Cosmic Queries: Funding Space Exploration

How important is it to fund space exploration? Find out when Bill Nye, CEO of the Planetary Society, returns as guest host to answer fan questions, along with Eugene Mirman and NASA astronaut Mike Massimino. Read more and

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.

• 0:21Bill Nye?

  Welcome to StarTalk Radio. I'm your host, Bill Nye the Science Guy. And with me today is Eugene Mirman.

• 0:29Eugene Mirman?

  Hello, Bill. Wait, where's Neil?

• 0:30Bill Nye?

  Neil? Neil Tyson, DeGrasse Tyson?

• 0:33Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 0:34Bill Nye?

  He's busy, he's gone. He asked me to sit in, but I'm doing my best to have good posture. Also with us today Eugene is Mike Massimino from NASA, unlike many of us, flown in space. Call him Mass, yeah?

• 0:49Mike Massimino?

  That's good. Call me Mass. Good to be here, Bill. Thanks. How you doing Eugene?

• 0:52Eugene Mirman?

  Good, good to see you, Mike.

• 0:54Bill Nye?

  Now, Mike, you're in New York.

• 0:55Mike Massimino?

  I am. I'm at Columbia University. I'm teaching a space-related course, Introduction to Human Spaceflight.

• 1:03Bill Nye?

  Let me ask you this.

• 1:04Mike Massimino?

  Ask away.

• 1:05Bill Nye?

  This is the introduction to human spaceflight.

• 1:07Mike Massimino?

  That's right.

• 1:08Bill Nye?

  Is there like 200, 210 to 300 level courses? How many courses do I take in human spaceflight?

• 1:14Mike Massimino?

  This is the introduction, so we'll start with this, and then we'll see how this one goes. We're taking it one at a time.

• 1:18Eugene Mirman?

  If you take that class-

• 1:19Mike Massimino?

  If it goes well, we'll see where we want to go from there.

• 1:21Eugene Mirman?

  Is that enough to kind of go in, like, how much more than your class would I need to go into space?

• 1:26Mike Massimino?

  You would need a lot Eugene, but all of us need a lot.

• 1:29Eugene Mirman?

  A lot.

• 1:30Mike Massimino?

  But this will give you the basics of what you need to learn.

• 1:32Eugene Mirman?

  Say I took your class and had, I don't know, 85 billion dollars, would that, would those two things be enough?

• 1:37Mike Massimino?

  With 85 billion, you don't need my class. In fact, I would recommend it in that case-

• 1:41Eugene Mirman?

  I don't want to waste the money.

• 1:42Mike Massimino?

  No, in that case, I would say, "Don't waste your time. If you figure out a way to make 85 million dollars and you want to spend it on a spaceflight, I would go straight to that option."

• 1:50Eugene Mirman?

  Okay.

• 1:51Bill Nye?

  Gentlemen.

• 1:52Eugene Mirman?

  Yes. Sorry.

• 1:54Bill Nye?

  No, it's great. It couldn't be better. This is the Cosmic Queries edition of StarTalk Radio. And we have queries-

• 2:01Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah.

• 2:02Bill Nye?

  From out there, from the social media.

• 2:04Eugene Mirman?

  Yes, from Facebook, Twitter, probably photos on Instagram of questions.

• 2:09Bill Nye?

  The Tumblr, all the things, all the things that kids are using. But they're electric computer machines.

• 2:14Eugene Mirman?

  Exactly.

• 2:14Mike Massimino?

  College kids.

• 2:15Bill Nye?

  Yeah, a lot of, well, we'll see. So- My understanding is Eugene, you know, radio is a visual medium out there. He's got some papers.

• 2:24Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah, I have some papers with people, uh, questions that people wrote in about NASA and planetary science funding, and I'm gonna read them.

• 2:31Bill Nye?

  So, let's try one.

• 2:32Eugene Mirman?

  Let's do it. Will Burke asks, "What is the biggest stumbling block for NASA to get funding? Is it stubborn legislators, science illiteracy, or other factors? What's the best way we can change it?"

• 2:45Bill Nye?

  Mas?

• 2:46Mike Massimino?

  Um, I, I think that NASA does, does get funding. We always could use more.

• 2:53Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah.

• 2:53Mike Massimino?

  I think as in general, you know.

• 2:55Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah.

• 2:55Mike Massimino?

  But I, I think it's just how we, how we value things, you know? If we would value the science that comes out of the space program more, I think people would be willing to, to pay more for it. Exploration, international, I think a lot of people don't understand all the things that NASA does.

• 3:09Eugene Mirman?

  What are, what are?

• 3:10Mike Massimino?

  Like internet, let's just take one thing, international cooperation. You might not think of NASA with international cooperation, but a lot of the, the science programs we have, particularly International Space Station, is international.

• 3:20Bill Nye?

  It's called the International Space Station.

• 3:22Eugene Mirman?

  It might be very hard to make friends with a Russian on this planet, but if you just go a little into space, everybody's friendly.

• 3:28Mike Massimino?

  Well, look about when I was a kid, we weren't necessarily friends with the Russians. The Soviet Union and the US were in a cold war, and now we fly into space with these people all the time. We're really good friends with them. I think, I think that's one benefit that people don't realize.

• 3:42Bill Nye?

  The other thing, everybody, for me, science is important, and I love science, I'm the science guy after all, but what the space program brings us is this optimism. When you have a space program, no matter what country you are, you believe, your society believes, many people believe, that any problem can be solved. If you can put a man on the moon, we can make a car that goes over 100,000 miles. We can do anything. And this is why all these countries you might not think of, of having, having space programs that you fly with.

• 4:10Mike Massimino?

  Yeah.

• 4:10Bill Nye?

  South Africa, what have you, Australia, on the back of the Canadian, Brazil.

• 4:16Eugene Mirman?

  Brazil has a space program?

• 4:17Bill Nye?

  Yeah. Yeah.

• 4:18Mike Massimino?

  Marco Ponce is an astronaut.

• 4:19Bill Nye?

  You hear the tone of his voice?

• 4:21Mike Massimino?

  Yeah.

• 4:21Bill Nye?

  He was incredulous.

• 4:22Eugene Mirman?

  I know, I'm not mad at them, I'm glad.

• 4:24Bill Nye?

  No, no, I didn't, you just didn't believe it. It's crazy. Wow, yes, because they know the value of having people running around in your society doing space, solving space problems.

• 4:34Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah.

• 4:34Bill Nye?

  And the thing for me, as the executive director, CEO of the Planetary Society. Is uh

• 4:41Mike Massimino?

  Charge.

• 4:42Bill Nye?

  Yeah, well, is planetary sciences where these new problems are being solved. Trying to land a car on Mars is an extraordinary undertaking. And so when you go to solve problems that have never been solved before, you just innovate. Can't be helped. Uh, so that's the, the value is selling politicians of all sides of the, of the executive, the judicial and the and the congressional representative on the value of space exploration.

• 5:09Eugene Mirman?

  So that's the, because the last part of that question was what's the best way we can change it? What are like, say

• 5:13Bill Nye?

  Vote.

• 5:13Eugene Mirman?

  Two or three things.

• 5:14Bill Nye?

  You gotta vote.

• 5:15Eugene Mirman?

  Voting.

• 5:16Bill Nye?

  Yeah.

• 5:16Eugene Mirman?

  Vote on the, the way that people vote on particular issues, vote on the issue of science.

• 5:21Bill Nye?

  That's right. Well, especially space science.

• 5:22Eugene Mirman?

  Space science.

• 5:23Bill Nye?

  Yes. So, uh, people say, why are you exploring Mars? What are you gonna find there? We don't know. That's why we're exploring.

• 5:30Eugene Mirman?

  We're gonna probably find the technology to make even better cell phones. That's what people don't

• 5:34Bill Nye?

  No, that's, that's absolutely correct. Yeah.

• 5:36Mike Massimino?

  Yeah. But people do have a voice in this. Uh, for example, the Hubble Space Telescope, which was, I think, a very good combination of human spaceflight and planetary science, would you agree?

• 5:44Bill Nye?

  Oh, yes.

• 5:44Mike Massimino?

  All the smart people that come up with the discoveries.

• 5:46Eugene Mirman?

  I mean, it had some problems. You had to walk in space and fix it.

• 5:48Mike Massimino?

  That's true. Yeah. Well, they can't, they had canceled the last servicing mission that I was lucky to be on. They had canceled it and then they, it got brought back mainly because of public outrage and politicians listening. And Bill, I'm sure is a big part of that.

• 6:02Bill Nye?

  Yeah.

• 6:02Mike Massimino?

  They wanted Hubble fixed.

• 6:03Eugene Mirman?

  If we could only trick

• 6:04Mike Massimino?

  People do have a voice.

• 6:05Eugene Mirman?

  If we could only trick Al Qaeda into bombing something in outer space, we'd be there.

• 6:09Bill Nye?

  Well, that was what started the whole thing was the ultimate high ground. We digress.

• 6:13Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah.

• 6:13Bill Nye?

  So vote person on the, who asked the question and let's change the world.

• 6:17Eugene Mirman?

  Okay, here's a next question from Chris Van Gundy. Shouldn't the rest of the government be begging NASA for money?

• 6:25Bill Nye?

  Well, this is the old question. You see, it's not do space exploration or provide clean water for people who don't have it. Or provide education for girls and women so that they raise the standard of living and improve the quality of life for all citizens everywhere. It's not one or the other. It's not NASA or build a new baseball stadium. You have to do everything all at once.

• 6:46Eugene Mirman?

  Right. Also, doesn't NASA, investing in NASA then literally has a very good return, right?

• 6:51Mike Massimino?

  Yeah.

• 6:51Eugene Mirman?

  In terms of the money the government spends.

• 6:53Mike Massimino?

  And it's not very much. It's less than one penny of your tax dollar that goes to NASA.

• 6:58Bill Nye?

  Yeah, 0.4%. And furthermore, also in addition to continue, the current number is $3.60. For every dollar that goes into NASA, you get $3.60 back.

• 7:09Mike Massimino?

  That's pretty good.

• 7:10Eugene Mirman?

  That's really good.

• 7:11Bill Nye?

  That's very good. Some people will argue that highways are slightly larger, but highways in general do not lead to innovation the way space exploration does.

• 7:19Mike Massimino?

  And it's something for the future.

• 7:20Bill Nye?

  It's about the future. Innovation is what's going to drive the economy. So anyway, you guys, pretty soon we gotta take a break.

• 7:26Eugene Mirman?

  You've sold me on it.

• 7:27Bill Nye?

  We gotta take a break, but I want you all to, out there, to visit www.startalkradio.net. Find us on Twitter @StarTalkRadio. Check out Eugene Mirman, @EugeneMerman. And check out Mike, @astro_mike. We'll see you in a moment.

• 8:05Bill Nye?

  Welcome back to StarTalkRadio. I'm Bill Nye the Science Guy, guest hosting for my beloved colleague Neil deGrasse Tyson. I'm here with your favorite Eugene Mirman, and everybody's favorite astronaut Mike Massimino, call him Mass. And this is the Cosmic Query Edition of StarTalkRadio, and we have your queries from the cosmos. It is, there's very strong evidence that all of these questions are from people within our universe.

• 8:34Eugene Mirman?

  Yes.

• 8:34Bill Nye?

  But maybe not.

• 8:36Eugene Mirman?

  We'll find out.

• 8:36Bill Nye?

  Take one.

• 8:37Eugene Mirman?

  Let's, let's go. William Dyke asks, "What are some of the current and future strategies of privatized space travel versus those of NASA or other government-based space programs? What is different about their strategies and why? What types of missions or projects do you see these two sides carrying out 50 or 100 years from now?"

• 8:58Bill Nye?

  Ooh.

• 8:59Eugene Mirman?

  That's a lot of questions. People are terrified of only asking one clear question.

• 9:03Bill Nye?

  It's of a piece, though. It's all one thing. The difference is, when people started exploring space at NASA, they weren't trying to make money. The modern idea is that you could make money in space. Now, people make a lot of money in space with communication satellites. I don't want to shock you all, but there's this business of the National Security Agency and there's certain spy satellites and there's a lot of weather satellites and those data are sold by crazy.

• 9:28Eugene Mirman?

  There's a lot of money in rain.

• 9:30Bill Nye?

  That's right, there is. If you're a farmer, yeah, you have great fascination and so on. With that said, there are extraordinary ideas. Let's go get an asteroid and pull back the platinum.

• 9:41Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah.

• 9:42Bill Nye?

  But anyway, those people believe they can make money, but note well, a company like SpaceX or Sierra Nevada Space or X Corp Corporation, these companies take money from the US government to promote or develop their rockets. It's not a standalone business yet. Uh, Mass, did you get involved in that stuff?

• 10:01Mike Massimino?

  Yeah, we work in the, three of the companies that are trying to get us back to the, with people launching to the International Space Station with astronauts. Uh, you mentioned a couple, SpaceX, Sierra Nevada and Boeing, or we have.

• 10:14Eugene Mirman?

  Sierra Nevada is not a soda company?

• 10:17Mike Massimino?

  No, it's not. No, it's not. It's nothing to do with beverages.

• 10:20Eugene Mirman?

  Okay.

• 10:21Mike Massimino?

  Although hopefully they will provide beverages on their spaceship. You need water.

• 10:24Bill Nye?

  Hey, I've got a question. I'm sorry. Do you guys really drink Tang?

• 10:28Mike Massimino?

  We drink, uh, what we call orange flavored drink because the, the, the name you mentioned.

• 10:33Eugene Mirman?

  No branding in space.

• 10:35Mike Massimino?

  Right, exactly. So, everything we have, like, um, let's, let's take a chance. Q-tip, okay?

• 10:41Bill Nye?

  Ah!

• 10:41Mike Massimino?

  Is not a Q-tip, it's a cotton swab assembly.

• 10:44Eugene Mirman?

  And?

• 10:45Mike Massimino?

  And what really gets.

• 10:47Bill Nye?

  So is it a CSA?

• 10:48Mike Massimino?

  It's a, it's a cotton swab, a CSA, but we, but we want to make sure we know what it is because CSA could also be Canadian Space Agency.

• 10:54Eugene Mirman?

  Or, or a community-supported agriculture.

• 10:56Mike Massimino?

  You know, you know what it really gets confusing though?

• 10:59Eugene Mirman?

  What?

• 10:59Mike Massimino?

  Is when you need to take like any kind of medicine or, because it's all got, it doesn't have the brand names.

• 11:04Eugene Mirman?

  Oh, so you don't know, but are you allowed to bring?

• 11:07Mike Massimino?

  Brands into space and just not say them? Like if you ever had a candy bar?

• 11:12Eugene Mirman?

  That's a, I don't even know.

• 11:13Mike Massimino?

  That's right. Well, we have certain candy bars that you, that are, we have certain candy. It's very, very popular because they're small and you can float them.

• 11:19Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah.

• 11:19Mike Massimino?

  And we call them candy, candy, uh, covered chocolates.

• 11:23Eugene Mirman?

  You don't call them WWs and just like, oh.

• 11:25Bill Nye?

  Oh, let's get back to this guy's question.

• 11:28Mike Massimino?

  But everything has its generic name.

• 11:30Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah, so what are some private?

• 11:31Mike Massimino?

  We have a generic name for that product, which is orange flavored drink.

• 11:33Bill Nye?

  Orange flavored. So while you're enjoying your orange flavored drink, it is to be hoped that soon you will get up into, uh, microgravity.

• 11:42Mike Massimino?

  Yes.

• 11:42Bill Nye?

  By means of rockets not built exclusively by NASA.

• 11:46Mike Massimino?

  Correct. And that's what, you know, and NASA has worked with contractors right from the very beginning. With some of the big government contractors, Rockwell International, for example.

• 11:54Eugene Mirman?

  Mm-hmm.

• 11:55Mike Massimino?

  Uh.

• 11:56Bill Nye?

  The old joke, you got to the moon on the lowest bidder.

• 11:58Mike Massimino?

  That's correct. All the part, you know, Grumman, all these companies all work together to build spaceships funded by the government. So there is some, uh, government funding going into those, those private companies as well. So I think it's a good partnership. I think, you know, as, as Bill said, they're trying to make money.

• 12:13Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah.

• 12:13Mike Massimino?

  And so this could be a very, very exciting time. And I've noticed that my, my, uh, my position at Columbia with all these young, smart kids, and these kids are a lot smarter than I ever remember being. They are interested in the space program just as much as we were when we were kids. But it's not just NASA. It's they're interested in going to work for one of these companies. They see this entrepreneurship as the future. And I think that there's going to be, uh, hopefully, if you're optimistic about it, a very good relationship between the companies and NASA in the future.

• 12:39Eugene Mirman?

  Well, NASA has a sort of launching pad for a lot of private.

• 12:41Bill Nye?

  A launching pad. That's brilliant.

• 12:43Eugene Mirman?

  Sorry to.

• 12:44Mike Massimino?

  Wow. How'd you work that in there?

• 12:46Bill Nye?

  Let's try another question.

• 12:46Mike Massimino?

  That's the whole idea.

• 12:47Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah. Uh, all right. Here's another question from Susan Minob. Uh, people often complain about the NASA budget and claim the, that private industry should take over some of the work that NASA does. But they don't do it already because the, of government. But they don't, they do it already because of government contracts. What percent of the NASA budget goes to private sector contractors? That, that's the question.

• 13:11Bill Nye?

  Uh, I don't know, but it's gotta be enormous. Whenever you buy hardware, you're buying it from companies like Boeing.

• 13:16Mike Massimino?

  Yeah.

• 13:16Bill Nye?

  Like, uh, United Launch Alliance, what have you.

• 13:18Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah. NASA buys stuff from a lot of companies, right?

• 13:21Bill Nye?

  But in the bigger picture.

• 13:22Mike Massimino?

  Contractors to work for them. They only have a certain number of people working in the NASA workforce.

• 13:25Eugene Mirman?

  How much stuff is built there?

• 13:27Mike Massimino?

  I, I, this, I don't know.

• 13:28Bill Nye?

  Let's say you have a Mars rover hypothetically.

• 13:30Eugene Mirman?

  Sure.

• 13:31Bill Nye?

  It's machined, the metal is cut at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena. Some of it. The mirrors are coated somewhere else. The lenses are ground somewhere else. And these are all done by companies, but the fundamental, if I can read into this question a bit.

• 13:47Bill Nye?

  There's no, right now, there's no business model that takes people to Mars. There's no business model to find out whether the core of Jupiter has hydrogen that acts like a metal. There's just no reason for a private company to do that at this time.

• 14:01Eugene Mirman?

  Even though I'm very curious?

• 14:03Bill Nye?

  Well, yes.

• 14:04Mike Massimino?

  That don't put bread on the table, Eugene.

• 14:07Bill Nye?

  Well, you don't know that because you might find something about the hydrogen metal that would affect the way we make semiconductors or microcircuits or something. With that said, these things are all built by contractors and then the crossover right now is the guys, the people who want to mine asteroids. And at first, it sounds sexy and fabulous and literally a shiny object to go to an asteroid and get platinum. But apparently, the big thing they want to get on asteroids is water. So you take water and then it's fuel for your spaceship to keep going. So you have solar panels on your spaceship, your thing, your spacecraft.

• 14:47Bill Nye?

  You get out there into the asteroid, you electrolyze water, make it hydrogen and oxygen, somehow put it in a tank. How hard could it be? In outer space, millions of kilometers from here, yeah. And then you would have fuel to go on to some other exotic destination, maybe to your platinum-bearing asteroid and you drag that back to the earth and get rich!

• 15:08Eugene Mirman?

  That's a pretty good plan. All right, so here's a question from Twitter from Michael Christian. He asks, "What kind of private donation systems exist to supplement funding NASA projects or other planetary science research?"

• 15:23Bill Nye?

  Well, I'm sure this person is referring to the Kickstarter program for StarTalk Radio. Wait.

• 15:30Eugene Mirman?

  Or for a shuttle, is there a Kickstarter to raise billions of dollars?

• 15:34Mike Massimino?

  The only donation system I know is called taxes.

• 15:37Eugene Mirman?

  Really?

• 15:38Mike Massimino?

  I mean, I don't, but Bill probably, I mean, as far as NASA goes, NASA gets its budget based on the tax dollar.

• 15:43Eugene Mirman?

  But the way that NPR, various places that are partially public, partially private, get money, is there a thing like that where it could be like, "You know what, I'm going to give $7 billion to NASA"?

• 15:52Bill Nye?

  Well, there is one that I know of, and I'm not an expert on all of them that there might be, but the ARCHID telescope. This is an idea where they're going to make telescopes to look... Nominally to look for asteroids, but the proposal is to have one pointed at the Earth and then you, the user, the online happy person can get that telescope to point at anything you want. And it sounds very romantic.

• 16:17Eugene Mirman?

  Cool.

• 16:18Bill Nye?

  Mount Everest, but maybe, you know, your neighbor's yard, what have you. So.

• 16:22Eugene Mirman?

  Check if the lights are on when you're away.

• 16:24Bill Nye?

  For example.

• 16:25Eugene Mirman?

  How does, anyone can access it?

• 16:27Bill Nye?

  Anyone who's, my, I don't understand the price structure exactly, but you give so much money to ARKYD, A-R-K-Y-D, and they will give you access to this telescope based on some formula. And I imagine.

• 16:41Eugene Mirman?

  Do you hear that? Very creepy people.

• 16:43Bill Nye?

  I don't think I like this idea.

• 16:45Eugene Mirman?

  International spy agencies. Putting a dome over my house, man.

• 16:48Bill Nye?

  Well, I don't know what the resolution would be and how much value it'd be, but what do you do when you download Google Earth and get it running on your computer? What's the first thing you do?

• 16:57Eugene Mirman?

  You look at the sea where all your exes live.

• 16:59Bill Nye?

  Uh, Eugene, I keep some of that to yourself.

• 17:03Eugene Mirman?

  That's a warning to Eugene's exes right there. That was Eugene. Anyway.

• 17:08Bill Nye?

  How many were you talking about? I mean, round numbers. A, 100 to 300.

• 17:13Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah, no, normal. All right. Here's another question. Daniel Sagraves asks, since our government doesn't understand priorities, I want to contribute to NASA financially or otherwise, otherwise, I don't know what he means, send the bones. What is the most effective way to do so? So that's a similar question.

• 17:30Bill Nye?

  I would claim the most effective way is to vote, that you hire people, which we call congressmen and senators, to make these decisions. And you hire them to figure out where to send money to what. So you write them letters, you call them, you could, for example, join the planetary society at planetary.org, and we will work to influence Congress to ensure.

• 17:51Eugene Mirman?

  What about lobbyists? I mean, do people, are there lots of people who hire lobbyists?

• 17:56Bill Nye?

  Yeah, well, contractors do. Yeah, contractors, your Lockeys, your Boeings, I don't want to drop too many names. But we're going to have to take another break. And I encourage everyone to check out the podcast on iTunes. I encourage you to check out Facebook, your Twitter, your Google, your Pinterest, all the stuff the kids are into, www.startalkradio.net. We will talk to you on the other side of this break.

• 18:38Bill Nye?

  Welcome back to StarTalk Radio. Bill Nye, the Science Guy here, guest hosting this week on our Cosmic Queries edition of StarTalk. Here as always with Eugene Mirman and special guest this week, Mike Massimino. Call him Mass. He flew in space. Now, Mass, as we call you, you are following up on this question about how do we participate in space?

• 19:00Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah, because they asked financially or otherwise. What are other ways?

• 19:04Mike Massimino?

  Yeah, financially, I'm not a financial guy. But otherwise, I would suggest for Daniel, who asked the question, and maybe some of his friends too, if you're interested in the space program and want to contribute, there's ways to contribute with your own interests and your own energy and your own efforts. If you have a passion for the space program, which I assume he does, because he's taken time to write us a question, and whether he's interested in science, or math, or if he's interested in literature, or art, or comedy, in your case, right?

• 19:29Eugene Mirman?

  You never know.

• 19:30Mike Massimino?

  And you're interested in the space program, use your talents to promote the space program, to work on the space program.

• 19:35Bill Nye?

  Get a job in aerospace.

• 19:36Mike Massimino?

  Get a job.

• 19:37Bill Nye?

  Become an engineer.

• 19:38Mike Massimino?

  Invent something.

• 19:39Bill Nye?

  Change the world.

• 19:40Mike Massimino?

  See what's going on.

• 19:41Eugene Mirman?

  Make a space shuttle or a weapon.

• 19:42Mike Massimino?

  And hey, but there's a lot of resources out there where you can find out what's going on in different parts of the country, different parts of the world, and see what you can do to make it part of your life. I think that's the best way for a young person. I'm assuming maybe he's not a young person, but...

• 19:53Eugene Mirman?

  I don't know, he has a last name.

• 19:54Mike Massimino?

  He doesn't have a last name, so he's probably of some age. Get involved and do it. I would say, take it...

• 19:59Eugene Mirman?

  He's over five years old and under ninety.

• 20:01Mike Massimino?

  He's over if he can write, so he's ready to go.

• 20:03Bill Nye?

  So let me just say about getting involved.

• 20:05Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah.

• 20:06Bill Nye?

  Well, getting involved in space, at least if you live in the US, means influencing NASA, yes?

• 20:11Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah. I'm surprised more people don't hire lobbyists to, like, get together, hire lobbyists to just generally pressure all congresspeople to have more funding for NASA.

• 20:23Bill Nye?

  Well, we do at the planetary society.

• 20:25Eugene Mirman?

  You do. So give you guys money, and then you'll hire all lobbyists. We just need...

• 20:29Bill Nye?

  We have one. We have one.

• 20:31Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah, but what if you had five? What if you had...

• 20:33Bill Nye?

  There you go.

• 20:34Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah. I'm really, now, like, let's do this.

• 20:36Bill Nye?

  So, well, along that line, as you may know, I did a little video, an open letter to the President of the United States, encouraging him to ensure that we have funding for this niche. It's a line item within a line item. Let's say NASA's a line item, planetary science is a line item. I just want them to fund it at a level high enough to keep the current missions flying. You know, we have Cassini flying around Saturn. Messenger went to Mercury. We got Juno going to Jupiter. It's crazy. We got, we got two rovers on Mars. Uh, and those programs, the, the, the Curiosity rover, All In,

• 21:15Eugene Mirman?

  Mm-hmm.

• 21:16Bill Nye?

  Developed over 10 or you could call it 12 years, costs one and a half billion dollars. That's like one cup of coffee per taxpayer for cryo. And let me tell you something that might, that concerns me.

• 21:26Eugene Mirman?

  Let's stop helping kids and let's start helping space.

• 21:28Mike Massimino?

  Is it a good cuppy, a good cup of coffee?

• 21:30Bill Nye?

  Well, yeah, fancy one. But let me say, it's one and a half billion dollars. It's on Mars and it's not even locked. Anybody could just walk up to it. I, I don't, it's shocking.

• 21:41Eugene Mirman?

  We should have a mission to steal the rover on Mars.

• 21:46Bill Nye?

  That would, that's not a bad contest.

• 21:48Eugene Mirman?

  Oh my God.

• 21:49Bill Nye?

  Somebody, you'd have to build a thing to go to land on Mars. Quite an extraordinary undertaking.

• 21:53Eugene Mirman?

  Let me ask a question.

• 21:54Mike Massimino?

  Crime doesn't pay, folks.

• 21:56Eugene Mirman?

  Uh, unless you can get to Mars.

• 21:57Mike Massimino?

  That's why it doesn't pay. It's too expensive to get to Mars.

• 22:00Eugene Mirman?

  Right. It's not affordable. Okay. Gavin Boucher asks, he's from Melbourne, Australia. He asks, "Do you lament the lack of funding, not just for NASA, but for science education in general? From a distance, the other side of the world, it appears that America's school science programs are not receiving the backing that they should and are under attack from other influences such as religious and political agendas."

• 22:22Bill Nye?

  If I, or King of the Fuddies. Yes, we would have more funding for science, but if I may, let's not call it channel, but speak on behalf of my beloved colleague Neil deGrasse Tyson, who would normally be hosting StarTalk Radio. If we had a robust space program where investment was being made at a higher level than it is now, and we were going to someplace new and cool with people like mass, flying out into space, someplace new and exciting. You wouldn't need to run in circles screaming about science, technology, engineering, and math, which we like to call STEM. It would just happen.

• 23:00Eugene Mirman?

  It would be, it would be the real trickle down of, of science. That is a real thing.

• 23:04Bill Nye?

  It would, it would, well, not just science, but exploration.

• 23:07Eugene Mirman?

  Right. Adventure.

• 23:09Bill Nye?

  And exactly, because there's two things that happen. Mass, you've been up there, you've done it. You, when you go exploring, two things, you get, you're gonna make discoveries. You're gonna find things you never found before. The other thing you're going to have, Eugene?

• 23:21Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah.

• 23:22Bill Nye?

  And?

• 23:23Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah.

• 23:23Bill Nye?

  Adventure.

• 23:24Eugene Mirman?

  Adventure. Oh, yeah, yeah. Of course you'll have adventure. Did you guys, when you were in space, did you discover anything? Were you, were you like, oh, this is a thing nobody knows about shoes?

• 23:32Mike Massimino?

  Well, actually, it depends how you look at it. We were more or less the, the workers, the maintenance people for the Hubble Space Telescope. So, we, we didn't look through the telescope.

• 23:43Eugene Mirman?

  Space mechanics.

• 23:44Mike Massimino?

  But our smart people here on Earth, all the astronomers, for example, Adam Rees and a group of other astronomers, won a Nobel Prize. The theory of dark energy and dark matter came out of Hubble.

• 23:54Eugene Mirman?

  Oh, wow.

• 23:54Mike Massimino?

  Observation.

• 23:55Eugene Mirman?

  Out of what you fixed?

• 23:56Mike Massimino?

  Out of we fixed. So, we were more like the repair people, but, you know, they, the, there's astounding discoveries that were made.

• 24:02Eugene Mirman?

  But didn't you like fly up with like a snake in a box just to see what would happen?

• 24:05Mike Massimino?

  Oh, like our own fun stuff?

• 24:06Eugene Mirman?

  Like, did you go like, yeah, we're gonna fix the Hubble, and while we do this, here's some like snakes and shoes, and let's see how rabbits act?

• 24:12Mike Massimino?

  No, we had Swedish fish, you know, candies and stuff.

• 24:15Eugene Mirman?

  Exactly.

• 24:15Mike Massimino?

  Yeah, we did our own little experiments, but, you know, I played, we played baseball in space.

• 24:19Eugene Mirman?

  You didn't publish them.

• 24:20Mike Massimino?

  Yeah.

• 24:21Eugene Mirman?

  Did you walk in space and play baseball? No.

• 24:23Mike Massimino?

  Not, I did, I walked in space and I played baseball separately.

• 24:26Eugene Mirman?

  Okay.

• 24:26Mike Massimino?

  We played baseball inside the cabin. But we, yeah, we, we did, we did participate in some human subject tests, but the big science objectives for us were to get Hubble fixed.

• 24:35Eugene Mirman?

  To discover dark matter.

• 24:36Mike Massimino?

  To discover some really cool stuff.

• 24:38Bill Nye?

  See, and people throw around the term dark matter, dark energy. Everybody throws it around like it's just, everybody knows about it.

• 24:43Mike Massimino?

  It is an extraordinary.

• 24:44Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah, now.

• 24:45Bill Nye?

  But Mass is the guy that...

• 24:46Mike Massimino?

  Nobel Prize winning stuff.

• 24:47Bill Nye?

  So, we gotta take another break. We encourage you all to enjoy your www.stargtowradio.net. Check us out on Pinterest, and check us out right after this break.

• 25:14Bill Nye?

  Welcome back. Bill Nye the Science Guy here, guest hosting StarTalk Radio this week, the Cosmic Queries edition, and where we answer your questions. Eugene?

• 25:24Eugene Mirman?

  Yes.

• 25:25Bill Nye?

  You got another question?

• 25:26Eugene Mirman?

  I do, from Andrew Robles. Here we go. Scenario: You're in an elevator with a congressman who has a lot of say over where tax money gets spent. You have one minute until the elevator arrives at its destination. What examples of economic, technological, or any other returns would you use to convince him that space exploration is worth funding more?

• 25:47Bill Nye?

  Yes?

• 25:48Mike Massimino?

  With a minute to go, I would say that it's going to stimulate the economy with new technology, new developments in the science field, new discoveries in materials, in medicines, and so on. It helps education because it inspires young people, and it promotes international cooperation because we have our International Space Station and other science programs, and it gives us something for our future. It's about exploration in our future.

• 26:16Bill Nye?

  Yes, by my reckoning, you did it in 56 seconds. Nicely done.

• 26:20Mike Massimino?

  All right, now onto my floor, and I'm on my way. But, Bill, what would you say?

• 26:24Bill Nye?

  I'd say space exploration brings out the best in us. It's inherently optimistic. It stimulates the economy in the US at least $3.60 for every dollar that goes in, and we make discoveries that literally change the world. Astronomy has changed the world. We found that the Earth goes around the Sun. That changed everything. We found the Sun's not unique.

• 26:43Eugene Mirman?

  The first people were maybe punished for it, but yes.

• 26:46Bill Nye?

  It sounds like it, yeah. But it did change the world. And now people throw around the expression "dark energy, dark matter," like it's a day at the office, but we all take it for granted that there is such a thing, or such things. And these were not discovered even, really, 15 years ago. Who knows what new physics? Who knows what is over the next horizon? And Congressman, if I may to speak as a guy born in the US, and as a patriot... Don't you want the US to continue to lead in this thing? Isn't that what you want, Mr. Congressman?

• 27:15Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah.

• 27:16Bill Nye?

  Ms. Congressman?

• 27:16Eugene Mirman?

  Alright, here's another question from Cameron Nuss. He wants to know, how long, if at all, before a manned mission to Titan? Would this be a public or private sector venture? Yeah.

• 27:29Bill Nye?

  That's a long ol' way out there. Titans, that's a long ol' way.

• 27:32Eugene Mirman?

  How long would it take to get to Titan?

• 27:34Bill Nye?

  Well.

• 27:34Eugene Mirman?

  First of all.

• 27:35Mike Massimino?

  Depends on your rocket ship.

• 27:37Bill Nye?

  Yeah, but.

• 27:37Eugene Mirman?

  You'll say I'm using one I got at.

• 27:39Mike Massimino?

  Long time. How long would that take?

• 27:40Bill Nye?

  Cassini took five years, right?

• 27:42Mike Massimino?

  Yeah, that's a long time.

• 27:43Eugene Mirman?

  Five years.

• 27:44Bill Nye?

  And this is, uh, we don't have the technology right now to stay away from all that radiation. It's not clear how bad that is.

• 27:50Eugene Mirman?

  How much radiation?

• 27:52Bill Nye?

  Enough to kill you. Which is, you probably don't want.

• 27:55Eugene Mirman?

  Even to kill a baby? That baby could adapt more?

• 27:57Bill Nye?

  Yeah, and so on. Well, that's not how it works.

• 27:59Mike Massimino?

  You'd try to make it better, but.

• 28:01Eugene Mirman?

  What if we sent babies that grew up and then, no? Oh, that's a thought.

• 28:05Bill Nye?

  No, that's not how evolution works. You'd have to have a whole bunch of babies and see which one made it through.

• 28:10Mike Massimino?

  They'd have no trouble wearing diapers.

• 28:11Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah.

• 28:12Bill Nye?

  You could send. Mass has been there.

• 28:14Eugene Mirman?

  Send like a 12-year-old, a bunch of 12-year-olds that will grow up slowly during the mission.

• 28:18Bill Nye?

  But what we.

• 28:19Mike Massimino?

  You're a genius. You need to be, you need to be talking to that congressman in the elevator.

• 28:23Bill Nye?

  Mass, how much trouble did you have with bone loss? Calcium loss?

• 28:27Mike Massimino?

  I'd only, my trips were two weeks at a time, Bill, so it wasn't too, but we've got that licked, we think. But we've got it licked through lots of exercise.

• 28:33Eugene Mirman?

  How much do you lose?

• 28:34Mike Massimino?

  You can lose a, a, a very significant amount if you did nothing.

• 28:38Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah.

• 28:39Mike Massimino?

  In space, if you did not exercise, you could, you would lose a lot.

• 28:42Eugene Mirman?

  How much do you exercise when you go there?

• 28:44Mike Massimino?

  So, and right now to counteract that, there is some medicine you can take, and that's again, a benefit of the space program, because it also applies to osteoporosis to prevent bone loss. But still, the way we've gotten around that, we don't have bone loss, it's not an issue anymore. But what we have to do to counteract it is two hours of exercise.

• 28:59Eugene Mirman?

  Mm-hmm.

• 29:00Mike Massimino?

  Six days a week.

• 29:01Eugene Mirman?

  Oh, wow.

• 29:01Bill Nye?

  So, that's a lot of lost time.

• 29:02Mike Massimino?

  So, that's significant. It's a lot of time.

• 29:03Bill Nye?

  Because you're on the payroll.

• 29:05Mike Massimino?

  You're on the payroll.

• 29:06Eugene Mirman?

  How do you exercise in space? There's machines with resistance.

• 29:07Mike Massimino?

  Yeah, so there's, that's a good point, because you can lift weights all you want and ain't gonna do you any good in space, right?

• 29:12Eugene Mirman?

  Right.

• 29:12Mike Massimino?

  So, what we have is a resistive.

• 29:13Bill Nye?

  Wait a minute.

• 29:13Mike Massimino?

  Resistant exercise.

• 29:14Bill Nye?

  That's crazy.

• 29:15Mike Massimino?

  You're like Hercules, Bill.

• 29:16Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah.

• 29:16Mike Massimino?

  But it's, uh, we have resistive exercise.

• 29:18Eugene Mirman?

  You just have a machine that tries to crush you and you try.

• 29:19Mike Massimino?

  That's right. More or less. Yes.

• 29:21Eugene Mirman?

  Like basically like that scene in Star Wars.

• 29:23Mike Massimino?

  That's sometimes the way it's described when it's on the fritz. Be careful of the thing. But it works on springs and therabands like you might have seen in rehab medicine. So it's resistive exercise, plus it's also a treadmill is generally a popular way to exercise. So it's both cardio and it's also resistive exercise. And it's resistive exercise that keeps your bones in good shape.

• 29:41Bill Nye?

  Ah, and to this questioner.

• 29:43Mike Massimino?

  Yes.

• 29:44Bill Nye?

  It's, it's a long way and who's paying for it? It's a lot of fuel.

• 29:48Mike Massimino?

  Yeah.

• 29:48Bill Nye?

  Do we have another question, fearless leader?

• 29:50Eugene Mirman?

  We, uh, we do. Uh, so, uh, Justin Foley asks, how do you see CubeSats and other small spacecraft affecting space exploration?

• 29:59Mike Massimino?

  I think these things are great, Bill.

• 30:00Bill Nye?

  It's the coolest thing.

• 30:01Eugene Mirman?

  What's a CubeSat?

• 30:02Mike Massimino?

  It's a CubeSat is a small experiment that can be flown by universities. I think high school students have done them as well.

• 30:07Bill Nye?

  10 centimeters by 10 centimeters by 10 centimeters.

• 30:09Mike Massimino?

  So it's fantastic. There was a great opportunities for science community and for education.

• 30:14Bill Nye?

  They fit on a standard launcher ring. They go off from a standard spring loaded gizmo. And I cannot point out the planetary society is going to fly two solar sails. Stick with us. There are CubeSats that will be deployed in space to see if we can develop technology to fly

• 30:30Mike Massimino?

  It's good stuff.

• 30:31Eugene Mirman?

  Oh, wow.

• 30:31Bill Nye?

  To other planets without any fuel. So, uh,

• 30:35Eugene Mirman?

  We'll have to talk more about that.

• 30:36Bill Nye?

  Yes, we'll talk more about that on, uh, on the other side of this break. Please stay tuned to StarTalk Radio.

• 31:00Bill Nye?

  Welcome back to StarTalk Radio. Bill Nye, the Science Guy here, guest hosting this week on the Cosmic Queries edition. Now, Eugene.

• 31:09Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah, I wanted to know more about CubeSats. So, so you were like, yeah, universities can have them. What is it? How do you make it? How much do they cost?

• 31:16Bill Nye?

  They're 10 centimeters by 10 centimeters by 10 centimeters, very small, fit in a lunchbox.

• 31:20Eugene Mirman?

  Mm-hmm.

• 31:21Bill Nye?

  And it's a standard that can be launched from a standard, uh, system onboard a standard rocket. And so you can launch generally seven at a time.

• 31:28Eugene Mirman?

  Mm-hmm.

• 31:29Bill Nye?

  Universities make these things. You can buy the circuit boards and software online.

• 31:33Eugene Mirman?

  Can a person launch it, or you need a rocket?

• 31:36Bill Nye?

  Well, these things still cost a million dollars. They cost a lot of money.

• 31:39Mike Massimino?

  But you get a grant. I mean, it's a program. You can apply for a grant to NASA.

• 31:43Eugene Mirman?

  And then?

• 31:44Mike Massimino?

  And if your grant is accepted and you have funding to do it, then you build your project, fly it in space. And it's great. It's a great way to, it's a, it's a relatively inexpensive way.

• 31:54Eugene Mirman?

  To explore space.

• 31:55Mike Massimino?

  To explore space.

• 31:56Bill Nye?

  To put it this way, if your grant's accepted.

• 31:58Eugene Mirman?

  Nice. Alright, let's do a lightning round.

• 32:00Bill Nye?

  Which brings us to the lightning round.

• 32:02Eugene Mirman?

  Alright.

• 32:02Bill Nye?

  A few seconds per question. Take it.

• 32:04Eugene Mirman?

  Here's a question. Dire Mayo wants to know, would it be possible to host a music festival on a radio satellite for a quote hip promotional event? Is there a way NASA could start a nationwide door-to-door survey to get people to sign a petition to raise the NASA budget?

• 32:19Bill Nye?

  Uh, that sounds like a two-part question, and I think if you've got a corporation involved, excited about your music, that corporation could easily fund such a satellite. The big problem will be getting a license and saying it's all solvable problems. Uh, get out there and do it.

• 32:34Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah. Alright. Chagra wants to know, do we really have to choose between Cassini and Curiosity? I don't want to lose either.

• 32:43Bill Nye?

  Uh, we at the Planetary Society are petitioning the US government to not have to make that choice. There should be enough funding for planetary science, a line item within the NASA budget, to fund both missions. The Cassini's out there. How much money we've invested, that time, effort, and energy, for crying out loud, we've got to keep them both flying.

• 33:01Eugene Mirman?

  Okay. Uh, here we go. Debbie Large wants to know, why isn't there more news coverage of science advancement? When I was a kid, all networks had a science correspondent. That's true. What the hell?

• 33:14Bill Nye?

  Well, now there's a whole channel called the Science Channel.

• 33:16Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah, but why not? Yeah, but that's for people already like science or want to watch toilets get built and how it works at a factory. What about like, uh? What about major networks being like, "This is the weather and this is today's science."

• 33:28Mike Massimino?

  I guess it doesn't sell well enough, or else they would have it.

• 33:31Bill Nye?

  Yeah, there's other sources for that information, mostly online. We recommend planetary.org. I just did a fabulous thing with IFLS. I won't spell that out. Just go check it out, because it's the news of science.

• 33:43Mike Massimino?

  I think it could be. I think it's a shame that it's not seen as a more interesting topic, or made more entertaining.

• 33:49Eugene Mirman?

  The three of us will fix it.

• 33:50Mike Massimino?

  Yeah. That's what we're trying to do now. But I agree, it should be more in the mainstream.

• 33:54Eugene Mirman?

  Okay.

• 33:55Mike Massimino?

  I think it could be.

• 33:55Eugene Mirman?

  I think so. Jimmy Class Manson wants to know, "Since China is now sending robots to the moon, does the US have any plans of doing the same?"

• 34:05Bill Nye?

  Not right now. There are congressmen and senators who insist that the US go back to the moon in some fashion. There are other people that insist that the moon is a big gravity well, and that, "No, we should go beyond it." To start with Mast, do you have an opinion?

• 34:19Mike Massimino?

  I think we should go with the Chinese if we could. I think it'd be a nice thing to cooperate.

• 34:23Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah.

• 34:23Bill Nye?

  Ah, fabulous.

• 34:25Eugene Mirman?

  Alright, here we go. Andrea Humre wants to know, "What are you most hopeful about when it comes to humanity's relationship with the Earth?"

• 34:36Bill Nye?

  I'm most hopeful that people will find ways to innovate and engineer the entire planet. I think that's the future, as the human population continues to increase, and our scientific literacy increases worldwide through education.

• 34:51Mike Massimino?

  I think more people are going to get to see the Earth from space, particularly artists and so on, that are hopefully going to have the opportunity.

• 34:57Eugene Mirman?

  If we could only have-

• 34:58Mike Massimino?

  If I could explain it better than that. I think it increases your appreciation of how beautiful the planet is. So that's my hope.

• 35:04Bill Nye?

  Right on.

• 35:05Eugene Mirman?

  Alright, Daniel Sprouse wants to know, "Bill, why don't you run for office? Bill Nye the Science Poetos has a nice ring to it."

• 35:13Bill Nye?

  Oh, sure. So Neil deGrasse Tyson and I are working on our cabinet, on who we'd have... Do you guys want to-

• 35:21Mike Massimino?

  Court jester.

• 35:21Bill Nye?

  Court jester.

• 35:22Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah, no wait. Why'd you take that?

• 35:24Mike Massimino?

  Wait a second. That would be more fun job. You be the court jester. I'll be the engineering advisor.

• 35:29Bill Nye?

  Advisor.

• 35:30Mike Massimino?

  We're a package team.

• 35:31Eugene Mirman?

  Alright, so Stephen Stafford wants to know, "How do I get the people in my life to see the importance of space exploration? I try my best to spread the word and show the wonders of our universe, but no one seems to care. Also, I'm a very poor student and can't afford a membership to the Planetary Society. Think you can help me out, Mr. Nye?"

• 35:51Bill Nye?

  I don't know why you're having trouble influencing people. It sounds like you are a pretty convincing guy. Stick with it.

• 36:00Eugene Mirman?

  All right. Here we go. Here's a question from Nick Clarity. NASA is sending us back to the moon, quote, "for good" and also "for preparation for Mars." How much actual engineering on the moon will prepare us for Mars? Can we really learn what we need for Mars from the moon? Or is it a waste of money?

• 36:19Bill Nye?

  I refer, of course, I hearken to Tex Johnston, the test pilot of the very first 707 airplane, who remarked, "One test is worth a thousand expert opinions." Let's go try it.

• 36:31Mike Massimino?

  I think the moon is our playground and we can learn a tremendous amount on stopping there on our way to Mars.

• 36:36Eugene Mirman?

  Yep.

• 36:37Bill Nye?

  How hard could it be?

• 36:38Eugene Mirman?

  And Europe.

• 36:39Bill Nye?

  This has been...

• 36:42Bill Nye?

  This has been a fabulous Cosmic Queries edition of StarTalk Radio. I want to thank my guests. Mike Massimino, Mass.

• 36:51Eugene Mirman?

  Closer. Massa moony mama.

• 36:53Mike Massimino?

  Eugene, we have got a good example of why for my entire life I've been called Mass.

• 36:56Bill Nye?

  That's... we're out of time. You guys, we're out of time. Eugene Mirman, spelled just like mirror.

• 37:03Eugene Mirman?

  Yeah.

• 37:03Bill Nye?

  The Russian...

• 37:04Eugene Mirman?

  I am peace man slash world man.

• 37:06Bill Nye?

  Space station. So join us next time on StarTalk Radio as we work together, dare I say it, to change the world.