Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science - Trekkin’ Across the Universe With Andrew Fazekas

Episode Date: October 11, 2016

The Night Sky Guy, Andrew Fazekas, talks about his beautiful new, Star Trek-inspired guide to the real wonders of astronomy.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Star Trekkin' Across the Universe, 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. Andrew Fisakis joins us to talk about his new National Geographic book that uses Star Trek to introduce the wonders of astronomy. Wait till you see the images of Mars that senior editor Emily Lakdawalla has gotten from India's Mars Orbiter Mission. Bill Nye wants NASA to make a date with the red planet, and we'll learn why you shouldn't mess with Bruce Betts

in this week's edition of What's Up. Some gorgeous new images, Emily. Tell us about these pictures of Mars. Well, these aren't exactly new images. They are newly released images, though. It's the first formal release of science quality data from the Mars Orbiter Mission. That's the Indian Space Agency's Mars Orbiter Mission. And they've finally done a public release of science data from all their instruments. Of course, the one instrument I'm most interested in always is the camera. And I spent a while downloading the 517 photos that they released, and they really are quite

unusual and very pretty. And I know you spent days processing these, and boy, that work really shows off well here. What is so special about this camera? It's not high-rise. No, it's absolutely not high-rise. In fact, it's pretty much the opposite of high-rise. High-rise, of course, is the camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that takes pictures so detailed that you could use them for hiking maps. They use them to plan rover traverses. But each image only covers a tiny fraction of Mars. The Mars color camera, ISRO's Mars orbiter mission, is basically the opposite. It's a very wide angle camera. It's got a field of view that's designed so that when the orbiter is at its farthest reach from

Mars it is able to take in all of the planet in one view. It's also a color camera like the ones on Curiosity and so that means that it takes these basically magazine cover quality photos of the globe of Mars. It's not really going to lead to new science, but these are such valuable context images that allow you to point at a photo and say, this is the place I'm talking about. Now let's zoom in and go check out these other more detailed images. I'll tell you, Mars never looked better.

And you've even got some images here that they captured of the moons, one of Phobos passing over the planet. Yeah, there's a couple. There's one where you can actually see the shape of Phobos. And there's a couple more where you just see Phobos as a dot covering just the tiniest fraction of the full globe of Mars. It really gives you context for how small Phobos is compared to the planet. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be the one of one of those Tharsis volcanoes with the cloud streaming away from it. And this looks like a close-up, but of course, it's nothing like a high-rise close-up. It's just beautiful. That one is really pretty. And it actually is really hard to find images of entire volcanoes in modern Mars datasets. You typically have to go back to

Viking. Sometimes you can get them from Mars Express, a high resolution stereo camera. But this really is a valuable dataset for saying here is a volcano, here is a canyon, you know, here is a giant impact basin. Now let's zoom in and talk about the science that's going in in these places. So what is this sort of open letter that you've written to the Mars Orbiter team? Well, the global images that Mars Orbiter mission takes are, they're unique. They only took full globe views right at the beginning of the mission when the apoapsis of the orbit, the farthest reach, was able, they were able to view a fully lit Mars or a nearly fully lit Mars. Now they've changed the orbit so that they see fully lit Mars when they're closest to Mars and they're shooting all their pictures there. If they shot a picture

of Mars from Aspoapsis, they'd see it as a crescent, which I think they've decided not to do because of what scientific value is a crescent image of Mars. Has little scientific value, but so much emotional value. I'm begging them to shoot those photos. They'd be published in books for decades to come. Well, I hope they're listening. But regardless, nice work, Emily. And thanks very much for joining us again. Thank you, Matt.

She's our senior editor, the planetary evangelist for the Planetary Society, and a contributing editor to Sky and Telescope magazine. Now let's stop in and talk with Bill, Bill Nye. Several things to talk about today, including a little bit of a tease for the new Space Policy Edition, because you had a concern that comes right out of the discussion in that show about NASA planning. Well, there's a couple of news articles, and one of them just says NASA has no plans beyond the 2020 rover with respect to Mars, the Martian landing of the 2020 rover with respect to Mars, the Martian landing of the 2020 rover. And that's been the problem. And you could see why the people in Guadalajara were so excited to hear Elon Musk present

SpaceX's plan for going to Mars in 2025 or whatever it is. I don't know if you're of a certain age, Matt. or whatever it is. I don't know if you're of a certain age, Matt. George Thorogood in The Destroyers had a hit with Set a Day, where he was asking his girlfriend to pick a day for them to interact. Get hitched. Oh, yeah.

Okay. Let's go get hitched. And so without setting a day, there's no pressure to complete anything. And this is where it gets back to this thing. You know, they've done studies. Students are more productive when there's a deadline. Oh, yeah. When students don't have a deadline, their work isn't as good quality.

I always say deadlines are magic. They're your friend. And so if the next administrator of NASA, working with the next president of the United States, and with international partners, was able to negotiate with everybody to set a day to bring back samples from Mars or to land, pick a number, 10 tons on Mars, whatever, then things would be getting done, rather than having articles like the one that appeared this morning about NASA having amorphous plans. But I think these things are all connected. It's a solvable problem.

Absolutely. And this is at the core of that new space policy edition that we posted on Friday. I did with Casey Dreyer and Jason Callahan, the policy wonks of the Planetary Society. They are wonks, man. I love them. They are into the details. And really, you guys, everybody listening, the details are really the hard part. I've said this many times, but Washington, D.C. is a small town based on relationships. And you have to get to know people, you have to find out what's reasonable, what's possible, and then you have to encourage people to see it your way. And so we really want the world's largest space agency to set a day to land on Mars.

30 seconds left. What is this about dementia if you go to Mars? Oh, it's a study with rats. Yes, if rats are exposed to too much radiation, they show signs of dementia. That's wild. Now, I don't know how true it is, but it gets back, Matt, to big picture thinking when it comes to deep space travel. It would be great to have a way to protect astronauts entirely from radiation. Then this question wouldn't be as important.

And it would be great to have a spacecraft that spins a little bit so you'd have a little bit of gravity that would also just make the ride more comfortable. But it's an exciting time because people are asking these questions again for real. It's just one more thing. Are you telling me that being in space makes you forget things? It could be. Let's look into it. I hope that was a well-controlled experiment and that they make sure that these rats weren't, for instance, just following the U.S. presidential campaign. I get it. Thank you, Bill. All right, you engaged listeners.

Thanks for tuning in. At the Planetary Society, we really are working to change the world. Thank you all. And how. And he's leading us in that effort. He's the CEO of the Planetary Society, Bill Nye, the science guy. Let's talk about a cool new book that combines the real universe with the Star Trek universe. We're going to talk with Andrew Fasakis. Oh, to travel among the stars as easily as the Starship Enterprise.

Fortunately for we Earthlings, anyone can cross the galaxy from their own backyard. You don't need warp drive. You don't even need a telescope, though even an inexpensive one reveals far more. What you do need is a guide. Andrew Fasakis has volunteered. His book, Star Trek, the official guide to our universe, is subtitled The True Science Behind the Starship Voyages. It was published a few weeks ago. That's also when I talked to Andrew via Skype at his home in Montreal. Canadians will recognize him as the Night Sky Guy, heard on CBC Radio Canada. Andrew also

writes the Starstruck column at NationalGeographic.com. Andrew, welcome to Planetary Radio, and congratulations on the publication of this really beautiful book. Oh, thank you so much. It's great to be here. It is intriguing. Now, I have to admit, the audience knows that I am, if not a Trekkie, the next closest thing to it. I'm a big fan and have been since the original series, which I hear you're a fan of as well. Maybe we'll talk a little bit more Trek. This is, well, you called it in your introduction a bit of a mind meld. What did you mean by that? What did you mean by that? That's right, a Vulcan mind meld. I couldn't resist. My passion for stargazing the night sky really goes back to my childhood, young childhood. Some of my earliest memories are not only of gazing at the night sky with my dad.

We spent so many hours on our rooftop of our apartment building. We lived in downtown Montreal, Canada, and it's very light polluted, but we spent so much time looking through our telescope and then going out on camping trips and really seeing the night sky and it's all its glory. And then at the same time in my life, I had Star Trek there, front and center. And that was in the form of watching every week. It was a ritual in my household to get together with my dad on Sundays. And this was probably, I guess this was in the mid 70s. And I would be probably five, seven years old, something like that. And every Sunday, it was probably one of the first reruns of the original Star Trek series in Canada. I would just sit there with my dad and I would barrage him with tons of questions on what we're watching. You know, I was a very inquisitive little guy and I guess a real space geek in the making.

And so I just asked him about all these amazing things that we were seeing on every episode. How was the spaceship getting to their destination so fast? What about those planets? How could they be breathing the air and what was that star that they passed by? What was that about? And I think I wore my dad down and that's when he bought that telescope for us to really start having our own cosmic adventures. I got my first scope when I was 10 in a light and otherwise polluted Los Angeles and loved it as much as you. We have something else in common. Like me, you've got a couple of daughters. How did you introduce them to both the night sky and the wonders of Trek?

both The Night Sky and The Wonders of Trek. Well, they've been really great because, you know, obviously, you know, I've been waiting for my great evil plan as they get older to get them hooked on science. And it wasn't hard because my background is as a scientist, too. Having, you know, gone through university, my background is actually as a wildlife biologist. I worked on African antelope conservation in the Kalahari Desert. I spent much time in southern Africa in the desert under absolutely amazing skies, dark skies. So I have that science background and the love of all things science.

And I wanted to instill that in my kids. My wife is an entomologist by training as well. So we just love nature in all things science. And I wanted to instill that in my kids. My wife is an entomologist by training as well. So we just love nature and all its forms. And so we started at a very young age. And then Star Trek, of course, was also something that I love. But I had to wait, I think, a little bit until they got older. And with this, the book project really propelled everything into warp speed, I guess, because with my kids loving, at first they weren't sure. And they actually, I tried introducing them to the original series or the next generation. It didn't really take, they were at the time four or five years old.

But what's happened in the interim is with Star Trek being part of my life for the last two years so intensely and having to watch all those episodes, I had them get hooked on the animated series, believe it or not. Oh, yeah, sure. Many people don't talk about it, and it's forgotten by many, but it's really amazing. And my kids have, you know, that came out in 1973. Many of the original main actors in the original series actually did the voices. And there's surprisingly great science also there.

A lot of really good science fiction writers at the time. And some great aliens that don't look like humans with appliances. That's right, exactly. They could go much farther, farther obviously in the animated series fleshing out some really neat aliens and you know the uh the astronomical canvas that that all those adventures played out were really amazingly done too my kids just love that they just finished all of them and they've moved now they've moved on to the original series and they really really like it they're they're I see them discussing things.

They know it better than I do. Having gone to some Star Trek conventions now, I've been lucky enough to bring them with me and they are like in cloud nine. I mean, they love, they're eating it up. And of course, at the same time, I'm trying to instill them some of that science as well, getting them out to the telescope and seeing some of the things that, you know, I talk about in the book as well. Sounds like your fiendish plot is working. I can tell you my daughters are much older than yours, and it did pay off. They did? Oh, yes. They're big science fans and big Star Trek fans as well.

So hang in there. It really does pay off. Back to the book. It is pretty amazing visually. I mean, it is rich in the sort of graphics illustrations that I guess you'd kind of expect from National Geographic. But it really is why, in large part, it's a beautiful book, but it's also beautifully written.

Oh, thank you. And, you know, I mean, it was a labor of love really was for me, because it's something that, like I said, has been part of my life since I was a young kid. And then to actually be able to share this passion, you know, this excitement, that's what I was hoping to convey with the book is really get that excitement and get people to go out, get excited enough to go outside and look up at the night sky and make that connection with something between the fictional universe and the real universe. It says right on the cover, the official guide to our universe. What does that mean? Did you get approval by the United Federation of Planets? As close as I can. Well,

better than that, CBS. Much more powerful than the Federation. Exactly. Yeah, that was a really big deal. We knew right away that CBS, you know, that owns all the rights to the Star Trek characters and episodes and Paramount pictures with the movies. We had to get them involved in the book to do it the right way, to do it justice, because we had to fill it up with as much Trek stuff as we could, you know, Trek content, just squeeze everything out. And I was really lucky because when we got in touch with CBS,

through obviously National Geographic, CBS was really keen on getting involved. They said early on that this was a type of project that they've wanted to do for decades because Star Trek is so rich. With every incarnation of Star Trek and all those different series, there's always more and more added and more and more science. And it's a reoccurring foundation that's very solid in Star Trek. So there's lots to it to it's in fact, a fire hose of information. And they were really great. They opened up the vaults, the photo photo archives. In some cases, they had to, you know, things weren't available,

like they weren't digitally available for print, they had to actually go back to get screen grabs of specific things that I requested about 80% of what you see in the book in terms of visuals are images that I requested. I basically look, looking through getting specific timestamps for, for screenshots that never existed before it turned out. We don't want to ignore the many, many illustrations of the real universe. Oh, and definitely. And that's a big part of the picture too, because we have these beloved Star Trek episodes and scenes, and they're juxtaposed with the real Hubble images, different NASA missions, European missions that

are out there. We're so lucky we have such beautiful, exquisite, hyper-realistic visions, practically, of the universe available that we wanted to make sure that the reader really can see the differences and the similarities between Star Trek universe and the real universe. And then follow it up with maps of the night sky as well. Yeah, you've got star charts in the back for anybody who wants to keep those handy along with images of some of the things that people might observe in the night sky,

even naked eye observations. You're not the first, of course, to use Star Trek as a jumping off point to introduce real science to lay people. Have you read Lawrence Krauss's The Science of Star Trek, that bestseller from years ago? Of course, of course. And the physics of Star Trek that he wrote is a real foundation of

showing what the similarities are between a lot of the overall science and the technology as well that exists in Star Trek. But I think what may set my take here is that I'm really focusing on the astronomy, you know, as much as possible and the stargazing component. That has never been done before, the stargazing aspect. And what that is really where my passion lies. And, you know, it's the backbone to the book of being able to connect, not just overall science, not just talking about like phasers and warp speed and, you know, teleportation. And that's been done many times over, but really going into the astronomical canvas, that beautiful space cosmic canvas that adventures play out on and del delving into that, and then making that connection for the reader that, you know what, it's not just something in a book and pictures from Hubble, it's something that you can do by just stepping out your front doorstep and looking up.

Absolutely, and it shows you how long it's been since I've read Krauss's book that I called it, The Science of Star Trek. You know, in some email to you, I said, and I stand by, this would make a pretty good intro to astronomy textbook with only, you know, a couple of quizzes maybe added at the end of chapters, things like that. It's a good introduction. I mean, you don't have to be a Trek fan, but I suppose that helps. The appeal of this, I mean, the book's been out now only for a couple of months, but are also science geeks, getting their kids involved in science and maybe into Star Trek as well. And so that is a parent-child kind of activity that they can do together is using this book, sitting on the sofa, watching that episode, learning about

science, and then doing an activity together by going outside and doing some stargazing, which is a really great bonding type of activity, I think, for families to do. And then on top of that, we also have a different demographic having teachers out there who've come to me and says, this is something they're really considering in their courses. Like I've had college professors who are doing introduction to astronomy to non- science students, getting them excited or engaged about science, but using Star Trek as a hook. This book will allow that, I think, to really at least plant the seeds for that in their course. That's the night sky guy, Andrew Fasakis. We'll talk more about his new book that melds Star Trek and astronomy after a break.

This is Planetary Radio. Hello, I'm Robert Picardo, Planetary Society board member and now the host of the Society's Planetary Post video newsletter. There's a new edition every month. We've already gone behind the scenes at JPL, partied at Yuri's Night, and visited with CEO Bill Nye. We've also got the month's top headlines from around the solar system. You can sign up at planetary.org forward slash connect.

When you do, you'll be among the first to see each new show. I hope you'll join us. Hi, I'm Kate. And I'm Whitney. We've been building a youth education program here at the Planetary Society. We want to get space science in all classrooms to engage young people around the world in science learning. But Kate, are you a science teacher?

No. Are you? Nope. We're going to need help. We want to involve teachers and education experts from the beginning to make sure that what we produce is useful in your classroom. As a first step, we're building the STEAM team. That's science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. So teachers, to learn more about how you can help guide this effort,

check out planetary.org slash STEAM team. That's planetary.org slash STEAM team, and help us spread the word. Thanks. Bye. Bye. Welcome back to Planetary Radio. I'm Matt Kaplan. We're in the midst of talking with Andrew Fasakis about two of my favorite topics, Star Trek and astronomy. Andrew has mind-melded the two in his new book from National Geographic titled Star Trek, The Official Guide to Our Universe, The True Science Behind the Starship Voyages. There's no shortage of books that introduce the night sky, but this is the first that approaches the topic aboard the Starship Enterprise. Anybody who takes on writing about the universe has to come to grips with the fact that by the time the book appears, we're going to have new knowledge.

And that came home to me. I was going through the book, and I saw where you were talking about we've charted something like 300 million stars in the sky. where you were talking about we've charted something like 300 million stars in the sky. And you mentioned the Gaia mission, which, of course, just a couple of weeks ago, we talked about it last week on this show, had its big release of data and has just vastly multiplied the number of stars that we're getting to know in our own galaxy. I mean, you knew that was going to happen when you wrote the book, right? You know, that's right. In some respects, the book is old already because it deals with 50 years of Star Trek, right? I mean, it's—

To your point. The Trek aspect, the history of Trek is going to be there, and that won't change. But, yes, the astronomical side of things, it's such a fast-paced world we live in now with all the missions out there and the discoveries on a week to be this is yes like the gaia thing amazing for what i i read that it was like 400 million stars in that 1.1 billion survey has never even been seen by human eyes before so that is an an impressive number, that right away. And then, of course, things like the planets, exoplanets, the numbers, and what's the newest one, like the very exciting Proxima b discovered just a few weeks ago. I wish that could have been put in there. Well, you could put that in Planet 9 in the second edition of the book.

Exactly. That's what I'm thinking. What are your favorite sky features? Oh, in terms of the real night sky, I love obviously the planets and particularly like Saturn never, never fails, right? As a science educator, an astronomy educator, I call it the wow planet because that's the first reaction I get from people. And I do the same thing. It's just like, wow, is this really in front of me in the eyepiece? I can't believe it, what I'm seeing. And then in terms of deep sky targets, like things that are beyond the solar system, star clusters, particularly globular star clusters are just absolutely, if people are not familiar with what they are, you can think of it as sort of if you had a tablecloth, a black velvet tablecloth,

and you're looking down on it, and then you spill a pile of sugar on top, and you look at that pile of sugar, crystalline sugar, that's what it kind of looks like looking into the eyepiece. It's like literally hundreds of thousands of stars in a ball shape that stretches maybe a hundred light years across, and it's tens of thousands of light years away. It's a city of stars that you're actually looking at in the eyepiece. And through a backyard telescope under dark skies, it is one of the most amazing things in nature that you can behold. I couldn't agree more. In fact, one of the most gorgeous illustrations in the book is a two-page spread of a particular cluster, Omega Centauri. Yeah. I mean, the globular star clusters are one of those staples of backyard sky watchers. You

have a backyard telescope, even a more modest telescope. The way I divided the book is based on traditional astronomical types of objects. And we went into the globular clusters and looking at that, I knew right away, I mean, you've got such amazing capabilities from like the Hubble Space Telescope and its cousins. We can actually go right into the center of the cluster and you can see that in the

Omega globular clusters it's a staple for those in the southern hemisphere in the Centaurus constellation and it's considered one of the best deep-sky targets for an amateur to look at you in that image you're actually seeing it at the heart of the cluster, which to a backyard astronomer, it just looks like they're packed, right? The stars are touching each other, it looks like, which of course they're not. You can see in that spread that it looks like Christmas light bulbs spread out all across the sky.

It is absolutely, as I said, gorgeous. And I'm glad that you're into the planetary stuff, too. You know, we just had our most frequent guest, Linda Spilker, the principal scientist for the Cassini mission on the show. The book is not out of date yet. You've got some beautiful images from the Rosetta mission of that comet. Yeah, I mean, definitely comets were an important part in Star Trek, too. I mean, there was a great, great scenes of comets, particularly in the Enterprise series. And that's where I've connected the fictional universe with the real universe, where in this particular episode, they're actually landing on a comet and building a snowman, of all things.

It's really fantastical stuff. of all things. It's really fantastical stuff. And that's where you go off on a tangent a little bit maybe into the sci-fi around truly more than reality. But comets now are such at the forefront in space exploration, right? I mean, we're seeing these amazing images brought back by the Rosetta mission and the Philae lander, of course. That is a monumental, I think, milestone in our planet, in our solar system exploration. I had to showcase to people that people think of comets as with their beautiful, romantic tails spread out across the sky. But in fact, this is what they look like worlds unto their own

when we have a ringside seat to them. You've got some biology in here as well, exobiology, which of course is still a field without any subjects to study. But you do address this burgeoning field, and maybe that'll be in the second edition too. Who knows? We may not be far from finding life elsewhere. I had to include alien life in our universe because simply because it takes such a large part in the Star Trek universe. I mean, it's the basis of all the adventures and action that goes on and the aliens that we meet. And of course, in reality, we're the only example of life that we know it is actually on our own planet. The search is as hot as ever. And I think

this really engages people too. And the connection between Star Trek and reality, our search is pointing us to the fact that life can find a niche in very extreme habitats, much more extreme conditions than we ever thought possible, which is expanding the possibility that we will find life. And I personally, from all the research that I've done as a journalist, tells me that it's more than just possible. I think it's probable that we'll find some form of life, maybe microbial life and that's all, but who knows? Science is showing us that life may be much more common than we ever thought before. I sure hope you're right about that. Speaking of hot life,

you got a nice contribution up front from James Tiberius Kirk himself. Ah, yes. The cosmic swashbuckler. Yes. I think of him as like an Errol Flynn type of character. I had to have him in there. I had to, Matt, because I wanted him to set the scene. He's been such an iconic figure for all the fans, millions of fans. And he's gone on to do so many other things. And, you know, he still likes science. He's very involved in science.

He does science documentaries. He's written science fiction himself. So, you know, I wanted him to be involved and set the sand. Sure enough, I mean, I was lucky to get, and I told my editors at National Geographic, do whatever it takes to get this man. Just tell him that I'm a fellow Montrealer. I tell him, I said, we went to the same university. Anything, just try. Sure enough, it worked. And he's been so nice. I was lucky enough to chat with him, meet him personally finally a couple of weeks ago at Mission New York at the big Star Trek convention in New York City. And I spent a few moments with him and thanked him personally

and met my family as well. And what a kick. It sort of puts a period at the end of my Star Trek adventure having that moment with him. Oh, the Star Trek adventure never ends. Come on, Andrew. Let me finish with some obligatory Trekkie questions. Since we brought up James T., Kirk versus Picard. Oh my gosh. That's a, you know what? I like both. It depends on what mood I'm in. Apples and oranges. Yeah, it is apples and oranges. Picard is a much more down-to-earth, philosophical, almost Shakespearean type of individual. And then you have Kirk, who's a real, like I said, a swashbuckler.

He loves the adventure. He's a woman's man. He's bigger than life to me. So Kirk always is number one in my books. Okay. Favorite series? I really like the original series for the campiness that it has. And again, the wonderful storylines that abound through it. I really like Voyager too. Voyager speaks to that. The fact that they're exploring the Delta Quadrant where no humans have explored. We haven't reached there yet and they're stuck there and they're exploring the Delta Quadrant where, you know, no humans have explored.

We haven't reached there yet, and they're stuck there, and they're making their way back. Love that whole concept. And you got some good mileage out of talking about how the galaxy has been divided up into these quadrants. It was a good intro for you talking about the structure of R and other galaxies. Yeah, and you know what? It kind of makes sense. A lot of the stuff that they do in Star Trek in terms of the astronomical kind of categorizations make sense. Obviously, they've gone more

because it takes place 200, 300 years in the future. So they'll have much more advanced reconnaissance of the Milky Way galaxy. But a lot of the basic structure is there and it wasn't hard to go back and forth between the two universes. of the Milky Way galaxy. But a lot of the basic structure is there, and it wasn't hard to go back and forth between the two universes. Favorite episode? Let me see now.

My favorite episode, you know, Trouble with Tribbles I like. That one is just purely for the comedic value. I love what they did with that. But in terms of the storyline, I like All Our Yesteryears. I like that one in the original series where Spock and Kirk go down to a planet and Spock has a romantic encounter, which is very unusual. You've got a nice still photo of that in the book of Spock falling in love with this woman in an irretrievable past. Yes, I love that. And they have, of course, the world is in danger where they are

because its home star will go supernova. So that whole thing. And if you look at the remastered version of it, the graphics are amazing of how they remaster with modern computer technology. And the other episode that I have to mention that's probably one of my all-time favorites is The City on the Edge of Forever with guest star Joan Collins as Edith Keeler. And it has that time and space travel element,

which I love for any science fiction adventure. And they throw in a great, a tragic romantic storyline. And in that episode, by the way, Kirk, you know, he's walking with a romantic walk with Joan Collins, Edith Keeler. And he points up to the sky and points out the Orion constellation and the belt of Orion.

And I thought, wow, that's really cool. And I remember that as a child. That's funny enough, doing the project, I kind of remember that it was a seed obviously planted in my head Harlan Ellison, the great science fiction writer. But, of course, then he sort of removed his name because he didn't like what they did with it. Too bad, because it was a terrific bit of not necessarily the best science to be found in Star Trek, but certainly a terrific story. It's that connection between the drama and exploring the universe that maybe has made Star Trek such fertile ground for folks like you in using it to bring us to real science. Yeah, exactly. You know, like you mentioned, Matt, in that particular episode, maybe the science wasn't so great.

But I don't know why, but there was that connection that it made with me, that idea of where Kirk looked up and actually pointed out a star in the belt of Orion. I don't know. I was looking up that there are people there. There's a planet around one of those stars and captured my imagination. And that's what Star Trek did for an entire generation is capture that imagination and became a seed for inventors, astronauts, scientists around the world making a difference in the world, a positive difference. Andrew, I think a lot more people will get an opportunity to have that experience, partly through your new book, which again, I highly recommend. It is a beautiful book, Star Trek, The Official Guide to Our Universe from National Geographic. Thank you for taking a few minutes to talk with us about, oh, the Trek universe and the real one, which holds just as much, if not much more, wonder.

Thank you so much, Matt, for the opportunity, and live long and prosper. And LLAP to you as well. Andrew Vesekas is the starstruck columnist on NationalGeographic.com. He's also a regular contributor to CBC Radio Canada. He writes and watches the skies in Montreal. But I hear you're going to be out our way in the Los Angeles area pretty soon. What's going on? Yes, we have. I'm actually very excited to be part of the new Mars television series that National Geographic is putting together. I'm hosting a companion traveling lecture series called Mankind to Mars that National Geographic is putting together. I'm hosting a companion traveling lecture series called Mankind to Mars

that National Geographic is putting together. And I'll be acting as a host and having a discussion with NASA scientists who are a part of real life Mars missions. And we'll be talking about all the exciting possibilities of humans exploring Mars firsthand. So that'll be really exciting. It'll be a traveling show throughout the United States. We are looking forward to that premiere, and we'll be covering it here on Planetary Radio and elsewhere at planetary.org as well. And when you come to town, I hope you can make it out our way to Planetary Society headquarters in Pasadena. I hear that you were a member early on, and you were even up for a job at our place. That's right. Going way back in the early 90s. I was actually a member from

early 1980s and loved looking at all those images, this artwork and the pictures of the planets and stuff. And then in the early 90s, I was just out of school and looking for a job. And Louis Friedman actually interviewed me for an education coordinator position. I didn't get it at the time. I was a real green kid at the time, but he was so nice. He gave me a lot of tips and advice to becoming an educator, focusing on space. and I just got a big kick out of actually being considered. And so it was a lot of fun. I am going to make sure that Lou hears about that. He listens to the show, so he'll probably discover it anyway. And Andrew, well, I'm sorry we didn't get to be colleagues at the Society. You seem to have done okay for yourself.

Thank you. It's just keeping that passion going for the wonders of the universe. That's it. You bet. That's it. You bet. That's what we're all about. Thanks again, Andrew. Thank you. Another guy who shares his passion for the universe with us on a weekly basis, that's Bruce Betts.

He's coming up in this week's What's Up on Planetary Radio. Did I say planetary or just planetary? Anyway, Planetary Radio with Bruce Betts, the Director of Science and Technology for the Planetary Society. Welcome back. Today we're talking about philodendrons. Wait, this is plant radio or planetary radio? Yeah, we're going to record plant radio in a few minutes with our pseudonyms. Oh, that would be awesome.

I would know almost nothing. Botany rules. What's up in the night sky? Forget about those plants. Planetary science rules. Plant science drools. All right, in the sky, we'll start in the pre-dawn sky. We've got Jupiter is now in the morning sky and getting higher and higher, low in the east. If you've got a really clear view to the east and you look before dawn during this week, the week of the 10th,

you may see it near Mercury. Mercury will continue to drop lower and the much brighter Jupiter will get higher. Evening sky, Venus getting higher shortly after sunset as the weeks go along. Super bright low in the west. Those are your best shots. We move on to this week in space history. It was 1968 that Apollo 7 launched. It was the first Apollo mission to carry humans into space. Just an orbital mission, right? Earth orbit. Yes, yes. That reminds me of something, something TV-ish, but I can't place it. If I think of it before we're done, I'll tell you. So Saturn's moons and their naming, 24 of Saturn's moons are regular, orbiting in a normal kind of way, and traditionally named after Titans

or other figures associated with the mythological Saturn. The remaining 38 are all small, irregular, and classified by orbital characteristics into Inuit, Norse, and Gaelic groups in terms of their naming. Thanks. We move on to the trivia contest. We asked you, what is the surface gravity on Jupiter's moon Europa given in Gs, where 1G is the surface gravity at Earth's surface? How'd we do, Matt? given in Gs, where 1G is the surface gravity at Earth's surface. How'd we do, Matt? Outstanding number of entries, almost all of them correct.

Wish we could reward all of you, but I think it's only going to be Tom Van Scotter, a longtime listener, but first-time winner, as far as I could tell, in Shorewood, Illinois. He said that the gravity on Europa is about 0.134 G. That is correct. 13% of Earth's surface gravity. Congrats, Tom. He also said that the high jump record, it's about two and a half meters on Earth, would be over 18 meters on Europa,

assuming, of course, a low-mass spacesuit is available. Tom, you're going to get that Planetary Radio t-shirt. We just got a new batch in. So we've been for the first time. Women's sizes. We've never done that before because we couldn't. And now apparently we can. I don't know why. Planetary Society

Rubber Asteroid, or should I say Rubber Asteroid, both the men's and women's. And it's unisex. And a 200-point itelescope.net astronomy account, international nonprofit network of telescopes operated from our friends down under. That's what Tom's getting. We heard from Jordan Tickton, Westlake, California.

He said that 0.134 G on Europa, it's a little over one third of Mars' surface gravity, which itself is a little over one third of Earth's. Norman Kassoon gave us a bunch of examples of gravity on different bodies. The one I liked the most was the one on Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Rosetta's Comet,.000017G. I don't know. Escape velocity, what, a good jog? I'm pretty sure I could throw you off. Mel Powell said that if Alan Shepard had hit his famous golf shot on Europa, it would have gone about 23% farther, barring, says Mel, an obstacle on Europa,

such as, dare I say it, a water hazard. Ah, kind of an icy hazard. Richard Tolson in Hastings, Nebraska, revealed something I didn't know about you. He says if the weight on Bruce's UFC fighter stats is still correct at 185 pounds, he would weigh about 25 pounds, which would give new meaning to the lightest weight class of Adam weight. How have I missed your matches? This is a history I don't usually discuss in this forum. I try to keep two separate personalities. Dave Fairchild will close it out this time. He sent us another little poem. Europa's gravity is weak, 0.134 of Earth.

It used to be much stronger until Britain pulled its birth. Oh, wait, wrong Europa. A little Brexit humor there. All right, we're done with that stuff. All right, next question. What moon in the solar system has the longest orbital period around its parent planet? So obviously referring to moons we've actually discovered. What moon in the solar system has the longest orbital period around its parent planet? Go to planetary.org

slash radio contest. You have this time until the 18th of October. That'd be Tuesday the 18th You have this time until the 18th of October. That would be Tuesday the 18th at 8 a.m. Pacific time. To get us the answer, still a rubber asteroid, Planetary Society rubber asteroid, a 200-point itelescope.net account, but we have a copy of Star Trek, the official guide to our universe, the true science behind the starship voyages. In other words, the book from National Geographic that we were just talking with Andrew Fasakis about, with a foreword by the Shat himself, William Shatner. It's a beautiful book, and we're going to include that in the prize package this time around.

So get those entries in, and we're done. All right, everybody, go out there, look up the night sky, and think about Planetary Radio in the Octagon. One night only. Thank you, and good night. That's our heavyweight. He's Bruce Betts, the Director of Science and Technology for the Planetary Society, who joins us here in the Octagon every week for What's Up. Did you just call me fat? Planetary Radio is produced by the Planetary Society in Pasadena, California, and is made possible by its federated members. Josh Doyle composed our theme, which was arranged and performed by Peter Schlosser. I'm Matt Kaplan. Clear skies.