00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Welcome back to another episode of Space
00:00:02 --> 00:00:05 Nuts. I am your temporary host for
00:00:05 --> 00:00:07 today, Heidi Compo, and I'm here with
00:00:07 --> 00:00:09 the wonderful, again, delightful
00:00:09 --> 00:00:11 Professor Fred Watson, astronomer at
00:00:12 --> 00:00:15 large. 15 seconds. Guidance is internal.
00:00:15 --> 00:00:19 10 9 Ignition sequence start. Space
00:00:19 --> 00:00:25 Nuts. 5 4 3 2 1 2 3 4 5 5 4 3 2 1. Space
00:00:25 --> 00:00:29 nuts. Astronauts, report. It feels good.
00:00:29 --> 00:00:33 Hi Fred. How are you doing Heidi? I'm
00:00:33 --> 00:00:36 just doing lovely here in space city,
00:00:36 --> 00:00:39 Houston. It's actually a quite dreary
00:00:39 --> 00:00:41 evening. I think we have rain lined up
00:00:41 --> 00:00:44 all week long, but it's absolutely
00:00:44 --> 00:00:46 necessary. It's just probably not the
00:00:46 --> 00:00:48 best time with all of us grad students
00:00:48 --> 00:00:50 going into final exams. I was hoping for
00:00:50 --> 00:00:53 some sunshine to motivate us in the last
00:00:54 --> 00:00:56 few weeks. Yeah, it can have the
00:00:56 --> 00:00:58 opposite effect. I remember um when I
00:00:58 --> 00:01:01 was a student having to do exams in June
00:01:01 --> 00:01:05 when the sun was gloriously shining and
00:01:05 --> 00:01:07 you're sitting inside an examination
00:01:07 --> 00:01:09 hall. I found that um I found it easier
00:01:09 --> 00:01:11 to work when the weather was dreary I
00:01:11 --> 00:01:13 have to say. Oh yeah. I think you know
00:01:13 --> 00:01:15 the rain rain can be really good for
00:01:15 --> 00:01:18 studying. I I but it just it kind of
00:01:18 --> 00:01:19 brings your mood down. I think I mean I
00:01:20 --> 00:01:21 need some sunshine to break it up. We've
00:01:21 --> 00:01:23 got straight rain this whole week all
00:01:24 --> 00:01:25 through the weekend. We've got all all
00:01:25 --> 00:01:29 week of rain, but you know, it's not a
00:01:29 --> 00:01:32 buzzkill or a bummer is our questions
00:01:32 --> 00:01:35 for today. Yep. So, we have some really
00:01:35 --> 00:01:38 fun questions um lined up for you. And I
00:01:38 --> 00:01:39 think we're going to just jump right on
00:01:39 --> 00:01:42 into those. So, our first question of
00:01:42 --> 00:01:47 the day is from Buddy. And Buddy from
00:01:47 --> 00:01:50 Oregon asks, "Bre could you give me
00:01:50 --> 00:01:51 could you explain the other end of
00:01:51 --> 00:01:53 angular momentum to me? I know you
00:01:53 --> 00:01:55 explain how how angular momentum makes
00:01:55 --> 00:01:57 things spin faster as they compress. But
00:01:57 --> 00:02:00 what about when things expand? Does it
00:02:00 --> 00:02:02 have the exact opposite effect? Will it
00:02:02 --> 00:02:03 make things will it spread things out
00:02:03 --> 00:02:05 differently or make make things want to
00:02:05 --> 00:02:08 spin different or how does that work?
00:02:08 --> 00:02:10 And uh would that would the expansion of
00:02:10 --> 00:02:14 the unifor universe uh have that reverse
00:02:14 --> 00:02:16 angular momentum like from the from the
00:02:16 --> 00:02:19 big bang on? Could that have have been
00:02:19 --> 00:02:20 what the scap kind of what they talk
00:02:20 --> 00:02:24 about scapulting of the of the universe?
00:02:24 --> 00:02:26 Could that be what caused it? All right,
00:02:26 --> 00:02:27 just throwing it out there. Thanks,
00:02:27 --> 00:02:30 guys. Huge fan. Yeah, some great
00:02:30 --> 00:02:34 questions. Buddy always does. Um, so
00:02:34 --> 00:02:38 it's it's true that um uh angular
00:02:38 --> 00:02:41 momentum, it's the energy of object
00:02:41 --> 00:02:45 spinning. Um if you compress an object
00:02:45 --> 00:02:48 which is spinning, it will spin more
00:02:48 --> 00:02:50 rapidly. Uh and the the classic
00:02:50 --> 00:02:53 experiment of course is the office chair
00:02:53 --> 00:02:56 uh where um sitting at an office chair,
00:02:56 --> 00:02:57 you have your legs stretched out, you
00:02:57 --> 00:02:59 spin yourself around, pull your legs in,
00:02:59 --> 00:03:01 and sure enough, you're spinning faster.
00:03:01 --> 00:03:03 I used to do that when I had an office
00:03:03 --> 00:03:05 chair in an office and really annoy
00:03:05 --> 00:03:08 people uh when when it was a you know,
00:03:08 --> 00:03:12 it's a a common area. Uh so that that's
00:03:12 --> 00:03:15 correct. Yep. Um I can be annoying. I
00:03:15 --> 00:03:17 know. Uh most of the time actually I
00:03:17 --> 00:03:20 think uh the um the opposite is true. If
00:03:20 --> 00:03:22 you've got something that's spinning and
00:03:22 --> 00:03:26 it expands, then it will spin more
00:03:26 --> 00:03:29 slowly. Uh it's just the way angular
00:03:29 --> 00:03:33 momentum works. uh but the question
00:03:33 --> 00:03:35 whether the expansion of the universe
00:03:35 --> 00:03:38 after the big bang could be related to
00:03:38 --> 00:03:40 uh what Buddy calls a sort of reverse
00:03:40 --> 00:03:44 angular momentum uh and you know whether
00:03:44 --> 00:03:47 that concept ties into the idea of what
00:03:48 --> 00:03:50 we call the um we actually call it the
00:03:50 --> 00:03:53 the cosmic web that sort of scaffolding
00:03:53 --> 00:03:56 on which the galaxies are built uh
00:03:56 --> 00:03:58 forming the universe's large scale
00:03:58 --> 00:04:02 structure um I I think that's an
00:04:02 --> 00:04:04 interesting idea that you got the
00:04:04 --> 00:04:07 universe expanding. Now I have seen a
00:04:07 --> 00:04:10 headline recently that says that some of
00:04:10 --> 00:04:12 the things that I didn't read the
00:04:12 --> 00:04:15 article but I might do it for next time.
00:04:15 --> 00:04:17 Uh some of the things that we are
00:04:17 --> 00:04:20 mystified by about the universe today
00:04:20 --> 00:04:22 could be solved if the universe is
00:04:23 --> 00:04:26 spinning. Um but it's hard to imagine an
00:04:26 --> 00:04:28 object that is everything spinning.
00:04:28 --> 00:04:31 What's it spinning in relation to? Well,
00:04:31 --> 00:04:34 we don't know. But that spin um you
00:04:34 --> 00:04:36 know, it is possible it could be linked
00:04:36 --> 00:04:39 in the way that Buddy is describing. Uh
00:04:39 --> 00:04:42 I should go and chase up the uh the
00:04:42 --> 00:04:44 headline on the the spinning universe
00:04:44 --> 00:04:47 and see whether it does link to the sort
00:04:47 --> 00:04:50 of cosmic scaffolding that we see uh and
00:04:50 --> 00:04:52 uh to things like the mysteries of dark
00:04:52 --> 00:04:55 matter and dark energy which we so
00:04:55 --> 00:04:57 poorly understand at the moment. So um
00:04:57 --> 00:04:59 thank you buddy. That's a good question
00:04:59 --> 00:05:01 and it'll set me off on the track of
00:05:01 --> 00:05:03 investigation which I hope might lead to
00:05:03 --> 00:05:06 some more more succinct answers than the
00:05:06 --> 00:05:09 one you've had this morning. That can be
00:05:09 --> 00:05:12 a fun uh article to break Andrew back
00:05:12 --> 00:05:14 into the swing of things with, "Hey,
00:05:14 --> 00:05:15 Andrew, we're going to be talking about
00:05:15 --> 00:05:18 the entire universe in relationship to
00:05:18 --> 00:05:20 things we don't even understand."
00:05:20 --> 00:05:23 Good way to bring That's what we do
00:05:23 --> 00:05:26 every week. Yeah, it's true. It's true.
00:05:26 --> 00:05:29 Uh well, our next question is from Scott
00:05:29 --> 00:05:31 on your side of the world. So Scott
00:05:31 --> 00:05:34 Moonsir from Cindy, uh he says, "It
00:05:34 --> 00:05:37 appears to me that the hyperinflation of
00:05:37 --> 00:05:41 the universe in the first 10 um and then
00:05:41 --> 00:05:44 he has in parentheses - 34 seconds can
00:05:44 --> 00:05:46 be better explained by time violation
00:05:46 --> 00:05:49 due to the extreme gravitation
00:05:49 --> 00:05:51 experience at that time in the early
00:05:51 --> 00:05:54 universe. At the very first moment after
00:05:54 --> 00:05:57 the big bang, time would be virtually
00:05:57 --> 00:06:00 standing veritually standing still from
00:06:00 --> 00:06:02 the outside observer. Time would then be
00:06:02 --> 00:06:05 speeding up as the expansion progressed.
00:06:05 --> 00:06:07 So would So for an outside observer such
00:06:08 --> 00:06:10 as us, it would appear that the universe
00:06:10 --> 00:06:12 is much younger than it is. Please
00:06:12 --> 00:06:15 explain.
00:06:15 --> 00:06:17 Please explains a very famous comment
00:06:17 --> 00:06:19 made by a politician a number of years
00:06:19 --> 00:06:21 ago and uh it's got all kinds of
00:06:21 --> 00:06:23 connotations here in Australia which you
00:06:23 --> 00:06:26 won't be aware of Heidi. Uh so please
00:06:26 --> 00:06:28 please explain. Well, I will um but I
00:06:28 --> 00:06:29 can't I'm not sure I can give the
00:06:29 --> 00:06:34 answer. But it it's uh it there is
00:06:34 --> 00:06:37 um there there is time dilation
00:06:37 --> 00:06:41 uh when we look back uh at the early
00:06:41 --> 00:06:43 universe and you can measure that
00:06:43 --> 00:06:46 because you uh you can see for example
00:06:46 --> 00:06:50 how long supernovi take to these are
00:06:50 --> 00:06:52 exploding stars to rise to their peak
00:06:52 --> 00:06:53 brightness and then fade away. that
00:06:53 --> 00:06:56 length of time changes when you look in
00:06:56 --> 00:06:57 the early universe. It's actually
00:06:57 --> 00:07:00 stretched out because of time dilation.
00:07:00 --> 00:07:06 But um it's it's not it's not enough to
00:07:06 --> 00:07:09 give rise to this phenomenon that we
00:07:09 --> 00:07:13 call uh inflation. the this period uh
00:07:13 --> 00:07:16 exactly as Scott mentions uh for about
00:07:16 --> 00:07:19 the first 10 the minus 34 seconds after
00:07:19 --> 00:07:23 the big bang the universe expanded by a
00:07:23 --> 00:07:27 colossal amount uh it was um you know
00:07:27 --> 00:07:29 something like changed by a factor of 10
00:07:29 --> 00:07:34 ^ 50 in a length of time alike 10 the
00:07:34 --> 00:07:36 minus 32 of a second something we just
00:07:36 --> 00:07:39 simply cannot get our heads around um
00:07:39 --> 00:07:43 and that that is necessary not
00:07:43 --> 00:07:47 uh uh it's necessary and the reason why
00:07:47 --> 00:07:49 we believe that happened is that
00:07:49 --> 00:07:51 otherwise you've got a real problem uh
00:07:51 --> 00:07:54 in the homogeneity of the universe uh
00:07:54 --> 00:07:57 that the basically things are more or
00:07:58 --> 00:07:59 less the same in every direction. I
00:07:59 --> 00:08:01 won't go into it now but but that's what
00:08:01 --> 00:08:04 that in uh inflation scenario was
00:08:04 --> 00:08:07 actually improve um in introduced for to
00:08:07 --> 00:08:11 explain that overall uniformity
00:08:11 --> 00:08:14 um so time so it's not an artifact of
00:08:14 --> 00:08:16 time dilation we know it's a real
00:08:16 --> 00:08:19 phenomenon um time dilation as I said
00:08:19 --> 00:08:21 does exist it has been measured but it's
00:08:21 --> 00:08:25 not uh anything like the kind of violent
00:08:25 --> 00:08:28 expansion that was necessary to give
00:08:28 --> 00:08:29 rise to a universe that looks the way it
00:08:30 --> 00:08:31 does as we see it
00:08:31 --> 00:08:35 today. Good question, though. Very, very
00:08:35 --> 00:08:38 interesting. Our next question is from
00:08:38 --> 00:08:41 Phillip and his six-year-old son,
00:08:41 --> 00:08:44 Enrique from Portugal, and they have a
00:08:44 --> 00:08:46 very interesting um audio question that
00:08:46 --> 00:08:48 we're going to play for you here now.
00:08:48 --> 00:08:50 Good evening. Uh my name is Phillip, and
00:08:50 --> 00:08:53 I'm here with my six-year-old Enrique.
00:08:53 --> 00:08:58 Um we're uh sending this from Portugal.
00:08:58 --> 00:09:01 We listen to your show every night
00:09:01 --> 00:09:03 before falling asleep and and Enrique
00:09:03 --> 00:09:06 loves it. Uh he loves space and all
00:09:06 --> 00:09:07 things
00:09:07 --> 00:09:10 Cosmos and he's been wanting to send you
00:09:10 --> 00:09:14 a question since forever now. Uh but we
00:09:14 --> 00:09:17 didn't have uh a great question to ask
00:09:17 --> 00:09:21 you, but the other day remembered
00:09:21 --> 00:09:23 something and he thought of a question
00:09:23 --> 00:09:26 that he is curious about. So, I'm going
00:09:26 --> 00:09:30 to let him do his part now.
00:09:30 --> 00:09:35 Is the universe finite or infinite? And
00:09:35 --> 00:09:36 if it's
00:09:36 --> 00:09:41 infinite, what is it spanning into?
00:09:41 --> 00:09:44 Okay, so that's our question. Um,
00:09:44 --> 00:09:48 bye-bye. Say bye. Bye. Bye.
00:09:48 --> 00:09:50 Yeah. A question like so many of the
00:09:50 --> 00:09:52 ones we get from our listeners. And this
00:09:52 --> 00:09:55 is fantastic coming from young Enrique
00:09:55 --> 00:09:57 who's six years old. I wouldn't have
00:09:57 --> 00:09:58 thought of a proud profound question
00:09:58 --> 00:10:01 like this. When I was six years old
00:10:01 --> 00:10:02 because I probably didn't know what
00:10:02 --> 00:10:07 infinite meant in those days. Um so uh
00:10:07 --> 00:10:11 he he it's a question that astrophysics
00:10:11 --> 00:10:13 and cosmology simply don't have an
00:10:13 --> 00:10:15 answer to. Is the universe finite or
00:10:15 --> 00:10:18 infinite? We know uh that there are
00:10:18 --> 00:10:21 horizons in the universe beyond which we
00:10:21 --> 00:10:24 cannot see. And perhaps the best known
00:10:24 --> 00:10:27 one is the cosmic microwave background
00:10:27 --> 00:10:31 radiation uh which corresponds to us
00:10:31 --> 00:10:34 looking back in time uh to a time in
00:10:34 --> 00:10:37 which the universe was still glowing
00:10:37 --> 00:10:40 brightly uh and was opaque. Actually,
00:10:40 --> 00:10:42 you couldn't see through it. uh it was
00:10:42 --> 00:10:45 an opaque fog of brilliant radiation uh
00:10:45 --> 00:10:50 visible light in fact now uh that uh the
00:10:50 --> 00:10:52 if I put it this way the opakeness of
00:10:52 --> 00:10:55 the universe came to an end relatively
00:10:55 --> 00:10:58 quickly became transparent over a fairly
00:10:58 --> 00:11:00 short period of time and that's what
00:11:00 --> 00:11:03 enables us to look back to see this wall
00:11:03 --> 00:11:06 of radiation uh which we call the cosmic
00:11:06 --> 00:11:07 microwave background radiation as I
00:11:07 --> 00:11:09 think I've said before I call it the
00:11:09 --> 00:11:10 cosmic wallpaper because it's behind
00:11:10 --> 00:11:14 everything we can see uh in the in the
00:11:14 --> 00:11:17 universe. Um that radiation is a horizon
00:11:17 --> 00:11:20 that we can't penetrate with any of the
00:11:20 --> 00:11:22 technologies available to us today.
00:11:22 --> 00:11:26 Eventually maybe uh neutrino telescopes
00:11:26 --> 00:11:28 and gravitational wave telescopes might
00:11:28 --> 00:11:31 penetrate beyond that but at the moment
00:11:31 --> 00:11:33 we're limited to our electromagnetic
00:11:33 --> 00:11:35 wave telescopes and we can't see any
00:11:35 --> 00:11:38 further. So that is an art it's like an
00:11:38 --> 00:11:41 artificial horizon. It's like um I mean
00:11:41 --> 00:11:42 it's not artificial in the sense that
00:11:42 --> 00:11:45 it's humanmade. It's it's an illusion.
00:11:45 --> 00:11:47 Uh it's like when you when you're on a
00:11:47 --> 00:11:48 vessel on an ocean and you look all the
00:11:48 --> 00:11:51 way around, you can see a horizon which
00:11:51 --> 00:11:53 is the edge of your the limit of your
00:11:53 --> 00:11:55 visibility. But we know the ocean goes
00:11:55 --> 00:11:58 on a long long way beyond that. Uh and
00:11:58 --> 00:12:01 so um it's the same sort of thing. And
00:12:01 --> 00:12:03 the question is how far beyond that does
00:12:03 --> 00:12:06 it go in terms of the universe? Not the
00:12:06 --> 00:12:08 ocean, the universe. Um and the answer
00:12:08 --> 00:12:11 could be infinite. It could be that it
00:12:11 --> 00:12:13 is infinite. That's not ruled out by the
00:12:13 --> 00:12:16 cosmological models that we have today.
00:12:16 --> 00:12:19 Um now the idea of it expanding into
00:12:19 --> 00:12:23 something is again it's illusory. Uh all
00:12:23 --> 00:12:26 we know is that it's expanding. Uh but
00:12:26 --> 00:12:29 we also know that the shape of space
00:12:29 --> 00:12:30 changes dramatically on very large
00:12:30 --> 00:12:33 scales. Um and so it might not need
00:12:33 --> 00:12:35 anything to expand into. It might be an
00:12:35 --> 00:12:39 entity of its own right which is which
00:12:39 --> 00:12:41 is either infinite or finite. It's
00:12:41 --> 00:12:43 easier to imagine it when it's finite
00:12:43 --> 00:12:45 that sort of folds back on itself and so
00:12:45 --> 00:12:47 it doesn't have to have something to
00:12:47 --> 00:12:50 expand into. Of course, you can always
00:12:50 --> 00:12:54 invoke the multi-universe theories and
00:12:54 --> 00:12:56 perhaps suggest that there are extra
00:12:56 --> 00:12:57 dimensions that we don't see. We've
00:12:57 --> 00:12:59 talked about this before uh that the
00:12:59 --> 00:13:01 universe might be expanding into. Uh but
00:13:02 --> 00:13:04 all that is not yet supported by
00:13:04 --> 00:13:06 observations. It's got it's got you know
00:13:06 --> 00:13:09 it's conjecture mostly. So um Enrique
00:13:09 --> 00:13:11 you're asking fabulous questions. You're
00:13:11 --> 00:13:12 asking perhaps one of the most
00:13:12 --> 00:13:15 fundamental questions that astronomers
00:13:15 --> 00:13:18 can ask um along with a few like what is
00:13:18 --> 00:13:20 the nature of time and things of that
00:13:20 --> 00:13:21 sort but is the universe infinite I
00:13:22 --> 00:13:24 think is a great question. Maybe uh as
00:13:24 --> 00:13:27 you grow up uh cosmology will advance to
00:13:28 --> 00:13:30 the state where we can put an answer on
00:13:30 --> 00:13:32 it and we can say from the observations
00:13:32 --> 00:13:34 we can make of things like the cosmic
00:13:34 --> 00:13:37 microwave background cosmic wallpaper uh
00:13:37 --> 00:13:39 we might be able to say that there is a
00:13:39 --> 00:13:41 limit on whether it's finite or infinite
00:13:41 --> 00:13:44 and we hope maybe we'll talk about it on
00:13:44 --> 00:13:47 space notes as well. Well I just I love
00:13:47 --> 00:13:48 that question from Enrique. I remember
00:13:48 --> 00:13:50 being probably around that age and I was
00:13:50 --> 00:13:52 laying in bed one day and my little mind
00:13:52 --> 00:13:54 was just starting to think of these big
00:13:54 --> 00:13:56 ideas and I was trying to wrap my head
00:13:56 --> 00:13:58 around infinity and I just remember
00:13:58 --> 00:14:00 walking out of my room and I'm like,
00:14:00 --> 00:14:02 "Mom, I have a headache." And I was
00:14:02 --> 00:14:04 like, "Oh, my head hurts so much." And
00:14:04 --> 00:14:05 she's like, "Why? What's wrong?" I was
00:14:05 --> 00:14:07 like, "I'm thinking about infinity and
00:14:07 --> 00:14:10 it hurts my head." And I was just I
00:14:10 --> 00:14:12 could wrap my little tiny brain around
00:14:12 --> 00:14:14 it. And so they I'll say this to you,
00:14:14 --> 00:14:15 Enrique. If these are things that
00:14:16 --> 00:14:18 interest you and you would like to be
00:14:18 --> 00:14:21 somebody who helps solve these problems
00:14:21 --> 00:14:23 one day, you want to do good in school,
00:14:23 --> 00:14:26 especially with math because math is
00:14:26 --> 00:14:28 what they are using to define these
00:14:28 --> 00:14:31 things. So do good in school.
00:14:31 --> 00:14:34 Okay. All right. Our last question for
00:14:34 --> 00:14:38 the day comes from Kevin in Melbourne.
00:14:38 --> 00:14:40 And Kevin says, "Love the show, guys,
00:14:40 --> 00:14:42 and love sharing insights with my high
00:14:42 --> 00:14:44 school science class." Oh, I love to see
00:14:44 --> 00:14:46 it. We're going from the little kids to
00:14:46 --> 00:14:49 the older kids. Um, so Kevin has a
00:14:49 --> 00:14:52 question um about the ISS. What what is
00:14:52 --> 00:14:54 the temperature on the inside of the
00:14:54 --> 00:14:57 ISS? Does it vary from the side facing
00:14:57 --> 00:15:00 the sun to the side in relative shade?
00:15:00 --> 00:15:02 Does it increase when the ISS is in full
00:15:02 --> 00:15:04 sun and does it drop when the ISS goes
00:15:04 --> 00:15:07 behind the Earth? Does it make a lot of
00:15:07 --> 00:15:10 noise as it expands and contracts? How
00:15:10 --> 00:15:12 is the temperature maintained at a level
00:15:12 --> 00:15:15 compatible with human life? Have a great
00:15:15 --> 00:15:18 day and thanks for the podcast.
00:15:18 --> 00:15:20 You could probably answer this question,
00:15:20 --> 00:15:23 Heidi. You're an aficionardo of human
00:15:23 --> 00:15:26 space flight and
00:15:26 --> 00:15:28 well I don't know what the temperature
00:15:28 --> 00:15:32 is, but I do know that um you can follow
00:15:32 --> 00:15:34 the ISS on YouTube. There's a few
00:15:34 --> 00:15:36 channels where they have live streams
00:15:36 --> 00:15:39 going where they have some really
00:15:39 --> 00:15:42 fantastic camera angles of the ISS and
00:15:42 --> 00:15:43 it goes straight from NASA. You can see
00:15:43 --> 00:15:46 it on the official NASA channel. So, you
00:15:46 --> 00:15:48 can watch it go around the Earth and
00:15:48 --> 00:15:50 it's um I don't have this number off the
00:15:50 --> 00:15:52 top of my head. I could probably type it
00:15:52 --> 00:15:56 in really quick, but it's what 72 times
00:15:56 --> 00:15:59 72 sunrises in a day. It's No, it's um
00:15:59 --> 00:16:03 it's uh it's about I think it's 17 uh I
00:16:03 --> 00:16:04 think you got the numbers the wrong way
00:16:04 --> 00:16:07 round. Yeah. Um so so it's every 90
00:16:07 --> 00:16:10 every 90 minutes you get a sunrise and
00:16:10 --> 00:16:12 every 90 minutes you get a sunset. So
00:16:12 --> 00:16:15 you get one of them every 45 minutes. Um
00:16:15 --> 00:16:18 so I think it's 17 of each that you get
00:16:18 --> 00:16:19 during the day. It's an easy
00:16:19 --> 00:16:20 calculation. I can't do it in my head.
00:16:20 --> 00:16:24 Anyway, um I think in terms of um no,
00:16:24 --> 00:16:26 this is a great question and it's um
00:16:26 --> 00:16:29 it's a tribute to the engineering behind
00:16:29 --> 00:16:31 the ISS that you can do this sort of
00:16:32 --> 00:16:35 thing at all. So the I think the uh
00:16:35 --> 00:16:39 internal interior temperature on the ISS
00:16:39 --> 00:16:43 is about 20° C, maybe 21, something like
00:16:43 --> 00:16:45 that. I can't do it in my head. Oh, wait
00:16:45 --> 00:16:48 a minute. 20 is 60 6° F. Is that right?
00:16:48 --> 00:16:51 Yeah, they keep it between 64 to 79
00:16:51 --> 00:16:53 degrees F. Yeah. Yeah. So, so there you
00:16:53 --> 00:16:55 go. Thanks for looking that up. I hope
00:16:55 --> 00:16:57 that's on the That's official NASA.
00:16:57 --> 00:16:59 Careful careful where you get your space
00:16:59 --> 00:17:02 news. Absolutely. That's right. So, it's
00:17:02 --> 00:17:04 a sort of ambient temperature that um
00:17:04 --> 00:17:07 and that and that allows astronauts to
00:17:07 --> 00:17:08 work in church sleeves and things of
00:17:08 --> 00:17:12 that sort without overcoats on. Um uh
00:17:12 --> 00:17:15 but uh it's artificially controlled. So
00:17:15 --> 00:17:18 that's all governed by air conditioning
00:17:18 --> 00:17:20 units that actually heat and cool the
00:17:20 --> 00:17:22 atmosphere. Uh because you're absolutely
00:17:22 --> 00:17:26 right uh the as the spacecraft goes in
00:17:26 --> 00:17:30 and out of direct sunlight, it's uh its
00:17:30 --> 00:17:32 temperature the amount of radiation it's
00:17:32 --> 00:17:37 feeling uh in varies enormously. Um the
00:17:37 --> 00:17:40 that in itself needs to be controlled as
00:17:40 --> 00:17:43 well. Uh so on the hot when when it's
00:17:43 --> 00:17:45 being heated up by the sun, you've got
00:17:45 --> 00:17:47 to try and get rid of that heat into
00:17:47 --> 00:17:49 space and there are radiators that do
00:17:49 --> 00:17:52 that. Um at the same time when you're on
00:17:52 --> 00:17:54 the other side, you've you want to try
00:17:54 --> 00:17:57 and conserve the heat uh when you're
00:17:57 --> 00:17:58 when you're on the dark side, when
00:17:58 --> 00:18:01 you're in the the Earth's shadow. Um so
00:18:01 --> 00:18:05 so this this is all taken care of in the
00:18:05 --> 00:18:08 engineering. Um the metals that are used
00:18:08 --> 00:18:11 are ones whose expansion and contraction
00:18:11 --> 00:18:12 characteristics are very well
00:18:12 --> 00:18:15 understood. Uh and they you know they're
00:18:15 --> 00:18:17 built in such a way that there's a lot
00:18:17 --> 00:18:20 of self-compensation built into it. Um a
00:18:20 --> 00:18:24 bit like um you know biometallic strips
00:18:24 --> 00:18:25 and things like that when you put two
00:18:25 --> 00:18:26 different metals together with different
00:18:26 --> 00:18:29 expansion coefficients. Nevertheless,
00:18:29 --> 00:18:30 it's a really interesting question that
00:18:30 --> 00:18:32 I don't know the answer to and I don't
00:18:32 --> 00:18:34 know whether you would Heidi either. uh
00:18:34 --> 00:18:37 whether it caks as it warms up and and
00:18:37 --> 00:18:39 um you know cools down, whether there's
00:18:39 --> 00:18:42 a noise from the space station as it uh
00:18:42 --> 00:18:44 as it goes into the sunlight. I wouldn't
00:18:44 --> 00:18:46 mind betting there is. You know, I would
00:18:46 --> 00:18:49 assume I'd assume there is. I was uh I
00:18:49 --> 00:18:52 was at a talk from an astronaut um a
00:18:52 --> 00:18:55 couple years ago and he was giving the
00:18:55 --> 00:18:57 funniest story about their A-Red device,
00:18:57 --> 00:19:00 which is the exercise device they use on
00:19:00 --> 00:19:02 the spacecraft and it's if you look at
00:19:02 --> 00:19:04 it, it's it's huge. If you guys go to
00:19:04 --> 00:19:06 your regular gym, probably one of the
00:19:06 --> 00:19:07 biggest machines in there might be
00:19:08 --> 00:19:09 something like the leg press. So, this
00:19:09 --> 00:19:11 looks like that on such a larger scale.
00:19:12 --> 00:19:13 And that's because they have all these
00:19:13 --> 00:19:16 vibration um mufflers built in because
00:19:16 --> 00:19:18 they can't have Yeah. They can't have
00:19:18 --> 00:19:20 these exercise devices creating a lot of
00:19:20 --> 00:19:22 vibration. So, they have these dampeners
00:19:22 --> 00:19:24 built in. And there was one day where
00:19:24 --> 00:19:26 the it wasn't working like it was
00:19:26 --> 00:19:28 supposed to. And the astronauts still
00:19:28 --> 00:19:29 had to get their exercise in, but they
00:19:29 --> 00:19:31 didn't want to have all this vibration
00:19:31 --> 00:19:34 rattling apart the station. And so they
00:19:34 --> 00:19:37 solved this problem with the most clever
00:19:37 --> 00:19:39 um genius thing you would think of. Can
00:19:40 --> 00:19:42 you take a guess at how they fixed this
00:19:42 --> 00:19:44 probably multi-million dollar problem?
00:19:44 --> 00:19:47 Oh gosh. Uh probably bits of cardboard
00:19:48 --> 00:19:51 stuck in between a sock. They shoved a
00:19:51 --> 00:19:54 sock in the little squeaky spot. So, and
00:19:54 --> 00:19:56 it's it solved the problem and it worked
00:19:56 --> 00:19:59 just fine. And so, I would assume if
00:19:59 --> 00:20:01 we're needing to fix things by sticking
00:20:01 --> 00:20:03 socks in the corners to dampen the
00:20:03 --> 00:20:05 vibrations, I would guess I think it's
00:20:06 --> 00:20:08 probably safe to guess that it probably
00:20:08 --> 00:20:10 does make little creeks and sounds as it
00:20:10 --> 00:20:13 heats up and cools down. But another
00:20:13 --> 00:20:14 interesting thing I learned this past
00:20:14 --> 00:20:17 weekend um that kind of is a direct
00:20:17 --> 00:20:19 answer to Kevin's question about how
00:20:19 --> 00:20:21 does that temperature get controlled? A
00:20:21 --> 00:20:25 lot of it is just complex patents. And
00:20:25 --> 00:20:27 Intuitive Machines, which is another
00:20:27 --> 00:20:29 company in the space industry, has
00:20:29 --> 00:20:31 recently partnered with Colombia
00:20:31 --> 00:20:34 Sportsear. And you might be thinking,
00:20:34 --> 00:20:36 well, Colombia Sportsear, what does that
00:20:36 --> 00:20:38 have to do with space? So Colombia,
00:20:38 --> 00:20:40 their patent portfolio for the
00:20:40 --> 00:20:42 technologies they put into their jackets
00:20:42 --> 00:20:45 that keep you warm in winter conditions,
00:20:45 --> 00:20:48 their patent portfol portfolio is 500
00:20:48 --> 00:20:50 times bigger than any of their other
00:20:50 --> 00:20:52 leading competitors. And that is
00:20:52 --> 00:20:55 technology that I maybe I can't explain
00:20:55 --> 00:20:57 or understand or maybe I can't even look
00:20:57 --> 00:20:59 at it unless I was look I had an NDA and
00:20:59 --> 00:21:01 was looking at those patents. But their
00:21:01 --> 00:21:03 whole thing is they want to keep hot
00:21:03 --> 00:21:04 things hot and cold things cold. And
00:21:04 --> 00:21:06 sometimes those things are right next to
00:21:06 --> 00:21:09 each other. And that's really I think a
00:21:09 --> 00:21:11 very Kevin's question is so interesting
00:21:11 --> 00:21:14 and dynamic and multifaceted like it's
00:21:14 --> 00:21:16 really hey how do we keep people alive
00:21:16 --> 00:21:17 and comfortable up there? And it's the
00:21:17 --> 00:21:20 answer is it's very complicated.
00:21:20 --> 00:21:24 Yeah. It's um it's interesting that that
00:21:24 --> 00:21:26 link is one that I never would have
00:21:26 --> 00:21:28 guessed would happen. But um I just
00:21:28 --> 00:21:30 thinking back you know to the early days
00:21:30 --> 00:21:33 of space flight the the Mercury capsules
00:21:33 --> 00:21:35 and the Geminy capsules and and even
00:21:35 --> 00:21:38 Apollo um those problems of how you
00:21:38 --> 00:21:41 maintain a comfortable environment for
00:21:41 --> 00:21:43 astronauts to work in was solved at a
00:21:43 --> 00:21:46 very early stage in the history of space
00:21:46 --> 00:21:48 flight. Not on the same sort of scale as
00:21:48 --> 00:21:51 the space station which is vast compared
00:21:51 --> 00:21:53 with the these other early capsules but
00:21:53 --> 00:21:55 nevertheless they they had to deal with
00:21:55 --> 00:21:58 it. they had to work out ways of keeping
00:21:58 --> 00:22:01 the spacecraft at a comfort comfortable
00:22:01 --> 00:22:03 temperature inside despite the huge
00:22:03 --> 00:22:06 variations of radiation uh that it's
00:22:06 --> 00:22:08 feeling on the outside. So, uh it's
00:22:08 --> 00:22:11 probably quite old technology, but it's
00:22:11 --> 00:22:12 great that it works and it's a tribute
00:22:12 --> 00:22:16 to the uh yes to the ingenuity of humans
00:22:16 --> 00:22:18 when it comes to putting human beings in
00:22:18 --> 00:22:19 an environment that they were never
00:22:19 --> 00:22:22 meant to be in uh in terms of uh of
00:22:22 --> 00:22:25 their well-being. Um maybe we were we
00:22:25 --> 00:22:27 were meant to be in them in terms of our
00:22:27 --> 00:22:30 exploration, but uh that's a different
00:22:30 --> 00:22:32 question.
00:22:32 --> 00:22:34 I just every every time we get together
00:22:34 --> 00:22:36 and talk, Fred, I'm I'm just left with a
00:22:36 --> 00:22:38 very positive feeling about the
00:22:38 --> 00:22:40 incredibleness of human beings and what
00:22:40 --> 00:22:42 we've invented and come up with and it
00:22:42 --> 00:22:44 makes me just, you know, proud of our
00:22:44 --> 00:22:47 species. We have done wonderful things
00:22:47 --> 00:22:49 and we've continued to create incredible
00:22:49 --> 00:22:52 things. I've even seen that um some
00:22:52 --> 00:22:55 people have built these devices that are
00:22:55 --> 00:22:57 helping refereeze and rebuild the ice
00:22:57 --> 00:23:00 caps and it's like that is a fantastic
00:23:00 --> 00:23:02 invention and it's really cool just like
00:23:02 --> 00:23:06 these engineering breakthroughs.
00:23:06 --> 00:23:09 Absolutely. Engineering is um yeah it's
00:23:09 --> 00:23:12 uh it's right up there with science as
00:23:12 --> 00:23:14 one of the most important things that we
00:23:14 --> 00:23:16 can do for the well-being of our species
00:23:16 --> 00:23:19 and long may it continue.
00:23:19 --> 00:23:21 Absolutely. Well, thank you so much,
00:23:21 --> 00:23:22 Fred, for answering all of these
00:23:22 --> 00:23:26 questions today and enlightening us with
00:23:26 --> 00:23:28 your knowledge. You're just you're
00:23:28 --> 00:23:31 you're just a wealth of of fantastic
00:23:31 --> 00:23:33 information. And it has been my absolute
00:23:34 --> 00:23:36 pleasure to be a co-host with you these
00:23:36 --> 00:23:39 last few weeks. And uh for those of you
00:23:39 --> 00:23:41 listening, you will have Andrew back
00:23:41 --> 00:23:43 your next episode. So, look forward to
00:23:43 --> 00:23:46 him. But I will be signing off for now.
00:23:46 --> 00:23:48 Well, Fred, did you have anything else
00:23:48 --> 00:23:51 you wanted to add? Just once again, a
00:23:51 --> 00:23:53 thank you to you, Heidi, for um making
00:23:53 --> 00:23:56 Andrew's absence um I I won't say a
00:23:56 --> 00:23:58 pleasure because he'd think I was glad
00:23:58 --> 00:24:01 to see the back of him, but uh certainly
00:24:01 --> 00:24:03 a delight. It's been very nice to talk
00:24:03 --> 00:24:06 to you. Thanks again. Excellent. Well,
00:24:06 --> 00:24:08 you guys can have me back anytime. And
00:24:08 --> 00:24:10 for those of you listening, wish me luck
00:24:10 --> 00:24:12 on my final exam so that I can join my
00:24:12 --> 00:24:15 place among the stars of of the
00:24:15 --> 00:24:18 superstars of the engineers and people a
00:24:18 --> 00:24:20 part of this industry. And thank you so
00:24:20 --> 00:24:23 much for having me on Space Nuts. Space
00:24:23 --> 00:24:25 Nuts. You've been listening to the Space
00:24:25 --> 00:24:28 Nuts podcast
00:24:28 --> 00:24:31 available at Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
00:24:31 --> 00:24:33 iHeart Radio, or your favorite podcast
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00:24:36 --> 00:24:38 byes.com. This has been another quality
00:24:38 --> 00:24:43 podcast production from bites.com.