February 2, 2012 • 29 mins
Want to blast into space with celebrities? Virgin Galactic might just be your ticket to ride. Join Julie and Robert as they discuss the landmark space tourism venture and the future of space travel. Plus what might happen if Kanye ventured into space?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. And
the first things first, let's we need to go ahead
mention that we do have a new email address. If
you're looking to send us good old fashioned email with
(00:24):
or without the photo attachments and all all that fun stuff,
you will want to contact us at blow the Mind
at Discovery dot com. Previous one was at how stuff
works dot com, So it's the same email address, just
at a different domain, Discovery. That's right, you go. The mothership. Yeah,
speaking of motherships. Um, we are of course talking about
(00:45):
Virgin Galactic in this particular episode. Uh, And I guess
we were kind of uh excited to discuss this again
because just last week and there was a story that
was suddenly everywhere and I think it like it originated
like the Sun or something like if you track it
down to a tour it was. It was a British tabloid,
but but still the idea got people talking because the
idea was that record executives were interested in sending jay
(01:09):
Z and Beyonce um up into a sub orbit aboard
spaceship to the Virgin Galactic Space Tourism vessel so they
could shoot a video. It's a wonderfully Um, It's just
it's such a fun idea because I mean there's so
many different angles. I don't know, there's sort of the
one percent angle of just jay Z and Beyonce dropping
four thousand dollars just to go into space and not
(01:32):
look out the window. Like, I find that amazing. Uh.
The idea also of them going into orbit and and
maybe being a little stick al right, having their little
vomit bags. Yeah, yeah, you know, and then and then
trying to shoot a video around that I find kind
of amusing. And I just the idea of jay Z
and space is of course fantastic, especially if Beyonce it
feels a little ill and Kanye ends up going up
(01:53):
with him instead. You know, that's the one time that
I would really want to be an extra. Yeah. Yeah,
I'd totally be an extra on that video. Are you kidding?
I mean, not only are you uh, you know, going
into space, but that you're you're getting to watch, you know,
celebrities vomit on themselves. Yeah, and don't normally have to
pay pay quite a premium for that. What you'd be
(02:14):
paying for quite a premium for that. I would be
wiping vomit off my face. I just realized, So maybe
I need to rethink that. But here's the deal. I mean,
this is a possibility. It's it's right around the corner.
Virgin Galactic has been saying that they're in the final
phase of creating this great vessel and their spaceport, and
(02:35):
some people are saying, well, maybe it'll happen in although
more most likely will be but you know, with the U. S.
Bace Shuttle program being put this is something to look
forward to. Yeah, I mean, and I've I've spoken with
interviewed Stephen Attenborough, the commercial director for Virgin Galactica back
and I also talked to Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides,
(02:57):
and uh, and they were both, you know, they were
they were to get asked all the time and when's
it going up? What's the date, and they're they're very
hesitant to to throw it out any kind of date
because then, you know, they if they say it's going
to go up fourth quarter of then they're going to
suddenly be sort of feel kind of beholden to that date,
and this is not something they want to rush. They
want to get this right because I mean, you were
(03:18):
talking about, uh, traveling into SubOrbit. We're talking about traveling
into space. Uh monumental you know first when we actually
have the first commercial virgin plactic flight take off. So
you know, they wanted to to look to work perfectly
just if nothing else from a from a pr standpoint,
well in a business model too, right yeah. Um, So,
(03:40):
like I mean, let's talk a little bit about what
suborbital flight is, which is what the vessel the craft
will be going into. Right, We're talking about reaching an
altitude of approximately sixty eight miles above the surface of
the Earth um, and that is six point two miles
above a boundary line, uh that we call the Carmen line,
(04:01):
which by most definitions is where the atmosphere ends in
outer space begins. Now it's important to stress here that
there's there's no just like the Earth's atmosphere kind of
just dies off gradually, and it varies exactly when the
atmosphere would be ending and when space would be begin
based on on on where you're looking in the various
atmospheric conditions. But but also but basically it's just kind
(04:23):
of dies off. It's like, imagine there's a bad smell
in our room. There's not a point where the bad
smell begins it ends, as much as where it fades away. Okay,
this is also what we're talking about here, is sending
a craft into space and bringing it back down without
circling the Earth. And just so you guys know, now
says X fifteen has ascended beyond the Carmon line only twice.
(04:45):
And the higher you go, the higher the G forces
are going to be on the way up and the
way down. So um, this is mainly why this height
is achievable to us right now, because it works within
the confines of our own humanness, right in our ability
to with stand G forces. Um. And also just that
reentry it's really important on um, well, we know it's
one of the biggest problems of engineering right right. And
(05:09):
uh yeah, the ship that itself spaceship too is actually
designed to go even higher than sixty eight miles. But
you have to keep in mind again business model, this
is about tourism. This is about reaching as many people
as possible because you want to be able to sell
them that pricey ticket. Uh so they The goal for
Virgin Galactic has been to make it to wear. Human
(05:31):
beings between the ages of twenty two and eighty eight
would be fit enough to take the ride, so it
wouldn't be one of these things where only people in
their twenties and thirties, you know, in good hell, you know.
This is not the astronaut program. This is space tourism,
so the goals are a little different. So it's like
the ultimate roller coaster for for a variety of ages. Right, Yeah,
if Granny wants to go into the SubOrbit, Granny gets
(05:53):
to go into SubOrbit. She's just gotta be able to
PLoP down the cash. My favorite part of this is
the way that Branson describes it, which is the sexiest
spaceship ever. That's it's such a ridiculous concept because most
spaceships are kind of phallic anyway. So I mean, it's like,
I can't help but think of that. So he's like,
you imagine saying, I'm going to create the most phallic
(06:15):
spaceship imaginable. But I mean it's really it is a
very attractive looking plane. And then they have the there's
the White Knight that takes it up to uh yeah, yeah,
let's talk about what this looks like, because it is
sexy looking. Actually. Um, it is a vehicle that's designed
to carry six passengers and two pilots. And if you're
looking at it, it looks like it almost looks like
(06:36):
three planes lined up together, right, yeah, Because the White
Knight has two cabins yes to two fuselage bodies. It
looks like like like two dragonflies holding hands. Oh that's pretty,
that's beautiful. Um. And the White Knight, just you everybody
knows it's not part of the actual craft that that
shot into the ether there. It is actually the part
(06:58):
that boost the craft up to fifty feet right right,
in the same way as a space shuttle. Uh, you know,
it uses the booster. It would use the boosters to
reach a certain altitude and then it would jetison the
boosters and fly the rest of the way up. This
is kind of like that, except the boosters. Instead of
plumbing back to Earth, they go and land at an airport.
Which I mean, that's that's pretty smart, right yeah, yeah,
(07:20):
far less waste, a lot more economically feasible. Um. And
another way to look at it is and I think
this is the way that Virgin galact tends to frame
it is that the White Night is the launching platform
for Spaceship two, but instead of the launching platform being
on the ground, they fly the launching platform up to
a high altitude itself, so it's you know, it's it's
given in a ride and then it can walk the
(07:41):
rest of the way and as a result that they
use less fuel and their carbon footprint is far less. Um. So,
the cabin measures an ample seven point five feet in
diameter by twelve ft in length, and that seems to
be enough room to float around, right. Yeah. And there
are a lot of little porthole like windows just sort
(08:01):
of scattered throughout, and those are measuring up to seventeen
inches in diameter, about twice what your commercial aircraft window
would be. Yeah, and not everybody's gonna get a lot
of personal space, but like you said, you know, you're
gonna be thrown up on each other potentially, so so
you know, you might as well get a little cozy yeah. Yeah, um,
you know, and this again, this is going to be
a pretty big bonding experience for these six people anyway,
(08:23):
yea um. And then the company has actually managed to
sell more than four hundred and seventy tickets so far,
each with a twenty thousand dollar minimum deposit. Uh. And
of course this is without setting any sort of definitive
launch date. Um. And some of the luminaries that will
be on this space craft besides possibly jay Z and
(08:45):
Biance of course, uh, Angelina and Julie and Brad Pitt
on board. UM. Brian Singer, director of the first two
X Men movies, Paris Hilton. Who, Um, well everyone knows
Paris Hilton. Uh. We got royalty covered in the form
of Prince Beatrice. We have science covered in the forum
of Stephen Hawking. Uh we have and then another Hollywood legend,
(09:09):
we have Tom Hanks on board and to a lesser extent,
Victoria Principle spice girl. Oh yes, no, she's not a
spice girl. I think she's from like the nineteen she's
Dynasty or something like that. Yeah, I think she's just
the one who who wanted to have a special space suit,
like she wanted like a pink space suit or something
like that. Was that was in the news at one point.
Because for the most part, if it's virgin galactic related, um,
(09:32):
you know, like space and science journalism, they're going to
cover it um and and with good reason, because Virgin Galactic,
I mean, Branson really throws his money and stuff, and
they have great pr they have great images that they
put out there for you well. And I have heard
that their their commercial air flights are quite cushy in nice,
so I can imagine that they would design a pink
space suit for Victoria principle. Now, now you mentioned that
(09:54):
it's twenty dollars reserved the ticket two hundred thousand, as
the title of the podcast suggests at that to actually
board the flight, like that's the full price, And you
had an interesting tidbit about Salmahyak. Yeah, yeah, she actually
reserved a ticket and presumably she lost her deposit later
when she became a mother and decided that that was
a really bad idea, which was kind of like, okay,
(10:15):
I get it. You know, I'm a mother and I
can understand like, oh, okay, if if something happens, that
would be a travesty. But then we were discussing about
how this is on par with irrational fears, and in
particular flight right because we all know that it's far
safer to fly than it is to get in your
car and drive. Yeah, I mean not to discount the
(10:36):
fact that, yes, this would be the suborbital flight, this
would be pretty groundbreaking. But Richard Branson has I mean,
here's the personal steak in this going well, I mean
he's gonna be on that flight. But right, yeah, so,
I mean that's the flight you would be on, Like
you can safe on that flight, but on any terrestrial
virgin light you know, or or or any random you know,
drive across town like there is a huge engine figured
(11:00):
though there's you know, a huge engine involved here too,
but but just from a business standpoint, like well, like
the version galactic engine is behind this thing taking off,
I think you're gonna be okay. And if you're not,
I mean you're gonna go out and the blaze of
glory next to uh you know, Angelina Jolie and Brad
Pitt m H. I don't know about that, um. And
(11:21):
I think that the end result is that you're still
going to be a flaming meat bag, and that that's
where people have the problem with that, Like still in
the hiyak, right, I don't want to become a flaming
meat bag. Well, we're all gonna become meat bags. So
I'm I'm like, let's do it in SubOrbit, let's let's
do it above the common line. Well, and as we'll
discuss later on, it's probably not you know, that's probably
again in a rational fear that you could apply to
(11:42):
trestual flight to you know, right, there's probably not even
gonna be mass celebrity vomiting. Like I'm probably I'm overstating
bat much less flaming celebrities. I'm just I'm just thinking
about the image. Um, all right, in a moment here
after there our break, we are going to talk about
what you get for two hundred thousand dollars. All right,
(12:06):
we're back. I should also point out, if we're talking
about the famous individuals and tickets, it should be noted
that that Shatner captain kirk fame of course, Uh, he
was offered a free ticket by Branson but turned it
down because he's too cool for school. I mean, what's
up with that. I don't think he's too cool, but
I don't know, he's just too old and curmaginally too.
It's like I've got my gig, I've got my con gig.
(12:28):
I don't I can't do it. Um, maybe you just
hates flying, I mean because Ultimately it's a flight. Somebody
he's just like, fly enough, okay, But it's a hundred
and fifty minute flight. That's what we're talking about here.
I mean, we're not talking about like going to the
West coast. We're not talking about four hours here. Um.
But do you know, just just to break it down,
a hundred and fifty minute journey would be one thousand,
(12:49):
three hundred thirty three dollars a minute. Are you guys
tagging that? And um, what you also get in your
two hundred thousand dollars. It's a three day training course
in g force and afety training at the company's training
facility in New Mexico. And as you said, the training
exercises do indicate that of humans can can do this
(13:10):
right between the ages of eight and Passengers after completing
training will load onto a rocket ship attached to a
carrier plane. That's the White Night that we've been talking to,
the mother ship that will fly fifty feet into the
air and then at that point, at about an hour
in the rockets will detach and store more than three
(13:31):
hundred thousand feet into the air. And this is when
things get really serious because the environment inside the craft
is changing really rapidly, because now you're hurtling through space
close to four times the speed of sound and about
thirty seconds okay, with five g s coming at you
at this point. And I'm sorry, but I'm kind of
(13:52):
this is I'm getting excited by this, right, this is
really cool. And then and then when you begin to
see earth of the window, right, Um, that's when the
engine cuts off and it's complete silence and weightlessness is achieved.
And that's when presumably like the little lights come on
and say that you can take your seatbelt off. Uh,
(14:12):
that's when you'll take off your seatbelt and experience zero
gravity for a full five minutes. Yeah, and and and
it's easy to sort of look at this and say,
like five minutes. All right, you so you're gonna float
around for five minutes? Big woop? Is that really worth
two dollars? Surprise? Not not or unsurprisingly? Uh, the virgin
lack of people I talked to said, yes, it will
(14:33):
totally be worth that money. And uh, and certainly when
you when you look at and then they make a
strong case because they point out that that everyone who
has gone into space, uh, and who has looked out
of a portal and seen the Earth from above. It's
changed their lives forever. Like it's not something where people
are like, yeah, I went into space once, and you
know it's like, really, you went too space. We've known
(14:54):
each other ten years and you never mentioned that. No,
this is the kind of thing that they mentioned all
the time. Like you, if anything, you're sick of hearing
about your friend Charlie going into space. You're like, go, really,
you're gonna talk about how you get to see the
Earth from above and you realize we're all, uh, you know,
a brotherhood of man blah blah blah. We've heard it before.
You know, it changes people. It's it is. I don't
(15:15):
think there's any It may not be for everyone in
the sense that not everyone is going to be willing
to invest the money in it, but I I can't
imagine anybody when we would go up there and see
it so look out the windows, see the Earth, would
experience microgravity and would regret the trip. I know. I'm
just thinking that this is total billionaire cocktail uh fodder,
(15:37):
like cocktail party, Like, oh well, I went Hella skiing
last weekend and I's been a really because I just
saw the Earth like you know from space. Yeah, it's definitely.
I guess it's you know, it's pretty much aimed at
the one percent, you know. But yeah, yeah, I'm gonna
say that. I'm gonna go with that. Except I mean
I will say though, if they want somebody from the
lower to actually you have a seat, I'm happy to
(16:00):
it to be that person. Oh yeah, yeah, along, I
absolutely agree. Um, you know, in the name of science
research podcasting, Um I could. I could do that. Yeah,
I would do it in a heartbeat. I mean especially
if and if I had two dollars just sitting around
and absolutely nothing else to do with that money. Like
if two thousand dollars was nothing to me, then I
(16:20):
could see myself buying a ticket. Yeah yeah, like ten
ton of them, prer entire family. I do think it's
a really incredible part of the whole flight. Yeah, yeah,
which some well not really people, but say some space
organizations are doing well. I was just thinking that if
you were super crazy rich, you could have some sort
of event up like they're like get married or somebody
will get married on vertictal actic. I know it will
(16:42):
happen with the with the chair and everything. I don't
think the light you bring it cool? Would that be
in zero gravity? Based on this? But let's let's talk
about a little bit more about the company UM and
how this came to fruition the the spaceship to vehicle.
Its predecessor had actually already explored suborbital space UM and
(17:06):
claimed the ten million and a sorry X prize on
October four in two thousand and four. This is actually
what caught Sir Richard Branson's eye, m because you know,
obviously this is something that he wanted to do and UM,
this is a design that he has been working on
with the people who are behind the engineering of that.
So the thing that that is most critical though to
(17:26):
the design is re entry because we talked about that
a little bit before, right, Like, re entry is the
hardest part of this because again the higher you go, um,
I guess you could say, the harder you're gonna fall. Yes, yeah,
you definitely you have to deal with the the intense
physical challenges of re entry, the wear and tear that's
going to inflict on the ship itself. Fiery re entry
(17:47):
is is a phrase for a reason, right right, It
just doesn't sound very pleasant, the air hitting the ship. No,
but feathered re entry. Doesn't that sound wonderful? That sounds great.
That sounds like something that would be offered in a hotel,
you know, yeah, feathery bed like they don't have a shower,
it's like a heavenly shower in bath or whatever. You know.
They have all these these cushy terminologies for things that
(18:09):
aren't really that fantastic. But feathered landing that sounds great.
I wouldn't be concerned about a feathered landing. It sounds
so much better than violent reentry and fiery entry. UM.
It's been compared to the flight of a shuttlecock in
Badminton and UM. It allows spaceship to to rely on
aerodynamics and the laws of physics to control speed and altitude.
(18:29):
And Spaceship two's ability to feather its tail section is
the main safety feature here UM again one that allows
a craft to return into this thick atmosphere from the
edge of space. UM and the entire tail structure of
the spaceship can actually be rotated upward to about sixty
five degrees and then in this feathered configuration, automatic control
(18:50):
of altitude with the fuselage parallel to the horizon is achieved.
So this creates a really high drag as a space
it descends through the upper regions of the atmosphere, so again,
you know, going into and out of makes it a
little bit more I guess you could say elegant, right
and safe. That that's the main part of this. Branson
(19:12):
says that the company spacecraft were built to exacting specifications
and that they were able to mitigate a lot of
the deletarious environmental effects of NASA's spaceship Shuttle program. And
um he says that their technology, because it's brand new
and not forty years old, we'll be able to put
someone into space for less than their environmental price in
(19:32):
an economy class ticket from London to New York and back.
And they said, quote on top of that, we can
put satellites into space for almost no carbon output because
we're launching them from sixt rather than the land based
satellite launches. So okay, this is where the possibilities start
to grow a little bit more beyond just space tourism,
right right, and and it really begins to look like
(19:54):
the like the space tourism is kind of the leg
up on not just the future of sending ultrawealthy celebrit
these on a you know, their dream trip, but more on,
you know, I'm getting a leg up on the next
phase in the evolution of human space flight and space
exploration itself. And that is why I mentioned earlier that
that there was was somebody that was interested in booking
(20:14):
an entire flight for kind of a party. But it's
not it's an it's it's not about Mitzvah. That's uh,
that's planned, but it's rather NASA. For a four point
five million dollar deal, they've managed to charter a full
flight from Virgin Galactic, which includes an option of two
additional flights, and on each of those pounds of scientific
experiments which in and out of it. So when I
(20:35):
first read that, I was like, well that that doesn't
really sound like much like what can you know, There's
no way that a Virgin Galactic flight is anything, you know,
on on par with a Space Shuttle flight. It's just,
you know, you can be far limited in what you
can do and how you can do it. But if
you again, if you look at it from the standpoint
of Virgin Galactic is being the leg up on the
next phase of of space exploration and and where the
(20:58):
the privatized version of space X oparation is going, then
it makes a lot more sense. Well, and then you know,
is that the model that in the United States works
in terms of space exploration? Is it privatizing? Is that?
Is that actually the answer? And not only that, is
there going to be a possible you know, space port
in in every state. Um. This also brings up the
question about whether or not we'll have global high speed
(21:20):
air and space travel, because you could you know, pretty
much travel to anywhere in the Earth in two hours
or less. Yeah, right, So this could change the landscape
of travel entirely, like intercontinental ballistic commute. I mean, you know,
of course, the price would have to come down a bit, right, Yeah,
it would. I mean that's the thing. I mean, this
is kind of like the people who are talking about
getting the ticket. You can think of them as the
(21:40):
early adapters. Like before everyone you know got a like
a certain smartphone, Um, there were only the people who
had the interest and the funds to get said smartphones.
So that's another way important thing to keep in mind
when you're laughing at the prospect of of paying two
d thousand dollars for anything that's not a a house,
you know. Yeah, yeah, Well, and then all sudden me
(22:02):
if our ten year old listeners, because I'm sure we've
got something out there. I mean, by the time you're sixty,
this might be a real possibility that you decide that
you want to travel from you know, London to uh,
I don't know, South America and under two hours and
maybe the tickets a thousand bucks by then, who knows
in a generation they'll take this for granted, that's right,
(22:22):
that's right. But in terms of suborbital flight, another reason
to do it is is something that we've touched on
before is something called the overview effect, right, and uh,
and this is the idea is I've kind of joked
about it earlier when talking about the you know, this
hypothetical astronaut friend who won't shut up about this trip
into space. The idea that it changes you and uh
(22:42):
in the overview effect is certainly part of that, the
idea that that once you've you've seen the Earth from
from orbit or in this case, sub orbit, that it
changes something in you. It gives you some new perspective
on what life means and and uh and and and
maybe even how petty uh any of our different is
are on Earth. A number of people have written about this,
(23:04):
most famously the the no Tech science guy. No Edic
Sciences founder um edgar Mitchell talks about this because apparently
this is something that a lot of astronauts experience, right.
He described the sensation um of looking at at the
Earth gave him a profound sense of connectedness with a
feeling of bliss and timelessness. He was overwhelmed by the experience.
(23:27):
He became profoundly aware that each and every atom in
the universe was connected in some way, and on seeing
Earth from space, he had an understanding that all humans, animals,
and systems were a part of the same thing, a
synergistic whole. It was an interconnected euphoria. And this that
that's the quote from um no Edics website talks about
(23:49):
his whole impetus for for creating this no Edics science,
which we won't go into. If you're interested in the
check out our podcast on the overview effect. But again,
there's this idea that you are so changed by this
whole new perspective that you have about life and your
role in it. And that's why I'm I'm actually really
like no joking, Like I would really love to see
(24:12):
entertainers like jay Z, like Kanye, go into SubOrbit, experience
this and be changed. Not because I think there's anything
wrong with the jay Z and Kanye in their current incarnations,
but I would love to see Space jay Z and
Space Kanye return. What would that be like? What would
that that be for someone to take, For someone's whole
creative flow to be reinvigorated by the overview effect, how
(24:33):
would that affect their creative output? Well, I mean, you know,
part of me thinks that they might start dawning like
monks robes or something, um, you know, and just giving
up all good, all materialistic pursuit. Well, let's not get
silly about it. But oh, you're right, you're right. Maybe
just one diamond study here. I'm thinking maybe just maybe
do some really cool tracks about how we're all brotherhood
of man, that kind of thing. But I do wonder that,
(24:54):
you know, to what extent can you really experience this?
Because you know, when astronaut is talking about the over
view fact, they're also talking about having been in space
for a month or so or more, and and some
of the ruling right, yeah, and some of the studies
that we've looked at before and that that I had
researched when they were talking about space euphoria popping up
as a as a symptom, it was it was something
(25:16):
that was occurring well into a lengthy stay in space,
and that's just not something that's going to happen with
virgin galactic yeah stage. But yeah, there's the whole question
about work. Are you get enough oxygen to your brain?
You know, because if you've been you know, sitting in
a chair for ten hours for a month, you know
your body is going to change. We've talked about that.
There's a lot of things that happened to your brain
(25:36):
and body. Now once space hotels are actually a possibility,
you know, things may change a bit. And that's in
space hotels are something that I mean, it's it's on
the radar for everyone looking at this. It's certainly not
gonna we're gonna get the initial space tourism stuff down first,
but but humans staying in space for recreation, that's it's
on the chart. There's gonna be a red roof in
(25:57):
pretty soon in space some pretty through to the world,
Howard Johnson's yeah, ho Jon Space. Alright, Well, let's uh,
let's put that one to rest and call over the
robot to see if we have any listener mail to read.
All right, here is uh, here's an email from our listener,
Rachel Rachel Rights, and this is hi, Julian Roberts. I
wanted to tell you how much I have been enjoying
(26:18):
your podcast. I buy nine miles a day to and
from work and love listening to your podcast and audiobooks
on my right. I've gotten caught up on my usual
podcast and your podcast was recommended to me, and now
I have been listening to archive of podcast. Thank you
for giving me so many things to think about. In
listening to your cheating podcast, I was shocked to hear
the percentages of cheating that people admitted to. I'm really
(26:40):
hoping my daughters and their friends can escape this trap,
and I'm disappointed in how unlikely that may be. As
for me, I did cheat once in high school, but
never in college. I agree with suggestions. The suggestion in
your podcast at school felt like something that was done
to me in high school. In college was something I
was choosing to do. My high school cheating stories when
I've told my daughters, and one they thought was amusing.
(27:01):
I was a senior in ap French taking the final.
The teacher stood up during the final and told us
in fringe that he was having a heart attack and
needs to leave, which meant he left a class of
under ten kids in a room alone taking a final.
So we collaborated. We read out the questions and translated
them and discussed them. Was it wrong? Absolutely? Should the
administration have put someone in that room to supervise us? Yes.
(27:24):
As an aside, the teacher was fine after his heart attack,
and he taught us for a few more years. Thanks
again for such a great podcast. It's wonderful. That's the
kind of story I mean, it's I mean, on one hand,
I mean, I can say I can certainly put myself
in in her place, and then imagine myself in high
school and suddenly the teacher is down, and you you
and if and if, assuming that the teachers is cared for,
(27:46):
and certainly he wasn't laying there before the whole time
he he's out, the medical folks attending to him, and
he may You're probably thinking, well, I really hope the
best for him, But I'm also kind of thinking I'm
hoping the best for me. I can imagine these folks
quickly deciding, yeah, let's let's collaborate. Let's do it. Say
(28:06):
they're a bunch of opportune this, right, you know, but
I'm glad the teacher is all right, yeah, and that
there was nothing fishy going on. But now, if this
was after school special I think that perhaps that things
wouldn't have turned out as well for the teacher and
then this would have been some sort of storyline of morality. Right, yeah,
as long as subsequent classes didn't try and exploit this
(28:28):
by giving him a heart attack so that they could
know that. Well, Hey, if you have anything you'd like
to share with us, be it something about cheating or
Virgin Galactic, let us know, you know, would you go
up on Virgin Galactic? Are you planning to? And if
you are Richard Branson and you're listening to this podcast,
send me a ticket. I would like to go seriously
call me. But the rest of you can contact us
(28:49):
on Facebook and Twitter. We are Blow the Mind on
Twitter and we are Stuff to Blow your Mind on
Facebook and again. New email address, that's right, take note
it is is Blow the Mind at Discovery dot com.
Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff
(29:11):
from the Future. Join how Stup Work staff as we
explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow,
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. And
the first things first, let's we need to go ahead
mention that we do have a new email address. If
you're looking to send us good old fashioned email with
(00:24):
or without the photo attachments and all all that fun stuff,
you will want to contact us at blow the Mind
at Discovery dot com. Previous one was at how stuff
works dot com, So it's the same email address, just
at a different domain, Discovery. That's right, you go. The mothership. Yeah,
speaking of motherships. Um, we are of course talking about
(00:45):
Virgin Galactic in this particular episode. Uh, And I guess
we were kind of uh excited to discuss this again
because just last week and there was a story that
was suddenly everywhere and I think it like it originated
like the Sun or something like if you track it
down to a tour it was. It was a British tabloid,
but but still the idea got people talking because the
idea was that record executives were interested in sending jay
(01:09):
Z and Beyonce um up into a sub orbit aboard
spaceship to the Virgin Galactic Space Tourism vessel so they
could shoot a video. It's a wonderfully Um, It's just
it's such a fun idea because I mean there's so
many different angles. I don't know, there's sort of the
one percent angle of just jay Z and Beyonce dropping
four thousand dollars just to go into space and not
(01:32):
look out the window. Like, I find that amazing. Uh.
The idea also of them going into orbit and and
maybe being a little stick al right, having their little
vomit bags. Yeah, yeah, you know, and then and then
trying to shoot a video around that I find kind
of amusing. And I just the idea of jay Z
and space is of course fantastic, especially if Beyonce it
feels a little ill and Kanye ends up going up
(01:53):
with him instead. You know, that's the one time that
I would really want to be an extra. Yeah. Yeah,
I'd totally be an extra on that video. Are you kidding?
I mean, not only are you uh, you know, going
into space, but that you're you're getting to watch, you know,
celebrities vomit on themselves. Yeah, and don't normally have to
pay pay quite a premium for that. What you'd be
(02:14):
paying for quite a premium for that. I would be
wiping vomit off my face. I just realized, So maybe
I need to rethink that. But here's the deal. I mean,
this is a possibility. It's it's right around the corner.
Virgin Galactic has been saying that they're in the final
phase of creating this great vessel and their spaceport, and
(02:35):
some people are saying, well, maybe it'll happen in although
more most likely will be but you know, with the U. S.
Bace Shuttle program being put this is something to look
forward to. Yeah, I mean, and I've I've spoken with
interviewed Stephen Attenborough, the commercial director for Virgin Galactica back
and I also talked to Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides,
(02:57):
and uh, and they were both, you know, they were
they were to get asked all the time and when's
it going up? What's the date, and they're they're very
hesitant to to throw it out any kind of date
because then, you know, they if they say it's going
to go up fourth quarter of then they're going to
suddenly be sort of feel kind of beholden to that date,
and this is not something they want to rush. They
want to get this right because I mean, you were
(03:18):
talking about, uh, traveling into SubOrbit. We're talking about traveling
into space. Uh monumental you know first when we actually
have the first commercial virgin plactic flight take off. So
you know, they wanted to to look to work perfectly
just if nothing else from a from a pr standpoint,
well in a business model too, right yeah. Um, So,
(03:40):
like I mean, let's talk a little bit about what
suborbital flight is, which is what the vessel the craft
will be going into. Right, We're talking about reaching an
altitude of approximately sixty eight miles above the surface of
the Earth um, and that is six point two miles
above a boundary line, uh that we call the Carmen line,
(04:01):
which by most definitions is where the atmosphere ends in
outer space begins. Now it's important to stress here that
there's there's no just like the Earth's atmosphere kind of
just dies off gradually, and it varies exactly when the
atmosphere would be ending and when space would be begin
based on on on where you're looking in the various
atmospheric conditions. But but also but basically it's just kind
(04:23):
of dies off. It's like, imagine there's a bad smell
in our room. There's not a point where the bad
smell begins it ends, as much as where it fades away. Okay,
this is also what we're talking about here, is sending
a craft into space and bringing it back down without
circling the Earth. And just so you guys know, now
says X fifteen has ascended beyond the Carmon line only twice.
(04:45):
And the higher you go, the higher the G forces
are going to be on the way up and the
way down. So um, this is mainly why this height
is achievable to us right now, because it works within
the confines of our own humanness, right in our ability
to with stand G forces. Um. And also just that
reentry it's really important on um, well, we know it's
one of the biggest problems of engineering right right. And
(05:09):
uh yeah, the ship that itself spaceship too is actually
designed to go even higher than sixty eight miles. But
you have to keep in mind again business model, this
is about tourism. This is about reaching as many people
as possible because you want to be able to sell
them that pricey ticket. Uh so they The goal for
Virgin Galactic has been to make it to wear. Human
(05:31):
beings between the ages of twenty two and eighty eight
would be fit enough to take the ride, so it
wouldn't be one of these things where only people in
their twenties and thirties, you know, in good hell, you know.
This is not the astronaut program. This is space tourism,
so the goals are a little different. So it's like
the ultimate roller coaster for for a variety of ages. Right, Yeah,
if Granny wants to go into the SubOrbit, Granny gets
(05:53):
to go into SubOrbit. She's just gotta be able to
PLoP down the cash. My favorite part of this is
the way that Branson describes it, which is the sexiest
spaceship ever. That's it's such a ridiculous concept because most
spaceships are kind of phallic anyway. So I mean, it's like,
I can't help but think of that. So he's like,
you imagine saying, I'm going to create the most phallic
(06:15):
spaceship imaginable. But I mean it's really it is a
very attractive looking plane. And then they have the there's
the White Knight that takes it up to uh yeah, yeah,
let's talk about what this looks like, because it is
sexy looking. Actually. Um, it is a vehicle that's designed
to carry six passengers and two pilots. And if you're
looking at it, it looks like it almost looks like
(06:36):
three planes lined up together, right, yeah, Because the White
Knight has two cabins yes to two fuselage bodies. It
looks like like like two dragonflies holding hands. Oh that's pretty,
that's beautiful. Um. And the White Knight, just you everybody
knows it's not part of the actual craft that that
shot into the ether there. It is actually the part
(06:58):
that boost the craft up to fifty feet right right,
in the same way as a space shuttle. Uh, you know,
it uses the booster. It would use the boosters to
reach a certain altitude and then it would jetison the
boosters and fly the rest of the way up. This
is kind of like that, except the boosters. Instead of
plumbing back to Earth, they go and land at an airport.
Which I mean, that's that's pretty smart, right yeah, yeah,
(07:20):
far less waste, a lot more economically feasible. Um. And
another way to look at it is and I think
this is the way that Virgin galact tends to frame
it is that the White Night is the launching platform
for Spaceship two, but instead of the launching platform being
on the ground, they fly the launching platform up to
a high altitude itself, so it's you know, it's it's
given in a ride and then it can walk the
(07:41):
rest of the way and as a result that they
use less fuel and their carbon footprint is far less. Um. So,
the cabin measures an ample seven point five feet in
diameter by twelve ft in length, and that seems to
be enough room to float around, right. Yeah. And there
are a lot of little porthole like windows just sort
(08:01):
of scattered throughout, and those are measuring up to seventeen
inches in diameter, about twice what your commercial aircraft window
would be. Yeah, and not everybody's gonna get a lot
of personal space, but like you said, you know, you're
gonna be thrown up on each other potentially, so so
you know, you might as well get a little cozy yeah. Yeah, um,
you know, and this again, this is going to be
a pretty big bonding experience for these six people anyway,
(08:23):
yea um. And then the company has actually managed to
sell more than four hundred and seventy tickets so far,
each with a twenty thousand dollar minimum deposit. Uh. And
of course this is without setting any sort of definitive
launch date. Um. And some of the luminaries that will
be on this space craft besides possibly jay Z and
(08:45):
Biance of course, uh, Angelina and Julie and Brad Pitt
on board. UM. Brian Singer, director of the first two
X Men movies, Paris Hilton. Who, Um, well everyone knows
Paris Hilton. Uh. We got royalty covered in the form
of Prince Beatrice. We have science covered in the forum
of Stephen Hawking. Uh we have and then another Hollywood legend,
(09:09):
we have Tom Hanks on board and to a lesser extent,
Victoria Principle spice girl. Oh yes, no, she's not a
spice girl. I think she's from like the nineteen she's
Dynasty or something like that. Yeah, I think she's just
the one who who wanted to have a special space suit,
like she wanted like a pink space suit or something
like that. Was that was in the news at one point.
Because for the most part, if it's virgin galactic related, um,
(09:32):
you know, like space and science journalism, they're going to
cover it um and and with good reason, because Virgin Galactic,
I mean, Branson really throws his money and stuff, and
they have great pr they have great images that they
put out there for you well. And I have heard
that their their commercial air flights are quite cushy in nice,
so I can imagine that they would design a pink
space suit for Victoria principle. Now, now you mentioned that
(09:54):
it's twenty dollars reserved the ticket two hundred thousand, as
the title of the podcast suggests at that to actually
board the flight, like that's the full price, And you
had an interesting tidbit about Salmahyak. Yeah, yeah, she actually
reserved a ticket and presumably she lost her deposit later
when she became a mother and decided that that was
a really bad idea, which was kind of like, okay,
(10:15):
I get it. You know, I'm a mother and I
can understand like, oh, okay, if if something happens, that
would be a travesty. But then we were discussing about
how this is on par with irrational fears, and in
particular flight right because we all know that it's far
safer to fly than it is to get in your
car and drive. Yeah, I mean not to discount the
(10:36):
fact that, yes, this would be the suborbital flight, this
would be pretty groundbreaking. But Richard Branson has I mean,
here's the personal steak in this going well, I mean
he's gonna be on that flight. But right, yeah, so,
I mean that's the flight you would be on, Like
you can safe on that flight, but on any terrestrial
virgin light you know, or or or any random you know,
drive across town like there is a huge engine figured
(11:00):
though there's you know, a huge engine involved here too,
but but just from a business standpoint, like well, like
the version galactic engine is behind this thing taking off,
I think you're gonna be okay. And if you're not,
I mean you're gonna go out and the blaze of
glory next to uh you know, Angelina Jolie and Brad
Pitt m H. I don't know about that, um. And
(11:21):
I think that the end result is that you're still
going to be a flaming meat bag, and that that's
where people have the problem with that, Like still in
the hiyak, right, I don't want to become a flaming
meat bag. Well, we're all gonna become meat bags. So
I'm I'm like, let's do it in SubOrbit, let's let's
do it above the common line. Well, and as we'll
discuss later on, it's probably not you know, that's probably
again in a rational fear that you could apply to
(11:42):
trestual flight to you know, right, there's probably not even
gonna be mass celebrity vomiting. Like I'm probably I'm overstating
bat much less flaming celebrities. I'm just I'm just thinking
about the image. Um, all right, in a moment here
after there our break, we are going to talk about
what you get for two hundred thousand dollars. All right,
(12:06):
we're back. I should also point out, if we're talking
about the famous individuals and tickets, it should be noted
that that Shatner captain kirk fame of course, Uh, he
was offered a free ticket by Branson but turned it
down because he's too cool for school. I mean, what's
up with that. I don't think he's too cool, but
I don't know, he's just too old and curmaginally too.
It's like I've got my gig, I've got my con gig.
(12:28):
I don't I can't do it. Um, maybe you just
hates flying, I mean because Ultimately it's a flight. Somebody
he's just like, fly enough, okay, But it's a hundred
and fifty minute flight. That's what we're talking about here.
I mean, we're not talking about like going to the
West coast. We're not talking about four hours here. Um.
But do you know, just just to break it down,
a hundred and fifty minute journey would be one thousand,
(12:49):
three hundred thirty three dollars a minute. Are you guys
tagging that? And um, what you also get in your
two hundred thousand dollars. It's a three day training course
in g force and afety training at the company's training
facility in New Mexico. And as you said, the training
exercises do indicate that of humans can can do this
(13:10):
right between the ages of eight and Passengers after completing
training will load onto a rocket ship attached to a
carrier plane. That's the White Night that we've been talking to,
the mother ship that will fly fifty feet into the
air and then at that point, at about an hour
in the rockets will detach and store more than three
(13:31):
hundred thousand feet into the air. And this is when
things get really serious because the environment inside the craft
is changing really rapidly, because now you're hurtling through space
close to four times the speed of sound and about
thirty seconds okay, with five g s coming at you
at this point. And I'm sorry, but I'm kind of
(13:52):
this is I'm getting excited by this, right, this is
really cool. And then and then when you begin to
see earth of the window, right, Um, that's when the
engine cuts off and it's complete silence and weightlessness is achieved.
And that's when presumably like the little lights come on
and say that you can take your seatbelt off. Uh,
(14:12):
that's when you'll take off your seatbelt and experience zero
gravity for a full five minutes. Yeah, and and and
it's easy to sort of look at this and say,
like five minutes. All right, you so you're gonna float
around for five minutes? Big woop? Is that really worth
two dollars? Surprise? Not not or unsurprisingly? Uh, the virgin
lack of people I talked to said, yes, it will
(14:33):
totally be worth that money. And uh, and certainly when
you when you look at and then they make a
strong case because they point out that that everyone who
has gone into space, uh, and who has looked out
of a portal and seen the Earth from above. It's
changed their lives forever. Like it's not something where people
are like, yeah, I went into space once, and you
know it's like, really, you went too space. We've known
(14:54):
each other ten years and you never mentioned that. No,
this is the kind of thing that they mentioned all
the time. Like you, if anything, you're sick of hearing
about your friend Charlie going into space. You're like, go, really,
you're gonna talk about how you get to see the
Earth from above and you realize we're all, uh, you know,
a brotherhood of man blah blah blah. We've heard it before.
You know, it changes people. It's it is. I don't
(15:15):
think there's any It may not be for everyone in
the sense that not everyone is going to be willing
to invest the money in it, but I I can't
imagine anybody when we would go up there and see
it so look out the windows, see the Earth, would
experience microgravity and would regret the trip. I know. I'm
just thinking that this is total billionaire cocktail uh fodder,
(15:37):
like cocktail party, Like, oh well, I went Hella skiing
last weekend and I's been a really because I just
saw the Earth like you know from space. Yeah, it's definitely.
I guess it's you know, it's pretty much aimed at
the one percent, you know. But yeah, yeah, I'm gonna
say that. I'm gonna go with that. Except I mean
I will say though, if they want somebody from the
lower to actually you have a seat, I'm happy to
(16:00):
it to be that person. Oh yeah, yeah, along, I
absolutely agree. Um, you know, in the name of science
research podcasting, Um I could. I could do that. Yeah,
I would do it in a heartbeat. I mean especially
if and if I had two dollars just sitting around
and absolutely nothing else to do with that money. Like
if two thousand dollars was nothing to me, then I
(16:20):
could see myself buying a ticket. Yeah yeah, like ten
ton of them, prer entire family. I do think it's
a really incredible part of the whole flight. Yeah, yeah,
which some well not really people, but say some space
organizations are doing well. I was just thinking that if
you were super crazy rich, you could have some sort
of event up like they're like get married or somebody
will get married on vertictal actic. I know it will
(16:42):
happen with the with the chair and everything. I don't
think the light you bring it cool? Would that be
in zero gravity? Based on this? But let's let's talk
about a little bit more about the company UM and
how this came to fruition the the spaceship to vehicle.
Its predecessor had actually already explored suborbital space UM and
(17:06):
claimed the ten million and a sorry X prize on
October four in two thousand and four. This is actually
what caught Sir Richard Branson's eye, m because you know,
obviously this is something that he wanted to do and UM,
this is a design that he has been working on
with the people who are behind the engineering of that.
So the thing that that is most critical though to
(17:26):
the design is re entry because we talked about that
a little bit before, right, Like, re entry is the
hardest part of this because again the higher you go, um,
I guess you could say, the harder you're gonna fall. Yes, yeah,
you definitely you have to deal with the the intense
physical challenges of re entry, the wear and tear that's
going to inflict on the ship itself. Fiery re entry
(17:47):
is is a phrase for a reason, right right, It
just doesn't sound very pleasant, the air hitting the ship. No,
but feathered re entry. Doesn't that sound wonderful? That sounds great.
That sounds like something that would be offered in a hotel,
you know, yeah, feathery bed like they don't have a shower,
it's like a heavenly shower in bath or whatever. You know.
They have all these these cushy terminologies for things that
(18:09):
aren't really that fantastic. But feathered landing that sounds great.
I wouldn't be concerned about a feathered landing. It sounds
so much better than violent reentry and fiery entry. UM.
It's been compared to the flight of a shuttlecock in
Badminton and UM. It allows spaceship to to rely on
aerodynamics and the laws of physics to control speed and altitude.
(18:29):
And Spaceship two's ability to feather its tail section is
the main safety feature here UM again one that allows
a craft to return into this thick atmosphere from the
edge of space. UM and the entire tail structure of
the spaceship can actually be rotated upward to about sixty
five degrees and then in this feathered configuration, automatic control
(18:50):
of altitude with the fuselage parallel to the horizon is achieved.
So this creates a really high drag as a space
it descends through the upper regions of the atmosphere, so again,
you know, going into and out of makes it a
little bit more I guess you could say elegant, right
and safe. That that's the main part of this. Branson
(19:12):
says that the company spacecraft were built to exacting specifications
and that they were able to mitigate a lot of
the deletarious environmental effects of NASA's spaceship Shuttle program. And
um he says that their technology, because it's brand new
and not forty years old, we'll be able to put
someone into space for less than their environmental price in
(19:32):
an economy class ticket from London to New York and back.
And they said, quote on top of that, we can
put satellites into space for almost no carbon output because
we're launching them from sixt rather than the land based
satellite launches. So okay, this is where the possibilities start
to grow a little bit more beyond just space tourism,
right right, and and it really begins to look like
(19:54):
the like the space tourism is kind of the leg
up on not just the future of sending ultrawealthy celebrit
these on a you know, their dream trip, but more on,
you know, I'm getting a leg up on the next
phase in the evolution of human space flight and space
exploration itself. And that is why I mentioned earlier that
that there was was somebody that was interested in booking
(20:14):
an entire flight for kind of a party. But it's
not it's an it's it's not about Mitzvah. That's uh,
that's planned, but it's rather NASA. For a four point
five million dollar deal, they've managed to charter a full
flight from Virgin Galactic, which includes an option of two
additional flights, and on each of those pounds of scientific
experiments which in and out of it. So when I
(20:35):
first read that, I was like, well that that doesn't
really sound like much like what can you know, There's
no way that a Virgin Galactic flight is anything, you know,
on on par with a Space Shuttle flight. It's just,
you know, you can be far limited in what you
can do and how you can do it. But if
you again, if you look at it from the standpoint
of Virgin Galactic is being the leg up on the
next phase of of space exploration and and where the
(20:58):
the privatized version of space X oparation is going, then
it makes a lot more sense. Well, and then you know,
is that the model that in the United States works
in terms of space exploration? Is it privatizing? Is that?
Is that actually the answer? And not only that, is
there going to be a possible you know, space port
in in every state. Um. This also brings up the
question about whether or not we'll have global high speed
(21:20):
air and space travel, because you could you know, pretty
much travel to anywhere in the Earth in two hours
or less. Yeah, right, So this could change the landscape
of travel entirely, like intercontinental ballistic commute. I mean, you know,
of course, the price would have to come down a bit, right, Yeah,
it would. I mean that's the thing. I mean, this
is kind of like the people who are talking about
getting the ticket. You can think of them as the
(21:40):
early adapters. Like before everyone you know got a like
a certain smartphone, Um, there were only the people who
had the interest and the funds to get said smartphones.
So that's another way important thing to keep in mind
when you're laughing at the prospect of of paying two
d thousand dollars for anything that's not a a house,
you know. Yeah, yeah, Well, and then all sudden me
(22:02):
if our ten year old listeners, because I'm sure we've
got something out there. I mean, by the time you're sixty,
this might be a real possibility that you decide that
you want to travel from you know, London to uh,
I don't know, South America and under two hours and
maybe the tickets a thousand bucks by then, who knows
in a generation they'll take this for granted, that's right,
(22:22):
that's right. But in terms of suborbital flight, another reason
to do it is is something that we've touched on
before is something called the overview effect, right, and uh,
and this is the idea is I've kind of joked
about it earlier when talking about the you know, this
hypothetical astronaut friend who won't shut up about this trip
into space. The idea that it changes you and uh
(22:42):
in the overview effect is certainly part of that, the
idea that that once you've you've seen the Earth from
from orbit or in this case, sub orbit, that it
changes something in you. It gives you some new perspective
on what life means and and uh and and and
maybe even how petty uh any of our different is
are on Earth. A number of people have written about this,
(23:04):
most famously the the no Tech science guy. No Edic
Sciences founder um edgar Mitchell talks about this because apparently
this is something that a lot of astronauts experience, right.
He described the sensation um of looking at at the
Earth gave him a profound sense of connectedness with a
feeling of bliss and timelessness. He was overwhelmed by the experience.
(23:27):
He became profoundly aware that each and every atom in
the universe was connected in some way, and on seeing
Earth from space, he had an understanding that all humans, animals,
and systems were a part of the same thing, a
synergistic whole. It was an interconnected euphoria. And this that
that's the quote from um no Edics website talks about
(23:49):
his whole impetus for for creating this no Edics science,
which we won't go into. If you're interested in the
check out our podcast on the overview effect. But again,
there's this idea that you are so changed by this
whole new perspective that you have about life and your
role in it. And that's why I'm I'm actually really
like no joking, Like I would really love to see
(24:12):
entertainers like jay Z, like Kanye, go into SubOrbit, experience
this and be changed. Not because I think there's anything
wrong with the jay Z and Kanye in their current incarnations,
but I would love to see Space jay Z and
Space Kanye return. What would that be like? What would
that that be for someone to take, For someone's whole
creative flow to be reinvigorated by the overview effect, how
(24:33):
would that affect their creative output? Well, I mean, you know,
part of me thinks that they might start dawning like
monks robes or something, um, you know, and just giving
up all good, all materialistic pursuit. Well, let's not get
silly about it. But oh, you're right, you're right. Maybe
just one diamond study here. I'm thinking maybe just maybe
do some really cool tracks about how we're all brotherhood
of man, that kind of thing. But I do wonder that,
(24:54):
you know, to what extent can you really experience this?
Because you know, when astronaut is talking about the over
view fact, they're also talking about having been in space
for a month or so or more, and and some
of the ruling right, yeah, and some of the studies
that we've looked at before and that that I had
researched when they were talking about space euphoria popping up
as a as a symptom, it was it was something
(25:16):
that was occurring well into a lengthy stay in space,
and that's just not something that's going to happen with
virgin galactic yeah stage. But yeah, there's the whole question
about work. Are you get enough oxygen to your brain?
You know, because if you've been you know, sitting in
a chair for ten hours for a month, you know
your body is going to change. We've talked about that.
There's a lot of things that happened to your brain
(25:36):
and body. Now once space hotels are actually a possibility,
you know, things may change a bit. And that's in
space hotels are something that I mean, it's it's on
the radar for everyone looking at this. It's certainly not
gonna we're gonna get the initial space tourism stuff down first,
but but humans staying in space for recreation, that's it's
on the chart. There's gonna be a red roof in
(25:57):
pretty soon in space some pretty through to the world,
Howard Johnson's yeah, ho Jon Space. Alright, Well, let's uh,
let's put that one to rest and call over the
robot to see if we have any listener mail to read.
All right, here is uh, here's an email from our listener,
Rachel Rachel Rights, and this is hi, Julian Roberts. I
wanted to tell you how much I have been enjoying
(26:18):
your podcast. I buy nine miles a day to and
from work and love listening to your podcast and audiobooks
on my right. I've gotten caught up on my usual
podcast and your podcast was recommended to me, and now
I have been listening to archive of podcast. Thank you
for giving me so many things to think about. In
listening to your cheating podcast, I was shocked to hear
the percentages of cheating that people admitted to. I'm really
(26:40):
hoping my daughters and their friends can escape this trap,
and I'm disappointed in how unlikely that may be. As
for me, I did cheat once in high school, but
never in college. I agree with suggestions. The suggestion in
your podcast at school felt like something that was done
to me in high school. In college was something I
was choosing to do. My high school cheating stories when
I've told my daughters, and one they thought was amusing.
(27:01):
I was a senior in ap French taking the final.
The teacher stood up during the final and told us
in fringe that he was having a heart attack and
needs to leave, which meant he left a class of
under ten kids in a room alone taking a final.
So we collaborated. We read out the questions and translated
them and discussed them. Was it wrong? Absolutely? Should the
administration have put someone in that room to supervise us? Yes.
(27:24):
As an aside, the teacher was fine after his heart attack,
and he taught us for a few more years. Thanks
again for such a great podcast. It's wonderful. That's the
kind of story I mean, it's I mean, on one hand,
I mean, I can say I can certainly put myself
in in her place, and then imagine myself in high
school and suddenly the teacher is down, and you you
and if and if, assuming that the teachers is cared for,
(27:46):
and certainly he wasn't laying there before the whole time
he he's out, the medical folks attending to him, and
he may You're probably thinking, well, I really hope the
best for him, But I'm also kind of thinking I'm
hoping the best for me. I can imagine these folks
quickly deciding, yeah, let's let's collaborate. Let's do it. Say
(28:06):
they're a bunch of opportune this, right, you know, but
I'm glad the teacher is all right, yeah, and that
there was nothing fishy going on. But now, if this
was after school special I think that perhaps that things
wouldn't have turned out as well for the teacher and
then this would have been some sort of storyline of morality. Right, yeah,
as long as subsequent classes didn't try and exploit this
(28:28):
by giving him a heart attack so that they could
know that. Well, Hey, if you have anything you'd like
to share with us, be it something about cheating or
Virgin Galactic, let us know, you know, would you go
up on Virgin Galactic? Are you planning to? And if
you are Richard Branson and you're listening to this podcast,
send me a ticket. I would like to go seriously
call me. But the rest of you can contact us
(28:49):
on Facebook and Twitter. We are Blow the Mind on
Twitter and we are Stuff to Blow your Mind on
Facebook and again. New email address, that's right, take note
it is is Blow the Mind at Discovery dot com.
Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff
(29:11):
from the Future. Join how Stup Work staff as we
explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow,
Stuff To Blow Your Mind News
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