Fine issued for space junk…littering space.

0:00 Speaker 1 With us today is doctor Stephen Kates, otherwise known as doctor Sky. And he is one smart guy and I enjoy listening to him. Every Sunday. I look up in the sky and I scratched my head. I said, what the heck is up there? But doctor but Steve Kates tells us what’s up there? Steve, what’s the big stories

0:21 this week?

0:22 Speaker 2 Well, John Way, really a jam pack program here on the Cats Roundtable. But let’s talk a little bit about something happened closer to home and space. So, the first time in history the FCC at least has issued a fine toward a company that had a large space satellite up there for communications. It’s one of the Dish network

0:41 satellites known as EchoStar seven. Now this is unprecedented. We all talk about the propensity of space debris and junk in the upper atmosphere and out in space. But what they did they issued one hundred and fifty thousand dollars fine.

0:55 But you really can’t blame the good folks that Dish because here’s what the backstory is. In twenty twelve, they pledged to elevate the satellite to one hundred and ninety miles to move it up and away from what might be considered a you know, potential debris field. Well, they did the best they could and this at the time,

1:13 this satellite, John was exempt from any regulations. So DISH has a good track record overall on keeping these spacecraft you know, in proper orbit. But it’s interesting. It’s the first time in history that we’re seeing a fine issued on people that have space assets. Is not an incredible story to begin.

1:31 Speaker 1 With, Well, they had to start sometime. I mean, who’s going to be issuing mortgages for the homes they’re going to build up in the moon in twenty thirty five.

1:42 Speaker 2 Absolutely, John, Well, here’s another fact to it, because we move on to another subject that this is incredible. European Space Agency says that there’s over one million pieces of space degree that are larger than one centimeter. So obviously we’re needing this this type of control in space. And you’re so right and so many other people. You can’t

2:02 have a highway that’s littered with debris if you expect to get through it. But that’s a whole other story. As we move forward on the brighter side.

2:10 Speaker 1 We need one big satellite sanitation truck.

2:16 Speaker 2 Well, I think that’s in the works. We’ve been talking about this in previous editions here on the Cats round Table, that there are probably spacecraft. I don’t know for certain. I don’t think anybody really knows that are going to be like large vacuum cleaners to suck up a lot of this space debris. But as I mentioned before, John,

2:34 on a brighter note, the space program celebrates its sixty sixth anniversary as we move on from October fourth, nineteen fifty seven, with that tiny little Soviet spacecraft which we all know is foot nick Warm and that herald in the space program. But John, isn’t that amazing in just sixty six years, Look where we are today. It’s an

2:53 amazing amount, a big leap of technology, totally mind boggling and amazing to me, and I’m sure so many people out there. What say you on that?

3:05 Speaker 1 I think we have to keep going. But there’s a couple of problems. Like me and you discussed, there’s some fundamental problems about putting human beings out there without solving the radiation problem upon the human beings.

3:22 Speaker 2 Absolutely, Jenn, we talked about this, and I know doctor Michelos and his expertise. He talked about it even more in specifics, the radiation problem that we have that when we send astronauts male and female out and maybe even animals out into space. These are some of the concerns that we really do have. But there’s something else going

3:41 on that’s interesting here. There was going to be a launch earlier this week of another NASA space probe heading out to an asteroid. This one’s been delayed till October the twelve. It’s called the psych Mission. It’s a most amazing asteroid that this spacecraft is headed to. How about an asteroid that’s really almost one hundred percent made of

3:59 mal metal, nickel, iron, precious metals, gold, maybe even diamonds. This object over a mile across. But what’s going on about this is this spacecraft will hopefully rendezvous and maybe in the future, who knows, maybe we’ll be starting this asteroidal mining program. John. They’re alleging in real dollars that the value of this asteroid could be getting over to

4:22 this number, ten quadrillion dollars. What’s that at ninety times the world’s one hundred and ten trillion dollar you know, total value of all the things that are produced in the entire world. Wouldn’t that be amazing if we could start doing astoidal mining and hopefully bring it down to a price that’s affordable for the future of mankind. That’s incredible.

4:44 Speaker 1 It is incredible. But when you have that much supply, the price goes down, so the numbers will change a little bit.

4:51 Speaker 2 Absolutely. We always go with the mystery of the week. John, here’s one that’s really fascinating again. The James Webb telescope doing an incredible job. The things that they’re discovering thirteen hundred plus light years away is the Orion nebula. People can actually see it as Orion rises and a pair of binoculars. Deep within this Orion nebula is some group

5:11 of four little tiny stars called a trapezium. And what’s inside there that the James Webbs finding are these little binary objects called jumbos. They’re larger than the planet Jupiter, but smaller than brown dwarf stars. And what’s so odd about it is they’re probably early evolution stars. Basically, simply, John, it’s a birthplace of stars, but we don’t know why

5:33 they’re stuck together. They’re like little blobs out in space. But don’t call them little, right, They’re tremendous in size. They’re early stars. The great work that the James web tolescope is doing is just totally mind boggling. We could go on for hours about it here on the Cat’s Roundtable, but I find that amazing. I mean, the protostars that

5:53 are that close to us that we can actually see that far away.

5:58 Speaker 1 Well, there’s so many miss that there. My only dream is that me and you live long enough to see somebody’s mystery solved.

6:06 Speaker 2 I hope so, John. And then closing the Live Sky, I want to remind the listeners of the entire Cats Round Table across the nation and around the world, in mostly the main main fifty states. Here in the United States, particularly the continue WITHUS states east to west, we get a rather interesting annular solar eclipse that passes through six

6:27 western states on Saturday morning, October the fourteenth, and we’ll have in a few days, we’ll have an update at WABC radio dot com the Doctor Sky Experience. Let everybody know how to see it, but always remember this. For this particular eclipse, it’s called a ring of fire because the moon is too small to cover the whole Sun,

6:46 so you really do need those safe, protective solar glasses and a really cool way to do it. John. We do this with a lot of our education for children is you take a basic Saltee cracker, that’s saltee cracker that has the thirteen holes. Hold that cracker as your son is to the back of you, and that cracker

7:05 in one hand, and a sheet of paper beyond left. The light of those little holes in the saltine cracker during the eclipse, you know what you’re going to see, thirteen little crescent shaped eclipses, which is totally amazing kids loved and people of all ages. It’s always amazing John to talk about these subjects as what we open people’s

7:24 minds on Sunday on the Cat’s Round Table. And it’s a privision honor to be here.

7:28 Speaker 1 Thank you so much, Steve Kates, thank you for opening our minds and making us wonder about things. And God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you so much.

7:40 Speaker 2 Have a good morning. Thank you, thank you,