Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science - Yuri’s Night 2018!

Episode Date: April 18, 2018

Host Mat Kaplan once again attends the worldwide party for space.  Join him at the Los Angeles celebration under Space Shuttle Endeavour.  You’ll hear conversations with astronauts Nicole Stott and Anousheh Ansari, Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides, Planetary Society CEO Bill Nye the Science Guy and others.  Then test your space history and trivia knowledge with Planetary Society Chief Scientist Bruce Betts.  Learn more about this week’s topics and see images here: http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/planetary-radio/show/2018/0418-2018-yuris-night.htmlLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Heroes of Yuri's Night, 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. The Los Angeles celebration of Yuri's Night came a bit early this year, but it was no less spectacular or exciting than ever. early this year, but it was no less spectacular or exciting than ever. Join me for conversations with International Space Station astronaut Aquanaut and artist Nicole Stott, Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides, citizen astronaut Anushan Sare, our own Bill Nye the Science Guy, and others who partied for the final frontier under Space Shuttle Endeavour. Later, we'll celebrate the night sky and another space trivia contest with planetary chief scientist Bruce Betts.

This year brought the 18th worldwide celebration of the first human being's flight into space. That was Yuri Gagarin, of course, who achieved orbit and returned safely on April 12, 1961. Yuri's night was created by a group of people, including yours truly, who believe that our destiny is among the stars. We wanted to share our passion and joy with the whole planet. This year, once again, saw hundreds of related events covering nearly every continent. While much of the attention goes to the big parties, we've also started to see gatherings designed for kids,

like the one that happened on April 7th at the terrific Columbia Memorial Space Center in Downey, California. That's where I met Hannah McCallum, a young propulsion engineer at Virgin Orbit, the rocket company that was spun off from Virgin Galactic not long ago. You're coordinating all of this, right? Yeah, I am. So this is Yuri's Night Kids. It's a event themed around Yuri's Night, which is to celebrate the first man who went to space, Yuri Gagarin. And the goal of this event is to really show the next generation that STEM, science, engineering, technology, and mathematics is fun and exciting. And so we do that by having them do a whole bunch of interactive activities led by people from companies like Virgin Orbit and Virgin Galactic

and other aerospace companies throughout the LA region. How long have you been involved with Yuri's Night? I've been involved in Yuri's Night. This is my third year. Three years ago, Loretta asked me to put together a kids event. And the first year was a little bit small. And then the past year, it grew bigger, and then this year, it is what it is today. We think about 1,200 people have showed up so far. And that's Loretta Whitesides, of course, one of the founders of Yuri's Night. Yes, that is Loretta Whitesides, one of the founders of Yuri's Night. So this is really special to me. I mean, I love the big party.

I'll be there with you, apparently, under Endeavor tonight. But it's not for this crowd. This is pretty special. And they told me that they think they might have, like, double the attendance this year that they had for Yuri's Kids last year. Yeah, I believe that's actually accurate. Last year, we had about 1,000 people. Last I checked, at least we had 1,200, but that was at noon.

So we might have had all 2,000. We were counting with wristbands, so I think we gave away all 2,000 wristbands today. When I found you, you were out at a baseball diamond firing off rockets. So that's one of the best things about this place is that they have a baseball field at which we can launch smaller A-class engine rockets, so very small, solid rockets, but it's always the wow factor. It's the fire, it's the whoosh, it's watching the parachutes deploy. That gets kids really, really, really excited about rocketry. In fact, that's how I got excited about aerospace back

when I was a kid. Model rocketry. Very much model rocketry. I did it with my dad. We took wrapping paper tubes and Easter eggs and built our own rockets and then attached engines to them and lit them off in our front yard area, which was a cul-de-sac with a nine-volt battery. Amazing. You didn't make your own engines, I hope. You still have all your fingers. Yeah, I do have all my fingers. My dad was the one who handled the engines while we were a little bit younger. But yeah, now I actually get to play with big rockets. Hannah, I look forward to seeing you under Endeavor this evening. Looking forward to seeing you as well.

with big rockets. Hannah, I look forward to seeing you under Endeavor this evening. Looking forward to seeing you as well. Hannah McCallum of Virgin Orbit and Yuri's Night. It's not far from the Columbia Memorial Space Center

to the California Science Center, final home of space shuttle Endeavor, where Yuri's Night LA has found its home the past few years. The party was just getting started when I sat down with Planetary Society CEO

Bill Nye the Science Guy. Bill, the party is underway. Oh, yes. It's Yuri's night, and the feeling's right. You already, you did a sound check, and people thought the program was starting. Well, this is a detail, Matt, but they wanted one of the people performing in the show to do the sound check saying, One, two, check, hey. One, two.

Without any apparent so-called situational awareness, as we say in the military, that if you put the recognizable guy on the stage, people will draw conclusions. It's just, who am I to judge? I'm just a guy. All right, lead on. Not your first Yuri's Night. It's just, who am I to judge? I'm just a guy. All right, lead on. Not your first Yuri's Night. It doesn't have to be. So there's Captain Kirk.

There's a lot of, it's kind of Comic-Con really focused on space. And, you know, I'm so old, Matt. How old are you? I'm so old. I remember when Yuri Gagarin flew around the world. I was four years old. And it was a big deal. And my understanding is the guy was a test pilot,

write stuff kind of guy, and they were concerned the retro rockets were not gonna function all the way up to function that you might hope for. So he jumped out of the capsule and parachuted to Earth from 10,000 feet. That's amazing. Yeah, it is. Way to go, Yuri.

We should have a night for you. He's worth celebrating, that's for sure. This has been going on now for years and years. This is a celebration of space exploration. Two questions we all ask, where did we come from? Are we alone in the universe? If you want to answer those questions, you've got to explore space. Are we alone in the universe? If you want to answer those questions, you've got to explore space.

And what charms all of us, or drives all of us, is the idea that we could go work and, to the extent possible, live comfortably in space. We're here at the California Science Center in the shadows of the Endeavour Space Shuttle, and every mark, every imperfection tells a story. It really gives you pause for thought what an enormous vehicle it is, how it flew on orbit for years, landed successfully. It's really an amazing thing, and we shipped it all the way up here. And I'm so old, Matt. How old are you?

We shipped it all the way up here. And I'm so old, Matt. How old are you? I'm so old. I was working at Boeing when the 747 transport aircraft was getting upgraded, some hydraulics. I was standing on the dry lake bed when that 747 flew over when the first capture test with Enterprise, the shuttle that never made it into space. I say wow to you, my friend, wow. It was fun. But as an engineer, the space shuttle never made it into space. I say wow to you, my friend, wow. It was fun. But as an engineer, the space shuttle was a kludge.

I don't mean to be critical. I am being critical. It ended up costing a billion and a half a flight. That's just too much money to get that job done. So now we have the Space Launch System in development, and SpaceX, of course, is going wild. And nobody's really sure what Blue Origin's up to, but it's going to be cool. Yuri's Night is a celebration, really, of the beginning of human spaceflight, 1960. It's really remarkable.

I shudder a little bit every time I've walked in this room and I look up at that spacecraft. Well, it's freaky. I know what you mean. It gives you pause. This is a product of a lot of political compromise and a lot of remarkable engineering. And the biggest job that these, to my way of thinking, this spacecraft and the International Space Station does is really statecraft. It brings people from different countries and different space agencies together,

working together in Earth orbit. It's really a worthy thing. Somebody said space brings out the best in us. Yes, who would say something like that? No, it does. You solve problems that have never been solved before. And the things that engineers and managers learn flying space shuttle is influencing everything we do now in space.

So it was a stepping stone. It was an intermediate step. But what we all want to do is send people farther and deeper into space, beyond the moon and then onto Mars. And for those of us, you out there, who want to land on the moon and have humans walk around on the moon okay but keep in mind the goal is to go farther and deeper people have been to the moon it's a desolate place the the geology that was done there that is to say the rocks that were brought back helped us understand the age of the earth and the origin of the Moon, and that's great.

But we want to go look for life, man. We want to see if there's something alive on another world. And the two places to look are Mars and Europa. And there's an argument for Enceladus on Saturn, but a very strong argument. But Europa is the one that I want us to focus on next. Everybody, if we were to discover evidence of life on another world, it would change the course of history. And here on Yuri's Night is the beginning of human spaceflight,

the beginning of this journey to go looking for life on another world. It's a remarkable time. You're very good at this. Could I get you to come back on the radio show now and then? Yeah. No, Matt, thank you. I'm not letting you get an insightful, brilliant journalist questions. But I hope you all come to the California Science Center at some point.

Look at the endeavor. It's really beautifully displayed. And you can get right up next to it. It doesn't matter the weather. It's in a beautiful hangar, and I hope it gives you a pause. You know, as we like to say, it's about the size of a 737 airplane, but it's built for speed, extraordinary speeds. I was there for, it was a launch of STS-85, I think, during the Science Guy show, that was delayed. The launch was delayed because of the weather in Spain, which is where one of the emergency runways was, is, in the event that you'd have to land early. You know how long it took to get to Spain?

Seven minutes. Do you know how long it took to get to Spain? Seven minutes. It's just very much out of your everyday experience, the speed of rocket ships. So I was all ready to wrap up, but you kept going, so now I've got one more question. Yes, good. George Whitesides of Virgin Galactic is going to be— I spoke with him a few minutes ago. He congratulated him.

He's going to be in that seat in a few minutes. Good. Do you want to take a ride? Oh, yeah, but let's see seven flights at least. I'd go on the second one. We make jokes, but, yeah. There are some days, I know your wife, there are some days she'd be very happy for you to go. But what I'm saying is, you guys, it's still an extraordinarily dangerous thing because of the extraordinary speeds that are involved.

Speed injures, is that the old saying? Speed. It's like that. So it's really their part of this new space movement where SpaceX has this extraordinary idea to reuse boosters. SpaceX has this extraordinary idea to reuse boosters, and Virgin Galactic wants to take people into space and experience weightlessness for a few minutes and see the Earth from above. Every astronaut who's ever flown, cosmonaut, tichonaut, says the same thing. When you see the Earth from above the atmosphere, it changes you.

It changes the way you feel about the Earth. So the more people that can get up there, the better. It's fun to talk to you for more than three minutes, but they need you on stage. Oh, we've got to work. You've got to go do what you do. The Planetary Society has prepared a little slideshow. That's me. I've prepared a little slideshow, and I'm going to talk about our accomplishments at the Planetary Society

and try to get everybody here to join so that we can go farther and deeper into space and, dare I say it, Matt, change the world. Go share the passion, beauty, and joy, sir. Thank you. Not long after talking with Bill Nye, Nicole Stott joined me in my little corner of the vast room housing space shuttle Endeavor. Nicole spent just over 100 days circling our planet, mostly on the International Space Station. While part of the ISS Expedition 21 team, she participated in the first live tweet-up from space. She did extravehicular activity, and she was the last ISS astronaut to return from space on a shuttle. She'd go into orbit one more time on SGS-133.

Are you like the designated Yuri's Night astronaut? Because I know you're here in L.A., and then in a few days, you're going to be at that premier event at KSC, the Space Coast. I know, I know. I hadn't thought about myself that way, but maybe you're right. I don't know. And I've been trying to get out here for the last four years, so I'm really excited. Maybe I'm making up for it. It sounds like you're going to catch up up you've had some of your colleagues here Ms. Cristoforetti I think I pronounced it correctly Samantha yeah lovely person

who we had a couple of years ago you have this unique background well it's not unique actually because I know that there are Apollo astronauts who have also become artists and have praised your work. It is that intersection of art and space and, more broadly, science that we love to talk about on this show when we can, and here's an opportunity to do that. Could you talk about what inspired you? And that's going to lead back into Yuri's Night. Yeah, you know know I think I've always been my mom always said the artsy craftsy one you know kind of that's always been part of

my life but I've always loved flying and how things fly and if you want to know how things fly why wouldn't you want to know how rocket ships fly and then so those two things have been going on in my life forever. I had the opportunity to paint when I was in space, which was watercolor. We could have a little conversation about that. You were the first, right? For watercolors. As it turns out, I think that Richard Garriott brought up some paints and did an interesting little demonstration with stuff. I don't think he painted with brushes, but he did. He had paint in space. So we'll give him that. I just, you know, somebody told me, oh, Nicole, you're the first to paint in space.'m like how can that be you know but stranger things but yeah first watercolor we'll go there and it was awesome because and I wish that maybe they need to send

me back for this because we didn't videotape the the painting in space I have one picture that my my crewmate Bob Thirst took the painting in in space with watercolors, you could use that as a demonstration of just what it's like, what the physics of living in space is all about, from the way the water floats out and the surface tension of the brush sucking the water into it. I mean, it was really beautiful and it was a lot less complicated than I thought it was going to be. Everybody takes pictures when they're up there. You've already started to touch on how this was distinctive, how this brought something else. Obviously, your own mind, your own experience of it was part of what you were expressing. Of course, up there, you can't paint in front of the window. There's no plein air thing at five miles a second.

You know, what you want to paint is gone before you can get the brush to the paper. So I had printed out a picture of something I really thought was beautiful and painted that. But I think there's something to, you know, beyond taking a picture of something where it's your own interpretation, you're, you know, it's kind of your own thing when you paint it, when you draw it, that comes out a little bit differently. And the inspiration is certainly, you know, what I saw with my eyes, what I was able to take the picture of. But I feel like I'm, I don't know, I'm investing a little bit more of myself in it when I paint it. And I've got endless images for inspiration. Probably will last me the rest of my life, quite honestly.

And you are part of what has become a long tradition of astronaut artists. Do you feel that connection? I absolutely do. The first that we know of was Alexei with his colored pencils, drawing that orbital sunrise, Alexei Leonov. And of course, you have Alan Bean, who retired to become an astronaut or retired from being an astronaut to become an artist. And he's been a wonderful mentor to me. I think I'm only the second person to retire and become, you know, take on art as kind of a full

time thing. But I've just discovered more and more and over my time working with NASA that I think it's more of a norm to have people that you normally think of as just science-y, tech-y, astronauts, engineers, scientists, that they, for the most part, there is something creative and artistic going on there too. And I think that's more of the norm than not. And I even curated an exhibit about a year and a half ago where I brought a bunch of my friends at JSC together and all of their artwork and showcased it at Space Center Houston. And I had them give me like a little two sentence blurb on how science and art have intersected in their lives.

And it was so well received. I mean, we had everything from stained glass to paintings to wood sculptures and musical instruments that had flown in space, Karen Nyberg's dinosaur that she sewed while she was on the space station. You know, I mean, those kinds of things that are just, I think it's more a blend of art and science and people than we tend to think about. I couldn't agree more. And this is, as I said, this is a point we like to bring out whenever we can on the show.

We don't get the opportunity often enough that there is something at this intersection of science and art that if it's a venn diagram they overlap quite a bit absolutely i'm looking at your tie i know we can't see it on the radio here or on the podcast but i mean i'm looking at the tie and i'm thinking you know even for scientists i think the visual and even the the the beautiful visual just clicks with our brains a lot more than the ones and zeros do i mean there's a lot of ones and zeros coming back from hubble but is that what these people are really i mean they're putting it out in a way that yeah it makes beautiful art to hang over your sofa if you want to, to appreciate the universe. But I think that it scientifically from a, you know, how we understand what we're seeing

and all those ones and zeros, it's orders of magnitude easier and perhaps better, I think, to look at it from the visual standpoint than just ones and zeros. Before we leave this topic of art and space, I've got to ask you about one piece, one big mixed media piece, coastline. You know the one I'm talking about. It's just gorgeous. That is, I think you're talking about the wave. Yes.

So that was my inspiration for the watercolor that I did in space too. And I've done several pieces based on it. It is a tiny little chain of islands on the northern coast of Venezuela. Literally, to me, it looked like somebody had already painted a wave on the ocean. It's about 50 miles east of Bonaire. So Aruba, Curacao, Bonaire. About 50 miles east.

But sadly, it's part of Venezuela. So to get there, you've got to go through Caracas, I'm sorry, to get there. And I'm not ready to do that with my 15 year old son yet. So we'll get there eventually. We go diving in Bonaire about once a year. And so you can almost see it. Got to get there at some point. Yeah. Speaking of diving, you are also one of the NEEMO aquanauts. Yes. Yeah. Tell us about that.

And you may please, a sentence or two about what NEEMO is. Okay. For people who don't remember our previous coverage of it. Okay. So NEEMO, which, you know, NASA always wants to come up with some acronym to, you know, to call things. So NEEMO stands for NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations. Well done. Yes, and it's amazing that I remember that.

But basically, we go underwater and live for an extended period of time in a habitat called Aquarius. It's about the size of a school bus. Sits at 60 feet underwater. It is the closest analog to living and working in space. We have a full mission there, scientific operations that go on. We communicate with our topside team just the way we would from space with mission control. We've got experiments going on inside the habitat. We're going out a couple times every day in our scuba gear or our hard hat dive gear and walking around the surface

of the ocean. EVA. Yeah and we treat it like a spacewalk. We with the comm protocols the safety checks we go through before we exit the wet porch and it is absolutely absolutely the best like overall preparation for what it's going to be like to live and work in space. In space, okay. But do you think it might also be valuable for those men and women who may someday live and work on the surface of Mars? Oh, absolutely. Or when we go back to the moon. I think there's total, the parallel is so beautiful.

And I mean, a lot of what we were doing when we would go out on these EVAs from the habitat was developing new surface exploration techniques, communication protocols, how you'll work with tools, building structures, all those kinds of things that we'll do when we get back to the moon and go on to Mars. Great analog for space, living in space, but it ain't living in space, which you've done.

It is not. It's not living in space. I will tell you that. But, you know, we call it inner space. You know, you go to the space station, and when we go back, that's the outer space thing. But there's definitely, I think there's a human value aspect to going and living in inner space as well. value aspect to going and living in inner space as well. This relationship you develop with the planet by seeing it in a whole new way from under the ocean to how we appreciate Earth when we see it from space as well. What would you call it? The under view effect? I don't know. Talk about

the overview effect, which I'm sure had a lot to do with your artistic inspiration. It absolutely does. And, you know, because to me, the, you know, I was going to be painting no matter what. So why not have the subject be this beautiful part of this beautiful experience I had in space and to share that experience, both from the making people aware that are not, which, I mean, it's like having a fork in my eye when I think about people that don't know that we have a space station, don't know that for the past 20 years there has been continuous human presence in space. So we need to make people aware of that. Art is a way to communicate with audiences that might not otherwise think of that and communicate in a way that says, hey, everything we're doing up there is about improving life down here on Earth.

And then getting to the overview effect thing, I think the art also allows me to share the experience from an earthling and earth appreciation standpoint. I think if you come back from space without having, admitting that there's this life-changing effect that happens on you, then you're not human. There's something wrong with you if there is not like an overwhelming impact on your life as a result of it. And it might even be subtle. And I'll speak about it tonight. I mean, my main theme tonight is, and it sounds really simple and it might fit with your theme too, is that we live on a planet and we are all earthlings. I mean, that underlies everything else, the decisions we make, how we treat each other, you know, the interconnectivity of everything that's on one side of the planet to the other side of the planet, the interdependence

that goes along with that. And the fact that we need to, we need to acknowledge that we live on a planet and we're all earthlings. Nice to know that you're able to express this so well with words, just as you do with a paintbrush. That's a lot of what this is about. Yeah. Now, we have people who come here every year to Yuri's Night who may not be fully aware. They may be in that group that aren't fully aware that there is a space station, has been up there for 20 years. Why is this important to you, to do events like this? I mean, I feel obligated, first of all, and I feel,

I don't know, maybe the word, I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to do what I did. You know, I still pinch myself every day. How in the, you know, why in the heck did they pick me, you know? So I'm thankful for that, that opportunity I had. I think there's something about it. I mean, I'm sitting here, I'm rambling like a maniac about it. You know, you can, you almost like, I can't stop talking about it because I think we need to share it and we need to share it in a way that's not like, oh, I got to go to space and wasn't it beautiful? It's, you know, I went to space. Here's what we're doing to improve life on Earth because of it. When we go back to the moon, when we go on to Mars, we're going to these other places. But ultimately, it's about improving life here on Earth and our place in the universe.

Our place in space. Understanding that. Our place in space. That's what our boss says, yeah. And I think that whether somebody knows we have a space station or not, well, I think it's important for us to let them know that, but making them aware, having them accept the responsibility perhaps to acknowledge who and where we are is really, really important.

And events like this do it. The more people that come to something like Yuri's Night, where they're, you know, perhaps just thinking, hey, I'm celebrating this event that happened 57 years ago. If they get kind of the broader sense of what that's all about, I know, I think it's really important. Absolutely. Yeah. I got just one more thing to ask you about, because George Whitesides of Virgin Galactic will be sitting at that microphone before too long. You have a 100 days patch. I do. He's going to be taking people up for just over 100 seconds in Spaceship Two.

Are you excited about lots more people, people like me, I should be so lucky, getting to have a little tiny taste of what you've had. I am absolutely excited about it. And one of the things I'll say tonight is I don't care if it's five minutes, if it's one orbit, if it's 100 orbits, it gets in you. I mean, you see it, you feel it, and it just becomes part of you. And the more people we can have experience that, yeah, the better. part of you. And the more people we can have experience that, yeah, the better.

I always also have to compliment every astronaut I see who is wearing his or her Mach 25 patch. Super fast. Yeah. Thank you. This has been delightful, Nicole. I really appreciate it. Have a great time at the party today. Thanks. You too. We'll be dancing. Astronaut-turned-professional artist Nicole Stott at Yuri's Night LA on the evening of April 7, 2018. Our coverage from Yuri's Night 2018 continues. George Whitesides has been my guest many times.

He helped start the annual Celebration of Space back in 2001 on the 40th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's pioneering flight. 2001 on the 40th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's pioneering flight. Since then, George has led the National Space Society, served as NASA's Chief of Staff, and has been Chief Executive Officer of Virgin Galactic for several years. As you've probably heard, the company's Spaceship Two, VSS Unity, returned to powered flight for the first time in more than three years. That flight was just two days before George sat down with me under Space Shuttle Endeavour. I don't really have a right to say this, but I was so proud to see that beautiful bird doing what it's supposed to do once again. Congratulations, George.

Thanks a lot. It was a great day. All I have seen are other people throughout this busy hall also congratulating you because I guess in a sense we do share in this, even those of us who haven't put down a deposit. Yeah, I mean I think the vision of Virgin Galactic is to open space up to all of us, right? It was great to get back to powered flight and we're looking forward to flying again as soon as we get through data review and make sure we understand how we're moving forward. This is not the best environment to get a report on that flight,

but I take it things went pretty much exactly as you would have hoped. Yeah, I mean, we were trying to do a 30-second burn. It seemed to go well. We'll have to go through data review to make sure that we understand everything. The rocket motor looked good, all the various components of the vehicle seemed to perform, so it's just great to be back in powered flight. Extremely exciting. I sure look forward to catching, whether I have to go to New Mexico to watch a flight and talk to some of those

excited people who are waiting for their turn. Yeah, I mean, I think it'll be an exciting year this year as we work our way through test flight and powered test flight. Certainly, I think our customers are excited that we're back in powered flight. You know, it's just great to be watching on the flight line and, you know, to see the vehicle drop from the carrier aircraft and light the rocket and just keep flying, going up. It was really awesome. It's really a different company now, but can you say something also about that other division of Virgin now that is going to start taking small payloads up into

orbit? Sure, yeah. So Virgin Orbit is doing great. We recently spun it out. It's a fantastic group of people. They're based down in Long Beach, California. Yeah, I mean, I think you'll see a flight by them later this year. It's going to be really spectacular. I think it's going to be the most responsive launch vehicle in the world. So in other words, the time between making an order and being able to fly will be the fastest in the world. And that's, I think, going to be a big advantage to some of these small companies that are trying to get up their constellations and also to the U.S. government. Back to Spaceship Two, are you still looking forward to your ride?

Yeah. You know, as you know, Matt, I'm a customer as well as an employee. And, yeah, I can't wait. We only got up to order of magnitude 85 90,000 feet with this flight but you're still above about 90 99 percent of the atmosphere at that point and you know you get black sky and all that and it's it's exciting to imagine what it'll be you know it even higher all right before you go just a word about what's going on here tonight and what has become this wonderful tradition for space.

Yeah, well, Yuri's Night is an awesome event that celebrates the first anniversary of the, I'm sorry, the anniversary of the first human to go into space, but also the anniversary of the first space shuttle flight. And intrinsically, it's an international celebration of human spaceflight. What it's become is a celebration of art and music and space and culture and all those things and how they connect into our future. And it's just a wonderful event, and it's great. You know, Matt, you were around at the very beginning,

and it's hard to believe that, like, whatever it is, 17, 18 years later, we're still doing it. And that's awesome. Something else I'm very proud of, actually. Go have fun. And, George, thank you for doing this. Ad Astra. Ad Astra, Matt. Thanks.

Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides. We've got a link to my tour of the Mojave Desert plant where Spaceship Two was built on this week's show page at planetary.org slash radio. Mike Simmons has been another regular guest. He founded and leads Astronomers Without Borders. Mike Simmons, very happy to run into you here at Yuri's Night LA. I don't know how you got away. You're just beginning a very, very busy month. Oh, it's very busy. Global Astronomy Month all through April,

and I've got a lot of travel and this is in between. I'm delighted to have a chance to be here. It was great to run into you, Matt. Global Astronomy Month will already have been well underway by the time people hear my conversation with you. Although I will have given you a plug. This is such a wonderful celebration of not just astronomy, but science all over the world. It's science all over the world, and we appreciate all the plugs. We want people to know about it.

It is the world's largest annual celebration of astronomy around the world. But it isn't just astronomy in the usual sense. We do have the Global Star Party. We do have other observing programs, challenges, things to learn. But in addition, we have astronomy and the arts. We have campaigns where people can help others in countries that are more, you know, have trouble getting telescopes and things like that. We have a lot of online programs. The theme this year is the moon, and we have already had something that was a great show on the art of Chesley Bonestell, one of the early people who really shaped what space looks

like to all of us, especially those of us of a certain age who grew up with that. And we're going to have more about the moon and the science of the moon and other moons with some really top scientists and then the future of lunar exploration and we've got a bunch of other stuff going on. It really is like a party for a month. And you mentioned Bonestell. Every space artist I have ever talked to, they look to him as basically their god. There's even a clip that we played from this new movie about Chesley Bonestell that's gonna be coming out.

That's what it was all based on, and it's really fantastic. One clip we played had Douglas Trumbull and some others talking about his, Bonestell's influence on 2001, why it looked the way it did, and it's unmistakable. And you know, it's unmistakable and you know it's interesting because I've heard that Elon Musk when he's he's now designing

spacesuits for people that will be going up on his craft and he's interested in the design it's not just utilitarian but he wants him to look like they're supposed to look like and it's people that have gone before that have shaped what we think rockets and spacesuits are supposed to look like. And it's people that have gone before that have shaped what we think rockets and spacesuits are supposed to look like. We were talking with Nicole Stott, she was sitting in the chair you're in right now, about this intersection of art and science. Seems like that's where you're going. In fact, Nicole has been one of our Astro Artists of the Month, where she talked about, in four blog posts, her work and what inspires her. She, of course, does a tremendous amount more than that, but she has been a part

of our programs and will continue to be. She's a fantastic proponent of art and science working together. I've talked with her, and she feels the the same way that if you're doing astronomy, whether it's art or whether it's science or engineering, we're just looking at that science in different ways. It's really different parts of the same thing. Like there's one core, but we're looking in through different directions, different filters. You've got stuff going on all month, right? Right to the end of April with Global Astronomy Month. So we do have stuff going on all month, right? Right to the end of April with Global

Astronomy Month. So we do have stuff going on all month. And some of it, even though this will air later in the month, you'll be able to pick up later. The Facebook Live online programs that we do. Many of the other things, too. People are already starting to report from around the world on the events that they have held. And then in the last part of the month, we do have the Global Star Party is later on. We have that future of space exploration. We have contests that are going on all month too. Astro Poetry, which turns out to be a really big thing,

which I never would have predicted when I started this. Astro Art Contest for children. And we have participants from everywhere around the world. Still traveling the world, Mike? Well, I do get around a little. In fact, I just got back from Japan about a week ago, and in a couple of days, I'm going to Brazil for an annual meeting they have down there. This year is a busy one. Some years are, some years aren't. Keep it up. You're doing wonderful work with Astronomers Without Borders. I am honored to talk to you once again. Wonderful to run into you here and have the chance to do this with you, Matt. Thanks a lot. Mike Simmons. My conversation with citizen astronaut Anushan Sari will close our special coverage of Yuri's Night LA,

but first, a quick visit with the emergency medical hologram that materialized right in front of me at the Party for Space. Well, who should we meet at Yuri's Night LA 2018 other than Bob Picardo? Thank you, Matt. I am a regular visitor to Yuri's Night here in Los Angeles at the California Science Center. It's a great party. You said you're the only Trek cast member here tonight. Yes, last year I think we had four Star Trek members. It's down to me. I am the, what's the word, the hardcore. You have to represent the entire franchise. The entire franchise, that's true.

Make it so. Make it so. While we're talking about representing that franchise, there's another one, the Planetary Society. You're having quite a great run with the Planetary Post. Thank you very much. I am honored by that since you are the host of Planetary Radio. For those of you who don't know, and I can't imagine that you listen to Planetary Radio and you don't know, but I host a monthly video newsletter called The Planetary Post

about what's cool that's happening in space that month. I hope you'll check it out. You can subscribe for free and it will be delivered into your email box the moment it's uploaded. And it is enormously entertaining as well as informative. Well, thank you very much. This month we have guest appearances by Seth McFarlane. I was guest starring again on The Orville, and Seth was our substitute host for the month, or kind of a joke, but he was the temporary substitute host until he was aced out by our science director, Dr. Bruce Betts. And also we have a guest appearance by the seventh Doctor Who

I'm not going to quiz you I'm not going to ask if you know who the seventh Doctor Who is I'm a trekker I would not know

well that's alright when you say that to me it's okay but anyway this is the one of the great parties in Los Angeles

and I encourage all of your listeners if you're not here tonight for Yuri's Night 2018 then put it on your calendar to come next year.

It's a celebration of the first human in space. Or one of the other Yuri's Night parties that are taking place all around the globe from now through what is actually Yuri's Night, which is April 12th, the anniversary. It's a great celebration of the triumph of the human spirit and discovery and also not only looking back but looking forward to our future in space. I got just one more for you. Back to the Planetary Post. Your operatic tribute to Cassini. It really has to be heard.

Well, thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that very much. If you punch in your search box, Piccardo Cassini, two Italian words, you will hear my operatic tribute to the tremendous success of the 20-year Cassini mission. It's a little silly, but it's heartfelt, and I do all my own singing. And it includes a heaping helping of linguine as well. Yes. Well, when you're rhyming Cassini, you've got limited choices. So linguine is definitely on the menu. Thank you, Bob.

Glad to be your colleague. Thank you. It's always a pleasure, Matt. Thank you very much. And go to a Yuri's Night Party some year, somewhere on the planet. You will have the time of your life. You won't be sorry actor host and planetary society board member robert picardo anusha ansari was born in iran

she arrived in the united states as a teenager in 1984 she would become an engineer an entrepreneur the founder of several companies and the first ir or Persian in space. That happened when she lifted off on Soyuz TMA-9 in 2006. By that time, she, members of her family, and Peter Diamandis had also created the Ansari X-Prize, the competition that led directly to the triumphant flights of Spaceship One, the older sister of Spaceship Two. This is such an overdue conversation and it is not the ideal place to have a conversation with you, but I didn't want to miss the opportunity to talk to a true space pioneer. Thank you for joining us. Thank you so

much for having me. This is a big part of your life, isn't it? Sharing your experience of space? Absolutely. There are only about 550 people who have experienced space and there are 7 billion people on this planet. And I think this world will be completely a different world if maybe even one-fifth of it had this experience. So we use this type of events, speaking to schools, students, different audiences to just share a glimpse of what we've seen from space.

You mentioned 550 people. It's a tiny fraction of that though, who had your status, who said, I wanna go. And you have the ability to arrange that. Are you looking forward to, it could now be happening very soon with the success now of Spaceship Two just a few days ago, pretty soon you may have company. Absolutely. This was my dream since I was six years old and the first thing I was able to do to help the movement of this new space societies creation was sponsoring the X Prize so

when I met Peter and became part of that my hope was that through the innovation we're sparking will build an industry and now I'm sitting here since 14 years later and I see that the whole new industry has been born from it and there are all these new companies building technologies, building hardware you know sending payloads to space so it's very exciting to see I think in the past you know decade or so the advancements we've made is equal or not, if not greater than what has happened the past 50 years. So it's exciting to see that. It's exciting to see the enthusiasm of the young people again about space. And I want to thank you for the Ansari XPRIZE because I strongly suspect Spaceship Two would not be flying today if it had not been for that kickstart that you and people like Peter DeMandis were able to give it.

Absolutely. I think it was, you know, a lot of people had to come together. We inspired the innovators. Of course, Bert Rutan came up with this amazing design. And it was the vision of Richard Branson who brought it to life and made it into an actual business and company. And his perseverance over these past several years to actually take it from what it was sort of a proof-of-concept flight to an actual business. So my kudos to him.

I'll tell you, it was one of the best days of my life when I was standing at the edge of the tarmac covering it for our show and that prize was won. Yes, it was such a special moment for me and everyone who was involved with it. We never knew that if it's going to be won or not. That was the last year that the prize could be won. And, you know, we were so excited because at that moment when the prize was won, we all realized that the whole space industry will be different from this day forward. We will not be only going to space with the government space agencies.

And there is a new door that has just opened up. So we were extremely excited. And then I saw my future of going to space when that moment happened. So you realized your childhood dream. Do you want to go back? I want to go live in space. If I can go and live on, you know, on Moon, on Mars, on Space Station, travel outside of our solar system, I would go.

I'm completely dedicated and devoted to living in space. Well, if anybody's capable of pulling that off, I suspect it's you. So best of luck with that. Thank you. Thank you for spending a couple of minutes with us here at Yuri's Night. My pleasure. It's fun to be here and share the passion of so many people that are excited about space. Anusha Ansari, citizen astronaut and co-creator of the Ansari X Prize.

That completes our special coverage of Yuri's Night 2018 at the California Science Center in Los Angeles, California. I hope to return for next year's celebration of space and the human spirit. Time for What's Up on Planetary Radio. As always, joined now by the chief scientist of the Planetary Society, that is Dr. Bruce Betts. Welcome. Thank you. How are you, Matt? I'm doing really well. It was such a great time. I had such fun at Yuri's Night. I just am amazed that we get to have these wonderful people that we have just heard from on the show, none of whom you've heard

yet because I haven't published it. It's like a secret. You'll have to trust me. They're really good. I'm sure they are. So what's really good up in the night sky? Oh, what's really good is Venus low in the west shortly after sunset. It's gotten a little higher. It is spectacular. And then Jupiter coming up in the early evening over in the east,

also very, very bright, and it's coming up on the early evening over in the east, also very, very bright. And it's coming up on opposition in a few weeks, the opposite side of the Earth from the sun. Then rising around midnight, 1 a.m. in the east, and then high up in the south before dawn are Mars and Saturn. Mars now brightening, and so it's a little brighter than Saturn and looking reddish. So that was not Mars I saw last night. That was some other red imposter. There are those red imposters, red stars. Damn them.

We move on to this week in space history. It was 1971 that the first space station was launched, Salyut 1. The Soviet Salyut 1. I forgot that it beat out Skylab. It did indeed. We move on to a random space fact. Sort of a crooner. Random. I know, we'll save that for later. New segment. Constellation Coincidences. The star Alpharots is both the top of the mythological woman Andromeda's

head and the rear end of the flying horse Pegasus. This has led to both the expression, get your head out of your Alpharots, and the expression, Andromeda is a horse's ass. You know, I used to have friends who would frequently say to me that my head is like a butt. I guess they had Andromeda in mind. Oh, that is the saddest story I've ever heard on this show. Yeah, there's even a response to it, which is that your nose is soft and pliant like a baby's bottom. But that's a story I'll explain another time. Okay. Wow. All these years for this revelation.

It was college radio hijinks. It's really not worth going into. Were there shenanigans? There were indeed. Let's just move on to the trivia contest. I ask you, what is currently the second farthest spacecraft from Earth where function is not a requirement? How do we do, Matt? You only fooled a few people with that. And you didn't really fool them at all. You made it very clear that you, as you just said, they don't have to be functioning.

Therefore, Paul McEwen of Cleveland, Ohio, who, if he's got this right, is a first-time winner, though a longtime listener, he says Pioneer 10, which we stopped hearing from in 2003. It has second place in what he calls the Get Out of Here Interstellar Derby, correct? That is correct. He adds V'ger Voyager 1 still maintains the lead, but Stephen Hawking's breakthrough Starshot probes would promptly overtake and leave everything else in the dust if they are ever launched. Something we've talked about on this show, those little tiny laser-driven sails. Paul, congratulations.

You have won that great book by a planetary scientist, Bethany Elman of Caltech, Ease Superstellar Solar System. And that's from the National Geographic Kids Press. Also, a 200-point itelescope.net account. By the way, Paul listens to us on Cleveland's alternative FM radio, 89.3 WCSB. Well, that's cool. Mel Powell has a bone to pick with you, at least in the way the question was phrased, which was what is currently the second part of the spacecraft from Earth? He says, we have no idea what distant civilizations have launched spacecraft. How can we answer this question as phrased? If, say, the Vulcans have ever launched even just one weather satellite, that's farther from Earth than first place Voyager 1, isn't it? Your response, sir? Well, that's a point. That's

definitely a point. Speaking of Star Trek, Mark Wilson in San Diego, my hometown. He said that actually Pioneer 10 will be destroyed by a Klingon bird of prey in the year 2287. True. Look it up. True. True. It's our fake news department. Anna Grunseth, Green Bay, Wisconsin. She says in our special section we have, you know, you get to send us a note if you enter the contest.

There's a section that says special greeting or message. She says no special greeting needed. Pioneer 10's plaque already took care of that. Dave Fairchild, our poet laureate, submitted some verse, actually two verses this time. Voyager 1 is the farthest we know. It's out in the heliopause. With Pioneer 10 sitting seconds away, they both deserve lots of applause. But back on the rail and coming up fast, a dark horse is flying through space. Hold on to your hats because April next year gives

Voyager 2 second place. Exactamundo. That's Latin. No, that's correct that's what part of what i thought was interesting about this is it's currently the second farthest as pioneer 10 but not not too long until voyager 2 uh takes over as the second farthest and then andrew care in bethesda maryland says wait another 200 years and it'll be new horizons. Hmm. That's interesting. We better check that out. We'll get on that.

We're ready for next time. Continuing on in Andromeda land, because we found out she's got a fascinating story. In Greek mythology, who were Andromeda's mother and father? Hint, all three have constellations named after them. Go to planetary.org slash radio contest. And you have until Wednesday, April 25th at 8 a.m. Pacific time to get us this answer. And what is waiting for you if you win? Well, of course, a 200-point itelescope.net account that you can use or donate to some other worthy organization or school to do astronomy all over the world from that nonprofit network of telescopes.

And I know we said we were going to start giving away Planetary Radio t-shirts again. That's okay. We can do that. But we also have another Planetary Society rubber asteroid because Anna, our winner of the asteroid last week, she's already got one. And so she said she knows they're in short supply and in high demand. Well, we'll see. So you can win a Planetary Society rubber, excuse me, rubber asteroid as well as that itelescope.net account. How very generous.

It is, aren't we? Aren't we ever? And we're done, too. All right, everybody, go out there, look up at the night sky, and think about those little erasers you put on the top of pencils once you've worn out the eraser, if anyone actually uses pencils anymore. Thank you, and good night. I love those. I love all pencil

erasers, actually. One of my favorite possessions was a pink pearl as a kid. This doesn't tie to the butt story, does it? Yeah, this is probably why they said my head was like a butt. Please finish the show. That's Bruce Betts. He's the chief scientist

for the Planetary Society who joins us every week, no matter how reluctantly, for What's Up. Planetary Radio is produced by the Planetary Society in Pasadena, California and is made possible by its space partying members. Mary Liz Bender

is our associate producer. Josh Doyle composed our theme, which was arranged and performed by Peter Schlosser. I'm Matt Kaplan at Astra.