September 6, 2018 9:40 pm

Bill Nye and Iliza Shlesinger Investigate What’s for Sale in the Solar System

Let’s say you have millions of dollars. Or even billions! However, you’ve grown tired of your vacation homes in the Swiss Alps, Monaco, and Tahiti. What ever should you do? No person should be extremely wealthy and bored to death. Why not buy a timeshare on the International Space Station? Or take ownership of the Moon?

On this episode of StarTalk Radio, Bill Nye the Science Guy and Iliza Shlesinger investigate the politics and privatization of space through fan-submitted Cosmic Queries. To start, Bill gives us some information on who owns the Moon or if it’s even possible. We also discuss if it’s legal to own asteroids and even other planets. (If I could own one planet it would probably be Saturn. I mean, who doesn’t love those rings?) Bill also gives his thoughts on the privatization of the International Space Station.

Next, we transition from selling space to putting things into space as we discuss the proposed “Space Force” and NASA’s new Space Launch System – also known as “the big rocket.” Discover how private companies, like SpaceX and Blue Origin, work alongside government agencies, like NASA and the ESA. Bill also tells us about working on the Joint Strike Fighter program.

We explore whether asteroid mining is possible or just science fiction. If you ask the United States Geological Survey if it’s possible, their answer would be that it’s closer than you think.

You’ll learn about space debris and how we can try and solve the rising (and orbiting) problem of space junk. Bill also gets onto another pressing matter: is it better to further planetary exploration or extra solar system exploration? You’ll hear why getting back to low Earth orbit is key to traveling to Mars and beyond.

So, where are you going to be buying up space? The Moon? Mars? ISS? Or maybe you want to go further into our solar system and our galaxy. As you embark on your stellar spending spree, just remember, there’s no place like home.

Please join us tomorrow night for Selling Space, with Bill Nye at 7pm ET right here on our website, as well as on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and TuneIn. If you’re an All-Access subscriber, you can watch or listen to this episode ad-free at 7pm, too.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!
–Ian Mullen