December 31, 2025 • 30 mins
(December 31, 2025)
The updated cost of the American Dream is $5 million. Space journalist covering NASA and planetary science Rod Pyle joins Neil to recap what went on in the outer limits in 2025.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Am six forty live everywhere on the IHEARTRADIOPP.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Hey everybody, good morning to you. Happy New Year's Eve.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Neil Savader in the Morning crew here with you. Handle
is off this week. I'm gonna be off next week.
So we're kind of two romantic ships passing in the night,
except its morning and we're not ships and we're not romantic.
Other than that, my analogy stands, thank you very much.
(00:37):
But head a brooker in for Amy King. People freak
the hell out what I call her by her full name?
What is wrong with people? Her actual social media is
Amy K King, not just the initial her middle name Kay,
which happens to be my mom's name. But I call
(01:01):
her by her actual social media Amy K King, and
people freak the f out like they can't handle what
are you doing? No one says, why are you calling
me a kono? He doesn't have a first name, or
his first name is kono?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
I don't know. It's the weirdest it is.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Don't bring marshmallows to the parade, Root It is just
I'm there's too many. I don't I can't handle what
people can't handle. I'm done. That's what it comes down to.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Well, you call her Amy K King. That's her name.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Don't wear it out.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yeah, Petunia, that's your name. Now what's your middle name?
Neil Savedra I was named after two astronauts that stepped
foot on the moon, and that is Neil Armstrong and
buzz Edwin aldren.
Speaker 5 (01:52):
So.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
I am Neil Edwin Savedra, born in nineteen sixty nine,
days after they landed on the moon.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
I love that. I love a good moon.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Backstory, I love a good moon in the back.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
You know what I'm saying that direction?
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Well, no, I never but I got kicked out, don't
you know? All Right? The American Dream Heather Brookers with us.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Heather, what what comes to your mind when I say
the American Dream?
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Well, I'm an older I'm an old So for me,
when I think of American dream, I think of financial
security and owning a home.
Speaker 6 (02:34):
Yeah, I don't know, what's same, same, it's close. I'm
more I guess old minded, school minded. Okay, just having
an opportunity to do something that you want to do. Yeah,
like the opportunity to you know, yeah, do something. Yeah,
it's about opportunity. Everybody's like, no, they got to hand
(02:55):
out everything. No, it's about it's about having cleared the
pathway for me to do everything I can on my own. Yeah,
Like I don't have to wake up and go to
like a coal mine and then have to do that.
I can wake up and be like, what do I
really want to do today?
Speaker 5 (03:11):
Type of thing.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Then he ends of the day and goes, you know,
maybe coal mine's not that bad. Black lawn.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Will Coleschreiber you nearby? Are you in the can? I'm here, Okay.
I just kept asking, Yeah, I'm American, about the American dream?
What's the American American dream?
Speaker 7 (03:30):
You know that I always think back to that fifties
post war thing where you own your own house with
a little green lawn and blah blah blah blah. But
I think I think Kno's right any opportunity, just just
to have that opportunity in freedom.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Well, they're saying that the American dream now costs five
million bucks, Like when you when you see it in
that number, it is alarming. But that's the total lifetime cost, right,
Because there are these eat what they refer to as
core American dream milestones, and this comes from Investipedia. But
(04:08):
the biggest expense is going to be retirement. And they
say that's why one point six million. That's for twenty
years of living, you know, to cover you to be
to be about where you are in life.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Now I've heard bigger numbers.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
My wife and I were just talking about this where
you're looking at three to five million to be able
to you know, and we're nowhere near that, you know,
so I mean we'd have to sell our stuff. We
probably have that in stuff because your house goes up
in value and you know, those types of things, so
(04:43):
you have it somewhere, but you'd have to sell it
all to be able to take care of all. That
biggest expense is that retirement. That's what's gonna that's the big,
big one of having that money for retirement. Home ownership
is nearly one million over a lifetime once mortgage, interest,
HAG and insurance are included, which is ridiculous here in California.
(05:04):
In So cal you know, you can find a fixer
up for one point two you know, depending on where
you want to live. But if you live in further
out areas, you can get beautiful homes for less. I've
never understood that they we have a housing shortage. No,
(05:26):
there's plenty of place you can live, just not right here.
It's like looking at my street and going, we've got
a housing shortage. There's only one house per plot. Well
that's no, that's that's how many houses are on the street.
That's not a shortage. You got too many people that
can't afford it here. I can't afford Beverly Hills, so
(05:46):
I don't live there. And if things get more expensive
then I'll move too. I know many people who have
and live great lives. They're like, oh my gosh, once
I got California off my back, you know, living in
North Carolina, and they're like, this is the greatest thing ever.
So it looks like these things are adding up. Cars
rival housing, because buying a new car every ten years
(06:06):
cost nine hundred thousand dollars. Now, I don't buy new cars.
I've had one new car my whole life. And you know,
whereas Heather Brooker, they're like tissue, She's like pulling them
out and she's like.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Oh, it's been three years. What color's in right now?
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Ooh, I'm getting a new car.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Cause you I heard you talking about leasing right, Heather.
So every what every twenty days?
Speaker 4 (06:31):
You're like, yes, every thirty days. I get in your It's.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Like, you literally have what is that Carvana or whatever
with the big the big vending machine off the side
of the five or whatever it is.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Now, I want a purple one?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Can you just you put a coin in and it
drops a new one each day for you.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
It's all those kfi big bucks that I make that
allow me this luxurious lifestyle.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
But if that's your thing, I respect that.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
If you say, hey, you know what, that's the one
thing that brings me great joy is to have a
new you know, yeah, every it's like that.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
That's fine to me.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Nothing better than having a car for ten years that
I bought three years old.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
You just drive it into the ground.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Yeah, I mean I take care of it the best
way I can. But if it gets over two hundred
thousand miles. And I did that when I drove BMW's,
I would buy used And then I got a GMC truck.
I got an accident with one of my sedans and
they gave me a truck as a loaner.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
I'm like, what am I doing? I'm a truck guy
getting in a Sedan every day. I'm a truck guy.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
You do have truck vibes.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
But here's the thing. I used to treat my BMW's
like trucks. I'd put boards in the back with the
leather seats and there, you know, I'm like, I just
like the ride. They're just beautiful, beautiful vehicles. They ride beautifully.
And then I'm like, well, this has beautiful leather seats,
but it's also got a truck bed, a four wheel drive.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
You can help your friends move.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
No, they don't. As far as they're concerned. I'm like,
I don't know if it'll fit in my BMW. Yeah,
I tell them that.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
I used to drive an F one fifty for.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
All those are beautiful too.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
I loved it. It was bright red. It was like
a cherry red and I are more like a fire
engine red. And I absolutely loved it. And then and
now I think because of that, I drive SUVs more
and more like SUV's because it's got especially the ones
that have that truck feel to them.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yeah, there's just something great about having, you know, moving
home on all right, Neil Servada in the morning crew.
Here Heather Broker filling in for Amy King. So people
don't flip their crap man. They get so weirded out
by calling her with their middle name. I call handle
I call them handleman because an old lady one time,
(09:00):
like back in the nineties, came up to me at
a handle event and said, I love him.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
So I'm probably his biggest fan. He's the greatest Bill Handleman. Handleman.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Handleman is my favorite, and so since then I've called
him Handleman. We yell it down the halls a Neil Handleman.
I also call him Willie Wolf. You know, all kinds
of things. Nobody says anything about that. But you call
Amy King amy K King, which is her full name
and her actual social media handle, and people freak out,
(09:37):
like we're trying to be inside. People don't understand that, yes,
this is radio, but it is a workplace. Like we
have nicknames for each other. We pick on each other,
we joke with each other. It's it's like, you can't
do that. I'm just flabbergasid You've got nothing going on
in life that that bothers you.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Amy K King. Anyway, so Heather Noel Brooke is.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
In before they will call in to compliment.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
What's that?
Speaker 4 (10:04):
People will always call in to complain about something before
they'll call in to I.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Have no problem with that.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
You know we're not perfect, but make it something more
interesting than Amy k King.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Why does that? Other people?
Speaker 4 (10:14):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
It's like a like a puzzle. They're trying to figure
out what does that mean? It's you know, Ockham's razor man.
The simplest answer is the answer. It's her middle name.
Uh and Matthew's in for And we're talking about the
American dream. It's gotten very expensive. But I got to
tell you there are some things in here that people do,
(10:35):
like the big wedding. Did you have a big wedding,
Heather Noel Brooker?
Speaker 4 (10:41):
I think so. I mean it depends what you mean
by big. I think it was just like maybe an
average medium size that we had about one hundred and
twenty five people.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Oh crap, that sounds like a big wedding. Is that big?
Speaker 4 (10:52):
I feel like some people have had like hundreds and
I don't. I don't know. Maybe it was around one hundred,
but yeah, we was ch is a big wedding to me? Okay,
so was that a big church?
Speaker 7 (11:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:01):
We had a We rented out the Petroleum Club in.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Get into details. Geez did he?
Speaker 4 (11:08):
And then Beyonce showed up.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Wow the petroleum.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
No, I'm old. We got married way before Beyonce was something.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
You know my.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Wife Tracy, she did not want a wedding.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
She's like, let's just go get to the courthouse. Yeah,
go to the car.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
And we got sad face from her mom and my mom.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
So it's like, well, okay, So I called the folks
the little brown Chapel on Cold Water.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Yeah, I know that place.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
That's where that's where the Reagans got married.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Really yeah, and it's also where Brittany lost her her crap.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
She shaved her head and ran.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
In there was hitting the car with the umbrella.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Yeah those days.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
And so we got married there and no no camera, videography,
no music, no flowers. Just like you like her, you
like him, You're good. And I took everybody out to lunch.
Not even the whole families were there, so.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
Just like very small, very intimating if.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
There were ten people there, I'd be surprised. Wow.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
And then we all went to and I made little
statues of us, so the little guy with a goatea
on the cake, and we went to a restaurant right
down the street, like the Elks lunch right there, and
everybody got a shirt that said I went to Neil
and Tracy's wedding and all I got it was his
crummy shirt.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
Oh there you go. Yeah, party favors or a big deal.
You got to give everybody something for coming to your.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Wedding, just a little thank you.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
But so those things, you know, those things hit weddings,
college vacations. But I think if you keep them, you
can go on vacation for inexpensively, don't It doesn't have
to be lavish.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
As a matter of fact.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Sometimes I think what ends up happening is you go
on these fancy vacations and you're like, oh, this is great,
and then you come back to the bills of it or something,
and then you're stressed again. So I think, you know,
the math not working here is that the fact that
this new study from Investopedia that sounds totally.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Like it's legit.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Yeah, the dream costs five million dollars for the American dream,
that's home, that's college, all this stuff. Most people earned
about two point eight million in their lifetime there. So
this they're saying, who's this built for? But I think,
you know, we live in a fourteen hundred square foot house.
We don't live in a fancy home. It's in a
(13:49):
decent area, but it's nestled between two ghettos. I mean,
you know, I see lapd birds in the air every day.
Every day, I see them circling. So it's like, it's
nothing fancy. We live, you know, below our means, don't.
(14:12):
You don't pay more than you make, you do things
like that. But I feel like we've got the American dream.
At the love of my life. I got a beautiful boy.
We have a roof over our head. We can eat,
we can buy clothing. But you know, and healthcare is crazy.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
I get all that.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Gosh, one hundred and eighty thousand dollars, what they're saying
for one trip a year in a lifetime?
Speaker 4 (14:40):
What for? Oh so if people go on vacation once
a year their whole lifetime, they're spending one hundred and
eighty thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Yeah, that's what they're saying, like for the lifetime of it,
you know, which I don't know what a lifetime is
in that case. I mean, because you're not necessarily going
out your whole life.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
I didn't.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Max has been to Italy once because we went for
Handle's wedding last year.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
We travel a lot. Travel is something in our family
that's really important, and we probably spend more on vacation
than we should.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Well, all that's again about the car. Here's my rule,
take it or leave it. Art, education and travel are
never a waste of money.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Absolutely, I agree with you.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
They're just those are things that I think are are
profound to somebody's life, and I think there's power in
those things. And if you can do that and find
ways to do that, it doesn't have to be the
most expensive art. I mean, seriously, I will tell you
the most depressed burglar would be the one that enters
(15:46):
our home thinking they're going to bring home something great.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
It's just not.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
My wife does not like fancy jewelry at all. She
likes costume jewelry. She doesn't want anything expects expensive. She
doesn't like flower aren't a big deal to her too,
Fancy dinners she doesn't like.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
I don't spend a lot of clothes like. I'm not
a big like obviously.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Yeah, but you know what, you always I don't thank you.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
You always well put together. You don't look so I.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
Don't need to have Gucci and like high end stuff
like that. So I would rather spend our money on,
like you said, things like experience like travel or art
or you know, we take classes like I love getting
my daughter dance classes. Yes, I'd rather spend money for
stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
You know, there's a sponsor.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
I don't know much about them, but they talk about
fencing that I've heard on the air a couple of times,
some fencing school or something, and I'm like, that sounds interesting.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
I wonder if my family would want.
Speaker 5 (16:41):
To do that.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
Oh for sure? Is I wonder if it's the one
in Burbank.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Well, they had that weapons place that had fencing and
stuff that was on Magnolia or something.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
Yeah, there's a great fencing and sword fighting place in Burbank.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
I thought they closed during COVID, but.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
I might have just like temporarily closed. But I believe
they're still around because I looked at I looked at
classes there for chan to have something for heard.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yeah, I just those are the things that I think
money is worth. So maybe recalibrating a little bit or
thinking about we're so coast focused the east and west coast.
They're expensive there's a bunch of places in America that aren't,
and your money it can be stretched. And now with
the ability to work from home in many ways, there's
(17:25):
may be a way to squeeze that out a little different.
Otherwise you just look at the numbers and it looks
depressing as hell. I would if I looked at that,
I'd say, we're never ever going to get a house.
We bought a house at forty. I don't have a
college degree. My wife does, she's got multiple. But you know,
you can make these things happen if you if you
want them. It may not be a castle, but you
(17:48):
can get it. A Rod Pyle, Uh what a guy.
Veteran space journalists. He's an author, covered NASA planetary science,
commercial spaceflight, all these things. We've at him on the
program many times before. And as I said earlier, I'm
proud to call him friend.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
How you know him?
Speaker 5 (18:05):
Brother? I'm good. How are you. It's good to talk
to you.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Nice to talk to you. It's been it's been a minute.
We are long overdue to get together and face to
face and say.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Howdy, howdy.
Speaker 5 (18:17):
Yeah, let's do that.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
I think it's uh, don't sound so damn excited. Yeah,
let's sea.
Speaker 5 (18:22):
I'm pretty easy to please.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Let's do it.
Speaker 5 (18:26):
After all, you're named after astronauts.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Yeah again, your name after an ass Uh, speaking of which,
I guess we got to start as we always start.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
How's your anus?
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Well, it's got an extra moon, so I guess that
feels pretty good.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
You know, that's like a kidney stone.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Going the other way not so good. Hey, let's start
with a Maven. Uh, that Mars orbiter? What we lost contact?
These are never I know, they have missions, but there
are always more than that. There is more that comes
with these things and the loss of these things than
(19:08):
oftentimes we know here on Earth, those of us that
just watch this kind of peripherally. So tell us about
that white matters.
Speaker 5 (19:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
So Mayven was launched in twenty thirteen, took about seven
eight months to get to Mars, and then it goes
into orbit. And the whole point of Maven was to
look down at the planet and try and figure out
what the heck happened to the atmosphere, because we know,
way back when billions of years ago, Mars had a large,
almost global ocean, and at least on the northern hemisphere.
It goes fairly deep, so there's a lot of water
(19:39):
and a much thicker, warmer atmosphere, we think, and it's gone.
So Maven's mission was to try and study what that
process was, presumably and as it turned out to be
mostly erosion from solar wind for the Sun. But you know,
it was launched a twenty thirteen on a one year
mission and it was still operating up until early December.
So this is kind of kind of JPL's jam. You know,
(20:02):
at least it has been with all the cuts from NASA.
There's a bit of a question mark there. But they
build this stuff to last for a year, two years,
and then as you've seen the rovers especially, most people
notice that fourteen fifteen years in some cases. So Maven
went behind Mars that day on December fourth, and when
it came out the other side, it wasn't talking to
(20:23):
us anymore. And they got a little scrap of data
on December sixth that said, hey, I'm spinning out of
control here. So the thought is that it impacted something
in Martian orbit, or was hit by something that said
it has been or as some have suggested, that maybe
a death ray came from asteroid three I Atlas and
knocked it off trajectory, but most of us don't think
(20:44):
that's the case.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
But it's possible, right, It could be aliens, of course.
It's just it's always so fascinating to me that we
get more life out of these things when we do,
you know, when they go above and beyond. That's why, Yes,
this is the one mission or whatever it is, but
(21:07):
the hope is that there's more to come. The fact
that the last thing it's said is I'm spinning out
of control is interesting. Did they ever have any ability
to know whether that is some sort of impairment with
the you know, metrology on their gauging what's going on,
or if it's actually spinning.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
As far as I have seen, all they can do
is evaluate the weak radio signal they got, so they
don't have a lot more information. It's also possible propellant
line blue and that that set it off access. But
you know, the big loss here is that we've had
three Mars orbiters for years, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and
Mars Odyssey, both launched in the two thousands and May
(21:52):
even in twenty thirteen. All three of them have served
as relays from their perseverance of Curiosity rovers back to Earth.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
I'm sure you know.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Both those rovers have nuclear power supplies, so they're going
to last a very long time. But if you're just
transmitting directly from them to Earth, it's a pretty weak signal.
So it's nice to get more bandwidth from these orbiters.
So it's a bit of a loss there. But there's
another mission called Escapade that launched a few weeks back,
and that's two orbiters.
Speaker 5 (22:21):
This is another NASA JPL mission.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Two orbiters will go into orbit around Mars and continue
the work that Mabon was doing. And because there's two
of them, they can actually build a three D model
of the atmosphere for people to get excited about that
kind of thing, to tell us exactly what's going on
up there.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Let's go to the Moon, shall we. Everyone's talking about
the Moon. It's about time we actually go there. Don't
you think, well.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
It's about time we go back.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah, I think easy for some people, not you, because
if you're named legacy, but it's easy for some people
to forget. You know, the US set cruise there six
times to the surface nine times a total back in
the sixties early seventies.
Speaker 5 (23:00):
In the first base age.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
And when you look back at the technology then, which
was really just kind of warmed over updated nineteen fifties
aerospace technology. The fact that they got out there, I mean,
we're talking a computer on that lunar module that would
barely be powerful enough to run your oven at this point,
and landed and did those expeditions for days at a
(23:24):
time and came home without losing a single man is
pretty jaw dropping. And of course, now that we've decided
to go back, we're seeing once again how hard it
really is. Because we've been working on this art of
his program, depending on how you parse it out, for
well over a decade, and it's it's slow, And I
got to say, I think at this point there's a
(23:45):
good chance China is going to do it before we do.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Wow, why is the South Pole the focal point right now?
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Because years ago an orbitter I think it was the
Indian orbiter the South Pole and got a reading of
hydrogen down there, saying, h looks like there's water ice
down below the soil, and whenever you can find water
off earth, that's a good thing. It's very heavy, it's
expensive to launch, Like I think at this point it's
about six thousand dollars.
Speaker 5 (24:15):
A gallon to launch water.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
And from water, if you can find it out there,
you can make rocket fuel. You can split it in
hydrogen and oxygen, which is a good rocket fuel. You
can make breathe able oxygen and of course drinkable water.
And so if you have that on the Moon, instead
of hauling fuel out of this big gravity well on
the Earth, you can go to the Moon set up
a refinery, which is what China and the US are
(24:38):
both planning to do, and create fuel there to go
onto places like Mars and so forth. And it also
helps support a lunar base, which both China and Russia
and the US and its partners want to build up
there as well.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
So we're looking at ways to harvest water, filter it,
utilize it up there in a way that gives us
another rock to jump off of to go further.
Speaker 5 (25:05):
Yeah, exactly. So it's both a good training ground from Mars.
There's good science to be done at the Moon.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
There are arguments for a full market cycle between the
Earth and Moon, what they call cys lunar space, where
you're actually extracting and making things up there that allow
you to make money back on Earth.
Speaker 5 (25:21):
That's a little thinner.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
But there's a lot of companies working on this. So
NASA has this program called CLIPS, which is the Commercial
Lunar Payload Services, where they're paying a variety of companies
in the US to build landers and go up there
and start prospecting for water, ice and so forth. And
we had a mission gosh for five years now called Viper,
which was a rover that was going to land near
(25:44):
the South Pole and do some prospecting, and it was canceled,
It was brought back, and it was canceled again.
Speaker 5 (25:49):
And this is the problem. You know, the US.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Runs very hot and cold on space efforts and what
it wants to do in hell, whereas China just plans
ten years out and they just keep stepping through it.
So Jared Isaacman, the new administrative NASA, has a big
job on.
Speaker 5 (26:05):
His hands for the next few years.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Well, not to mention, you get with each generation, especially
with tiktoking, like you get another group of the ignorant
that believed we didn't land there the first time, or
the Earth is flat. So it's like we keep going
forwards while going backwards quickly. This isn't on our list
to talk about or anything. But I saw pictures that
(26:29):
just came back from Pluto, which has been an interesting
mass for those of us that grew up in the
seventies and eighties as to what it is and all that.
But there was pictures about the mountains, it ice mountains
or something that are on there, and that just came
out recently.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Well, I didn't see the new ones, but ever since
new horizons flew by in the teens, excuse me, that's
been an area of interest because, among other things, they
spotted what looks like volcanoes, which are volcanoes that spew
out ultra cold crygentic fluids instead of lava, and that
would explain a lot about the formation of these distant
(27:09):
icy planets and so forth.
Speaker 5 (27:10):
So that's certainly been an object of interest. And anytime
you can compare new images to images taken ten or
fifteen years ago, you start seeing these changes and you
get very excited because this means it's a living planet,
not just a dead rock.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Yeah, the comparisons I think have to be amazed. I'm
still amazed by the space program. I'm like you, I'm
always floored that people, If people aren't why they aren't.
And I don't think people understand modern times as to
what it will mean for the future of life as
we know it and information as we learn about planets
(27:48):
around us and space materials and things like that. But
I'm always fascinating that people go, well, why are we
even doing it? Why are we spending so much money
to go to these places? And there are purposes right
for generations to come about living other places or about resources.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Correct, Well, all that is true, and also geopolitically, it's
a big deal as far as your status in the
world stage. But I think more than anything, it's just
historically been this incredible motivator for stam education and the
sciences and people doing the smart things that America has
been so good at and that other people are starting
(28:26):
to get better at than we are. And NASA has
always been a prime motivator of that. And you look
back at the first base age between sixteen and twenty
five dollars came back for every dollar invested, and that's
still true.
Speaker 5 (28:38):
So it's just a good idea.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Yeah, wow, that is amazing.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
All right, one dead piece of proof not video that
we landed on the moon. For the young people that
are on TikTok right now, what's my proof, like a
concrete like, can you shine a laser at something up there?
Speaker 1 (28:59):
And yes, So there's the retroflectors that the POLO program
put up, which are these mirror boxes where you can
actually bounce a laser being back to Earth. So that's
kind of proof positive we were there. But there's also
pictures by both India and China from orbit of the
Apollo landing sites. And you know, we might be able
to twist India's arm in to faking it. But if
(29:19):
China saw that we had never gone, you don't think
you'd call us out in a hot minute. Yeah, absolutely,
it's case closed, all right. You just got to take
those people in a room and work them over till
they agree done.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Cono and I are going to have a couple of
pops and go out there and beat the crap out
of non believers. It'll be fun. Rod, always a pleasure, Rod,
pile pile books. God, I turned into handle this morning.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
I entered this Week in Space podcast available everywhere including IRT.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Yes, and I got to tell you such a font
of information. Always enjoy talking with you, buddy, and we
do I know you're terribly excited about it.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
We do need to.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
Connect, yes, and I am your font, so let's do it.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Soon, all right, my friend, mister Rodpile, Ladies and gentlemen,
we'll come back with much more. So go know where
this is KFI heard everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4 (30:13):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 7 (30:15):
Catch my show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Am six forty live everywhere on the IHEARTRADIOPP.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Hey everybody, good morning to you. Happy New Year's Eve.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Neil Savader in the Morning crew here with you. Handle
is off this week. I'm gonna be off next week.
So we're kind of two romantic ships passing in the night,
except its morning and we're not ships and we're not romantic.
Other than that, my analogy stands, thank you very much.
(00:37):
But head a brooker in for Amy King. People freak
the hell out what I call her by her full name?
What is wrong with people? Her actual social media is
Amy K King, not just the initial her middle name Kay,
which happens to be my mom's name. But I call
(01:01):
her by her actual social media Amy K King, and
people freak the f out like they can't handle what
are you doing? No one says, why are you calling
me a kono? He doesn't have a first name, or
his first name is kono?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
I don't know. It's the weirdest it is.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Don't bring marshmallows to the parade, Root It is just
I'm there's too many. I don't I can't handle what
people can't handle. I'm done. That's what it comes down to.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Well, you call her Amy K King. That's her name.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Don't wear it out.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yeah, Petunia, that's your name. Now what's your middle name?
Neil Savedra I was named after two astronauts that stepped
foot on the moon, and that is Neil Armstrong and
buzz Edwin aldren.
Speaker 5 (01:52):
So.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
I am Neil Edwin Savedra, born in nineteen sixty nine,
days after they landed on the moon.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
I love that. I love a good moon.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Backstory, I love a good moon in the back.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
You know what I'm saying that direction?
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Well, no, I never but I got kicked out, don't
you know? All Right? The American Dream Heather Brookers with us.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Heather, what what comes to your mind when I say
the American Dream?
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Well, I'm an older I'm an old So for me,
when I think of American dream, I think of financial
security and owning a home.
Speaker 6 (02:34):
Yeah, I don't know, what's same, same, it's close. I'm
more I guess old minded, school minded. Okay, just having
an opportunity to do something that you want to do. Yeah,
like the opportunity to you know, yeah, do something. Yeah,
it's about opportunity. Everybody's like, no, they got to hand
(02:55):
out everything. No, it's about it's about having cleared the
pathway for me to do everything I can on my own. Yeah,
Like I don't have to wake up and go to
like a coal mine and then have to do that.
I can wake up and be like, what do I
really want to do today?
Speaker 5 (03:11):
Type of thing.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Then he ends of the day and goes, you know,
maybe coal mine's not that bad. Black lawn.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Will Coleschreiber you nearby? Are you in the can? I'm here, Okay.
I just kept asking, Yeah, I'm American, about the American dream?
What's the American American dream?
Speaker 7 (03:30):
You know that I always think back to that fifties
post war thing where you own your own house with
a little green lawn and blah blah blah blah. But
I think I think Kno's right any opportunity, just just
to have that opportunity in freedom.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Well, they're saying that the American dream now costs five
million bucks, Like when you when you see it in
that number, it is alarming. But that's the total lifetime cost, right,
Because there are these eat what they refer to as
core American dream milestones, and this comes from Investipedia. But
(04:08):
the biggest expense is going to be retirement. And they
say that's why one point six million. That's for twenty
years of living, you know, to cover you to be
to be about where you are in life.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Now I've heard bigger numbers.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
My wife and I were just talking about this where
you're looking at three to five million to be able
to you know, and we're nowhere near that, you know,
so I mean we'd have to sell our stuff. We
probably have that in stuff because your house goes up
in value and you know, those types of things, so
(04:43):
you have it somewhere, but you'd have to sell it
all to be able to take care of all. That
biggest expense is that retirement. That's what's gonna that's the big,
big one of having that money for retirement. Home ownership
is nearly one million over a lifetime once mortgage, interest,
HAG and insurance are included, which is ridiculous here in California.
(05:04):
In So cal you know, you can find a fixer
up for one point two you know, depending on where
you want to live. But if you live in further
out areas, you can get beautiful homes for less. I've
never understood that they we have a housing shortage. No,
(05:26):
there's plenty of place you can live, just not right here.
It's like looking at my street and going, we've got
a housing shortage. There's only one house per plot. Well
that's no, that's that's how many houses are on the street.
That's not a shortage. You got too many people that
can't afford it here. I can't afford Beverly Hills, so
(05:46):
I don't live there. And if things get more expensive
then I'll move too. I know many people who have
and live great lives. They're like, oh my gosh, once
I got California off my back, you know, living in
North Carolina, and they're like, this is the greatest thing ever.
So it looks like these things are adding up. Cars
rival housing, because buying a new car every ten years
(06:06):
cost nine hundred thousand dollars. Now, I don't buy new cars.
I've had one new car my whole life. And you know,
whereas Heather Brooker, they're like tissue, She's like pulling them
out and she's like.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Oh, it's been three years. What color's in right now?
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Ooh, I'm getting a new car.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Cause you I heard you talking about leasing right, Heather.
So every what every twenty days?
Speaker 4 (06:31):
You're like, yes, every thirty days. I get in your It's.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Like, you literally have what is that Carvana or whatever
with the big the big vending machine off the side
of the five or whatever it is.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Now, I want a purple one?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Can you just you put a coin in and it
drops a new one each day for you.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
It's all those kfi big bucks that I make that
allow me this luxurious lifestyle.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
But if that's your thing, I respect that.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
If you say, hey, you know what, that's the one
thing that brings me great joy is to have a
new you know, yeah, every it's like that.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
That's fine to me.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Nothing better than having a car for ten years that
I bought three years old.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
You just drive it into the ground.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Yeah, I mean I take care of it the best
way I can. But if it gets over two hundred
thousand miles. And I did that when I drove BMW's,
I would buy used And then I got a GMC truck.
I got an accident with one of my sedans and
they gave me a truck as a loaner.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
I'm like, what am I doing? I'm a truck guy
getting in a Sedan every day. I'm a truck guy.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
You do have truck vibes.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
But here's the thing. I used to treat my BMW's
like trucks. I'd put boards in the back with the
leather seats and there, you know, I'm like, I just
like the ride. They're just beautiful, beautiful vehicles. They ride beautifully.
And then I'm like, well, this has beautiful leather seats,
but it's also got a truck bed, a four wheel drive.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
You can help your friends move.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
No, they don't. As far as they're concerned. I'm like,
I don't know if it'll fit in my BMW. Yeah,
I tell them that.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
I used to drive an F one fifty for.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
All those are beautiful too.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
I loved it. It was bright red. It was like
a cherry red and I are more like a fire
engine red. And I absolutely loved it. And then and
now I think because of that, I drive SUVs more
and more like SUV's because it's got especially the ones
that have that truck feel to them.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yeah, there's just something great about having, you know, moving
home on all right, Neil Servada in the morning crew.
Here Heather Broker filling in for Amy King. So people
don't flip their crap man. They get so weirded out
by calling her with their middle name. I call handle
I call them handleman because an old lady one time,
(09:00):
like back in the nineties, came up to me at
a handle event and said, I love him.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
So I'm probably his biggest fan. He's the greatest Bill Handleman. Handleman.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Handleman is my favorite, and so since then I've called
him Handleman. We yell it down the halls a Neil Handleman.
I also call him Willie Wolf. You know, all kinds
of things. Nobody says anything about that. But you call
Amy King amy K King, which is her full name
and her actual social media handle, and people freak out,
(09:37):
like we're trying to be inside. People don't understand that, yes,
this is radio, but it is a workplace. Like we
have nicknames for each other. We pick on each other,
we joke with each other. It's it's like, you can't
do that. I'm just flabbergasid You've got nothing going on
in life that that bothers you.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Amy K King. Anyway, so Heather Noel Brooke is.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
In before they will call in to compliment.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
What's that?
Speaker 4 (10:04):
People will always call in to complain about something before
they'll call in to I.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Have no problem with that.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
You know we're not perfect, but make it something more
interesting than Amy k King.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Why does that? Other people?
Speaker 4 (10:14):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
It's like a like a puzzle. They're trying to figure
out what does that mean? It's you know, Ockham's razor man.
The simplest answer is the answer. It's her middle name.
Uh and Matthew's in for And we're talking about the
American dream. It's gotten very expensive. But I got to
tell you there are some things in here that people do,
(10:35):
like the big wedding. Did you have a big wedding,
Heather Noel Brooker?
Speaker 4 (10:41):
I think so. I mean it depends what you mean
by big. I think it was just like maybe an
average medium size that we had about one hundred and
twenty five people.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Oh crap, that sounds like a big wedding. Is that big?
Speaker 4 (10:52):
I feel like some people have had like hundreds and
I don't. I don't know. Maybe it was around one hundred,
but yeah, we was ch is a big wedding to me? Okay,
so was that a big church?
Speaker 7 (11:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:01):
We had a We rented out the Petroleum Club in.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Get into details. Geez did he?
Speaker 4 (11:08):
And then Beyonce showed up.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Wow the petroleum.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
No, I'm old. We got married way before Beyonce was something.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
You know my.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Wife Tracy, she did not want a wedding.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
She's like, let's just go get to the courthouse. Yeah,
go to the car.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
And we got sad face from her mom and my mom.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
So it's like, well, okay, So I called the folks
the little brown Chapel on Cold Water.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Yeah, I know that place.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
That's where that's where the Reagans got married.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Really yeah, and it's also where Brittany lost her her crap.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
She shaved her head and ran.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
In there was hitting the car with the umbrella.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Yeah those days.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
And so we got married there and no no camera, videography,
no music, no flowers. Just like you like her, you
like him, You're good. And I took everybody out to lunch.
Not even the whole families were there, so.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
Just like very small, very intimating if.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
There were ten people there, I'd be surprised. Wow.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
And then we all went to and I made little
statues of us, so the little guy with a goatea
on the cake, and we went to a restaurant right
down the street, like the Elks lunch right there, and
everybody got a shirt that said I went to Neil
and Tracy's wedding and all I got it was his
crummy shirt.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
Oh there you go. Yeah, party favors or a big deal.
You got to give everybody something for coming to your.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Wedding, just a little thank you.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
But so those things, you know, those things hit weddings,
college vacations. But I think if you keep them, you
can go on vacation for inexpensively, don't It doesn't have
to be lavish.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
As a matter of fact.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Sometimes I think what ends up happening is you go
on these fancy vacations and you're like, oh, this is great,
and then you come back to the bills of it or something,
and then you're stressed again. So I think, you know,
the math not working here is that the fact that
this new study from Investopedia that sounds totally.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Like it's legit.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Yeah, the dream costs five million dollars for the American dream,
that's home, that's college, all this stuff. Most people earned
about two point eight million in their lifetime there. So
this they're saying, who's this built for? But I think,
you know, we live in a fourteen hundred square foot house.
We don't live in a fancy home. It's in a
(13:49):
decent area, but it's nestled between two ghettos. I mean,
you know, I see lapd birds in the air every day.
Every day, I see them circling. So it's like, it's
nothing fancy. We live, you know, below our means, don't.
(14:12):
You don't pay more than you make, you do things
like that. But I feel like we've got the American dream.
At the love of my life. I got a beautiful boy.
We have a roof over our head. We can eat,
we can buy clothing. But you know, and healthcare is crazy.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
I get all that.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Gosh, one hundred and eighty thousand dollars, what they're saying
for one trip a year in a lifetime?
Speaker 4 (14:40):
What for? Oh so if people go on vacation once
a year their whole lifetime, they're spending one hundred and
eighty thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Yeah, that's what they're saying, like for the lifetime of it,
you know, which I don't know what a lifetime is
in that case. I mean, because you're not necessarily going
out your whole life.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
I didn't.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Max has been to Italy once because we went for
Handle's wedding last year.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
We travel a lot. Travel is something in our family
that's really important, and we probably spend more on vacation
than we should.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Well, all that's again about the car. Here's my rule,
take it or leave it. Art, education and travel are
never a waste of money.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Absolutely, I agree with you.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
They're just those are things that I think are are
profound to somebody's life, and I think there's power in
those things. And if you can do that and find
ways to do that, it doesn't have to be the
most expensive art. I mean, seriously, I will tell you
the most depressed burglar would be the one that enters
(15:46):
our home thinking they're going to bring home something great.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
It's just not.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
My wife does not like fancy jewelry at all. She
likes costume jewelry. She doesn't want anything expects expensive. She
doesn't like flower aren't a big deal to her too,
Fancy dinners she doesn't like.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
I don't spend a lot of clothes like. I'm not
a big like obviously.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Yeah, but you know what, you always I don't thank you.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
You always well put together. You don't look so I.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
Don't need to have Gucci and like high end stuff
like that. So I would rather spend our money on,
like you said, things like experience like travel or art
or you know, we take classes like I love getting
my daughter dance classes. Yes, I'd rather spend money for
stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
You know, there's a sponsor.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
I don't know much about them, but they talk about
fencing that I've heard on the air a couple of times,
some fencing school or something, and I'm like, that sounds interesting.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
I wonder if my family would want.
Speaker 5 (16:41):
To do that.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
Oh for sure? Is I wonder if it's the one
in Burbank.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Well, they had that weapons place that had fencing and
stuff that was on Magnolia or something.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
Yeah, there's a great fencing and sword fighting place in Burbank.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
I thought they closed during COVID, but.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
I might have just like temporarily closed. But I believe
they're still around because I looked at I looked at
classes there for chan to have something for heard.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yeah, I just those are the things that I think
money is worth. So maybe recalibrating a little bit or
thinking about we're so coast focused the east and west coast.
They're expensive there's a bunch of places in America that aren't,
and your money it can be stretched. And now with
the ability to work from home in many ways, there's
(17:25):
may be a way to squeeze that out a little different.
Otherwise you just look at the numbers and it looks
depressing as hell. I would if I looked at that,
I'd say, we're never ever going to get a house.
We bought a house at forty. I don't have a
college degree. My wife does, she's got multiple. But you know,
you can make these things happen if you if you
want them. It may not be a castle, but you
(17:48):
can get it. A Rod Pyle, Uh what a guy.
Veteran space journalists. He's an author, covered NASA planetary science,
commercial spaceflight, all these things. We've at him on the
program many times before. And as I said earlier, I'm
proud to call him friend.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
How you know him?
Speaker 5 (18:05):
Brother? I'm good. How are you. It's good to talk
to you.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Nice to talk to you. It's been it's been a minute.
We are long overdue to get together and face to
face and say.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Howdy, howdy.
Speaker 5 (18:17):
Yeah, let's do that.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
I think it's uh, don't sound so damn excited. Yeah,
let's sea.
Speaker 5 (18:22):
I'm pretty easy to please.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Let's do it.
Speaker 5 (18:26):
After all, you're named after astronauts.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Yeah again, your name after an ass Uh, speaking of which,
I guess we got to start as we always start.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
How's your anus?
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Well, it's got an extra moon, so I guess that
feels pretty good.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
You know, that's like a kidney stone.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Going the other way not so good. Hey, let's start
with a Maven. Uh, that Mars orbiter? What we lost contact?
These are never I know, they have missions, but there
are always more than that. There is more that comes
with these things and the loss of these things than
(19:08):
oftentimes we know here on Earth, those of us that
just watch this kind of peripherally. So tell us about
that white matters.
Speaker 5 (19:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
So Mayven was launched in twenty thirteen, took about seven
eight months to get to Mars, and then it goes
into orbit. And the whole point of Maven was to
look down at the planet and try and figure out
what the heck happened to the atmosphere, because we know,
way back when billions of years ago, Mars had a large,
almost global ocean, and at least on the northern hemisphere.
It goes fairly deep, so there's a lot of water
(19:39):
and a much thicker, warmer atmosphere, we think, and it's gone.
So Maven's mission was to try and study what that
process was, presumably and as it turned out to be
mostly erosion from solar wind for the Sun. But you know,
it was launched a twenty thirteen on a one year
mission and it was still operating up until early December.
So this is kind of kind of JPL's jam. You know,
(20:02):
at least it has been with all the cuts from NASA.
There's a bit of a question mark there. But they
build this stuff to last for a year, two years,
and then as you've seen the rovers especially, most people
notice that fourteen fifteen years in some cases. So Maven
went behind Mars that day on December fourth, and when
it came out the other side, it wasn't talking to
(20:23):
us anymore. And they got a little scrap of data
on December sixth that said, hey, I'm spinning out of
control here. So the thought is that it impacted something
in Martian orbit, or was hit by something that said
it has been or as some have suggested, that maybe
a death ray came from asteroid three I Atlas and
knocked it off trajectory, but most of us don't think
(20:44):
that's the case.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
But it's possible, right, It could be aliens, of course.
It's just it's always so fascinating to me that we
get more life out of these things when we do,
you know, when they go above and beyond. That's why, Yes,
this is the one mission or whatever it is, but
(21:07):
the hope is that there's more to come. The fact
that the last thing it's said is I'm spinning out
of control is interesting. Did they ever have any ability
to know whether that is some sort of impairment with
the you know, metrology on their gauging what's going on,
or if it's actually spinning.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
As far as I have seen, all they can do
is evaluate the weak radio signal they got, so they
don't have a lot more information. It's also possible propellant
line blue and that that set it off access. But
you know, the big loss here is that we've had
three Mars orbiters for years, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and
Mars Odyssey, both launched in the two thousands and May
(21:52):
even in twenty thirteen. All three of them have served
as relays from their perseverance of Curiosity rovers back to Earth.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
I'm sure you know.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Both those rovers have nuclear power supplies, so they're going
to last a very long time. But if you're just
transmitting directly from them to Earth, it's a pretty weak signal.
So it's nice to get more bandwidth from these orbiters.
So it's a bit of a loss there. But there's
another mission called Escapade that launched a few weeks back,
and that's two orbiters.
Speaker 5 (22:21):
This is another NASA JPL mission.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Two orbiters will go into orbit around Mars and continue
the work that Mabon was doing. And because there's two
of them, they can actually build a three D model
of the atmosphere for people to get excited about that
kind of thing, to tell us exactly what's going on
up there.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Let's go to the Moon, shall we. Everyone's talking about
the Moon. It's about time we actually go there. Don't
you think, well.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
It's about time we go back.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah, I think easy for some people, not you, because
if you're named legacy, but it's easy for some people
to forget. You know, the US set cruise there six
times to the surface nine times a total back in
the sixties early seventies.
Speaker 5 (23:00):
In the first base age.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
And when you look back at the technology then, which
was really just kind of warmed over updated nineteen fifties
aerospace technology. The fact that they got out there, I mean,
we're talking a computer on that lunar module that would
barely be powerful enough to run your oven at this point,
and landed and did those expeditions for days at a
(23:24):
time and came home without losing a single man is
pretty jaw dropping. And of course, now that we've decided
to go back, we're seeing once again how hard it
really is. Because we've been working on this art of
his program, depending on how you parse it out, for
well over a decade, and it's it's slow, And I
got to say, I think at this point there's a
(23:45):
good chance China is going to do it before we do.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Wow, why is the South Pole the focal point right now?
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Because years ago an orbitter I think it was the
Indian orbiter the South Pole and got a reading of
hydrogen down there, saying, h looks like there's water ice
down below the soil, and whenever you can find water
off earth, that's a good thing. It's very heavy, it's
expensive to launch, Like I think at this point it's
about six thousand dollars.
Speaker 5 (24:15):
A gallon to launch water.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
And from water, if you can find it out there,
you can make rocket fuel. You can split it in
hydrogen and oxygen, which is a good rocket fuel. You
can make breathe able oxygen and of course drinkable water.
And so if you have that on the Moon, instead
of hauling fuel out of this big gravity well on
the Earth, you can go to the Moon set up
a refinery, which is what China and the US are
(24:38):
both planning to do, and create fuel there to go
onto places like Mars and so forth. And it also
helps support a lunar base, which both China and Russia
and the US and its partners want to build up
there as well.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
So we're looking at ways to harvest water, filter it,
utilize it up there in a way that gives us
another rock to jump off of to go further.
Speaker 5 (25:05):
Yeah, exactly. So it's both a good training ground from Mars.
There's good science to be done at the Moon.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
There are arguments for a full market cycle between the
Earth and Moon, what they call cys lunar space, where
you're actually extracting and making things up there that allow
you to make money back on Earth.
Speaker 5 (25:21):
That's a little thinner.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
But there's a lot of companies working on this. So
NASA has this program called CLIPS, which is the Commercial
Lunar Payload Services, where they're paying a variety of companies
in the US to build landers and go up there
and start prospecting for water, ice and so forth. And
we had a mission gosh for five years now called Viper,
which was a rover that was going to land near
(25:44):
the South Pole and do some prospecting, and it was canceled,
It was brought back, and it was canceled again.
Speaker 5 (25:49):
And this is the problem. You know, the US.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Runs very hot and cold on space efforts and what
it wants to do in hell, whereas China just plans
ten years out and they just keep stepping through it.
So Jared Isaacman, the new administrative NASA, has a big
job on.
Speaker 5 (26:05):
His hands for the next few years.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Well, not to mention, you get with each generation, especially
with tiktoking, like you get another group of the ignorant
that believed we didn't land there the first time, or
the Earth is flat. So it's like we keep going
forwards while going backwards quickly. This isn't on our list
to talk about or anything. But I saw pictures that
(26:29):
just came back from Pluto, which has been an interesting
mass for those of us that grew up in the
seventies and eighties as to what it is and all that.
But there was pictures about the mountains, it ice mountains
or something that are on there, and that just came
out recently.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Well, I didn't see the new ones, but ever since
new horizons flew by in the teens, excuse me, that's
been an area of interest because, among other things, they
spotted what looks like volcanoes, which are volcanoes that spew
out ultra cold crygentic fluids instead of lava, and that
would explain a lot about the formation of these distant
(27:09):
icy planets and so forth.
Speaker 5 (27:10):
So that's certainly been an object of interest. And anytime
you can compare new images to images taken ten or
fifteen years ago, you start seeing these changes and you
get very excited because this means it's a living planet,
not just a dead rock.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Yeah, the comparisons I think have to be amazed. I'm
still amazed by the space program. I'm like you, I'm
always floored that people, If people aren't why they aren't.
And I don't think people understand modern times as to
what it will mean for the future of life as
we know it and information as we learn about planets
(27:48):
around us and space materials and things like that. But
I'm always fascinating that people go, well, why are we
even doing it? Why are we spending so much money
to go to these places? And there are purposes right
for generations to come about living other places or about resources.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Correct, Well, all that is true, and also geopolitically, it's
a big deal as far as your status in the
world stage. But I think more than anything, it's just
historically been this incredible motivator for stam education and the
sciences and people doing the smart things that America has
been so good at and that other people are starting
(28:26):
to get better at than we are. And NASA has
always been a prime motivator of that. And you look
back at the first base age between sixteen and twenty
five dollars came back for every dollar invested, and that's
still true.
Speaker 5 (28:38):
So it's just a good idea.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Yeah, wow, that is amazing.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
All right, one dead piece of proof not video that
we landed on the moon. For the young people that
are on TikTok right now, what's my proof, like a
concrete like, can you shine a laser at something up there?
Speaker 1 (28:59):
And yes, So there's the retroflectors that the POLO program
put up, which are these mirror boxes where you can
actually bounce a laser being back to Earth. So that's
kind of proof positive we were there. But there's also
pictures by both India and China from orbit of the
Apollo landing sites. And you know, we might be able
to twist India's arm in to faking it. But if
(29:19):
China saw that we had never gone, you don't think
you'd call us out in a hot minute. Yeah, absolutely,
it's case closed, all right. You just got to take
those people in a room and work them over till
they agree done.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Cono and I are going to have a couple of
pops and go out there and beat the crap out
of non believers. It'll be fun. Rod, always a pleasure, Rod,
pile pile books. God, I turned into handle this morning.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
I entered this Week in Space podcast available everywhere including IRT.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Yes, and I got to tell you such a font
of information. Always enjoy talking with you, buddy, and we
do I know you're terribly excited about it.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
We do need to.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
Connect, yes, and I am your font, so let's do it.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Soon, all right, my friend, mister Rodpile, Ladies and gentlemen,
we'll come back with much more. So go know where
this is KFI heard everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4 (30:13):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 7 (30:15):
Catch my show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
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