FACTORALY - E34 NASA

Episode Date: April 18, 2024

NASA is so well known that it's synonymous with space exploration. This time, the rabbit holes you'll enter by clicking the pics are more like wormholes! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello Simon. Hello Bruce, how are you today? I'm very well thank you, how are you? Marvelously well, thank you so much for asking. Jolly good. And welcome everybody. Hello. Yes, hello all. We are Bruce Fielding and... Simon Wells. And this is a podcast which you already know because you've looked it up on your podcast, Blair, called... Factorily.

And basically it's a lot of rubbish. For about 30 minutes on a subject which generally can be a bit dry or factual and we try and make it a bit less dry and factual for about half an hour yes we we sort of have two approaches to this either we pick something that is boring and could never have any interesting facts about it but we find them or we pick something that's so huge and vast and extensive that you couldn't possibly whittle it down into 30 minutes and we do so. Quite. Today's the latter. You see I think that we've got some interesting stuff to say. Oh definitely definitely. But it certainly it certainly blew my mind. Indeed yes. Well today we are talking about NASA. We're not talking about space.

No. We're not talking about the solar system and the planets and the stars. No. I'm not going to break out my Brian Cox impression and talk about how vast space is because that would just be annoying. Really, really big. Really big. We're talking about the National Aeronautical Space

Hang on. We're talking about... I forgot my last word because I knew the last word last time and i forgot national aeronautics and space administration that's it we're talking about the national aeronautics and space administration otherwise known as nasa correct right now that's a good thing to start with because without ever having really done any major research into the topic i'd always wrongly thought that it was the north american space association yes i think a lot of people do it just sort of seems reasonable i mean they

managed to get past the north american bit by saying national yes yes okay but we know we know which nation it's not like the global it would be gasser if it was like gasser I found out that NASA was preceded by NACA NACA? NACA Were there more than one? No, a pair of NACAs, yeah absolutely In 1915 America set up the NACA Which was?

Which was the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Okay. Obviously set up in 1915. They weren't even thinking about space at the time. It was all about flight. And it was a committee to work out new methods and practices and policies and so on into flight. Yes. And then eventually space kind of came on the horizon is that a pun no um space is always on the horizon it's really big and um

they they they set up nasa which i prefer because naka just sounds silly yes you could actually pronounce it nasa couldn't you or something like that i suppose you could nasa that's an interesting point isn't it nasa yes sounds like it's spelt n-a-s-s-e-r yes as in as in the egyptian leader well obviously yeah yes stick an l on the end nasal suddenly got a z in the middle suddenly changed the way you pronounce the a and then you've got a Z in the middle, suddenly changed the way you pronounced the A. Or Napa, and then you've got a place in California. Isn't the English language great? So what can you tell me about the origins of what we shall call NASA? Oh, do you think we should?

Do you think that'll just get confusing? No, that'll just annoy people. I don't think we should? Do you think that'll just get confusing? No, that'll just annoy people. I don't think we should do that. So NASA was set up in 1958 under the administration of President Eisenhower. Dwight D. That's the fella. Dwight, you don't get many Dwights these days, do you? You don't. I mean, there was a long build-up to this thing being created.

Without going into too much detail, the Cold War, essentially. World War II was over. America and the Soviet Union weren't exactly the best of bedfellows. No. Lots of one-upmanship, lots of arms race. You know, who's going to get the hang of nuclear power first who's got the most german rocket scientists yes exactly in their pockets yes yeah and um the the nuclear missile race eventually turned into the space race which

eventually turned into the moon race you know who can do these things first yes I hadn't quite realized until researching all about the American space people just how prevalent the Russian space people were the first unmanned flight was Russian like of the dog indeed very good well done the first man-made object to deliberately land on the moon okay something called a hard landing which is to say they cried exactly yeah there had been accidental crashes there had been satellites and things accidentally falling yes on the moon um but the first deliberate we're going to fire something into the sky and it'll land on the moon uh landed really hard you know they they deliberately crashed it at high speed into the moon. That was Russian. The first soft landing,

i.e. the first item they deliberately landed on the moon in such a way that it was vaguely recoverable, was Russian. The first photos on the moon, Russian. You keep saying Russian. You don't mean Russian, do you? Soviet. Apologies. I'm not going to bother re-recording all of that.

I wouldn't either. I think we'll just leave that bit in. Yes. Insert Soviet whenever you hear the word Russian. And then it wasn't until President Kennedy came along and said, do you know what? I'm not having this. I'm not having the Soviets doing so well and us always coming second. Let's send a man to the moon and let's be awesome.

And the rest is history. I'll tell you what I should do. There's a wonderful speech about the, we don't do these things because it's easy. We didn't because they're hard. And I'll put a link in the show notes in our blog on factorily.com to a YouTube video of him saying that. A splendid repository of additional material to complement what you're hearing right now.

Well, that's one way of putting it. The other way is to say it's a massive rabbit hole that you'll never get out of. Yep, that's also accurate. That was basically NASA's ambition, was it, to get a man on the moon? I mean, yeah, little by little. I mean, they did start off just exploring space. They did start off just developing rockets and so on and so on. But I think the moon was always there in the back of their mind.

Right. It took a while. So NASA was created in 1958. Man didn't land on the moon until 1969. So, you know, a little while afterwards. Well, it's not bad. Not a phenomenal amount of time afterwards. Given the amount of work that one had to do

and the amount of computing power available, which is probably less than in my mobile phone. Actually, a lot less. Absolutely. Quite a lot less. Yeah. So they built a place called NASA. Where was that then?

So NASA is the organization rather than the place. Yeah. Got it. So there are lots of places. I think I counted up there are about 20 different combinations of actual sort of launch sites, space centres, research centres, offices, etc, etc. Oh, cool. So NASA is actually based in Washington, D.C. That's where its HQ is.

And then you've got the Johnson Space Centre, which is in Houston. Yeah. Famed by Houston, we have a problem. Of course, yes. You have the Kennedy Space Centre, which is in Cape Canaveral in Florida. You've got a place at Langley. You've got lots and lots of different places. So it's everywhere. Right. It's not just a place. But you know, the problem with the Kennedy Space Centre is that they occasionally have to shut it down. Do they? Yeah, they have the problem with the Kennedy Space Center is that they occasionally have to shut it down.

Do they? Yeah, they have a problem with alligators getting on the runway. Oh, thank goodness you didn't say getting on the rockets. Well, can you imagine if one landed with an alligator on it? You go, my God, the spacemen look just like alligators. Yeah, they've had to deal with an alligator problem at Kennedy Space Center. Really? Yeah, they just get everywhere.

Right. And the area code, I love this. I love this fact. So the area code for the Kennedy Space Center, guess what it is? Three numbers. Oh, please let it be three, two, one. It is. Is it? Yes.

No way. That was a guess. That's brilliant. Oh, that's wonderful. Isn't that great? I can't do a NASA-style countdown without doing it in the voice of the Thunderbirds. Well, you also have to have like a big echo on it as well, don't you? Yes.

Three, two. Yeah. Yeah. Shall we talk about astronauts? Go on on then. Because they're trained at NASA, aren't they? Yes. That's where they train the astronauts.

The American ones are anyway. Well, not just the American ones. There's British ones trained there and French ones trained there and all sorts of other. Really? Yeah. So a lot of astronauts are trained there. Most of them don't make it through the training. Right, OK.

But part of the training is to watch a film. You know, like you get training films. Yes, of course. And the training film that they watch is Armageddon. Do you remember the Bruce Willis? No, it's not. No, it's not. So what they do is they have to count the number of mistakes.

Number one, they employed Bruce Willis. Well, yes, there is that. So at the moment, they think there are probably 186 errors in Armageddon. And the training astronauts have to try and spot as many as they possibly can. That's incredible. Yeah. Here's a work of fiction. Tell us how it's not factual.

I know. I know. And one of the ones that is factual, which is quite interesting, is that if one of the astronauts has a breakdown, they do tie them to a chair with duct tape. So Steve Buscemi, or Buscemi, or Buscemi, or however you want to pronounce it. I've never known. When he goes nuts and they tie him to a chair with duct tape, that is actually in the manual. Is it? Oh, that's incredible. For any of our listeners who are roughly around their mid-40s, I can't hear duct tape without going,

at the end, which represents a particular cartoon that was popular when I was growing up. Yeah, I mean, there's all sorts of bits of training. They train in a huge underwater area, because you can't obviously get weightless on Earth. Yes, of course. But you can get close by putting somebody in a sort of a water environment. So they have almost like a scale model of the International Space Station

in a huge swimming pool. I mean, everything is huge at NASA. Yes. Well, it has to be, doesn't it? I mean, the building, when you said about NASA being a place, you're probably thinking of the big space centre. The Vehicle Assembly Building. That's the one. The Vehicle Assembly Centre. It's that big concrete structure that always has a rocket standing upright next to it. The place is so big, it has its own weather system inside. Wait, it rains?

Yeah. Well, it doesn't quite rain, but clouds form at ceiling level inside this building. It's that big. On humid days, clouds actually form inside the thing.

Wow. And they have to have a particularly good air conditioning system in order to combat that. That's amazing. Have you ever wondered, I mean, of course you have, because both you, Bruce, and you, our listeners, are that kind of person.

Have you ever wondered how an astronaut scratches their nose when they've got their helmet on? Actually, yes. You have wondered that? Because I wear a crash helmet, and I just flip up the visor and just scratch my nose. A bit more tricky in space. Yeah, so you can't do that in space. So inside an asteroid, I mean, again, I'm talking from an American's, a NASA point of view.

I don't know how the rest of the world deals with this. But there's a piece of foam inside the space helmet called a Valsalva, V-A-L-S-A-L-V-A. That sounds very efficient. does isn't it and it sort of applies pressure to your nose um so that you can blow against it to make your ears unpop yes and um you can also use it for for scratching your face if you suddenly get an itch you can turn your head in whatever direction and scrape your face against this valsalva and that does the trick isn't that great how clever we had a in the tools episode we talked about i talked about needles oh you did and how spacesuits are made using one of the oldest technologies in the world which is a needle they're just sewn yeah but the technology that

goes into the material that makes a spacesuit is amazing. And it has all sorts of other uses because it's super light, super strong, and super weatherproof. And obviously, you know, doesn't let the space weather in. That pesky space weather. Yes. But they use it for things like, you know those cloth coverings that go over stadiums and things like that? Oh, yeah.

It's the same material. Oh, is it? Yeah. Oh, okay. I mean, you know, there's all this kind of like that. Oh, yeah. It's the same material. Oh, is it? Yeah. Oh, okay. I mean, you know, there's all this kind of like, you know, nonstick materials that's come out of space, like so much technology that we now take for granted. Yes.

Including probably a super soaker. Yes. Which was invented by Lonnie Johnson, who was one of the senior technicians at NASA. The super soaker water gun was invented by a NASA technician. Because they were actually looking at how they could cool stuff down really fast. Okay. And he invented the system to cool stuff down really fast.

And then, actually, that made quite a fun toy for my kid. That's great. You talked about spacesuits. You know that expression, as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit? Yes. I'd love to see where this is going. Well, NASA has a thing, actually he named himself, a nasal nought. Nasal nought?

He's basically a space sniffer. He sniffs stuff for a living. Okay. And the reason why is because if you make a bad smell in space you can't just open a window and just waft it out yeah sure it's trapped isn't it yeah it's there forever huh so this guy basically um looks at all the things that could smell and works out whether they do smell and then replaces them with something that doesn't. Huh. I don't remember if I've read this recently or if it's just apocryphal.

I had a feeling that the sense of smell doesn't work quite so well in space because everything is quite clinical and there's a different level of air pressure. Yes. All the air is recycled. Everything quite you know crisp um things don't smell or taste as much in space as they do on the land well it's much like um when you go up in an airplane they just slather everything with salt yes because otherwise you can't taste it like airline food is so salty but you don't notice how salty it is because you're at pressure similarly the people who um repair the feet of oil rigs, who have to live down in pressurized environment for some time,

they can't taste anything. So they get like, we had an episode on curries. And they basically have to have the hottest curries because they can't taste anything else. I see. And they're Scottish, generally. Well, naturally. There's a thing called the breadcrumb problem in space,

which is where if you have a sarnie and a few breadcrumbs float loose, they're going to get into the electrics. Oh, crikey, right. You don't shave in space because all of your beard trimmings would end up in the electrics. So they eat tortillas instead of bread. Okay, yeah, for your crumbs. To stop the crumbs from getting into the system. Yeah, yeah. Do you know what else can get into the electrics?

Go on. Peanut butter. Oh. So I had a little poke around. I can't even remember how this started, but I had a little poke around traditions. We had an episode previously about fishing, and we talked about all the superstitions and traditions that take place around going out on a boat. It's lucky to do this. It's unlucky to do that.

Similarly, NASA has quite a lot of traditions and rituals. Okay. One of which is that the astronauts tend to go and shake hands with a technician before boarding a spacecraft to sort of show their trust in the person who's just built this thing and is making it safe. The engineers at NASA sometimes hide a box of Lucky Charms cereal on board the spacecraft for the astronauts to suddenly find one day and go, oh, Lucky Charms cereal on board the spacecraft for the astronauts to suddenly find one day and go,

oh, Lucky Charms, how nice. Would they sort of... That's the one, yeah, exactly, yeah. Whether they actually open them and eat them or not, for the reasons you've just stated, probably not, but it's still there. NASA has a specific meal of cornbread and beans after every successful launch traditions like this but the one i mentioned peanut butter nowhere at kennedy space center will you find peanut butter peanut butter is completely and utterly banned at kennedy space center wow why

because apparently on the ap Apollo 1 mission, there was an incident in which an astronaut left a peanut butter sandwich on a spacecraft and it allegedly caused, it was never proven, but it could have potentially caused some electrical problems that happened in the

mission. So peanut butter is banned at the whole of the Kennedy Space Centre. Wow! Which reminds me that when they landed on the moon they had to eat, obviously so peanut butter is banned at the whole of the Kennedy Space Center. Wow. Which reminds me that when they landed on the moon, they had to eat, obviously, when they were on the moon, and they decided they were going to have a decent meal rather than just live on the sucky stuff. The rations. Yeah.

So they did. They had a meal. And the first meal on the moon was bacon, peaches, cookies, a sort of lilt-type drink, sort of pineapple and grapefruit, and a cup of coffee. Sounds all right, doesn't it? Which sounds like a decent meal to have if you're moonside. Yes, you'd sort of expect it to be freeze-dried this and processed, packaged, astronaut-friendly that.

Exactly. Great. NASA, apart from designing the super soaker, they designed something else designed for water, which is the speeders, the LZR or LZR racer swimsuit. Oh, really? Which was used at the Olympics. It's supposed to be the perfect swimsuit. Really?

Because it's designed by NASA to be aquadynamic. Right, okay. And when it first came out, people were saying, this is cheating because you're actually getting tenths and fifths of a second off another equivalent swimmer. But then they all decided to wear them, and then it was fine. Well, it's all part of the innovation, isn't it? Yeah, I think so.

But also, underneath the spacesuit, if you're a female astronaut, there are certain attributes of a female astronaut that don't do well in zero gravity. That was so delicately put, Bruce. Well done. Thank you very much. So, Playtex was invited to invent a space bra. Really? Yes. So, the female astronauts that go into space wear Playtex space bras.

This is nothing to do with anything, but I'm just going to throw it out there. NASA's logos. It's had a couple of different logos over the years. Oh, yes. The one I always think of is sort of a blue globe-like design with an orbity swoosh around it. Yes, yes. That's quite well described. Okay, there we go. Well, everyone knows what I'm talking about. Yeah. That is affectionately known within the NASA community as the meatball. Okay. And the alternative logo, which is just the word NASA, but it's written, it almost looks like a neon tubing writing. It almost looks like one continuous tube of writing. That's nicknamed

the worm. So the two NASA logos are the meatball and the worm. Oh, right. The meatball and the worm. Excellent. And I first discovered this and I started looking into it and thinking, why do they keep talking about meatballs and worms? What are these fascinating things? Is it a particular type of food? Is it a particular invention? No, it's just the logo. Cool. Before we get off the subject of food completely, there was a guy who got a grant of $125,000 to work on a machine to 3D print pizzas in space. You what?

So it doesn't make a round one. It makes a square one. Okay. But he's basically a 3D printer that prints out pizzas in space. Wow. And then, of course, once you've eaten, you need the question that everybody asks astronauts is what's it like going to the toilet in space? Yes. One has this impression that it's a very closed system

and that everything is recycled and what have you, but not everything is recycled. Okay. And there's a wonderful name, because the faeces sometimes, they basically crush it down, but sometimes they eject it into space, and they're called SKPs, which I love. That's great.

It's just a great thing. Oh, the detritus that must be floating around in space broken bits of this and abandoned bits of that never for a moment did I picture human excrement yes well I didn't research this but I seem to remember that they made an

enormously long icicle of urine okay there was a leak from the system basically because space is very very cold it's quite chilly and uh yeah so it leaked out and made an enormous great icicle which i hope then broke off and then dissipated in the atmosphere which i which i imagine it would rather than landing in somebody's garden well yes yeah i think i think the uh i think the process of re-entering earth's atmosphere would probably melt it.

And then you just have a little pee shower. And they don't just do the moon either, do they, NASA? They go much further afield as well. They go to Mars. Oh, they go all over the shop, don't they? Yeah. And they also look at the Earth quite a lot. That's mostly what they do. But I love the story of when they did go to Mars,

there were three Yemeni guys Oh, I read this as well. who sued NASA for trespassing on Mars because they claimed that they inherited the planet 3,000 years ago from their ancestors. I mean, I don't know how legally binding that could have been.

I know. 3,000 years ago, whoever made a claim on Mars and then passed it down to these three chaps. Oh, that's fascinating. That's great, isn't it? That's very good. Yes, now you mentioned there in passing monitoring and looking at the Earth. Yes.

So NASA doesn't just send up rockets and it doesn't just send people to other planets and so on. It does lots of observations. It does lots of satellite work. And in the 1970s, NASA went on an absolute an absolute i was going to say bender that's the wrong word but they they became very very enthused about putting satellites into space yes and um there are many many many facts about satellites in space but essentially nasa set up something called the eos eos which is-S, which is the Earth Observing System. Okay.

And they made it their mission to be the first people to photograph the whole Earth from space. Yeah. And those satellites that were used for that monitor stuff. They monitor the Earth's climate. They monitor the recession of the Earth's ice coverage. Okay. They monitor weather and climate change and geological changes and and things like that and um another another thing i found just just on that that topic of tech and equipment and so on through all of their different projects through their training

through their various missions and so on and so on um do you know how big a budget nasa has every year well i would think it was probably about i mean given that they're sending stuff into space which is not cheap yeah i would say a couple of billion dollars okay 25 billion 25 billion yep that's an awful lot of money. Give or take half a billion or so, NASA have a budget of $25 billion a year to spend on spacey stuff. $25 billion a year. That's a big number, isn't it? That's a huge number.

Well, that's all I have to say about space. That's all I have to say about NASA. Well, thank you very much for listening. Yes, thank you all. Oh, you know, before we go. Oh, go on. What we need to tell people. No, not tell.

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Please come again next time for another episode of... Factorily. Bye for now. Cheerio.