SpaceX, Voyager and the Untold Stories of Apollo 11

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday Morning with us take every Sunday. Steve Kates, otherwise known as doctor Sky. Well, what are you going to do to tickle on minds today, h Steve?

0:09 Speaker 2 Well, John, we’ll go from the ground to space and lots of good news. Happy Sunday. We begin with great news from SpaceX. Their next big Starship thirteen launch will be deploying some brand new Starlink higher technology satellites. They’ve also got some improvements on new launchpad to launch the most powerful rocket in the world. And John, here’s something interesting.

0:31 This is the beginning of SpaceX’s design on putting orbital data centers around the Earth. The controversy continues. Lots of people are getting upset on the ground because of the water usage, the electric usage. Starlink and SpaceX will be developing as time goes on. Not tomorrow, orbital data centers.

0:52 And one bit of news, John, that’s really again really in the front forefront of the news, the SpaceX organization and an astronaut named Chun Wang. This is a billion billionaire crypto gentlemen in China. He will be officially on the first starship mission to the planet Mars. Now, this is something amazing it’ll be on a two year mission.

1:13 He’s already signed the deal, so I find that very fascinating. So Elon must be looking to prepare really soon here who knows when, John, But we have somebody that’ll be on the two year mission to Mars. That’s incredible.

1:25 Speaker 1 I mean, that’s hard to believe because I still think we’re far away from it from a two year mission to Marson. It’s still hard to believe.

1:38 Speaker 2 Steve, I believe you. It’s all these projections, but I think we have to give SpaceX a lot of credit. But John, here’s something really mind boggling. The Voyager one spacecraft that was launched back in nineteen seventy seven. In November, we’ll cross a distance away from our planet, the farthest man made object ever, sixteen point one billion miles away.

2:00 It’s considered in the world of astronomy one light day away from Earth. But what’s more amazing the small radios that are on there. John, They only send out twenty watts of energy. Twenty wants of radio energy. What’s not like it’s like the amount of wattage that a refrigerator light bulb has. And the six little computers on there

2:20 have a collective amount of some sixty eight kilopipes. What’s amazing that spacecraft continues to send us data. What an amazing engineering marvel of days. Guy.

2:30 Speaker 1 How long is it supposed to stay alive?

2:33 Speaker 2 John? Nobody really knows there’s a nuclear core in there, and once that, of course fades away. I would say, according to the best research I’ve gotten in talking and spoken with scientists, we’re talking still about another five years, maybe more. But unfortunately, when you have a twenty WoT signal coming back to the Earth again, it takes twenty

2:54 four hours for you to send a spacecraft signal to it, and then it takes another twenty four hours to get get back. So after that, John, nobody knows that goes into the void of space, into the unknown. Most amazing.

3:07 Speaker 1 I met the Greek doctor that launched it in nineteen seventy seven, was it? I had dinner with him in Athens about two years ago, and he did come on my radio show and mean, you should have money getting together.

3:23 Speaker 2 That would be an honor. John. We had John Lamberg on our program that we’re doing on the weekends not too long ago. Who’s he? He’s the man that worked with Carl Sagan and they created that Golden record that’s on there. Aliens do or intelligence out in universe ever finds it. It actually has from its time and history some of the most incredible technology

3:44 pictures of what happened here on the Earth and all kinds of recordings, and it’s so amazing. But John, here’s finally the mystery of the week. We all know we celebrated the Apollo eleven landing on the Moon, but how about some trivia that people may not know. Well. Neil was coming down, Neil Armstrong down the ladder. People think

4:01 it was a simple release coming down the last roung. He had to jump off the last rung and that was about a three and a half foot drop onto the surface of the Moon. Even more interesting, buzz Aldron, the second astronaut John to come out of the Lunar lander.

4:17 He had to be reminded by Neil Armstrong not to close Eagle’s hatch because if he did, they had to leave it open a slight bit. But he had to be reminded or else it could have locked him out.

4:27 That is incredible. And here’s another bit of information that I find fascinating. The flag on the Moon that we all talked about and saw the astronauts plant there may have been purchased by a NASA employee, you ready, John, at a local Houston Sears store. That’s a trivia about the Moon.

4:47 Speaker 1 Now, you always see it on the Moon. Still, I mean it is still it is, John.

4:53 Speaker 2 It felt well it fell over. Buzz Aldrin said this. When they launched off the surface, they saw the flag. He saw the flag fall down. But here’s really what they think has happened to it. With an intense bombardment of solar energy and powerful players from the Sun, the flag is all washed out, they believe. Well, I won’t

5:10 know until we go back, and it probably has holes in it by now. But still an amazing artifact and one of the last bits of trivia. John. That’s really strange. Buzz Aldrin admitted this. I actually talked to him a number of times about this. When he was leaving a neil to blast off the surface of the Moon, he

5:28 inadvertently backed into one of the relays that were on the panel, and if you clipped it when you’re supposed to, that’s when the rocket would launch. Well, he broke it by accident. So what does buzz Aldrin do he uses a felt tip pen before we had sharpies. Didn’t tell the ground controllers, didn’t want to alarm them. They did

5:47 the countdown. He took the pen and put it inside the little hole, and thank god the rocket motor work and John, just about a week or so ago, that felt tip pen sold that auction, I think over three hundred thousand dollars. That’s a good answer to how these astronauts came back when there could have been a whole

6:06 different end store.

6:08 Speaker 1 Absolutely well, doctor Sky, I enjoyed listening to your show on Friday nights from midnight to two am and Saturday morning and Sunday night, Saturday night until Sunday morning two am, and Friday night till Sunday till Saturday morning two am.

6:25 And keep doing the right things and keep teasing the people’s minds.

6:30 Speaker 2 Well, thank you John for the opportunity. Have a good Sunday morning, and always remember to keep your eyes to the skies. We’ll see you on the air, and thank you for the opportunity