Cosmic Queries: Space Tourism

Book passage to the final frontier with Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-host Leighann Lord. Learn about space elevators, get tourism tips for Mars, and find out how not to vomit in your spacesuit.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Welcome to StarTalk, your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now.

• 0:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Welcome to StarTalk Radio. I'm your host, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. My day job is as director of the Hayden Planetarium here in New York City, which is part of the American Museum of Natural History. And this is StarTalk Cosmic Queries. I've got with me LeAnn Lourd, comedian extraordinaire. LeAnn, welcome to StarTalk.

• 0:44Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 0:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Not your first rodeo here?

• 0:46Speaker 01

  No, not at all.

• 0:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yes, I got you just because we got some fun stuff. We solicit questions from our listeners.

• 0:53Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 0:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  From many places, from Facebook, from our Twitter stream. You can like us on Facebook, of course, if you find us there, StarTalk Radio, our Twitter stream, StarTalk Radio. So that's all we're going to do is explore the universe.

• 1:08Speaker 01

  We're just having queries today.

• 1:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Through the urges of those who listen in. So this is our give back to our listening audience. So just let the record show, let the record note, LeAnn Lourd, a professional stand-up comedian, is also a geek.

• 1:22Speaker 01

  I am a geek.

• 1:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, card-carrying.

• 1:24Speaker 01

  Card-carrying, not apologetic at all.

• 1:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Not even apologetic.

• 1:27Speaker 01

  No, not at all.

• 1:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Just so we know who you're dealing with here. All right. So you got a question here?

• 1:34Speaker 01

  I do.

• 1:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, let's start right off.

• 1:35Speaker 01

  All right. Well, I have a question, a Facebook question from Lorraine Shelter. I hope, Shetler, I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly, Lorraine. And the question is, do you think private companies are going to be the main pioneers of space tourism and exploration, rather than governments? And if so, I love this part, do you think we'll evolve into the Ferengi?

• 1:56Speaker 01

  That's a heck of a jump.

• 1:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, so, so, so all these questions actually were, were category, they're in a category of space tourism.

• 2:04Speaker 01

  Yes, we were talking about space tourism.

• 2:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Good, good. So, I think there's obviously no reason, there's no point for the government to create a tourist industry. That's not their job.

• 2:14Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 2:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right. But what the government can do is create the foundation that would allow industries to then conduct that kind of business. So what does that mean?

• 2:25Speaker 01

  Yes, that's what my face is saying. What?

• 2:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so, uh, what's, what's a good example of this? All right. So when the railroads cut across the United States back in the 19th century,

• 2:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  the United States acquired the land first, okay? Private companies didn't acquire the land.

• 2:45Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 2:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The United States acquired the land and in some cases fought wars over that. All right. So they acquired the land, found out where the mountains were, the valleys, the, it got mapped. Lewis and Clark played a big role in this. Once, once you find out where the friendlies are, the hostiles are, the trade winds are, whatever are the forces that would influence how you might conduct business, the government invests those monies. Then you come later and say, hey, I'm gonna put a, I'm gonna pitch tent there. Because that's safe, because the government demonstrated that. The government owns it. It's part of America. So that's an example of the government doing something first. The government was the first to go into space. They, they, by the way, they tap the creativity of private enterprise to do this.

• 3:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  NASA did not invent everything that got us to the moon. In fact, famously, the LEM, the Lunar Excursion Module, the spider looking device that landed on the moon softly, that was designed and built at Grumman, Long Island.

• 3:43Speaker 01

  Are you serious?

• 3:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If you walk Bethpage, the streets of Bethpage, people still beam today over the fact that the LEM was designed in their backyard at the Grumman plant. And so it, it, it, it, it persists as a cultural point of pride for them. So it's, NASA has always had a relationship with private enterprise. The question is whether private enterprise would lead a step into space rather than government. The government has to do it because for the private enterprise to do something that's expensive, dangerous and unquantified risks means they can't create a capital market valuation of it. You can't say, oh, who's with me as an investor on this thing we've never done before?

• 4:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We don't know how much it'll cost, but it'll be really expensive for sure and you might die. It doesn't.

• 4:34Speaker 01

  Not a lot of first responders on that one.

• 4:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Exactly. So the government does it first and the government issues patents. And like I said, the government finds the trade wins and where how to do it. Once that's done, it then seeds the pathways to private enterprise and the creativity of entrepreneurs. And so, so what I see is private enterprise, sure, creating a tourist industry for the, for low earth orbit. Maybe once we get the pathways figured out to do routinely, take routine trips to the moon. I'd take a vacation. Would you go to the moon? I'd go to the moon. Check it out. I'd go to Mars. You know, so you gotta be able to do it in a way that's reliable and then you create the capital market valuation of it.

• 5:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so for business to take an interest in space, the government is going to have to do it first. Otherwise you'll just simply never get an investor.

• 5:25Speaker 01

  So you think there's more work to be done on the government's side then, or have those pathways really already been?

• 5:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, so the government doesn't need to fund access to low earth orbit. Low earth orbit is where the shuttle goes and things like that. So this with SpaceX, delivering cargo to the space station, that's a private company doing it? That should have happened decades ago. If you ask me, decades ago. I don't need NASA taking me to low earth orbit. We've been there, done that. NASA should be advancing a space frontier.

• 5:51Speaker 01

  Right. What's next?

• 5:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  People say, I need NASA to monitor earth with satellites. That's not advancing a space frontier. Get NOAA to do that, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, which, which has the clever pronunciation NOAA. Because it monitors like floods.

• 6:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's how you pronounce N O A A. It's very, it's very cute. Uh, so, I mean, you tool other agencies, maybe they can better monitor Earth. But NASA conceived as an agency to advance a frontier, a space frontier. And so, and then you see the, what, what's happened behind you to, uh, to private enterprise. Yeah, go for it.

• 6:29Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 6:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Let that be our future.

• 6:31Speaker 01

  And now, are, are you, are you not touching the Ferengi?

• 6:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, the Ferengi.

• 6:35Speaker 01

  Part of that question, were you going to ignore that and I just ruined it?

• 6:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, well, tell me more about the Ferengi. What do you know?

• 6:41Speaker 01

  Uh, well, I always thought of the Ferengi as representing, uh, that very hyper capitalist, uh, side of human nature.

• 6:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Hmm.

• 6:49Speaker 01

  You know, the business at all costs, you know, uh, I, I mean, I, I, will I admit to having the Ferengi rules of acquisition in my possession?

• 6:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Is that right?

• 6:57Speaker 01

  Yes, I will.

• 6:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, okay. So, but as Americans, we kind of bought into the capitalist dimension of our culture.

• 7:03Speaker 01

  Bought in, no pun intended?

• 7:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, pun intended.

• 7:05Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 7:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Not all, no pun intended, are not intended.

• 7:08Speaker 01

  That's true.

• 7:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That was, uh, very pun intended. So, so, uh, once you accept that, I don't have a problem with going to asteroids and mining, mining natural resources and distributing them around the galaxy. There's still some legal issues. Who owns the asteroid? Who owns the materials? Who brings it back?

• 7:26Speaker 01

  Oh, the one with the bigger guns. Come on, Neil.

• 7:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, excuse me.

• 7:30Speaker 01

  God, ah.

• 7:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm sorry, I'm just trying to, so, yeah, that's how the past has done it. But it, it might be that you don't need guns when the resources are unlimited, as they surely are.

• 7:42Speaker 01

  Unlimited resources.

• 7:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In space.

• 7:45Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 7:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  When we come back to StarTalk Radio, more of our cosmic queries, here with Leanne Lord, my delightful co-host.

• 8:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We're back with StarTalk Radio. I'm Neil deGrasse Tyson, and I'm with my co-host, Leanne Lord.

• 8:18Speaker 01

  Hello, everybody.

• 8:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Leanne, spelled L-E-I-G-H-A-N-N, Lord. I say that because she tweets at Leanne Lord.

• 8:25Speaker 01

  I do. Please follow me.

• 8:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I love your word of the day.

• 8:28Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 8:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know, I read it, and I'm thinking, wait a minute, is that the real definition? Or did she just make that up?

• 8:32Speaker 01

  Well, I do both. It's...

• 8:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  See, that's messing with me now.

• 8:35Speaker 01

  It is. It is. I give a real word, a real definition, and then I give a funny definition.

• 8:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 8:39Speaker 01

  An alternate, as I call it.

• 8:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right. Well, we'll be the judge of whether it's funny.

• 8:42Speaker 01

  That's true. I'm sorry. I just put it out there.

• 8:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, there you go. So you're here helping me talk about, or comment on whether tourism... What is the future of commercial space, really?

• 8:56Speaker 01

  Right.

• 8:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And we're in the cosmic queries part of StarTalk.

• 8:59Speaker 01

  My favorite.

• 9:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah. I think of it as like StarTalk after hours, the cosmic queries. And this is our sort of give back to our listeners, because they wrote in these questions, and I want to make sure that we give them some...

• 9:11Speaker 01

  Well, I love that you guys do that. I mean, the fact that people are emailing in questions means they're listening and they want more information.

• 9:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They want more. That's good.

• 9:19Speaker 01

  That's always great.

• 9:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  To be hungry, we feed you. Yes, we feed you these science biscuits.

• 9:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, you actually said something that sort of piqued me.

• 9:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What's that?

• 9:26Speaker 01

  You were talking about this going on in space and, you know, mining asteroids and who owns that and why not go out there? We have unlimited resources. And I'm like, unlimited?

• 9:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ooh, that piqued you. Well, that work at a bar?

• 9:37Speaker 01

  No.

• 9:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Hey, space has unlimited resources.

• 9:39Speaker 01

  Hi, here's my number.

• 9:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 9:43Speaker 01

  What does unlimited mean?

• 9:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Think about how much of human culture on Earth it turns on an axis of warfare to gain...

• 9:54Speaker 01

  Unlimited?

• 9:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They say that different. Think about how much we invest culturally in gaining access to resources. That if we don't gain access, we then fight a war to acquire.

• 10:07Speaker 01

  Right.

• 10:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, this and America didn't invent this. This has been going on.

• 10:10Speaker 01

  No, we're just.

• 10:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Forever.

• 10:12Speaker 01

  We're just good at.

• 10:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And it started at the watering hole. Oh, I want the water and I now going to deny you access to that water because it's for me. This is all because the resources are limited.

• 10:23Speaker 01

  Right.

• 10:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We go to places where there's unlimited resources, fruit growing on every tree. And they say, oh, that's a peaceful culture. They don't fight each other because they don't have limited resources. Let's get real. We're all human here. All right. Survival is the number one instinct we have.

• 10:38Speaker 01

  Right.

• 10:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Next is reproduction, but survival comes first. And so basically, yeah, you don't want to die.

• 10:44Speaker 01

  Right, right.

• 10:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And then you want more of you. All right. This is the sequence of this, how this comes. So in space, asteroids, for an example, have a way of sorting minerals for us. Okay. So why is most of the iron on Earth in the center? Because it's heavier than all the other elements. So that's it's quite simple that way.

• 11:05Speaker 01

  So get in the gem iron, work it out.

• 11:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah. So there's iron on on Earth's surface. That's a tiny fraction of the iron that's in Earth. Most of it is in the center. When Earth was molten, if you're heavy, you're going to sink to the bottom. All right. And then if you're a little less heavy than that, you're a little higher up than that. So there are asteroids out there that have been through this process. They're fragments of bodies that once were were segmented in this way. That if they were ever molten, the heavy stuff goes to the center. And we have asteroids that are fragments of what was the centers of what were once planets. We call them planetesimals, little planets that formed in the Earth.

• 11:40Speaker 01

  And they're cute. Planetesimals.

• 11:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Planetesimals. And so that means it's pre-sorted. So we can get a rock out there that is mostly iron, platinum, gold, silver, iridium and haul it to Earth. If you get an asteroid like the size of a barn, let's say, and bring it to Earth, it would have more platinum on it than was ever mined in the history of the Earth. So I just give that as an example, that if resources are unlimited, my only hope for peace in space is that if limited resources is the cause of war, of most wars that humans have ever conducted, then unlimited access to resources would render that kind of war obsolete in our future.

• 12:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So space may be the one solution to peace for all mankind.

• 12:30Speaker 01

  That was beautiful.

• 12:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Thank you.

• 12:33Speaker 01

  But now you know, there are gonna be people that are gonna be unhappy about that.

• 12:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Why?

• 12:37Speaker 01

  There are people that make money because things are limited.

• 12:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, no, sure, but you still have to get the resources, right? Yeah, unlimited, you might think, well, that means there's no value to it.

• 12:46Speaker 01

  Oh, no, no.

• 12:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But I'm the one getting the, calling in the damn asteroid, all right? And you want, you can go get your own asteroid. But, and I'm gonna charge you for this, and you're gonna value it by a certain amount.

• 12:56Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 12:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, it has the interesting combination of being unlimited, yet it still requires a provider.

• 13:02Speaker 01

  Right, like my cellphone plan.

• 13:05Speaker 01

  Unlimited, but I still have to pay for it.

• 13:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Exactly. So what else you got?

• 13:10Speaker 01

  All right. Um, oh, I'd love this. I have a Gene Roddenberry question.

• 13:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You are the creator of Star Trek.

• 13:16Speaker 01

  The creator of Star Trek. Um, and this is from, uh, Laili White Oliver. And, uh, she wants to know, uh, Gene Roddenberry believed in science for the sake of the betterment of humanity. Do you?

• 13:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  As do I.

• 13:28Speaker 01

  As, as do we all. So say we all on Battlestar Galactica. Uh, do you think space tourism will help or hinder actual space exploration? And do you think capitalism is the best way to make scientific discoveries?

• 13:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ooh. So, scientific discoveries at their purest have no obvious application to life. That's just, sorry, that's just how that works.

• 13:51Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 13:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  At its purest, it is driven by the curiosity of the unknown.

• 13:57Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 13:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And so there is Michael Faraday in 19th century England, who discovers that a wire passing through a magnetic field, he's got a magnet, you know, a little horseshoe magnet, take a wire, pass it through it, and he can measure the fact that the wire gets current induced through it for having passed through the magnetic field. All right, so he has a little, uh, what's called an ammeter, which measures current. All right? So, so it's kinda cute, cause it makes the meter tip. All right, and he shows this to friends. And it's kinda quaint. It's like, oh, look what I found. If I move the wire, I can, the dial turns and it's in the magnet.

• 14:37Speaker 01

  That makes him sound like such a boring party guest. Oh, don't ask him about the wire, dude.

• 14:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Exactly. So you say, of what good could this possibly bring the world? You might ask. And therein is the foundation for how all electricity is produced. That is the principle of what is functionally a turbine. You, you move, rapidly move wires through a magnetic field, inducing a current in the wire. And that creates electricity that we all take for granted today. And that happened with Faraday and a short segment of wire with an ammeter connected to it and a magnet.

• 15:15Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 15:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And at the time, everyone says, you know, all right, is that what I'm paying you to do? Is that what you, is that what you've done today?

• 15:21Speaker 01

  His wife was like, I asked you to take out the garbage and you out here playing with wires and magnets.

• 15:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so, so you, you can't require the frontier of science to serve the needs of humankind. The serving of the needs of humankind occur later through the mind of clever engineers that say, hey, wait a minute. If you've got that and I can think of, and then I create a machine that then serves the betterment of humanity. My physics professor in college was interested in space. And he discovered this phenomenon called nuclear magnetic resonance. He discovered the fact that a strong magnetic field applied to an atom

• 16:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  can align the particles in the atom's nucleus. That's kind of cool because then the atom behaves slightly differently if you align it one way versus another.

• 16:21Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 16:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And it's kind of a curiosity. Wait a minute, if you can do that with the atom and different atoms have different signatures, and I'm a clever engineer, I'm going to make a new device called. The magnetic resonance imager. Ooh. The very foundation of what allows us to know what's going on inside the human body without cutting you open is based on a principle of physics discovered by an astrophysicist who didn't know or care what was going on inside your body. Okay. So. I'm getting it now. Are we together on this now? I'm following you. Okay, so therefore, since you can't require a company to make money off of your

• 17:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  invention when it just comes off the, off, off the, out of the lab, the government has to fund that. Okay. Once that's funded, it then becomes out and open and available for engineers to take a look at it, who are in the employ of companies who want to exploit it for financial gain. So, yes, governments have to fund the frontier of science. Will space tourism allow that? Yes, because if you do, if you, if you have a hotel in space and it's at zero G, I might have a zero G experiment I want to conduct. So, but you've got the, you've got the platform already because you're making money off of it. So I pay you rent, I, I rent out a room, I bring my experiments, and we're good to go. Room service, room service at zero G?

• 17:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The government didn't have to invent a new kind of airplane to buy cargo space on commercial carriers to carry a US mail, which is the way people used to communicate. They would write. That's for our younger listeners, everybody. To put it in an envelope. So.

• 18:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So anyhow, so yes, once the business goes out there, then science can piggyback those advances. You're listening to StarTalk, the Cosmic Queries Hour, and I'm here with Leanne Lauren. I'm Neil deGrasse Tyson. We'll be right back.

• 18:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We're back at StarTalk Radio, the Cosmic Queries Hour. I'm Neil deGrasse Tyson, and I'm with Leigh Anne Lord. Leigh Anne, you do such noble work in your comedic circles.

• 18:49Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 18:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You get around not only town, but the country, and you've been in the Middle East, working with troops.

• 18:55Speaker 01

  I bring laughter to wherever it is needed.

• 18:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, I like that. So you fill laughter vacuums.

• 19:03Speaker 01

  I never thought of it that way.

• 19:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right. So I've got you because you're my question reader today. I haven't seen any of these in advance, and you're picking them out for me.

• 19:14Speaker 01

  I am, I am.

• 19:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Go for it. These are from our listeners.

• 19:18Speaker 01

  Yes, these are from listeners.

• 19:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And they've sent in questions. In this case, I think they're all from Facebook. But we also get questions from our website, starTalkRadio.net. And, actually, if you like what you hear and you want to pick up archival episodes, you can get it from starTalkRadio.net. There's like a blog on there, and there's fun stuff, and you can leave your comments. But if you're sort of more traditional, and you can find every StarTalk there ever was on iTunes.

• 19:44Speaker 01

  I love that that's the traditional route. That's where we are now, boys and girls. The technology is moving.

• 19:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah. If you're old-fashioned, then you just download iTunes. So what do you got for me?

• 19:57Speaker 01

  All right. I have a question from Brandon Miller, and I love this. This is adorable. He said, "How can we have space tourism when most tourists would be puking everywhere?" Very practical question, sir. We're bringing back the Earth.

• 20:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, so all these questions are space tourism-based. Yes, yes. So, all right, it is known by many, suspected by the rest, that going into space gives you upset stomach. And one of the primary reasons for that is when you're here on Earth, you're in 1G. All right, we live in 1G. If that 1G changes to any other kind of G, your body reacts, your ear canals respond, your brain has to try to reconcile what's going on. And in the effort to do so, you get an upset stomach, motion sickness, it's called. All right. However...

• 20:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Once you have reached the new G in which you're embedded. Alright, so the transition from one G to zero G can give you a very queasy stomach. But once you're in zero G, you can just get accustomed to that. Because the G force is not changing. It's just constant. It's just at a new value. And that new value is zero.

• 21:17Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 21:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, in space tourism, one of the places you might go is orbit. And by the way, when you're in orbit, you're in free fall towards Earth. I don't know if you knew that.

• 21:26Speaker 01

  No, I did not.

• 21:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, so you say, well, how come it doesn't hit?

• 21:29Speaker 01

  So I'm in a bad Tom Cruise movie?

• 21:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So I ask, how come it doesn't hit?

• 21:32Speaker 01

  How come it doesn't hit?

• 21:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because, so how can you fall towards something and never hit it? Because you're going sideways so fast that the very spherical shape of the Earth has curved its surface away from you at the rate you're falling towards it.

• 21:50Speaker 01

  Ah.

• 21:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's why orbit requires such high speed.

• 21:55Speaker 01

  Okay, to keep that.

• 21:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  To keep that balance. And Isaac Newton figured this out in 1686.

• 22:02Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 22:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  He published, well, the pub date is 1687. He published Principia. The, the, the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. That's the full name in Latin. It was published in Latin. And in there, he, well, actually, it was, it was, uh, uh, the math for knowing this is in there. And he would later publish a work called Newton's System of the World. And in there, he describes the very first orbit. Because watch what happens. If you, if you throw, if you throw something horizontally, it falls to the ground, right?

• 22:33Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 22:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alright.

• 22:34Speaker 01

  I thought it was just me, but I've, I've later learned.

• 22:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If you throw it faster, it'll go farther away from you before it hits the ground.

• 22:40Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 22:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But it's falling the whole time. Okay? So now let's throw it even faster. And it goes farther along Earth's surface before it hits. Well, there's a speed with which you can throw it so that it goes so far along Earth's surface, Earth's surf, the curvature of Earth pulls away from it while it falls towards the Earth. And as it keeps that up, it will stay moving parallel to Earth's surface and make a complete orbit around. And if it makes a complete orbit around, it'll stay in orbit. And that is the definition of orbit. And for Earth, that is 17,000 miles an hour. At that speed, you go, you are moving so fast along Earth's surface, the curvature

• 23:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  falls with you. So you're in free fall. When you're in free fall, you are in zero G.

• 23:28Speaker 01

  Okay, I've got to be a geek because that is so hot.

• 23:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That is hot.

• 23:33Speaker 01

  That is amazing.

• 23:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That has got you hot describing this.

• 23:35Speaker 01

  No, I'm relaxed because I can see it.

• 23:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, yes. Okay, so, so that's why astronauts in orbit are weightless, because they're in free fall towards Earth. They're just as weightless as you would be if I put you in an elevator and cut the elevator cable. You're in free fall towards Earth.

• 23:52Speaker 01

  Okay, I could see that too. And that's not as exciting.

• 23:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's not as exciting. Okay, so the tourist destinations that are in orbit, you'd feel queasy getting there because you'd have to drop from one Z to one G to zero G. But if you stayed long enough in zero G, you just get used to it. Your body says, I'm cool with this. Let's keep it. Now, even so, if you don't like zero G, we'll take it to the moon. That's one sixth G. Then you feel superhuman because your muscles that accommodate your body weight on Earth are now accommodating one sixth of that weight on the moon.

• 24:21Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 24:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You could jump high and run fast and do cool things. Go to Mars, that's 40% of Earth's gravity, right? So if you weigh, if you weigh, what, 100, give me some poundage here.

• 24:35Speaker 01

  20?

• 24:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You weigh 20 pounds?

• 24:37Speaker 01

  No, I was adding to the 100.

• 24:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, adding that, right. So if you weigh 100 pounds on Earth, you'd weigh 40 pounds on Mars, and you'd weigh 16 pounds on the moon.

• 24:47Speaker 01

  Hey, ladies.

• 24:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, so pick your spot where you don't get queasy stomach and you're good to go. You're listening to StarTalk Radio. The Cosmic Queries will be right back.

• 25:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We're back on StarTalk Radio. This is the Cosmic Queries, part of the hour. And I'm with Leanne Lord. Leanne, always good to look across the table and see you there.

• 25:24Speaker 01

  Well, that's good. If somebody wants to see me.

• 25:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Comedian extraordinaire. It's great to follow you. I follow you on Twitter and it's, you know, "What city is she in now?"

• 25:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, I know. "Where in the world is Leanne Lord?"

• 25:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  "Where is Leanne? Where the Lord is Leanne Lord?" So you're reading me questions, asking me questions culled from the internet, in this case, Facebook, on space tourism.

• 25:44Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 25:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 25:46Speaker 01

  And the last question was about, you know, people going in space and getting sick. And so I just wanted to understand, are you saying, you know, people will get queasy, like, in the transition, but then get used to it? Will they not get sick now at all? I mean, how?

• 25:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Interesting. Mild motion sickness. Do you know what those symptoms are?

• 26:04Speaker 01

  No.

• 26:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Sleepiness.

• 26:05Speaker 01

  Really?

• 26:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes. That's why, if you want to get a baby to sleep, you put it in a car seat and drive the car around.

• 26:12Speaker 01

  I know people that do that. I just never knew why.

• 26:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's why. And if you're in a... Why are you more prone to sleep in a moving vehicle? Have you noticed that?

• 26:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, I have.

• 26:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 26:23Speaker 01

  Knocked out cold.

• 26:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, knocked out cold. Knocked out cold. And so, the first sign of motion sickness is sleepiness. Okay? So, if the motion sickness is mild, then you just simply go to sleep. So, if you're in space and you're transitioning and you're going one location to another, just see if you can park yourself at that first symptom and just sleep through it.

• 26:47Speaker 01

  Take a nap, everybody.

• 26:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, because if you are in a place where it's zero G and it's fully open and it's pressurized, so you're breathing, and you start throwing up, that's just bad.

• 26:56Speaker 01

  You ate something.

• 26:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then the vomit flies all around, you know, it gets in other people's hair and things. It's not good.

• 27:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, it doesn't make a good first impression.

• 27:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Not good first impression. So, it is possible to grow accustomed to that state, but initially, yeah, you might want to just take a nap. Or or pumped yourself with Dramamine on the way. That's what they did with the vomit comet. You know about the vomit comet?

• 27:19Speaker 01

  Uh, no.

• 27:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You don't know about the vomit comet?

• 27:20Speaker 01

  I don't get out much.

• 27:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, my gosh, you gotta get. Well, you do get out, but maybe you go to the wrong places.

• 27:24Speaker 01

  I'm going to the wrong.

• 27:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The wrong hovels, right? So there's a, in fact, there's a company called Zero G. Uh, that might have a new name now, but there's several organizations that have a plane that they charter. You charter this plane, all the seats are taken out and the the walls are padded. And you're you're in there, you're strapped in until the thing takes off. And it goes in these loops, these parabolic trajectories. So it goes to a very high part of an arc. And then it falls to earth, okay? And in the fall, remember I said in that previous segment?

• 28:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 28:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If you're in free fall, you are weightless. So this goes in a free fall dive towards earth. And you get about fifteen, twenty, thirty seconds of weightlessness. And it's called, and it got dubbed the vomit comet. But lately, they they ask you, are you queasy? Because you'll know because you've been to amusement parks.

• 28:17Speaker 01

  Right, right.

• 28:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If you know you're at risk, you know, right? So they pump you with Dramamine. They make sure you don't eat for, you know, six, eight, twelve hours before then.

• 28:24Speaker 01

  Okay, I'm out.

• 28:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So now, so now your stomach has got nothing in it to give. And so now they've reduced the sort of the vomiting factor and you just have fun.

• 28:32Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 28:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And you know what's really cool is you bring a cat into Zero G. Because cats always want to right themselves when you let go of them so that they land on their feet.

• 28:42Speaker 01

  Oh, you are mean.

• 28:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  When there is no gravity factor, what does the cat do? Yeah, we've got this footage of that. Go, go Google.

• 28:48Speaker 01

  Why are we punting? We have Schroeder. How do you say that?

• 28:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The Schroeder's cat?

• 28:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, we have that cat. We have the zero vomit comet cat. This is bad.

• 28:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What it means is, deep down, we actually love dogs better. It's because the cats are always the experimental. The cats are the guinea pigs.

• 29:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you have another question?

• 29:06Speaker 01

  I do, I do have another question. Um, let's see. And I guess, yeah, you can answer this one. You should. Is, uh...

• 29:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If I can't, I will tell you.

• 29:14Speaker 01

  That this is true. Um, Mark Russell, um, from Facebook wants to know, is a space elevator feasible at our current state of technology?

• 29:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No.

• 29:23Speaker 01

  Okay. Next question.

• 29:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, so space elevator, just for those who, who didn't know. The, a big concern in space travel is what, how, how do you get to space really cheaply? And it turns out, if you orbit higher and higher around the Earth, it takes you longer to complete that orbit.

• 29:39Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 29:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, because you need that right speed to be in orbit. So low Earth orbit is 17,000 miles an hour. As you go higher up, a lower speed will enable you to sustain in orbit. There is a magic distance, it's not magic, there's a special distance at which your orbital speed equals the rotation rate of the Earth. So you will appear to hover over a specific spot of the Earth. It takes you 24 hours to complete an orbit, just the way it takes 24 hours for Earth to rotate. At that distance, you in principle could just lower down a cable. And then you climb up the cable and get into Earth orbit. You don't need engines, you don't need launch pads.

• 30:18Speaker 01

  Right.

• 30:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That would be the space elevator. But now, the, the cable has to be strong enough to hold up its own weight. And right now, the carbon nanotubes are the only thing that can do it. And the longest one of these, those that we've ever made is like a centimeter long, and it's gotta be 23,000 miles. The answer is no. We'll be right back. You're listening to StarTalk Radio.

• 30:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We are back on StarTalk Radio. This is the Cosmic Queries part of our show. Leanne Lord, you're my co-host, my guest co-host for this.

• 31:09Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 31:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Thanks, thanks, thanks for doing this.

• 31:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, glad to be back.

• 31:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah, so, um...

• 31:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know, so your previous question was about space elevators.

• 31:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. And you said something that, and forgive my ignorance, I wasn't sure I understood. You were talking about that we don't have a cable strong enough to, you know, hold up its own weight, far less attaching an elevator to it, so.

• 31:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, yes, that's why we're not there yet.

• 31:33Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 31:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, a space elevator is essentially parked over Earth's surface at a distance of 23,000 miles from Earth's center.

• 31:40Speaker 01

  Right.

• 31:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And at that distance, it orbits once per day, which means it hovers over the equator at that distance. So, you hoist up a cable, you block air traffic from going through there.

• 31:52Speaker 01

  Yeah. Hey, guys, go around.

• 31:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, go around. We don't want to snare airplanes that go through it. And then, so, the cable has to be first that long, it has to be able to hold up its own weight, and then you attach an elevator to it, and then have people in the elevator in their overnight bags and whatever else. So, it's a really cheap way to get to space, but the technology isn't ready for it. We think carbon nanotubes, which is a very, it's a new form of carbon, discovered 10, 15 years ago, that is extremely powerful and very light. And when we pioneer that, that'll transform construction materials, right? One of the greatest challenges of a big building is can it hold up its own weight?

• 32:30Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 32:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay?

• 32:31Speaker 01

  I got you.

• 32:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is why bottom walls, look, historically, bottom walls are thicker than walls at higher floors, until steel was invented, but then you need, you know, structures to hold it, so the base doesn't buckle out.

• 32:42Speaker 01

  Right.

• 32:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, if you have very light materials, you don't have that problem. So, space elevator would benefit from the same advances that would take place if we pioneer the carbon nanotubes. And it's pure carbon stretched into tubes, and it's way stronger than steel or anything that exists today. So, yeah, there is some hope there.

• 33:00Speaker 01

  Okay. Not yet available at Home Depot.

• 33:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What we really need, not really available, what we really, yeah, get rolls of it. But what we really need is someone to compose the space elevator music. Because that's a long ride, 23,000 miles.

• 33:13Speaker 01

  The space elevator DJ job is now open. How long would that trip take, though?

• 33:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 33:18Speaker 01

  How fast is that elevator going?

• 33:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, I don't know how, you know, I'd want it to be fast. Right?

• 33:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  23,000 miles, that's almost as far as the entire circumference of the Earth. So if you're going the speed of an airplane, how long does it take to go around the Earth? It takes, uh, how long is that? It takes essentially a day to completely travel around the Earth. All right? In a very, in a Mach 1 speed airplane. So, uh, but your view is constantly changing. Earth is getting smaller in the distance.

• 33:45Speaker 01

  Right, right.

• 33:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know, it's, you can, and plus you can have entertainment, you know.

• 33:48Speaker 01

  Hey!

• 33:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's not, the act of taking the space elevator itself is part of the vacation.

• 33:55Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 33:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right. You can, you can do that.

• 33:57Speaker 01

  Well, yeah, I say that, but people get bored quick. You know, it used to be riding in an airplane was exciting, and now it's passe.

• 34:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so you give them a video game, and they're just looking at the video game.

• 34:05Speaker 01

  Exactly, exactly.

• 34:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So what else you got? You got other questions?

• 34:08Speaker 01

  I do have other questions.

• 34:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right.

• 34:10Speaker 01

  Let's see here.

• 34:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In this, the cosmic query.

• 34:13Speaker 01

  Here we go, here we go. We have a question from Sheridan McGowan on, from Facebook. And Sheridan wants to know, where would humans land on Mars if we ever contemplated landing there, and why? Uh, it isn't quite space tourism, but it's spacey. But is it spacey?

• 34:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, I think of Mars as the, the American Southwest, all right? There are places where, there's the Grand Canyon.

• 34:37Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 34:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There's beautiful structures that are, that look great in, in the setting sun. There's a painted desert. There's, there are different terrains that attract different kinds of interests. Mars, Mars has the largest volcano in the solar system.

• 34:55Speaker 01

  Really?

• 34:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Olympus Mons, which is Latin for just Mount Olympus.

• 34:59Speaker 01

  Right.

• 34:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right? And... What the tradition over the years had been to name geologic features, in this case, Marsologic features, but features on the moon as well, after corresponding features here on Earth. So, for example, there are the Apennine Mountains on the mar- on the moon, and we have Apennine Mountains here on Earth. So, corresponding, so there's Mount Olympus in Greece, there's Mount Olympus on Mars. Got it. So, so maybe you're a mountain, mountain volcano person, so there'd be a tourist jaunt to there. If you're, if you're into valleys and, and, and riverbeds, you'd go to Valles Marineris, which is Mariner Valley. And, so, so, so Mars is not just one destination, it's, you can go to floodplains, places where

• 35:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  water had once flowed, and you have river deltas. You can go to lake beds that have long ago evaporated, leaving salty residue at its bottom. Salty, what's called precipitate, if you want to be chemical about it. And no different from like Salt Lake in Utah. Right. That used to be a liquid lake, the water evaporated, leaving the salt behind. So, it's, it's a geologist's dream place, but also if you're just simply a tourist, it would be stunning. And you can, you know what I would look, I would not only look down, I would look up, and I'd take a picture of Earth in the Martian sky. Oh, now you're piquing my interest. Yeah, yeah, and Mars actually has two moons of its own, Phobos and Demos. They're kind of lame moons, they're like- Lame?

• 36:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, completely lame, like, one of them is like eight miles across, and the other is like fifteen, they're, they're tiny, they're like- You're so elitist. I'm sorry, my moons should be round, excuse me. Excuse me. All right, you know, these are like, these are like Idaho potatoes shaped, and damn near as small. So, so there's a lot to do, a lot to see, and Mars has cool dust storms, too. So, yeah, I would go to all those places on ten different trips. I'm gonna wait till they get a spa. You've been listening to StarTalk Radio. Leanne, thanks for being my guest- Oh, thank you, thank you. ... host yet another time. StarTalk Radio is brought to you in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation. I bid you farewell, and as always, keep looking up.