Something Old and Something New: Exciting Research on the International Space Station

Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science

The Planetary Society

Technology, Science

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 11 July 2018

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sextants have helped sailors find their way across oceans for centuries. Now one is onboard the International Space Station so that astronauts can learn to find their way across the solar system even if other technologies fail. Reaching the ISS on the same supply mission was the Cold Atom Lab. It may achieve the lowest temperatures in the universe, helping to unlock cosmic secrets. Every naked eye planet is visible! Bruce Betts will tell you where to look in What’s Up. Learn more about all our topics and hear extended interviews: http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/planetary-radio/show/2018/0711-2018-sextant-and-cold-atom-lab-on-iss.htmlLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Something very old and something cutting edge new this week on planetary radio.
0:10.0	Welcome, I'm at Kaplan of the Planetary Society with more of a human adventure across our solar system and beyond.
0:17.0	The Sextant, it has been helping sailors find their way across trestent that those ancient mariners would recognize
0:28.8	has just gone to the International Space Station.
0:32.0	And in the same cargo hold was a laboratory that will
0:35.0	enable us to investigate as never before the strange properties of atoms when
0:40.4	they are as cold as they can get.
0:43.0	Just some of the science going on a few hundred kilometers over your head.
0:47.0	All our other regulars have the week off.
0:50.0	Oh, not Bruce Betts. He'll be by to tell us about a truly magnificent night sky, and we'll learn the name of his former band.
0:58.0	There's still a lot waiting for you at planetary.org, including a wonderful collection of asteroids, metal asteroids,
1:05.4	sitting on the surface of Mars. They're in a blog post from guestwriter
1:09.6	Linda Martel. Greg Holt works at the Johnson Space Center outside Houston, Texas, where he is the
1:16.2	Orion multi-purpose crew navigation lead. Want to know where you are in space and how to get to that moving spec of light ahead of you?
1:25.0	Then Greg's your guy.
1:27.0	He's also, though, the principal investigator for a project that has just put a sextant on the ISS. Simply put, this ancient instrument allows a trained operator
1:37.0	to very precisely determine the angle between one object, let's say the horizon, and another, maybe the moon, sun, a planet, or a distant
1:45.9	star. Knowing that angle can be the key to knowing where you are, whether you're in the middle
1:51.0	of the Pacific Ocean or on a spaceship that is halfway to
1:54.2	Mars.
1:55.2	Greg Holt, great to talk to you down there at the Johnson Space Center.
1:58.4	Thank you for joining us on planetary radio.
	...

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