Podcast: Discussing the XPrize and More

Posted on by onespaceman2000

A recent episode of the StarTalk podcast, “Incentivizing the Future with Peter Diamandis,” provides an interesting tale about Mr. Diamanis’s early efforts to spur space inventions through the XPRIZE Foundation as well as his current efforts to spur innovation in other areas, such as healthcare.

It was a good reminder about the start of Virgin Galactic, which began after Burt Rutan’s experimental spaceplane SpaceShipOne won the Ansari X Prize in 2004. One can quickly forget that some of the big names in new industries were piggybacking on the earlier achievements of others, such as Elon Musk buying a pre-existing Tesla company.

If you go to the XPrize Foundation page, you will see a variety of competitions underway. The latest space-related contest is the $30 million Google Lunar XPRIZE, which was

…created with two goals in mind. To spur affordable access to the moon and give space entrepreneurs a legitimate platform to develop long-term business models around lunar transportation and to inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, space explorers and adventurers to enter the STEM fields.

As Mr. Diamandis was encouraged by contests from early last century, let’s hope other innovators and their supporters continue to carry the torch beyond this century to see what human ingenuity can create when challenged.

Podcast: Romans in Space

Posted on by onespaceman2000
 

If you are searching for a good podcast to listen to on your next drive, you might enjoy a recent podcast from The Rest is History discussing the ideas of the early Roman Republic that may have informed George Lucas and his Star Wars films.

In the episode, “Romans in Space: Star Wars, Dune and Beyond…,” the narrators also discuss the influence of Rome on other popular series, from earlier stories, such as Issac Asimov’s Foundation, Frank Herbert’s Dune, and Star Trek, to more recent tales, such as Battlestar Galactica and The Hunger Games. The discussion also touches on the role of the Nazis, the American Revolution, Islam, and even the story of King Arthur in these science fiction stories.

No stone is left unturned in this 55 minute episode, with plenty of ideas to keep your head spinning and your mind guessing. After listening, I bet you will play it a second time just to be sure you took it all in (and wrote down some references you might want to research on your own).

Podcast: The Search for Planet Nine

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of a proposed Planet Nine. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

I listened to a recent Cool Worlds Lab podcast where Professor David Kipping interviewed Professor Malena Rice from Yale University’s Department of Astronomy. The episode, titled  Planet Nine, Oumuamua, Misaligned Exoplanets, covered a good range of topics, as the title suggests.

Of greatest interest to me was the continued search for a ninth planet in our solar system (sorry, Pluto). Professor Rice was noncommittal on the likelihood of such a planet, but she is hoping NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) can help to bring more light to the topic.

She discussed how this ninth planet is estimated to be a sub-Neptune sized planet, which appears to be common in many other solar systems we have observed. Planet Nine is estimated to be a gas giant about 5-10 times the mass of Earth yet smaller than Neptune lying 300-800 astronomical units from the Sun (or about 10 times more distant that Pluto).

Professor Rice noted that it is pretty amazing that we can discover distant galaxies but not potential planets in our backyard. She attributes this difficulty to the lack of light on such a planet.

The podcast episode dives deep in this topic, and then continues into other fascinating topics such as visitors to our solar system and strange solar systems elsewhere. It is a lot to take in, but well worth the time even if you need to play it more than once.

Note: Of course, it may not be a planet at all. One theory is that it is a black hole at the edge of our solar system. I would like to hear that podcast as well.

Podcast: Are We Ready to Start Settlements Off-Planet?

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Penguin Press

You may want to tune into another episode from The Planetary Society’s podcast Planetary Radio is you are pondering space settlements on the Moon and Mars. The recent program, A City on Mars, is a discussion with authors Kelly and Zach Weinersmith who wrote “A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?“

The bottom line is that we should not rush towards permanent settlements at either location until we know more about the human body, the human mind, and human politics (good luck with the last one).

The conversation covers a variety of risks, including the effects of gravity on the human body, the ability to procreate in space, and the effectiveness of treaties as nations plan to settle and mine the Moon and Mars. The authors note that we have not had ample time to study all of these issues even with the International Space Station (ISS) in orbit because this has not been the focus of many space efforts to date. For instance, the ISS does not test the impact of radiation on humans because it is in low Earth orbit within the protection of the planet’s magnetic field.

Overall, the authors advise time and more study before jumping into a settlement. This may mean putting off permanent settlements for a few hundred years.

And what about Elon Musk’s plan to start shipping colonists to Mars in his lifetime? As with many things related to Mr. Musk, he does oversell ideas. His energy in the infrastructure realm is good, but his predictions related to humanity in general are usually unreliable.

Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of a Martian space city. (SpaceX)

Podcast: Bill Maher and Neil deGrasse Tyson Discuss Everything

Posted on by onespaceman2000

You may know Bill Maher from his TV show Real Time, but he really lets loose on his podcast Club Random, which can be found in the form of a podcast or Youtube video. If you are interested, then there is not better place to start than with his recent sit down with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.

The two friends discuss just about everything, with Bill sometimes barking at Neil, but it is all in good fun (and the drinks probably helped). You can hear about politics, a little bit of science, the state of the world today, and more.

Neil deGrasse Tyson also brought his latest book to the program, To Infinity and Beyond: A Journey of Cosmic Discovery, but the two spend very little time covering the book and its contents. This was a podcast without a clear agenda, which is common for Bill Maher in these settings.

So if you just want to see Neil deGrasse Tyson relaxing with a friend, it is a great show.

Credit: National Geographic