Off-Nominal - 140 - Cultivating a Vibe

Episode Date: February 2, 2024

Jake and Anthony are joined by Rae Paoletta of The Planetary Society to pour one out for Ingenuity, breakdown the epic SLIM landing, and do some eclipse planning.TopicsOff-Nominal - YouTubeEpisode 140 - Cultivating a Vibe (with Rae Paoletta) - YouTubeSLIM moon lander revived after solar power setback - SpaceNewsDawoon Jung on X: “One of #SLIM main engines fell off during landing”SLIM_JAXA on X: “Communication with SLIM was successfully established last night, and operations resumed! Science observations were immediately started with the MBC, and we obtained first light for the 10-band observation. This figure shows the “toy poodle” observed in the multi-band observation.”More SLIM RocksAfter Three Years on Mars, NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter Mission EndsIngenuity Mars helicopter mission ends after 72 flights - SpaceNewsExperience the Total Solar Eclipse | The Planetary SocietyNerd Alert: Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains the Lunar Eclipse - YouTubeFollow Raerae paoletta (@PAYOLETTER) / TwitterRae Paoletta | The Planetary SocietyThe Planetary SocietyPlanetary Society (@exploreplanets) / TwitterFollow Off-NominalSubscribe to the show! - Off-NominalSupport the show, join the DiscordOff-Nominal (@offnom) / TwitterOff-Nominal (@[e-mail]) - Spacey SpaceFollow JakeWeMartians Podcast - Follow Humanity's Journey to MarsWeMartians Podcast (@We_Martians) | TwitterJake Robins (@JakeOnOrbit) | TwitterJake Robins (@[e-mail]) - Spacey SpaceFollow AnthonyMain Engine Cut OffMain Engine Cut Off (@WeHaveMECO) | TwitterMain Engine Cut Off (@[e-mail]) - Spacey SpaceAnthony Colangelo (@acolangelo) | TwitterAnthony Colangelo (@[e-mail]) - jawns.club 🐘Off-Nominal MerchandiseOff-Nominal Logo TeeWeMartians Shop | MECO Shop

DLS and go for main engine, start. Hey, friends. How's it going? Hey, what's up? That's Ray, Pia Letta, back with the snake trivia. That's what we're talking about today. All snake trivia. That's what I signed up for.

Did you get your license since the last time you've been on? I'm working toward it. I've had a few things come up here and there, but I'm actively pursuing that goal. Okay, if we're doing snake trivia, Anthony, I'm going to send you some pictures. And, Ray, I need you to help me identify this. Because I was out in my garden this week, and I found leftover snake.

Oh, like shedding, like molding? Like molded snake. Yeah, yeah. And I'm really confused about it. Because, you're living like an 824, like horror movie over there. I don't know if it's horrible. But I'm very confused by this. So this, we're going to bring up a picture here.

This is the shedding of a snake that I found like in a bush. Here we go. Yeah, that was great. So like, do snakes just like climb up into bush branches and I don't know. I don't know how it gets to the head? What is going on here? Maybe he got caught on the branch. Yeah, that's a good.

And he just cut snagged. And the only way to get out was just leave a skin. You ever been walking through your kitchen and your pocket catches on a drawer? Same thing, same concept. Anyway, so if you can let me know what species and genesis is. Yeah, what do we feel like that? Yeah, yeah. I don't know.

I mean, like, I'd have to have my team look this over, honestly. But I do feel like I should be getting paid for my reptilian consulting. So I'll send you an invoice after the show, don't worry about it. Okay, sounds good. That's good snake content. You got to put that on LinkedIn or something. Oh man, people will be so confused by my LinkedIn presence if I put that up there. They're already confused by it.

I think we're all confused by LinkedIn in general. So I think it's not that out of the blue, honestly. LinkedIn, is this for shit posting? Thought leadership, random snake multed. Yeah, big engagement on that, though. It's all about finally engagement. I think LinkedIn, I guess we're just talking about this now, but I feel like it's the only place that people know they can find you post.

So it's become the place where people post things. Like it's the only place you can reliably look as is did that person post a thing if they have a LinkedIn. They probably posted it. Other than that, your shit out of luck. Find their mastodon incidents. Go ahead. What the future we live in where everything else has gotten so bad that LinkedIn is the best social network. Which is saying a lot because I always say the most cursed internet interaction is somebody wishing you a happy birthday on LinkedIn. Like that is the most deviant.

devastating L of all time is happy birthday, LinkedIn message. Like, why do you hate me? I'm not even hiring. I mean, come on. Oh, wow. True dystopian vibes. I love to see it.

Yikes. Jake, did you bring a drink today? I did, yeah. So I have another craft. craft beer today from Colima. This is Ticcis, Ticcus. It's Porter. We having another, another freaking cold snap here in Yucatan.

It's cold this week again. And so I had to get a warm beer, which is poured, obviously. I'm sure. It's really cold. Yeah. It's very cold, warm beer. Yeah. Super cold.

So, yeah. Cheers. What do you got? I got distracted by a snake comment from Roxanne. that apparently is an intentional use of a branch. Thank you, Roxanne. Yes. Thank you, Dr. Boneslow.

Appreciate it. It's good. Too good. Ray, what'd you bring? Well, I was, you know, I feel like I had to upstage you both on your own show after my last two showings where I did my boring wine thing. So this time, given the content of what we'll be discussing today, I made what I am dubbing a moon tini.

Wow. A moon tini folks. It's actually a French 75 and not a martini. Martini fans do not come from me in the comments. I am one of you. Okay. French 75s are my jam though. Come on. Yes, exactly, right? And today I use this with the lovely Empress gin, which is what gives it this distinct kind of purple color. And I know the moon is not purple, but it's really about curating a vibe, like creating an ambiance, you know? So in an abstract way, there was a lunar theme going on here. It just does not. look like our moon but a moon perhaps it could be like for for the listeners who don't know the difference between a martini and a french 75 and definitely not for me uh what is the difference between oh i'm so glad i get to talk about this um okay so a martini has removed that's like a totally different recipe but it can come with vodka or gin i am uh partial to a gin martini personally

i love gin like doing gin drinking gin to doing crossword puzzles is like the best postword combination of my opinion. I love that. But that's basically the essence of a martini. And a French 75 is gin. It's lemon juice, simple syrup, and a little bit of champagne or sparkling wine. In this case, I use Prosecco. I cheated it a little bit. Sorry. It's like a French Riviera 75. Exactly. It's about curating a vibe. Like I said, we're all in common. on a beach, sipping these. Yeah.

Oh, and then I wanted to do a little lemon twist, too. Another abstract moment here, right? Because we are talking about slim today. And I wanted to have some little nod to the wonky landing. So it was a little curly lemon. Man, this is like, you pulled out all the stops on this one. Yeah. I appreciate this.

I wanted to commit to a bit, you know. You really? I only have the half. the last of a surprise highlight six-pack that was in my fridge and I don't know how it got there and that's what I'm I'm drinking the day so what a surprise treat for you I know it's brings me right to Florida every time that's what's up yeah that's hilarious right to that little dock that we had our party at that you left the other party and came to our party for that's true that's true I was I was really like party hopping that night and it was really fun too those Jimmy Buffett uh Landshark

beers are pretty, I got to say, RIP to him also. RIP to die. That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Man, this is a real start. Every time you guys have me on the show, I feel like I just am like a chaos agent. But it's okay. Some would wonder why we have you on the show. And others would say that's exactly why we have you on the show. So. I have a question for you, Ray. Have you ever seen...

Oh, actually, before that, I'm sorry. I'll get to your question in a second. I have a question for Jake to start this. Jake, would you like to issue any retractions today about the Slim Lander? Moon sniper? About moon sniper? About moon sniper?

Any retractions? Are you trying to say that it worked? Is that you're trying to say? Yes, I would. Because last time you were out here, I've been standing all these moonlanders out here. I was here telling you and Eric Berger, that Peregrine did great, even though it couldn't land on the moon, the rest went super good.

I'm out here saying Slim stuck that landing, even if it didn't get power. And lo and behold, it came back to life, Jake. And you were out of your gatekeeping and saying, well, it didn't generate power. It's only going to live for a couple hours. And here it is, you know? What do you have to say for yourself? Yeah. What do you actually?

I don't think I have a retraction. No, retractions. Okay. I think what I said was it didn't land correctly, but the mission got some stuff done. And I think I'm standing by that. I'm moving on. I'm moving on to raise question. Ray,

have you ever seen a more epic of moonlander than one that lost its engine on the way down to the surface and still landed despite Jake's objections? First of all, icon. Okay. Iconic landing. First of all, a little nap. That's fine. You know what? You already landed on the moon.

Like, you're good. You already did most of what you were intending to do. So it's fine. Okay. You deserve that little nap. take the nap and then to wake up and just be like yeah what did i miss and start taking pictures of the moon's the moon and then not only taking pictures of the moon but get this the rocks are named after dog breeds we aware of this were we aware because the scientists have named the lunar rocks

after dog breeds where who else is doing it like slim i'm sorry nobody So for that alone, I have to stand personally. I forgot about the dog breeds. I'll be honest. Yeah. This is the one earlier today, right? That this one up. So what's going on here?

What kind of dogs, you know what dogs are looking at in this case? I didn't. I did write down. Yeah, I did write down some of the names from one of the pictures they posted. There's, okay, Shiba Inu, Toy Poodle, Bulldog. I don't know why balloon. just, did you guys just see that? Yeah, uh, yeah, it's the

once again, you are getting a recurring theme. Why? What did I do? What did I gesture to trigger the belief? Yeah. Wait, Ray, you skipped over to Toy Poodle, and I actually have some questions about Toy Poodle. Yeah, I go for it. They posted this photo and said this was Toy Poodle.

What is Toy Poodle? I don't know what I'm looking at here. Is this assumed in on A-Rock? Again, we're going on vibes. We're not going for a literal toy poodle. It's just a vibe. It's just an essence. Okay.

And I am personally in favor of naming all the things after dogs and cats. Have I told you both about my taxonomy of all things? Hypothesis? No. I think that all animals in my mind, granted this is mad to my mind all animals are either cats or dogs all of them a massive reshaping of the taxonomy of you know the wikipedia editors are going to be

driven nuts I can't look at the paper that explains this one it's really good let's just name an animal I'll tell you this kind of dog what's a snake snake snake cat cat definitely cat giraffe giraffe yeah I feel like these two you would have thought of before, but it looks like you just thought of this now of how you've categorized this, which is fun. How you figured this all out. Darwin is like, Darwin is in his grave rolling over, just like crying and hysterics right now.

You're kind of just swirling the friend 75 as you declare this, too. It's great. Caterpillar. Major sorting hat vibes here. Caterpillar is absolutely a dog. Absolutely. However. It's a cat in the game, and it turns into a beautiful butterfly. Butterflies, though, are cats.

It's a midlife branch jump, yeah. Listen, I didn't make the rules. I mean, I did, but... Dolphins? Oh, dolphins are dogs. Dogs, yes. Definitely dogs. I think I understand this.

As you unveil it more, I think I get the, yeah, I get it. You'll start to track. You're either cute and fun or mean and hot. Those are the two options. Just the ultimate divide of all things. We will let listeners decide where Jake and I fall in the cat dog spectrum. Yeah, which one's the cat? Which one's the dog?

That's the homework for listeners. So slim, though. Yeah, they named, I just, I'm confused by their observations. Like, this is what's great, because they just posted this and they were like, we got this, we named this toy poodle, and I literally just cannot understand what I'm supposed to be looking at in this. It's just a picture of the ground from what's best I can tell. But, I mean, this thing was a bizarre moonlander, truly bizarre.

I don't feel like we've gotten an explanation on the main engine nozzle failure mode yet. Have we figured that out? I'm not sure. I'm not sure. It just seemed to fall off so cleanly. Yeah, this is definitely like, it doesn't happen very often that we get a prime off nominee contender this early in the year? I mean,

what are we waiting for, Jake? We might call it. You're just going to be up nominees right now. I was going to say, yeah, like, what are you waiting for at this point? I feel like you just got it. You got to hand it to him. And the best part about it is that Jackson just has, like, a great run of planetary missions.

They are always really fun to watch. There's always great photos coming back from them. They do it on like $5 and a bottle of Coke. Like there's no budget to these things compared to what we're doing over here at NASA. And I love all of that. It's the best. I do have my question. What is going to happen next, right?

Because isn't there like the lunar night for the next couple weeks? So is it just going to have to brave it? Yeah. Yeah, I don't think they don't have any heaters or anything. So they're expecting it to, yeah, the hope was that they could get it back online. in this particular couple days window. I think the moon already set, actually. I think last night was moon set.

So, yeah. Yeah, well, I mean, it's still on probably for a little bit until batteries die and it gets too cold. But it was like they had this short window from a couple days ago until now where there was enough sun to run all their electronics and it was still daylight enough. But yeah, that was it.

So the moon is really funny like that. Like, you've got, I mean, even the intuitive machines thing. Like, we can't really tell you what it's going to launch, but we know it's going to land. on this day. And that's because that day is the target because that's when the lighting is there for the mission. And so it's like, well, we'll do what we got to do to get there on that time. Or we got to go to the next time the lighting's right. Yeah. Yeah. The like, the, like,

Jaxa tenacity is really admirable. I really love that about them. So like, you know, I think about the Akatsuki mission at Venus where they like, you know, they did the transfer and then they failed to enter orbit where everything like the engine didn't work. And they're like, well, that's okay. There's a five, eight residence between Venus and Earth. So in like eight years, it'll be back and we'll just do it then. And they just waited and it just like went around. And then they went back and got into orbit and now it's like doing science. Like that kind of like wild like just push it through.

I love it. That's great. That's, uh, that's exploration. And that they lost an engine on descent, everybody. Like they were 50 meters off the surface and it was just like, oh, well, we drifted 50 meters to the right, I guess. Did we determine which way it went based on where it was heading before? But they were like, we still landed on this main engine.

I still don't have a clear picture of which way is up on. this lander. Yeah, yeah, right. Well, that's the funny part. It's supposed to be like this, but the engines like this, but it landed like this. Yeah. It does the side landing thing, which I think is one of the cooler methods. Let me see if I can find.

There was a good diagram of this. Slim lander. Moon sniper. I love me a good nickname. Oh, it's so good. It's so catchy. Moon sniper. But where did it come from?

I still don't understand where that nickname came from. Here we go. Is it because it's like a precision landing? It's a really intense nickname for that. Well, as we've seen, Anthony, sometimes Jack said doesn't quite get the translations like bang on, right? All right, here's this thing that I'm talking about. Maybe Sniper is what Google Translate returns when you say like really accurate thing. Really accurate.

All right, here's the thing, Jake. It's coming in, using the engines, and then it flips into vertical descent mode, and then at the end, right at the end, it uses these. engines all the way down and right at the end it tips over onto its side so it lands with the engines out to the outside which I think is rad because it keeps your payload right low to the surface which is why all the space nerds were in love with the dynetics lander in that it was super low this is really just a robotic drop ship pretty much yes yeah I mean have fun launching off of that trajectory or off of that place that you're sitting but I just yeah it's amazing that it was like you know I guess

just so the engine fell off and then it flipped into vertical mode and then it kind of just descended with not the correct thrust so it sort of held its orientation I'm mystified by that and then rolled because it landed on a little bit of an axis I wish we could see what happened yeah yeah that would have been great well Jake how about ingenuity ingenuity I feel like we should do a toast honestly you're in charge to ingenuity that'll do little rover that'll do helicopter that'll do yes that little helicopter it's like brave little toaster vibe how do you feel about bill Nelson's that little helicoptering of ingenuity multiple times in the in the

farewell video that was posted I actually didn't see it I had to pull it up Wait, can you, can you? Yeah, I was going to say, can you either pull it up or fill it in on it? Yeah, no, I think we should watch it. Was this posted on, on Twitter? I think so. It was on, it was definitely on Twitter, I think, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we're going to watch it because you think that he's done saying it,

and it just keeps going. And that's the real mystery. It was a very sweet send-off. It was actually really nice to, like, you know, and just to have the administrator, like, do a whole thing on it is they don't always do that, right? mother's like, that's below my favorite. All right. I've got it ready for us.

I will cue it up. I will turn up the sounds here. It is bittersweet. Oh, that seems loud. I must announce that ingenuity, the little helicopter that could. Safari's doing this thing where everything is all high-pitched. We can't have this. I don't know if you noticed that.

Did that come through on your side too? It can't go for like a split second. Okay. It was a little bit high. It was a little helium voiced. So this will be worth the wait. Hold on. They can pull up some sort of like audio alive.

No, no, I just have a different browser. Auto-tune it back down to reality. Let me know, make sure you can hear this. No. You can't hear this. This is going, this is such a good segment, guys. This is like so good that I have to open my audio program to reroute this audio right now. Why is somebody?

I don't know, guys. I don't know. But listen, just give me a sec. Right? I mean, you know we're professionals, right? I do. I do. And I say that all the time. Yeah. There we go.

I'm always saying this. Yeah. There we go. All right. I got it. Daily in your email. There we go. I'm going to roll it back. Everyone's going to listen. It is bittersweet that I must announce that ingenuity, the little helicopter that could. And it kept saying, I think I can. I think I can. That's like a half.

It is now taken its last flight on Mars. As it was coming down for landing, at least one of its carbon fiber rotor blades was damaged. We're investigating the possibility that the blade struck the ground. This is what the blade looks like. It's a special fiber with a special contour. I didn't see them pulling the process out. That was mentioned number two of that little helicopter. atmosphere like we have on Earth.

I don't know if he says it again, but this is another two minutes, and I don't know if I have the patience for this whole video, to be honest. That was it. I just wanted to say that in the first 46 seconds, he got to that little helicopter two distinct times, which I find incredible. That little intrepid copter.

Also, he freelanced the whole and it kept saying, I think I can, I think I can. He freelanced that 20 seconds in this post, right? His immediate person's like, oh, Bill. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I mean, it was kind of, I will say, I was sad.

Like hearing about, I mean, I know, and listen, it's a huge accomplishment, totally exceeded all of its goals. It totally made it years longer than I think anybody thought it was going to last. So my hat's off to that. But I hate it when the robots die, man. Stuck. Yeah. It was a long lifespan. even what it, you know, was supposed to do.

I kind of like think of like, Intenuity is kind of like Betty White. It's like everyone loves it and they did a great job and we're all sad that she's gone. What the hell, Jake? 99? That's like, you nailed it. Like, good job.

This is, this is fine. This is great. You know, like, I would love to see it 100, but 99 is a great success. You know, 72 flights or whatever it was. Seventy-two. Yeah, with 72 flights it completed. That is absolutely wild. The Betty White's base helicopter.

I was trying to find that the video. Is this the video that, where's the video clip that shows both things broken? Oh, yeah, I'm not sure. Because it was two rotors, right, that had. It looks like two rotors, yeah. Were you able to make sense of what the explanation was, round this, Jake, about how this happened? Well, because there's

counter-rotating rotors, right? So they kind of go like this to cancel the torque out, right? And so if two of them broken that are side-by-side like that, they could have like hit at the same time on the ground, and that would be it. That's kind of my thought. But I don't know what... I'm saying, like, their explanation of why it got

aggressively tipped. There was something I read that was like it was too plain of terrain, so it was not tracking well. And then it tried to over-correct because it didn't know where it was. Possibly, yeah. Because like in the, so it's got like a,

what I do know, but is it has like, you know, an inertial measurement unit. So when it's like flying around, it kind of just detects, you know, it knows where it is because it knows where it isn't

one of those kind of things, right? But then as it's landing, as it gets down to like a certain point, it like flips over to like camera mode. And then it's like literally like taking pictures and processing in real time as it gets closer and closer to the ground. So maybe in that period, if the camera mode,

doesn't work, you can think. But it's had that problem before, though, and like the fail-fits have always bailed it out, right? Like, it just goes into, like, auto-land mode. I don't know what it is, but it's just like some sort of thing where you're like, shut it down, get down, get down, get down. I don't know, maybe it just screwed up. Who knows? It's getting old. You know what?

Not rad-hardened. Maybe it's got a little bit of bits flipped and stuff. Who knows? Had a good run. Had a great run. Where does it rank in your Mars exploration power rank? rankings, Ray? Like, give me, give me some Mars robots. Is it in the top tier? I would say it's one of the top.

First, is it a dog or cat? Oh, um, helicopters are, and rovers are dogs, like, canonically. But an orbiter would be a cat. All right, now give me your Mars power rankings. Mars, I think my current number one, and this is like the boring answer, but it's my answer, so it's right, is I think, I think my And this is like the boring answer, but it's my answer. So it's right. I think Percy's got to be my number one.

When you said boring answer, I thought for sure you're going to say Mars Odyssey, because it's like the backbone of the communications network. The infrastructure. I mean, I really do have to say. I think Percy's my number one currently. All right. I'm enjoying Percy's social media presence as well. I like the selfies.

And I really, I just like that ingenuity and Percy were, team and I feel kind of bad for Percy being out there. That was so ingenuity. Now Percy's a widow. Percy's a widow. It's really dark on this episode. He's taking this ingenuity thing really hard. I'm just trying to process, okay? I'm trying to use, trying to use humor to cope. You're processing in your own way. Exactly, exactly. Jake, what's your what's your power ranking? Well, wait, is ingenuity number two or what, Ray? Where was it at? didn't even give me, you gave me number one. Give me a short list. Give me like three at least. Maybe like Opi number two.

Strong. And then I would say ingenuity three. Hmm. All right. Jake. Okay. Mars robot power rankings. Curiosity. All right. Curiosity. Here's what. Curiosity like has delivered. Percy will deliver, hopefully. But most of Percy's value is in the, in the, in the, not most of it, but a large, a non-trivial amount of perseverance value as in examples. And like, that's a little bit up in the air these days. So I'm just like, you know, okay, well.

So, but curiosity got the work done and did well. So respectable. Okay. Then what? Then probably opportunity. You can't. It can't leave the opportunity out of like the top three. That'd be, that'd be heresy.

We can't do that. Not on my show. Oh, I'm glad I'm. answer the right thing. This is a hard question to ask me. It's like asking what your favorite child is. I mean, I'm just trying to get a sense for where we're at on, you know, on what's going on here because I feel like ingenuity is getting a little bit of a raw deal here, honestly.

I feel like y'all are over ingenuity as a thing. And it's, where are you putting it on your record? It's my number three. It's my number three. I know. I just feel like it's, you know. Oh, my God. It's a little low.

That's all I'm saying. I think. Is it your number one? I don't know. I just thought of this question three minutes ago, so I'm still working through this, Ray. Jeez. Damn, Google, you gotta get to it.

I think I'm waiting more heavily, like, the tech development angle of... Yeah, yeah. Like, certainly when it got there, we were pretty sure it was going to work. But I feel less sure about it working than all the rovers that rolled off any of their landing pads.

So I'm giving it some points for not only did it unveil a whole new realm in Mars exploration to us. Exceeding expectations points. It also was, yeah, awesome. Like it did its thing for something. And then I'm also a little bit swayed by what I felt from the outside completely without evidence or information. So this is maybe not true that like early on in the mission, I could see it feeling the existence of ingenuity, feeling like a little bit of a drag on the perseverance team. but then 70 flights in, like carving out a good job for it

and realizing how it became useful on the mission. And I kind of like the underdog story of it feeling like a really annoying thing when it started. And now they're probably really sad that it's gone because it's not doing the jobs that they've given it over the last tens of flights. And I kind of dig that storyline too. Like this is the first robot that like just had some grit

and worked its way into operations. This is like the other ones that just start like, you know, creme de la creme when they get there. It's a very Leslie Knope storyline from Parks and Rec. Because in the first season, she was a little bit annoying, and then in all seasons after that, she was incredible. So I'm assigning some points for that as well. All right.

That's fair. I like that. That's good reasoning. I get it. But what's high rise on, MR. Yeah. Yeah, Mars Connoisseants Orbiter. I'm throwing that up in the top three for sure,

because those pictures are awesome. And that's... It's a hard ranking to do. It's tough. It gets pretty crowded. So someone even did the math in our Discord about like, okay, well, you know, what percentage of its lifespan did it exceed? So like 72 flights out of five.

So you do that math. It's like, oh, it's 14 times longer than it was supposed to be whatever. And it like doesn't even come close to what Opportunity did. Like, like, Audrey was like 60 times longer or whatever, whatever like incredible number it was. Right. So it's like, oh, okay, yeah. Like opportunity to really exceed the expectation.

That one was particularly San Francisco. bagged that, wasn't it? What was the 90 sols based on? I think a lot of it was based on the solar panels, and so I think they got lucky with some of that when they discovered the dust devils were a thing, right? So some of that is luck. But I mean, there's also some pretty good ops teams fighting to keep those things alive. So, yeah, they did well.

I just, I'm always been misdified by 90 souls. Like, that's... I am too. And, like, at first, I didn't believe. I was like, you're, yeah, you're totally Samba. I totally thought that. And then I like heard some stories about how the team was operating, like, in those first 90s halls and like, you know, read all the books and stuff.

And like, no, like they were ready for it to die. They were sleeping at JPL trying to get every last minute. Like they were, they were ready. They were on Mars time. They were coming in the middle of the night. They were doing whatever they could to just operate that for every second of those 90s souls. So I don't know.

Maybe they did have a good. Seems more legit then. Yeah, maybe they did have a pretty good fear that it was going to die. Do you know what day they stopped doing that? Like, when did they start going, we might make it 2000? I don't remember. Yeah, when Mars time stops, that's always a good indicator for when it's like the hype's over, right? But I can't remember now.

I don't remember. Because I get like, you know, Soul 91, you're like, oh, we should still be sleeping here. Soul 92. We probably should stay a couple more days, you know. but then gets to like Soul 108 and like, I feel like I could probably go eat dinner with my family at this point. Like this seems like we got it on lockdown. I just want to know what that moment is like.

Sol 4,420 years. Yeah, someone's got it. Yeah, it's fine. It's fine. What robots are you excited about in the near future, Ray? What's your Intuitive Machines landing hype level? So like just in general, what like missions am I excited about? Yeah, we got a lot of robots coming up, you know.

Oh my gosh, we have so many. Well, I think that we can't talk about ingenuity without talking about Dragonfly, right? Like, I mean, it's far off, but. I mean, you know, I'm the most dragonfly for the whole time. Jake's a little bit. Around here, Ray, it's a little bit of a divide here on this side of the screen. Yeah. Interesting.

Jake's a realist, and I'm an optimist on the Dragonfly mission. Interesting. That's why you ranked Ingenuity Hyder, because you're like, you have more. fun in your life. A dog, fun would say. I want to see Titan helicopter. I want to

see those methane lakes. Me too. Bring it on. Yeah. Let's see. What else? What else? Europa Clipper. That's pretty bad. I'm excited for Europa Clipper. Yeah. I'm excited for that.

Clipper's going to have a good year. This October launches. Clipper's going to have a good fall if my John Culberson prediction was right for the last episode where I was like, I think you might come back as an ass administrator at some point in the future. Clipper low key, there was so much Europa back and forth over the preceding several years that I feel like I lost the plot for a little bit on which one of these things was flying when and then all of a sudden Europa Clippers here. Yeah, like almost ready, yeah. But then it takes a while, right? I forget how long it takes to get out there.

Yeah, how long it's going to be like a couple of years, right, to get to where it needs to go? I'm not sure. Unless it flies in SLS. I know it launches at least in October. Sounds like they might have an SLS available. Not as if that happened. Oh, dear. Let's see.

So, yeah, it's going to be like 20. Years, right? Yeah, 2030 before it gets there. So it'll be a while. Wow. Wow. Yeah. So that's what... Outer planets are a real... Yeah. Scheduled drag years. Hmm.

Dang. Yeah. It's like the outer planet's mission is always like, and we got to continue that excitement, but also still be really excited. That's why we're all confused by Dart, though, because Dart launched and then a year later, we're like, wait, it's happening already? The things doing the thing? It exploded, yeah. God, I love the Dart mission, though. I mean like also RIP I guess to Dart although we'll have her to see like what the hell happened right in the aftermath of Dart

So that should be fun that's what's up yeah I'm so mad that here like didn't launch at the same time like we should have that thing in place I don't know that is that's an interesting take I didn't think about that like to just have it immediately at the scene of the crime like just have it there and like because there well there was a mission so they had that like little that Italian cute sat that like jettisoned from DART and then took pictures. So we have like some shots of the thing happening, which is great. But like it was like not it was not the best spacecraft. You know, it was like, it was okay. It kind of like got the job done. But it would have been great to have.

I want a high deaf video of this impact. It's a rock crowd to be slagging on these Italian spacecraft. Check the last names on this channel before you. It's fine. If you guys counter the argument, please. I'm happy to hear it. Did you take a picture of it when it was happening? Were you out there?

We're a little jetpack in space. A robotic arm and a camera in there. That's right. We had two arms and we just smashed the two together. That's how we did it. That's hysterical. Oh my God. How bad would that have been?

See that? And it's fast, right? So it would have been just like, like, like, wild. That would have done numbers on TikTok. You know, we're, yeah, We're like, we're the, you know, like ejecta in like that kind of gravity environment just goes like, it's like a triangle.

It just goes out forever. Like it never ever comes down. There's no arc, you know? So it's just, I would have been wild to see. I wish we had a, I wish we had that. But I'll take second best time to invest is now, you know, let's do it. Just doing the tree planting saying on the show here. Exactly.

First best time to launch an asteroid impactor, imager mission was 30 years ago. Yeah. I'm pretty caught up on the moon, I'll be honest. I'm not really thinking about these other planets for a bit. It's clip season, baby. We're doing all these moon landers. So, I don't know. Paragrin does the whole thing.

Intuitive machines is about to do it. It's flying methane. It's going more directly to the moon. So it won't be as long of a wait. Is any of it going to work? They have another mission as well where Peregrin was one and done. so that's intriguing as well. Like even if they screw up the first one,

they'll learn and have the same thing to fly again. So that's intriguing as well. Like, you know, I don't know. I'm just, it's happening, Jake. Clips season is upon us. You're a lunatic. I'm a lunatic, I guess. Speaking of the moon, Jake.

Speaking of. Sometime in the near future, we all get to see the moon in a different light. Hey, right? Isn't that, isn't that true? Yeah, it sure is. Kind of a corona like light. Yes, yes. Hey, I know this map. Amazing. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I cannot believe we're going to get to see a little treat, a total solar eclipse.

Have either of you been in the path of totality before? In the 2017 one, yeah. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wow, this will be my first time being in the Panthers totality. Oh shit. So I'm really stoked for this. Yeah.

Where are you going? So we, I'm going to the Planetary Society's event. We're calling it Eclipseorama. It's going to be super cool. Everybody should come. It's going to be in Fredericksburg, Texas. And we can set up some links afterwards. But yeah, this is our hub on the Planetary Society's website.

And as you can see, we've got this really, really cool interactive eclipse map. Or you can see basically where the path of totality lies, where you are. You can see things like cloud cover, light pollution, eclipse duration, all sorts of viewing locations. And I, though, like I said, will be in Fredericksburg, Texas for our event. Anybody is welcome to buy tickets, hang out with us. It's going to be a really, really fun time. I'm really looking forward to it. And it's right in the path, so it'll be great.

Right. You're going to have your mind blown. So good. I'm so excited. I remember the last solar eclipse I was in the city in New York. And everybody just went outside and looked up with our little glasses on. And it was one of the most wholesome moments. There really is something to be said about just everyone having a shared experience with something like this. I don't know. That's really cool. You, the rest of New York, Donald Trump, all looking up at that. One of the iconic photos of that eclipse.

I'm sad that the eclipse is the next year is something you could do it again as president, right? John Culberson next up. We've got a real world building situation going on here. What else we had to say about the eclipse? Well, we also, I should definitely plug our resources. We've got a ton of great content coming out from the Planetary Society. We've got lots of stuff on our website on the hub that you're looking

right now we've got videos we have an eclipse course for our members that's actually launching tomorrow so you're already here folks uh we have that launching there's a whole course about eclipses um so you can learn tons about that and um that like i said that's for the members but anybody could buy tickets to our event and anybody can look at our resources they're free they're there they're on the internet go see them um yeah i'm really excited i don't know personally i am just so stoked to be in the path of totality. This will be like an unlocking a life event, I feel.

It's like more true than you realize. It's 100% online. Yeah, it's a, I mean, I remember just the thing I always remember is my brother. I went to Nashville with my dad and my brother. Took a little road trip, had a great boys weekend, did the eclipse.

And I remember afterwards, my brother was like, I didn't know exactly when to take my sunglasses off. But then I looked over and your jaw was on the floor and I thought, this must be the moment to do it. And I distinctly remember, just like, you know, we had a perfectly clear sky and it felt like you go from being on the earth looking at the normal sky to like, oh, I'm just in the solar system looking at other parts of the solar system because you got the corona and

all the planets are there and you have a much like, you. out of Earth view of the solar system for a couple of minutes. And that's like, I can't get that out of my brain. It is just in there forever. I think the, like, the part that, like, stuck with me emotionally was the mood of the light. Because, like, the light sort of, like, it doesn't, like, go away. It's sort of, like, desaturates in a weird way. Like, the light kind of like, it's like, all the sunlight is there, but it's kind of, like,

faded and gray rather than, like, real sunlight. And then the temperature drops a little bit because the sun's not on you. And all the animals, like all the birds are like, what the thing? Yeah. What's going on? Birds are out. It's so weird. Did you see any animals like acting strangely?

I just, I could hear the bird. I remember like the bird calls stopping, right? I was in Oregon and it was like, I could just remember the, I just remember the environment feeling just super, super weird. Yeah. This is like, something's happening, you know? I was in a pretty grassy park, so it was all birds and bugs. And yeah, the birds stop. The bugs start going wild.

And it's a, like, it's a really bizarre. You were at a what park? For some reason, I thought you said, I was at Jurassic Park. Nashville, yeah, yeah. It's huge. It's Dolly Parton's new thing that she set up is actually. She's done the Jurassic Park project. Good for her.

Wow. She's got Betty White and ingenuity there as well. It's the whole crew. Cut that, cut that, cut that. We're making that out of the live street. The Betty White Dolly Park and Jurassic Park ingenuity experience.

It's huge. It's huge. Bill Nelson was cutting the ribbon for that little helicopter. That's great. The little dinosaur. No, super grassy. It was a very grassy park.

So there was a lot of trees and bugs and birds and everything. Oh, grassy. That's the word I miss. I was like, Jurassic. Grassy. I was like, yeah.

What? That's amazing. The way these two have, the one that we had already happened and the way this one's going to happen to is that you have this like straight line across the continent, right? And so there's also this thing where like all the people you know that are also doing it, you can like, there's like a weird like, okay, off to you. You're next. Like I just saw it. Like get ready in two minutes. It's been there for you.

And then like you can kind of like do this chain of like all your friends along the line, which I've found really enjoyable. So that is really cool. Yeah. I got to pass it off to Anthony last time in this. So it was good. Now you'll go to pass it off to us, right? Yeah, absolutely. I will say one thing that's cool about this map.

And by the way, I should give a huge shout out to the Eclipse company, the team that created this map in partnership with us. I think that this is just a good place to get started. We also have a listing of just local eclipse events. If you're looking for places to go, if you're really just getting started with your planning, it's a great resource. And then, like I said, if you want to level up, your space knowledge, too we've got the courses just we are full steam ahead on the eclipse it's going to be good that's

awesome yeah and people that watch the show probably know but like please urge all of your people that you know that live in the 90 point something percent range and up to say like you really got to just drive a little bit to get across the line it is yeah the difference between totality and not totality is like it's night and day it's night and day quite literally literally literally thank you very Corona is one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my life. It is 100% the coolest thing I've seen in my life, I would actually say. It's so, the detail's really interesting, and it's enormous, and it kind of felt like the, you know, those pictures of if the Andromeda Galaxy was,

like, if you could see it as bright as it was or whatever, this is how big it would look in the sky. I feel like that about the solar corona as well. Like, oh, it's that big the whole time? It goes all the way across like that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and I did the annular eclipse that just happened. I did that one because it came over Mexico.

And it was not the same. Like it was awesome. I'm glad I went, but like it is not like annular to total. Very, very different. Like it is. And lunar eclipse, Jake. And lunar eclipse is boring. I'm telling the moon.

Do you know this Neil deGrasson video? No, but do you know that? Jake hates the moon. Do you know the Neil deGress Tyson video that we're referencing? No, actually I don't. Oh, my God. Jake is such a moon hater. No, no, I was quoting.

I was quoting. I was quoting. I love the moon. Yeah, yeah. I've taken my telescope out into a field in the middle of a cold Canadian winter to watch a lunar eclipse. So I think I get points for that. I got a fun. My hands were numb and I was watching that damn moon.

Noted moon. It's terrible. You hate to see it. Where are you going to be for this eclipse? So I'm going home, not to Alberta, but to Ontario, where I used to live? Because the eclipse is going over Niagara. And I used to live there. My aunt lives there.

And I got a bunch of friends there. So I was like, I'm going to combine this with a trip to see people. Because then if I get clouds, it's not a waste. So I'll be in Niagara and we'll have to. I'm thinking about getting like getting some off, you know, some anomalies together and see if we can have a little bit of a meetup. So stay tuned. If you're like, if you're in, you know, the Toronto area or the Buffalo area like in that

general vicinity and you want to come hang out in Canada, that would be, we should build make something happen, I think. I'm going to be in the general region. I'm still doing a little bit of logistics. And I have a couple of plans in place. My intention is a driving situation, because I'll be bringing the little three-year-old along to see this thing. I have a room booked in Dayton right now, which is in the path,

and also could finally let me go to the Air Force Museum, which I've been dying to go to, but I just had no reason to go out to Dayton for a long time. And it's a shockingly long drive from here. But I'm like, oh, maybe I'll do this. Museum's got a whole Titan 4 in there. Do you know about this? is the whole Titan 4 in this museum

The Valkyrie's there There's all sorts of There's all the weird X planes there A lot of good stuff So I'm like well It's a little joint situation Air Force Museum eclipse I'm trying to figure out

Timing if I can make my way Up to your off nominal Across the border meetup But we're gonna be in the like cloud dodging zone Jake we're gonna have to A big logistical part of planning is If you're just now picking a spot And you can't go to any of our parties

find a good spot in the center line that has a good highway system that goes sort of along the center line too. So like when I went to Nashville, there was highway like almost exactly cruising that thing so we could drive to wherever it was not cloudy that day if you need to. So if you can find a good highway stretch

that gives you like an hour of driving distance and you can sort of, you know, do your best to dodge storms or something that gives you a good shot. Okay, all right. Sage advice. Sage advice. Sage advice.

All right. Other sage advice that I need to run by you right now. I think I found the Neil deGrasse Tyson clip that I desperately want to play. Because if this is the right one, I want your take on it. I don't know how to... Apparently YouTube shorts only let it be full volume, so I've got to turn it down on this other interface real quick. All right, let's see if this is the right one. I don't know if it is.

We're just going to give it a shot. We're going to give it a spin. Hey, everybody. As your resident astrophysicist, I'm duty-bound to alert. that on the evening of November 18th, 2021, into the wee hours of November 19th. I think so. 1 a.m. Eastern time. The full moon in space in its orbit around Earth will enter Earth shadow.

Earth shadow is always there. You don't know it until something lit up by the sun begins to disappear behind it. So we call that a lunar eclipse. There'll be a lot of hype. People have been loving full moons lately, so that'll get attention. But these things happen slowly. and it takes hours typically and there's nothing really spectacular about it. So I must tell you that it's boring.

It's this boring thing I have ever experienced looking at the audience. I just thought I'd tell you. Maybe I shouldn't even be making this video. Never mind. Okay, I'm glad that now I understand the context because I was ready to like say, Jake, what is this weird beef you have with the moon? But now it's your take. Give us your response to Neil deGrasse Tyson's take on lunar eclipses. Wait, do you have to be careful, though?

Because, like, is he still on the board of directors? I don't know. I'm just going to say, I love the moon. I think lunar eclipse are great. Full statement. Yeah, my statement is, I think lunar eclipses are fantastic. And I love them so much. They're great.

I completely and wholeheartedly endorse Neil deGrasse's take on this particular issue. And most other ones, I just do not endorse on his, uh, his yum yuckin that he tends to get to on Twitter, but this particular take is accurate. And I will go one further and say this is a fantastically put together video because he lulls you in with the facts and what's going on, and he makes you intrigued and then hits you with it. It's boring with the camera zoom.

It's a, this is a perfect video. It's a perfect video. Lunar eclipses are fine. They're kind of interesting, but I'm there with him like, you know, once you see lunar eclipse, I'm kind of good. the solar eclipse total solar eclipse you got to go every time so how many total i mean sorry how many solar or collapses have you both seen

total the one just the one yeah oh two one one total stupid balloon oh my god we're all getting just like owned by these balloons and it always freezes my camera for like two seconds after but no i've seen one total or manual so so that's Oh, okay, I got you gotcha.

So do you feel like your annular, would you have a, what's your annular? Like, are you Neil DeGress Tyson about annular eclipses? No, I think it was still fun. You still have the cool, like, shadow effect on the leaves. The ring of fire? You get to watch it, you see the ring of fire. Yeah, it was fine.

But it's just like, you know, it was not a total. Total clipses are just in an upper echelon of incredbleness that, like, even other cool things just like don't compare it. And it doesn't mean outer cool things are not cool. It just means that they're not total eclipses. Right. Solar eclipses, cat or dog? Solar eclipses or dog?

Lunar eclipses. Cat. Bory. She's low-le-key endorsed it, is all I'm saying. No. No. But now, I will say, now that you all have the framework for the cat-dog thing, you will start to pick this up in your everyday life.

It will stick with you. I get it. I get it. My wife has a thing with cats, dogs, and it extends your theory. It's like the, it's like the exception. Yeah, because she says that all dogs are boys and all cats are girls. That's like in her brain that's loaded. And so extending that, there's only, there's only boy dogs and girl cat things in the whole world.

So you made one of those little. four quadrant grids out of this. Exactly, yeah. An alignment grid, yeah, yeah. I guess you only made a two quadrant. You eliminated two quadrants. Oh, yeah, that's true. That's true.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. X, X. Right, can you give us a little bit of a sense of what? Eclipseurama? Is that the right name? Yes. What else, what's going on there? What are you going to be doing, balloon animals?

What do you got? Do you do balloons? So funny. It's so funny. Oh, is that what it is? Is it the P sign? Oh, I just did something else. I don't know. There's celebrations. Makes me every time. That's got to be the thumbnail for this. But I actually volunteered to do the balloon animals if we were serious about this because I used to make balloon animals. That's a fun fact. And I should put that on my LinkedIn. Okay, I know how to make balloon animals. I know how to do the hats. I know how to do the snakes. I'm just kidding. Did you work at like DJI Fridays or something? Snake's the easiest one, right?

It's the first one you learn. That's where all of the animals start, actually. Before anything is a cat or dog, it starts as a snake. It's really just the art of turning snakes into other animals. Yes, actually. That is basically just balloon animal 101. That literally is it. That's you just, that's it.

A hat, it starts a snake. A dog? Guess what? I think this is a farce. comic. Isn't there a far side comic where they have God up in heaven with clay making all the animal? And he's just rolling the clay like this going, wow, these are a cinch.

It's like God makes snakes. Same concept. Exactly the same thing. But in a little serious to this, the event's going to be super cool. It's basically we're going to have movies playing. We're going to have videos. We're going to have

interact like a whole craft tent. So there's lots of hands-on activities. All ages are welcome to attend. We'll have lots of stuff for kids too. We'll have tons of games, cool prizes. We're going to do lots of fun stuff leading up to the actual moment of the eclipse. So it's really like a whole experience. Yeah.

Some people will be camping. There's glamping options as well. So yeah, there's really something for everyone. I'm looking forward to it. We'll have good food. Yeah. It'll be an awesome time. That sounds right.

Music. Mary Mint? What more could you want? Merri-Mint? French Riviera 75s? Will they be in attendance? Richard. I will personally be making these. How did you guys all pick Fredericksburg, Texas? I'm just curious about the selection committee behind this. Low cloud cover, I bet, right? Bingo. Yeah. The planetary society is still looking its wounds from the Carbondale 2017 moment, where the cloud passed in front of the eclipse?

Never again. We basically, we really did analyze a ton of different locations, and this one's within the path of totality. It's got the best shot that we could find with regard to cloud cover. Yeah. It's just that's what all the signs were pointing to. April feels tough. Like that feels like a tough month for cloud cover, just, you know, weather pattern-wise.

I don't know. Yeah. If I had to pick a month, I feel skeptical of the, early spring. So. April, I mean, as a New Yorker, I'm always, that's why I was thinking, you know,

Dayton at least has the fallback of this cool museum. At least I'll have done something really interesting and sciencey out there. So, plus I can just keep driving and end up back in Tennessee, I guess. I'm not that far from where I was the last time. So, I'll see.

I haven't really started the hype process with my son. I'll have to figure out what that process would be like he's probably going to be like this for a second I'd be like I don't know he wants me to take him to see a rocket launch already so that's good oh that's cool

so but I haven't really explained eclipses yet he likes looking at planets so he might be into it yeah I hope that there's something we're like that I was saying have you broken in the news that there's no more pace puddles flying

paste puddles I know that's how used to pronounce space shuttle it hasn't anymore that was real cute The paste puddles. Yeah. Hey, that one in LA is getting really cool looking now. That's true. Yeah.

It might fly. We'll see. Yeah, that's pretty sweet. Anyway, Ray, what else you got? What else you got going on at the Planetary Society other than the Eclipse stuff? Is there other stuff going on that you'd want to throw out there? Oh, my gosh. There's so much cool stuff that we're working on.

I can't say everything, but I will say that we are doing a ton of new shortboard video stuff. So like TikTok, follow us, Instagram, follow us. We're doing all sorts of fun stuff coming up in the next few months. But right now, it's all the clips all the time. Definitely check us out, planetary.org. I heard one of your early TikTok videos is a lunar eclipse hype video. That's what I've heard. You might have to put some content out about that.

Get into a little battle. Exciting. See if you can get able to do that. I love a moon. The moon. Just run it by Bill. If he's really pumped about lunar eclipses, see if he'll put out a hype video. I'll put down the editorial calendar.

I'll make a note. Jake? Oh, dear. What do we got? Well, what do we got? The Discord. We didn't talk about the pre-show, which was... Yeah, yeah.

We had a fun pre-show today. We dissected docking ports versus birthing ports on the International Space Station. So did a little lesson. learned a little bit, taught ourselves a little bit. Ray, birthing port, cat or dog? Dog. Docking port? Cat.

Cat. Solitary. I like it. Yeah. Gee, you're catching up. I get it. I get it. Burthing port is with friends.

Docking port is solitary. I understand. Yeah. So if you want to learn about all the different kinds of animals on the ISS, you should come to support and, you know, pop into the Discord. We have the pre-show. It's 45 minutes before this start. It's a lot of fun.

Nice tight crowd. You can ask questions and have fun. So Discord. Offnom.com slash Discord is where you can go. We fixed the link too. I think last week the link didn't work and I fixed the link. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We fixed the link.

So yeah. That's it. That's the pitch. That's it. Ray, you are the best. We always love having you around. It's been too long. One more balloons on the way out.

It's the best way it could possibly end. See you later, everybody. You guys are the best. Take care. Bye.