Sailing to an Asteroid on the Light of the Sun

Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science

The Planetary Society

Technology, Science

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 24 October 2018

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

LightSail 2 is not the only solar sail in the universe. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the Jet Propulsion Lab are preparing to send NEA Scout on a long, light-propelled journey to a near Earth asteroid. Principal Investigator Les Johnson shares his excitement about this interplanetary cubesat. Emily Lakdawalla reports in from southern France following the successful start of the BepiColombo mission to Mercury. Don’t know a primorial from a primordial? No worries. Bruce Betts will throw both into the soup as he ladles out a new space trivia contest. Learn more at: http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/planetary-radio/show/2018/1024-2018-les-johnson-nea-scout.html Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Transcript

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0:00.0	A new Solar Sail Takes Wing this week on planetary radio.
0:09.0	Welcome, I'm at Kaplan of the Planetary Society with more of the human adventure across our
0:14.9	solar system and beyond. I bet you think I'm referring to LightSail 2.
0:19.4	Ha! Not this time loyal subjects. We'll spend time today with Les Johnson, principal investigator
0:26.2	for NEA Scout, a solar sail that will leave Earth on the first space launch system rocket.
0:32.9	Propelled by light, it will set out for a near-Earth asteroid.
0:37.4	Are you a math fan who has been hoping for a more numerological space trivia quiz from Bruce Betts, your dreams come true on this
0:45.3	week's What's Up.
0:46.8	We start with a visit to France.
0:48.9	That's where our senior editor Emily Lochuala reports from on her mobile phone.
0:53.4	Emily, where exactly are you in France and what have you been up to?
0:57.0	I'm in the southern France City of Toulouse where I have just spent a day visiting
1:01.8	Canes, a French National Space Agency, and seen all kinds of projects
1:06.4	both in Earth orbit and beyond and preparing for orbiting Earth pretty soon as well.
1:13.0	Very exciting and you got a chance to speak there as well?
1:15.7	I did.
1:16.6	Every time I visit a research institution or a space agency I always give my presentation
1:21.6	about how amateur imagers, amateur image processors all around the
1:26.1	world are ready and waiting to work with space image data to make beautiful photos that will
1:31.4	help space agencies promote their mission.
1:34.0	More evidence of why we call you among other things the planetary evangelist.
1:39.0	Let's turn to your October 22nd blog post at planetary.org about Beppy Colombo which has gotten off to a good start.
	...

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