More and they will go next to the international. Well welcome to visionaries im. Mark states 50th anniversary of the 1st manned landing on the moon and ive spoken to someone who actually. Take place. Rusty shrank arent. Great to have you with us today so going to start with couple questions about a polar 9 this serious anniversary of the mission that was devoted to preparations the flight to the moon but compared to a poll 8 which was all about checked. Arion testing to detect jury you guys had to do the real stuff test equipment you know how the moguls were working with the docking of the models between each other and and it wouldnt last support for your suit saying the real stuff when you were taking off to that mission how did you estimate the danger i mean basically its like testing new vehicle only in space. Well the main danger if you will i mean we didnt see it as dangerous we had done simulations and for you know for a year or so youre ready for anything that can happens or at least you hope youre ready for anything that can happen but the main challenge from the standpoint of danger was that during the mission we would among other things we would separate the lunar module from the command module by a 100 miles in orbit and of course we would have to get back and dock successfully in order to return to earth because the lunar module while could land on the moon cant land on earth and so to get home we would have to successfully return and dock and. Join our he again so that was the sense of danger thats what people saw as being very you know scary but you know for us it wasnt scary we were clearly going to get back you know is your heart racing when you were about to die on earth no oh well thats a different issue that thats after successful you know docking and Everything Else in the end of the mission then we would return. You know through the atmosphere to earth and thats always exciting but that had happened on other flights as well i mean so that was not new returning to earth from earth orbit but getting back to the command and Service Module when the lunar module which had never been used before we had to get back 100 miles to a successful rendezvous and docking as if we had come up from the moon so we were basically. Testing what later flights would have to do coming up off the moon and that was the 1st time that that had ever been done so that was new but also my so when i went outside that was new to i was the 1st one to use the new apollo suit had never been used before so it was a test flight of that new suit which worked beautifully and it was also a test flight of the backpack that i used which people use on the moon when youre in space testing all that mazing self and basically laying out the foundation for man to go to the moon. How much depends on you not on your skills and how much depends on the genies of the person who equipped designed the equipment and the technology that actually brought you there. What will he say that if im performing a concert. A list concerto in Carnegie Hall certainly a lot of the audience enjoyment will be the list composition but only if i perform it well so its both the design of the equipment and the execution of its use both are part of success. I wouldnt want to be doing now as you know there are thought over that way. Is it true that youre feeling a bit sick when you were up there oh i know that i was a feeling a bit sick i barfed twice i got sick i may sound like a naive question but who and what im going to ask about feeling sick in space what is it like when you think they can say well it feels subjectively if eales the same as if youre if you get seasick or if youre susceptible to motion sickness in a car motion sickness is motion sickness so it feels very much the same way now its quite different however because of space with. No gravity things dont let me say things dont go down. So you end up with you know something here you have to carry things off so its not as. Physically comfortable as it is on the ground simply because gravity doesnt work with you and separating you know say sticky things like when you barf from your mouth so its its unpleasant now after you do it fine you feel better and of course after one day a problem then i had adapted entirely and there was no problem after that but it was very disruptive for the one day that happened twice so looking back you were the one to test a technology that took the men to the moon 60 years later if you compare right now to the modern manned space flight is it any different with like minor technical adjustments or is a completely different. Well it. Its not a very good comparison. Looking back 50 years of the space craft. The technology that was used and that kind of thing from the technology thats available today i mean theyre theyre quite different so isnt drastically different thats what im asking or is it the same with the physical principles youre dealing with in terms of maneuvering and all i mean to physics is physics and the physics hasnt changed over 50 years so the environment itself isnt changing but the technology which we have available today to to execute is quite different. Rocket technology is still fundamentally the same thing you know were a bit more efficient there are some new materials and that kind of thing programming the Software Aspects are much much more capable today you know the i mean in my i phone i have a 1000 times the capability of the of the computers that we had on board the spacecraft at that time i mean its ridiculous that in my back pocket i have much much more capability than we had in the entire apollo program. So the things have changed in that sense but the challenge the physical environment that youre dealing with with the vacuum maneuvering rendezvous techniques all of those things are basically the same challenge youre simply using a more capable tool to do the same job so after you left you actually devoted your career to the issue of asteroid danger and defense against the impact you can create a foundation what is it about asteroids that made you to vote so much of your lifes work and time to. Well it you know there are very few who exercise stench all threats. To life on earth im not talking about my survival or yours im talking about the whole life experiment here on earth. There have been mass extinctions in the past and the. The impact that wiped out the dinosaurs 64000000 years ago wiped out 75 percent of all life that existed people hear about the dinosaurs but it was 75 percent of all species disappeared with that impact so the asteroid impacts at the Largest Scale which is very rare that that type of an impact occurs nevertheless there is a 1000000 existential threat to life on earth if you if we put it in simple words what could it be be like could destroy a city a country a continent whole planet while im alive to be a little bit careful because were just what the when we talk about the potential destruction an asteroid impact can cause were talking about the threat to life were not talking about a threat to the planet the planet will survive i mean the we dont worry about the planet per se worry about the life carrying capacity of the planet the capability to support life that can be destroyed were very fragile occupants of the surface of this planet so yes a city can be destroyed a continent can be destroyed and life on the planet can be destroyed civilization is very fragile frankly. So it doesnt take much to destroy civilization and we can protect civilization and life on the planet with the technology and the capability we have today if we do this job correctly so how many how do you imagine asteroid Defense System because in my have like i have all this 5 films and i have a king its a ring of orbiting the sun satellites like in Starship Troopers or something what does it look like like do we have technical capabilities for such thing at this point. 1st of all asteroids occasionally hit the earth in fact asteroids hit the earth every day we call them shooting stars these are very very small asteroids ok but 100 tons of material comes into the earth from shooting stars every night so were always hit by these things the issue is not are we going to be hit were always hit the issue is how big are they going to be and the larger you get the less frequent they are and so what were protecting against is the occasional asteroid impact perhaps only once every 100 years or once every 4 or nearly every house in the let me express time i felt like a huge warning china right incident century that killed 10000 people and there was one inch a lab and did not kill anybody but had it come in just a little bit steeper than it did it came in a fairly shallow angle had it been a little bit steeper we probably would have seen a few deaths with that but thats only about once every 75 years that one of those will hit more to the point is the one that hit in 100008 in. Again in siberia but that one would have to head back come in over a city today. You know that there are not that many cities you know on the surface of the earth but had it come in over a city it would have wiped out an entire city so what does this defiance looks like or what is it like no you dont build a defense in space to translate it to our language what is it like yes you predict. By knowing what these asteroids these asteroids are out there finding them. Determining their orbit i can then predict theyre there they go around the sun the same way that the earth does but their pay is occasionally cross the orbit of the the earth and if they do cross the orbit of the earth you have a 3 dimensional intersection and sooner or later the earth and the asteroid will be in the intersection at the same time its just like 2 cars you know if there are only 2 cars in the whole on the whole planet not that often have an intersection but on rare occasion you will and if you can predict that then you can take action to prevent that asteroid from arriving at that intersection at the same time that the earth goes through there so how masoom is our chance thats what im doing as im changing the arrival time of the if i know its going to be in the intersection at the same time as earth 5 years ahead of time i need to slow it down or speed it up a little bit using Space Technology so that it arrives slightly ahead of the earth or behind the earth but not at the same time as the earth thats a deflection ok so do i understand correctly that you do that by costly observing. Where is coming from how do you detect it like i dont have years ahead yes i dont have to constantly observe if i use telescopes on the earth to find an asteroid whose orbit does cross the earth then by having this in my database i know i can predict it in the same way that i can rendezvous with mars or the moon or another spacecraft if i know the orbit somethings in i can then go to meet that to rendezvous so if i know that there is an asteroid that isnt in orbit this is going to hit the earth i can go up ahead of time and slightly change its orbit so that it doesnt arrive at the same time as the earth thats thats a deflection we dont have to blow it up we dont have to change its orbit we just changes arrival time at that intersect so youre not changing to jack terry right well you have to be careful i dont read direct it i simply make it go faster or slower thats also changing its orbit but its not by turning to direction its going is by making it go faster or slower you know im asking right because you know as humans everything good that was start often turns into evil i mean can this possibly be used i dont know by governments against our enemies like take trajectory change it and direct it towards your enemy or Something Like that you know what i mean yes this is this is a question thats existed for a long time theres even a phrase for which i forgotten but it is not a serious issue. Let me put it this way. It is much easier for me to destroy you or vice versa using other means than to find an asteroid in exactly the right orbit that i can change it just a little bit so the hits you mean that will i would have that opportunity maybe once every 10000000 years well if i want to get rid of you know i get rid of you tomorrow i dont want to have to wait for the right asteroid a 1000000 years from now to get rid of right so this is not a this is not a serious issue in a sort of hypothetical way yes. Theres a possibility but its easier to destroy much much much less expensive. Even take a short break right now when were about. To join me every thursday on the alex salmond and ill be speaking to us from the world of politics. Im sure ill see than. Most people think just stand out in this business you need to be the 1st one on top of the story or the person with the loudest voice of the biggest raid in truth to stand losing business you just need the right questions and get the right answer. Questions. And were back with rest a strike heart former nasa apollo 9 austin not resting after it its a planetary threat right there so it does require a planetary effort to deal with yes and that is the biggest challenge it is because when that look at Global Warming i mean how much more proof do you need that its here and we needed to take care of it not to day and tomorrow but yesterday and places are still doubtful this is also this is also a very big question but there are good answers to this that the 2 issues Planetary Defense in the sense of being an ex essential issue and Climate Change also in existential issue are both big and existential issues. So they have some similarity on the other hand with Climate Change all of us have to change our behavior to be more responsible for the way we act in terms of our relationship with the earth and this living system when it comes to asteroid defense none of us have to change our behavior all we have to do is spend about a 1000000000. 00 or 500000000. 00 on the rare occasion when there is a threat to deflect it but you and i dont have to change our behavior so the 2 issues are much the Planetary Defense issue is much easier to deal with in the sense of who has to act and how much its going to cost on rare occasion to use you know to save life on earth who is it private business is it government whats your take on it. That in my opinion is in the long run an open question the assumption right now is that governments will have to act but thats not a mandate i mean its clear that private industry is developing greater and greater capability in terms of. Private interests being able to act in space and this will simply increase over time so in the long run when we have to defend. You know a city or something you know protect life on earth from an asteroid impact it may be that private industry can be contracted to to do this to change the orbit of this asteroid the assumption is its government. The the important thing however is that. This is not a simple thing and this statement is simple but its a complex issue. In a deflection. In order to avoid the risk to everyone in order to prevent a threat to everyone on earth. We need to deflect an asteroid in that process people who are not at threat will be a threat temporarily as youre deflecting something so you cannot avoid other people being threatened in the process of deflection in order to eliminate the threat to everyone and therefore this is a geo political challenge because various nations have to accept this increase temporary threat in the process of eliminating the threat to everyone thats why this is a planetary decision and therefore a geo political challenge the technical challenge place youve set their right word to political and you know that when and if its clout and terry challenge that when you know countries get together and try to figure out something bargaining starts they are they are i didnt the right so what do you think what could special interests or a government bargains be when it comes to asteroids asteroid dangers well as i said in some sense. What youre doing is youre taking an impact point somewhere on earth and youre dragging the impact point off the earth but in the process of dragging it off the earth you drag it through other places other countries other people on the way to getting it off earth all of those other countries should have something to say about that is rather is no i did it 1st oh id rather see drag it that way you know drag it that way you see thats the thats the issue so to eliminate the threat to everyones other people have to accept a temporary increase in risk in order to eliminate the threat to everyone we have to act. Responsibility for all of life on earth and this is going to be this is the geopolitical challenge do we understand that we are all one family to the point where where people can accept a slight increase in risk to my to me or to my country to my people in order to eliminate the risk to everyone so we have to act as a planet in deciding to deflect an asteroid and that is the geo political challenge the technical challenge of deflecting it or being able to predict an impact is simple in comparison with the joe political challenge so when you flew up all 9 it was the cold war and. Now. Like theres like nothing really going on do you feel like there could be any other race into space but not between the russians and the americas because now we have china so black America China russia or. Do you think that nobody really cares much about the space and more of the space stream im no better at forecasting the future than anybody else but let me say that while in the days of apollo 50 years ago the cold war was at its height and you had the soviet union and the United States competing for. Technical dominance in the world. There will always be competition between nation and if you if you can identify a difference the 2 sides of that difference will always be competing for something they are land whatever. So there is always going to be competition at the same time i think we have an International Space station i form the association of space explorers because whether its a russian cosmonaut an american astronaut a chinese astronaut whoever we have people who have flown from 37 countries we come together in the association of space explorers as a group of people from around the planet who have seen this beautiful planet that that provides the source of all life for all of us were all the same were all one family and thats far more important than the political differences between us or whatever. The International Space station i think is indicative of the trend that when we go out from planet earth in the future into deep space whether thats mars or beyond we will go as people from earth not as russians or americans or chinese we will still be russians chinese and americans. But it wont be or it will be end we will go together internationally what do you think her humanitys perspective on space right now because theres a lot of talk about mars sexploitation and even rendering resources from asteroids but it all comes down to its to expensive you know getting there and doing 3 let me tell you it was twice as expensive if we do not capitalize on all of the energy thats available in space and the materials in the form of asteroid materials or whatever then we will have to continue digging up the earth it will have to continue creating waste on the planet that in the long run is to the long term future of wife is far more expensive resources in space are going to be available to allow humanity and life to expand out of planet earth we have been born into the causeway the apollo was the moment of cosmic birth when humanity from planet earth has 1st begun to move out this is like birth and the future of expansion the long im talking not you and i or our children or grandchildren talking about long term future of life is going to emerge out of earth only if we are available to make use of the available resources in space but when you do you know youre so how do we get to those resources thats how to make it cheaper i dont like to lift that would take you from earth to the technology will be improving and once you access resources off the planet to expand youre no longer having to dig up the earth thats the long term expense is continuing to demand more and more from mother earth in order to continue and expand life if we utilize the resources that are out there in space to continue moving outward its inexpensive its much. Cheaper than digging up the earth and taking it out of the gravity well over to provide our energy and resources do you think humans could ever take the space the way they. Are do we what we have to change our bodies to do that you know what i mean. I really dont like the word taming the earth i need any space. We need to understand how to live within the expanding environment that is available to us and the long term future of life as we move out from the earth will be to utilize and understand and work with the resources of space in order to move outward from the earth in the future so its a matter of learning how to utilize and live with the expanding environment of humanity i mean. You know we. Thank you so much for this wonderful insight. Thank you. Public impeachment hearings Begin Next Week how worried should the president be will take a look at that on this edition of. The politicking on larry king the House Intelligence Committee will begin Holding Public impeachment hearings next week bringing lawmakers a step closer to the possible impeachment of President Trump how worried should he be about this as talk with someone who knows the impeachment process very well former u. S. Representative Elizabeth Holtzman a 4 time democratic congresswoman from new york she served as a member of the House Judiciary Committee that investigated the role of president nixon in the watergate scandal and voted to impeach him shes the author of the book the case for impeaching trump she joins me from new york elizabeth though we are all just spinning wheels hes going to be impeached in the house and not convicted in the senate and everyone thinks that. Well you know something larry really nobody knows whats going to happen when we started the impeachment proceeding against Richard Nixon and october on 1973 after the saturday night massacre we didnt know what a high crime and misdemeanor was there was no head count in the house to dish