Podcast: Avoiding a Nuclear Winter

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: wallpapersafari.com/

If you are looking for a heavy story, just listen into this week’s StarTalk podcast, “Nuclear Winter with Ann Druyan and Brian Toon.” You can hear all about the Future of Life award given to Carl Sagan and others for “reducing the risk of nuclear war by developing and popularizing the science of nuclear winter.” Yes, a great award for a bleak topic.

Ann Druyan (co-writer of the original Cosmos TV series, producer of the remade Cosmos, and Carl Sagan’s wife) and Brian Toon (Atmospheric Science Professor and one of the awardees) discuss the science that went into the nuclear winter idea back in the 1970s, as well as later briefings of the Vatican and Soviet government. Sadly, it appears the Russian’s were more open to the science than the Americans. Dr. Sagan and others battled with many leaders in the U.S. Government. Some things don’t change (or don’t change fast enough), so this battle within the U.S. Government continues. Of course, Putin is no Gorbachev, so who knows that he is thinking.

In fact, a 2017 paper by the Federation of American Scientists noted how Russia felt about the chance of nuclear war before today’s current events in Ukraine:

In other words, the United States has built and is building launch sites for nuclear missiles on the Russian border. This fact has been widely reported on Russian TV and has infuriated the Russian public. In June, Russian President Putin specifically warned that Russia would be forced to retaliate against this threat.

While Russian officials maintain that its actions are normal and routine, Russia now appears to be preparing for war. On October 5, 2016, Russia conducted a nation-wide civil defense drill that included 40 million of its people being directed to fallout shelters. Reuters reported two days later that Russia had moved its Iskander nuclear-capable missiles to Kaliningrad, which borders Poland.

Of course, our ability to survive as a civilization is a big part of the Drake Equation, which tells us the number of planets in the galaxy hosting intelligent life. So far, we are the only planet with intelligent life that we know about, and we cannot even agree whether launching a nuclear war will end our civilization. It is not a hopeful start to the quest for intelligent life.

Extra: Check out Mr. Toon’s TED Talk, I’ve Studied Nuclear War for 35 years – You Should Be Worried, for more on his concerns about nuclear proliferation. And if you are not scared enough, check out this article, “Even a Limited India-Pakistan Nuclear War Would Bring Global Famine, Says Study,” from the Columbia Climate School.

Podcast: Elon Musk on the Moon and More

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: New York Times.

On this week’s podcast program Sway, you can re-listen to a September 2020 interview between host Kara Swisher and Elon Musk. This was long before all the Twitter nonsense, when Mr. Musk was still focused on cars and space (mostly). The discussion covers plenty of topics, including the need to settle Mars (Mr. Musk disagress with Jeff Bezos who he said believes a space station will be enough to save humanity from an existential crisis), neural implants, and a return to the Moon.

You can tell the program is dated because Mr. Musk complains that NASA cannot find a way to return to the Moon, whereas today we have the Artemis lunar program that includes SpaceX as one of its contractors. Nonetheless, it is good to hear from the old Musk when he was a little more focused.

Then again, the neural implants still seem odd. Neuralink, a company he co-founded, is focusing on those with disabilities at the moment, but the application is expected to be more widespread:

Neuralink is currently focused on making medical devices. These devices have the potential to help people with a wide range of injuries and neurological disorders, and we hope to develop treatments for many of these conditions in the coming years. We expect that as our devices continue scale, and as we learn to communicate with more areas of the brain, we will discover new, non-medical applications for our [brain-machine interface] BMIs. Neuralink’s long-term vision is to create BCIs that are sufficiently safe and powerful that the general population would want to have them.

In a Fortune magazine article, “Elon Musk Claims Neuralink’s Brain Implants will ‘Save’ Memories Like Photos and Help Paraplegics Walk Again. Here’s a Reality Check,” the authors take him to task on his neural implant idea, stating:

Helping paraplegics walk and curing brain disorders are certainly noble goals. And, hey, ordering a pizza just by thinking about it sounds cool. But many experts are concerned that Musk is seriously overhyping what Neuralink’s implants will be able to accomplish.

Elon Musk overhyping an idea? Never!

Check it out. You can download the podcast at the New York Times, the Apple Store, and elsewhere.

Podcast: Lori Garver on NASA and Commercial Space

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Amazon

This week’s StarTalk podcast with Neil deGrasse Tyson included an interview with former Deputy Administrator of NASA, Lori Garver. She is author of a new book, Escaping Gravity: My Quest to Transform NASA and Launch a New Space Age, which has a number of reviewer quotes, including the one from Elon Musk below.

In addition to the dialog about her time with NASA and the growing role of commercial space providers, the dialogue also gets into specific projects, including potential plans to mine asteroids. One asteroid in particular, Psyche (located in the asteroid belt), was cited as an asteroid of special interest because it contains what some believe to be the core of a failed planet, which means plenty of expensive metals.

NASA currently has plans to launch a spacecraft later this year to visit Psyche. The objectives are to:

  • Determine whether Psyche is a core, or if it is unmelted material.
  • Determine the relative ages of regions of Psyche’s surface.
  • Determine whether small metal bodies incorporate the same light elements as are expected in the Earth’s high-pressure core.
  • Determine whether Psyche was formed under conditions more oxidizing or more reducing than Earth’s core.
  • Characterize Psyche’s topography.

I recommend you listen to the full podcast story and also stayed tuned for the upcoming asteroid adventure.

Image (Credit): Quote regarding Ms. Garver’s latest book. (Amazon)

Update: The Psyche mission has been delayed. NASA noted:

Due to the late delivery of the spacecraft’s flight software and testing equipment, NASA does not have sufficient time to complete the testing needed ahead of its remaining launch period this year, which ends on Oct. 11.

A launch is possible as early as next year, but NASA is now going over all the options.

Podcast: More on the James Webb Space Telescope

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Alan Alda’s podcast Clear & Vivid (Amazon)

I wanted to highlight another astronomy interview from Alan Alda’s Clear+Vivid podcast, in this case involving a mother and daughter team. Astronomers Natalie and Natasha Batalha discuss “Looking for Life on Alien Worlds” using the new James Webb Space Telescope. The two guests discuss upcoming efforts to better understand the 5,000+ planets that have already been discovered. One of their favorites among the exoplanet systems is the TRAPPIST-1 system, noting the parent red star is about the size of Jupiter. This small star has seven exoplanets, with the “Goldilocks zone” being much closer in than is the case in our system.

NASA describes one of the exoplanets in the “Goldilocks zone,” TRAPPIST-1d, in this way:

TRAPPIST-1d is one of seven Earth-sized planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system. About 40 light-years from Earth, TRAPPIST-1 is unusual both for its number of small rocky planets and the number in the habitable zone. Several of the artist’s illustrations…portray possible water or ice in the system– the proximity of the planets to their red dwarf star may indicate that any of them could have water on their surface. This artist’s concept shows TRAPPIST-1d with a narrow band of water near the terminator, the divide between a hot, dry day and an ice-covered night side.

You can read more about the TRAPPIST-1 system here.

Image (Credit): Artist’s image of exoplanet TRAPPIST-1d. (NASA)

Podcast: A Chat with Astronaut Chris Hadfield

Posted on by onespaceman2000

Alan Alda recently interviewed Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield to discuss his space work, singing career, and recent book. You can catch all of it on Mr. Alda’s podcast Clear+Vivid. For instance, Mr. Hadfield notes that he used duct tape on the International Space Station (ISS) to cover over bullet-sized holes in the station’s exterior handrails torn up by space debris. This is not exactly a high-tech solution, but it works and prevents the rough edges of the damaged rails from tearing into this space suit.

Mr. Hadfield also shares his story about the time he was blinded during an ISS space walk. Amazingly, he continued with the eight-hour space walk after a quick fix bled air from his suit and restored his vision.

You can also learn about the work that went into his now famous space-based version of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” (see below). He notes that he had plenty of time on the ISS to write his own songs as well.

And should you be looking for a good adventure book, Mr. Hadfield book The Apollo Murders may solve that craving. It has enough real space stories intertwined within this thriller to keep it interesting. Here is the blurb for the book:

1973: a final, top-secret mission to the Moon. Three astronauts in a tiny spaceship, a quarter million miles from home. A quarter million miles from help.

NASA is about to launch Apollo 18. While the mission has been billed as a scientific one, flight controller Kazimieras “Kaz” Zemeckis knows there is a darker objective. Intelligence has discovered a secret Soviet space station spying on America, and Apollo 18 may be the only chance to stop it.

But even as Kaz races to keep the NASA crew one step ahead of their Russian rivals, a deadly accident reveals that not everyone involved is quite who they were thought to be. With political stakes stretched to the breaking point, the White House and the Kremlin can only watch as their astronauts collide on the lunar surface, far beyond the reach of law or rescue.

Full of the fascinating technical detail that fans of The Martian loved, and reminiscent of the thrilling claustrophobia, twists, and tension of The Hunt for Red October, The Apollo Murders is a high-stakes thriller unlike any other. Chris Hadfield captures the fierce G-forces of launch, the frozen loneliness of space, and the fear of holding on to the outside of a spacecraft orbiting the Earth at 17,000 miles per hour as only someone who has experienced all of these things in real life can.

Strap in and count down for the ride of a lifetime.

Alan Alda calls Mr. Hadfield a great communicator for space programs. Given all of his efforts and talents, it is hard to disagree.

Image (Credit): Chris Hadfield’s video singing “Space Oddity” on the ISS. (Canadian Space Agency)
Image (Credit): Chris Hadfield’s latest book. (Mulholland Books)