Guess what, Mango, what's that? Will? Now you know how much I love new space missions. And you and I were talking a few weeks ago about this satellite that NASA's launching next year. It's called the Tests or the Transiting Exoplanets Surveys Satellite. Yeah, I mean that's the one that's headed to look at the planets outside our Solar system, right, Yeah. And it's wild to read about just how far this
satellite will be looking. This is a two year survey and Tests will be looking at two hundred thousand of the brightest stars near the Sun and all the planets around them. And in the survey, they're expecting to look at about three hundred Earth size planets. And I love it when these kinds of missions launch. I know it's exciting. So when is it launching exactly? Well, they say it's
gonna be no later than June. And I really love this time of year because it's a chance to pause and hit refresh, you know in some ways, and and think about all the exciting things happening in the year ahead. So that's what we're gonna do today, And today's nine things were excited about for two thousand eighteen let's get started.
Hey there, podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and it's always I'm joined by my good friend Man and the man on the other side of the soundproof class wearing a T shirt that says, actually, what does it say? It says new year knew you this year new shoe. What in the world does that mean? Is that like Dr SEUs or something? I have no idea, but I'm sure it's profound that Tristan is one deep guy?
Who are not kidding? All right, Well, we've got another smart guy on the phone, and that's our lead researcher, Mr Gabe Louisier. Hey there, Gabe. All right, Well today we're talking about some of the things we're excited about for two thousand eighteen. So Mango, you want to kick
us off with the first fact, Yeah, definitely. So obviously we're both excited about this search for exoplanns and everyone's been talking about whether we should go to Mars or not, but very few people talk about NASA's mission this year to the Sun. But that's exactly what's happening in two thou eighteen. It's called the Parker Solar probe, and the whole idea is to trace the flow of energy around the Sun and understand the solar winds and magnetic fields there.
And while it won't actually get to the Sun, it'll actually get closer to Venus and then return in two thousand twenty five. The probe is covered in all this armor of carbon capositi solar shields, I guess, And that's to protect it from the heat. Wow. So we get the closest that will get you set is near Venus. Yeah, so it'll get to Venus, it'll actually orbit Venus, I believe, so that to reduce on energy. Uh. And and then
and then I'll head back. Venus, which my son likes to remind me, is actually the hottest planet despite being the second planet. All right, that's a good one. We're sticking with some space themes. Okay, well, Gay, what's your first fact? So I go to space one to actually and you know, the Sun is great and all, but I'm a little more excited about the fact that two space tourists are going to be headed to the Moon.
And uh, this is part of a SpaceX project. Um. It's called the Falcon Heavy Rocket and it's gonna launch with a crew of the Dragon too. It's it's the most powerful rocket to blast off since uh NASA's Saturn missions in the nineteen seventies. The mission is supposed to last about a week and it will be mostly automated, so the space tourists will, you know, pretty much just
sit there and hope that everything goes okay. And in case something, you know, does go wrong, they'll have a little bit of training and including how to pilot the craft manually. But the capsule is just going to orbit the Moon, not actually touched down. Um, and we don't know who's going yet, but to private individuals approached SpaceX and has to be a part of the Moon cruise, and they haven't announced who they are yet, but there you can be sure they're paying a pretty penny for
the privilege. There's not there's not an exact date yet for the mission, just lateen but it's coming so so they do know who the two people are. We don't know, but those two people have been chosen. I mean. The other weird thing about it is they call it Dragon two instead of Double Dragon. That's the weirdest fact of all. Right, Well, I guess I will go next with a fact that I feel like we can't talk about two thousand eighteen without at least talking about the Winter Olympics and pyeong Chang,
South Korea. And this is definitely going to be an interesting one. I mean, you know, it's only fifty or so miles from the North Korea border, and we all read about how the Russian team has been suspended by the IOC for systematic doping, so that's going to be a unwrinkle in this and it'll be interesting to see how many of their athletes compete independently. But one of my favorite parts about the Olympics is hearing about the
new events that they're adding each time. And this year, the the events that I saw listed were big air snowboarding, mixed doubles curling. That sounds exciting, and mass starts speed skating. I really don't understand what any of those mean, and I kind of don't want to look them up because I just want to be surprised by what mass start speed skating is chaos. But anyway, I'm excited for the
Olympics as always. Okay, mango, what's your next fact? So one of the things everyone's kind of excited about in two thousand eighteen is that women are finally being given the right to drive in Saudi Arabia. And obviously this is a big deal. So Stacy looked up the reasons women have been held back to this point and they are ridiculous or actually infuriating. So these are some of the reasons that Saudi Arabia is given in the past for why women shouldn't drive. Mail drivers wouldn't know how
to handle women driving in cars next to them. Allowing women to drive will make women more promiscuous and also bring shame on the Saudi family. And also driving harms women's ovaries, is that it's so crazy in battling, and so all these, of course, are these stupid reasons. And I remember I had this friend in college. He lived in Saudi Arabia, and she said that her mom talked about how the year or two they had spent there, she felt like her wings have been clipped because she
just couldn't be independent at all. So getting the right for these women to drive is really exciting, but it's going to be baby steps. So women still can't work as taxi drivers, and the reason the change isn't taking place until June is partially to train police on how to interact with women when they pulled them over, because men and women don't actually often interact unless they're related to one another. That's very interesting fact and hopefully as
the first of many steps in that direction. Okay, Gabe, what's your next fact? So one thing we're celebrating in eighteen is the one hundred birthday of the John Deere tractor. Nineteen eighteen was actually just the beginning of the John Deere tractor line, which started thirty two years after the man himself passed away. And John Deer was originally a blacksmith by trade, which led him to inventing the first
steel plow in eighteen thirty seven. Uh. The company then made all kinds of different farm implements for the next eighty years or so before actually finally venturing into the tractor game in eighteen. And the company already jumped the gun a little bit and marked this anniversary by bringing a family to their Waterloo, Iowa plant in October and the family got to watch the first tractor roll off the assembly line and they got to keep it too. Wow,
it's pretty awesome. It's a good fact. Okay, well, my last fact of the day. Um, it's actually pretty wild to think about the fact that Phase one trials will begin late next year for an AIDS vaccine, and this doesn't seem like something we could be saying by this point, And of course it's still very early, but scientists from the n i H and the pharmaceutical company Sono Fie appear to have us closer than ever to having a vaccine.
The vaccine combines three broadly neutralizing antibodies into a single compound, and the number of anybodies make it nearly impossible for HIV to mutate into AIDS, and so if it proves to be effective, the drug could be used as a vaccine to help treat people who already have the disease. And if the trial goes well, then the drug could be in the market in just a few years. So obviously fingers crossed on that one. Yeah, it's pretty awesome, alright, mango,
what's your next fact? So? Uh? I love that they're all these exciting medical innovations on the horizon, right, Like
the AIDS thing is so promising and awesome. But one of the things that warmed my hearts was that there's this new cooling cap for people going through chemo, and basically you wear the cap before, after, and during your session and it's significantly reduces hair loss, which you know, we've all had friends and relatives with cancer, and especially watching little kids with leukemia lose their hair and you
realize how difficult it is. During that time, at least they can feel a little more confident from you know, looking like themselves, and then it's kind of wonderful. That is pretty neat. That's that's great. Alright, Gabe, you get to close this out today. What's your last fact of
the day. All right, Well, this is significantly less important than new developments and cancer and AIDS research, but there is something I am excited about, um and that's that George R. R. Martin is releasing a new Western Roast based book this year. You know, before you know, we get too excited. Is it's not the long awaited sixth book and the Song of Ice and Fire series that's Blawn Game of Phones, but it is based in the same world. It's it's called Fire and Blood, so he's
mixing it up a little bit. And it's said to be a two volume history about the tar Gerrian Kings. That appear in those books, and Martin says the first one will likely be released by the end of twenty eighteen, and he said that at least one West Rose book will be released this year and who knows, maybe too a boy can dream. Wow, you really close that out
with a profound statement there. You know, Mega, We've had a lot of good facts today, and I know we talked about some pretty important things, you know, these space missions and obviously what with women driving in Saudi Arabia, aids vaccine, these caps for those dealing with chemotherapy. But I feel like Gabe really hit us with some very very important facts like the John Dear anniversary of the George Are Martin novel coming out, So I feel like
he probably deserves to take the trophy today. Here's to all your dreams coming true. Okay, that's right. I think you made the right plice. This is our last episode of Nine Things for the year. Look forward to getting back to it next year, and happy New Year everybody. We'll be back with a full length episode tomorrow. Thank you so much for listening. Kay