Hey everybody! Can you hear us? We're
back. Sorry about that stream issue that was
not fun but we hope everybody can come
rejoin us for our Facebook Live Giving
Tuesday. I'm Danielle Gunn, Communications Manager here at The Planetary Society
and with me are
Robert Picardo, a board
member of The Planetary Society.
Bill Nye CEO of the Planetary Society.
Hello, Boss.
Yes yes greetings, manager. You guys, we're
sitting in my office in Pasadena and not
far from the Jet Propulsion Lab. We are
sitting at the very table where the
founders of The Planetary Society used
to sit and argue--discuss! And so a
little bit of Carl Sagan's DNA is in
the woodgrain right here. I had him
for one class and he changed my
life. I joined--I'm a charter member--
I've been a member for 37 years and now
I've
become CEO, because I left the room during a board meeting. I kid! You guys
we connect you with space, so thank you
for joining us. We're really glad to
have you here because today is Giving Tuesday
And we have a very exciting
challenge that I'd like to tell
everybody about. We have a board match
challenge that means... What's better, Bill?
$40,000 or $20,000?
When it comes to
dollars I say $40,000.
We think so too
so if we raise $20,000 in
pledges, the board of The Planetary
Society, of which I'm a member, will match
it dollar for dollars, so your one
dollar pledge brings two dollars.
Everything is double. These are better
odds than you're gonna find in Vegas or
anyplace. It's today only, midnight Pasadena time
We're doing this match, so it's like a
good 24 hours. Yes, you have till midnight
tonight. Yes and what time zone would
that be? Pasadena Pacific.
So that's what we're doing today. But why
would you want to give to us? We can
tell you about that today.
Because we're
the world's premiere space advocacy
group. Yes we educate, create and advocate.
We connect you with space so that we can
advance space science and exploration. Citizens around the world are
empowered to know the Cosmos and our place within it. So here's why I donate:
because I am a Communications Manager. I do communications. But I love, love, love
space and I wish I could be an astronaut,
I wish I could build rockets. but I can't.
So for me giving to a place like The
Planetary Society, it's like a way to
legitimately help advance space. Here's
why I give because of my relationship
with the Star Trek franchise I get to go
all over the world and meet science
fiction fans and I try to show them that
if they love science fiction they really
love science and if they love dreaming
about the future by watching Star Trek
they really want to know about all of
the cool things that we are doing right
now we're planning to do in the near
future in real space exploration well
the near future is now when you go to
build a spacecraft it takes years when
you mount a mission it takes years so
we're on this now by the way are we
gonna talk about white sail too now or
do you want to defer it we can so we
were gonna talk about our four core
enterprises so when you donate to the
Planetary Society when you become a
member we have four areas that we really
try to focus in on robotic exploration
human spaceflight search for life
elsewhere in the cosmos very exciting
and defending our planet from near-earth
objects like asteroids and comets so
when I was in school Danielle
there was no good idea of what happened
to the ancient dinosaurs I'm not kidding
you guys it was they was they had small
brains and the mammals took all their
food or something but in my lifetime
when I was out in the workforce paying
taxes the way you are today my friend it
was discovered that the earth was hit
with an asteroid that probably finished
off the ancient dinosaurs they may have
been suffering from sulfur or spewing
out of volcanoes in what is now India
but they were finished off by a rock
from space and this is a common theme in
science fiction rock from space causes
trouble but we don't want that to happen
again this is a real thing everybody and
we have the technology and by that I
mean
humankind has the ability to find the
asteroids and set up a system a gizmo or
rocket a spacecraft to give a nudge in
deep space and keep the earth from
getting hit with one of these things
it's really a thing we're not kidding
and we work very hard to petition US
Congress and space agencies around the
world to get ready for this the hardest
part is finding the asteroids in the
first place and that's not a digression
that's the fourth thing we do yeah the
first thing is robotic exploration
you know the Rovers on Mars the Cassini
mission that just was and do you know
the mission that's in orbit around
Jupiter and I was in Barbara Mikulski's
offices senator from Maryland back in
2000 petitioning for the New Horizons
mission that went past Pluto and is
going to go on in 2019 and photograph
another object this brings out the best
in us it brings out the best in
humankind space exploration take it so
this is what we're gonna do today so
today is giving Tuesday where we hope
you would consider if you are a true
space fan to donate to the Planetary
Society so we can do this important work
and help advance humanity's quest into
the cosmos advanced space science and
exploration but we also want to give to
you our audience we want to give back so
we're gonna give stuff off your desk
since we're in your office today well
have we mentioned haiku has the word
that we're in snowden's yeah we have
issued a challenge for you to write a
space haiku something about space that
excites you enough to write a poem about
it
everybody knows what a haiku is we're
not sure yeah five syllables seven
syllables five syllables three lines and
the first one we're gonna do is on
robotic exploration so who's gonna read
the first one well I think bill if you
have something about robotic exploration
I think you can get everyone started and
then you all in the comments write your
haiku about robotic exploration and
we're gonna pick a winner and give a
prize mail it
you and Bill and Bob who you it's the
world's first haiku Athan isn't this the
first michael with on basic space hi
this i could you can be a runner you can
outrun your your your fellow runners get
your haiku written immediately send it
to us
and you may win and you know why we do
this because on fridays here at the
Planetary Society we have a tradition
where we write a space haikus to each
other we email them to each other on
company time yeah just talk about our
accomplishments of the week to put our
ode to the cosmos this also happens
there's a planetary science conference
where they submit their papers with a
haiku I think it's time to give them a
representative haiku on robotic
exploration so we you wrote several here
bill yes this remind this somewhere
really works no it is and while he's
reading his and we'll also have you read
some from our members that members
senton if you could write yours in the
comments andrew our social media guru is
looking at the comments and so we're
gonna pick one and we're gonna give you
a prize that bill and Bob if you could
sign it I think that would be really
cool if you guys signed a prize okay
orbit land and Rove our robots explore
beyond where humans can't breathe oh
yeah does that one you wrote personally
yeah we don't you have a problem with
that no I had no idea that you had well
they're not that good this one I like
like it where humans can okay which one
this one you were with our haiku hands
what's written maybe in sands of Mars
one day soon that's pretty cool well
that's well I tell you I like it
this is not required as many of you may
infer I'm not a poet but I do like a
rhyme in a haiku no this is not required
and executive sound upon frankly well I
spend time I spent a lot of time with
Japanese colleagues and it's an
aesthetic where it doesn't rhyme that
they like so you do this to offend you
know it's a more disorder it has
somehow it has more beauty but for me I
like it to have a little rhythm I mean I
I'm not I'm from us culture so that our
haikus are compromised alright but the
point is you will have you're not gonna
be given special preference if you have
a rhyme no no in fact you you'd be the
judge you may discourage rhyming I
digress written by one of our members
James Greenfield in Phoenix Arizona
further out than most Kepler finds new
planets and Gaia Maps the Stars no it's
really good I want to read one okay yes
please
so here's robotic haiku by a member of
planetary society member which one you
saw oh I can pick any one of these was
it a pick one all right seeing past the
old horizons from Pluto venturing
forever onward to create a new horizon
by Gabriel Gabriel protein from Colorado
Springs oh we have a winner Andrew our
social media guru is randomly selected
the winner by Joshua Frank of rumen into
the cosmos we send our hopes and our
dreams searching for answers wow that's
beautiful beautiful job so is and
remember no Josh josh Josh Josh if you
remember listen if anyone here watching
is a member we'd love for you to say
hello so Josh get something off your
desk oh yeah oh really yeah that light
sail model let's give them that alright
here I go
oh stuck at the table Carl Sagan just
grabbed me is that all right yes they're
nice these are made by our volunteer Tom
Kemp who's been with the organization
since the beginning this is a cardstock
model of our beloved light sails
spacecraft and in a 30-second digression
for our viewers who do not know if
that's possible what light sail is so
light sale is a CubeSat
which is a cubical satellite and the
this one is miniaturized for you but
there are ten centimeters by 10
centimeters by 30 centimeters ours all
right that's
so-called three-unit 10 by 10 by 10 10
by 10 by 30 is a 3 unit 3 you cube set
the sales extend out four point seven
meters we get almost 30 square meters of
sale area with this very very thin super
shiny mylar material and when it's in
space sunlight gives it a push and
you're saying wait a second light has no
mass how can it possibly give anything a
push and I know it's strange it has
momentum it's pure energy 9 micro
Newton's per square meter and for you
those of you who have not embraced the
metric system because you grew up in the
West country on Earth that doesn't use
it very much a Newton is a unit of force
that's the equivalent of about a stick
of butter so a billionth of a stick of
butter pushing on every square meter but
wait it pushes on a day-and-night but
you're in space there is no night so it
pushes on it continually and this is
what enables a solar sail to get a boost
and so we're gonna fly our second light
sail white sail to sometime this spring
we strongly believe we are all set the
spacecraft's ready to go the batteries
are charged up the clocks running
who else bill could have a citizen
funded spacecraft but the planetary
that's it we are the world's largest
space interest organization and we have
contacts in spacecraft manufacturing and
we hired the very best people in the
world to build this small spacecraft to
demonstrate solar sailing to advanced
space science and exploration and indeed
we have been contacted by a couple
companies who want to use the mechanism
that we developed to for their solar
sail spacecraft in the future it's cool
and if you're watching today you are
either part of light sail or you could
be part of it you could be part of
London yeah please sign it and
you're right Bob this is a chance
especially here on givingtuesday to
donate and help us with this project
with with all of our work in our four
core enterprises and you can do that at
planetary org slash givingtuesday and
today only your contribution will be
matched dollar for dollar up to twenty
thousand dollars thanks to our generous
board of which Picardo is the part so
we're going to move on do I just assign
this to do yet all right Josh if you're
watching this the Haiku that one sent us
direct message us to your mailing
address and we will mail this to you
this week and hopefully you'll have it
in time for the holidays so now we're
going to want to search for life another
thing that we all right and Bob I think
you have a haiku for us I do I wrote
this one as one heart we yearn to know
if life beyond ours dwells among the
stars I emailed my friend and former
Star Trek co-star Jeri Ryan and yes if
she would donate a haiku today so this
is Jerry Ryan's haiku straight from the
Delta Quadrant
here it is we need to explore where no
one has gone before
now more than ever now that has that run
bury your gear here you're speaking his
language so now is your chance to write
a haiku that is themed
about searching for life in the cosmos
and we will randomly select and you will
get another price off Bill's desk cuz
we're gonna bill Nyes office right now
we're just doing everything Bill we're
just taking it away I make one record
arrest I have to fight it I do put stuff
on the desk I cannot see a single bowtie
on that desk bill the bowties are in a
closet in a special way
all right I'm going to read another one
this is from a man named Brian Neil
Bergen Brian is one of our treasured
charter members love your dad remember
number 218 Wow all right so here's here
is Brian's
haiku about the search for life so great
the cosmos so precious intelligence we
must seek others these are great all
right now thank you for taking the time
everybody from Tom Reed in New York
Enceladus squirts water methane hydrogen
creator of life all right that's pretty
pretty far buddy just think what it
would mean I like to talk about this a
lot just think would it mean if we found
evidence of life on another world I
claim that it would change us it would
change this world it would change the
way each and every one of us feels about
being a living thing I mean with the two
questions that make us all crazy or
where did we come from
and are we alone in the universe we all
wonder whether or not we're alone or is
there another intelligent whatever the
expression is sentient life-form out
there that wonders about us we are made
of this the dust of exploded stars we
are one of the ways the universe knows
itself this is an extraordinary time
everybody we may very well discover
evidence of life on Mars or Europa the
moon of Jupiter with twice as much ocean
water as the earth has if we were
discover evidence of life on one of
those other planets or moons it would
change everything and this is a worthy
pursuit a worthy use of earning elect
and treasure and thank you all for your
support thanks for watching right now
what I would like to think too is its
profound either way if there's life in
the cosmos or if there's not where do we
come from
are we alone in the universe that's it
for men then what's for lunch
well that's it's an important question
well that wasn't we're worried about now
cuz it's only 10:30 we have a winner all
right a winner of our haiku thank you
for submitting Kyle Ryan are there alien
unless we search for it we will never
know I think he deserves a gift from
Bill's desk yes go steal that off the
bills screen were stealing stuff off you
so my decision yes yes
Europa we have a as from NASA pick that
up at GPO this is a europa sticker from
nasa and a beautiful europa planetary
card and you know what I think I'd like
to throw something else in I'm so moved
by that that I am going to throw in my
personal Planetary Society hat you
autograph autograph with Bill and my
signatures so that is the kind of
exciting giveaway so stick with it get
those donating fingers going right now
okay want to see yeah you can go to
Planetary org slash givingtuesday today
is giving Tuesday it is your chance to
give back to the causes and charities
that you care about and we're doing some
really cool stuff but if you're a space
fan like I am like these fellows are
this is your chance to be a part of
space exploration
so Planetary org slash givingtuesday our
social media guy Andrew polonaise put
the link in our comments you can click
there and today only if you donate $1
it's really two dollars we donate five
dollars it's really ten if you donate 20
it's really 40 because our board hasn't
matched their matching up to $20,000 so
we're trying to raise $40,000 total but
we only need 20 from you and we would
appreciate it so much if you could do
that today on givingtuesday to support
our work so the next topic Oh show to
the camera
look at that isn't that exciting yeah
it's really cool that's nice to me you
to give your hat oh well all right who
wants to win another prize you guys got
short fun you guys are really good at
writing these haikus it's hard to choose
which one is the winner we really
appreciate it okay so we're gonna talk
now about it is tax deductible thank you
Edward morose as a question is taxed it
absolutely tax deductible yes so getting
in before before the 31st any donations
tax deductible okay so we're gonna talk
about we don't want the earth to get
with an asteroid that would be in a
Windows machine the Windows computer
that I think it's control-alt-delete or
civilization on an Apple machine I think
it's white yeah it's bad you don't want
that everybody when the asteroid hit
that finished off the ancient dinosaurs
off what is now the coast of Mexico the
cone of the ejected material the ejecta
is believed to be bigger in diameter
than the earth itself so then the
Earth's gravity made this ejected
material circle the earth and was
catastrophic for big animals like the
ancient dinosaurs and if it landed in a
place like Paris Tokyo New York Moscow
that would be the end of so much most of
us would perish and it would be
centuries millennia perhaps before
humankind recovered and you don't want
to be one of the perishes
so what we want to do is find these
objects which are very difficult to find
the old saying is it's like looking for
a charcoal briquette in the dark and
then we want to build a spacecraft in
the system to go out there in space and
give it a little nudge and this is an
important thing to advocate for to do
basic research in the technology and to
really to raise awareness of
this is a real problem that we need to
address and practically speaking bill
the planetary society through the
shoemaker neo grants actually supports a
network of amateur astronomers around
the world and there they're using their
equipment to search and actually give
that data to NASA so they're supporting
you know practically if you are a
Planetary Society member you're you're
helping to protect the earth by funding
through those grants
so everybody it's important to consider
the word amateur when you talk about an
amateur tennis player that's one thing
but amateur astronomers are serious
scientists that contribute it's a little
different use of the same word they
contribute directly to our understanding
of the cosmos because it takes diligence
and the more telescopes you have
distributed around the earth the more
information you get about the night sky
so when when we contribute or support
amateur astronomers we're really
contributing to the science of of the
cosmos something really cool happened
this year was the discovery of the first
ringed world
I know Neptune the dwarf planet Haumea a
Hawaiian word is named after and it's
really neat because two of the
telescopes were funded directly with our
neo shoemaker Chris so this is an object
it's probably not big enough to have
enough gravity to be a sphere yet it has
a ring of dust material run it so it's
just it's rewriting the textbooks as the
saying goes it's just fantastic time to
be alive well should we read up oh yeah
so write your planetary defense of
something about asteroids so whatever it
is submit yourself for the prize we're
gonna steal more stuff off the bills
desk because we're gonna bill Nyes
office right now and so you do that in
the comments and
we will read bill you wrote a haiku yeah
making apologies for them in advance
leave no surprises fine
track and characterize Neos out there
okay we could read some are luxuries
yeah remember I'm just gonna pick one at
random from someone named Johnny Norman
in västerås Sweden sent in the
following the dinos are dead better not
end up like that aim for the moon folks
that was written in English or
translated from the Swedish it had to
have been written in English because
it's way too cool to be a translation
that's great I'm gonna read one more
when I hang out with those guys from
Denmark University of Copenhagen they're
all their English is outstanding oh yeah
I and part of that is the part of the
success of the English language around
the world is space
it became the language of aerospace
anytime you go to a space conference
it's all in English and that is largely
because of the end of the investment of
by the NASA
North American Space Administration this
is from Akari Tok kaua study asteroids
find the ones that target earth and stop
disaster and we have a winner from our
Facebook live audience thank you to Maya
so didn't here's what you want to read
it bill by Maya my children look up
let's keep Earth forever safe it is our
one home please direct message us your
mailing address and we are going to get
you this
should I have a little nervous are you
one of our generation directory I'm so
bill is the earth I should do defense
anyway this is a Happy Planet Airy
society squeeze ball aster squeeze
asteroid and we will send we will
autograph it and send it to you thank
you very much my music exercise exercise
that check-writing grip by us by
squeezing on your very own asteroid
reminding you that you were supporting
planetary defense by supporting the
planetary society and when you say check
writing it also could be electronic
funds transfer oh yeah much so we have
one last prize effects are pretty good I
hid it in Bill's closet where the ties
are but it's not a tie it's something
even better than a Bill Nye it's very
exciting but we can't tell you what it
is you have to see you're not talking
about okay and the other drivers doing
if you're happy if you happen to be
watching this later today and it's not
live right now cuz we're gonna be
working on other things helping advance
space exploration layer day but you're
watching this right now if you share
this video either now while we're live
or afterwards we have a grand prize that
we're giving away that that's really
cool show you at the end but to enter
you have to share the video which helps
spread the word that that's really what
we're trying to spread the word so
people know about the work that we do
and the work that you support as a
support of the planet and we have a
matching gift that's important to know
the matching set of gifts yes for the
planetary fund which helps support our
four core enterprises its planetary org
slash givingtuesday today is giving
Tuesday a chance to donate to the causes
you care about and we hope if you love
space exploration as much as us that you
will consider donating today your money
will be matched dollar for dollar up to
twenty thousand dollars so that was a
very crappy autograph it's hard to sign
an asteroid even though it's much harder
to sign a real one but it's really hard
to sign a
asteroids so to find the prize and the
ties that's good alright I think we're
moving into human spaceflight are you
I'm not yeah if I'm not mistaken and I'm
going to read one of mine which I had a
little help on from my planetary post
producer Merc who is behind the camera
right now astronauts now go where no one
had gone before the final frontier
little Star Trek theme just a little
hint of Captain Kirk in there alright
I'd like to read while we're inviting
you to write yours and win what I have
to say could be the coolest prize so
cool we can't tell you what it is we've
seen it it's hiding over there now
it's really cool I would write your
little fingers off right now but in the
meantime I will be reading a bill would
you like to read one of these yes
hoarsely pick one at random by one of
our members oh well this is pretty good
this is from Judy Gabbard might be giver
Judy giver in Denver Colorado not far
from the ice core lab where I spent some
time the search for knowledge about
things we cannot see calls for space
travel thank you Judy very very nice and
here's one from a suspected Star Trek
fan because it has some of that same
theme attic terminology in it this is
from Keith melon in Wurster England that
were stirred if you say werster instead
of Rochester Worcester West I can never
pronounce weird re about that Keith I
probably we apologize well I think it's
Worcester it's worth sir Massachusetts
human spirit soars surprising man-made
limits sailing the frontiers
does really nice where I know we don't
have a winner so I'll read one more from
from our member James Gekko focusing
upward see an infinite cosmos dream of
weightlessness
okay keep submitting your human
spaceflight haikus in the comments and
Andrew our social media guru is going to
select a random order for the coolest
prize you can also share this video to
enter our grand prize but you can also
give to us if you care about space
exploration and want to help advance our
work and our mission with the planetary
fund it is at planetary org slash
giving Tuesday also Desiree wants you to
say hi to her hi Desiree I guess you're
asking for I know you didn't care about
me saying hello Desiree and I'm not
offended I'm not hurt in any way
hello Desiree alright we have a winner
winner okay here we go
who wants to read it I want to read this
winner all right please at the bottom
one yes okay from Ella Iverson grasp for
space unknown solar winds against your
back
stellar pride light sail human
spaceflight I mean that's imagining
being human anyway it's a it's a very
beautiful haiku it is imagining yeah I
know we don't we don't have a plan yet
for a light sail with a with that with
an astronaut I know it's probably not
the near-term use of a light sail but
light sounds good for a lot of other
things that will support human
spaceflight we don't want to we want to
monitor space weather solar weather this
is what it's called when the Sun
produces a coronal mass ejection the CME
we would like to know about that because
it gives if we have three hours notice
we can protect our spacecraft which the
communications system support
it's a human-space-flight it's all
connected it's all thing I just
remembered the prize the prize we
haven't forgotten the prize we're just
building up suspense no surprise I'm
gonna go get it right now I'm going into
the magic secret I believe next time
cabinet there's thousands of neckties
would you tell us about this it's a cool
astronaut suit it keeps it handy just so
you never know when you're gonna need it
so it's like a flight suit but it's
white so this this is an amazing prize
and I'm assuming you're gonna sign it
yes a cool prize you guys it's really
and so and did you you fit in this bill
right yeah but I have to take the hang
around but it's just a fun thing is a
cool object and we keep it around and
Danielle talked me into letting it go
yeah it's very giving a bill and we're
hoping you'll be equally giving no you
couldn't actually bring in this you
wouldn't actually be able to breathe on
it you know an extra vehicular well you
need a hat you need something yeah so
you only so what we're talking all you
need Adams
we're telling you I do not attempt a
spacewalk in this suit okay well you can
try it if you know a guy that yeah I can
get you on orbit I don't recommend it
without the Hat
yeah you want to have any like that if
you know Cindy the squirrel on on Sponge
Bob you need a hat like that but that's
that's I digress we appreciate your
support the flight suit is just a fun
thing to wear around it's just a
beautiful thing to look at because it
reminds us of all the effort that goes
into putting people in space and the
reason we put people in space
is too full of course first we do some
science but the second thing is we
explore when you put a human Explorer
out there two things happen you are
guaranteed of two things you will make
discoveries you will see something you
never saw before this would be true of
spaceflight or your own backyard
and the second thing that happens that
is priceless is when we explore we have
an adventure and it's that adventure
that engages people around the world in
space play no matter where you are
Speight human spaceflight has affected
your quality of life it brings out the
best in us but it also has leads to
these extraordinary technological
advances including using this camera on
a handheld device to broadcast all over
the globe it's a remarkable thing and
this flight suit for me is a symbol of
that
that's excellent so we are really really
glad that you guys could join us today
thank you so much for your creativity
and sharing your space themed haikus
with us if you're watching this now or
later share in the video and you'll be
entered to win a grand prize which will
be signed by Bill and Bob we will send
it to you before the holidays and we
would so appreciate if you would
consider donating to the Planetary
Society today to our planetary fund it's
at planetary org slash giving Tuesday
and today only every dollar is matched
dollar for dollar up to twenty thousand
dollars we're trying to raise forty
thousand dollars to support our work
here at the Planetary because the board
of the Planetary Society will match the
gift yep so it's a really great
opportunity to take advantage of
givingtuesday any final words gentlemen
I just want to say that in this
spacesuit there's a zipper but in the
suit that I wore on Star Trek for seven
seasons you never saw the zipper so
apparently in the 24th century they have
solved the zipper problem a lot better
yeah they will start guess what I did
hey thanks for support everybody you're
just trying to change the world here
thank you thanks to Andrew Chelsey work
and Barbara for helping out with putting
this
together we're so glad you could join us
have a great givingtuesday
