Episode 21: Juno satellite

In 2011, a bunch of brainy people at NASA spent $700 million dollars of your money to send a satellite to Jupiter... and it's awesome. Or at least, it better be awesome. It's called Juno, and the spacecraft is planned to get into orbit of the planet on July 4th. After waiting a few years to hitch a ride on the Earth slingshot (and snapping photos), it's been on it's way to the planet and is about to get closer to the gassy giant than ever before. We go over the details of this mission and what to expect from it, including some really awesome photos. But don't expect them for a few months. Some students think they have cracked the code to talking to aliens, but don't wait by the phone for E.T. to call. They think it will take 1,500 more years before we get a call. As a bonus (in a follow up from a few podcasts ago), courts here in the United States have upheld Net Neutrality. For now the battle has been won. But now some cable companies are saying that having more competition is harmful for the consumer. Say that again? It also turns out you can float your new Model S. Not that you should be taking your Tesla into high water, but our friend Elon Musk tweeted out that his car can effectively float on water: We *def* don't recommended this, but Model S floats well enough to turn it into a boat for short periods of time. Thrust via wheel rotation. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 19, 2016 Please don't be dumb enough to do this. Make sure to connect on Twitter -- @RyanWrecker and @LetMeExplainPod (Photo Source: http://goo.gl/wgyTQw / NASA/JPL-Caltech / )