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so in the last few years we've all seen
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these marvelous videos of rocket
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boosters returning on their own to the
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Launchpad I thought I'd spend a minute
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explaining what's going on there and why
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for decades we'd launch rockets and the
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rocket boosters these are stages of the
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rocket that are filled entirely with
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fuel when they are spent there's no need
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for the rest of the rocket system
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to continue to drag it to its
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destination and in the United States our
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preeminent launch location is Florida
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and we launch East in the same direction
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that Earth rotates and that way we have
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extra speed endowed by the rotating
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Earth in order to get to orbit what are
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you over after you launch from Florida
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you're over the Atlantic Ocean so you
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just drop the boosters in the ocean and
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keep going it would just be garbage at
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the bottom of the ocean
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okay so hang on a
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sec there we
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go there we go the actual space shuttle
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system doesn't have a stick coming out
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its butt here ignore this okay so back
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when we launched the space shuttle
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notice there are three fuel tanks these
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are the solid rocket boosters the one on
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the side has solid fuel when it ignites
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this thing takes off the big tank has
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liquid fuel that you can throttle the
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large tank grants you the control you
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want accessing orbit the solid rocket
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boosters get you off the ground I mean
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all three engines will do that but
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liquid fuel is actually turned on before
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the count gets to zero that's the first
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set of flames you see but nothing's
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going anywhere yet until the solid
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rocket boosters kick in these were in
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fact recycled they were hauled out of
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the ocean and dragged back to Utah where
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they were made and they're refilled with
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the next round of solid rocket fuel so
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those were reused but not with the
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spectacular
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site of them returning to the Launchpad
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all right so here's what's going on what
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SpaceX has done is rather than exhaust
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the booster and have it drop into the
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ocean we have to ship it out of the
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water the booster has left over fuel the
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booster is launched with fuel that is
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not used during the launch that fuel has
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weight by the way not only that the
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boosters have tripods that un fold
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enabling it to land solidly on the
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surface that you choose and it has
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whatever avionics and whatever
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GPS system so that wherever it detaches
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from the main engine it can find its way
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back to the pad you don't have a person
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there with a joystick doing that
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computers do this we can ask what is the
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weight of the extra fuel what is the
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weight of the tripod that's weight that
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could have been used for the payload
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but it's not so anytime you're going to
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return a booster back to the
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Launchpad you are forfeiting some amount
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of weight of what would otherwise go in
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the fairing of your rocket and the
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fairing is the nose section that
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contains whatever it is you're launching
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into space that's an interesting
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trade-off if the access to space is so
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cheap and you need to put more payload
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then you just launch another rocket if
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it's that cheap just do it that way
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nothing wrong with that so now here's a
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couple of interesting facts the Europa
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Clipper Mission the spacecraft that's
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going to Jupiter orbit Jupiter and take
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these Loops that come close to the
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surface of Jupiter's moon Europa to look
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for life especially beneath the surface
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they have certain ice penetrating radar
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because beneath that icy surface is an
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ocean of liquid water there's more
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liquid water on your than there is in
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the oceans of the earth and as far as we
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can determine life on Earth began in our
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oceans anyhow that spacecraft was so
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heavy that the boosters could not afford
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the extra Fuel and the tripod so those
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two rocket boosters did not come back
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they gave their lives for science but if
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you look at their launch record they
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each had been used many times before
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what better way to retire them than to
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put them on their last mission which
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which will take a space probe to Jupiter
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and then descend into the Atlantic if I
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got to go out take me out that way so
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the value of reusing rocket Parts cannot
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be overstated if you were to fly on a
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747 from the United States to Europe and
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every time you did that they took the
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plane and shoved it off a cliff and
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rolled out a brand new one your cost of
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flying to Europe would be thousands of
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times higher every time you did it
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possibly even more you'd be paying
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millions of dollars to fly to Europe
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every time but we reuse the
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airplane yeah in between the engineers
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check it out they kick the tire they
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make sure everything's working you have
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a a a diagnostic list to make sure that
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everything checks out you put it back in
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motion so not only do you want to reuse
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the parts you want to fly them as often
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as you possibly can because as is true
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with most businesses there's the cost of
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the mission itself but then there's the
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cost of the sort of the marching Army
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there's like everybody who's just
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staffed to make it all happen at all
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times that's a constant so the more
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launches you have in a year then you get
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to divide out some of those fixed costs
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and then the cost per Mission drops as a
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result I'm amazed I can even have this
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conversation now because in the 1960s
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and' 7s and '
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80s and '90s none of this was a
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consideration well it sort of was with
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the space shuttle space shuttle says
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let's
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reuse the Orbiter that's the thing that
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looks like a stubby airplane and it was
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reused but it turned out to be really
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expensive to sort of shore it back up to
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usability between launches if we were
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able to use the space shuttle weekly for
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example that would have cut into the
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overall cost of maintaining the program
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and it might have been economical at
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some point but it never turned out that
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way so it was a start I applaud the
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effort to try to make it an affordable
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thing but as is so often the case
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government will do something first and
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then private Enterprise looks over your
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shoulder and say oh how did you do that
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and what are the patents and did it work
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what didn't work and they'll take notes
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and then they'll do it and they'll work
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on it and do it either better or cheaper
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or both so the future of space of the
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routine things we do in space that
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future is surely the purview of Private
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Industry which when you think about it
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it could have happened decades ago but
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the system wasn't sort of designed for
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that and it took acts of Congress to try
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to make sure that at least some of the
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money was deeply invested in private
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Enterprises so that they can participate
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in the way that they have and just to be
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clear NASA has always used private
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Enterprise for its space activities in
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the day Loy Martin marinetta Boeing
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Grumman so all these companies assisted
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NASA but NASA LED that effort NASA said
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we need this build it to our specs and
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that's what they did the future is
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private Enterprise say they want to
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accomplish certain tasks and then the
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government says oh can we hit your ride
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on that or can we use one of your
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Rockets can you help us out so that's
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the future if we want the solar system
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to be our backyard which I kind of want
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I mean why not we're sitting here in a
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cave what is a cave to the rest of the
00:08:03
world it's this little place where you
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feel safe and things are probably
00:08:07
dangerous outside but they're probably
00:08:08
great other things to know and if you
00:08:10
stay in the cave you'll think you're
00:08:11
safe you think you're in a good
00:08:13
situation but you have no idea how far
00:08:16
you can go literally figuratively
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emotionally and
00:08:22
intellectually so welcome to the space
00:08:25
Frontier brought to you by a Spate of
00:08:28
commercial
00:08:30
efforts that are transitioning what in
00:08:34
its day was a space program into a space
00:08:37
industry and that's what's up with that
00:08:40
till next time keep looking up every few
00:08:44
months a new headline warns of an
00:08:46
asteroid on a collision course with
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Earth but how real is the risk you'll
00:08:51
find somewhat reliable sources
00:08:53
emphasizing the asteroids magnitude and
00:08:56
which countries might be spared while
00:08:58
other highly credible sources reassure
00:09:00
us there's a 98% chance we'll be fine
00:09:04
exaggerated language selective Framing
00:09:06
and misleading urgency make it easy for
00:09:09
science reporting to Veer into
00:09:10
sensationalism the result more clicks
00:09:13
more panic and less actual understanding
00:09:17
and that's what makes our partners at
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Ground use so different they're an
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independent app and website founded by a
00:09:23
former NASA engineer who brought the
00:09:25
same level of precision she needed up in
00:09:27
space to how we canum information here
00:09:30
on Earth I can compare coverage from
00:09:33
NASA nature and more with data on each
00:09:36
Outlet's biases and credibility I can
00:09:39
even see which stories might be missing
00:09:41
from my media bubble to ensure I'm
00:09:43
forming conclusions based on the full
00:09:45
picture and if I really want a deeper
00:09:47
dive in no time at all their daily
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briefings analyze the dozens of sources
00:09:52
covering this issue for us ground news
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breaks down the facts what every Outlet
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[Music]
