Space Tourism Blasts Off 🚀
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Episode 115 Description
Blast off with some buzzy space news. 🚀 Hear about the latest space race and how Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Virgin Galatic Richard Branson founder, are involved. Next up in our Summer Survival Guide: What if you were in space? Learn how to handle weightlessness from astronaut Terry Virts. 📰 From the headlines: A new name in Cleveland and new tech on Mars. ✅ And test your outer space knowledge in today’s Trivia on the Ten! 🧐
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TRANSCRIPT:
Various Voices 0:00
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Bethany Van Delft 0:06
I'm Bethany Van Delft. And this is The Ten News where we get the lowdown on what's up in the world. It's Thursday, July 29th. From billionaires soaring to the stars to stellar sights to see this summer, today, we've got the scoop on space. Let's blast off.
Bethany Van Delft 0:34
The world has been buzzing about space lately, as more and more rockets take off from our planet. But, the latest launches aren't from governments or organizations that you're used to, like NASA. Instead, several billionaires and their companies have gotten into a bit of a space race.
Sound Bit 0:52
To infinity, and beyond.
Bethany Van Delft 0:55
On July 1st, Richard Branson, who owns space company Virgin Galactic, became the first person to get to space in a rocket that he funded.
Sound Bit 1:04
Cool.
Bethany Van Delft 1:05
And on July 21st, Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, flew a few miles higher than Branson in a rocket called New Shepard.
Sound Bit 1:14
Nice.
Bethany Van Delft 1:16
Each flight was about 10 minutes long. Both Virgin Galactic and Bezos' company, Blue Origin, has stated that they're looking to popularize space tourism. For right now, they're charging big bucks for the privilege. Virgin is currently charging $250,000 a seat. And while Blue Origin's tickets aren't open for the public to buy yet, one of Bezos' seatmates ponied up $28 million for the first ride. These flights represent a new era for space travel, but they've also been controversial. Critics have questioned the amount of money being spent on this endeavor, instead of donating to causes and solving problems here on Earth, especially in the midst of a global pandemic. But, besides being joy rides for the rich and famous, experts say that these space vehicles could one day have something to offer the science world. Scientists who want to conduct experiments in low gravity haven't been able to go aboard flights at all. The ships or unmanned.
Sound Bit 2:21
Bummer.
Bethany Van Delft 2:22
That could change in the future. Scientists hope that they could study questions like, "how living things respond to the move from gravity to weightlessness?"
Bethany Van Delft 2:36
What do you think, Ten'ers, about this new space race? Tell us your thoughts by sending us an email at hello@thetennews.com, or leaving us a voicemail at 877-Ten-News. That's 877-t-e-n-n-e-w-s. Speaking of weightlessness, have you ever wanted to float like an astronaut? Say no more, because we're here with another installment of our Summer Survival Guide. All summer long, we're giving you the best tips and tricks on how to get through your summer days. Today we're covering our most out-of-this-world tip of all, How To Survive In Zero Gravity. We talked with astronaut Terry Virts, on what it's like to be weightless in space.
Terry Virts 3:26
It's really interesting, because, because our brains, as humans, there's three different signals that go to our brain that tell us about balance. One of them is visual. So when you look around, you can see which way is up and which way is down, you, that just tells your body. Another one is, force. So, like if you close your eyes, I can feel that I'm sitting on the chair and that tells my brain that down is that way. And then the other one, you have this inner ear system that can tell if you're rotating your head. It's a, there's three semicircular canals. So, think of like three hula hoops. And they're all 90 degrees from each other. And when you rotate, there's fluid in there that moves little hairs, they're called cilia. And when those hairs move, it sends a signal to your brain and it tells it "hey, you're pitching down, or hey, you're pitching up." And, so that's why you can have balance when your eyes are closed. But in space, that doesn't work because there's no gravity, and it gets confused. It just doesn't work without gravity, but there's no weight. And, so it gets confusing without that. So it's a really cool process to go into weightlessness and learn how to adapt, how to get your brain working again, without gravity, without the weight, the sensation of weight.
Bethany Van Delft 4:43
So in time, and being in space for a period of time your body does adapt to this new environment, this new surrounding?
Terry Virts 4:52
Yeah, I wrote, there, there's a chapter about that in my book. It's a really steep learning curve. So the first day you're like a one-year-old trying to walk and then after a couple days, you're, you're pretty good and, and your brain has figured out okay, I'm in weightlessness and, and, you know, you can basically survive, but you're still not good because everything floats away. So you have to learn how to keep track of your stuff and keep it in your pocket and in velcro bags. And anyway, and then, it takes, it takes most astronauts probably a month or two before they're really, really good. You know, like I got to a point where it was just completely second nature. I was a Spaceman. You know, like it was a, it took me some time to get there. But, once it was, it was awesome. I was like Superman in space, you know, floating around.
Bethany Van Delft 5:42
Oh my gosh, what did little Terry, little four-year-old Terry, think of that? When you were just like full-blown Spaceman?
Terry Virts 5:50
It was my dream. I mean, like, that's what I wanted. I can remember being at Test Pilot School is a 30-year-old person. And, like I just wanted to fly in space so badly. It was a really, powerful dream that I had.
Bethany Van Delft 6:05
Thanks, Terry. Now we'll all be prepared when we hop on our flight to the stars.
Sound Bit 6:10
Bethany Van Delft 6:14
You know what else is out of this world? You are Ten'ers, you are and we want to hear from you. If you haven't already, please click the link in our show notes for our latest Ten News Listener Survey. It's only 10 questions and it should take you less time than listening to the show. With the help of a grown-up, you can be entered to win an Amazon gift card. This is the last week that the survey will be open so get your answers in before it closes on the 31st. Now let's check in on what else is going on.
Sound Bit 6:50
Bethany Van Delft 6:57
The Olympics opened last week with an opening ceremony with no people in the stands. Tennis star Naomi Osaka lit the flame, which has been redesigned this year to be more eco-friendly. It's the first to run on hydrogen, which doesn't produce any carbon dioxide.
Sound Bit 7:16
That's great.
Bethany Van Delft 7:18
In other sports news. The Cleveland, Ohio Major League Baseball team unveiled their new team name, The Guardians. The announcement comes after the team decided to drop their century-old team name and mascot, The Indians, after many years of backlash over the stereotypes of indigenous people. Congratulations Cleveland Guardians. That is a great name.
Sound Bit 7:41
Way to go.
Bethany Van Delft 7:43
In Australia, some Sydney residents have encountered some sneaky trash thieves. Cockatoos. Sulphur-crested cockatoos, a type of parrot commonly found on the east coast of Australia have learned to open up trash bins looking for food. Scientists have been studying the trend and in the paper published last week, they found that the birds have also been teaching their friends how to do it. I guess one person's trash is another cockatoos treasure.
Sound Bit 8:11
Bethany Van Delft 8:13
And because we can't get enough of space, a new piece of technology has given scientists a first-time look into the interior of Mars. It confirms that the core of the red planet is molten, and its crust is about the same thickness as Earth.
Bethany Van Delft 8:37
Coming up next...
Sound Bit 8:39
What, what, what's the big idea?
Bethany Van Delft 8:42
Trivia on The Ten. The new spacecrafts’ actually don't go that far into the depths of space. They travel within the low orbit of Earth. You know what else is up there? A lot of space junk. What types of things have spent time floating around up there? Is it A) an astronaut’s glove, B) old pizza boxes, or C) Lego space figures?
Sound Bit 9:09
Bethany Van Delft 9:15
Did you guess it? The answer is A) an astronaut’s glove.
Sound Bit 9:21
Bethany Van Delft 9:23
There are actually more than 23,000 pieces of space debris larger than a softball orbiting Earth at about 17,000 miles per hour. And NASA, and the Department of Defense, actually track them all. There's a lot of stuff up there that's been orbiting Earth for years like pieces of satellites, old rocket ship parts, even pieces of paint that have come off spacecraft. And there's been lots of weirder stuff, too, that orbited earth for a time. Like, a spatula that an astronaut accidentally dropped, a camera, a lot of frozen astronaut pee, and yes, even a glove. The glove orbited the earth for about a month before eventually burning up in the atmosphere.
Sound Bit 10:14
Bethany Van Delft 10:17
Time's up, but before we go, here's a quick note for the grownups. Thanks for listening to The Ten News. Look out for new episodes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and extras on Saturdays. You can go deeper into today's stories by visiting thetennews.com. The Ten News is a co-production of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter podcasts and is distributed by iHeartRadio. The Ten News creative team is protecting their trash bins from smart cockatoos and includes Katie Hill, Tracey Crooks, Pete Musto, and Andrew Hall. Our production director is Jeremiah Tittle and executive producers are Donald Albright and show creator, Tracy Leeds Kaplan. I'm Bethany Van Delft, and thanks for listening to The Ten News.
A glove orbiting around Earth. I wonder if that's where all my lost socks are.
Sources for this episode:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/19/opinions/jeff-bezos-space-flight-blur-origin-lincoln/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/11/tech/richard-branson-virgin-galactic-space-flight-scn/index.html
https://apnews.com/article/jeff-bezos-space-e0afeaa813ff0bdf23c37fe16fd34265
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/what-virgin-galactic-milestone-flight-means-for-the-future-of-tourists-in-space
https://apnews.com/article/2020-tokyo-olympics-sports-science-tokyo-bbf8384d1f10d37b89daec66b1df48b5
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2945868-cleveland-guardians-unveiled-as-new-nickname-with-new-logo-and-design
https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/22/australia/cockatoos-trash-can-study-intl-hnk-scli-scn/index.html
https://www.wired.com/2009/02/spacestuff/
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/news/orbital_debris.html
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/hq/library/find/bibliographies/space_debris
