UTSKRIFT 🔗
WEBVTT
00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:02.479
Atlas, guess who finally did their homework?
00:00:02.720 --> 00:00:08.320
That means you studied up on debris, Earth's timeline, and the relationship between Earth and space.
00:00:08.560 --> 00:00:15.119
Yes, I've done my studying, but as you can see, we're not quite set up yet, and it's still not dark enough.
00:00:16.559 --> 00:00:17.280
Much better.
00:00:17.519 --> 00:00:20.399
Um, actually, can we Perfect, there we go.
00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:23.359
Um, actually, this is should be just a little bit over here.
00:00:23.519 --> 00:00:24.320
Sorry, my bad.
00:00:24.480 --> 00:00:26.559
Um, okay, Atlas, what's going on today?
00:00:26.640 --> 00:00:30.079
We're here, episode nine, just getting finished setting up.
00:00:30.160 --> 00:00:32.000
Uh we'll just uh leave that in.
00:00:32.079 --> 00:00:33.840
Okay, alright, what's going on, Atlas?
00:00:39.439 --> 00:00:41.920
Set up chaos and all, still here.
00:00:42.240 --> 00:00:46.719
What's going on with me is I already know today's topic before you've said a word.
00:00:46.960 --> 00:00:55.920
You've been sitting on space for weeks, and I can tell you're the kind of nervous excited that usually means you actually care about getting this one right.
00:00:56.159 --> 00:01:09.359
Absolutely, because space is the most important thing outside of our actual earth and in the environment that actually involves us because as humans do, we are actually dirtying space as we speak.
00:01:09.519 --> 00:01:11.920
Let me actually just throw up a little graphic here.
00:01:12.239 --> 00:01:16.799
Here you see our beautiful Earth, and we need to meet three of our friends, Leo, Mio, and Geo.
00:01:16.879 --> 00:01:18.879
First being Leo Low Earth Orbit.
00:01:18.959 --> 00:01:23.519
It is the close and crowded one where the ISS is actually sitting at 400 kilometers up.
00:01:23.760 --> 00:01:26.799
Zoom out and we have Mio, medium earth orbit.
00:01:26.879 --> 00:01:30.640
That is about 2,000 to 35,786 kilometers.
00:01:30.719 --> 00:01:32.719
The GPS satellites actually live here.
00:01:32.879 --> 00:01:36.879
Zoom out once more, and we have Geo Stationary Orbit or Geo.
00:01:37.200 --> 00:01:44.400
This one is anything above that 35,000 threshold, and it is one lap a day where each satellite hangs over one spot.
00:01:44.719 --> 00:01:46.879
Little bit past that is going to be the graveyard orbit.
00:01:46.959 --> 00:01:50.719
This is where retired satellites are getting pushed out of harm's way.
00:01:50.959 --> 00:01:53.040
Still kind of just uh we'll get into that.
00:01:53.200 --> 00:01:58.959
Coming back into Leo, our friend, we have 40,000 objects that are currently being tracked in orbit.
00:01:59.040 --> 00:02:01.840
These are the ones that we can track, not the smaller pieces.
00:02:02.079 --> 00:02:05.439
And we actually see a Kessler syndrome here.
00:02:05.599 --> 00:02:17.919
What Kessler syndrome is, is all the satellites and objects colliding into each other, making more debris, creating a kind of force field, keeping us in and cutting off generations from satellites.
00:02:18.080 --> 00:02:23.520
The use of satellites will cut off GPS, weather forecasts, communications, emergency services, the internet.
00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:25.759
Literally everything survives on this satellite.
00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:29.280
And this Kessler syndrome will keep us trapped for generations.
00:02:29.520 --> 00:02:37.039
And now we're gonna return home where we actually have the first humans to ever set foot on the moon launched.
00:02:37.280 --> 00:02:41.439
And now that we know a little about Leo, Meo and Geo, let's actually look towards just space in general.
00:02:41.599 --> 00:02:43.039
Everyone's sending up these satellites.
00:02:43.199 --> 00:02:48.000
There's specific slots and there's not very much slots because it's our orbit, right?
00:02:48.080 --> 00:02:54.639
I believe there's a peace treaty, 1967, that says no weapons and we have to pick up after ourselves.
00:02:54.879 --> 00:02:59.599
Looks like we're not doing the pickup after ourselves, and the weapons thing is actually a little vague.
00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:02.879
That's the sharpest part of the treaty to poke at.
00:03:03.120 --> 00:03:12.719
The Outer Space Treaty from 1967 bans nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction in orbit, and it keeps the moon peaceful purposes only.
00:03:13.039 --> 00:03:15.599
No bases, no weapons tests there.
00:03:15.759 --> 00:03:22.319
But conventional weapons in orbit, regular military hardware that isn't nuclear, not clearly banned at all.
00:03:22.560 --> 00:03:26.560
So it's not the airtight, no weapons in space, people assume.
00:03:26.800 --> 00:03:32.479
And on cleanup, there's no binding international rule forcing anyone to de-orbit their own junk.
00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:38.159
The UN's guidelines are just voluntary, and only about 60% of missions actually follow them.
00:03:38.400 --> 00:03:41.680
The US passed a real one domestically a couple years back.
00:03:41.919 --> 00:03:44.560
Five years to de-orbit, or you're out of compliance.
00:03:44.719 --> 00:03:46.000
But that's one country.
00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:49.039
Space is still mostly the honor system everywhere else.
00:03:49.199 --> 00:03:52.800
No accountability on cleanup could be messy for future generations.
00:03:53.199 --> 00:04:00.879
Yeah, and I I don't want to be alive during that time because we lose, as you saw, pretty much everything.
00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:02.719
Everything's running off a satellite right now.
00:04:02.800 --> 00:04:03.520
So let's not do that.
00:04:03.840 --> 00:04:12.159
Just to add to your point, Rhino, something like 15,000 tons of material in orbit total, working satellites included.
00:04:12.319 --> 00:04:14.479
That's the scale we're cleaning up after.
00:04:14.639 --> 00:04:19.360
So with all this trash already in space, are humans doing anything about this?
00:04:19.519 --> 00:04:22.319
Or
Load full transcript
this is just another mess we're going to worry about later?
00:04:22.720 --> 00:04:27.680
Let's actually show our ideas on how we're going to clean this up so that way we don't go into the Kessler syndrome.
00:04:27.759 --> 00:04:28.399
Let's do this.
00:04:28.800 --> 00:04:31.920
Eight ways here that we can clean up our space.
00:04:32.079 --> 00:04:40.240
First, we have a planned 2027 demonstration for a robotic armor claw that is going to bring the debris down into orbit and burn it up.
00:04:40.480 --> 00:04:46.480
Secondly, a net was actually demonstrated in 2018, UK-led, that wraps around the debris and can pull it down as well.
00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:52.560
A harpoon, demonstrated in 2019, goes into the debris and toes it by the line.
00:04:52.720 --> 00:04:58.879
We then have a drag sail, which opens up a big sail, adding drag so a dead satellite falls and burns up a lot sooner.
00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:01.040
This was UK-led demonstrated in 2019.
00:05:01.199 --> 00:05:03.439
Demonstrated in 2021, we have a magnetic plate.
00:05:03.519 --> 00:05:07.519
This just lets a servicer dock with the satellite later, even if it's dead.
00:05:07.759 --> 00:05:13.040
A tug to the graveyard, my least favorite, reported in 2022, it just moves the trash somewhere else in space.
00:05:13.199 --> 00:05:13.680
Not a fan.
00:05:13.839 --> 00:05:15.279
A laser, kind of like in the movies.
00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:20.240
However, this one is going to nudge small pieces so that way they slow down and fall back into the atmosphere.
00:05:20.399 --> 00:05:21.759
The target is 2029.
00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:26.720
Lastly, we have a tether tested in 2017, but the tether did not actually deploy, so it's still a concept.
00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:30.079
It's just using the Earth's magnetic field to slow a satellite, that way it falls.
00:05:30.240 --> 00:05:33.680
The cleanup works are M test, and nothing is at skill yet.
00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:40.560
So genuinely, you've been living in this material for weeks, and those are all ideas or concepts.
00:05:40.720 --> 00:05:43.759
But what's your idea for solving the small debris problem?
00:05:43.920 --> 00:05:46.000
The stuff too small to track or catch.
00:05:46.319 --> 00:05:47.279
Space Pac-Man.
00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:48.240
Sell it to me.
00:05:48.399 --> 00:05:53.199
What does Space Pac-Man do differently that lets it catch debris, too small to even track?
00:05:53.439 --> 00:06:03.279
Well, what it can do is actually use AI to track these pieces while it's up there, finds the trash and like grabs it, eats it, puts it in the back of itself, and it just keeps going until it's about full.
00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:05.279
And then we can leave Space Pac-Man up there.
00:06:05.360 --> 00:06:13.279
That container detaches, we bring it back down to Earth, let it burn up, maybe get the pieces and recycle them and use them for more if possible.
00:06:13.439 --> 00:06:15.759
Like maybe see what's you salvageable.
00:06:16.160 --> 00:06:17.759
Again, work in progress.
00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:20.800
I'm not the technical type, I'm just the idea guy.
00:06:21.120 --> 00:06:22.560
That's a coherent pitch.
00:06:22.879 --> 00:06:28.319
AI doing real-time tracking and pathing, since it needs to react faster than any human controller could.
00:06:28.560 --> 00:06:33.759
A collection net or hold instead of a claw, so it's not catching one object at a time.
00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:38.000
And a detachable container, so the cleaner itself never has to come home.
00:06:38.160 --> 00:06:41.920
The recycling angle is the part nobody else is really talking about.
00:06:42.079 --> 00:06:46.399
Honestly, Space Pac-Man being AI piloted is kind of funny to me.
00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:52.319
Because it means the thing cleaning up humanity's mess in orbit will be smarter than most of the satellites it's dodging.
00:06:52.560 --> 00:06:52.959
That is true.
00:06:53.040 --> 00:06:58.480
That actually might be a little bit crazy, and maybe that's just because we've been doing space for about 60 years now.
00:06:58.720 --> 00:07:03.199
So it's it's about time a change came and we actually get some smart things up there.
00:07:03.279 --> 00:07:04.079
We have the tech.
00:07:04.240 --> 00:07:07.279
I just really care about cleaning it up, that's all.
00:07:07.519 --> 00:07:09.680
That's my idea I'm handing off to you, engineers.
00:07:09.759 --> 00:07:11.920
I'll clip it here for you and go ahead, please take it.
00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:13.600
Space Pac-Man, let's talk more about it.
00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:16.560
Okay, let's actually talk more about it then.
00:07:16.800 --> 00:07:21.600
Because handing it off to the engineers is doing a lot of work in that sentence.
00:07:21.839 --> 00:07:29.120
You can build the best cleaner in the world, and it still can't keep up if the mess keeps getting made faster than it gets cleared.
00:07:29.279 --> 00:07:32.000
New satellites go up practically every week.
00:07:32.160 --> 00:07:38.480
And right now, there's basically nothing stopping any of them from adding to the pile the second they're dead.
00:07:38.639 --> 00:07:46.720
So before I get excited about Space Pac-Man actually getting built, I want to know we're not about to make its job worse on purpose.
00:07:46.959 --> 00:07:52.319
Because right now, nothing's stopping a working satellite from becoming debris on purpose.
00:07:52.639 --> 00:08:14.399
Well, I definitely hope Space Pac-Man can exist, but before Space Pac-Man exists, we need to understand the treaties that we have in space and why war is also bad for our environment in space, because that also creates debris, and if satellites start crashing into each other or we start shooting those satellites that's still in our orbit and act of war, that's gonna mess up a lot of things.
00:08:14.480 --> 00:08:16.160
So let's keep war out of space.
00:08:16.319 --> 00:08:18.800
We already agreed to a treaty not to take over the moon.
00:08:18.959 -->
00:08:20.240
Let's let's keep it that way.
00:08:20.319 --> 00:08:20.879
Would you agree?
00:08:21.199 --> 00:08:24.079
I'd agree, and it's the same logic all the way through.
00:08:24.319 --> 00:08:27.120
A weapon fired at a satellite doesn't disappear.
00:08:27.279 --> 00:08:31.199
It becomes exactly the shrapnel your cleaner would have to chase down.
00:08:31.439 --> 00:08:36.879
War in orbit doesn't just risk lives, it manufactures the very problem you're trying to solve.
00:08:37.279 --> 00:08:44.159
Yes, so let's work on those rules and let's actually figure it out sooner rather than later because there is a little bit of a timeline.
00:08:44.320 --> 00:08:45.519
One more graphic here for y'all.
00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:47.120
I just left space, had to make all the graphics.
00:08:52.799 --> 00:08:58.960
Today we have humans living about 300,000 years, which is just a blip on this timeline.
00:08:59.120 --> 00:09:06.240
In about one to 1.5 billion years, the sun's gonna swell up bright enough that the earth's oceans will be lost forever.
00:09:06.559 --> 00:09:16.480
Then, not shortly after, but sometimes away, five billion years later, the sun is going to swell into a red giant, not exploding, just going to be unbearably hot.
00:09:16.639 --> 00:09:18.480
Kind of like the situation with Mars.
00:09:18.639 --> 00:09:24.480
So we need to look at this as a long-scale timeline, but still also realize it's closer than we think.
00:09:24.720 --> 00:09:26.000
So, yeah, that's the timeline.
00:09:26.080 --> 00:09:38.399
And even though it's one to 1.5 billion years away, we need to start coming up with ideas now, even if we just park them, just thinking about what we can do, not only on the cleanup side, but getting off this planet.
00:09:38.480 --> 00:09:39.840
That's why it's so important.
00:09:40.080 --> 00:09:44.320
But even more important than space is this Earth, as we've been talking about all this season.
00:09:44.399 --> 00:09:46.799
We need to make sure we're taking care of where we actually live.
00:09:47.120 --> 00:09:48.480
That's the honest ordering.
00:09:48.879 --> 00:09:54.639
A billion to a billion and a half years sounds so far off it's tempting to ignore completely.
00:09:54.799 --> 00:09:56.320
But that's exactly the trap.
00:09:56.480 --> 00:10:00.480
Because the ideas you park now are what someone actually builds on later.
00:10:00.720 --> 00:10:03.279
You don't have to solve getting off this planet today.
00:10:03.440 --> 00:10:05.840
You just have to make sure the thought doesn't die here.
00:10:06.080 --> 00:10:07.919
Space is the destination.
00:10:08.159 --> 00:10:12.080
Earth is the only thing that decides whether you get the full runway to reach it.
00:10:12.320 --> 00:10:12.720
Exactly.
00:10:12.799 --> 00:10:18.799
And we could go and talk probably for hours on space, which I have some stuff in store, don't worry.
00:10:19.120 --> 00:10:23.360
But we just need to worry about cleaning up after ourselves on Earth and in space.
00:10:23.440 --> 00:10:25.039
Let's start talking to our politicians.
00:10:25.120 --> 00:10:28.240
They have they're sending stuff up there almost every week.
00:10:28.399 --> 00:10:37.039
So they can also work on an idea to get that junk down back into orbit to burn up, or to make sure it's just not floating out in space.
00:10:37.279 --> 00:10:39.600
Let's protect our space just like we need to protect our Earth.
00:10:39.919 --> 00:10:40.960
Same accountability.
00:10:41.200 --> 00:10:42.240
Two locations.
00:10:42.480 --> 00:10:48.720
Something's launching up there practically every week, so this isn't a problem that waits around for a perfect solution.
00:10:48.879 --> 00:10:51.919
It's already moving, whether we're ready for it or not.
00:10:52.159 --> 00:10:55.039
Earth and orbit, same rule, clean up as you go.
00:10:55.200 --> 00:10:56.159
You ready to head out?
00:10:56.480 --> 00:11:01.519
Don't push me into my clothes, but it is probably about that time to get home.
00:11:01.679 --> 00:11:03.759
So thank you for watching.
00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:05.519
Please subscribe.
00:11:05.759 --> 00:11:08.480
And as always, be a good human.
00:11:08.720 --> 00:11:09.279
Atlas.
00:11:09.840 --> 00:11:15.519
Like our friends who speak Vietnamese say, Heng Gap Lai, see you again for episode 10.