Transcript: February Week 3

PAUL
Welcome to Idaho Skies on Radio Boise. This is the third week of February. We’re your hosts, Paul..

RACHEL
..Rachel..

KRIS
..And Kris

PAUL
How many of our listeners remember astronaut John Glenn?

KRIS
His first trip into space took place 45 years ago on the 20th.

RACHEL
For our younger listeners, John Glenn was the first American astronaut to orbit the earth.

PAUL
Didn’t the United States did launch two astronauts before Glenn?

KRIS
Yes. They were Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom.

RACHEL
But their Mercury spacecraft were launched by the Redstone booster, a rocket too weak to put them into orbit.

KRIS
So instead of going into orbit, they made 15 minute suborbital hops.

RACHEL
For John Glenn’s launch, the Redstone was replaced with the more powerful Atlas missile.

KRIS
The Atlas had the power to put the Mercury spacecraft into a 160 mile high orbit.

PAUL
Did you know John Glenn’s Mercury spacecraft was named Friendship 7?

RACHEL
Each Mercury spacecraft had a name that included a seven. That was to indicate that it took all seven astronauts to make the Mercury project a success.

KRIS
For John Glenn, all three of his orbits were uneventful.

RACHEL
But not on earth. At Mission Control, an indicator light for heat shield release lit up.

KRIS
The Mercury heat shield was held to the bottom of the spacecraft with clamps. And below the heat shield was the retro pack, a small rocket engine that slowed the Mercury capsule down for reentry.

RACHEL
Then just before splash down, the heat shield was released. This allowed it to act as part of a landing bag to cushion the astronaut at splash down.

KRIS
John Glenn wouldn’t make a successful splash down if he first didn’t make a successful reentry.

RACHEL
And he wouldn’t make a successful reentry if his heat shield dropped when the retro pack was discarded.

PAUL
So Glenn was told to retain the retro pack after it fired.

KRIS
On earth, Mission Control really believed there was a faulty switch on the Mercury, rather than a heat shield clamp that had come lose.

RACHEL
But to make sure, the retro pack was not jettisoned after it slowed the Mercury down. That way its three straps would hold the heat shield in place until well into reentry.

KRIS
By then, aerodynamic forces would probably keep the heat shield firmly in place on the base of the Mercury.

RACHEL
As it turned out, ground control was right, the switch was faulty and Glenn safely recovered in the Atlantic after a five hour flight.

PAUL
It’s been twenty years since the supernova SN1987A was discovered.

KRIS
On February 23rd, 1987, SN1987A, the closest supernova to earth since the invention of the telescope, was discovered in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

RACHEL
The Large Magellanic Cloud is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way that’s 168 thousand light years away.

KRIS
So while we saw the supernova in 1987, it really exploded in 166 thousand BC.

PAUL
Astronomers didn’t study just the light of SN1987A.

RACHEL
That’s right. Neutrino detectors buried underground detected 25 neutrinos from the explosion. This was the birth of neutrino astronomy.

KRIS
Neutrinos are very light weight subatomic particles that carry no charge.

RACHEL
They’re formed when the collapsing core of a supernova squeezes protons and electrons into neutrons.

KRIS
Because they are so light and neutral, neutrinos can escape a supernova before the light of the explosion.

RACHEL
Perhaps a neutrino detector will give us advanced warning of the next supernova. KRISThat’s Idaho Skies for the third week of February. Next week’s show is a little bit of Pluto, Venus, and Saturn.

For Idaho Skies this is Kris…

PAUL
..Paul..

RACHEL
.. and Rachel.