yego.me
yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Flight at the Edge of the Ozone Layer | One Strange Rock

2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

NARRATOR: 30 years ago, we discovered man-made chemicals had punched a hole in the ozone layer. Is that hole here to stay, waiting around to kill us? Today, we're trying hard to find out. Morgan Sandercock is about to test an experimental plane, perfect for sampling ozone.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Copy that. So I felt pressure rising.

MORGAN SANDERCOCK: (VOICEOVER) We think we can go as high as 90,000 feet.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Jim, you ready to go?

JIM PAYNE: (ON RADIO) We're ready.

MORGAN SANDERCOCK: (VOICEOVER) That's the big boy territory. That's where things can go wrong very, very quickly. If we lose cabin pressure, then, the pilots could very easily pass out. And we don't have any automatic systems to recover from that.

WOMAN: (ON RADIO) Getting ready to roll.

NARRATOR: Now, a glider might sound like a dangerous choice so high up. But gliders don't have engines, which means they can't pollute the team's samples.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Confirm [inaudible] off.

WOMAN: (ON RADIO) [inaudible] is off. Wing wheel is off.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Been running at 11:32.

MAN: (ON RADIO) 11:32. Written down in GPS 5.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Airborne. [music playing]

NARRATOR: The Perlan glider uses air rising over the Southern Andes to reach extraordinary heights.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Airspeed, 70 knots. Looking beautiful.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Yeah?

MAN: (ON RADIO) Really high.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Traffic.

MAN: (ON RADIO) Yeah.

NARRATOR: 52,000 feet up makes this the highest glider flight ever. But you've got to get this high to get a great picture of the ozone layer. The good news is that thanks to a global ban on ozone-harming chemicals, it looks like the hole is healing up. Our shield is regenerating.

You Are a Ghost Driving a Meat Covered Skeleton Made Out of Stardust
Why 70% of Millennials Are About to Quit Their Jobs

More Articles

View All
Why I opened the first private jet showroom in the world!
The reason I built the first and only aviation showroom in the world is because nobody else has. I had to be different. Everybody in our industry today lives off a mobile phone and a laptop; that’s their business, that’s their office. To me, it just doesn…
Thousands Of Miles Dead Reckoning | StarTalk
We’re featuring my interview with traditional Polynesian ocean Voyager 9 OA Thompson, and I had to ask him how the ancient Polynesians navigated 2400 miles from Hawaii to Tahiti without being able to calculate longitude. Let’s check it out. Okay, imagine…
Stoicism: Conquer Your Resolutions
Thank you. What is your New Year’s resolution? For some of us, it’s to be more productive; for others, it’s to lose weight or simply be healthier. For you, it might be to spend more time with friends and family, or finally write that book that you’ve been…
If we extend lifespan, the greatest challenge is going to be boredom
If we extend lifespan, the greatest challenge is going to be boredom. Because the pattern seems to be that when you’re young, you’re amused by very short-term games. You’re amused by playing soap bubbles or Legos that are right in front of you and have no…
Electric current | Physics | Khan Academy
Electricity that lights up a bulb looks very different than lightning strikes, but they’re actually more similar than one might think because they both have electric current. So, let’s understand what electric current is, how they are produced, and also g…
The Secret That Silicon Valley's Top Investors All Share
If you look at the YC top companies list, anyone can look at this; this is on the internet. If you actually look at who invested in them, it’s all the biggest restaurants. So this is Dalton plus Michael, and today we’re going to talk about why the best in…