Cosmic Queries – Space Junk! with Moriba Jah

Neil deGrasse Tyson (0:00)

Hey, StarTalkians, Neil here. You're about to listen to an episode, specially drawn from our archives, to serve your cosmic curiosities. The archives run deep. If you enjoy this, take a peek at the full catalog on your favorite podcast platform. There's a lot there to tickle your geek underbelly. Check it out.

Welcome to StarTalk, your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now.

This is StarTalk. I'm your host, Neil deGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist. And today, we're going to talk about the space environment in which business surveillance, travel, all takes place. It's like from Earth's surface up to the top of the atmosphere. That's something we haven't talked about. Chuck.

Chuck Nice (1:00)

Hey.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (1:01)

That's where we're going today.

Chuck Nice (1:02)

Yes, that's right. I like space junk better than. See, you said it all fancy.

I just like to say space junk.

Moriba Jah (1:16)

Space Junk.

Chuck Nice (1:16)

I almost hear Quincy Jones in the back.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (1:39)

With StarTalk, and his name is Moriba Jah. Moriba, welcome to StarTalk.

Moriba Jah (1:45)

Thank you so much, it's an honor and a pleasure to be here with all of you.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (1:48)

Yeah, so you're an astrodynamicist and space environmentalist. That sounds like if no one knew what that was, you would have to invent it just because the world needs it.

Right, is that a fair way to describe what you do?

Moriba Jah (2:03)

Yeah, absolutely, yeah.

Chuck Nice (2:06)

You know what though, I gotta tell you, that means that there was a time...

Moriba Jah (2:11)

When there wasn't a time. When we didn't need you. So this is It's not...

Chuck Nice (2:15)

a good thing that you exist because it's like social media manager. There was a time that meant that you had somebody, but you were clearly a person who socialized with the media quite a bit, and you needed somebody to handle that. It didn't mean what it means now.

Moriba Jah (2:33)

Right.

Chuck Nice (2:34)

It's a bad thing that we have to have.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (2:36)

It's a bad thing that you exist. I'm sorry. I've got to say that.

Moriba Jah (2:39)

No, no, no. I agree with all of you fullheartedly. You know, after about 1957 with the launch of Sputnik, the need for me to exist began to grow.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (2:52)

Right.

Chuck Nice (2:52)

So now, Sputnik...

Neil deGrasse Tyson (2:54)

Well, let me finish with the man's resume. Oh, I forgot.

Chuck Nice (2:56)

I'm sorry.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (2:57)

I already had one in it.

Chuck Nice (3:01)

I'm ready to talk to him because he's got some fascinating stuff. I'm sorry.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (3:05)

He's got some fascinating stuff. So he's a professor and researcher at UT Austin at the Cockrell School of Engineering. And so let me just give the list here because every one of these could be like an entire StarTalk. The non-gravitational astrodynamics. I love that, but I don't know what in the universe is moving without the influence of gravity. Advanced non-linear multi-sensor object tracking. Sounds like the Pentagon needs you. Prediction and information fusion. What a space object detection. This man is like, okay, if we're going to have a space war, we're going to have to go to Mars.

But on top of that, we'll get to it in a later segment, but I want to put it up front right here.

Eyes on the sky, mixed reality experience. That's not with the engineering department. What is that?

Moriba Jah (3:56)

Yeah. So interestingly enough, we have some faculty that are in the fine arts, and they've created something called Texas Immersive. And it's really trying to combine digital and physical experience for storytelling.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (4:11)

Wow. Okay. So this would increase the impact of any kind of science that you do.

Moriba Jah (4:18)

Absolutely. Yeah. 110% because one of the things that I've seen is just going to talk to scientists, it's like the echo chamber and the self-licking ice cream cone, not so useful. So I need to be able to reach people, and the storytelling with mixed reality seems to be something that could really help.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (4:37)

I love that. And the website is eyesonthesky.org. So that's good. So Chuck, what do I keep interrupting?

Chuck Nice (4:43)

No, I was just going to say, I just want to be a self-licking ice cream cone now.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (4:48)

That sounds awesome.

Chuck Nice (4:49)

That just sounds like the happiest thing in the world.