, hands-on activities with equipment, locomotion, what to expect, how to manage physically in that environment because it is very different than anything you've ever experienced. How can people learn more about zero-g and maybe especially about how they could get themselves on gForce One. One of the best ways to learn about our company and how it works is to go to our website, which is www.gozeroge.com.

Andrew, same question for you. Ours is www.xcor.com, and you'll find a lot of great information there, as well as you can also seek out a group called Citizens in Space. They actually have bought 10 flights, and I think they're taking applications on, if you want to do your own experiment, they might give you the flight for free, and then you can develop it. So check out that website as well. They just did a great Hacker Dojo workshop in Mountain View, California.

Hacker Dojo, I love that. Yeah, so it's called the Hacker Dojo up in Mountain View, California. Hacker Dojo, I love it. Yeah, so it's called the Hacker Dojo up in Mountain View. It's a really great space. I think we're ready with a question. Hi, introduce yourself, sir. Hi, Matt. This is Jim Plaxco, reporting for Ad Astra magazine. I have a question for you and Bill.

I was curious to know what impact the recent Russian event has had on Planetary Society activities. Well, fundamentally, you're talking about Chelyabinsk, Russia, on the 14th of February. I paraphrase when I say, roughly, told you so. The Planetary Society has been advocating research into asteroids for a number of years, and we've been giving this grant called the Shoemaker-Neo Grant, Near-Earth Object Grant, named after Gene Shoemaker, for 16 years. This is our 16th year. So we supply people who apply for a grant with money to do something

to advance the detection or understanding of near-Earth objects. So in the case of that 24-hour period, after Chelyabinsk, after the bolide or airburst or thing that exploded over Chelyabinsk hit later that same 24-hour period, an asteroid named romantically 2012 DA14 came between us and our communication satellites. We found that. We supplied some amateur astronomers in La Sagra, Spain with the money to buy a camera suited to photographing these objects moving that fast. This was not done by NASA, it was not done by ESA, it was not done by anybody except the Planetary Society. So we are frankly excited that people around the world are more aware of the threat of asteroids. It is the only preventable natural disaster. And along with that, I just remind everybody, I reminded people in the U.S. Congress, we were there last week. It's very unlikely that you would do business with a guy who handed you his business card and it said,

amateur brain surgeon. It's probably not a guy you'd sign up with, right? Or a gal. Amateur astronaut. Amateur space pilot. Yeah, but amateur astronomer is a different deal. The people that pursue astronomy for the love of it are very serious and very skilled and very diligent. And so this is the kind of people in La Sagra, Spain, who found this thing. So those are the kind of people, not exclusively, but the kind of people that we support through our Shoemaker-Neo grants. It's an exciting time in human history. We could deflect an asteroid, people.

We had another question right back here. Hi, sir. Introduce yourself. Hi. My name is Wes Foshell. I have an XCOR question. How long is it going to be until you can get a manned spacecraft into orbit? Okay, manned spacecraft.

We do have an orbital plan. It was Jeff Grayson spoke about it. We don't really have a timeline on that. Best estimates are probably 10 to 12 years. That's just because we want to focus on getting suborbital right first. Then we have, I'll call it a couple of X-plane demonstrators we need to work on first, a thermal protection system demonstrator. But after that, then we can really start prosecuting against the larger vehicle plan.

So can I ask you specifically, what's the difference in reentry speed? Is it like a factor of nine or something? Yeah, it's pretty significant. And, you know, the Lynx goes 1,000 meters a second at its top speed. In order to get into orbit, you need about 8,000 meters per second. And so it's about seven or eight times. And then you figure you're gonna pick up a little speed, so you're gonna be coming in at Mach 25,

which gets pretty hot. That's the real bit. But we want an orbital vehicle that can fly once a day. That's a completely different sort of system. Hi, sir, what's your name? Josh Gray from California Lutheran University. I have a more personal question. I found that people who are really passionate about their fields

often have a favorite author or a favorite book or movie that especially inspired them. What would be any of yours that pushed you into your current job or field or your hobby? Great question. Andrew, why don't you take that first? I always wanted to fly on the Pan Am Clipper. Oh, 2001.

2001, A Space Odyssey. I was a little young the first time I watched it to really understand what happened at the end, but I've since figured that out. You did? Can you explain it to the rest of us? Maybe. I think. I didn't understand it at six.

And then The Man with the Golden Gun. That was a great movie for me. I thought James Bond was pretty cool, and he had great gadgets. And he went to space once. But Pan Am Clipper, that was the thing that got me. Michelle? For me, it would have to be Jacques Cousteau. And although I am in space, the field of aerospace and aviation, it was his exploratory spirit and

his commitment to keep going and inspiring others and also keep discovering new things and creatures. Well, for me it was two things. It was my physics teacher, Mr. Lang, was very influential. But the original Star Trek, where these guys are just flying all over the galaxy, quadrants. For some reason, everybody spoke English. It was cool. And then they had the same problems that everybody in Shakespeare had. They had the same problems.

It was still humans. And so I guess fundamentally it was the optimism of that show, just the intense optimism about the future that really got me. And I suffer trepidation now as we look at climate change, 7 billion people living where there used to be one and a half. But if you're not optimistic, you're not, you probably won't get anything done. You certainly aren't going to go zero-G flying, and you're not going to go X-coring. I was going to say Star Trek, but you know what? You reminded me that I built the model of that Pan Am Clipper and had it on my shelf as a kid for a long time.

So 2001, thank you, Arthur C. Clarke, wherever you are. That was a beautiful ship. Yeah. Folks, we are out of time for this segment of the show. Please join me in thanking our special guests, Zero-G Corporation's Director of Research and Education, Michelle Peters, and XCOR Aerospace's Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Business Development, Andrew Nelson. and Vice President of Business Development, Andrew Nelson. Bill, thanks for being part of yet another Planetary Radio Live.

Oh, no, Matt. It is I who must thank you. And I want to thank everybody for listening. And am I allowed to plug the Planetary Society? Yeah, yeah. We'll only run this in the webcast version. Okay, well, just if you want to do something about space, if you want to participate in about space, if you want to participate in space exploration as a citizen, I encourage you to join the Planetary Society. We really are influencing space policy

at the world's largest space agency and to a lesser extent, the second and third largest space agencies. And we are involved in some cool niche projects, especially whatever it's going to take to detect asteroids. So thank you all. Thank you. Oh, sure. Yeah. Bruce Betts will be joining me for What's Up in one minute. This is Planetary Radio Live. Hey, hey, Bill Nye here, CEO of the Planetary Society, speaking to you from PlanetFest 2012, the celebration of the Mars Science Laboratory

rover Curiosity landing on the surface of Mars. This is taking us our next steps in following the water in the search for life, to understand those two deep questions. Where did we come from? And are we alone? This is the most exciting thing that people do. And together, we can advocate for planetary science and, dare I say it, change the worlds. Hi, this is Emily Lakdawalla of the Planetary Society. We've spent the last year creating an informative, exciting, and beautiful new website. Your place in space is now open for business. You'll find a whole new look with lots of images, great stories, my popular blog, and new blogs from my colleagues and expert guests. And as the world becomes more social, my popular blog, and new blogs from my colleagues and expert guests. And as the world becomes more social, we are too, giving you the opportunity

to join in through Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and much more. It's all at planetary.org. I hope you'll check it out. We're on stage at the Space Tech Expo in Long Beach, California, where it's time for What's Up. Tech Expo in Long Beach, California, where it's time for What's Up. Please welcome the Planetary Society's Director of Projects, Dr. Bruce Batts. Hey, welcome. Hey there. Hi there.

Ho there. Thanks for making the long trek. We were just talking about trek down from Pasadena. It was a trek. It was enjoyable. Not a start trek. Not really, but it was good to be here. All right. So you had at least 5, 10 minutes there to look up the mass of New Horizons.

I'm putting you on the spot. It's a little less than 500 kilograms. Oh, you get a shirt. But I do point out it's in a little bit more than a low Earth orbit. Yeah, that's true. What, arrives, is it 2015 that it gets to the destination? Yeah, summer 2015 it'll reach Pluto at left Earth at the highest velocity of any spacecraft ever. Okay, so is Pluto visible in the night sky?

Pluto is not visible to the naked eye in the night sky, that's for sure. Ever? Ever. What is? What's up, Bruce? Well, we got really cool stuff going on in the evening sky. About the time this is airing, we'll still have Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter low in the west. Shortly after sunset. Jupiter's dropping away below the horizon, so you need to catch it quick.

All of them are very low. You'll need a clear shot at the western horizon, but Mercury and Venus actually getting a little higher up. Venus being by far the brightest, followed by Jupiter and then Mercury. Check it out. And also Saturn up in the east earlier, anytime early in the evening, and then moving west over the course of the night. Moving on to this week in space history,

it is the 10th anniversary of the launch of the very successful Mars Express, European Space Agency spacecraft, still successfully taking data around Mars. Part of that human flotilla down on the surface and circling Mars. All sorts of spacecraft working up there. Okay, you ready?

One, two, three. Random Space Fact. Very nice, thank you. So, your Random Space Fact for this week. The Milky Way galaxy produces about two new stars, two to three new stars every year at this point in the lifetime of the Milky Way galaxy. That's out of 100 billion. 100 billion stars. 100 billion stars.

Two or three new ones every year. And what about younger galaxies? They're making a lot more stars. Younger galaxies making more stars. Star galaxies that get crazy and collide with each other. That stirs things up and creates a lot more star forming regions as well. All right. Two or three, two or three new. On average. Ballpark. Location, location, location. I don't even know why that phrase occurs to me.

I have no idea, Matt. We asked you, who is the only astronaut that ever flew consecutive missions, in this case, to space shuttle ISS. How'd we do, Matt? Real nice response for this one. I believe, and so did most of our listeners who entered the contest, it was astronaut Stephen Bowen? Yes, that is correct, Stephen Bowen. On STS-132 and 133, and I bet you know why he got that seat on the second flight. I do indeed. He tripped the guy who was supposed to fly. No.

Pretty close. Sorry. Close. One of the astronauts who was scheduled to fly on the next mission had a bicycle accident. Tim Kopra. Yeah, Tim Kopra was not able to fly, so they pulled Bowen back to fly the next mission, so he flew two in a row. Can you believe missing a flight into space because you hit a curb and went over the handlebars of your bike? Holy.

Our winner is Wayne Likely, a longtime listener. I think he won several years ago, but it's been a long time. Wayne Likely of Seattle, Washington, who indeed said it was Stephen Bowen, who is the only American astronaut to make those two consecutive flights into space. Let's go on to the next one for folks at home, and then we'll open it up to people here. So the next question for folks at home to be entered into our contest. In what year did more humans launch to space than any other year? Ooh, good one.

What year did more humans launch to space than any other year? Go to planetary.org slash radio contest. Find out how to enter. What are they competing for this time, Matt? It is going to be the fellow over there. His voice greeting people on your answering system. Oh, Bill Nye. Okay.

Yes, it's the science guy. And this has proven to be a very popular prize. So you guys, thank you for not yelling out the answer that I'm sure every one of you know here in our live audience. But you can look it up, enter the contest online, as Bruce said. You have until Monday, June 3rd at 2 p.m. Pacific time to get us this particular answer and get a chance for Bill's voice. Okay, now we go interactive again. So. All right, so some questions for the audience. Raise your hand, wait for a microphone to come over to you, and then give your attempted answer. Let's start with a, hopefully a pretty

straightforward one. What was the name of the rocket that launched humans to the moon? Oh man, come on, in this crowd, please. How about right there? The gentleman in the bowtie and it's not Bill Nye. Saturn V. That is correct, Saturn V. Cool, let's give him a hand. And he caught the t-shirt. Nice catch, very good. Alright, let's go for somebody else here. Alright, what is the main constituent of both the Mars and Venusian atmospheres, the main molecular constituents. Let's go over to this side. How about the gentleman in the back there?

CO2. Indeed, CO2, carbon dioxide. Yay. Oh, no, he bobbled it. That's all right. You get to keep the shirt. We move to present for spaceflight. How many people are in orbit right now?

How many people are on the International Space Station, to be more specific? Over on this side, in the back there. Hi, Sam. Three. That is correct. There are three. Three people. May 28th, there will be three more launching.

That's a long throw. Oh, overshot. Name all the planets in our solar system that have rings around them. All planets. This could be tricky. You want to stick on this side? Ma'am, way in the back there. Okay, Saturn, Uranus, and Jupiter.

That is not all of them. Not all of them. Somebody else has got it easy here. Should we pick up, how about right in the front here? What she said plus Neptune. That is correct. Oh, okay. You know what, though?

You were only one short. We're going to give you a shirt, too. We're going to remove a quarter of it. All right, everybody. Go out there, look up at the night sky, and think about kinkajous. Thank you, and good night. I just want to thank everybody for joining us once again here at the Space Tech Expo. It has been a pleasure, and we have enjoyed being part of the show very, very much.

We hope you'll tune in to Planetary Radio again next week, of course. And with that, we're done. I'm going to turn it over to our announcer. Good night, everybody. Planetary Radio is produced by the Planetary Society in Pasadena, California, and is made possible

by a grant from the Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation and by members of the Planetary Society. We thank Smarter Shows, producer of the Space Tech Expo, for its support. The Space Tech Expo will return to Long

Beach, California in April of 2014. Our recording engineer is David McKeever. I'm Claire Kaplan.