This Week in Space 200 Transcript

Please be advised this transcript is AI-generated and may not be word for word. Time codes refer to the approximate times in the ad-supported version of the show.

Tariq Malik [00:00:00]:
Coming up on This Week in Space, NASA's Artemis program gets some new details on how it's evolving. The Moon is safe from asteroid 2024 YR4. And it is episode 200 of This Week in Space. And Rod and I are dressed to the nines and answering your questions. Tune in. Don't miss it.

Rod Pyle [00:00:25]:
This is This Week in Space, episode number 200, recorded on March 6th, 2026: Our 200th Episode Listener Special. Hello and welcome to another episode of This Week in Space, our episode 200 listener special edition.

Tariq Malik [00:00:43]:
Yeah!

Rod Pyle [00:00:47]:
Wow! Yeah, somebody spent 5 minutes on that. I'm Rod Pyle, editor-in-chief of Ad Astra Magazine, and I'm here with my 200th episode anniversary man, the one, the only, the legendary Tariq Malik of Space.com.

Tariq Malik [00:01:03]:
Right?

Rod Pyle [00:01:06]:
Hello, that is the first and last time a bunch of groupies are going to make a noise about you. This week we're speaking with you, albeit directly, and your space jokes, questions about the show or space or us, or insults for Tariq or whatever you got, or for Rod. Actually, I was going to say we didn't get any insults for Tariq because your mother, smart woman, that she has hacked my email and took them out.

Tariq Malik [00:01:34]:
Everybody loves me.

Rod Pyle [00:01:35]:
So it's, it's sad, but it's true. Anyway, this one's for you, gang, listener gang. Now before we start, please don't forget to show us your love and like and subscribe and thumbs up and stuff for this podcast with all your might, because it means the world to us. And now a fresh space joke, one of many for today. From our friend Claude.

Tariq Malik [00:02:00]:
Claude.

Rod Pyle [00:02:01]:
Hey, Tariq. Tariq.

Tariq Malik [00:02:03]:
Oh my God, episode 200 and we're still here. Okay. Yes. Yes, Rod.

Rod Pyle [00:02:08]:
Why did the sun go to school?

Tariq Malik [00:02:10]:
Why?

Rod Pyle [00:02:11]:
To get brighter.

Tariq Malik [00:02:14]:
That's good.

Rod Pyle [00:02:15]:
That's good.

Tariq Malik [00:02:16]:
Makes sense. Very cognitive.

Rod Pyle [00:02:17]:
I've heard that some folks want to turn us over to our robot overlords for proper disposal when it's joke time on this show, but you have the power to help us. By sending us your best, your worst, your most indifferent space joke to twist@twit.tv, and we'll be happy to blame it on you when it goes in the air. Now let's go to headline news.

Tariq Malik [00:02:38]:
Should we comment on what we're wearing? Headline news.

Rod Pyle [00:02:43]:
Why? Yeah, whatever would we say about what we're wearing?

Tariq Malik [00:02:47]:
I don't know, we're very fashionable today.

Rod Pyle [00:02:48]:
Well, it's our 200th anniversary.

Tariq Malik [00:02:51]:
I mean, it's actually— wasn't our first episode with John De Lancie? I think it was, wasn't it?

Rod Pyle [00:02:59]:
I— you mean when we came out of beta?

Tariq Malik [00:03:01]:
I mean, like, first ever?

Rod Pyle [00:03:02]:
No, I don't think so.

Tariq Malik [00:03:04]:
I don't know, I don't remember now.

Rod Pyle [00:03:06]:
Now you have me wondering. Let's look.

Tariq Malik [00:03:09]:
I was thinking about him today. I was to talk to you offline about others. I've got Race to the Moon, Venus is Back, uh, SpaceX vs. the World.

Rod Pyle [00:03:17]:
John De Lancie was, was out there. All right, all right. But hey, nice try for your old man memory. More like me. Okay, Tariq Malik.

Tariq Malik [00:03:28]:
Yes, Rod.

Rod Pyle [00:03:29]:
Yes, tell us all about what's going on with Artemis.

Tariq Malik [00:03:32]:
Oh, big stuff, big stuff from Artemis this week. Uh, well, as we all, you know, the last time we talked, we got the big news that NASA is changing up all of the Artemis program. Uh, and this week we found out that they fixed the issue. They fixed the issue on the helium the helium system on the upper stage. So that's really good. And we're thinking that we're going to see rollback to the pad sometime in the next couple of weeks, which is really good. They're still looking at April 1st. So that's your Artemis II update.

Tariq Malik [00:04:00]:
They're on track. They fixed whatever it was. And we're— yeah, yeah. So that's exciting. But we also got Artemis program news in the form of a NASA update that kind of laid out how they're going to change things in a step-by-step process. So when we last spoke, Rod, it was, hey, you know, everything's delayed, we want to accelerate the timeframe. And we're going to not, you know, fly Artemis 3 to the Moon, that'll be for later. So now we know that the current system of SLS, the Block 1 system with the— was it the ICPS, the inter— inter—

Rod Pyle [00:04:37]:
the interim—

Tariq Malik [00:04:38]:
interim— interim, that's the word— interim cryogenic propulsion stage, that's going to be a lock until Artemis 3. So they're going to fly the first 3 missions with the rocket as designed right now, and that interim upper stage to do all of their tests. So Artemis 2 goes around the Moon, Artemis 3 goes into orbit. We expect to get 1, if not 2, different landing rendezvous operation systems depending on Starship and the Blue Moon landers. The Blue Moon Mark 2 landers are ready. And then for Artemis 4 and 5 is what they said this week, that's going to be the one that has a new upper stage. And it's most likely going to be a commercially kind of competed upper stage. And there's some talk, at least through Ars and some other, other sites, I think Bloomberg had it as well, that they're looking at the Vulcan Centaur upper stage, because that's like the most advanced Centaur, as like the potential go-to, because it's more powerful than ICPS and could have the lift capacity that they need to get to the Moon.

Rod Pyle [00:05:38]:
The ICPS has genes in old aerospace. Was it originally the the upper stage of the Delta II or something?

Tariq Malik [00:05:45]:
You know, I recall it was something like that. It wasn't a Centaur, but it was like a reused version that was like, okay, we're gonna build this now, but we're gonna replace it because it can't get— it can't get us to the orbit of the Moon that we would need to land. That is why they had the near rectilinear orbit in the first place, is because it wasn't a lock that they were gonna get the exploration upper stage. But what the NASA announcement said this week is that that exploration upper stage it's gone. There is no EUS, if you will, coming for Space Launch System, because that was part of Block 2. And, and that's it. There is no Block 2. It's just this— what we have now is what we're gonna have for the foreseeable.

Tariq Malik [00:06:29]:
Artemis IV, Artemis V get that new upper stage. And we're gonna find out what that means. They did mention that changes are coming for the other plans, like Gateway is not really mentioned at all. Are they going to do that? Are they not going to do that? Is it going to change in some way or fashion? We don't really know. But they said that that stuff is all being looked at right now and that they'll have more later. But now we know exactly what's going on with the, the upper stage for Artemis 3. It's not going to have the new one. It's going to— it's going to wait for Artemis 4.

Rod Pyle [00:07:01]:
Now we know what's going on with those things for this week.

Tariq Malik [00:07:03]:
For this week. Yeah. We'll see, because there's hardware for Gateway already built, right? Yeah, from partners and stuff that's already underway. Oh, they also, in that NASA update this week, they also said the Mobile Launch Platform 2, which is being built, it's also done. Like, they are stopping everything. They're gonna save money. It's been super delayed.

Rod Pyle [00:07:24]:
How much did they spend on that thing, like $1.8 billion or something?

Tariq Malik [00:07:28]:
Oh, it's, it's, it's, it's quite a lot. It's in the hundreds of millions if it isn't the billion plus. And also I was talking to my, my, one of my, my writers, uh, Josh Dinner, and he was telling me that looking at the contract that it was like 90+ paid out already. So that money is out the door, you know, but if you're not gonna have another iteration of Space Launch System, which is why they needed that, then you don't need it. Right. And it'll go the way of the, remember the one that they built for Artemis or not for Artemis for Ares. For Ares 1X, that special launch tower? Yeah, they built it and it just, it just sat there and then they took it apart because they don't need it anymore. Like they spent all those millions of dollars on NASA.

Tariq Malik [00:08:14]:
And it's too bad. And they launched that mission after they canceled it too, which is really sad. Artemis 1X. So, but, but, you know, it's nice to get some new details about what's happening on Artemis and Artemis 2. And I think we're going to get more as it develops as Jared Isaacman really lays down the law saying, we need to do this. I think— I'm sure there's going to be a hearing in the near future because the Authorization Act is making its way through the Congress, which I think— I don't think I have something on that. But that happened this week too.

Rod Pyle [00:08:46]:
And speaking of the Moon, dot dot dot.

Tariq Malik [00:08:49]:
That's right. The Moon is safe. You know, we don't have to worry in 2032 when we have our big Moon base, when you and I, Rod, are reporting live to all our fabulous listeners from the Moon and recording this. But John, you can come. We'll let you, you know, as long as you're nice to me. I'm good, dog. But, but for those future, those future Moon astronauts, they won't have to worry in 2032 when asteroid 2024 YR4 swings by. This is the asteroid that was discovered in, well, in 2024, like its name mentions, that was really like a will it, won't it hit the Earth for a while.

Tariq Malik [00:09:28]:
And then the odds of that kind of dwindled. But the odds weren't zero for it hitting the moon in 2032 when it flew by. Now NASA says that we don't have to worry about it. Now it's just going to miss us all entirely. We can go about our day and feel safe from this asteroid, let alone like all the other asteroids that are out there. But this one is okay.

Rod Pyle [00:09:48]:
At least as far as the moon's concerned.

Tariq Malik [00:09:49]:
So, you know, if someone tries to sell you Asteroid 2024 YR4 insurance, You got to tell them, you know, it's all right.

Rod Pyle [00:09:56]:
Or those, those hats like they had when Skylab was coming down. So what's all this about a new hiring initiative under Jared Isaacman?

Tariq Malik [00:10:05]:
Yeah, this is an interesting one because I didn't— this is something I didn't see coming, and it seems very— it seems very like, huh, so, so here we are, right? NASA and the, and the United States Office of Personnel Management, by the way I didn't know this, but we have a US Office of Personnel Management. I didn't know that. I thought that was just the Labor Department. They have announced this new joint initiative called NASA Force. So you've heard about Space Force. This isn't that. This is NASA Force.

Rod Pyle [00:10:33]:
NASA Force.

Tariq Malik [00:10:34]:
That's right. You do it. You do it much better than I did. And so this is a specific— as I understand it, in the Office of Personnel Management, there is this US Tech Force initiative to try to recruit talented people in information technology, tech, computers, you know, engineers, scientists, like that kind of thing, people that would have high, high-tech skill-related jobs. And, and so this is an initiative in that force that is geared to try to bring people into NASA. And the reason that I said is that this news kind of caught me by surprise, like a moment, is because we lost 260,000 federal jobs last year. You know, because of the Trump administration cuts. And a lot of those cuts, not all of them, obviously, but a lot of those cuts were at NASA as they retired offices, they closed some offices, they were looking at streamlining a lot of things, they canceled a lot of contracts.

Tariq Malik [00:11:29]:
We've talked a lot about that on the show. And now, because of the need to accelerate Artemis to like, as Jared Isaacman has said, he says that they need, they need new people, they need people that are dedicated, they need people that are eager,. And in order to do that, they have to hire more people. They just laid off like tens of thousands of people, you know. So imagine if those people were still here. And so that's like the big moment for me is that this is like a situation that it feels like an own goal, that not just NASA, but like the administration really has gotten itself into. Because now it's like, well, we need these people if we want to do the things you want to do. And, and so, so their goal is to just recruit as many people as fast as possible through this NASA force so that they can continue, as Isaacson says, to attract the next generation— hey, that's the TNG— of innovators and technical experts who are ready to solve the toughest challenges in exploration science and aerospace technology.

Rod Pyle [00:12:28]:
So there you go. Very good. This could be our big chance to go get jobs as janitors at NASA.

Tariq Malik [00:12:33]:
Well, they'll need janitors on the moon, right?

Rod Pyle [00:12:35]:
Why don't you pick one more story and then we'll break and get to the meat of our episode for our dear listeners who we love and and cherish.

Tariq Malik [00:12:43]:
Well, I would— I will stop with this. We're going to talk about MAVEN real quick. So yeah, it's just— this is just a little bit of an update that we got this week on the loss or potential salvation of the MAVEN orbiter around Mars. Now, if you don't remember, back in December, NASA lost contact with MAVEN when it flew behind Mars, and then it had to wait through solar conjunction for Mars to come out from behind the Sun until, until February, basically just after Valentine's Day, to try to call MAVEN again because it's been silent since December. I know, right? It's really sad. This is an orbiter that was designed to basically investigate where Mars's water went through its atmosphere and how its atmosphere interacts with the solar wind and all of that, to see what happened, why it's so dry. What killed Mars? Exactly right. That was like the goal.

Tariq Malik [00:13:33]:
And it's done very well. Also, also try to investigate the methane mystery of what's going on about that on the planet. So it's not Rod. Everybody, it's not Rod. I checked. So we had him checked out is what I'm trying to say. So the doctor said it's fine.

Rod Pyle [00:13:50]:
Okay, they saw me from orbit.

Tariq Malik [00:13:53]:
But, but so we've been waiting for an update about what NASA is going to do, because at some point they have to call it. Is MAVEN dead and like lost in orbit around Mars? Or is it salvageable? And can they resurrect it? So what we heard this week is that last month, after those initial efforts to try to resurrect or revive the spacecraft, reestablish contact, they commissioned an anomaly board, and that board, like, reviewed all the work. And that's the update. The update is that they had a meeting last month, and they looked at the results from the trials. So it's not very promising. You know, if you, if you've got all your, all your chips set down on MAVEN coming back, I don't know what to tell you. It doesn't look like it's great. And it's really sad because that was a mission that was run out of Goddard.

Tariq Malik [00:14:38]:
It was doing really, really awesome science. Science. And, uh, and I was there with Jim Green, friend of the show, uh, for its orbital arrival. Is really exciting to see, uh, back under the Charlie Bolden era.

Rod Pyle [00:14:48]:
Okay, very, very quickly, because I know you're just bursting at your non-existent buttons in that tunic to talk about it— the blood moon eclipse.

Tariq Malik [00:14:56]:
Oh, I wasn't gonna— I was gonna skip it, but since you said, you know, we had a, we had a, uh, a total lunar eclipse this week. And it's the last one until 2028, 2029 for the world. And for us, it's the last one until 2029 in the United States. So if you're like me, you didn't see anything because it was totally clouded out over my house. It was in the predawn one on Tuesday, March 3rd. But we got photos from people around the world who saw amazing, amazing things. You've got the Moon dipping into the Earth's shadow. Turning red as it always does, you know, and then of course coming back so that we don't have to be afraid and that we can actually, you know, know that there will be seasons coming because, you know, we need the Moon for our seasons and our tilt and all that fun stuff.

Rod Pyle [00:15:46]:
Okay, let's tilt our way into a break and we'll be right back with our listener messages. Stand by.

Leo Laporte [00:15:52]:
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Leo Laporte [00:18:51]:
And now back to Rod and Tariq.

Rod Pyle [00:18:53]:
All right, we are back with our 200th anniversary episode, 200th anniversary listener special. And, um, we're also going to talk a little bit about, uh, if we have time, our, our biggest impressions since we started the show.

Tariq Malik [00:19:12]:
Uh, can you do that again, please? What the— there it is.

Rod Pyle [00:19:19]:
Speaking of having the doctor check him out, okay, and, uh, we've been doing this since January 2022, Tariq, and I realized yesterday we were talking on the phone, so it's been a while. I've gotten old and gray.

Tariq Malik [00:19:31]:
I thought we'd be on the moon by now a couple of times, right?

Rod Pyle [00:19:35]:
Elon told me we'd be on Mars, uh, 4 times. I know, I know, I guess he was wrong. Well, hey, so Let's— for expert advice, let's go to Mark Pachalski. Mark, is that right? Question for you: have you considered having sci-fi authors as guests? You've had authors on before, but generally they've written and produced documentaries. You might talk to them about how their stories relate to real science, how much they use proven science versus made-up science and fantasy. I thought this— I thought about this when Tariq mentioned some sci-fi stories a few episodes ago. Yeah, it's related to the subject being discussed, and that was probably the Jack McDevitt stuff.

Tariq Malik [00:20:13]:
Yeah, yeah, we were talking about Jack McDevitt. So, you know, fun story, I actually spoke to Alan Steele one time, uh, through email.

Rod Pyle [00:20:20]:
Alan Steele sounds like an adult video star.

Tariq Malik [00:20:22]:
No, no, he— Alan Steele wrote, uh, wrote it like a series of, of like— I think, I think I talked about it when we were talking about Jack McDevitt and Alan Steele. I might even told this story, but when, uh, I might have been snoozing. One of his, one of his stories, they— it's, it's this whole like thing about where like some dissidents went out to colonize like a moon. And then they like— the regime goes after them. And then they have a big thing when they all get there. And one of the commanders— the book starts out with him landing on Titan and surveying his domain as they have won whatever battle on Titan from these dissidents. And it was just as Cassini's Huygens— Huygens had landed on Titan. And I was asking him if they were— he was surprised or if it sounded exactly like what he thought it was gonna be like.

Tariq Malik [00:21:08]:
And he wasn't surprised, he thought it was just fine. But it was exciting.

Rod Pyle [00:21:11]:
That's because sci-fi authors are smart.

Tariq Malik [00:21:14]:
I know, right? So, but that's a good point. You know, in fact, it's really important now when we look at like what's happening this month because Hail Mary is coming out by Andy Weir, the film, and I've seen it. My feeling is that it's very good. But I can't talk about details about it yet.

Rod Pyle [00:21:36]:
And it's a million light years of space talking to a rock, right?

Tariq Malik [00:21:41]:
Well, that's the book, right? So if you've read the book, you know what it's about. So I'm not going to talk about the movie itself. But thanks a lot. Well, I can't. It's, you know, you have to wait until the movie comes out later this month.

Rod Pyle [00:21:54]:
Fine. All right.

Tariq Malik [00:21:55]:
I'll tell you my thoughts about the movie itself, specifics. When I can talk about it.

Rod Pyle [00:22:01]:
So, aren't you precious?

Tariq Malik [00:22:02]:
But the book is great. The book is a really fun read. Everyone should read the book. And, but that's what I'm saying is that maybe we can get Andy on to come talk about it.

Rod Pyle [00:22:09]:
That'd be fun. Yeah. And who won't even have to travel to us, which is good. All right, let's go to a space joke from Kyle Dietrich. Hey, Tariq.

Tariq Malik [00:22:16]:
Kyle. Yes, Rod.

Rod Pyle [00:22:17]:
Why did the space tourist want to go to Saturn?

Tariq Malik [00:22:20]:
I don't know why.

Rod Pyle [00:22:21]:
To go ring shopping.

Tariq Malik [00:22:24]:
Ah, I dig it. I dig it.

Rod Pyle [00:22:29]:
Okay, um, let's go to—

Tariq Malik [00:22:30]:
because of the rings.

Rod Pyle [00:22:31]:
Let's go to questions.

Tariq Malik [00:22:32]:
Did you know that it's because Saturn has rings?

Rod Pyle [00:22:35]:
Are you done?

Tariq Malik [00:22:37]:
No, but I guess you want to move on. No, no, I want to— I personally want to hear more.

Rod Pyle [00:22:42]:
Well, and here is more, my good friends, from Ralph, whose last name unfortunately got cut off of his message. Sorry, Ralph, you can eat—

Tariq Malik [00:22:50]:
no, he didn't have his last name in the finger at me.

Rod Pyle [00:22:52]:
Yeah, well, it was in his email address, but I couldn't quite decipher it. Anyway, congrats on 200 episodes of This Week in Space. Wait, you read— you read all these emails?

Tariq Malik [00:23:01]:
I added this email to the rundown. Did you not know? See, I do some stuff, people. I do some—

Rod Pyle [00:23:07]:
some— wow, somebody—

Tariq Malik [00:23:08]:
I do see the emails. I just, you know, always respond.

Rod Pyle [00:23:11]:
Congrats on 200 episodes of This Week in Space. I wanted to know who were some of the more interesting guests you had on the show so So far, uh, I'll start with, um, John De Lancie. He was fun. Always good to have to be able to hang out with Q and his weirdness.

Tariq Malik [00:23:29]:
Uh, I thought having Bill Nye on, like, on our first televised one, that was really fun too. And, um, Pam Melroy. Well, Pam Melroy, yeah, she was great. And she was in charge of NASA at the time. Yeah, right. Wasn't that exciting?

Rod Pyle [00:23:43]:
That was a good deal. Thank you.

Tariq Malik [00:23:44]:
There was that time that she photobombed the episode before.

Rod Pyle [00:23:47]:
That was a Greg Autry's request. Yeah, yeah.

Tariq Malik [00:23:51]:
And when I talked to Eileen Collins, it was really, really nice. You were out for that one. I don't know if you remember, but we had Eileen on when her book had come out.

Rod Pyle [00:23:59]:
And she's a wonderful person to talk to.

Tariq Malik [00:24:01]:
Oh man, it was so exciting. And it was really a highlight for me because, Ralph, that her mission, STS-114, the last one, was the first return-to-flight mission. And that was the first mission that I ever covered. As lead reporter back in 2005. And so, wow, that was 21 years ago now. My space career at space.com is old enough to drink, you know, so, and then some, uh, one place all that time.

Rod Pyle [00:24:28]:
That's impressive.

Tariq Malik [00:24:29]:
Well, you know, I try not to think about it because, man, that's a long time. That's like, that's like a, uh, if it was like an old-time 1950s job, that's a pension.

Rod Pyle [00:24:37]:
You get a gold watch. I know, instead of a Swatch like you're probably gonna get.

Tariq Malik [00:24:43]:
But like more More recently, I, I would point out, you know, that, that Becoming Martian interview, um, that was a lot of fun.

Rod Pyle [00:24:50]:
And Tibby Turtle for Dragonfly was great. And, uh, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, the young lady we had on for, uh, Mars bioterraforming, whose name has jumped out of my—

Tariq Malik [00:25:00]:
with the mushrooms.

Rod Pyle [00:25:01]:
So no, no, no, well, the mushroom show, yeah, but the other one was, uh, for Pioneer Labs terraforming or that one. Yeah, I mean, you know, I, I hate to leave people out, but we don't have time to sit here. Well, I think separate names, but they've all been pretty good.

Tariq Malik [00:25:14]:
They've all been great. They've all great. We don't, we don't want to pick favorites because like we, we invite people on the show all because we think, we think that they are really interesting people and that we really dig the stuff that they're doing and we want to share it with you.

Rod Pyle [00:25:28]:
And it's gonna get better and better as we move into 200+. Tucker Drake. Tucker! Hey Tariq!

Tariq Malik [00:25:34]:
Yes, Rod?

Rod Pyle [00:25:35]:
How does NASA ensure the ISS has a smooth course around the planet?

Tariq Malik [00:25:39]:
I do not know how.

Rod Pyle [00:25:40]:
By using an orbital sander. I think that's about the right response. Okay, let's do one more. Becky Clark. Hi, Becky. Becky, several years ago when Rod tried to talk with Leo from that base up in the Arctic, that was marginally successful at best. Hopefully if you get to go again, you'll have better communications. Producing a This Week in Space episode from there would be super.

Rod Pyle [00:26:08]:
However, Referring to a few episodes ago, my suggestion, she says she must vote no on the mud wrestling. Too bad, because there's a lot of mud up there and it's very slimy.

Tariq Malik [00:26:17]:
Didn't Pascal say that they've got Starlink now?

Rod Pyle [00:26:19]:
So they do. Yeah, wait, let me do a belly jump. Um, yeah, they got— so when we were there, we had, uh, is it Intelsat, the sat phone?

Tariq Malik [00:26:30]:
Yeah, you had a sat phone, I remember.

Rod Pyle [00:26:32]:
Yeah, and you know, you'd get a satellite for 2 to 3 minutes, then it would go out, and it might or may not— the phone might or might not track the jump to the next satellite. So it was very frustrating. Um, yes, now they have Starlink, and you know, that kind of takes some of the adventure out of it because I was trying to upload stories to you, to arknospace.com, and you don't think about it because we have cheap broadband now, right? But every time, because we're paying by the megabyte Wow, like $6 a megabyte.

Tariq Malik [00:27:03]:
That takes you back, man.

Rod Pyle [00:27:04]:
Yeah, it was like you were waiting for the bing bing of the modem or something. So I'd log on, and before I could push the button to upload you the story, the satellite's gone. No, this was, um, it was, it was still through satellite, but this was strictly, uh, email. Yeah, but before I could send that email, about 90 megabytes had transferred back and forth with all this handshaking. And Yahoo had to send me all their commercials and everything. We tried to block it. I mean, it cost him a small fortune, um, just to supply you with stories.

Tariq Malik [00:27:38]:
It's really funny.

Rod Pyle [00:27:39]:
I want to point out, if you ever wanted to send a nice gift to the Mars Institute, Dr. Pascal Lee, you could pay that bill. Sorry, what were you gonna say?

Tariq Malik [00:27:49]:
Well, I was gonna say it's just funny because that was like, what, that was 2023? Yeah, I think. I want to say so. It's been, it's been 3 years since that, and in that time Uh, like space-based internet is— it's not just SpaceX and Starlink. There's like a few others. I think IntelSat's still building out, uh, their constellation as well. But, uh, like I, I have T-Mobile and they signed the deal with, with, with Starlink.

Rod Pyle [00:28:14]:
I used it the other day.

Tariq Malik [00:28:15]:
I just get it, you know? Yeah. And now I finally get reception in my kitchen. Thank you. You know, I got broadband and everything, but it would always lose it in the kitchen.

Rod Pyle [00:28:25]:
Well, wait a minute.

Tariq Malik [00:28:25]:
Now I've got it.

Rod Pyle [00:28:25]:
The SpaceX stuff is only for texting.

Tariq Malik [00:28:28]:
No, it's supposed to be like they have a whole new separate thing now that is, that is just for like, like internet and connectivity for cell phones. And they also, they're launching their own network too. Yeah, but it's not gonna compete with everyone else. But I just think it's really interesting that it's become super ubiquitous. When I go on overseas trips, yeah, well, I know, right? That's my daughter studying for the SATs. When, when I go overseas, I have like 100% data and it's, it's all included now, you know, and it's, it has been for quite some time, but now you don't have to worry about it because you know you're going to be connected.

Rod Pyle [00:29:04]:
Wow, we know all about your phone plan now. Well, speaking of my phone plan, when I was out in the desert with my son last week doing astronomy and other things, um, there, this is, uh, east of, uh, Joshua Tree, Joshua Tree, which is pretty bleak. And no, so, you know, I'm in China, I'm in the bottom of a canyon, I'm walking around with, with 5 bars of 5G. I go out to the California high desert and I got nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing for hours at a time. But I, but suddenly I got that little bing pop-up saying Starlink. So I also have T-Mobile, so I tried a Starlink text to my, my dear woman and, uh, went right through. So that was impressive proof of concept. I think it would work.

Rod Pyle [00:29:46]:
Okay, let's do one more joke and then we'll break. Yeah, from Barry Hayworth. Hi Barry.

Tariq Malik [00:29:51]:
Barry, thanks for—

Rod Pyle [00:29:52]:
I think he sent us like 20 jokes or something. Yeah. I say, old chap, how did New Horizons get to Pluto so fast?

Tariq Malik [00:30:00]:
I don't know. I don't know how.

Rod Pyle [00:30:01]:
It got a gravity assist by Jove.

Tariq Malik [00:30:05]:
By Jove, he says. By Jove.

Rod Pyle [00:30:07]:
Now, if I had had a better— if this was Leo, he'd have a good British accent, but it's me, so you got nothing.

Tariq Malik [00:30:13]:
Whenever I hear like, by Jove, I think of Jupiter Ascending. Did you ever see that movie? No. It's got, it's got, uh, um, What's her name? Mila Kunis and Channing Tatum. That's right. That's right.

Rod Pyle [00:30:25]:
Wow, look at John. Actually, pop sci stuff.

Tariq Malik [00:30:29]:
Actually, the Wachowski siblings. Yeah, the Wachowski siblings made that movie, and it's, um, it's fun. It's fun. A lot of people tell you that it's bad, and I'm not gonna disagree with them, but it's a guilty pleasure. Like, like Pluto Nash. The Adventures of Pluto Nash is really fun.

Rod Pyle [00:30:44]:
I love Pluto Nash. I know it is such a hideous movie. What about Europa Report?

Tariq Malik [00:30:50]:
Oh, I love that one too. So that one's got a fun twist ending that I'm not going to spoil for anyone if you haven't seen it yet. So you are good.

Rod Pyle [00:30:57]:
Twist that. Okay, let's twist our way into a break and we'll be right back. Stand by.

Tariq Malik [00:31:00]:
Hey, is that a pun? Twist, right?

Rod Pyle [00:31:03]:
No. All right, here's a good one that actually doesn't apply today, but we'll do it anyway from Jan Wild. Jan. Okay, so what is the name of the lava lamp type device that looks like jellyfish on your set? Where did you get it? I'd like to get one.

Tariq Malik [00:31:16]:
Oh, you got to turn your— you got to turn your background off so that people can see it.

Rod Pyle [00:31:19]:
No, because I got a green screen blocking it. Oh, I gave away the secret. Um, it's, uh, from Amazon. If you look up jellyfish lamp, you'll find it. They're about $20, $25, and it's just a plastic tube that you pour water in. You put in little rubbery plastic jellyfish, but they're really cool and they look like little aliens. So I thought that was pretty fun.

Tariq Malik [00:31:38]:
I thought it was just a lava lamp. It's not just a lava lamp?

Rod Pyle [00:31:40]:
No, it's got little jellyfish kind of blooming up and down in it. I'll show you next week. I have not— I'll go over it. And lick one or something.

Tariq Malik [00:31:51]:
Then I'm sure it's like super toxic.

Rod Pyle [00:31:53]:
And I'm sorry, we— ah, what's a little toxin between friends? And then, uh, although it's too late for, for right now, she said maybe for episode 200 you and Tara could both invite your wives, girlfriends, and kids to say hi. Wives and girlfriends, may they never meet. Um, you know, if we had anybody in our lives that actually loved us, we'd probably do that, but You know, we are each other's biggest fan.

Tariq Malik [00:32:17]:
And I don't know about you, Tariq, they just don't care about being on the podcast.

Rod Pyle [00:32:19]:
No, your family tolerates you, let's be honest. Um, you know, if I, if I go to Sherry, my beloved, and say, wow, some really interesting things happen in space today, she kind of stops TikToking or whatever she's doing and looks at me and goes, hmm. And it's this look that's very non-committal. It's kind, but it's distant. And the message is, make it quick, Buster. I'm doing something more interesting, like, you know, looking at different ways of putting Snarol in your salad online or something.

Tariq Malik [00:32:50]:
So Snarol— oh wait, wait, you mean that's a joke of her trying to poison you? Okay, exactly.

Rod Pyle [00:32:55]:
Good, good. You're catching on fast. So, um, nobody wanted to come. Even my dog decided not to come upstairs for this. I don't know about you, but that's my story.

Tariq Malik [00:33:07]:
Um, No, like my daughter's in school and doing work. Actually, no, she's probably playing Dungeons Dragons right now because this is like when they meet, so that she will not be on the show.

Rod Pyle [00:33:15]:
It's more fun than being on the show. Okay. And then she said— she goes on, also, what happened to the smiling alien to the left of the ray gun female over your right shoulder? See, people are paying attention.

Tariq Malik [00:33:25]:
This is— that's right, you moved it, huh?

Rod Pyle [00:33:27]:
Uh, well, that was Big Lou, the moon robot made by the Marx Toy Company, which I was gifted in 1964. 94, I think. It was $9.95, which was a lot of money then. Probably, uh, I think they'd be about $80 now. Yeah. And it was this, you know, 3-foot-tall styrene thing that instantly stuff started snapping off of and breaking. But it was very cool, and they are now worth about $2,000 if you have them in good condition, which is absurd. Um, so the answer is he was moved to the floor because I was doing an interview for a TV series installment, and I just felt it was a little much, a little, a little, a little too out there, right? A little too out there.

Rod Pyle [00:34:09]:
But, but he will refind his, his place of honor. Um, finally, you know, Lord, please remember to take it easy on Tark. He seems like a sensitive guy, right?

Tariq Malik [00:34:19]:
Thank you, Jan.

Rod Pyle [00:34:21]:
Unless, of course, as part of your shtick, like Abbott and Costello or Carl Amari and Lisa Wolf of Hollywood 360 Old Time Radio, And yes, I'm Carl and he's Lisa, and this is our shtick. And I'm very nice to you offline, and you have plenty of slings and arrows for me when we're offline.

Tariq Malik [00:34:37]:
So that's right.

Rod Pyle [00:34:38]:
Oh, tell them, tell the world.

Tariq Malik [00:34:40]:
The gloves come off. The gloves come off when the light goes off, I tell you. Right? Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait, the recording light? When the recording light?

Rod Pyle [00:34:49]:
Oh, okay. I thought we were getting back to the mud wrestling thing.

Tariq Malik [00:34:52]:
Because like his mind just goes straight there, everybody. That's why.

Rod Pyle [00:34:56]:
So, well, lights out, you know, I mean, okay, maybe I had a more exciting teenage—

Tariq Malik [00:35:00]:
I'll tell you, I don't know, Jen is right, because when I was, when I was young and growing up, I had 3 older cousins, all boys, and so they used to pick on me a lot. And to me it was— I'd imagine that to me, to me it was like, hey, people are paying attention to me, this is amazing, right? And but they would call me all super wimpy and everything like that, and my mom would say, he's just sensitive.

Rod Pyle [00:35:22]:
So it's true, it is just a sensitive lad. Well, I— when I— when my son was, uh, found he had ADHD, uh, pretty mildly, and I was diagnosed then with ADHD, I went back to my elementary school records because I thought, I wonder what my report cards look like, because I don't think my parents ever paid any attention to it. They just kind of look at it and go, yeah, that's our son, he's a loser. And, uh, sure enough from first to second grade up all the way through fifth. I think Rod's a sensitive boy. He's very quiet. He's very smart. We put him in the front of the room.

Rod Pyle [00:36:01]:
Oh wait, no, he's not. We put him in the back of the room. Oh wait, yes he is. We put him in the front of the room. So I was an undiagnosed, uh, goofball back then.

Tariq Malik [00:36:08]:
The front of the room and the back of the room is where teachers send problem kids to, like, yeah, well, back then. Now you'd get your own special class.

Rod Pyle [00:36:17]:
That's because I was special. You just ruined my entire self-image. Thank you very much.

Tariq Malik [00:36:21]:
That's like when I was in kindergarten, I got an A on a paper and everyone was like, oh wow, you got an A! And I'm like, there's no— Mrs. Cancilini was trying to show me how to do A's because my A's are horrible. That's why it says A. You don't get grades.

Rod Pyle [00:36:35]:
That was the highlight of elementary school for you. Mine was winning the 6th grade handball tournament because the champ managed to out himself because he made a mistake. And so suddenly my wretched, miserable playing Was a winner.

Tariq Malik [00:36:48]:
All right, how did he out him? Like, did he throw the ball and then jump on it and then it hit him?

Rod Pyle [00:36:53]:
No, he, he hit it with the edge of his fingers and it went off in the wrong direction. So they said, you're the winner. I was like, huh, what? Sports and me? All right, from Martin Lawler, good friend of the show. And Martin Lawler, what was Dave Boban's biggest fear in 2001: A Space Odyssey?

Tariq Malik [00:37:10]:
I don't know.

Rod Pyle [00:37:11]:
What? A case of halitosis.

Tariq Malik [00:37:18]:
Oh man, I don't know.

Rod Pyle [00:37:19]:
Smelling it coming.

Tariq Malik [00:37:21]:
Okay, I don't know, I don't know. What, he only had like one other friend, right? Pool? Frank Pool? Yeah. What else did he have to—

Rod Pyle [00:37:28]:
and he got, he got the iced in the, in the first couple hours of the movie.

Tariq Malik [00:37:33]:
They do find him in 3001 though, out by Pluto or something like that. They find his body.

Rod Pyle [00:37:38]:
Body. They never made a movie of that, right?

Tariq Malik [00:37:39]:
Just— no, no, they did not. But they bring him back to life by cloning or something like that. So, wow, that's spoiler alert, by the way, if you haven't read that 20-year-old book.

Rod Pyle [00:37:50]:
So it's, uh, that's, that's extraordinary. Okay, uh, let's do one more. James Hirschberg. James, excellent new Pascal show, and of course I've already read the 200-plus page report and appendices he mentioned. This is a fan who actually read the National Academy's Humans to Mars report.

Tariq Malik [00:38:08]:
Yeah, he did the homework.

Rod Pyle [00:38:08]:
Look at that, that's a big deal.

Tariq Malik [00:38:10]:
Yeah, he knows his time.

Rod Pyle [00:38:11]:
I don't— we didn't.

Tariq Malik [00:38:13]:
Well, I downloaded it. I did look at it.

Rod Pyle [00:38:15]:
So I know how you look at things. Um, uh, uh, wait, Rod, hold on. I type it. What?

Tariq Malik [00:38:22]:
Huh? Um, so Rod is— Rob is describing a planning call that we had last night, everybody. No, those are all our planning calls in which, in which at the same time my staff was asking me to, to solve a headline issue that I had to figure out about Artemis program. And I was also trying to line up some stuff for the show. I don't multitask very well.

Rod Pyle [00:38:39]:
So I was going to say, I've never had a phone call with you where you weren't multitasking, which I own and take personally. Okay, let me continue. The sooner the sorties. Yes. 30, 30, 30 or 30 supplies, 400. I guess that's referring to the stay time. Better. Good.

Rod Pyle [00:38:57]:
And he goes on to say, I'd love to hear how he or other knowledgeable guests, which would leave you and me out of it, Would answer the question, would humans get to Mars faster through US People's Republic competition or presuming political feasibility collaboration? Cheers, enjoy Apollo 9 again.

Tariq Malik [00:39:17]:
Well, I'd have to say competition, right? If they collaborate, like nothing gets done. Like it'll just—

Rod Pyle [00:39:23]:
not they collaborate, we collaborate with them.

Tariq Malik [00:39:24]:
That's what I mean. If we, yeah, if the countries collaborate, it'll go a lot slower, don't you think?

Rod Pyle [00:39:28]:
You know, we collaborate on the ISS and it probably ended up costing well more than it would have. I mean, cost the US well more than it would have had it just gone solo in the end of the day. Yeah. However, I was talking to somebody about Buzz Aldrin the other day, and he and I had a series of long conversations about this. I don't know, I think it was during COVID actually.

Tariq Malik [00:39:46]:
You and Buzz, or you and the friend that you were talking to?

Rod Pyle [00:39:48]:
Me and Buzz. Okay. And he was a big— is a big proponent of cooperation with China. And, you know, you know, I understand the Wolf Amendment and ITAR and all the concerns, but when somebody of Buzz's intellect comes along and says This is a really good idea. You know, somebody of my intellect, which is vastly inferior, probably ought to sit up and say, okay, let's consider that. So while I'm sure there would be IP theft, or let's just say IP reappropriation, because they don't view IP the way we do, they don't view patents protection the way we do and all that kind of stuff. By the same token, NASA generally is pretty transparent anyway. So it's just defense tech you're worried about.

Rod Pyle [00:40:32]:
And there is a lot of crossover there. I don't I don't know, you know, on the other hand, God loved the US. We do best when we're competing with somebody or being challenged, or somebody said nanana on the playground, I'm better than you. We proved that in the space race many times since then. So, you know, it may be that it takes that kick to the groin to get us to wake up and just get back to the moon.

Tariq Malik [00:40:53]:
If we had a leadership, and I mean like government leadership, that was very like very streamlined and functional in a way, not so much that everyone agrees not— I'm not talking about like a single party type of a thing. I mean like, like where— well, no, you know what I mean, like where they're, they're all working together to try to get the best thing. So it's all— it's, it's—

Rod Pyle [00:41:14]:
I'm sorry, you're talking about the Chinese government or ours?

Tariq Malik [00:41:17]:
No, no, I'm saying that if we, if we didn't have so much infighting of people trying to stay in power, uh, uh, and, and get the one-ups in our own country, if we were like had everything solved here, then I think that cooperation would really go well. I just don't see that happening because I don't see our leaders feeling any urgency to get anything done when they're in charge, because why would you want that to change? And so they need to have an external influence. And like right now, China is it, and it's getting things done. And NASA got more money this year because of like the fears for that and the lobbying about that type of thing. So I think that I would be on the other side and that it would actually they need that conflict and that challenge, even if it's just like a pride challenge, not even like a national security one, to say that we got there first and did the other thing, you know?

Rod Pyle [00:42:15]:
Oh, you said that in a very Kennedy-like way. Do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are Chinese. Oh my God, what? Yeah. So unfortunately, he asked how Pascal or other knowledgeable guests would feel about this, so we're gonna have to hold on that. That's our opinion, and we're standing by it. And let's go stand by a break for a couple of seconds. We'll be right back.

Tariq Malik [00:42:39]:
Hey, can I, can I stop for a minute really quick just to go back to James? Sure. All right, well, one thing that you skipped in James's message is that he said cheers, enjoy Apollo 9 again.

Rod Pyle [00:42:49]:
I said that at the end.

Tariq Malik [00:42:50]:
Oh, well, did I miss it?

Rod Pyle [00:42:53]:
Oh, then I spaced out. I think you were napping.

Tariq Malik [00:42:55]:
Well, but I just wanted to point out that it's the anniversary this week as we're recording of Apollo 9. 9, right? Uh, on Monday or Tuesday was the anniversary of that mission that helped set the stage to go, uh, to go to the moon.

Rod Pyle [00:43:07]:
So, well, and maybe what he's referring to is the fact that Artemis 3 is now Apollo 9, as—

Tariq Malik [00:43:12]:
yeah, so there is that.

Rod Pyle [00:43:14]:
There's got— there is. But you know what, if, if that gives them time not just to test the lander, which is way better than testing it out at the moon, but also to work on that heat shield, then I'm all for it.

Tariq Malik [00:43:26]:
Yeah, yeah, I agree. I mean, I think that I was just listening to a streamer yesterday all about the heat shield not being ready for it, like, in a way that would really make you comfortable. You know, I know that Jared Isaacman is comfortable with what he's heard from the assessments from Artemis 1, but I'd like to see those arguments too. I haven't seen that, the rationale to see, like, why they're okay with the cracks and how the new orientation for the return reentry profile is going to solve all that and everything.

Rod Pyle [00:43:54]:
Everything. So yeah, all right, from Tanya Wyman. Tanya, who attended last year's live recording of this show. Yeah, we met her for the first time at the International Space Development Conference, which we should do again this year at the International Space Development Conference, TAREC.

Tariq Malik [00:44:12]:
I'll have to work on that. I will, I will work on that.

Rod Pyle [00:44:16]:
So I'll write you a check. Um, okay, Tanya. This might be too late for the show. It's not, but I've composed a pretty poor limerick if you want to include it. I actually tried AI to compose it, but that was even worse. So this is purely from the dregs of my brain. Oh, without further ado. Every Friday I get my fill of space from the Twist podcast.

Rod Pyle [00:44:37]:
This is just Ace. Rod is the man. He tells jokes as he can, and Tariq says headline news to keep pace. Congratulations. Ladies and gentlemen, well done.

Tariq Malik [00:44:46]:
I love that. That's so great.

Rod Pyle [00:44:49]:
Yeah, yeah, we take our fans and we can get them, Tanya.

Tariq Malik [00:44:52]:
Well done.

Rod Pyle [00:44:53]:
We appreciate that. That— I mean, if somebody told me to do a limerick, I'd have to be reminded what the heck a limerick was. So that was quite good. Thank you. All right, Lauren Cook.

Tariq Malik [00:45:05]:
Lauren? Yes, Rod?

Rod Pyle [00:45:06]:
What did the aliens say when they found Pioneer 10?

Tariq Malik [00:45:10]:
Uh, I don't know.

Rod Pyle [00:45:10]:
What did they say? Humans, please stop sending us pornography and instructions on how to get to your house.

Tariq Malik [00:45:19]:
It's creepy. No, that's good, that's good, because if people don't know— yeah, right, they had gold plaques on the Pioneer probes and the Voyager probes had those gold naked people with— yeah, with, with depictions of, of unclothed— I think we're supposed to say, uh, uh, humans as well as like, uh, was it pulsar?

Rod Pyle [00:45:39]:
Pulsar directions and the hydrogen.

Tariq Malik [00:45:42]:
The signals, yeah.

Rod Pyle [00:45:45]:
So just to be clear, you know, this is a gold plaque, flat piece of gold-coated, I think it was copper or brass, and it had line drawing, etching representations of a human and female figure, and the human's holding his hand up as in, we come in peace. And, you know, they didn't have clothes on because if you're going to show what mammals look like, to the aliens. You shouldn't, you know, they're going to look at the clothes and say, oh my God, what odd scales they have, or whatever. Um, but there were people that got upset because they said, but they're unclothed. And Carl Sagan had to say, yeah, we talked about that, you dumb-dumbs. So anyway, you know, this was a long time ago. This is the '70s. Just like, uh, how in the '60s Apollo 8 goes around the moon, they read from Genesis, very moving moment.

Rod Pyle [00:46:32]:
And then the American Atheist Society or whatever they're called complains, sues NASA saying, how dare you mix religion? And I believe in the church's separation of church and state myself. But this wasn't a transgression of that. This was meant to be an emotional, emotionally compelling moment.

Tariq Malik [00:46:51]:
You know, I heard a funny thing about those golden plaques, too, because they, you know, they contain like audio, they contain songs and sounds. No, that's the records. The records. So these plaques are different. Oh, that's right, right, right.

Rod Pyle [00:47:04]:
I was thinking about— just had the postcards and Voyager had the records.

Tariq Malik [00:47:07]:
That's right, that's right.

Rod Pyle [00:47:08]:
And a phonograph cartridge.

Tariq Malik [00:47:10]:
Well, there you go. So then does it have any instructions on how to build a phonograph?

Rod Pyle [00:47:14]:
It— no, it kind of does, but how do you, you know, how do you relate those instructions to an alien culture? So I don't think we— I think we might have talked about this on the show once. There was an engineer a few years back who said, okay, I'm going to pretend I know nothing. About LP records and phonographs, and I'm going to take a reproduction of the Pioneer 10 album, which he got a hold of, which is a phonograph album but with binary data on it, and try to figure out how to engineer a way to decode that. And it took him, I think, about a year and a half. So he got the audio first, that was pretty easy, but decoding video or photo signals from that was quite a chore. So of course if we did it now, it would be different. I mean, these days I just saw something the other day that you can, you know, store something like 10 terabytes on a crystal the size of your pinky fingernail or something.

Tariq Malik [00:48:02]:
Isn't it crazy how small it is and how, like, but cheap? I mean, I got terabytes on this computer I built, and, and years ago it would have been like an extra computer of hard drive for something like that.

Rod Pyle [00:48:15]:
Yeah. Oh man. Yeah. So, um, so anyway, yes, it is creepy.

Tariq Malik [00:48:22]:
Yeah. The, the deal, the deal there, by the way, about what I was going to say about the, the image before, I clearly, I I was mistaken about what we were talking about. Apologies. Clearly, is that, um, the discussion I had seen is that we had included a lot of photos but without context. And so there's pictures of people caught like in mid-running or jumping that if an extraterrestrial intelligence sees it, they're like, oh, these people can fly, you know, check that out, that's pretty cool, you know. So maybe they have no gravity on their planet. Um, anyway, that was what I was gonna say.

Rod Pyle [00:48:48]:
So I like it. All right, from Lauren Waxman. Lauren, this is referring—

Tariq Malik [00:48:54]:
another Lauren? Yeah, different Lauren. No, it's spelled the same though. Are you done? No, probably not, but listen.

Rod Pyle [00:49:03]:
Okay, so Lauren, this is referring to Pascal's Mars episode. Have we reached peak hubris? Okay, we can't even take care of our own home. I don't get it. I guess she's asking, yeah, why, why are we going to Mars?

Tariq Malik [00:49:16]:
And the answer is, Lauren, as I think we were, were talking about in the episode, The title of this email was Terraforming Mars 2, about doing that, I think.

Rod Pyle [00:49:24]:
Oh, okay, thank you. Good point. Um, so, you know, what we were talking about, Pascal, is exploring and doing science, and perhaps a small base, sortie-oriented base, where you could have 5, 10, 20, um, researchers doing their thing. Not that we're particularly advocating terraforming Mars. Now, certainly there are people that are, And my response— and I know there are people listening to this podcast, there's certainly people at the National Space Society who would look at me and say, oh, Rod, you're so naive. But you know, when you've been up to the Arctic desert and looked around at all that bleak, empty land, which is just rock and dirt and little bits of fungus here and there, you think to yourself, there's a lot of good usable space left on Earth that as challenging as those conditions are, they're still better than any place else out in the solar system. So I don't say we shouldn't eventually move off Earth. We're gonna have to someday, you know, when the sun decides to start growing and wipes out our planet and so forth, as we discussed with Jim Green on the show.

Rod Pyle [00:50:32]:
But we got a lot of time before that becomes the peak driver.

Tariq Malik [00:50:37]:
Reminder, don't tell your 5-year-old that because it'll be a very hard discussion.

Rod Pyle [00:50:42]:
Yeah. Well, and don't let your 7-year-old watch the 1953 version of The War of the Worlds just before bedtime because there will be no bedtime because he's convinced that the Martians are going to get here. Anyway, she says, I don't get it. Glad to hear Pascal Lee gives a voice to this and I love your show. And that's the important thing. Yeah, she loves the show.

Tariq Malik [00:51:00]:
Loves the show. Thank you very much.

Rod Pyle [00:51:02]:
But, you know, the terraforming argument is an interesting one. And on the one hand, you've got the rocks have rights crowd, which— and I'm being a bit glib about this, but the idea is that other planets are sacrosanct, we shouldn't do to them what we've done to our own planet and so forth. Conversely, you have the argument of, you know what, there's nothing there. We may discover microbes, which would be a big moment, but other than that, these places, especially the Moon, are pretty sterile, pretty dead. We don't know about Enceladus and Titan and other places yet, but certainly of the planets that we've recon pretty thoroughly, there's not a lot going on there. We didn't find the civilizations we all hoped for as younger persons. And, you know, why is that not a resource to be used to help the species survive?

Tariq Malik [00:51:50]:
I think I like Loren's argument though, about like the, not so much the should we or shouldn't we for Mars, but we got stuff that we can do here. You know, in Star Trek, they go and they colonize, well, settle, right? They go and they, they, they, they build outposts on other planets and moons and whatever because like they just, they ran out of space, but not in a bad way, right? They were there, they had trials and tribulations, but then they cleaned the planet up and then it was all, all nice and, you know, no one had a want for anything and like the atmosphere was all taken care of.

Rod Pyle [00:52:26]:
How boring.

Tariq Malik [00:52:27]:
So, right, but so, so then let's go somewhere else and like, like make that place a new home. I like that approach. Like, I think that we will eventually have some kind of settlement on the Moon and on Mars and maybe out in Titan and all the fun places, right? But I would hope that we wouldn't stop working on Earth to, like, make it better for everybody and not just for the people that have the money and the SpaceX and the Amazons and all of that stuff.

Rod Pyle [00:52:57]:
Yeah, well, we like the Jeff Bezos notion, which which comes from Gerry O'Neill and others about, hey, let's just move the heavy industry off Earth and keep it this beautiful verdant garden. And just so it's said, you know, I know this was a terraforming response, but if you don't terraform and you're sending people to Mars and the Moon, they're surviving. Yeah. You know, this isn't let's go take a stroll by the canals and look up at the twin moons of Mars. It's, uh, hey, let's put on our pressure suits leave our habitat, which has 3 meters of soil over it to keep the radiation from frying our gonads, and go take a walk in the toxic soil and vacuum of Mars. So, you know, humans are very fragile things. I guess for me the question is, which comes first? Do we manage to alter, you know, through transhumanism, alter human beings enough to survive in these more hostile environments, or do we alter the environment to help our weak little water-filled sacks of muscle and salt bodies survive.

Tariq Malik [00:53:58]:
So it's an interesting question. Can I, can I just— a quick non-sequitur. You mentioned Canals on Mars, but we do have another, another break coming. Okay, really quickly, a really weird thing happened to me this week because Rod mentioned Canals on Mars, and that got my tinfoil hat antenna, uh, going because I was driving. I think I was, I was driving home from dropping Zadie off at school, and as I passed this guy's house, or this house, some people pulled up and got out of a car, and no joke, was wearing a tinfoil hat. Like, with— like, I'm serious. Like, I, I did a double take and I stared at the guy just to see, and it was a tinfoil hat twisted in a little point, you know, on top. And I thought of you, Rod, because you look like a Hershey's Kiss.

Tariq Malik [00:54:45]:
Oh yeah, it was just Funny to see. That is so weird. I didn't take a picture because that's inappropriate, so—

Rod Pyle [00:54:53]:
oh, you're so correct. All right, let's, uh, let's tinfoil hat our way into a break here and we'll be right back. Okay. Hey Tariq! Yes, jumping right into it from Stan Breedlove. Stan, name— I wish I had a cool name like that instead of the goofy one I have, which is going to come up later, by the way. All right, Stan, Atarik, what did someone say when astronaut Buzz Aldrin was voted off Dancing with the Stars?

Tariq Malik [00:55:19]:
I don't know. I don't know.

Rod Pyle [00:55:19]:
What did he say? Man, what a buzzkill. Oh, he actually got some chuckles there. Okay, very good. John's got a million of them.

Tariq Malik [00:55:34]:
Barry Hayworth. Wow, he just keeps going. Barry Hayworth. Yes, Barry.

Rod Pyle [00:55:39]:
I'm waiting. Barry Hayworth. He says, I'll keep my eyes out for other funny space jokes, oops, regardless of whether they are original or not. For example, did you spot the central pun of the Project Hail Mary book and film? I saw it pretty much immediately as I read the book and was surprised when I mentioned it to my Catholic friend that he had not. In case you don't know what I'm talking about, the story is about Ryland Grace aboard the spaceship Hail Mary, or to put it another way, Hail Mary, full of grace.

Tariq Malik [00:56:09]:
That's right, that's right.

Rod Pyle [00:56:10]:
Looking forward to the upcoming episode. You have a lot of interesting news to discuss this time around. I, I certainly didn't think of that was reading the book.

Tariq Malik [00:56:18]:
No, at least they kind of— they, they, they had— they acknowledged that that's why it's called Hail Mary, Project Hail Mary, in the book. When you know that, that's, that's because they're, they're, um, it's their, their big pass, like their big long shot, you know, they're right, kind of thing.

Rod Pyle [00:56:33]:
Rylan Grace is in the spacecraft, so it's full of grace.

Tariq Malik [00:56:36]:
I'm really embarrassed. I'm really embarrassed because I just got that right now when Rod explained it to me. Wow, I just got it. So Barry, thank you. I read that book like in like a few weeks ago all the way through, and, uh, I read it a couple years ago, and you know, like a lot of Andy Weir books, I enjoyed it.

Rod Pyle [00:56:59]:
I didn't get the sense of revelation a lot of people do, and I have to say the same thing was true of The Martian. I enjoyed it, and I was thrilled that it made its way out of fan fiction. That will never happen again quite in that way because of all the AI books pummeling the market, I suspect. But, you know, it was a good book. It just, again, I feel like there are plenty of others that are peers to that that didn't get a tenth the recognition and didn't buy their authors a mansion in Chicago.

Tariq Malik [00:57:25]:
You know, yeah, I thought there would be like, like, there was like a secret twist in Hail Mary, and I kept reading it looking for that twist. And then it got to the end, and I was like, oh, I guess that's just the story. And I enjoyed it. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it. But I actually thought that it was about a different thing. That was like the central thing that was happening, rather than what was happening. And so because I thought that, and I had no reason to think about that, that was the case. But I, for some reason, had that in my head that this was what the book was going to be about.

Tariq Malik [00:57:53]:
And okay, the next chapter they're going to reveal what it is, the next chapter. And then I got to the end, I'm like, oh, I guess it wasn't— it wasn't about that at all.

Rod Pyle [00:57:59]:
But did you enjoy the movie?

Tariq Malik [00:58:02]:
I, I think I said it already.

Rod Pyle [00:58:03]:
And did Spock die at the end? I just—

Tariq Malik [00:58:06]:
and also, uh, Luke is— or Vader is Luke's father. Just don't— so don't tell anybody, right?

Rod Pyle [00:58:14]:
Because there's— uh, okay.

Tariq Malik [00:58:15]:
Hey, Tariq. Uh, yes, Rod?

Rod Pyle [00:58:16]:
From Mark Puchalski. Mark, why are astronauts hungry when they reach space? Uh, I don't know why, because they already had a lunch.

Tariq Malik [00:58:25]:
Yeah, that's an oldie but a goodie. I'd dig it. Here's Ralph. So you put Ralph on as well, so we can skip this.

Rod Pyle [00:58:32]:
That's why I was confused.

Tariq Malik [00:58:33]:
All right, all right.

Rod Pyle [00:58:35]:
Uh, oh yeah, that we have already done that. Okay, now Tariq, help me pronounce this name.

Tariq Malik [00:58:45]:
Heidi Tousignon. I think it's Tousignon. Yeah, listen to us be at all— okay. Hey, tell us if we got it right or not.

Rod Pyle [00:58:53]:
Toussaint? Yeah, she can, uh, she could send us a message from afar saying, you morons, congratulations on your 200th episode. I've been a regular listener for a while. I often road trip to see family, and my trip is exactly one podcast episode away. So see, it is good that we go for an hour. Why are you banging on me about it all the time?

Tariq Malik [00:59:11]:
I think we're almost over an hour pretty soon.

Rod Pyle [00:59:15]:
Yeah, I know, but still, you know, we, we got to keep our road trips going. And don't forget, we're also date night. Bait fodder for that other couple.

Tariq Malik [00:59:22]:
That's right.

Rod Pyle [00:59:22]:
I can tell you— I can tell that you enjoy working with each other, you know, and that makes it fun for me too. Thank you for your work putting it all together. Uh, hold on, let me pat my own back. Okay, a question for your Ask Us Anything episode: if I was sending 3 consecutive lunar missions over the next 5 years and asked you to name the 3 missions, what would you name them? So my candidates were Huey, Louie, and Dewey, A, 1, 2, and 3, or Athos, Porthos, and Aramis with D'Artagnan as the fourth.

Tariq Malik [00:59:51]:
Yeah, wait, those are yours?

Rod Pyle [00:59:52]:
What would your choice be?

Tariq Malik [00:59:53]:
Yeah, those are mine. You chose 1, 2, and 3?

Rod Pyle [00:59:58]:
Like— Well, I'm saying you could just call the missions 1, 2, and 3. That's what a lot of engineers would do. It's like, why are we getting these silly names? Let's call it 1, 2, and 3, like with Artemis.

Tariq Malik [01:00:10]:
I think that I would like to call them Apollo the sequel episode whatever. Right? And then episode 4, 5, and 6, like from Star Wars. I think it'd be fun. But it has to have Apollo the sequel in it, right?

Rod Pyle [01:00:25]:
No, Luna Cods.

Tariq Malik [01:00:26]:
You're called Luna Cod? No. Wow.

Rod Pyle [01:00:35]:
Wow. Also from Heidi—

Tariq Malik [01:00:37]:
crickets. That was really an awkward— that's the first awkward silence I've had to ride in 20 years.

Rod Pyle [01:00:42]:
Oh, it won't be the last. Um, also from Heidi.

Tariq Malik [01:00:45]:
Hey Tariq. Yes, Rod.

Rod Pyle [01:00:47]:
What does the lunar lander say to the moon as it left to come back to Earth?

Tariq Malik [01:00:50]:
I don't know.

Rod Pyle [01:00:51]:
What? See you later, crater. And the moon said, don't meander, lunar lander.

Tariq Malik [01:00:55]:
I like that one. Lunaplex is a good one.

Rod Pyle [01:01:00]:
John, are you having gastric trouble?

Tariq Malik [01:01:02]:
No, I'm just going down this whole list of sound effects we have that I've never used. Like this one right here. Yeah. Are those ones I sent? I don't know, they're in here. Oh, that was probably between me and Matt. Hey, did you know that Mr. Krab is like the bad guy from Highlander? Did you know that?

Rod Pyle [01:01:21]:
Oh, I did see that.

Tariq Malik [01:01:23]:
Yeah, actually, I— it's like, it's like paid his whole like kids through college.

Rod Pyle [01:01:26]:
My kid got into SpongeBob, and so I started watching it years ago. And as with Bugs Bunny, as you get older, you realize this show is made for two audiences. The kiddies and the adults. Yep. And Bugs Bunny, there's a lot of tongue-in-cheek stuff. The kids just kind of go, I don't get it, and adults are going, wow, that's racist.

Tariq Malik [01:01:45]:
Did you know that the voice actor for Mr. Krabs, AKA Clancy Brown, was in The Shawshank Redemption as one of the prison guards? Yeah, that's right. He's also one of the stars of Earth 2. What? I don't know, I'm being excited. One of the best single seasons of TV that ended on a cliffhanger ever.

Rod Pyle [01:02:04]:
So I could tell you weren't a big fan of Lost, huh?

Tariq Malik [01:02:07]:
So, I mean, I enjoyed Lost.

Rod Pyle [01:02:08]:
I just thought when I was still married, uh, my wife was—

Tariq Malik [01:02:12]:
needed more space—

Rod Pyle [01:02:13]:
watching Lost and very excited about it. And, you know, as an entertainment guy, I'm watching this with slightly different eye, but I remember thinking, these writers, you know, the joke's on the audience. It's like on episode 14, they're thinking about episode 16. Okay, what kind of weird stuff do you want to throw at the wall and see if it sticks this time? I'm sure they had a through line, but you sure wouldn't guess it by watching that show because it was like, what kind of wild junk can we come up with next week that we'll never be able to explain? And then they kind of just dropped it at the end of the whole series without really circling back completely.

Tariq Malik [01:02:46]:
And it's like, yeah, that's a whole other—

Rod Pyle [01:02:47]:
we could have a whole episode for what, 6 or 7 seasons with, okay, what's the big— so you're waiting for that 1950s Twilight Zone comic book wrap-up, right? The twist ending. And it just kind of stops. Yeah, they're going, I followed the show for 7 seasons. Okay, moving on.

Tariq Malik [01:03:03]:
I feel like I should just spoil like that show, just spoil it because just do it, do it, do it. They're all in purgatory and they're all dead. It's there, I've done it.

Rod Pyle [01:03:13]:
So clearly, well, solving nothing. That's that 1950s comic book Twilight Zone ending where Rod Serling comes out and say, for your consideration, from Byron Potton who lives at Camano Island, Washington, which is right across the channel, Byron, from Whidbey Island where my parents lived for many years and I spent time. So hello Byron and Camano Island, it's a great name. I love where you live, I, I wish I lived there.

Tariq Malik [01:03:37]:
I'll change my moon missions to Byron, that sounds great. Name of the poets, Lord Byron, right? Dante, that'd be great. Okay, I'm done. Continue, Rod.

Rod Pyle [01:03:49]:
Byron. He's, he's, he's brain tripping. Yeah. Actually, that's very just right. Okay, from Byron: What is the best proof we actually went to the moon? Oh, that's a long one. I'm old enough to have watched the moon landings, as am I, when I was a boy, so these images are ingrained in my mind. One of my three answers is that the movie The Martian is proof. The movie was made when CGI was fairly well advanced, and yet the simulations of the astronauts walking on Mars were terrible compared to the videos of astronauts on the moon.

Rod Pyle [01:04:17]:
Well, they were certainly higher resolution, but whatever. Also, one person said, "Oh yeah, how did they film the launching of the lunar module? What they read, they could still transmit from the rover." So yes, the rover had a TV camera on it, which was generally not turned on unless they had stopped because they had to reorient a little umbrella-shaped radio dish back to Earth. It's amazing all that work, by the way, trying to get TV transmitted 240,000 miles with an antenna dish that's about the size of a parasol is not an easy thing, but they did it. So on Apollos 15, 16, and 17, which are the 3 rover flights, they did aim the camera.

Tariq Malik [01:04:57]:
Huh? Which are the rover flights, is what I'm saying.

Rod Pyle [01:04:59]:
Right. The 3 rover flights. They aimed the camera at the lunar module, went over, got inside, and then it was time to take off. Ed Fendell, who was the technician back at mission control, who was remote controlling the camera, because they could do that— this is 1960s tech, by the way— would try to anticipate the, I think it's what, 1.5-second delay between the Earth and the moon. And he missed it on 15, he got really close on 16, he nailed it on 17, and we watched that sucker go all the way up into space. Now, is that proof we were actually there? There are people that looked at that video and said, oh, there's no rocket blast coming from the moon.

Tariq Malik [01:05:39]:
Module thing. Look how it wobbles on the way up, right? Yeah, hanging from a string.

Rod Pyle [01:05:43]:
Yeah, right. And it wobbled because of the uneven burning of the fuels, because they had tank on one side and a tank on the other for the hypergolic fuels. Anyway, so I buy that, although at this point— so I used to go, when I do Coast to Coast AM from time to time, and we get the calls the second hour and My favorite of which, I think I've told you before, was, "I was outside and there was a bright light above my house speaking to me in the voice of Buzz Aldrin." You know, I agree that Buzz is pretty close to omnipotent, but probably not that close. But anyway, you know, there are always moon deniers that call in that show. And I used to go this big song and dance about, go to the museum, see the rockets, they're the most expensive exhibits in aerospace history. Go to the National Archives like I have, riffle through thousands of photographs and hundreds of hours of audio and all that stuff. Stuff. Now it's much easier.

Rod Pyle [01:06:37]:
Number one, since the fall of the Soviet Union, we know that the Russians were tracking everything we did, and they were able to use Doppler radar to see Apollo coming around the side of the Moon, and they were able to downlink the transmission. So they knew we were there. Yeah. Had they realized we were not actually there, or it was robotic, you don't think they would have called this out? Since then, of course.

Tariq Malik [01:07:00]:
But that's the whole point of the —of the feat was to make them think that we did it, Rod.

Rod Pyle [01:07:04]:
So they— but since then, we have had India, China, uh, and ourselves, among others, orbiting the moon with high-resolution cameras. And we have photographs of not just the rover tracks, not just the landing stage of the LEM, but in some cases trails of footprints, the footprints across the moon. And that's pretty good. You know, it would be hard— I guess you could have a robot with with, you know, Bigfoot feet type things going stomping around the moon, but it would be pretty hard to fake. So yeah, the, the obvious history and lineage of that is there. So that's my proof.

Tariq Malik [01:07:38]:
Also, the reflectors, the reflectors are still there, the laser, laser. And anyone can shoot a laser if they know where it is, and yeah, they can, they can get the flash back. So, you know, and we saw them on video deploy that stuff.

Rod Pyle [01:07:52]:
So, so what Tariq's talking about is, uh, the Apollo astronauts put out laser retroreflector boxes, which had these little kind of honeycomby-looking mirror cells on them, a bunch of them, which they laid out on the lunar surface.

Tariq Malik [01:08:06]:
I think—

Rod Pyle [01:08:06]:
I don't know, they were like 24 inches on each side or something, 18 inches. They weren't huge. But if you know exactly where it is— I'll speak for yourself— uh, if you know exactly where they are, you can aim a laser beam at it from Earth through a telescope, and it actually comes back the exact same goes out, you get that ping back, and you go, aha, 3 seconds later we get— yeah, they measure the distance of the moon within about 6 inches, but they also tell us somebody put them there. That's right, it's not just some shiny rock. So yeah, there's all kinds of, uh, reasons to believe that this happened, and many fewer not to. But in my opinion, in the opinion of some of our guests, it's just not as sexy to believe that NASA could do it. It's much more fun to say say it's all a conspiracy, right?

Tariq Malik [01:08:51]:
And because we're in a generation— we're like a generation removed, if not more, you know, from that era— it's easier for people to believe that it didn't happen, that was a big old setup, you know. It'll be interesting to see how people treat Artemis 3, especially now with like the fact that like you can create stuff with AI or whatever. Yeah, yeah. Will anyone truly believe it?

Rod Pyle [01:09:12]:
Actually, that's a good story.

Tariq Malik [01:09:12]:
Well, I think there's a space.com No one— everyone forget you heard that idea.

Rod Pyle [01:09:17]:
So there's a generation or two of people that will take Steph Curry as being the ultimate, uh, and Kim Kardashian and say, well, they don't think it happened, it didn't happen. Paul Venzio wants to say, hey Todd.

Tariq Malik [01:09:33]:
Oh yes, yes, that's right.

Rod Pyle [01:09:34]:
Why wasn't Shoemaker-Levy 9 named Shoemaker-Levy-Sagan 9? Uh, I don't know why. Because Sagan just wouldn't commit.

Tariq Malik [01:09:46]:
Commit. I thought it was gonna be like a comment pun.

Rod Pyle [01:09:49]:
Well, it kind of is. I— there's no way to read it.

Tariq Malik [01:09:53]:
Oh, commit, commit. Yeah, I get it now.

Rod Pyle [01:09:55]:
Now, Mark Turner sent us two slings and arrows directly to our personal hearts. First one for you.

Tariq Malik [01:10:03]:
Hey, Tariq. Oh yes. Hey, Rod.

Rod Pyle [01:10:06]:
Yes, Rod. Why couldn't Tariq rescue the Robinson family when the Jupiter 2 broke down? I don't know why Okay. Because he got lost in space. Ah, now does this mean that he's called your cell phone and gotten that, that message you had on there for the last 17 years?

Tariq Malik [01:10:20]:
I don't know. It's, it's possible, but also it's possible that he watched one of my YouTube videos cuz that's how I sign off all of my YouTube videos.

Rod Pyle [01:10:27]:
Oh, and I'm, but he is one of your 17 loyal fans.

Tariq Malik [01:10:30]:
There is a brand new Lost in Space puzzle game that's out right now and it's only $10 and I can't wait to play it. So you play as a, Doctor Smith. Oh my gosh, the boy, John, John. Will Robinson. You play as Will Robinson with the robot and the doctor. And so you have to try to find your family.

Rod Pyle [01:10:49]:
I'm really excited about it. Can I have my Doctor Smith moment?

Tariq Malik [01:10:54]:
That was it. You missed it. So it was that.

Rod Pyle [01:10:59]:
Will! Penny! He was, he was really— and you know, I just want to say we've discussed this before too. We should do a Lost in Space episode. We should. Our first season was in black and white, and it was kind of— this— Irwin Allen did the same thing with Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and other shows. First season, black and white, very serious for the first handful of episodes. Dr. Smith is a bad guy. He was really good as a bad guy.

Rod Pyle [01:11:23]:
He was planning to kill the crew, and then he gets stuck on the spaceship. But, you know, he, he, he was good, and it was actually engaging to watch. And then they transitioned to color and you had Carrot Man and the space hippies. It just went right off the rails. And we'll save the rest of it for—

Tariq Malik [01:11:42]:
who do you think did the adaptation better? Do you think that the 1996 movie was good, or do you think that— or was it '98? And then do you think that the Netflix show was, was better?

Rod Pyle [01:11:55]:
I didn't like the Netflix show, was, was better than the movie, but, uh Neither of them really grabbed me.

Tariq Malik [01:12:01]:
I thought Parker Posey was the best Dr. Smith, like, hands down, out of the two of them. That is true.

Rod Pyle [01:12:08]:
Absolutely awesome. So, uh, also from Mark Turner, aimed at my soft tissue: Hey Tariq. Uh, yes, Rod? Why couldn't Rod read all his space jokes?

Tariq Malik [01:12:21]:
I don't know.

Rod Pyle [01:12:22]:
I don't know. Because he had too big a pile of them.

Tariq Malik [01:12:26]:
Because it's his name, everybody.

Rod Pyle [01:12:28]:
I I've never heard a joke about my last name before.

Tariq Malik [01:12:31]:
That's— did you hear? Do you remember he mentioned that he was going to get back to his name at the start of the show? Remember, it's foreshadowing.

Rod Pyle [01:12:39]:
Oh boy. So when I was a kid, of course, I got a lot of Gomer Pyle, what's brown and lays on the ground, Rod's pile, um, Hammer Rod. I mean, it just went on and on and on. And I think I've said this before, but I thought I had escaped it when I hit my 20s And then Full Metal Jacket comes out, and that goofball Private Pyle ends up murdering his drill sergeant. Now I'm Private Pyle again. So I'm not even Gomer Pyle, USMC. I'm now just Private Pyle. Which is all in a way to say I'd rather have the last name Malick than Pyle.

Rod Pyle [01:13:12]:
Well, just saying. Well, all good things must come to an end. We've had a blast.

Tariq Malik [01:13:19]:
That's a Star Trek reference, everybody, right? Because we But we're in Star Trek outfits.

Rod Pyle [01:13:24]:
I think people have said that before Star Trek, but that's okay.

Tariq Malik [01:13:29]:
That Shakespeare guy, like, okay, everyone wants to give him a lot of credit.

Rod Pyle [01:13:33]:
Sheesh. So yeah, who we now suspect may have just stolen other people's writing because he was a hack, huh?

Tariq Malik [01:13:38]:
I didn't see that.

Rod Pyle [01:13:39]:
I didn't. Yeah, those articles come around every decade or so. But I do want to say thank you to everybody for joining us today for episode 200, our annual listener special. Thank you, Tariq. Thank you so much, John Ashley, for hanging in with us these last couple of years. Yeah, very unenthusiastic thumbs up. Um, and thank you to our listeners, because without you there, we wouldn't— it would be very lonely of us just sitting here talking to each other.

Tariq Malik [01:14:07]:
Well, we wouldn't be at episode 200 if we didn't have listeners, so thank you all.

Rod Pyle [01:14:10]:
Well, we might. I mean, we're both pathetic enough that we might just get on every Friday and have a soup over an hour, you know. Hey Tariq, what's new in your world? Um, Tariq, where should we look for you in the AI-verse?

Tariq Malik [01:14:23]:
Well, you can find me at space.com as always, right? And, and on the, on the, on all of the socials at Tariq J. Malik, on YouTube at Spacetrone Plays. There's a whole new space season in Fallout 76 that just launched this week. I'm very excited about that. And this weekend, uh, you might find me at my first yoga class if I can get into it. That'll be pretty exciting. To see. And I'm gonna be going to the LEGO store to build my own free lightsaber.

Tariq Malik [01:14:46]:
Check your local LEGO stores, 12 to 2 o'clock on Saturday.

Rod Pyle [01:14:51]:
Oh, and here's a video game on screen for the highbrow of us. Oh yeah, yoga. I did yoga for about a year.

Tariq Malik [01:14:57]:
The space, the space, the space theming in the current season of Fortnite's really exciting, so I'm going to be playing that because the new update just went live yesterday.

Rod Pyle [01:15:04]:
I could barely contain my excitement.

Tariq Malik [01:15:06]:
Um, travel distance will under— The stealth outmaneuver. That's the audio from— oh, that's you! That's me.

Rod Pyle [01:15:13]:
Yeah, yeah.

Tariq Malik [01:15:14]:
By the way, in 2 years you'll find me here with Rod with our episode 300 special.

Rod Pyle [01:15:19]:
There you go, right?

Tariq Malik [01:15:20]:
That's right, 100 in 100 weeks.

Rod Pyle [01:15:22]:
So yeah, roughly. Um, uh, yeah, I studied under a woman that we called the Yoginator because she was absolutely brutal. Uh, the room was warm. It was, you know, stretch, stretch, push, push. Oh, what was that snapping sound? Your tendon? Okay, push more. I mean, it was— I went home crippled from that thing every night, and I was thinner and in good shape then. So yeah, anyway, who cares about that? But what you should care about is that you can find Tariq at the places he just mentioned, and you can find me at pawbooks.com or at astromagazine.com. And if you actually want to find me and you're in the Southern California area, please consider joining me for a talk on Apollo and Artemis at the Bowers Museum in Orange County on March 19th at 10:30 AM.

Rod Pyle [01:16:07]:
And you can go to bowers.org and look for the program section to see the listing. They do charge a fee, it's for charity, and I'll be doing a book giveaway. Ooh! Yes, many copies of Space 2.0 will go to people who can answer relevant space trivia questions.

Tariq Malik [01:16:23]:
Are you gonna sign it? You gotta sign it. You gotta sign my books, but I have so many of them. Bring them!

Rod Pyle [01:16:29]:
Yeah, you know, bring them to the ISTC in your car, hint, hint, hint, where we can do an episode together, hint, hint, hint, because people are asking us to, hint, hint, hint. Remember, you can always drop us a line at twis@twit.tv, and we welcome your comments, suggestions, and ideas, and space jokes. Send those space jokes because I'm running out, actually. I think I stripped the inventory on this.

Tariq Malik [01:16:50]:
Well, we shouldn't have used all of these.

Rod Pyle [01:16:54]:
And I, you know, some have been in there for months.

Tariq Malik [01:16:56]:
And I thought, you have no one to blame except for yourself. His own hubris.

Rod Pyle [01:17:01]:
I've never had anybody to blame.

Tariq Malik [01:17:07]:
What? I don't know where I was going with that.

Rod Pyle [01:17:10]:
Wow.

Tariq Malik [01:17:10]:
Hey, guess what?

Rod Pyle [01:17:12]:
Yes? New episodes of this podcast published every Friday at your favorite podcatcher, so make sure to subscribe, tell your friends, and give us reviews. We'll take 5 stars, thumbs up, uh, your center digit, whatever you want to give us, we'll take it. And you can also head to our website at twist.tv/twist. That is twit.tv/twist. And you can follow the TWiT Podcast Network @twit on Twitter and on Facebook and twit.tv on Instagram. Thank you everybody from the bottom of our hearts, small, gnarled, and black as they may be, in my case, because we love having you here and we love doing this show. And I don't know about you, Tara, But this is kind of the highlight of my week, sad to say. Oh yeah, yeah.

Rod Pyle [01:17:54]:
I know it's the highlight of yours because I talked to you on the other days. You're like, oh my God, I can't believe it just happened. And then you're all happy when you come on here.

Tariq Malik [01:18:01]:
Yeah, I get to have a good old time. Good old time with Rod. Also with John sometimes, but mostly with Rod. So.

Rod Pyle [01:18:07]:
And we miss Ant and Anthony too. They were both really, really good and helpful. And I'm glad to see Aunt's doing well. For those of you who remember Aunt Pruitt, who was our first board op, up. He is making his way through television and motion picture fame. I think, John, is he doing mostly commercials or also bit parts?

Tariq Malik [01:18:25]:
He was, um, bit parts in commercials. The last one he was in was for a, um, a Super Bowl commercial, I think.

Rod Pyle [01:18:32]:
Yeah, he had like 2 frames. Yeah, but I mean, you know, he's a good-looking guy. He's, he's built like Arnold Schwarzenegger, so that's what gets you the parts, I guess. I think he got his son on screen too, didn't he?

John Ashley [01:18:46]:
Uh, can't say for that. I don't know about that.

Rod Pyle [01:18:48]:
But anyway, well, Ant, we love you and, uh, we're glad that things are going well. Tariq, you have any final message for our beloved audience?

Tariq Malik [01:18:56]:
No, thank you all for sticking with us through 200 episodes. You know, frankly, I thought that I would have fallen on my face by now about as many times as I've fallen off the chair, but at least no one makes me remember that, right? Right. That one time, one time, Tark. Yeah, the people off the chair. Yeah, I think it happened like twice, maybe 3 times. A loop of that somewhere, but I have to dig it up from the archives.

Rod Pyle [01:19:17]:
We'll save that for another episode. Okay, thanks everybody, we'll see you later.

Tariq Malik [01:19:20]:
See you next week!