'Moving into the future:' Dan Riskin on historic Polaris Dawn private spacewalk

Published: Sep 11, 2024 Duration: 00:03:54 Category: News & Politics

Trending searches: polaris dawn
all right Dan risken is standing by He Is CTV Science and Technology expert Dan what do you think oh listen Chris Hadfield knows he's been there he's done it uh but all I can say is that the technology just keeps improving and that makes this like just keep coming closer to a day when all of us could have that Chris Hadfield experience I mean what we're ultimately working toward is a world in which we can go to space on vacation and this is a private company and yes the ticket was quite expensive as you say but uh that this is somebody who decided to spend their money on a trip to space and they got to do that and they got to go up in this cool new space suit uh with an opening and closing front sort of helmet piece that looks like it's something straight at a Star Trek and uh it's just a really fun exciting day to feel like we're moving into the future yeah I'm I'm curious what the sort of takeaway is in terms of you know first of all those space suits are really cool uh and they're much less bulky than the you know the NASA ones we're used to seeing um what does this mean though you know because sometimes people will say ah you know some tech billionaire blowing hundreds of millions of dollars of their own money on some kind of vanity project but there is real science here uh and you know being able to use those suits is a big test and also seeing you know SpaceX and NASA working together to try to make this happen yeah I mean both things can be true yeah it is a vanity project for a billionaire it's it's a it's a really expensive Hobby and I mean the person who paid for it got to be the one who stuck his head out of the capsule first so yes all those things are really happening and if you're the type of person that likes to focus on the negatives there's plenty there for you enjoy have a great time I choose to look at the other side of that coin which is that all the technologies that make it possible for that billionaire to do what they're doing well that employs tens of thousands of people who work for SpaceX and work for related companies that are making these Technologies a reality and those Technologies are evolving in a really exciting way I mean one of the things that happened today is that four people at the same time were exposed to the nothingness of space because there's no air lock on that thing so they open the door space came in all the air went out and so it didn't matter if you were sticking your head out or not you were still totally vulnerable and relied on that space suit to keep you alive and so four people tested those space suits for the first time in space at the same time with no one you know safely behind a closed door sort of watching things and in control they were all sort of just sitting ducks making that happen so that's part of the reason that it was a little bit muted in terms of the things that they tried to do it's not that exciting to see someone stand at the top of the stairwell and wave their arm a little bit you'd rather see them out floating around doing flips and that'll come but right now technologically what they've accomplished really is a huge milestone and it's exciting for all of us it kind of normalizes it even more doesn't it you know human travel up into space without having to necessarily be a NASA astronaut Dan yeah and having that camera mounted into the helmet so that as Jared isaacman made that emergence this morning just before 7 a.m. eastern time we all got to see it at at the same time as he did I mean we all saw it at the same time as he did that is really neat and that is a big part of how space exploration works now even the robotic stuff landing on Mars even though people aren't going that far yet because of cameras and because of the technology we can have a sense that we're there instead of relying on one or two grainy images that make their way back and so uh in a way we're all getting to experience this Rush this this transformation to becoming a space species uh but on the other hand uh just think about how hard it was just to open the door and stick your head out for a second and go back in I mean ultimately that's all that was really accomplished and so much technology and preparation and time and danger went into making that happen so it's small steps but we're going in the right direction space species I like that Dan thanks so much for this yeah thank you Dan risken our Science and Tech correspondent here at CTV News

Share your thoughts