Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science - Yuri’s Night: Join the party!

Episode Date: April 20, 2022

Host Mat Kaplan joined the Los Angeles celebration of humanity becoming a spacefaring species. He talked with the Yuri’s Night founders and others under the Space Shuttle Endeavour.  The much-anticipated Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey was issued as we finished this week’s show. Planetary Society senior space policy adviser Casey Dreier will give us a brief overview of its recommendations. We’ll close with Bruce Betts and your chance to win a r-r-r-rubber asteroid in the space trivia contest. Discover more at https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2022-yuris-nightSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Celebrating humanity in space on Yuri's Night, this week on Planetary Radio. My name is Christy Fair. I am the event coordinator. I am actually the power behind the throne. It has been my honor, my honor and privilege to work with some of the most inspirational people I've ever met in my life. I had this opportunity back in 2012 to start as a volunteer, and I was so inspired by Loretta Whitesides and George founding this idea that it moved my heart. Nothing could express my heart and how much love I have for the world and humanity like this global interstellar opportunity.

I don't know if people know, but Mars Curiosity sang happy birthday to us at a Yuri's Night. We are an interstellar organization. Not everybody can say that, and I'm really proud to be part of it. I'm Matt Kaplan of the Planetary Society, with more of the human adventure across our solar system and beyond. Yuri's Night is back. It never left, of course, but the celebration was virtual the last two years. That's why it was such a joy to be once again under Space Shuttle Endeavor at the California Science Center, with over 1,300 people dancing, laughing, exploring, and enjoying. And this was just one of the many parties around the world.

Join me for conversations with a few of the great guests who turned out, including Yuri's Night founders, George and Loretta Whitesides, and Star Trek Voyager stars, Robert Picardo and Tim Russ. 584 of our human colleagues have flown in space. That number is growing fast now, with many more people journeying above the von Karman line, that fairly arbitrary threshold of space that starts 100 kilometers or 62 miles above our heads. I expect there will be thousands within a few years, someday millions. We need to remember those who went first, from Yuri Gagarin through the

Apollo astronauts like Dave Scott. The April 15 edition of the Downlink features a beautiful image of Scott exiting the Apollo 9 command module as it floats over our cloud-covered planet. You can see it at planetary.org slash downlink, where you can also read about the weird weather observed on Neptune. No one knows why it has been experiencing wild swings in temperature. I guess we'll have to go there, as my recent guests Brenda Clyde and Kirby Runyon told us. Also in the downlink is that biggest ever comet, now seen to be entering our solar system. You know, that one that's coming straight at us, according to some news sources? Well, it's not, unless you count a billion miles as a near miss.

What's not in the downlink is the just-released and long-awaited Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey from the National Academies here in the United States. Here to give us a top-level review is the Planetary Society's Senior Space Policy Advisor and Chief Advocate, Casey Dreyer. Casey, I bet you have already read much more of this brand new report than I have. What I have read is wonderful. It's a terrific document, all, what, 780 pages of it, I think. I can recommend it to other lay people, which is what I count myself as. It's a terrific read.

Yeah, it is. It's for a long document, a report from the National Academies of Sciences. It's certainly one of the more engaging ones, particularly if you love this stuff like we do. It summarizes the state of the field. I think that's an important aspect of this report. It's not just making recommendations for missions. It's telling you what the big questions are

that face the entire scientific community. It tells you what they've learned in the last 10 years. It gives you a summary of what we understand about all of these major bodies in the solar system. It is just a real wonderful testament to the ability of humans to understand the natural world around us and then also make decisions

about how we approach the unknown. I wish every day was decadal survey day after reading through this. It's also very clear that they put enormous thought into the recommendations that they make. And it's not just a list of, here are the missions we'd like to see. There's much more to it than that. But with our very limited time, I'm sure what people want to hear about are some of those missions.

Let's start at the top with the flagship recommendations. The most explicit recommendation they make, the top priority fora's robotic program in this decade is to complete mars sample return yeah that is the top thing that nasa must do in in as practically what does it say in as efficient manner as possible as soon as practicable and so this has already begun we're in the midst of it it's the biggest science robotic program what we have right now its budget next year will be larger than all of nasa's heliophysics division they want to move it through after that for new flagships the top recommendation it's actually the number three recommendation from the previous decadal survey right so we've done the first two sample return in europa clipper number three now number one

a uranus orbiter and probe so get used to those jokes for the next 30 years, because that's where we're going. And then we have an orbiter lander mission to Enceladus would be the second flagship if it fits within the budget process of the next 10 years. So Uranus, an ice giant mission, dedicated ice giant mission for the first time is the top new flagship recommendation. Something we are all so excited about. Also great recommendations regarding the new frontiers and discovery mission classes. Not only are they recommending the Enceladus Orbalander, but another mission was it, I think a new frontiers mission, a flyby mission of Enceladus. And it says something about how important they think

it is that we visit this moon. Yeah. New Frontiers, these are the mid-class. They recommend a bump up to about $1.6 billion per project. And they have a predefined list of destinations that scientists can propose ideas to, right? So you can't just send anywhere. You have to use this pre-approved list. Enceladus is on that list. Io is on that list. We also have the South Pole Achean Basin at the moon and another Venus mission. So there's a number of potential opportunities that all designate or represent, I should say, high priority science destinations. And again, these destinations are the things that fall out of the major questions that they defined about understanding our origins, understanding how our solar system came to be, and then also the potential for life out there in our own cosmic backyard. And these types of missions all interface in some way,

in a multivariate way, with all of those questions. It's absolutely a crime that we won't be able to address much more in this brief little tease of a conversation. But one other thing we have to mention is the tremendous emphasis they put on planetary defense and getting that NEO Surveyor mission underway, right? Absolutely. This is the first time that the Decadal Survey for Planetary Science has considered planetary defense within its purview. NASA directed them to do so when it asked for this report two years ago. And it came out very strongly saying that Neo Surveyor, our space-based infrared telescope that we are fighting so hard for, should be the priority for planetary defense going forward in this decade, that we need to wrap this mission up as soon as possible and really

start looking for these near-Earth objects that could potentially be hazardous to Earth. It's a no-brainer in many ways, but unfortunately, this is the one mission NASA really singled out next year for a $100 million cut. That's two-thirds of its budget. So now we have the decadal survey also weighing in saying this is valuable. So this will really help us push back on that proposed cut next year and to keep that mission going forward. So much more that we could say, and we will. So stay tuned to Planetary Radio and Planetary Radio, the Space Policy Edition. Amazingly, Casey, in a record turnaround, you actually have an article up already at planetary.org that gives a good deal more detail.

So congratulations on that. Thank you. It's what I did instead of sleeping last night, and it was absolutely worth it. But again, I'm still reading through this. This is a long report. We'll have more coverage of this in the next few weeks, including a deeper dive into this. But I already have some great budget numbers comparing the proposed program going forward to past times of decadal periods in planetary science. A lot of really good stuff in the article, really recommend it. Been tweeting about it a lot recently and some really good discussions already among planetary scientists about what this means for the field going forward. So this is a big deal.

You can hear the energy in my voice. This is a big deal. We will be talking about this, Matt, for the next 10 years. Is that all? Maybe longer. I bet it will be longer. In fact, they were talking about some stuff that may not happen until the 2050s. Eat your vegetables, everybody, and do your exercise because these are long games we play. Wish me luck. We will, of course, put a link up to that article by Casey that I mentioned on this week's show page at planetary.org slash radio, but you can find it at planetary.org

pretty easily. And we will put up a link to this brand new Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Report from the National Academies. Casey, thank you so much. Delighted, Matt. He is our chief advocate and the senior space policy advisor for the Planetary Society. Yuri's Night 2022 in Los Angeles began with an afternoon of setup at the California Science Center. Of course, people like Christy Fair and many others have been working for months to prepare for this night. Hundreds of volunteers, many of them in costume, lined up in the center's loading dock

for a quick orientation and a pep talk. Among them was Gio Samosa, the Planetary Society's longtime outreach coordinator in Southern California and a past president of the Los Angeles Astronomical Society. Gio is a telescope operator at the historic Mount Wilson Observatory, a telescope demonstrator at LA's Griffith Observatory, and an executive team manager at Yuri's Night. He's also an old friend. I've met so many first-timers here tonight. It's nice to see somebody who is a vet. How are you, Gio? I'm doing great. Nice to see you too. So what are you doing here tonight? Well, our Planetary Society volunteers have stepped up and will be handling the registration this year once again.

This is our, I believe, 12th year going into this. Our volunteers will be greeting everyone coming in and making the event happen. This is so great. It's so exciting to be back here in person and know that we're going to once again be under that great spaceship, isn't it? Oh, it's amazing. We can't wait. I'm not a dancer, but I will dance tonight. I like that. I laughed and it knocked my headphones off. So what else are you up to now? You're doing even more than you used to do at the observatory, right? Working a lot. So that's been wonderful. And all of our outreach has been a lot of online going through schools through soon which has been nice but we are really looking

forward to getting back out to in-person events once again so even at the end of the month we're going back to a high school which we're finally being allowed inside premises once again what about those big astronomy nights up there on top of the hill we We're working on that. The city's being a little precautious with large events at the moment. So for the time being, we're still on hold, but we're hoping by the end of summer we'll be back to those. It's great to see you here, T.O.

I'll probably see you out there on the dance floor. You'll see me. It'll be hard to miss me because I don't know how to dance. You'll just see me wailing my hands up in the air. I'll be right next to you. See you. Thank you. Among the Yuri's Night volunteers were a few who had made it a family affair. I take it you're all here as volunteers?

Yeah. Yes, we are. Great. And you are? My name is Laura. I'm Bart. I'm Brenda. And I'm Jane. Are you here together or did you just meet here in the loading dock?

We are together. We're following her. Yeah, I work closely with Christy Fair who's like, you know, running all of this as you know. But yeah, so I've been working with her a little bit. She's kind of an executive assistant and they're just with me to help out. I'm in charge of the LA Zone tonight. That's fantastic. And I've known Christy for many, many, many years. So you have a great mentor there. Is this your first Yuri's Night? It is, yeah.

Wow. And what was the last time you were at the California Science Center? It's been a long time. My parents took me as a kid a few times, but it's been years since I've been here. Have you been under Endeavor? If I have, I don't remember. Oh, you would remember. You would remember. Do I need to chastise you? Why hasn't she been back to see Endeavor to stand under the space shuttle? Well, we've been to Florida Space Center.

Oh, okay. You're off the hook. Yeah, we've done enough for her space boys, yeah. So what's brought all of you out as volunteers today? Now, we've heard from you, but you dragged them along. She invited us. Oh, that's great. Yeah, so we're here to support her. Absolutely.

I was just talking to a red shirt over there from Star Trek. You've all got Starfleet emblems on. I'm glad you're not red shirts because I'm afraid he won't make it through the night. That was my first thought as well. Yeah, I'm in a habit of not wearing red shirts. That's always a wise decision, at least from the original series. Why are you here? Why did you decide to work with Christy? So I met Christy while working with Mission Astro Access.

She was helping with that. I was head of logistics on that for Flight 1 in October. I think I saw you on the website. Probably, yeah. Yeah, so I got to know Christy, and she and I worked really well together, and she said, hey, I could use some help with Yuri's night if you're interested. So yeah, that's why I'm here. Proud parents? Absolutely.

Oh, there aren't words. There aren't words. Have a wonderful time, and I'll tell you what I told the red shirt, you have a better shot. Live long and prosper. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you.

We were finally allowed into the great hall that is the temporary home of Endeavor. The California Science Center will eventually mount the orbiter vertically on an external tank with two solid rocket boosters, all unfueled, of course. The dramatic Yuri's Night lighting heightened the sense of awe that I always feel when I stand beneath that spaceship. Off to the side was the VIP area where I'd set up my microphones many times before. The first to join me there this year were past guests on Planetary Radio. Robert Picardo is a member of the Planetary Society's board of directors, but you probably know him better as the holographic doctor

on Star Trek Voyager, to say little of scores of other roles. Bob was joined by his good friend and fellow Voyager cast member, Tim Russ, who played the stoic Vulcan Tuvok. As you'll hear, Tim has enjoyed a long relationship with the non-fiction version of our universe. Tim Russ, I don't know if you remember, I was at your house once with my daughters. They wanted to steal your Vulcan ears. Yes, I do recall that, as a matter of fact.

And I think I only have maybe two or three pairs of those left. You've got to hang on to those. Yes, indeed. Those are priceless. Bob Ricardo, do I remember correctly that it was Tim and Andre Bermanis who sort of brought you into the real space world while you were doing Voyager? Well, I think really during the original run of Voyager,

I was approached by the two then surviving co-founders of the Planetary Society, Louis Friedman and Bruce Murray, to do a fundraising event. And Tim was part of that. It was to celebrate the great Ray Bradbury's 70th birthday, I believe. And there were some other actors you may have heard of, like Charlton Heston and John Rhys-Davies, and then a bunch of us Star Trek folk.

And we did a reading together. and then a bunch of us Star Trek folk, and we did a reading together. And that's when I first sort of got captivated by space, was my experience joining the advisory board of the Planetary Society. But Tim is inspirational because Tim is the only member of our Voyager crew who really came into the show being a space fanatic and a very accomplished amateur astronomer. So he was, I think, an inspiration to the whole group. Tim, you are an amateur astronomer.

In fact, if anybody hasn't seen it, there is a terrific Planetary Society video that's available on our YouTube channel of the two of you at a rather prominent telescope here in Los Angeles. You know the one I'm talking about. Yes, at the Griffith Observatory. It's a big refractor that they have up there, and it's a classic piece of work. You couldn't duplicate it today if you tried to. And yes, Bob and I were up there for an event a while back, and it was really quite nice.

It's hilarious. But we did a joke video where, and this was our wonderful Planetary Society producer, Merk Boyan's idea, was that Tim would not recognize me anymore after we hadn't worked together in a few years. And I had to show him a picture of the cast so he would remember that I was in the show with him. It was quite funny and very popular as a planetary post. And also, Tim's dry humor, which of course was on display often in Voyager, was never shown to better effect here.

Dry humor is best for Vulcans, I suppose. It's best for me in general, yeah. All right, the reason we're here tonight, all these, I don't know, a couple of thousand people who are here, I guess. This is not your first Yuri's Night for either of you, is it? No, it is not. I've been here a couple times before. I think this is my fifth one at the California Space Center, but I was also to one of the earlier ones.

I'm so glad that we're here, though, under this great... Oh, of course. Yeah, this is a great location for it, yeah. Yeah, it's really perfect. To stand under the Endeavor shuttle, it just puts everybody in a... It's just wonderful. In this real world of doing this stuff, I mean, there are so many people who are here to party. We hope they're partying for space as well.

Certainly a large percentage of them are. Tim, what is it that captivates you? Well, I pursued the hobby of astronomy about 35 years ago, and I'm just fascinated by the fact that space is so vast, and there's so many mysteries and secrets about it. And in point of fact, we on Earth would not be here if not for what occurred in the early universe. So if you're thinking about humankind having evolved from the very beginning, we are essentially part of the universe. And we have evolved to the point where we can actually look back

and examine ourselves, if you will. It is endlessly fascinating. Discoveries are made all the time and revised often as well. And the theories about why we're here, how we got here, where we might be going, just as a life form, to me is endlessly fascinating. And with the incredible, long-awaited, successful launch of the James Webb Space Telescope,

we are about to see light from the creation of the universe or just about i don't that that is explained to me over and over again and my mind can wrap around the concept for a couple of seconds and then it just slips off as if as if the idea had been oiled yeah but but i i really am looking forward to uh these next couple years when more and more images come back from the web. It's going to be a very exciting time. Did you see the gentleman here who's actually dressed as the James Webb Space Telescope? Not seen that just yet. Well, you need to circulate because there are some wonderful cosplay here.

Yeah, just a little bit, I've noticed. A lot of women in dresses with a lot of bright lights under them and all that. Including your lovely wife. Yes, indeed. The nebula dress is a cool idea. It's just so much fun. It's a party

celebrating the first human in space. And through that, it's celebrating all of humanity's long-time fascination with looking up at the stars and now extending our presence in space. So if you're a Star Trek fan, then you have no business not coming to Yuri's Night if you're anywhere near a Yuri's Night celebration. And this is a worldwide celebration.

I thought it was local, and it's not. It's not just here. It's everywhere around the world. they celebrate the first man in space. And it's quite remarkable. And here we are preparing again for a very long journey, as it were, a manned mission to Mars and back to the moon, as it were, very soon. So we, as a species, are going to become spacefaring on a fairly regular basis. I hope I'm around long enough to see some of that start. You and me both. Thank you, gentlemen. My pleasure, Matt, always. My pleasure. Thank you.

The DJs arrived and the music began under Endeavor. By the way, one of the people spinning tunes for us was Dr. Chris Bushausen, also known as Dr. Crispy. Chris rode a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket on a suborbital trip with William Shatner and others last October. I managed to get in one more interview before the decibel level completely overwhelmed my microphones. My name is Anna Volker. My pronouns are they, them. And I'm the founder and executive director of SciAcAccess Inc. a nonprofit advancing disability inclusion in STEM. Part of PsyAccess we run Astro Access where we're focusing on making space accessible for all astronauts. My name is Sina Baram I'm the president of Prime Access Consulting we're an inclusive design firm that works on making cultural spaces and galleries libraries

archives and museums accessible and welcoming to the widest possible audience. I'm a blind computer scientist and absolutely fortunate and privileged to be an AstroAxis ambassador. And not only an ambassador, but you were able to fly on that very first zero-g AstroAxis flight, right? That's true. Was that as great an adventure as I bet it was? Even more so. What is Astroaxis all about? Astroaxis is all about looking at space and humanity's future as it relates to space

and thinking about who gets to be a part of that. And so what we want to do is redefine the definition of who gets to be an astronaut and make sure that we're sending the definition of who gets to be an astronaut and make sure that we're sending the best of the best to space, not just the best of people who happen to have a certain body type or people who happen to not be, you know, have a disability. And so Astro Access is something that we started to really connect folks who are leaders in the disability advocacy community with the leaders in the space industry to connect a bridge and say let's start making space accessible and

the truest version of that word access let's let's mean it let's make actual changes so that we can ensure the future of space is equitable. And you had on that first flight there there was quite a spectrum, I mean a real rainbow of disabilities, right? Absolutely, yes. So for our first flight, we had three primary crews. A blind crew researching a variety of different technologies and demonstrations. A deaf crew who was looking at American Sign Language legibility as well as non-auditory communication forms. can sign language legibility as well as non-auditory communication forms and a mobility crew who are working on things like station keeping and handholds in the microgravity environment. How did you find out about this AstroAccess opportunity? I'll put it that way.

So this has been a dream since I've been about four years old. I grew up reading speculative fiction. You know, I'm blind so I would like read books on tape. Pretty much exhausted the Library of Congress in terms of Star Trek books and speculative fiction and things of that nature. When the application came out, pretty much everybody that was in my personal group and circles thought I was unapplying. And it was a really busy time in my life. I was like, it's probably a low chance I'm going to get it, that sort of thing. And then I started making the video. I started filling out the application,

the incredibly well thought out and inclusive application due to the amazing work of the person sitting to my right. And then it really clicked for me how deeply meaningful this is because space to me is a canvas and it's an opportunity for us not to repeat the mistakes of our past. When we think about aviation, when we think about boats, when we think about so many other forms of transportation that humanity has come up with for the past millennia, they're not inclusive. They're not inclusive to people with varying abilities. They're not inclusive in a variety of ways.

And we cannot repeat and perpetuate those mistakes in space. So this is deeply important to me. not inclusive in a variety of ways and we cannot repeat and perpetuate those mistakes in space. So this is deeply important to me and I'm just absolutely privileged and honored to be a part of making sure that 25% of the world's populations that are persons with disabilities, you know, 50% of the people over age of 35 are able to experience this and also contribute because we're leaving so many amazing brains and good ideas on the table by not including the most incredible problem solvers we have which is persons with disabilities and varying abilities. Beautifully expressed. I'm even wondering if we should be using the term disability in this case because it's been pointed out to me and I think this

is something that you folks at Astroaxis have talked about, Anna. Some of these so-called disabilities may be new abilities in space. I don't know how well I'm expressing that. Yes. And I'm glad you raised that point because I think that's one of the reasons it is important that we use this word disability. Because what we want people to understand is that we're reframing the public's perception and the average perception of disability. It's something that is not a bad word, and in many cases, so many cases, an advantage.

And so I think it's actually critical that we do use that terminology, and we put it in this new context. And I'm glad you mentioned that when we're looking at microgravity legs are in the way. There's no such thing as standing, right? And when we talk about motion sickness we have known for decades and decades that many deaf individuals are immune, are immune to motion sickness depending on how they became deaf. And so this is something that is an actual advantage and as Asina very importantly pointed out people with disabilities are by nature problem solvers because every day they're going through a world that was not built for them and space was not

built for people to live in right our good friend and colleague and fellow Astro access leader Dr. Sherry Wells Jensen, always says space is constantly trying to kill you. It is an environment that isn't designed for us. And so by being someone, you know, being people in environments not designed by and for them so often, it's an advantage when it comes to navigating the space environment and so I think it's important that we keep that word disability and put it in people's minds in this new context because so often people don't understand that it's really the environment that so often is creating these barriers and so we want to reshape and redefine what that environment looks like on Earth and beyond it. This is the social model of disability, right?

It is the environment that is disabling, not the individual that is disabled. And when we take this ethos and apply it to space, we understand that it's not only a matter of inclusion and equity, it's also a matter of safety. If you think about the affordances and the tactics that we would use to facilitate access for a blind astronaut, those are exactly the kinds of life-saving measures we would want when somebody is unable to see, even if they're

a sighted individual, when someone is unable to move their arms, even if they are somebody who has the ability to do those things. So not only are these actions that we're taking and these affordances that we're building important because we want to include this entire swath of humanity, it is actually necessary in order to build those exact tactical and strategic redundancies into our processes, into our spacecraft, into our missions, so as to maximize our chances of success in that incredibly harsh environment that we were just speaking about. And by not using it, we're in a way erasing or diminishing the contributions of so many people that have

existed as disabled folks here on planet Earth. And we want to make sure we're honoring that experience and then benefiting from it for the benefit of all of us. You two are terrific spokespeople. I can't let you go until you tell us how was it? How did it feel to be in microgravity? Blissful. It was the most perfect combination of bliss and awe and just wow factor. But also for, you know, scientifically minded and curious folks, it's also just this incredible experiment that you get to live inside of. You really get to experience Newton's laws of motion. You get to viscerally understand some

of those things that maybe you've done the math for or that you've imagined since a very, very young age. And it's also freeing because you really do, you know, to quote the poem, feel the surly bonds of earth slip away. That's an incredible feeling. And it's one of freedom that honestly resides with me even six months after the experience and i can't wait to experience it again it's absolute bliss are you ready to go further you want to go into orbit absolutely yeah i think i knew that what is what's next for astro access i think i read that a second flight is in the works there yes, we have so much in store in this year and beyond it and I'm so excited because for me that first flight wasn't the end it was really just the

beginning. It's a jumping off point for this future that we're building together. It was a really emotional experience for me because it was something that I've really been dreaming of working on for so long and this was such a tangible start to seeing that change and so yes we do have actually multiple zero G flights happening this year which I'm very excited to share and to announce to your audience and so we'll be flying with some partners at MIT in May and then we'll be doing our own chartered flight in November, as well as possibly one or even two additional flights with other partner organizations in 2022. And I do want to point out too that this is actually building to that next step,

to sending people to space. And even beyond that, one of our critical AstroAccess goals right now is connecting to every single company involved in building a space station. And that next generation of space architecture is currently underway. What we have been doing is connecting with key stakeholders at all of these companies and challenging them to ensure that the space stations that they are designing are accessible. And we are offering our ambassadors, like the amazing person sitting next to me, and our experts and our volunteers and our organizers as consultants, as leaders who can help shape that, because we want to ensure that these are being designed by and for people with disabilities so that when we go to space and when we put these new space stations into orbit, we don't have to worry about retrofitting something

that was inaccessible. We're doing it right from the start. And that's called universal design, where from step one, you prioritize access and inclusion as an intentional choice you make every step of that design process. How do people learn more? They can visit our website at astroaccess.org. They can also contribute

to the mission. We are a 501c3 nonprofit partnered with Yuri's Night, the amazing party we're at right now. You can support also by joining our volunteer team. So all that information is on our website and we'd love to welcome you to join our mission and to apply it to what you do, your work and your circles. I think the best way people can be a part of Astro Access is thinking a little harder about access and the barriers that people experience in your own environments and thinking about

what you can do to address them in your everyday life. Thank you both so much. I want to let you go and enjoy this loud party. Thank you so much. You bet. A great pleasure. Thank you. Yuri's Night LA extended far beyond the big room with Endeavor. Exhibitors, including the Planetary Society,

lined several of the museum galleries. It was near one of these that I struck up a conversation with Kim Masharia. Yes, I am the executive director for Space Prize, and we're all about empowering young women to get into the space industry. So we are launching a global contest this summer where girls from anywhere in the world, age 15 to 18 18 can apply to win the chance to go to the edge of space with space perspective not only that they also can get the chance to open a zero g flight as part of our finalists so 30 finalists for our contest we're going to zero g flight together then they'll also get a year of mentorship as well and on top of that in june we'll be launching an open source space education curriculum that touches on topics like space philosophy,

the new space economy, and general space science principles, and it incorporates elements of design thinking. So we're doing a lot to try and build out the next generation of industry's workforce. Space Perspective, correct me if I'm wrong, that's the newest company that wants to take people up to the edge of space under a balloon, right? Yes, they're doing some pretty fantastic work and they're set to start flying people in 2024. So we are really excited to be collaborating with them and to really, again, shape the future of the growing space economy. I'll tell you, as exciting as those real-life experiences are going to be, the value of the mentorship sounds especially great.

Absolutely. We actually just did a pilot program in New York City where we're giving away a zero-g flight to one girl in every borough, which is pretty amazing. Not only that, but all the girls get a year of mentorship. And I just took, we had 24 finalists for the competition. I took them on a field trip to the New York City Challenger Center and all of the finalists got to be featured in a billboard that was in Times Square for a whole week. It was a pretty incredible experience. And so during our field trip, I spoke to the girls and asked them what they found so unique and compelling

about our competition. And these young women were just so happy to be able to connect with women, more established women, who are really making incredible strides for women in general in the space industry. And they're beyond happy to be connected to their mentors. And I can't wait to see the ways in which these mentorship opportunities transform their lives, not just in the near term, but 10, 15 years down the road. You know who I know would have been absolutely thrilled to see this program coming together? Somebody who used to be a contributor to our show, a regular contributor, Sally Ride. Oh, absolutely. I mean, those level of women really set the stage for these kinds of opportunities to exist.

And I frequently let the young women I work with know that, yes, right now only about 12% or so of all astronauts have been women. But thanks to the commercialization of space, that is quickly changing. And I'm thinking that 12% women, quite a bit lower for women of color. Oh, absolutely. I mean, we're here at the, at Ureason LA and Cyan Proctor spoke. She is the fourth black woman to ever go to space and the first black woman to pilot a spacecraft. So when you think about those demographics in regards to women of color, they are pretty stark. But it's going to take a lot of intentional work in order to shift these numbers at a pace that's appropriate. So again, Space Prize, new to me.

Space Frontier Foundation, not so new. I've been working with folks from Space Frontier Foundation for a long time. I guess there have been some changes lately. There certainly have. We have been around since 1988, and I think a lot of people across the industry would credit us with helping to shape the commercial space sector into what it is today. Now that the commercial space sector is vibrant, it's thriving,

what we now are trying to do is ensure that the industry's workforce is representative of the global population because this industry, it's growing beyond industry. It's becoming a global economy, the global space economy, in order, I think, to help humanity reach its fullest potential when it comes to activities and endeavors in space. We have to make sure all of us are involved. And right now, that's not the case. I look forward to the day when it won't be useful to bring this up,

but it is still somewhat remarkable to see you, a woman of color, now heading an organization that has the kind of history that Space Frontier Foundation has. Looks like progress. Absolutely. I mean, Rick Tomlinson, one of the co-founders of the Space Frontier Foundation. Know him well. He is one of my favorite, favorite humans in the industry. He actually had asked me to take on this position or recommended me to take this on. And I remember at the time, I did feel a bit nervous in doing so because I really do greatly respect the legacy that he and the other co-founders established through their work and their efforts.

But thankfully, things have been going pretty well for us. We've launched a number of initiatives set to promote workforce development, sustainability in space, and diversity and inclusion in the space industry. Not only that, but we're also bringing back our annual conference, New Space, this summer, August 24th through 26th. It's going to be a spectacular event. How do people learn more about both of these organizations? Well, they can go to spaceprize.org to learn more about Space Prize,

and you can also go to spacefrontier.org to learn more about the Space Frontier Foundation. Thank you so much. It has been a pleasure. Great work. Thank you. I'll be back with Yuri's Night founders George and Loretta Whitesides in less than a minute. There's so much going on in the world of space science and exploration, and we're here to share it with you.

Hi, I'm Sarah, Digital Community Manager for the Planetary Society. Are you looking for a place to get more space? Catch the latest space exploration news, pretty planetary pictures, and Planetary Society publications on our social media channels. You can find the Planetary Society on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. Make sure you like and subscribe so you never miss the next exciting update from the world of planetary science. I couldn't leave the party without saying hello to the couple who started it all.

They were just a couple of grad students back in 2001 when I joined them and a handful of other Yuri's Night founders in a Caltech classroom. George Whitesides would go on to become the leader of the National Space Society, chief of staff for the NASA administrator, and CEO of Virgin Galactic. Biologist Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides became a flight director for the Zero-G Corporation, would appear in James Cameron's IMAX documentary, Aliens of the Deep, and create SpaceKind, as in Humankind, her program for future leaders. Before we talk with George and Loretta, here's a brief sample of her appearance on the Yuri's Night stage. This was minutes before Dr. Cyan Proctor, astronaut on the three-day Inspiration4 orbital mission, presented Loretta with a Jedi award. That's justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Oh, I'm in my element. Are you kidding

me? I was born to be under a space shuttle. This is where I shine. This is my happy place, not just in this room, but with you all, because who I am is about people, and I love people, especially space people. Who here is a space person? Yeah! Those are my people. I mean, I love everyone. Don't get me wrong. I love all people, but I really love space people. So my husband George and I created Yuri's Night 20 years ago, 2001, space a year. You can't not throw a space party in 2001. And we're so excited that it's still going on. When we created Yuri's Night, we said it was a holiday that would still be celebrated 10,000 years in the future. When humanity is scattered among 12 different star

systems, you know, what will we still celebrate? What will matter to us? We won't even be around the same star to celebrate New Year's because your year will change or another. another yeah you're getting it okay good just making sure but the day the first human left our home world and ventured out will be something that we all can carry with us and unite us uh founders fellow founders 21 years in still going strong still a hell of a party. I've lost my voice, as usual. Yeah, it was an amazing night and I just couldn't be more happy with how it all went. And there were so many people came out and they got to feel the Yuri's Night magic.

So I hope that keeps spreading and more people come, because it's a really unique event. There are so many new facets to what's going on here, some of which I hope we can talk about in the couple of minutes we've got, Cosmic Odyssey being one of them, Astro Access. George, I told you that I already talked to your executive director. You're the chairman, right? Yeah, or something like that. I don't know. I'm trying to be supportive of Anna and help start it with her. Why is this something that you're putting your time into?

I really do believe that we should aspire to have space be accessible to all people, right? And that's what I think our time is all about, is opening up space to more people. And one key part of that is folks who might have a disability or some other something. And, you know, the fact of the matter is that space should be open to those people. a disability or some other something. And, you know, the fact of the matter is that space should be open to those people. And more to the point, designing space vehicles for those people, I think, will make those space vehicles safer and better and more usable for everybody. Just like they have down here on Earth with curb cuts and things like that. Exactly. And so now is the perfect time to be thinking about this, you know, with a new

generation of space stations being designed and all these new space vehicles that are starting to come to fruition. So it's a great time to be thinking about this and to sort of inculcate that idea into the space industry. More flights are planned, right? We have plans for multiple flights this year, some in partnership with other great partners and some dedicated. So that'll be really exciting. Cosmic Odyssey, does that mesh with this somehow?

It's a separate organization, but is this sort of where Yuri's Night is evolving into? Absolutely. We're taking on a lot of new projects. And Nico Blanks is the SpaceKind alumni. He's an undergraduate at Embry-Riddle. And he came to me with this idea. And he's like, when I got cancer, I had an inoperable brain tumor when I was a kid, and the Austin Hatcher Foundation sent me to space camp, and it changed my life. It taught me that just having this happening doesn't mean that I can't do great things.

And now he just got hired at Blue Origin after graduation. So it's just been amazing to get to, so as he says, pay it forward. It does represent an evolution of what Yuri's Night, from what it was when we got this started 21 years ago. I love telling people- Did you help start, Matt? Yeah. I am extremely proud of that.

I was gonna wear my dancing Snoopy, but I couldn't find him. That was the award you guys gave me that year. But again it represents an evolution of what this is about but it's always been for the people right? Yeah absolutely it's always been connecting all great people that Loretta's managed to connect and art and science and space and music and all these great things. It's such a wonderful connection point. And a lot of these people, I don't know if she's going to make it in here or not, but Christy Fair, who is, what, in charge of the L.A. operation now? The party tonight?

But she's involved with other stuff like Astro Access, right? I mean, it's really blossomed. Yeah, and Cosmic Odyssey. So it takes a village. You know, we've had 400 volunteers here tonight making this party happen. And we have incredible teams, volunteer teams, that put together the Cosmic Odyssey program as well. Like I said, we like to power everything with love. And I'm very proud that our Planetary Society volunteers have been, I guess, on the registration desk once again. Yes.

We couldn't do it without Planetary Society. They are rock stars. It's so fun working with you all. Where do we go from here? Where do you see, well, any of the things that we've talked about, Astro Access, Cosmic Odyssey, Yuri's Night itself? Well, the other program we launched with Yuriuri's night um is called space kind my space country it's like jedi training for the space professionals you know we're going to be continue to do that so people should check that out space kind of work but but what i'm really

excited about right now is there's going to be another total eclipse of the sun coming to the united states april 8th 2024 so we're like, oh, well, Yuri's Night, that's a slam dunk we gotta do. So I'm already envisioning like a three-day music festival in the hill country of Texas. We bring all the SpaceXers from Boca Chica and all the Blue Origin folks from Van Horn, and we invite the whole space community to come

and take four minutes of the most majestic, powerful experience of the overview effect you can have on Earth. That is thrilling. And I'll probably miss it if it's in Texas, because I think I'm going to be back at Southern Illinois University. Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, being the only place where the paths crossed. Right. I was on stage in the football stadium. Oh, that's awesome. It was. It really was. It was great fun.

So that's something to look forward to a couple of years from now. You said on stage today that you think people will be celebrating Yuri's Night 10,000 years from now. Yeah, absolutely. And we're also really excited because Disney Junior has an animated series for kids called Miles from Tomorrowland. And they've got an episode called Yuri's Night, all about Yuri's Night celebrated. I don't know how many years that is in the future, but they're out in space zooming around and having parties

and helping rock stars get to their gigs when their spaceships break down. And it does inspire me. With the renaissance we're seeing in space exploration right now, things are just going exponential. And just so many flights last year, you know, we had the Axiom 1 flight yesterday and Inspiration 4 flight last year. We had Bezos' flight and Branson's flight. And it's just so exciting.

It's an exciting time to be in space. I love it. George, National Space Society, NASA, Virgin Galactic, where you're still active, right? What's next for you? I'm trying to figure it out, but I do think that the problem of our time is taking care of Spaceship Earth. You know, we have 20 or 30 years to figure out how we're going to get carbon emissions down to net zero. And so I think that'll probably be something that I spend a fair amount of time on. I'm not surprised. Thank you both for all that

you've done and for helping us in the evening here at Yuri's Night 2022, isn't it? Yep. Yeah, 22. Yeah, that's where we're at. And Matt, just one of the memories that I have of your involvement is editing the initial Yuri's Night video on like a weird MPEG thing in your living room in 2001 or whatever it was. And so really grateful to you and everybody at Planetary for everything you've done to help support this outreach event over the years. Thank you for letting me and us be a part of it for all these years, guys. Great evening. Thanks for the party. You're welcome. It's good to have you back. George Whitesides and Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides closing our coverage of the 2022 Yuri's Night LA celebration. I'm grateful to them and the hundreds of other volunteers who made it a great night. Time for What's Up on Planetary Radio.

Bruce Betts, the chief scientist of the Planetary Society, is here. He's ready and waiting to deliver the night sky to us. Happy post-URIs night, Bruce. Happy that to you as well. Matt Kaplan, is that you? Yeah, every week at just about this time. Hi, there's cool stuff in that morning sky. Have you seen it, Matt? Do you get up early? Do you go out and look to the east? If you want to specify the early morning, no, I have not lately, no.

Well, for those who do, it is super cool right now in low in the morning east. We've got a bunch of bright planets all lined up from lower left to upper right. We have very bright Jupiter, super bright Venus, and then dimmer Mars, but reddish, and dimmer Saturn, yellowish, all in a line pretty evenly spaced right about the time we're putting this out. But Jupiter and Venus are going to go snuggling. They're going to snuggle close together, very, very close together, closer than the diameter of a full moon. They'll be doing that on April 30th. So check out the two brightest planets in the night sky. Before that, the moon will join the lineup of planets. Crescent moon, 25th, 26th, 27th will be moving its way through

the lineup of planets. Finally, on April 30th, there is also a partial solar eclipse visible from the southeastern Pacific Ocean and southern South America. And a couple weeks later, some of us are getting a total lunar eclipse, but we'll check back on that. Let us move on to this week in space history. It was 1972 that Apollo 16 landed, took off again, came back, landed on Earth. So after visiting humans to the moon, and we may just come back to that in just a moment. But first, 32 years, if I'm doing the math right,

which I am, Hubble Space Telescope was deployed. Good Lord. Here's a request from a regular listener, Laura Dodd in California. Might Bruce be able to announce random space facts with a mid-Atlantic accent, like a 1940s era newsflash? I don't know if I can, but let's try. I don't know if I can, but let's try. Newsflash! Random space fact! In San Diego, California, the Apollo 16 Command Module today on May 5 and from the moon just days ago was next to a cart that was taking fuel off the command module and then flushing the system. Something got over pressurized and boom. But don't worry, people. Everyone will will heal.

There were, however, 40 windows blown out. More importantly, there were 45, what was that? Let me get just a second. Yes. Okay. It's 46 people were sent to the hospital for observation and one person had a broken kneecap, but fortunately they'll all recover. However, there was a hole blown in the hangar roof, 250 feet above and some small damage done to the Apollo 16 capsule. That's it for our news flashback to our regular programming. Wow, that was a terrific bulletin. I had no idea. I'd never heard of it.

Did you say this happened in San Diego? North Island, so technically Coronado. News to me, and therefore a terrific news bulletin. Thank you for the suggestion, Laura. Well-timed, well-played. All right, we'll do the trivia contest, this time in a South Atlantic accent. No, I don't know the difference. We asked, alphabetically, what moon of a planet is last, using the official names and in English. How do we do, Matt? We got a huge response to this one.

The biggest we've had in a while. Yeah. Isn't that nice? Here is an answer. I won't say the correct one. From Dave Fairchild, our poet laureate in Kansas. Umbriel was on the list, the final in the line. Since 1851, it sat and said, the end is mine.

And then 2000 came along with Ymir, Y-M-I-R, in its wake. When sorting alphabetically, it takes the bottom cake. So Ymir, I hope I'm pronouncing it correctly. And it's correct. Yes, it is indeed correct. Ymir, however it's properly pronounced, is an 18-kilometer object, a little moon around Saturn. One of its more than 80 that we've discovered so far. Congratulations, Anthony Lewis. First-time winner, long-time listener. He is going to get that

beautiful Planetary Society Kik asteroid set, including the 18 by 24 inch poster, a pin, and four stickers from Chop Shop that you can find at chopshopstore.com, where all of the Planetary Society merchandise is. Congratulations, Anthony, who adds, happy belated birthday, Matt. Apparently I share the same birthday as his dad. So happy birthday, Anthony's dad as well. I did not know that.

I got more. Edwin King in the UK says, let's ignore the wonderfully named Vanth, Wayort, and Xiangliu with an X. Those are interesting moons. interesting moons from Ertan Yuzak in Arizona. Jupiter's moon Andrastea would be first on the list if you had been asking for the first on the list. I guess there goes another possible quiz question for you, Bruce. Oh man, I'll try to come up with another one. You keep talking. Gene Lewin. Here are just a couple of stanzas from the poem that he sent us. Not Uranus or our Neptune blue, it's Earth we're talking here. Take flesh and bones and teeth for stones from the first giant named Ymir.

Not a scrap was wasted, his hair became the trees, eyelashes formed a fence for man, and his blood did fill the seas. Because Ymir was the first of the frost giants. And apparently when he died, that's how we got Earth. So thanks, Emer. Wow. Thank you. I feel like we should have given him something bigger than 18 kilometers. It'll do. We're ready to move on, though.

All right. Here's your question for next time. Who was the youngest person to walk on the moon at the time of walking on the moon? Go to planetary.org slash radio contest. I will give you a hint. It is one of 12 people. Boy, that really narrows it down, doesn't it? You've got until the 27th. That'd be Wednesday, April 27 at 8 a.m. Pacific time to get us this answer. And you've been asking about it. We're going to offer the winner this time, a Planetary Society kick asteroid, rubber asteroid.

So let the enthusiastic submissions begin. We're done. All right, everybody, go out there, look up in the night sky, and think about Newsflash. Matt Kaplan gives away rubber asteroid. Back to you, Jim. Film at 11. I don't say that anymore.

He's Bruce Betts. He's here with us every week. He's the chief scientist of the Planetary Society, and he brings us What's Up. Planetary Radio is produced by the Planetary Society in Pasadena, California, and is made possible by its members who know how to party for space wherever they are. Join the dance at planetary.org slash join. Mark Hilverda and Ray Paletta are our associate producers.

Josh Doyle composed our theme, which is arranged and performed by Peter Schlosser. Ad Astra.