To Infinity and Beyond 🚀

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Episode 81 Description

🚀 We’re blasting off to explore some out of this world space news! We learn what NASA rover Perseverance has been up to since it landed on Mars. 👨🏼‍🚀 Then, host Bethany Van Delft is joined by NASA Astronaut, photographer, and former Commander of the International Space Station, Terry Virts, to talk all things space! 🔭 We discuss some recent headlines. 🪐 Plus, test your knowledge with the trivia question of the day! ☄️

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Sources for this episode

Main story:

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/05/04/993519402/pfizer-says-fda-will-soon-authorize-covid-19-vaccine-for-12-15-age-group

TRANSCRIPT:

Various Voices 0:00

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Bethany Van Delft 0:06

It's May 11, I'm Bethany Van Delft, and this is The Ten News, where we get the lowdown on what's up in this world and via you know it today we're a blessing off to explore some out of this world Space News. So let's get to The Ten.

Things are looking up when it comes to exploring space, especially on Mars, where NASA recently landed a rover named Perseverance. But Perseverance didn't come to the Red Planet alone, the rover arrived with a cool sidekick attached to its belly. A robot helicopter named Ingenuity. Ingenuity may only be four pounds and stand less than two feet tall, but it just accomplished something no other Earth robot has. It became the very first powered aircraft to fly on another planet.

A Kid 1:12

Wow.

Bethany Van Delft 1:13

Ingenuity had to be cleverly engineered to soar through Mars, the sky, the atmosphere there is very thin, so they give it special carbon filter blades that spin much faster than a regular helicopters blades here on Earth. The little robot also has to withstand extreme temperatures at night, it could get down to negative 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Ingenuity also powers itself it has solar panels that it uses to charge up for a flight. Ingenuity was only supposed to take four flights but they were so successful that NASA decided to extend the helicopters mission. Scientists hope to use this camera to take pictures from the sky, not only for scientists to study, but to scout ahead for its robot companion Perseverance. Ingenuity is boldly going where no other Earth robot has gone before. And we at The Ten News, are wishing this little helicopter a safe flight. Robots aren't the only ones out on important space missions. today. I'm talking with Terry Virts, a former astronaut and commander of the International Space Station, and I am so excited that thank you so much for joining us.

Terry Virts 2:38

Yeah, it's great to be with you guys.

Bethany Van Delft 2:39

Did you Did you always know like your whole life that you wanted to be an astronaut?

Terry Virts 2:44

When I was in kindergarten, the first book I ever read was one of those cardboard books with like one line per page. And it was about Apollo. So it was about the moon program. And it was, it was the coolest book, I can still remember it, you know what it looked like, and I was hooked.

Bethany Van Delft 3:00

What do you have to be really, really good at to become an astronaut.

Terry Virts 3:04

So there's different ways in NASA to be an astronaut. Now, there's also private companies taking tourists into space, maybe starting this year. So for that, you just need money, you just need to be able to pay for your ticket. But if you want to be a NASA astronaut, you know a real, you go and live for six months, and you're doing science and research, you have to have a technical college degree. So something in math or science or engineering or medicine, something like that. And astronauts come from different backgrounds. I was a fighter pilot and test pilot. But there's doctors, there's engineers or scientists, there's people who have different careers, most importantly is you need to have some type of what NASA calls operational experience. Because when you're in space, you're not like writing equations on a blackboard, you're actually doing things and so they want people who have done things, you know, with their hands, maybe risky things. And before they pick you to be an astronaut.

Bethany Van Delft 4:02

Yeah, I would guess that you have to be okay with being a little bit a little bit frightened and taking risks and feeling confident that you can get through it. What is the longest time what's the longest period of time you've been in space? I like a one stretch.

Terry Virts 4:18

My first spaceflight was two weeks. And then my last spaceflight was 200 days. So you know, over six months was my longest mission.

Bethany Van Delft 4:28

Wow. That's incredible. And what happens when you come back to earth after spending six months in your body getting used to being in space? What happens to your body when you get back to Earth?

Terry Virts 4:41

You know, I was so, I'm a sports guy. And I was I like to play basketball, playing basketball with my son and like, I couldn't even get the basketball to the rim. I felt so heavy. It was just like, Oh, I was so heavy. And I was like, Oh, the ball wouldn't even get to the rim. So you feel heavy and you feel dizzy? Just Really like, oh, the world was spinning. But my body recovered really quickly. I for some reason I was it's like I was made to fly in space.

Bethany Van Delft 5:10

You are a commander of a space station. What does that mean?

Terry Virts 5:13

It's kind of like being the captain of an airliner. You know, when I talk about leadership, most people are going to be followers a lot more than they're going to be leaders. So the first thing you got to do is learn how to be a good follower before you can be a leader. And then when you're a leader, you have to understand who your audiences is so like if the people you're leading are young, they don't have any experience. They don't know what they're doing. You need to tell them what to do. But then when you have a team or that people know what they're doing, and they're experienced, then you need to let them run things and stay out of their hair. So your leadership needs to change based on the team that you're leading. Absolutely.

Bethany Van Delft 5:49

That's a, that's such a, that's such good insight for leading anything, right. It's so great to have you with us. Now we have a few questions sent in by our Ten'ers.

Jordan 6:07

Hi, my name is Jordan and I live in San Francisco, California. And my question for you guys is how do astronauts entertain themselves?

Terry Virts 6:17

Well, so for me, I was mostly busy, like every minute for six months, I had a lot of work to do. But one of the things that I did like in the evenings after dinner, I was a photography guy. They tell me I took the most ever pictures in space. I like baseball, so I watched a lot of baseball, or I listened to a show called car talk. It is the funniest radio show of all time.

Alex 6:41

Hi I'm Alex, and I have question for the astronaut. What do you feel like when you take off?

Terry Virts 6:47

So the first thing you feel is that you hear the engines and they are loud. It's a roar like nothing I've ever heard. And then when the rocket lifts off the launch pad, you're accelerating. So it's kind of like being in a car when you slip up when you when you slam on the gas. And you're just smashed back. Only the space shuttle and the Soyuz got up to 3Gs, so three times your body weight. So that's kind of like laying on the ground and having three of your best friends lay on top of you. Just smashing you down. It's hard to breathe, you have to push out your chest in order to let the oxygen in. And so you feel acceleration. You hear this amazing noise. And the shuttle has solid rocket motors. So it's like somebody grabbing you and just shaking you so you know the sound the acceleration, the vibration is pretty amazing.

Lily 7:41

Hi, I'm Lily, I'm nine years old. Have you been to a planet Mars?

Terry Virts 7:47

I have not. In fact, no human ever has. But we have sent drones there which is pretty cool. These rovers and NASA just today, the day we're recording this, flew the first ever helicopter. So it's the first ever airplane on another planet, which is so cool. Nobody's ever been to Mars. So hopefully someday the kids listening to this might be the first ones to go there.

Rose 8:09

Hi, I'm Rose, I'm I'm seven years old. What is the coolest thing you've seen in space?

Terry Virts 8:16

Our planet. I saw so much, you know the galaxy is so cool. But just seeing Earth and there's so many things about it. And so seeing the sunrise and sunset seeing the moon rise and Moon sets, seeing the Bahamas and the snow of Russia and Canada and the mountains of the Alps in the Himalayas in the Rockies. So anyway, there's just there's so many things I could talk for hours.

Charlotte 8:44

Hello, my name is Charlotte. And I'm 10 years old, I wanted to ask you what going up to space is like during COVID.

Terry Virts 8:52

You know the funny thing about that I actually I wrote a short book last year about how being in space was similar to being stuck on earth in COVID because when I was there, we had three cargo ships back to back to back blew up. And so the station was all of a sudden low on supplies. And when the second one blew up it was Russian progress. They delayed our replacement crew because they didn't want to launch the rocket until they knew what the problem was and was sure it was safe. So they didn't want to send us back to Earth until the replacement crew got there. So they basically said you're stuck in space until we can launch the replacement crew. So we were stuck in the space station. We didn't know how long it was going to last. We were low on supplies. And there was just a lot of similarities between being stuck in space and being stuck down here in COVID. So my advice was, give yourself a schedule. Be sure you're getting physical exercise. Keep a good attitude, you know, this is not going to last forever.

John Lee 9:53

Hi, my name is John Lee. I'm eight years old and I want to know what it looks like looking Down to Earth from space. Thanks!

Terry Virts 10:04

Well, it is amazing. And that like I was talking about earlier, there's just so many different things to see. So really, every time you look at Earth, it's a different thing. You know, mountains or oceans or snow or ice, or nighttime and nighttime. the thunderstorms are amazing. You see these lightning, especially over Africa, and South America and the South Pacific, these tropical places, there's always lots of thunderstorms, and they're amazing.

Bethany Van Delft 10:31

This is from a parent. Kelly wants to know, how do you go to the bathroom?

Terry Virts 10:41

From a parent not from the kid.

Bethany Van Delft 10:43

Not from a kid!

Terry Virts 10:45

Yeah, look every human needs to do so there. The answer is very carefully. Because you don't want to be the person to make a mess. And the other the real bottom line is it's it's it's airflow. So on Earth, you have gravity, gravity makes everything go in the right direction. In space, yet, you need airflow. So they have these vacuums. They have a hose for number one. And then basically a can for number two, then one of these cargo ships. You know, every few months one comes back to earth and so if you ever see like a progress or a ISS cargo vehicle coming back to Earth, we call it deorbiting. And you see a big streak across the the looks like a shooting star, you'll know what that streak is made out of.

Bethany Van Delft 11:34

It is a poop streak.

Terry Virts 11:37

A shooting poop star

Bethany Van Delft 11:38

A shooting poop star. Wow. Thank you so so, so much for doing this with us. It's so exciting to have you with us.

Terry Virts 11:47

Thanks for having me. This is really cool. Hope the kids enjoy it.

Bethany Van Delft 11:50

Can't get enough about astronauts? Make sure to check out our episode this Saturday for more super space science and an extended interview with Terry. Now that we're space ready, let's check in on what else is going on in the world. The Coronavirus vaccine is set to roll out to even more Americans. This week, the FDA is expected to announce that the Pfizer vaccine will be available to kids ages 12 to 15. Yes, it's an important step toward getting back to normal. That's what I'm talking about. Speaking of important science, pasta lovers everywhere have something to celebrate. Engineers have created a new kinds of pasta that starts out flat, but then changes shape in boiling water. The creators hope that these space saving noodles could help a disaster sites or even be used in meals for astronauts.

A Kid 12:47

Excellent.

Bethany Van Delft 12:48

Oh my gosh, there's just so much cool stuff happening with space. Last week SpaceX successfully landed a prototype of a ship they hope will one day go to the moon and even to Mars. Give Perseverance a high five when you get there. The Rockets soared six miles into the sky and did some aerial maneuvers before touching safely back down. Lucky you it's:

Sound Bit 13:21

What, what, what's the big idea?

Bethany Van Delft 13:24

Trivia on The Ten. The weather on other planets is completely out of this world. On Uranus and Neptune, what kinds of weather do scientists think happens? Is it A) thunderstorms too quiet for humans to hear, B) rain made out of diamonds or C) tornadoes made out of ice?

Did you guess it? The answer is B. Scientists think it rains solid diamonds. The super high pressure of both Uranus and Neptune combined with the chemical compounds that make up these giant planets can create diamonds.

A Kid 14:17

Wow.

Bethany Van Delft 14:18

Since we haven't actually made it out there to see for ourselves. Diamond rain is still just the theory. But we know these sparkly showers are possible because they've actually been recreated in the lab. So if you ever get a chance to visit these planets, make sure to grab an umbrella like a super strength Vibranium umbrella. Time to head back down to earth. That's the end of The Ten News for today. But you can catch new episodes on Tuesdays Thursdays and extras on Saturdays. The tell is is a co production of Small But Mighty Media in collaboration with next chapter podcasts and distributed by iHeartRadio. The Ten News creative team is totally spaced out and includes Kate Hale. Welcome Kate! Tracey Crooks, Pete Musto, Jenner Pascua, Stephen Tompkins and Sarah Olender. Our production director is Jeremiah Tittle and our executive producers are Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan. If you have any questions about the show, have a story idea or a fun fact you want to share. Email us at Hello at thetennews.com. And if you want to keep tabs on Mars robots, perseverance and ingenuity, I know I do. Check out our website at www.thetennews.com to find links and more. And don't forget to subscribe rate and review The Ten News on Apple podcasts I Heart Radio, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Bethany Van Delft, and thanks for listening to The Ten News. I wonder if it does rain diamonds on Uranus. If Uranians give raindrops as engagement rings, I gotta go think that went over. See you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai