NASA Administrator, California Wildfires, Lichens. March 8, 2019, Part 1

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🗓️ 8 March 2019

⏱️ 47 minutes

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Summary

On December 14, 1972, as Apollo 17 astronaut Eugene Cernan prepared to board the lunar module, he gave one last dispatch from the lunar surface. And yet, 47 years later, humankind has not set another foot on the lunar surface. But now, NASA’s ready to return, with the Moon to Mars program. NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine joins Ira in this segment to talk about the agency's ambitions beyond Earth, the role of commercial space companies in getting us there, and why he thinks plant science is "critical" to NASA. Plus: There aren’t very many old-growth forest left in North America. And while it would be wonderful to be able to preserve all of them, resources to protect those forest patches are also in limited supply. So if you’re forced to choose between two areas of old-growth forest, how do you prioritize which of these islands of biodiversity to focus on? A new study suggests to look at the lichens. Troy McMullin, a research scientist in lichenology at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, Ontario, joins Ira to talk about the stories lichens can tell about the forest ecosystem. California has been experiencing its wettest winter in decades. That’s good news in a state that has chronic water management issues and what feels like only recently recovered from a devastating multi year drought. The bad news? Researchers say that thanks to climate change and forest management practices, a wet winter like this one will no longer make a difference come next year’s wildfire season.Valerie Trouet, Associate Professor of Dendrochronology at the University of Arizona, tells us more. And Amy Nordrum of IEEE Spectrum tells Ira about a SpaceX "crew" visiting the International Space Station and other top science headlines in this week's News Roundup.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Science Friday. I'm Ira Flato. Later in the hour, NASA Chief Jim Bridenstein is here to answer your questions about NASA and the future of American spaceflight. Do you have a topic? You have something you want to talk about? You make the call. But only if you make the call, our number 844-724-8-24-Sight-2-5-844 SciTalk, or you can tweet us at SciFry.
0:22.8	But first, in other space news, commercial spaceflight is having a good week this week
0:28.4	after private company SpaceX automatically docked its crew dragon capsule with the International
0:34.9	Space Station, and this morning it splashed down safely in the the Atlantic Ocean. He'll tell us more about the story, plus other short subjects in science. Amy Nordrum, news editor for the I-Triple-E Spectrum. Always good to see, Amy. Thanks, Sarah. So let's talk about this. Sounds like an exciting week for SpaceX. It was. This was actually a very fun story to follow.
0:55.3	NASA is eager to come up with a new U.S. made vessel to transport astronauts and even potentially space tourists to and from the space station.
1:04.0	The space shuttle program ended in 2011.
1:06.2	Since then, we've been relying on Russian-built capsules and rockets to transport people to and from.
1:11.3	So NASA has awarded almost $7 billion to both SpaceX and Boeing to develop their own
1:17.5	rockets and crew capsules to transport to and from.
1:21.2	And this was one of the first tests of the system that went all the way to the space station,
1:25.6	successfully docked and then returned.
1:27.4	This is just the first step. Boeing will be testing its own capsule, which it calls Starliner.
1:32.3	No later than April, NASA says.
1:34.3	And then they'll continue on with actual crude tests where they will have astronauts in these
1:39.3	vessels and these capsules, rocketing up to the space station and then returning home.
1:44.4	And those are also expected to take place for both companies this year.
1:47.1	How did they know that this capsule was safe for human beings?
1:50.5	Well, that's what they're testing in this particular demonstration.
1:53.0	So they had an astronaut dummy named Ripley strapped in to the seat that one astronaut or space
1:59.5	tourists could soon occupy.
2:01.8	There are four seats in the SpaceX capsule, and Ripley was in one of them.
2:06.1	This dummy is equipped with all kinds of different sensors.
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