Star Trucking with Franklin Chang-Diaz and Miranda Chang – Part 2

The LIUniverse with Dr. Charles Liu

Welcome to Part 2 of our interview with father and daughter team Franklin Chang-Diaz, NASA astronaut and founder of the Ad Astra Rocket Company™, and Miranda Chang, Ad Astra’s Global Communications Director.

We pick up where we left off, with a focus on fathers working with their children! Host Charles Liu shares how much he loves doing The LIUniverse with his co-host and son Allen, while Franklin talks about how important Miranda is to the running of Ad Astra.

Then it’s on to our next question, from Ebony, who asks, “Do you believe that traveling to space can find ways to fix the problem with climate change?” Franklin begins by reminding us that we would not be aware of climate change if we were not exploring space. And then he describes how the life support system on spaceship Earth is in need of a great deal of maintenance and repair, how at some point there will be more humans than can survive on it, and how he worries that we will damage our environment to the point that our civilization won’t be healthy enough to explore space and then we will be doomed.

In Costa Rica, Ad Astra is working to transition the country to a green, hydrogen economy. Using solar and wind energy, they generate hydrogen from water, to power their fleet of hydrogen-powered vehicles and fuel cell electric buses. Miranda points out that Costa Rica’s electric grid is already nearly 100% renewable, making it a perfect based for doing test projects like these with the goal of reducing carbon.

Miranda discusses ways to make the economy of space more sustainable, too, and describes the fuel efficiency of the VX-200 VASIMIR engine (Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket), their new high-power, electric in-space propulsion system that will have a thirteen-year lifespan.

Chuck asks Franklin how me made the transition from astronaut to environmentalist. Franklin explains how the Overview Effect impacted him, and how he came back from space with a tremendous awareness of our environmental problem. Charles brings up the differences between the Gaia Hypothesis and the Medea Hypothesis, which says the Earth may be out to get us and will be fine without us.

Somehow, the conversation leads to “The Inner Light” – one of the most beloved episodes of Star Trek The Next Generation, which had tremendous but differing impacts on Franklin and Charles. In the episode, a civilization ignores climate change to the point where it is too late for them to do anything except memorialize their lives and their fate. Miranda talks about the unifying impact of space exploration, and the necessary realization we must reach if we are to survive that we are one species all in this together.

Finally, we turn to VASIMIR. Chuck wants to know how it will change our lives, and Franklin likens it to the trucking business that sprung up after WWII because of the availability of diesel engines. As of right now, he explains that we don’t have an equivalent for space: “We still fly to space in cannonballs.” What we want, he says, is powered flight over longer periods of time, which VASIMIR makes possible, changing the entire economics of space and enabling humans and the private sector to engage in sustained activity in space.

Franklin explains how VASIMIR may someday reduce the time from the Moon to Mars from 8 months to 2 months or less and catalyze the next period of humanity’s expansion into our solar system. In fact, it turns out that the engine Andy Weir used in his book The Martian was based on VASIMIR!

To find out more about Ad Astra, visit their website, www.adastrarocket.com, or follow them on social media at @adastrarocket on YouTube, Instagram and Twitter, and @asastrarocketcompany on Facebook and LinkedIn.

We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.

Credits for Images Used in this Episode:

– Apollo 17’s Blue Marble photo of the Earth – NASA, Public Domain

– Crew of STS-60, first launch with US and Russian spacefarers – NASA, Public Domain

– Aurora from the ISS – NASA, Public Domain

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