I just said yes to 2 more interviews in the next 24 hours while waiting for Big Important Meeting about space junk. I'm glad there's so much interest in space junk, I guess? Maybe now talk to SpaceX and get THEM to give up their time for this problem they've created? (Oh right, SpaceX never actually talks to anyone, because they suck)

I'm looking more into the Axoim private astronaut thing and it's really fucking weird. The language?! "Are you ready to become one of the pioneers opening space to all?" (where "all" = "billionaires")

"Whatever you choose, space offers creative freedom, inspiration, and a global megaphone that simply does not exist on Earth." (WHAT IS THIS SHIT?)

https://www.axiomspace.com/start/private-astronauts

More realistic marketing: It's totally worth dropping garbage from orbit on random people. They're likely poorer than you.

I just put together the outline for my talk "No, that's not a UFO, it's Starlink" for the IAU general assembly in a couple weeks (I'm giving my talk remotely at stupid-early-o-clock in the morning since the IAU GA is in South Africa).

Just writing the outline made me ragingly angry. I honestly don't know how I'm going to make it through the talk without rage-screaming by the end of it. Maybe the early time is a good thing...

I was supposed to get a call from a reporter to talk about space junk right after the goat sale, but he just emailed to say that Toronto is flooding and he just got off the phone with Weather Canada and has to write that up right now.

Which is so extremely 2024: "Sorry I can't do the interview about garbage that billionaires dropped on you from orbit, climate change is causing too many problems in my city right now"

(I hope you are ok, Toronto people!)

Sold 4 goats!! Still processing the conversation I had with the person who bought them... really odd combination of wanting to chat more with them (very cool farmy stuff!) and very carefully skirting around what were clearly their rant-inducing topics. Ah, rural Saskatchewan.

Back to writing about the Kuiper Belt. So close to done...(which is good since I have to submit this tonight)

Holy cow guys, I think I'm actually going to write a book!

Hey cool, check out the homepage of Scientific American!

...Eeek

...of course, it would sure be nice to publish an article in Scientific American about my actual research, rather than the garbage that gets in the way of my research. It's ok though, I'm glad to get to share this bizarre story, and the warnings it presents us.

I hope that it will make a few people think a bit harder about how we as a species are currently using outer space, and how we need to do a *much* better job on that.

Further reading suggestion: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo184287883.html

This video by @skrishna includes a lot of really detailed spaceflight context (both law and spacecraft design, as well as SpaceX's operating practices) which is really helpful for understanding the whole debris-fall situation I described in my SciAm article above.

If you liked my article, give this a watch!

https://youtu.be/Ndqzl6zUw4Q

THAT WAS INCREDIBLE

ok I'll try to tone down the all caps but I'm really excited

That was so much better than I was even imagining...now I'm sitting in a library so maybe I can write it all out and share some photos. WOW.

There were journalists from Global News Regina, CBC Saskatchewan, 980 CJME, CTV Regina, the Canadian Press, CTV National, and the Ituna Times

IT WAS A UHAUL

I CANNOT MAKE THIS STUFF UP

Required apology is the clear frontrunner already. I can imagine how hilarious this will be... "Ok, guys, I have some delicious donuts here, but do you have something you want to say first? Perhaps say it to the TV camera over there?"

(But yes, odds are they are low-level SpaceX employees who drew the short straw and had to travel to the middle of nowhere to pick up garbage, I probably am not mean enough to withhold donuts. But we'll see how obnoxiously tech-bro they are in person...)

Barry had his neighbour bring over the terrifyingly huge piece he found for a great photo op for all the journalists. That particular piece was 9 feet long, weighed 80 pounds, and was shaped like a freaking spear. It is shocking to think about that falling at terminal velocity.

I am grinning like an idiot because I was REALLY excited.

There was about 250 lbs of junk here. SpaceX has never shared how much a Crew Dragon Trunk weighs, I'd guess this is a significant fraction!

I brought donuts and set them up on the back of some giant farm truck. It felt like a party!

Barry had a whole bunch of family and neighbours there, and all the reporters were all excited and chatting.

I had passed a Uhaul pulled over on the side of the dirt road to the farm and I thought that had to be the SpaceX people. It's so unlikely anyone else would have a Uhaul way out in the middle of nowhere like that.

We all chatted and waited for them to navigate the muddy road in the Uhaul.

The reporters were amazing! They shamelessly recorded as the SpaceX guys opened up the Uhaul, put on gloves, and picked up each piece one by one to load in the back (some of the pieces required both of them working together). They kept also asking questions, which were completely ignored.

It was SO AWKWARD.

Then the Uhaul arrived! There were 2 very young, very nervous looking engineers who got out and walked over to face the throng of reporters.

I had hoped they'd actually be chatty, but of course they weren't. They wouldn't even admit they were from SpaceX at first! It wasn't until the whole pack of journalists followed them across the yard asking questions that they finally admitted they were SpaceX employees. (Thanks, journalists!!)

Then while they negotiated with Barry, it was time for a proper media scrum. This was pretty fun, actually, especially since I was so pumped up at this point (I was actually jumping up and down with excitement more than once as I watched reporters following the poor SpaceX dudes around). The reporters were all having a great time and happily chatting with each other. Very good vibes.

Special highlight, one of the local reporters took Astro 101 from me my first year teaching here!

At this point, the engineers were obviously trying to escape into a side room with Barry, away from the reporters.

I quickly tried to get in my one question "How much do these trunks weigh? That info isn't public" and they smiled at me and didn't answer.

I followed along as they walked to the side door with Barry and asked if they were worried about taking it across the border. One of them looked nervously at the Uhaul, smiled nervously, and walked away. Well, I tried.

So, once they were done loading, I decided to make it even more awkward by walking into the clump of reporters with the box of donuts, invitingly open. I asked nicely if they'd like any, and that broke through the ice just a little bit. They both smiled tentatively at me.

One of the journalists behind me said "It's ok, she's not a journalist, you can trust her!"

And I said, "Nope, I'm an astronomer" and I'm pretty sure my innocent smile turned positively evil.

They did not take any donuts.

Everyone filmed the Uhaul driving off once the engineers were done with their private chat with Barry, then it was time to media scrum with Barry (hats off to this guy! It took me years of practice to be comfortable with this kind of interview, and he just waltzed into it. Well done, sir! Farmers are just good at everything).

Then all the reporters gradually packed up, many writing portions of their articles on their phones while packing (impressive!), and some took a donut for the road.