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"Goddard Space Flight Center presents"

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Hey, everyone,

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welcome to Snack Time with NASA.

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I'm your host, Kathleen Gaeta.

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♪♪♪

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And liftoff from a tropical rainforest

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to the edge of time itself.

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That's like

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looking through the eye of a needle,

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and in that tiny space.

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we found 10,000 galaxies.

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♪♪♪

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That fusion creates a tremendous amount

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of energy, and is literally

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what fuels a star and makes the light we see.

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We're studying the deaths of islands.

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Islands that spring forth from volcanism.

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♪♪♪

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"OSIRIS-REx Sheds Light on Hazardous Asteroid Bennu"
Dan Gallagher, Producer; Josh Masters, Animator

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♪♪♪

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In 2135, a potentially hazardous asteroid called Bennu

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will make a close flyby of Earth.

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During this encounter, our planet’s gravity will tweak Bennu’s path,

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making it a challenge to calculate its future trajectory

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and the odds of a potential impact late in the 22nd century.

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Why is this hard to determine?

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Well, we know how gravity works…

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but there are still uncertainties in Bennu’s trajectory

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that will be magnified by the close encounter.

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In addition to gravity, asteroids can be pushed around

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by non-gravitational forces like the Yarkovsky effect.

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When sunlight strikes a rotating asteroid, the dayside heats up.

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As the asteroid turns, the night side cools down

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and releases the heat.

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This exerts a small thrust on the asteroid,

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which can change its direction over time.

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The Yarkovsky effect is challenging to model, but it can make

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a big difference in determining where asteroids end up.

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Because we don’t know exactly how the Yarkovsky effect

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will perturb Bennu’s orbit, we have limited knowledge

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of where Bennu will be as it approaches Earth in 2135.

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Scientists thus have to consider a range of possible trajectories,

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depending on how strongly the Yarkovsky effect is pushing on Bennu.

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A few of these trajectories line up with regions of space

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called gravitational keyholes.

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If Bennu were to pass through a keyhole,

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Earth’s gravity would bend its path in just the right way

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to cause an impact on a subsequent orbit,

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late in the 22nd century.

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The odds of this actually happening are quite low,

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but scientists want to know as much as possible.

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That’s one reason why NASA sent the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft

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to study Bennu from 2018 to 2021.

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OSIRIS-REx greatly improved our knowledge of Bennu’s

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position, density, thermal inertia, and other properties

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that can influence how its orbit will evolve over time.

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The new data allowed scientists to significantly reduce

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uncertainties in Bennu’s predicted orbit,

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ruling out a number of keyholes for the 2135 flyby,

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and eliminating several future impact scenarios.

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While Bennu remains a hazardous asteroid, we can now make

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better models of its orbital evolution thanks to OSIRIS-REx.

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This will allow us – and our descendants –

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to better calculate Bennu’s risk

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in the decades and centuries to come.

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♪♪♪

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"Visions of the Future"
Chris Smith, Producer

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♪♪♪

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[music throughout]

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"The Moon"

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"Mars"

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"Venus"

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"Titan"

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"Enceladus"

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"Exoplanet HD 40307g"

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"Exoplanet Kepler-16b"

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"Exoplanet 55 CANCRI e"

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"Exoplanet GJ 357 d"

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"Where will you explore?"

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"Start your journey."

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exoplanets.nasa.gov/travel

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♪♪♪

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"Pinpointing the Moon's South Pole"
David Ladd, Producer; Ernest Wright, Visualizer

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♪♪♪

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In order for NASA to map and explore

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the region around the lunar South Pole,

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we need to precisely define a system of

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latitude and longitude on the Moon,

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including the exact location of the South Pole itself.

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In the coordinate system

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adopted by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission,

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the South Pole is here,

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on the rugged rim of Shackleton crater.

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♪♪♪

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If you stood on this treacherous spot,

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you’d see the sunlit rim of the crater,

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encircling a permanently shadowed abyss

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that’s two and a half miles deep,

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over twice that of the Grand Canyon,

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covering an area over 130 square miles.

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As we return to the lunar surface,

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three dimensional maps like this

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will help guide astronauts to safe landing sites

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in the challenging landscape of the Moon’s South Pole.

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♪♪♪

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Earth Resources Technology Satellite,

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"A Trip Through Time with Landsat 9" Matt Radcliff, Producer;
Jenny McElligott, Animator; Alexander Bodnar, Animator

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♪♪♪

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From 438 miles above Earth’s surface,

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the newest Landsat satellite will collect data so detailed,

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it can detect both natural and

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human-caused changes to the landscape.

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♪♪♪

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But what really makes Landsat unique

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is the half-century of data,

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an unbroken chain of observations over five decades.

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Let’s take a look at how we got here.

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1966 – The US Geological Survey proposes a satellite

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to study Earth’s land masses.

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But what would that look like?

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Over the next few years,

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USGS and NASA research their options.

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♪♪♪

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1970 – NASA gets the green light to build

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an Earth Resources Technology Satellite,

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an experiment to study and monitor

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our planet’s land surface from space.

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Launched in ’72,

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this was the first digital data of Earth,

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repeated at regular intervals, with geometric fidelity

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to allow comparison between observations.

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This changed how we drew maps,

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tabulated agricultural production,

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and assessed damage after disasters.

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In 1975, NASA launched a second satellite,

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similar to the first.

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Now they were collecting twice as much data.

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With Landsat 3 replacing the aging original in ’78,

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focus shifted to the advanced technology planned for the 80s.

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The Thematic Mapper instrument,

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launched on Landsat 4 in 1982

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and on its twin Landsat 5 in ‘84,

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was a major step forward.

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Collecting seven different wavelengths,

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at better ground resolution, and with higher precision,

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this was the beating heart of the satellite

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and became the work horse for a generation of scientists.

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For the first time, Landsat data had three visible bands

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– red, green, and blue –

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allowing natural-color composite images.

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♪♪♪

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And with the addition of short-wave infrared wavelengths,

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the data could better highlight flooded areas,

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mineral deposits, and burn scars from wildfires.

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♪♪♪

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The thermal bands were also upgraded

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allowing individual farm fields to be tracked.

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♪♪♪

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The sixth Landsat was intended

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to be another big step forward,

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but it never reached orbit after launch in 1993.

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Plans immediately began for Landsat 7,

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which would carry an even more improved sensor.

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At the time, the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus

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was the most stable Earth observation instrument

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ever sent into orbit, and the calibration

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could be updated while in space.

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For the first time,

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we had an instrument robust enough

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to collect lots of data,

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and we had a plan to thoroughly record the entire globe.

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Landsat 7 was put to work mapping coral reefs,

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and even produced the first

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high-resolution natural-color map

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of remote Antarctica.

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♪♪♪

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Improvements to the thermal bands on Landsat 7

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allowed states and counties

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to gauge how much water was used by crops.

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This helps manage water resources efficiently.

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An important milestone occurred in 2008,

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when the USGS made the data available to download for free.

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Users were able to get the data they needed,

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and not just what they could afford.

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It really unlocked a ton of innovation

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and created about 2 billion dollars a year

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in economic benefits.

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♪♪♪

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The modern era of Landsat observations

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began with the launch of Landsat 8 in 2013.

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Having a push-broom style sensor on Landsat 8

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was a big improvement over the older scanning sensor.

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The Landsat 8 ground system that USGS runs

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is capable of receiving a lot more data than before.

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We’re downloading over 725 scenes each day.

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That just wasn’t remotely possible until Landsat 8.

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The two European Sentinel-2 satellites

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were designed to mesh with Landsat

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so that users can treat data from all the satellites

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as if it came from one single source.

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Now we get observations every 2 or 3 days,

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instead of every 2 weeks.

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♪♪♪

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2021 is the launch of Landsat 9, the next step forward.

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It will collect the best data ever recorded by a Landsat satellite,

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while still integrating seamlessly with the extensive archive.

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Since the early 1970s,

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Landsat satellites have allowed us to better manage our resources.

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Landsat data has enabled countless innovations

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and will let us track the effects of climate change into the future.

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♪♪♪

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"Elements of Webb Episode 4: Beryllium"
Sophia Roberts, Producer

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♪♪♪

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sigh

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This is it.

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I am standing at the place

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where the beryllium was mined for the James Webb Space Telescope.

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music

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Let’s take a step back. I travelled just south of Salt Lake City

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City to a town called Delta, Utah.

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Welp, here we are

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what is it, 5:30 in the morning. And then back on the road the next morning

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as the sun rose up to meet the beryllium miners all in my quest to find out…

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Where does beryllium come from?

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music

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So Utah is home to many valuable materials:

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copper, magnesium, uranium, gold and silver.

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But most of the world's beryllium is mined here. And engineers

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chose beryllium for Webb's mirrors because it is lightweight, it is strong

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and it is dimensionally stable. So that means

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means that it is not going to warp when operating at really cold temperatures.

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What is even here?

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As we drove down into the pit, learned that we were in fact

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fact driving on the beryllium. This rock looks

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nothing like metal.

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Where is the beryllium? How does this

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turn into this? I of course needed

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to speak to an expert, and he came in the form of the VP of operations – Greg Gregory.

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We are actually standing on the beryllium ore seam.

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Beryllium is in the volcanic ash dust.

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It was hydrothermally deposited millions of years ago

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and then coved by volcanic rock. We have to remove the volcanic rock

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on top of the ore seam and then use a scraper and a bulldozer

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to extract the ore that we're standing on top of.

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music

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90 percent of the beryllium that was mined in the world last year came from this deposit.

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Now let me clue you into how rare this

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this metal is. This area has most of the world's known beryllium,

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but the highest concentration runs through a 10-foot tall

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diagonal ribbon well below the surface of the ground.

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The ore concentration is

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0.25 percent beryllium.

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That means, in a ton of ore, there is about 5 pounds

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of beryllium.

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So to get to this point we had to remove 400 feet of rock

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to get to the ore seam. Once the ore is extracted, it goes

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through a bunch processing to extract the pure beryllium

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Then the powder beryllium is pressed into block ready for machining

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Webb's mirrors started out as solid

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5 foot tall, 5 foot wide and 2-inch-thick blocks of beryllium.

261
00:13:55,668 --> 00:13:58,270
But in order to machine those blocks

262
00:13:58,270 --> 00:14:01,307
millions of pounds of rock were removed.

263
00:14:01,307 --> 00:14:06,745
It comes to about 4 tons of rock for every pound of beryllium.

264
00:14:06,745 --> 00:14:09,448
That is a lot of work

265
00:14:09,448 --> 00:14:12,518
for one remarkable metal.

266
00:14:13,018 --> 00:14:14,286
♪♪♪

267
00:14:14,286 --> 00:14:14,386
Don't record that.  [laughing]

268
00:14:14,386 --> 00:14:19,225
"Behind the Scenes of Elements of Webb"
Ryan Fitzgibbons, Producer

269
00:14:19,692 --> 00:14:23,162
♪♪♪

270
00:14:23,162 --> 00:14:24,930
I came up with Elements of Webb

271
00:14:24,930 --> 00:14:27,766
because I have seen in all of our articles
and videos

272
00:14:27,766 --> 00:14:30,135
that we kept mentioning that we used gold
and beryllium for these mirrors,

273
00:14:30,135 --> 00:14:32,371
gold and beryllium for these mirrors,

274
00:14:32,371 --> 00:14:34,807
that there are
all these special materials, but

275
00:14:34,807 --> 00:14:37,910
we didn't really explain why we used them.

276
00:14:37,910 --> 00:14:41,780
So I wanted to get sort of into the nitty
gritty of the material science

277
00:14:41,780 --> 00:14:45,351
to explore why these were
and then actually just demonstrate

278
00:14:45,351 --> 00:14:48,654
why these materials behave
the way they do.

279
00:14:48,654 --> 00:14:51,523
I got a piece! I got a piece!

280
00:14:51,690 --> 00:14:53,058
Not only was it a

281
00:14:53,058 --> 00:14:56,328
I think, cool science adventure for you
because you did a lot of research,

282
00:14:56,328 --> 00:14:59,565
It was an adventure
just going out and capturing everything.

283
00:14:59,565 --> 00:15:01,967
That's the great,
beautiful Salt Lake back there.

284
00:15:01,967 --> 00:15:02,668
Okay.

285
00:15:02,668 --> 00:15:05,704
We just got attacked by--they're still swarming around us--

286
00:15:05,704 --> 00:15:08,474
These little gnats.

287
00:15:08,941 --> 00:15:11,644
I will say that my proudest moment
was being able

288
00:15:11,644 --> 00:15:14,013
to go to the beryllium mine.

289
00:15:15,681 --> 00:15:18,117
That took a lot of work to get to.

290
00:15:18,117 --> 00:15:20,986
We found the beryllium shop,
and then we got them

291
00:15:20,986 --> 00:15:24,857
to talk to their people
and then convincing those people

292
00:15:24,857 --> 00:15:30,329
to let us fly into Salt Lake City and
actually go to the frickin beryllium mine.

293
00:15:30,329 --> 00:15:33,499
--This has all been mined out. So that's the--

294
00:15:33,499 --> 00:15:37,102
So we've had like so much latitude
in this project, which we're very lucky.

295
00:15:37,403 --> 00:15:40,873
But yeah,
so we were able to hire a drone operator,

296
00:15:40,873 --> 00:15:43,575
which was so cool.

297
00:15:45,711 --> 00:15:49,848
And so he was able to get perspectives
on this huge hole in the ground

298
00:15:49,848 --> 00:15:52,551
that we would never otherwise
be able to see

299
00:15:52,551 --> 00:15:58,457
and actually get like a really good
perspective on like just how massive it is

300
00:15:58,457 --> 00:16:03,295
and reall how much rock you have to remove to get
even the smallest amounts of beryllium.

301
00:16:04,330 --> 00:16:05,531
COVID

302
00:16:05,531 --> 00:16:08,267
just wiped this whole thing out
because we were planning to go

303
00:16:08,267 --> 00:16:11,403
to a lot of different places
and then when COVID hit and we couldn't

304
00:16:11,403 --> 00:16:14,473
go anywhere, she did,

305
00:16:14,473 --> 00:16:19,511
I want to say like 80%
of the whole production at your house.

306
00:16:19,511 --> 00:16:20,145
Yeah.

307
00:16:20,145 --> 00:16:23,048
And you did some amazing stuff
at your house.

308
00:16:23,048 --> 00:16:24,917
And we're recording.

309
00:16:24,917 --> 00:16:27,853
But first
I have to make some distilled water,

310
00:16:27,853 --> 00:16:30,422
but first
I have to make some distilled water.

311
00:16:30,556 --> 00:16:30,956
It was fun.

312
00:16:30,956 --> 00:16:35,794
I mean, it made me take a little more time
to think about what I was talking about.

313
00:16:35,794 --> 00:16:38,831
And I actually think
they ultimately made a better video.

314
00:16:38,831 --> 00:16:40,499
I already see two pieces.

315
00:16:40,499 --> 00:16:42,735
One of the great things about
this job is that, you know,

316
00:16:42,768 --> 00:16:44,870
we meet a lot of different people,
you learn a lot of stuff,

317
00:16:44,870 --> 00:16:48,774
but you're also able to go into places

318
00:16:48,774 --> 00:16:51,944
and see things that, you know,
nobody else gets to see.

319
00:16:51,944 --> 00:16:56,615
And I think the Element series
is really one of those projects

320
00:16:56,615 --> 00:17:00,719
that we were just able to go
and into different places.

321
00:17:01,120 --> 00:17:04,323
Sort of my philosophy on
life is just start doing the things

322
00:17:04,323 --> 00:17:05,357
that you want to do.

323
00:17:05,357 --> 00:17:08,027
You're never going to have the gear
that you want.

324
00:17:08,027 --> 00:17:10,696
You're never necessarily
going to have the time that you want.

325
00:17:10,696 --> 00:17:12,998
But like try to
figure it out and just, just

326
00:17:12,998 --> 00:17:15,934
just do it.

327
00:17:15,934 --> 00:17:19,138
♪♪♪

328
00:17:19,138 --> 00:17:24,843
"Fermi Spots Fizzled Burst from Collapsing Star"
Scott Wiessinger, Producer; Chris Smith, Animator

329
00:17:24,843 --> 00:17:26,812
♪♪♪

330
00:17:26,812 --> 00:17:29,348
NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

331
00:17:29,348 --> 00:17:33,352
has spotted the shortest burst of gamma rays ever seen from a collapsing

332
00:17:33,352 --> 00:17:37,356
star. It challenges the traditional classification of

333
00:17:37,356 --> 00:17:41,360
gamma-ray bursts, also called GRBs.

334
00:17:41,360 --> 00:17:45,364
Short GRBs – those lasting less than 2 seconds – are thought to

335
00:17:45,364 --> 00:17:49,368
occur when orbiting objects like neutron stars spiral together and

336
00:17:49,368 --> 00:17:53,372
merge. Longer bursts come from massive stars

337
00:17:53,372 --> 00:17:57,376
at the ends of their lives. A black hole forms at the center of the

338
00:17:57,376 --> 00:18:01,380
collapsing star. It drives long-lasting jets that drill through

339
00:18:01,380 --> 00:18:05,350
the star, producing gamma rays when they emerge.

340
00:18:05,350 --> 00:18:09,354
The star then transforms into a supernova.

341
00:18:09,354 --> 00:18:13,358
On August 26, 2020, Fermi detected a GRB lasting about

342
00:18:13,358 --> 00:18:17,362
1 second. Instruments on other spacecraft saw it

343
00:18:17,362 --> 00:18:21,366
too, including NASA’s Wind and Mars Odyssey missions.

344
00:18:21,366 --> 00:18:25,370
They helped narrow down the location to a patch of sky in the constellation

345
00:18:25,370 --> 00:18:29,374
Andromeda. Less than a day after the GRB,

346
00:18:29,374 --> 00:18:33,378
astronomers identified a fading source of visible light using

347
00:18:33,378 --> 00:18:37,349
the Zwicky Transient Facility at Palomar Observatory.

348
00:18:37,349 --> 00:18:41,353
This was the burst’s afterglow. NASA’s Swift satellite

349
00:18:41,353 --> 00:18:45,357
soon recorded X-rays from it, and within days, ground-based radio telescopes

350
00:18:45,357 --> 00:18:47,726
observed it too.

351
00:18:47,726 --> 00:18:49,361
After a few weeks, when the

352
00:18:49,361 --> 00:18:53,365
afterglow had decayed, ground-based observatories confirmed the presence of

353
00:18:53,365 --> 00:18:57,369
a brightening supernova. This means the GRB must have come from

354
00:18:57,369 --> 00:19:01,373
a massive collapsing star, not a merger.

355
00:19:01,373 --> 00:19:05,844
Astronomers think this burst, called GRB 200826A,

356
00:19:05,844 --> 00:19:09,348
was on the verge of not occurring at all. About

357
00:19:09,348 --> 00:19:13,352
6.6 billion years ago, a massive star in a distant galaxy

358
00:19:13,352 --> 00:19:17,356
reached the end of its life. Its core collapsed and formed

359
00:19:17,356 --> 00:19:21,360
a black hole, which launched near-light-speed particle jets through

360
00:19:21,360 --> 00:19:25,364
the star. But just as they breached the surface, the jets

361
00:19:25,364 --> 00:19:29,368
shut down, producing a surprisingly brief GRB.

362
00:19:29,368 --> 00:19:33,372
Astronomers think it’s likely some short GRBs

363
00:19:33,372 --> 00:19:36,742
they’ve detected are misclassified as mergers when, instead

364
00:19:36,742 --> 00:19:40,879
they're really bursts from jets that nearly failed to drill through

365
00:19:40,879 --> 00:19:45,350
collapsing stars. We only detect GRBs when the jets

366
00:19:45,350 --> 00:19:49,354
aim in our direction. Even accounting for this, long

367
00:19:49,354 --> 00:19:53,358
GRBs still occur at a lower rate than the supernova type

368
00:19:53,358 --> 00:19:57,362
associated with them. This means most collapsing massive stars

369
00:19:57,362 --> 00:20:01,366
likely fail to produce long-lived jets

370
00:20:01,366 --> 00:20:05,370
– dying, at least from the gamma-ray perspective, with a

371
00:20:05,370 --> 00:20:08,040
whimper instead of a bang.

372
00:20:08,040 --> 00:20:11,543
♪♪♪

373
00:20:11,543 --> 00:20:15,881
"Unboxing Apollo Samples"
James Tralie, Producer

374
00:20:15,881 --> 00:20:23,488
♪♪♪

375
00:20:24,289 --> 00:20:25,090
Apollo 17, December 7, 1972 - December 9, 1972

376
00:20:25,090 --> 00:20:25,390
So we

377
00:20:25,390 --> 00:20:29,027
received samples from the Apollo
17 mission

378
00:20:29,027 --> 00:20:32,264
which were return to Earth
in December of 1972.

379
00:20:32,264 --> 00:20:33,799
So nearly 50 years ago.

380
00:20:34,466 --> 00:20:36,835
Basically we collected on the moon
and brought back,

381
00:20:37,336 --> 00:20:37,869
then they were

382
00:20:37,869 --> 00:20:40,405
frozen within about a month of being returned.

383
00:20:40,405 --> 00:20:42,641
So no one's ever looked at them since.

384
00:20:42,708 --> 00:20:44,610
It's very exciting.

385
00:20:44,610 --> 00:20:50,882
"Unboxing Apollo Samples"

386
00:20:51,683 --> 00:20:54,753
Curation facility at NASA's
Johnson Space Center

387
00:20:54,753 --> 00:20:58,590
sent us the samples and they did have to
do some special efforts to keep them cold

388
00:20:58,590 --> 00:21:00,492
because we wanted them to stay frozen.

389
00:21:00,492 --> 00:21:03,595
So they had a special cold shipping box
with panels

390
00:21:03,595 --> 00:21:06,698
that were frozen in a very cold freezer
and a chunk of dry ice.

391
00:21:07,699 --> 00:21:10,469
We picked it up from the receiving office
here at Goddard

392
00:21:11,837 --> 00:21:15,440
opened it up, pulled the samples out
and stuck them straight in our freezer

393
00:21:15,440 --> 00:21:16,708
and locked them up safely.

394
00:21:18,243 --> 00:21:19,144
So these

395
00:21:19,144 --> 00:21:21,847
frozen samples were actually collected
from a region on the Moon

396
00:21:21,847 --> 00:21:24,082
that was in shadow from the sun.

397
00:21:24,082 --> 00:21:26,251
So it was basically a large boulder.

398
00:21:26,251 --> 00:21:28,287
In the near future,
we're going back to the Moon

399
00:21:28,287 --> 00:21:30,022
and hopefully going to the polar
regions of the moon

400
00:21:30,022 --> 00:21:32,090
where some of these regions
are in permanent shadow

401
00:21:32,090 --> 00:21:34,960
and they don't see the sun, you know,
they're cold.

402
00:21:34,960 --> 00:21:39,131
These particular samples are really great
analogs for what we might expect

403
00:21:39,131 --> 00:21:41,566
to see in the polar regions
when we go back.

404
00:21:42,234 --> 00:21:45,170
So we actually started last week
to process the samples.

405
00:21:45,170 --> 00:21:49,908
So the samples we got are basically dirt,
lunar dirt, and we basically made "Moon

406
00:21:49,908 --> 00:21:50,776
tea" out of them.

407
00:21:50,776 --> 00:21:51,743
So "Moon tea"

408
00:21:51,743 --> 00:21:55,514
is what we call it when we pull out
the soluble compounds from the soil.

409
00:21:55,580 --> 00:21:59,251
And so we basically take the lunar sample,
seal it up with a torch in a little

410
00:21:59,251 --> 00:22:03,221
glass test tube full of water,
stick it in an oven overnight and boil it.

411
00:22:03,221 --> 00:22:06,258
And we're just pulling out
those soluble compounds that we care about

412
00:22:06,258 --> 00:22:08,960
the same way
you'd make tea with boiling water at home.

413
00:22:10,329 --> 00:22:12,364
What we're trying to do is answer some questions

414
00:22:12,364 --> 00:22:17,169
about the history this sample experienced
at the surface of the Moon.

415
00:22:17,169 --> 00:22:19,438
The surface of the Moon
is a really hostile environment.

416
00:22:19,438 --> 00:22:21,840
You know, it's not like here on Earth
where we have this

417
00:22:21,840 --> 00:22:26,812
beautiful atmosphere that protects us
from the nasties of space.

418
00:22:26,812 --> 00:22:30,215
So we have particles from the sun
that are continuously hitting the

419
00:22:30,215 --> 00:22:31,216
surface of the Moon.

420
00:22:31,216 --> 00:22:32,718
And we've got galactic

421
00:22:32,718 --> 00:22:36,388
cosmic rays that are coming in
and penetrating into the surface as well.

422
00:22:36,488 --> 00:22:40,492
They actually create noble gases
in these particles.

423
00:22:40,525 --> 00:22:42,861
So you can imagine that
there's none to begin with.

424
00:22:43,161 --> 00:22:46,498
And then as they get exposed
to this space environment,

425
00:22:46,765 --> 00:22:50,268
they kind of get more
and more buildup of noble gases.

426
00:22:50,669 --> 00:22:55,006
And our technique is to actually unlock
those noble gases from the sample,

427
00:22:55,173 --> 00:22:59,511
a measure of them, so we can come up with
what we call a cosmic ray exposure age.

428
00:22:59,878 --> 00:23:04,249
So it's basically how long this sample
has been sat at the surface being exposed.

429
00:23:04,416 --> 00:23:06,184
It's basically getting a "space tan."

430
00:23:07,552 --> 00:23:08,820
Say, 50 years ago,

431
00:23:08,820 --> 00:23:11,923
this same technique, which is called
the Noble Gas Mass Spectrometry

432
00:23:11,957 --> 00:23:16,428
would probably need anywhere,
you know, tens to hundreds of milligrams

433
00:23:16,428 --> 00:23:20,031
to do the same thing that we now
do with a couple of milligrams.

434
00:23:20,799 --> 00:23:23,402
It's really special
to be part of this, and particularly

435
00:23:23,402 --> 00:23:28,774
because I can look back at the papers
and the processes that the curation office

436
00:23:28,774 --> 00:23:32,511
and the scientists in the 1970s
thought about and they put so much care

437
00:23:32,511 --> 00:23:34,880
into preserving these samples
for future science

438
00:23:35,180 --> 00:23:37,382
to making sure
that they were going to be at their,

439
00:23:37,382 --> 00:23:40,152
you know, the best conditions
so that as we develop new techniques,

440
00:23:40,419 --> 00:23:43,855
we're able to go and look at these samples
and get new answers

441
00:23:44,122 --> 00:23:46,224
to the science questions
that were being asked.

442
00:23:46,224 --> 00:23:49,461
You know, I'm still studying these samples
50 years later

443
00:23:49,728 --> 00:23:52,364
for the from the Apollo mission,
the original Apollo missions

444
00:23:52,664 --> 00:23:55,734
and you know, you don't know
what's going to be in another 50 years,

445
00:23:55,734 --> 00:23:59,571
but I'm still a part of the Apollo dream
of going to the Moon

446
00:23:59,571 --> 00:24:00,939
and bringing samples back.

447
00:24:00,939 --> 00:24:04,409
So the fact that we have Artemis
now is amazing.

448
00:24:04,409 --> 00:24:07,078
Like having our own Artemis
generation is really exciting.

449
00:24:07,179 --> 00:24:11,383
I just can't wait to see
people go back to the Moon.

450
00:24:12,684 --> 00:24:14,986
♪♪♪

451
00:24:14,986 --> 00:24:19,658
"The Solar Wind: A Heliophysics Sea Shanty"
Susannah Darling, Producer; Joy Ng, Editor

452
00:24:19,658 --> 00:24:20,559
There--

453
00:24:20,559 --> 00:24:20,892
Aww--

454
00:24:21,827 --> 00:24:24,563
There once was a star in a galaxy

455
00:24:24,563 --> 00:24:26,998
It was named the Sun and thankfully

456
00:24:26,998 --> 00:24:29,468
It weaves a solar tapestry

457
00:24:29,468 --> 00:24:32,537
Sends particles high and low

458
00:24:32,537 --> 00:24:35,273
Soon may the solar wind come

459
00:24:35,273 --> 00:24:37,876
To bring us plasma and magnetism

460
00:24:37,876 --> 00:24:40,312
Filled with hydrogen and helium

461
00:24:40,312 --> 00:24:43,014
And the solar wind will blow

462
00:24:43,014 --> 00:24:46,084
The solar wind charts a course

463
00:24:46,084 --> 00:24:48,987
Pulling lines of magnetic force

464
00:24:48,987 --> 00:24:50,989
Flowing outwards from the source

465
00:24:50,989 --> 00:24:53,492
Throws particles to and fro

466
00:24:53,492 --> 00:24:54,059
Hyuh!

467
00:24:54,059 --> 00:24:56,595
Soon may the solar wind come

468
00:24:56,595 --> 00:24:59,431
To bring us plasma and magnetism

469
00:24:59,431 --> 00:25:01,566
Filled with hydrogen and helium

470
00:25:01,566 --> 00:25:04,336
And the solar wind will blow

471
00:25:04,336 --> 00:25:07,405
The Earth spun with its iron core

472
00:25:07,405 --> 00:25:09,908
While the solar wind knocks at the door

473
00:25:09,908 --> 00:25:12,477
Magnetosphere screams “no more!”

474
00:25:12,477 --> 00:25:14,779
Until it must let go

475
00:25:14,779 --> 00:25:18,049
Once a magnetic line is freed

476
00:25:18,049 --> 00:25:20,485
Buckling under the wind’s stampede

477
00:25:20,485 --> 00:25:22,888
It whips back with tremendous speed

478
00:25:22,888 --> 00:25:25,957
Sends particles to the poles

479
00:25:25,957 --> 00:25:28,560
Soon may the solar wind come

480
00:25:28,560 --> 00:25:31,563
To bring us plasma and magnetism

481
00:25:31,563 --> 00:25:33,665
Filled with hydrogen and helium

482
00:25:33,665 --> 00:25:36,401
And the solar wind will blow

483
00:25:36,401 --> 00:25:38,904
The particles speed back here

484
00:25:38,904 --> 00:25:41,773
And ricochet through the atmosphere

485
00:25:41,773 --> 00:25:44,476
Exciting oxygen and nitrogen there

486
00:25:44,476 --> 00:25:47,345
Making those particles glow

487
00:25:47,345 --> 00:25:49,915
On and on the cycle spins

488
00:25:49,915 --> 00:25:52,584
Sun and Earth are celestial kin

489
00:25:52,584 --> 00:25:54,986
Dancing through the solar wind

490
00:25:54,986 --> 00:25:57,889
Connected by its flow

491
00:25:57,889 --> 00:26:00,458
Soon may the solar wind come

492
00:26:00,458 --> 00:26:03,361
To bring us plasma and magnetism

493
00:26:03,361 --> 00:26:05,463
Filled with hydrogen and helium

494
00:26:05,463 --> 00:26:08,633
And the solar wind will blow

495
00:26:08,633 --> 00:26:11,136
Soon may the solar wind come

496
00:26:11,136 --> 00:26:13,905
To bring us plasma and magnetism

497
00:26:13,905 --> 00:26:16,808
Filled with hydrogen and helium

498
00:26:16,808 --> 00:26:22,747
And the solar wind will blow

499
00:26:22,747 --> 00:26:23,815
♪♪♪

500
00:26:23,815 --> 00:26:25,450
"An excerpt from Snack Time with NASA: Space Salad"
Katie Jepson, Katy Mersmann, Kathleen Gaeta, Producers

501
00:26:25,450 --> 00:26:27,652
Undressed bok choy.

502
00:26:27,652 --> 00:26:28,653
Woo. Ok.

503
00:26:28,653 --> 00:26:29,621
♪♪♪

504
00:26:29,621 --> 00:26:31,957
Hey everyone, welcome to Snack Time with NASA.

505
00:26:31,990 --> 00:26:34,025
I'm your host, Kathleen Gaeta.

506
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Now, we've been exploring all the ways that NASA helps

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get some of your favorite foods onto your plate.

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And so far, all of those foods have been down here on Earth, obviously.

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But we're NASA, right?

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So while we may not be professional chefs,
 we do know a thing or two about space.

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That's why today we'll be learning
 what it takes to grow food

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two hundred miles above our heads
 onboard the International Space Station.

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00:26:55,614 --> 00:26:56,581
And later, we'll hear

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how the space station helps us monitor
 the health of plants down here on Earth.

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00:27:00,685 --> 00:27:02,020
So let's get into it.

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00:27:02,020 --> 00:27:04,356
As you can see, I have a nice haul of greens right in front of me.

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Some romaine lettuce, some bok choy, radishes, micro greens.

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Now, I got all these ingredients from my local grocery store.

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But actually, every single one of these plants is grown onboard the ISS.

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And here to help explain how that happens is

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Matt Romeyn, Project Scientist

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at the Kennedy Space Center.

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Matt, thank you so much for being here.

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How's it going?
Matt: Oh it's going good, glad to be here Kathleen.

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Kathleen: So you sent me a list of vegetables that you work with,

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and I'm wondering how you go about choosing

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which foods to grow up in space?

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Matt: We have to do a lot of crop screening. We're able to screen these crops and test them at our growth chambers

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at Kennedy Space Center that are able to replicate the environmental conditions

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on the International Space Station, except for microgravity.

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We're looking for how productive they grow, growth for compact

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morphologies and crops that are nutritious and flavorful.

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Kathleen: OK, I have to ask, have you ever grown potatoes in space?

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Matt: Well, we've been growing crops recently on ISS - last five years or so.

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We haven't had potatoes recently, but in the past we've done them

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on the shuttle program

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and we have grown them extensively on the ground at Kennedy Space Center.

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Kathleen: I will eat a space potato in my lifetime, I promise you that.

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Anyways, so you suggested I pick up some bok choy and mustard

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greens, and I can't say those are typical salad ingredients for myself.

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Matt: The bok choy is interesting because the crew recently

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grew and got to eat that on the ISS and they really enjoyed it.

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They actually found a way to cook it, using their food warmer

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and combining some garlic paste, soy sauce, and bit of olive oil.

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The mustard greens are great because they have a lot of strong flavors.

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And when you're an astronaut on the ISS, with the microgravity,

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you have a diminished sense of taste and smell.

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So they like those bolder flavors that kind of punch through there.

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Kathleen: Wow. I did not know that.

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And now, do you also grow the same plants
 that you're growing in space down at KSC?

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Matt: Yeah, well, we're growing plants in space on ISS, we also have ground controls

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at KSC that

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replicate the exact conditions on the ISS - the temperature, humidity, the CO2

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levels, we can control for everything but the microgravity element.

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Kathleen: Ok, and I assume that so that you can more closely monitor

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the difference of plants growing in space versus on Earth.

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What have you discovered in that process?

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Matt: Well, we find that plants, for the most part,
 grow similar in space as on Earth.

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A big variable is the water.

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There's a lack of convective
 flow in space, and that makes water very

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sticky. Plants like a good mix of water
 and oxygen in their root zone.

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And when we have water that doesn't mix well with

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oxygen, we get a lot of swinging back and forth between

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the roots being flooded and being in a state of drought.

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We have technologies that are working on that.

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To solve that problem of microgravity.

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Luckily, when we get to Mars and the moon,
those problems mostly go away.

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Kathleen: Got it. And so talk to me about this little space garden

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I keep hearing of - the VEGGIE Growth System. What is that?

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Yeah, the VEGGIE. We've got two of those on ISS,

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And it's a real simple system.

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It's about the size of a piece of carry-on luggage.

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It uses LED lighting and has six little plant pillows in there

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that are filled with growth medium, which is basically a soil substitute.

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And that's how we're able to grow and propagate the plants on the ISS.

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Kathleen: That's so interesting.

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The vision of a space garden just brings a lot of joy to me

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and I'm sure a lot of people.

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Anyway, so is there a plant that you're kind of the most excited

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about trying to grow in space?

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Matt: Definitely peppers.

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We actually just sent chili peppers to ISS,
that will be grown in the summer,

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and we're excited about peppers
 because they are very challenging.

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They take a long time to germinate.

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They take a long time to grow, about 120 days.

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And there's a real challenge with the flavor.

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If we were to overwater them, they taste

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like grass clippings. If we under water,

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and we stress out a lot, they're really spicy.

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So we're trying to really control to grow healthy plants

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and flavorful plants that the crew wants to eat and enjoy.

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Kathleen: Right. And you know what they say,
 if you can't take the heat,

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get off the space station, right? [polite laughter]

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Just kidding, that's my dad joke of the day!

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Well anyways, Matt I can't thank you enough for being here.

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[Bark] I learned a lot, and I hope you all did as well.

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And I can't wait to hear what you grow in space next!
Matt: Thank you.

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[Bark] Kathleen: Shut your little door, Buoy

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♪♪♪

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"Lucy's Journey Episode 4: Instruments"
James Tralie, Producer; Krystofer Kim, Animator

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♪♪♪

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00:31:25,183 --> 00:31:28,786
Nope, Lucy, still
 a little way to go before

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you get to your first Trojan asteroid.

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But it looks like you're coming up to
 the main belt asteroid, Donald Johanson.

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Right. This will give you a chance
 to check in on your instrumentation

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before you get out to the Trojans.

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This first instrument is called L'Ralph.

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It will take color
 images of the Trojan asteroids

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using visible and infrared light,
 helping scientists

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map craters and mountains and figure out
 what the asteroids are made out of.

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Next, this is L'LORRI.

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The long range reconnaissance imager.

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This camera will provide

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the most detailed images
 of the surfaces of the Trojan asteroids.

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To help scientists figure out what's been
 happening since our Solar System formed.

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This is L'TES, the thermal
 emission spectrometer,

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basically a touchless thermometer.

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It will measure the temperatures
 on the Trojan asteroids' surfaces

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to tell scientists
 whether the surfaces are rocky or dusty.

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Lastly, you couldn't get the job done
 without your tracking cameras

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or the T2CAMS to make sure
 the asteroids are always in view

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and the high gain antenna
 that lets you communicate with Earth.

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The scientists back at home
 will use your radio signals

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to measure the mass of each
 asteroid as you fly past it.

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Right, Lucy!

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How could I forget?

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You also have two huge solar panels

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to give you electrical power
 as you fly out to the Trojan asteroids.

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Farther from the Sun
 than any previous solar powered mission.

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00:32:57,775 --> 00:33:01,713
Just a bit longer
 now before you get to your first target.

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Rest up and get ready to put
 all of those instruments to good use.

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00:33:06,117 --> 00:33:10,621
I'll check back in with you once you
 make it out to your first Trojan asteroid.

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00:33:10,621 --> 00:33:13,758
♪♪♪

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00:33:13,758 --> 00:33:18,763
"An excerpt from What Is Your Favorite Hubble Image?"
Paul Morris, Producer

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♪♪♪

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00:33:19,731 --> 00:33:27,638
"We asked NASA scientists and astronauts...'What is your favorite Hubble image?'"

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00:33:29,774 --> 00:33:38,850
Hi, my name is Paul Morris, and I'm a video\h
producer for the Hubble Space Telescope.

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00:33:38,850 --> 00:33:43,888
Over the years, I've had the amazing opportunity\h
to interview some of the brightest minds in\h\h

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00:33:43,888 --> 00:33:50,762
astrophysics, and some of the coolest astronauts\h
and people in the world. As a rule, I always ask\h\h

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00:33:50,762 --> 00:33:55,733
every single person this one question. Every.\h
Single. Time.

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00:33:55,733 --> 00:33:58,703
This is the cliche question,\h\h

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00:33:58,703 --> 00:34:00,571
but what's your favorite Hubble image?\h
Oh, what is my favorite Hubble image? Ah.\h\h