Ep. 655: 65 Years of Space: Sputnik 1 Anniversary (2)
And then he was murdered, assassinated. And that ads an extra willpower to something. So, there was the – we're going to do this because we're going to show the world how hard we work, how creative we are, and how well we can engineer things. And we're gonna do it for this guy who was assassinated in his honor. And all of those emotions make it so easy sometimes in the grand scheme of hard to accomplish masterful things. And I don't think we've had that combination of emotion and desire to prove who we are since then.
With its completely new technology, its completely new way of doing things, the shuttle program in a lot of ways showed the world, hey, we're not just gonna fly rockets. We gonna fly space planes. And the Soviets – they tried. And one of the greatest sadnesses of the past decade is the warehouse where they were storing the Buran, the roof collapsed right on top of the spacecraft. It breaks my heart that this spacecraft never made it into the museum it belonged in.
Fraser: Yeah, no kidding.
Dr. Gay: And now we're trying to prove without the emotional drive in a lot of ways that we can get back to the moon. And it's become not a passion project because I really think the space race was a passion project.
Fraser: 100% agree.
Dr. Gay: It has now become – we have to complete this workbook that was assigned to us.
Fraser: Are you talking about the space shuttle? Or are you talking about space flight now?
Dr. Gay: I'm talking about the SLS that is currently roving very slowly to escape a hurricane.
Fraser: Right.
Dr. Gay: I feel like our new – you have to make it back to the moon by 2024, which we're not gonna do – it has really taken on the emotional energy of I've been assigned a workbook to complete. And that just creates a completely different energy around something.
Fraser: But, Sputnik was un-crewed. It was just a robotic spacecraft. And if there's one part of this industry has that grown dramatically, it is robotic spacecraft.
Dr. Gay: Yes.
Fraser: I am using Starlink right now to communicate with you. So, I am depending on a robotic spacecraft to carry my images and audio to you. But there are weather satellites, communication satellites, military satellites, navigation satellites, space telescopes. There are thousands and thousands of these devices orbiting the planet making our lives better.
Dr. Gay: And what really gets me is that first Sputnik, like I said, was something I could pick up and walk away being just 23 inches in diameter. My hands are off screen. So, right off screen would be 23 inches. It would be considered a CubeSat basically today. And it was transmitting in two frequencies. It did it for a couple of months. Drag caused it to fall back through the atmosphere. It was a CubeSat.
And today on similar CubeSats we can pack so much more information. And to see us go from launching little tiny things to launching huge things capable of all sorts of things to, again, launching little tiny things, it's fun to see how in a lot of ways we've really gone full circle in the kinds of stuff we're putting into space.
Fraser: There was a paper I was reading or an essay I was reading today. And the guy made the point. He said that if people want it and it doesn't break the laws of physics, then it's probably inevitable. And being able to communicate to any other human being on Earth from anywhere on Earth is the kind of thing that we want. It doesn't break the laws of physics. Therefore, it's probably inevitable.
Dr. Gay: Right.
Fraser: And we are seeing this as imagined in Star Trek when they pop out their little communication device and communicate with each other. That's the path that we're moving, to be able to know where we are, to communicate, to know the weather, to study the planet, to study the universe.
Dr. Gay: And Sputnik started out on a 65-degree inclination orbit, which means that if you have our planet, its orbit was going from +65 north to +65 south every time it went around the planet in about 100 minutes. And because it was going around the planet in 100 minutes, each 65-degree orbit passed over a different part of our planet. And it was able to pass over pretty much every single human in our world.
So, there was no one who didn't get to be part of this experience. And today we're filling that same kind of inclination orbit with Starlinks so that everyone can have a chance to use it. So, to see the similarities between these projects is something that just brings me to light.
Fraser: And every astronomer, no matter where they are, they can't run. They can have their skies ruined by Starlink.
Dr. Gay: Yes, this is true. I cannot deny this.
Fraser: So, this is the world that we find ourselves in. Now what do you think of the ripples as they continue on? Do you think that this story will remain as important in terms of space exploration legend, both Sputnik and the space race?
It was before our time. So, we don't know what it felt like. But I'm sure some people who are listening or watching have this visceral response of what it was like to know, to go from a time when there were no artificial satellites to a time there were artificial satellites. Do you think that that legend will carry on into the future?
Dr. Gay: I think the legend will hit in different ways for different people. One of the things that made me feel like I had a role model – and role models really matter; representation really matters – I have this extremely strong memory in ninth grade being in the backseat of the car with my then boyfriend. And we were both nerds. And we were reading Timothy Ferris' Coming of Age in the Milky Way book. He lived on Cape Cod. I lived in Northern Massachusetts. We were driving him home. We met at Space Camp.
Fraser: That is the ultimate nerd. Oh my god.
Dr. Gay: Yeah. And we were both reading. And we hit the part in the book Coming of age in the Milky Way where it talked about the Harvard college women and the amazing work they did figuring out how to measure distances in space using our [inaudible], figuring out the spectra of stars relate to the temperature of stars. All of these amazing things that were done by women who society otherwise cast out because they either had physical issues, hearing, or they were too smart to find a husband, which was a thing at the time.
And when you're a nerd with the last name Gay, life is kinda hard in the 80s. And sitting there reading about these women who overcame all the societal, yeah, we have no need for you issues, to make these amazing discoveries in the universe. That was life changing for me.
And I think that Homer Hickam's books that he's written – I think all of the books that have been written about rocket history by so many different people are going to someday cause some other eight-grader probably sitting in an electric vehicle where you don't worry about the backseat because it's self-driving. So, you're both in the front seat sharing, reading the book, and your parents don't have to be with you.
That's a weird future, but we're headed there. I can imagine those kids reading the story of how Sputnik inspired an entire generation and seeing themselves represented in that coalminer's village and deciding I too can build rockets. And that's powerful.
Fraser: All right. Well, we've reached the end of our episode. So, happy birthday Sputnik 1. Congratulations to the giant standing on the shoulders of giants standing on the shoulders of giants that got us to this modern spaceflight realm that we find ourselves in. Thanks, Pamela. And we'll see you next week.
Dr. Gay: Thank you, Fraser. And thank you to all of our patrons on patreon.com/astronomycast. I know times are tough. I've seen people having to give up their Patreon accounts. And I've reached to a few basically to say, “Hey, are you okay? Because you've been around for years.” Times are tough. And I'm so grateful to all of you who are still here.
I would like to thank Gabriel Gauffin, Dean, Sean Martz, John Drake, Roland Warmerdam, Sam Brooks and his Mom, john öiseth, Corinne Dmitruk. Oh, no. They put a pronunciation guide in there. Thank you.
Fraser: Nice.
Dr. Gay: I'd like to thank Naila, Bart Flaherty, Connor, The Air Major, Brian Kilby, Lew Zealand, Arcticfox, Jordan Turner, Leigh Harborne, Jason Kardokus, PAPA1062, Robert Hundl, Kim Barron, Vitaly, Paul Esposito, Arthur, Latz-Hall, Frank Stuart, Ganesh Swaminathan, Bob Zatzke, Nate Detwiler, Ruben McCarthy, Ron Thorrsen, Timelord Iroh, Daniel Donaldson, Ian Abdilla, and Geoff MacDonald.
If you too would like to be part of our Patreon community and have me potentially mispronounce your name in hopefully amusing ways, go to patreon.com/astronomycast. And your patronage allows us to pay the small fleet of people who are going to suffer through editing this episode that was interrupted by so many random dudes in my driveway causing me to be slightly creeped out.
Fraser: And the dogs.
Dr. Gay: Thank you. And the dogs.
Fraser: Thanks, everyone. We'll see you next week.
Dr. Gay: Bye-bye.
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