PODCAST HAIL MARY S01E02 - Chapter Two - Death Sun
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Matt: [00:00:00] Hey,
Meghan: hey,
Matt: we're back for episode two.
Meghan: We're back. We're back.
Matt: Can you believe it?
Meghan: How exciting
Matt: your name is?
Meghan: I don't remember.
Matt: Oh, interesting. I, I see what you did there. Well, I'm Matt Waterworth. I'm not a robot holding you.
Meghan: Oh, yeah. I'm Megan Westell major. I just had a flashback right now.
Matt: There
Meghan: you go.
Matt: Nice.
Nice.
Meghan: Yeah.
Matt: Oh,
Meghan: Matt.
Matt: Yes.
Meghan: Question. Mm-hmm. What's your favorite sci-fi movie?
Matt: Oh, favorite sci-fi. Uh, you know, what comes to mind for me on this one is, uh, I mean, contact is actually a pretty cool and interesting, uh, sci-fi movie. It goes in an interesting direction. Um, but, uh, I guess I really love, um, I love it so much.
I can't remember the name. What's the movie Denny v New did this, this is what comes to mind. Uh, where, where the alien language they, they're trying to.
Meghan: Was it a, I
Matt: mean
Meghan: arrival,
Matt: not dune arrival. Yes. Arrival. I arrival I comes to mind [00:01:00] for some reason.
Meghan: All best sci-fi are one word.
Matt: Mm-hmm. It's so true. So true.
Um, yeah. Like
Meghan: cocoon,
Matt: like dune cocoon. Cocoon is good. Yeah. Dune cocoon. Uh,
Meghan: I would watch that.
Matt: That sounds, that sounds
Meghan: good. It seems like a very strange combo,
Matt: but have you ever seen the documentary Yoda's Dune?
Meghan: No.
Matt: Oh, this is a very interesting documentary. Yoki was the first guy to ever sort of attempt to make a Dune movie, uh, back in like the eighties or maybe even earlier.
Um,
Meghan: that's a crazy name.
Matt: Yeah, it, and, and, and so there's a documentary that sort of like relives the, the, the making of it. They went really far into development, got to the point where they, they built this massive book of like art and like a whole plan for it. This was pre Star Wars and, uh. That's
Meghan: so cool.
Matt: Went out to pitch it and nobody would, nobody would take it. Um,
Meghan: bad timing.
Matt: Yeah. Yeah. And, but a lot of the pieces of the film ended up in other films because a lot of the people involved in it were, um, were some of the best, like, uh, like, uh, [00:02:00] I don't know how to say his name. Gigger Geer, who's one of the creators of Alien, like the alien franchise.
Look,
Meghan: your guess is as good as mine.
Matt: It's very cool. But, um,
Meghan: so it never got made, made, but El never got made elements, made it too
Matt: many, many elements. You can see a lot of it in other films. Yeah, it's interesting. Um, although you had to rescue himself as a wild
Meghan: Well, I'll have to write it down. I'll have to put that on my list to watch.
Matt: What about you though?
Meghan: Um, I have so, so many. Um, I feel like et and hell
Matt: yeah. Yeah.
Meghan: Like if we're talking about extra terrestrials, like, that one was great. Mm-hmm. Um, I was thinking arrival as well. Um, I, when I went to film school, I watched Metropolis. Oh, I never seen, and that was, that was one of the first films that I watched that was an old, like in from 1940s,
Intro: right?
Yeah. Yeah.
Meghan: And of course it's propaganda like, oh, is it German propaganda? All right. So it was about deconstructing what it was all about. And because it's sci-fi. I just, I, I, I fell in love more with film after watching Metropolis.
Matt: Cool.
Meghan: Uh, it has nothing to do, it's more [00:03:00] robotics. Yeah. But that's what I like about sci-fi.
It's just, it goes beyond, you know, aliens and, you know, space travel, uh, and, and talks like more, in more generic terms, um, about just what the future holds for us. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And another one, like more recently is her.
Matt: Oh yes.
Meghan: Not really more recently, but I feel like it was is that
Matt: movie is 2015.
Meghan: I know.
Matt: It's over 10 years old now.
Meghan: That's crazy.
Matt: Isn't that crazy? It feels like it just came out
Meghan: and it's like normal.
Matt: Yeah.
Meghan: I feel like if you watched it now, you'd be like, that's by every day. That
Matt: is true. There
Meghan: are
Matt: people, I do talk to AI a lot.
Meghan: There are people marrying their ai.
Matt: Yeah, that's true. Yeah.
Meghan: Which is absolute lunacy.
But you know what? Loneliness is a really difficult thing. It's true. And who am I to judge? If that's something you wanna do, do it
Matt: completely. Just let
Meghan: it go. Let
Matt: it, yeah.
Meghan: Let your freak flag fly
Matt: for sure. But be safe because Yeah,
Meghan: be kind to be safe. Yeah.
Matt: Yeah.
Meghan: Those are important things.
Matt: Yeah. Anyway. Um.[00:04:00]
Intro: Chapter two. Chapter two, project Hail Mary. I'm excited.
Meghan: Yeah, me too. I, I'll go through a little bit of, uh, yeah, like a, a synopsis or debrief chapter two. Tell us what happened
in
Intro: chapter two. Yeah.
Meghan: Um, so basically he, we end on chapter one with him being like, where am I? The gravity is weird. Mm-hmm. I'm trying to figure out if I'm in space or not.
Uh, he goes on for about a, a page talking about a centrifuge and if he's in a centrifuge or on space, and I felt like that was a weird. Weird thing. Yeah. Because I've never seen a centrifuge on earth before.
Matt: Right.
Meghan: Uh, but anyway, they go through the science of, you know, why he thinks this and, uh, is, is trying to uncover, um, [00:05:00] where he is.
And he finds out, of course, yeah. He's in space. Um, he's also in a toga not naked anymore. That's too bad. But, uh, he figured he rigged up some, a sheet contraption.
Intro: Yeah.
Meghan: Uh, and then there's these flashbacks he keeps getting, and I think it's probably, you know, a strategic thing
Matt: mm-hmm.
Meghan: That he's having these flashbacks when he's still in under this amnesia, coma,
Matt: A strategic thing From who?
The writer. The
Meghan: writer.
Matt: Okay. Okay. Yeah.
Meghan: I'm just, I'm putting that out there. I think you're right. You know, so I, I, you know, I'm kinda squinting my eyes at you being like, is this true or not? You're
Matt: right. Right.
Meghan: Uh, that they might be strategic.
Matt: Mm-hmm.
Meghan: Anyways, because everything else, everything else is the food.
Uh, the muscle. Yes. The muscles, everything that they're doing to keep him alive seems very strategic, very planned that it made him
Matt: Yes.
Meghan: Forget himself.
Matt: Right.
Meghan: Anyway, I digress of. The synopsis. Anyway, he, we, we get to see more characters. Uh, Marissa is a friend of his that he meets with at a pup and [00:06:00] they talk about the petrova line.
They talk about the sun dimming and that the, this petrova line might be stealing energy from the sun,
Matt: right.
Meghan: Um, so that's interesting because I don't think I've seen, um, um, a story or, uh, any films cover the subject.
Matt: Right? Well, there was, uh, sunshine
Meghan: Yes,
Matt: yes, yes. Which is actually a great sci-fi film that is maybe on my list.
Um, but
Meghan: write that
Matt: down. But the, the conceit of that, as far as my memory goes, is just simply that the sun is just dying. And, and it's no longer supporting Earth Life the way we need it to.
Meghan: I know. So chapter two, we're already in like dire straits
Matt: similarities.
Meghan: Like, wow, we didn't know anything in chapter one.
Now we know a lot of information, which is very cool. Um, and then, you know, if the sun does dim, then we're in a second coming of an ice age and it's bad news that it, it's, it's gonna, you know, it increase 1%, uh, every nine years. And then it increases, it's, for [00:07:00] some reason it's doubling or tripling. And then in 20 years it's gonna take 5% of the sun.
Matt: Right.
Meghan: Which is bad.
Matt: Which would be
Meghan: not good. Destructive
Matt: world ending. Yeah, world
Meghan: ending. Yeah. Wouldn't be a great sci-fi novel without a world ending synopsis. Right. Um, and why is the son dying? That's a question that mm-hmm. Is, is on, on his mind. We don't know his name yet. He doesn't know his name yet.
Matt: Yeah.
Meghan: Um, and so a lot of stuff c comes back and he's feeling connected to these people who are dead.
Matt: Mm-hmm.
Meghan: And he's like, I must know them. There must be people that I know. Um, uh, these people who died.
Matt: Yeah. This is an interesting part of the book where he's feeling feelings, but he doesn't even necessarily know why he's feeling those feelings.
Meghan: Yeah.
Matt: It's, it's interesting.
Meghan: It's very interesting. Yeah. I think, uh, the memories that he then has about ArcLight and Sandra Ellis, the reporter, and Dr. Brown, uh, is the second memory that he has. Mm-hmm. Uh, and they talk about, you know, this, um, unmanned aircraft that goes into the patrol line to then [00:08:00] download the information.
Ah, okay. But they're using X-ray. X-ray, sorry. They're using x-ray spectrometers and microscope, uh, micro and, sorry, they're using an x-ray spectrometer and. Uh, collecting microscopic samples of these microbes. Mm-hmm. And so basically this is the moment in time where you kind of know that there's aliens that they're, their thinking lives in this patrol line.
Matt: Right.
Meghan: Um, and all. And then he says, I can't wait to tell the kids.
Matt: Mm-hmm.
Meghan: And that he wakes up from this. You know, nightmare fueled like a flashback examination of who he is, right? Yeah. A flashback.
Matt: Yeah.
Meghan: Uh, to being like, what? I was so close to finding out my name.
Matt: Yes.
Meghan: Uh, with the computer saying angular anomaly.
Matt: Mm.
Meghan: And they keep saying angular anon, uh, angular anomaly. It's a bit of a, I can't
Matt: say tongue twister.
Meghan: Yeah. Um, and he knows that he lives in San Francisco and he knows his teacher. Mm-hmm. And so at this point, he's identified, [00:09:00] um. That he is in space, that, that he kind of knows who these people were that are in, uh, that unfortunately died.
And why did they die is still a question. Mm-hmm. Um, and he's getting these little packets of goo that he's consuming.
Matt: Ah, yes.
Meghan: Um, his
Matt: food. Yes,
Meghan: his food. And then he has, he, he calls himself by another name and it's.
Matt: Oh, we gotta look it up.
Meghan: It's the best.
Matt: It's, it's a good one. It's another Andy, we comedy moment.
Meghan: Yeah. Let's see if I can find it.
Matt: Where, which tab is it?
Meghan: So many tabs.
Matt: You have a lot of tabs. It's great.
Meghan: I'm trying, I'm trying my best to figure out where these
Matt: tabs are. It's so smart. I'm so jealous. I need to do this. Or, or
Meghan: it's hard to do when you just, when you're listen to audio book, you can't tag it.
Yeah. Um, he, he calls himself, I found it. I'm in the great philosopher pendulum.
Matt: Oh yes.
Meghan: Because when he's doing, he's doing his tasks. He science experiments. But then there's another one. I feel like there's another toga one, emperor comatose.
Matt: Ah, emperor comatose.
Meghan: Emperor comatose. See, this is all over the place.
I have too many [00:10:00] tabs, Matt.
Matt: Mm-hmm. Do do what is the color coding
Meghan: system? There's no color coding
Matt: system. Oh, you've got purple and pink and orange and blue.
Meghan: Oh yeah. Okay. So the end, he basically, he's a teacher. He remembers that he's a teacher. Oh, that, yes. That's
Matt: the discovery there at the, yes.
Meghan: Yeah. He doesn't find out his, his name until chapter three.
Matt: There is, as I recall, there's a nice sort of moment where he's trying to put together, I'm, I'm, I live alone. I'm single. I,
Meghan: so I'm a single man in my thirties. He lives alone in a small apartment. Yeah. I don't have any kids, but I like kids a lot,
Matt: but I like,
Meghan: I don't like This is where this is going.
Matt: You're right.
You're right. Yeah.
Meghan: Yeah. A teacher. I'm a teacher. I remember it now. Oh, thank God. I'm a teacher.
Matt: Thank God I'm a teacher.
Meghan: Yeah, that's good. And, you know, I think that's what makes a good author. If you're gonna write a book, you have to be like a, just a, I think an interesting storyteller for
Matt: sure. Absolutely.
Meghan: And then, you know, the science can come later,
Matt: right?
Meghan: Yeah. Which I totally love,
Matt: but that's what's so good. Like, like to Andy Weir's credit, like he in The Martian. I haven't read Artemis his other book, but
Meghan: I haven't read that either.
Matt: Yeah. But he's so good at, at weaving in comedy and science and real science and real [00:11:00] storytelling and making it.
Flow and work really well. Yeah, it's a great book. It's maybe my favorite book I've ever listened to, to be honest. Yeah.
Meghan: Okay.
Matt: Very cool. That's why I bought it for you as a gift, so you could,
Meghan: if I haven't thanked you on air. Thanks, Matt. It's been, yeah,
Matt: I bought it as a gift. I'm, I'm important a gift giver.
Meghan: There's a really cool short story. So Ander is actually a short story as
Matt: well. That's true, right? Yeah. Yeah.
Meghan: And there's a short story that I read. Um, a couple years ago, I think it was called The Egg.
Matt: Yeah.
Meghan: Okay. And because I was like going down rabbit holes of like the universe, right? Yeah. And why, how we're all connected.
And it's a beautiful, beautifully told short story about God and, um, being human and, and what happens to you when you die. And it's told from a, from a very secure perspective about, you know, like who God is and like what, uh, what happens to you when you die, uh, where, um, uh, like the, it's beautifully done.
And so there's so many YouTube. Uh, videos like [00:12:00] putting, putting his story together Oh. In a, a visual sense. And, uh, and I, and the egg is basically like. What you don't become a God. 'cause he's like, oh, do I become a God? And at the, at the end of all this, right? And because I won't give the short story away all that much, but he says that, that, no, you need to have, uh, experience as every single human or life form on this planet.
Then you can become a God.
Matt: Whoa. Interesting.
Meghan: And so it's all about reincarnation and, and, uh, I can
Matt: read
Meghan: this. It's very, it's like six minutes long. It's like easy sounds amazing. It's easy,
Matt: huh
Meghan: uh, and there's so much. YouTube content, which is, as we know, being, filming, people like to consume.
Matt: Yes, for sure, for sure.
Meghan: Uh, okay, so let's talk about. Your reaction to chapter two?
Matt: Yeah, I mean, I, I, you know what? I am a teacher and I don't, I don't teach kids admittedly, but, but I, I think maybe that was part of what I liked so much about this story too, is like, I had a, a, a connection there. Uh, and there was [00:13:00] something nice about being the conduit for anyone of any age really, to, to make a kind of a, a eureka moment.
A a, a discovery. There's something really satisfying about that, uh, for me, and, and I feel like I can, I can see that in this character too. And so I, I was excited about that. And, and honestly, the way, the way it's performed in the audiobook is also, uh, a lot of fun. So, uh, I think that's a, that, that's a really important discovery.
And as I'm sure you're you, if you don't already know, uh, you certainly will. Learn that this is one of the other ways that Andy uses, like for those of us who don't know a lot about science, the fact that the character is also a teacher and the fact that he can flashback to times when he was teaching is a great way to transmit information to the audience that might be a little bit more complex or boring to consume.
Yeah,
Meghan: it's interesting. I never thought about that.
Matt: Yeah, it's cool.
Meghan: That's totally true.
Matt: Mm-hmm.
Meghan: Yeah.
Matt: What about you?
Meghan: Um, I was happy to get more information because chapter one was like. Pretty [00:14:00] nothing. Chapter true. Yeah. Uh, so getting more information and having more characters be, uh, put into perspective and understanding that there is, um, an end of days quality mm-hmm.
Um, to the story, uh, was really exciting. Yeah. Stakes to read.
Matt: Stakes. It's high stakes, right?
Meghan: Yeah.
Matt: Might be the, the planet at stake. It's pretty good.
Meghan: Yeah. And him just feeling more confident. Mm-hmm. I think as a reader, I felt more confident as well.
Matt: Right.
Meghan: With, uh, knowing that he was getting, getting to the place where he was gonna uncover stuff.
But I'm, I'm sure everyone, ev everyone who's reading this book is gonna find that out, right?
Matt: Yeah.
Meghan: Um, he's ne no, the whole book is him having amnesia. Boring.
Matt: Yeah. Boring blank. I mean, you can, and you can already tell like, it, like it's, it's, he's making discoveries in real time or present time as he's making discoveries in, in his flashbacks.
And like I said, last episode, that's gonna continue on. It's, and it's effective. Yeah.
Meghan: Yes. I, and, uh, yeah, I'm, it does make you wanna read
Matt: mm-hmm.
Meghan: Ahead. Mm-hmm. [00:15:00] Um. So it is, it is a pretty excruciating only reading three chapters and then having to wait. Yeah. But that's okay. I, I will, I will stick with the format
Matt: after our recording session.
You're gonna be able to keep going.
Meghan: I love that. I love that. And so that's your favorite moment.
Matt: Yeah. I mean, I, all I can think of is, um, I mean, is those comedy moments always stand out for sure. And, uh, and, and like I said, that excitement of uh, uh, but also the stakes is, is very important, right? Like knowing, I, I, I wasn't like all the chapters are bleeding together for me, so.
To know that, you know, even just 5% less sun would be pretty much, you know, earth ending planet, life ending, uh, death, fire, not fire, but cold.
Meghan: Yeah.
Matt: Um, uh, that's good to know. It's always good when you have good stakes set up, so that's good too.
Meghan: Yeah. Ke it keep, it helps keep in mind that the sun is very important, is similar to the moon
Matt: for sure.
Meghan: Yeah. Uh, that it, it's important too. Um. Uh, to live, to have life on [00:16:00] earth. And, and earth's atmosphere is so much different than other planets. And so as a reader and people who are interested in this, it really puts things into perspective that, uh, all these things matter. Yeah. To survival of plants and animals and um, and that earth is special.
It's a special place.
Matt: Yeah.
Meghan: Uh, 'cause nobody wants to live on a gassy planet like Venus.
Matt: You win the gassy Venus,
Meghan: you know what?
Matt: I would not wanna live on that planet.
Meghan: I would not wanna live on that planet.
Matt: Was that your favorite moment?
Meghan: No, I feel like my, one of my favorite moments was, uh, um, that the moment where he, he realizes that he's a teacher.
Intro: Yeah.
Meghan: Um, and honestly, knowing more about. The, the journey that he is on.
Matt: Mm-hmm.
Meghan: This ArcLight
Matt: Yeah.
Meghan: And, and knowing that he's on it on some kind of mission.
Matt: Right.
Meghan: But what's, what's weird to me, and I don't really quite understand why they don't talk about it in chapter two, is is he [00:17:00] not nervous? He's not anxious, he's not scared.
Yeah.
Matt: Yeah.
Meghan: Like, did he? Well,
Matt: we're gonna get there.
Meghan: Okay.
Matt: Not necessarily.
Meghan: Okay, Matt,
Matt: but you know
Meghan: when chapter four
Matt: you're like, there are some things Yeah. I obviously can't say right now, but uh, yeah, we're definitely gonna get there. We don't. He doesn't even know necessarily that he's in space yet, right?
Officially, or does it or, or is he sure of that in this chapter?
Meghan: I think he's sure of it in this
Matt: chapter. He fine. All right.
Meghan: Yeah.
Matt: But so why is he in space? Uh, what his, what his mission is is, is yet to be discovered, but obviously we're hinting at what it's. Yeah. I think once he does put that together, it's gonna be nervous.
Meghan: Interesting.
Matt: Yeah.
Meghan: Interesting. Okay. Well, you know, the fact that he's an American. Oh yeah. There was a moment in chapter one too, where he is like, am I American?
Matt: Right.
Meghan: Thinking in,
Matt: yeah.
Meghan: Um, uh,
Matt: he uses the units of measurement as a way
Meghan: imperial. Yeah. Imperial thinking not, yeah. Uh, the way that Americans do it, which is wrong.
Matt: Mm-hmm.
Meghan: Sorry. Wrong.
It
Matt: is the wrong way.
Meghan: Uh, but he's, he's, uh. He's [00:18:00] sure he's American now.
Matt: Yes.
Meghan: Um, uh, so, which is, which is great. Mm-hmm. Really super interesting.
Matt: He, does he even say something about how Canadians use. Like we, because we do use metric, but we do use some imperial, uh, sometimes for certain things.
I forget what, but
Meghan: he does.
Matt: He does. I was like, that's a good little detail that he knows about Canada.
Meghan: Yeah. Yeah. And we were like Googled Canada, like what does Canada do?
Matt: Probably did.
Meghan: Yeah, exactly. Um, and so I guess, what are your, what do you think my predictions are you gonna ask me that? I guess,
Matt: what are your predictions gonna be?
I don't know. This like I I was saying off, uh, like when we weren't recording, uh, that maybe we need to do a trailer episode so we can get on the same page about the trailer. Yeah, because I don't really wanna watch the trailer, but the reason I don't like to watch trailers is because I don't want things spoiled for me.
But I've already read the book, so everything's kind of spoiled for me already. So why not read, watch
Meghan: this, and why do spoils have to be a bad thing? We talked about that. That's true in, in episode one's. True. Yeah. I feel like no matter what, if you've read the book, you, you know what the story's gonna be, but you're still gonna go see it.
You're still gonna watch the trailer. It's still gonna be interesting. It's
Matt: true. I, I [00:19:00] guess it, I guess for me, like, could you imagine the, the example I always give is, could you imagine not knowing that? Spoilers for, uh, the, the new Star Wars trilogy. But, uh, could you imagine not knowing that Han and Chewy were gonna walk back onto the Millennium Falcon that was revealed in the trailer and in a, in an amazing trailer moment that made my, my audience for whatever I was watching go crazy.
Mm-hmm. But not knowing that would've been really cool. So, so that's why, that's why I think spoilers are, are important to avoid for me, because it, it does affect my enjoyment of it. There's, there's a, a movie called Bright on Netflix. And in the trailer for that movie. A really important piece of information that is not delivered until like the second last scene of the movie, uh, is in the trailer.
And, and I think maybe some people, maybe, maybe don't, maybe we're like, and we all do this, I think, turn off our brains a little bit when we're watching trailers or, and, and it's just like, oh, it's just a getting hit with a ton of information and it maybe it's [00:20:00] easier to forget. And that's totally okay too.
And I'm not, I, I don't want to come off as like, oh, he thinks he's so smart that he can watch a trailer and gather information. And maybe some people are just able to, to just be like, oh, I can, I can kind of forget that for when I watch it. But when a, when a movie has a piece of information that really hinges the entire film, and you're gonna give that away in a trailer.
I just can't, I can't accept it. Uh, it's, it's very tough for me. So I try not to watch any trailers if I can avoid them.
Meghan: I think that's smart. And uh, you know, I feel like, uh, for this one specifically, I wish I hadn't watched it.
Matt: Yeah, yeah.
Meghan: Because of course, this is our experiment to, to talk about each chapter, right.
Uh, uh, kinda uniquely and be excited about the next ones. Uh, but I'm still really curious about when and how, and all these questions are still floating around in my brain.
Matt: Well, and you're gonna, so they, they're not. Hopefully didn't reveal everything, so we're gonna hit a point where all the information in the trailer is going to be up to chapter 21 or something like that.
Mm-hmm. We're gonna hit a [00:21:00] place where finally you won't know anything going forward. So I, I look forward to that moment.
Meghan: Me too. Uh, and we, yeah. Having a trailer episode sounds amazing and, uh, you can, you can, we can deconstruct it together. It's maybe something that you hate, but you're Do it anyways. Doing it.
Absolutely. For. The audience, which is awesome
Matt: for, thank you for letting me soapbox about the, the spoiler thing. That's, uh, I don't know if I've really ever done that. Uh, so that'll be a good clip. I'm sure we'll clip that out.
Meghan: Yeah,
Matt: all about me and my spoiler hatred,
Meghan: and then mine, like my apathy about it, like whatever.
It's great. Whatever you want. Which is
Matt: fine too. There's nothing wrong with that either. Yeah,
Meghan: exactly. Uh, well, I'm looking forward to chapter three, uh, which is the next one we're gonna be talking about. That's how numbers work. Um, uh, where he finds out about a little bit more about what,
Matt: that's how numbers work.
Sorry, it took me a sec. The, the number after two is three, correct. All right.
Meghan: Correct. Yeah. Yeah. And really,
Matt: literally, I thought that was like a science thing. I was like, that's how numbers look. What is, is that something in the chapter? That's,
Meghan: oh my God, I love that.
Matt: Gotcha.
Meghan: And I, and I tried to look [00:22:00] more into what.
To explain in layman's terms, because I, you know, like anyone can google what an x-ray spectrometer is. Yeah. And maybe I'll end each episode with doing a little research about, uh, what things are, people are curious about that as
Matt: well. Yeah.
Meghan: Um, so basically an an x-ray spectrometer is used, uh, like we were talking about off camera.
Uh, if you're building, um. Um, a cube sat and it has a payload. That payload is an x-ray spectrometer. Okay. So you can shoot it up into, um, an anomaly. Let's take for example, an Aurora Borealis. 'cause they're still discovering what, what an Aurora. Oh, really? Alis is, is and it, the details that can. Teach us about, um, geomagnetic storms.
Matt: Cool.
Meghan: So look at me fucking like I know what I'm fucking talking about. You
Matt: sound like
Meghan: it. Uh, so it goes into this, into orbit and, and, uh, uh, collects data. Mm-hmm. And, you know, you take it and the scientists who [00:23:00] understand how it all works are trying to discover, you know, how it affects human life and our atmosphere.
Um, and so none of it's working. And that's what's. Freaking out these scientists. Is that why isn't the x x-ray spectrometer seeing anything? It's almost like it's, they're shooting it into a black hole and they're not seeing anything.
Matt: Right.
Meghan: Okay. So in chapter one I did say like 45% of of what we see is what is matter, and then the rest is antimatter.
It's actually 5%. Oh wow. It's way less. I was very wrong. That's crazy. That's crazy that we, the things we can't see, like the human eye cannot see. There's like five
Matt: of what's going on around us. We can't
Meghan: anti matter or black. Dark matter. Black magic.
Matt: Wild, black magic. Yeah,
Meghan: pretty much. Yeah, pretty much. So, um, yeah, and, and
Matt: so that
Meghan: means ghost gained a lot.
Matt: Could be real. They could be somewhere in that 95%. All right. Good to know. A
Meghan: hundred percent. Um, and so it, it, it basically. Helps identify what materials [00:24:00] are made of.
Matt: Right.
Meghan: And it can look into its past. I didn't know this. I was, I was very curious about how this worked right. And how planets were formed.
Whoa. Like, so this is high tech science shit that we're talking about apparently.
Matt: Yeah.
Meghan: And, uh, there and what x-ray spectrometers are trying to uncover for scientists, like how black holes are formed and like what supernovas are made of and why it all matters. But it is absolutely. Beyond comprehension, in my opinion.
Even scientists that are d trying to discover what anti-matter is.
Intro: Yeah.
Meghan: I don't even, I like, I can't even, yeah, I can't even fathom what it all means. It's crazy to my, my tiny little bubble in universe.
Intro: Well, I
Meghan: didn't, where we sit and talk about books and podcasts and I go to work summer times. Right. Uh, and do you know a day-to-day thought?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And talk to people. Oh, that was one of the things I loved in chapter three.
Matt: We'll go to chapter three. Chapter three.
Meghan: Thanks Matt. This was so fun.
Matt: That was awesome. And you know what, there's a little bit of foreshadowing, uh, in the, uh, the fact that you're talking about these devices that we send [00:25:00] out.
Like what's a cube set? You said cube set?
Meghan: Cube sets are like, uh, um, three by three cubes, like a rubic cube. Think from Rubik's Cube. Yeah. And they can be like the size of a cube or they can be the size of like four put together. Okay. Um, that get shot up. In, you know, when we're doing launches from Johnson, uh, or Kennedy Space Center?
Intro: Yeah. Yeah.
Meghan: Uh, through, I think it has been mostly with SpaceX and commercial, uh, um, rockets.
Matt: Okay.
Meghan: And then they released and then they collect data. They go through polar orbits or regular orbits, and then they, they transmit that information. Okay.
Matt: Interesting. There's, there's a,
Meghan: depending on the payload and what they're trying to research.
Matt: Okay. There's something coming up later on and we'll, we'll learn about it in a few chapters. I think, um, that it has a similar. Function, although it's. It's less to collect data and more to, to share data, I guess. But we'll get there.
Meghan: Okay.
Matt: Let's go, let's, uh, let's wrap up and, and, and go watch chapter three if we're, if we're ready.
Meghan: Amazing.
Matt: Um, yeah, I, and
Meghan: where can they, where can they find us?
Matt: [00:26:00] Yeah. Uh, I just check out the show notes for, for a link if, if I have it. We haven't purchased anything yet. I gotta, I gotta get a.com so we'll figure out what that is. Uh, but it'll be in the show notes and, uh, we'll have a website. Um, and yeah, you, you can find out more about me in the show notes.
You can find out more about you in the show notes. Yeah.
Meghan: Thanks for watching and listening.
Matt: Yeah.