The A to Z English Podcast Quick Chat 018: Do you want to travel to space?
In this episode, Kevin and Jack talk about space and if they think it would be possible to travel there in the future; and if so if they'd want to go. How about you? Share your answers to the discussion questions in our WhatsApp group chat! https://forms.gle/zKCS8y1t9jwv2KTn7
With listener mail from episode 14: https://atozenglishpodcast.com/technology-from-the-80s-and-90s/
Website: https://atozenglishpodcast.com/do-you-want-to-travel-to-space/
If you could take a minute and complete a short survey about the podcast, we would be very appreciative. You can find the survey here: https://forms.gle/HHNnnqU6U8W3DodK8
We would love to hear your feedback and suggestions for future episodes.
Intro/Outro Music by Eaters: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/eaters/the-astronomers-office/agents-in-coffee-shops/
Discussion Questions:
1. Are you interested in space, planets, and stars?
2. Would you travel to space is you had the opportunity?
3. Do you think people will live on the Moon or on Mars?
AtoZ_quickchat018_SpaceTravel.mp3
Full Transcript:
Jack:
You are listening to the A-Z English podcast.
Kevin:
Welcome to an A-Z English quick chat we're going to surprise each other with.
Kevin:
The topic for.
Kevin:
The day and just see where the conversation goes.
Kevin:
Check our website for a study guide with vocabulary notes, discussion questions and more, as well as links to our WhatsApp, Facebook or other social media groups where you can join in the conversation.
Kevin:
And today, Jack, I've been seeing a lot of news about the James Webb Space Telescope these days.
Kevin:
And I'm a big space nerd.
Kevin:
I love space stuff.
Kevin:
We also have talked about travel a bit in the past.
Kevin:
I was thinking what do you think in the future?
Kevin:
Are we going to be able to travel the space?
Kevin:
Do you want to travel to space?
Kevin:
Do you want to be a space tourist?
Jack:
I think not only.
Jack:
Is it the future?
Jack:
But I think it's the present.
Jack:
They already have some space tourism, I believe, for very, very rich people, so.
Kevin:
Yeah, yeah, right now, I guess.
Kevin:
It is kind of.
Kevin:
Possible there are, yeah, some.
Kevin:
Some super rich people have gone up into space.
Jack:
Like Justin Timberlake I think has been up there.
Kevin:
Most of them, I think.
Kevin
Did he?
Jack:
I think so, yeah.
Kevin:
I know.
Kevin:
I think Bill Gates was thing about it.
Kevin:
I know.
Kevin:
There was some like.
Kevin:
Japanese guy that's gone up there, actually.
Kevin:
Even in the past like.
Kevin:
10 years, even before the more recent like SpaceX and Virgin Blue or whatever, they're those companies names are there. There were some crazy rich people that were paying to go up on Russian space crafts.
Jack:
Yeah, that's right.
Jack:
That's right.
Jack:
And that's how our astronauts get there to the space station.
Kevin:
Yeah, or that's how they did.
Kevin:
I think that's going to be changing.
Kevin:
So what do you think?
Jack:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Kevin:
So yeah, it is possible for the extreme.
Kevin:
The Ridge right now.
Jack:
Yeah, it's 1,000,000 bucks a pop like one time.
Kevin:
I think it's more than that.
Jack:
Is it more than a million?
Kevin:
I think it's.
Jack:
OK.
Kevin:
I think it's.
Kevin:
Quite a bit more than a million still actually become.
Kevin:
Do you think it'll be possible in?
Kevin:
In our lifetimes, we're starting to get old, starting to get.
Kevin:
The pains in the.
Kevin:
Back do you think we'll be?
Jack:
Yeah, yeah, I think so.
Kevin:
Able to go up.
Jack:
Think in the next 10 or 20 years where.
Jack:
They're going to, we're going to see like a.
Kevin:
That's pretty quick.
Jack:
Yeah, I believe there will be a wait.
Jack:
It's still going to be expensive, you know, 10 or 20 years from now, but I think they'll come up with some sort of.
Jack:
You know, some kind of aircraft that will get right to the edge of the atmosphere where the where our atmosphere in space.
Jack:
So as you look out the window, you will see just darkness and stars and that sort of stuff.
Kevin:
Right.
Jack:
And so it's not, it's not in deep space or it's not even like close to the moon, but it'll be outside.
Speaker 1
Right, right, right.
Jack:
Our, I guess our atmosphere or Earth's atmosphere. And so yeah, so I believe that they'll be able to come up with some.
Kevin:
Right.
Jack:
I mean they have crafts like that, but I believe they'll build some that will be large enough then, you know kind of like you know, like a big airplane, you know, like it, but it will go higher and.
Jack:
And yeah, get people up there so they can see space and say that they were in space.
Kevin:
Yeah, I I think it'll be possible as well.
Kevin:
I mean, just looking at technology and how.
Kevin:
Quickly it's changed and how much the prices change and even airplanes. Airplanes were only 100 years ago when the first airplane flew. Right.
Kevin:
And then, you know, 50 years later we were on the moon, and 50 years later, you know, anyone can fly in an airplane around the world pretty easily.
Kevin:
It's cheaper and cheaper and cheaper.
Kevin:
So yeah, 10 or 20 years?
Kevin:
I don't know, maybe, maybe.
Kevin:
But I'd say in our lifetime it should be cheap enough and.
Kevin:
And possible to go.
Kevin:
So would you go?
Kevin:
Would you?
Kevin:
Do you want to go if you could?
Jack:
Uhm, no, I'm not really interested.
Jack:
I'm saying that I went to.
Jack:
If I went to space, I want to go to, I want to stay at.
Jack:
A hotel on the.
Jack:
Moon that would be that would be something spectacular.
Kevin:
Right.
Jack:
You know, going to see space.
Jack:
I think you can, you know, like the new telescope they were talking about, the Webb telescope, the James Webb Telescope.
Kevin:
At James Webb, yeah.
Kevin:
Uhm, where's?
Jack:
Where is that exactly?
Kevin:
That's at the LaGrange point.
Kevin:
It's out past the moon.
Jack:
Oh, OK, OK, this one is.
Kevin:
It's quite far.
Jack:
This is a like a satellite type.
Jack:
Of thing or is it?
Jack:
Yeah, it's yeah.
Kevin:
Yeah, it it's quite far it's out.
Kevin:
Those basically the Earth and sun interact and there's kind.
Kevin:
Of like a gravity did.
Kevin:
Kind of between them and after the earth.
Kevin:
It's physics.
Kevin:
It's hard to explain, but it's very cool and that's where the James Webb is.
Kevin:
It's at a place so it can, it's far enough from the earth and from the sun, so it's just, it's out in space.
Kevin:
It's past the moon.
Kevin:
It's pretty far away.
Jack:
And so it's just a clear, it's the clearest view we've ever had of the Galaxy essentially, or multiple galaxies I suppose.
Jack:
Yeah, I mean.
Kevin:
At the beginning of time actually is what the James Webb is looking for.
Kevin:
It's pretty amazing.
Jack:
And yeah, it seems like a yeah, I mean, it would be interesting to learn.
Jack:
It is the planet infinite, you know.
Jack:
Is space infinite?
Jack:
Does it go on forever and ever?
Jack:
These are crazy questions.
Jack:
Anyway, I'll get back to our.
Jack:
The theme up to.
Kevin:
I love space, if we could talk about it.
Jack:
That's yeah.
Kevin:
But let's stick with travel.
Jack:
So space travel.
Jack:
So yeah.
Jack:
Would I go up and to just look at space?
Jack:
Probably not.
Jack:
But if I had the opportunity to and I could afford to stay on the moon, that would be incredible.
Jack:
So I hope in my lifetime.
Jack:
That there's a moon.
Jack:
Base that would be, you know, like, that's the thing. And then by the end of my life or like 100 years after that, I would like to, I would expect to see a space elevator. Are you you familiar with the space elevator?
Kevin:
Ah, OK.
Kevin:
Yeah, with the concept is those are really interesting actually as well.
Kevin:
I'll come back to that in a second.
Kevin:
I think as well I kind of agree with you on the whole space tourism thing.
Kevin:
Like I love space travel.
Kevin:
I love Space physics news like I read all about it.
Kevin:
I it's really fun for me and I would love to go to space.
Kevin:
But at the same time, you're right, just going up.
Kevin:
So look, and then coming back down I I'd be interested, but if it's crazy expensive, I wouldn't.
Kevin:
Really do it.
Kevin:
But to go up and actually stay in space for like a night or something.
Kevin:
I think that would be more interesting and pretty cool space elevators to get back to it.
Kevin:
That's a cool concept.
Kevin:
And if that's possible, then.
Kevin:
It'll be very cheap to go.
Kevin:
Into space in in the future.
Jack:
Yeah they're they would be able to yeah there be there be no more rockets to get you know package.
Jack:
And people outside of the of our gravity field, essentially. So Yep, you'll be able to just put it on the elevator and 24 hours later it reaches the satellite.
Jack:
I guess the other end of the elevator the high point dip the top floor and then you're just floating in space at that point.
Jack:
So let's just be like, yeah, yeah.
Kevin:
That would pretty cool.
Kevin:
Yeah, those are still tough to make the main reason that, I mean there's many difficult things about making a space elevator, but the current technology that's holding us back.
Kevin:
They don't have a material strong enough to make the rope effectively.
Jack:
Right.
Jack:
They tried like.
Jack:
Carbon, nano particles and all kinds of.
Kevin:
There's a diamond carbon nano.
Kevin:
Amazing platinum.
Kevin:
Yeah, things.
Kevin:
And it's just it's not possible quite yet.
Jack:
And you're also, you've never been on an elevator that goes up 128,000 floors or whatever, you know. So that's essentially what we would need, you know? Yeah, it would just be.
Kevin:
Right, it would take a long time.
It would take.
Kevin:
A very long time, yeah.
Jack:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jack:
You know, I really find it interesting.
Jack:
I love space and stuff, but I like watching these.
Jack:
You know, I follow the news when rich people like Jeff Bezos took William Shatner up into space in a couple months ago, and that was really interesting because William Shatner.
Kevin:
No, right.
Jack:
Is a famous American actor a famous for Star Trek and so.
Kevin:
Yeah, I know.
Kevin:
He's like the space captain.
Jack:
Yeah, he's kind of an icon.
Jack:
Of like space exploration fictional, but a fictional character not.
Kevin:
Right.
Jack:
It's William Shatner, but the character he played Kirk, right?
Jack:
Yeah, so it's, you know, it's really cool that, you know, rich people get to do it right now, but everything rich people did 100 years ago.
Jack:
Normal people get to do, you know, 50 or 100 years later, so I can't imagine probably at the end of my life people will be going to space more regularly so.
Jack:
So maybe it won't be that impressive at a party if somebody says, oh, what did you do last weekend?
Jack:
Oh, I went to space.
Jack:
You know, and then Jan, you know, again.
Jack:
Yeah, maybe it'll be impressive.
Speaker 1
Right.
Jack:
To go to the.
Jack:
Moon or I'm hoping in my lifetime, maybe even people go to Mars.
Jack:
That would be really cool.
Jack:
That's something that I would love, yeah.
Kevin:
Yeah, love I would love to, even if I don't get to go.
Kevin:
Just to know that the astronauts are getting there would be would be pretty amazing.
Kevin:
Thing so, but yeah, hopefully space travel someday will be something that that we can get to.
Kevin:
And what about?
Kevin:
What about everybody out?
Kevin:
There, listening, you know, maybe you've traveled around in your country or maybe to other countries.
Kevin:
If you could go to space, would you?
Kevin:
Do you think it's going to be possible in your in your lifetime?
Kevin:
I know we have some much younger.
Kevin:
Listeners as well, and so their lifetimes will be a bit longer.
Kevin:
So what do you think before?
Kevin:
Before they get old, before their grandparents?
Kevin:
Do you think that you'll be able to travel to space?
Kevin:
And if so, do you want to go?
Kevin:
And if you do, what do you want to do up there?
Kevin:
Do you want to look around, go to Mars, or even something more crazy?
Kevin:
Something more science fiction.
Kevin:
What do you think would be cool?
Kevin:
So join us in our WhatsApp group and.
Kevin:
Tell us what you think.
Kevin:
So thanks everybody for joining.
Kevin:
Remember, on our web page, you can join our WhatsApp group or social media to join the discussion, as well as if you can leave us a comment and a review on Apple Podcasts that would really help us to get to other people.
Kevin:
So thanks for listening and see you in space.
Kevin:
Bye bye.
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-a-to-z-english-podcast/donations
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy