01x34 - The Mindysphere/Lone Star

[bunniefuu]

ALL: (SINGING) Ready, jet, go!

Jet Propulsion, that's his name.

Jet Propulsion, he'll rocket to fame.

When he arrived he created a buzz, because there was

no house and then there was. He said,

People of earth, you ain't seen nothing yet.

I'm from Bortron , and my name is Jet.

ALL: Jet Propulsion

That's his name.

He looks like us, but he isn't the same.

I'm a space tripper and a galaxy crosser.

My parents brought me here in a flying saucer.

And just to prove it was a fact, he flew them out to space

and back. - Jet propulsion.

Jet Propulsion.

ALL: Ready, Jet, Go.

He showed up, and now it's a blast.

Looks like the future really got here fast.

Nice to meet you human race.

Tell me all about the place. - Jet Propulsion.

Jet Propulsion.

Jet Propulsion.

ALL: Ready, Jet, go.

You guys my mom told me something really cool

over breakfast.

What was it, Sean?

And more importantly, what did you have for breakfast?

Omelets.

But that's not the important part.

The important part is that there's something called

a helio sphere around our sun.

Oh, I love omelets.

Hi, guys.

Mindy, what are you going here by yourself?

I thought you weren't allowed to go past Jet's yard

unless somebody was with you.

Guess what?

My mom says I'm big enough to go to more places by myself

now, including the tree house.

I just can't go up unless somebody else is here.

- Wow, that's great. - Way to go Mindy.

And when I'm five I'll bet I'll

get to go to all the places and do all the things.

What are you drawing?

Sunspot calls it the Mendialisa.

I'm making a map.

That's my house, and that's me.

My mom says I can go anywhere inside this circle.

See how big it is?

It's a big circle, because I'm a big girl.

You sure are, Mindy.

This is a really important step.

Your map, sort of, reminds me of the heliosphere, Mindy.

The helio what?

The heliosphere.

Helio means sun, and the heliosphere is

like this sun's neighborhood.

My mom just told me all about it.

The sun's neighborhood, huh?

So I guess this is my Mindysphere.

[LAUGH]

But what exactly is the heliosphere, Sean?

I'm not sure actually.

Huh, I wonder what the heliosphere looks like.

Maybe when you get to the edge of the sun's neighborhood,

there's an alien welcoming committee handing out pie.

SYDNEY: And maybe once you leave it,

there are talking space clouds traveling on alien highways

connecting one galaxy to the next.

MINDY: Maybe space fish swim around like it's the ocean.

SEAN: Or maybe there's space monsters.

It's probably safer not to fly out there guys.

I bet my mom would fly us out there, guys.

We could see the edge of the heliosphere for ourselves.

Yes.

I should probably stay back to keep an eye on Mindy.

I'm allowed to be here by myself now, Sean.

Rats.

Besides I have Sunspot to keep me company.

Ready for another space adventure, Sean?

I guess I'm going to the edge of the heliosphere.

Oh, why Karen and I haven't left the heliosphere

since coming to earth.

I'd love to take you.

Astronauts log ..

Two days post dentist.

In a mission of pure insanity, we are now attempting to fly

to the edge of the heliosphere.

Who knows what could be out there?

If we don't come back, I hope my mom

remembers to feed my hamster.

I'll miss you little Pedro.

Oh, Sean, you're in for quite a surprise.

That's what I'm afraid of.

Mrs. Propulsion, have you checked

the navigation recently.

Are you sure you got--

(SINGING) Five, four, three two, one.

Doors are shut. Engines on.

Everybody in their place.

Let's go into outer space.

[SCREAMS]

SYDNEY: Woo hoo, hi ya Mars.

Exploring space is so exciting.

Mrs. Propulsion, what is the heliosphere?

Sean's mom told him it's the sun's neighborhood,

but what does that mean exactly?

Oh, glad you asked.

You see the sun is made up of electrically charged gas

that spins around so fast, it turns

the sun into a giant magnet.

And that magnetic field surrounding your sun

is the heliosphere.

JET: Cool.

SYDNEY: Oh, there goes Jupiter.

What's a magnetic field again, mom?

Isn't it the area around the magnet that pulls stuff to it.

Very good, Sydney.

I knew that, but Jupiter distracted me.

Well, there's a simple way you can figure

out a magnet's magnetic field.

All right, Jet, since you have the magnet,

that makes you the sun.

Now, Sean and Sydney, see if you can

figure out how far the magnet's magnetic field extends.

OK, you go first, Sean.

Here you go.

So the magnetic field goes at least this far.

OK, Sydney, now you try it from there.

Wow, pretty far.

Now I'll try it from here.

Huh, it's not moving.

So that's how far the magnet's magnetic field goes.

That's right, and the heliosphere

is the sun's magnetic field. - Oh.

- That makes since. - All right.

I get it.

Yay, just passed Saturn.

Look how big my Mindysphere is.

Nice.

Want to go exploring?

Good.

Let's go.

Thanks, Sunspot.

Let's explore the neighborhood.

- Mom, are we there yet? - Almost.

We just passed Pluto.

Get ready kids.

We're almost to the edge of the heliosphere.

Tell me when it's over.

Five, four, three, two, one.

Sean, you can open your eyes now.

We're through the heliosphere.

Astronauts log ., we have just

left the heliosphere bodies still intact.

Wait, where's the alien welcoming committee and the pie

Or the talking space clouds.

Oh sorry, kids, but you can actually see the heliosphere.

Then how do we know it's even there?

We use special instruments in order

to detect the magnetic field.

- Wow. - That's interesting.

That can't be good.

Did you guys just see something?

Maybe it's the alien welcoming committee.

I wonder what kind of pie they brought.

Hey, how's my hair looking?

Hi, Dr. Sean's mom, guess what?

I walked over here all by myself.

Well, with Sunspot, because I'm a big girl now.

Wow, Mindy, that's very impressive.

Yes, it is.

And when I'm bigger, I can go to outer space

with all the others kids.

I'm sure someday when you're grown up, you will.

I want to go when I'm five.

Hi h*, Sunspot, excelsior.

JET: You guys, that much be Voyager .

Scientists sent it to space to take

pictures of the gas planets.

Cool.

Oh, no, you mean there are cameras on that thing.

We better get out of here.

Don't worry.

Scientists turned the cameras off to save energy.

I think the only things working on it now

are the science instruments.

Wow, Sean.

You sure do know a lot about earthy space science.

Well, you know, science, it's, kind of, my thing.

Mom, could we go out and take a closer look at the Voyager .

Excelsior explorers.

SEAN: Wow, this is amazing.

Voyager has been traveling through space

for almost years.

Way to go little space probe.

You're awfully far from home.

We have to take a picture with it to show Mindy.

- Wait, where's Jet? - Wipe out.

ALL: Yeah.

Wow, I can't believe we traveled all the way

through the sun's neighborhood, left the heliosphere,

and saw Voyager .

We're probably the last humans who will ever see it.

Congratulations, Sean and Sydney.

Now you're real interstellar explorers too.

Wow, interstellar space, the space between stars.

It's just like Commander Cressida always says, a kids

place is exploring space.

ALL: Woo hoo.

Yeah.

Woo.

Did you see any space fish?

No, we didn't even see the heliosphere.

You can't tell where it begins or ends.

We had to look at an instrument panel

to even tell we were at the edge of the heliosphere.

Well, I'm glad you didn't get eaten by any space monsters.

Me too, but look what we did see.

It's a space probe.

Scientists sent it to space to take

pictures of the gas planets.

Cool.

Nice surfing, Jet.

Well, it's pretty easy in zero gravity.

Sunspot and I are explorers too.

It's like Commander Cressida says,

a kids place is outer space or something like that.

Mindy, may I see your map again.

Huh, just as I thought.

We've reached the edge of your Mindysphere.

You know, I am allowed to leave the Mindysphere

as long as somebody's with me.

Explorers, I think it's time we

leave the Mindysphere and venture into unknown territory.

You mean, delicious territory.

ALL: Woo.

Bleh, Ice cream, ew.

The ice cream shop has pie too.

Pie?

Why didn't you say so?

We have now left the Mindysphere.

Next up Planet Ice cream and pie.

What's the longest road trip you've ever been on?

A few days.

Maybe even a week.

Hi, I'm astronomer Amy Meinzer.

Now imagine going on a road trip that

last for decades and decades with no end in sight.

NASA's Voyager and spacecraft are

the crown jewels of our fleet.

They've been on a road trip since ,

and they're still going.

The Voyager spacecraft were designed

to visit the outer planets in our solar system.

Both spacecraft visited Jupiter and Saturn,

and Voyager visited four planets, Jupiter,

Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, in something

we call the grand tour.

The Voyager spacecraft are traveling

at an incredible speed over , miles an hour.

They were able to pick up so much speed by sling shotting

around the giant planet Jupiter, essentially stealing

a little bit of Jupiter's energy to get them going

faster on the way to Saturn.

In the time that it takes for me to say the word spacecraft,

the Voyager missions will have traveled about kilometers.

That's about miles.

In the time that it takes for me to finish this sentence,

the Voyager spacecraft will have traveled

almost the distance between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Even at that incredible speed, space is so unbelievably huge

that it'll take tens of thousands of years just

to reach the nearest star.

So the next time you get home from a road trip, just

remember Voyager, one of the most amazing spacecraft

ever built, is still out there on its road trip to the stars.

JET: Hey, Sean, is one of those arrow

heads you were talking about? ALL: Wow.

I wonder who left it in the ground?

You know, only a couple of hundred years ago

this place was inhabited by Native Americans who

hunted with bows and arrows.

So when did this place turn into, you know,

your earth town, Boxwood Terrace,

and the deep space array where all the grown up earthies work?

Well, the deep space array started with just

that observatory on the hill.

Before that observatory was built,

there was a smaller one on the same spot.

And that one was built by the town's

very first scientist and pioneer astronomer, Lone Star.

Who is Lone Star?

Oh, Lone Star was the coolest.

He used to mark his stuff with a big carved star

that was a special mark.

You mean a mark like this.

Wow, Lone Star.

Tell us more, Sydney.

OK, the legend of the Lone Star, Boxwood

Terrace's first astronomer.

Long ago when the country was new

and Boxwood Terrace was just a tiny settlement in the woods

called Boxwood Territory, a lone scientist and astronomer

came to this one horse town.

Wow, Sydney, can we be the people in your story.

- Sure, Mindy. - Goody.

I want to be the cowgirl who rides that one horse.

- Jet, you can play Lone Star. - Me?

The hero of the story?

Guess I'll need an old timesy hat too.

I want to be the cranky shopkeeper

who doesn't believe Lone Star and always says poppycock.

Sounds perfect.

Poppycock.

SYDNEY: Anyway, Boxwood Territory

went about its frontier business making

things out of logs, catching fish, prospecting for Gold.

Hey, look, gold.

SYDNEY: Then one day a stranger came to town,

a solitary scientist who liked to look at the stars.

He always carried a telescope with him

Howdy, I'm a scientist.

Name's Lone Star.

I always carry a telescope, because I

like to look at the stars.

Whatcha here for stranger?

And what's with the telescope?

(SINGING) Lone Star, I love staring at infinity.

The farthest of the dimmest stars, it

still ain't far enough for me.

Lone Star, I love the music of the midnight sky.

In the quiet, I hear the stars calling

to me from on high saying Lone Star, Lone Star.

Well, I'm roping for distant galaxies I can only

find at night with a telescope way up a mountain

far from the pesky city lights.

Lone Star, I love the music of the midnight sky,

because in the quiet I hear the stars

calling to me from on high saying Lone Star, Lone Star.

Poppycock.

SYDNEY: The townspeople were nervous about him

at first, especially because Lone

Star had a lot of big ideas about space and the universe.

Lone Star, those ideas of yours are just too plum big.

What were his big ideas?

Here's a big idea for you stranger.

This universe is infinite.

What in the wild west does infinite mean?

Why infinite means it goes on forever and ever.

Kind of, makes you think, don't it?

Poppycock.

And if ideas like infinity made them uncomfortable, what

made them even more itchy were Lone Star's

predictions for the future.

In the future, I predict that we'll

discover some of them lights in the night sky

ain't just stars and planets.

There's more out there beside.

Like what?

There are galaxies made up of billions of stars.

Billions? Well, I can't see them.

Well, sure.

That's because you need to look up at them through a telescope.

Huh, what else you got?

See that moon?

One day people will walk on it.

Poppycock, walking on a moon.

And finally, I predict that one day we'll

find that there are other solar systems out there

with planets of their own.

Dawg gone it.

I wish I had an even better word than poppycock.

Oh, well.

Poppycock.

I love this story, Sydney.

That Lone Star was on to something.

There are other solar systems, and I'm from one of them.

Yeah, and Lone Star was right.

Neil Armstrong did walk on the moon.

So then what happened?

Well, the townspeople were pretty upset

with Lone Star's big ideas.

That guys ideas are too big.

Why can't I have big idears?

Because some of the townspeople

might actually like your way of thinking

and might want to look at the stars too.

Like me.

Lone Star's ideas are fun.

I like looking at the stars too.

Woo hoo.

Woah, easy there, cowgirl Mindy.

See what I mean?

But what's wrong with it?

Why not look at the stars?

Cause we got more practical stuff to do,

like cutting down trees and digging up gold.

We don't have time to think about what's up in the sky.

Wee, space is cool.

See now she's making up words like cool.

Everyone's going to be looking at the stars

all night through their new fangled telescope thingies.

And then they'll be too tired in the morning to dig

up gold and cut down trees.

I say we run this Lone Star feller out of town.

Take your telescope and your big loop idears

and go look at the stars somewhere elsewhere.

You know what?

Fine.

There's way too much light to look at the stars

here in this one horse town anyway.

I'm going to go find somewhere with some real dark.

Bye, Lone Star.

Bye, one horse.

But there was one of the town's people

who didn't want Lone Star to go.

It was the town's only science teacher.

Lone Star, wait up.

Yes, ma'am.

Don't worry about the townspeople.

You're just way ahead of your time.

They'll catch up with your way of thinking someday.

Do you really think so?

I do, and I've even got a song about it.

(SINGING) Some people want to cut down trees.

Some people want to dig for gold.

Other people seek a new idea, because they're

made of something bold.

I'm not afraid of new ideas.

I know I can't deny them.

The best things come from new ideas

if folks would only try them.

ALL: Some people run from new ideas.

We like to embrace them.

Old ideas got to move aside so the new ones can replace them.

I'm not afraid of new ideas.

I know I can't deny them.

The road can be better than it is when

you're not afraid of new ideas.

Why thank you, miss science teacher.

I don't think I could have built my observatory near this fast

if you hadn't helped.

Aw, it was nothing, Lone Star.

Well, I guess I better get to my star gazing.

Really? No more songs?

Well, I reckon I got one more song in me,

and it's a prediction of the future.

You want to hear it? - Do I ever.

(SINGING) You may say this is a one horse town,

but I can feel some changes coming down.

The observatory, she's built at last.

Now more astronomers will come in fast.

Down for long there will be row on row of telescopes

watching the heavenly show.

I reckon it's a, kind of, deep space array.

Maybe they'll call it the DSA.

Mark my words, some day it's going to be

a big old science facility.

ALL: A scientific town.

A scientific town.

Astronomers like me will come from miles around.

Curiosity don't you love the sound?

of a terrific scientific town.

Poppycock.

I'm kidding.

SYDNEY: And that's how Lone Star even predicted

the DSA, the Deep Space Array. JET: Wow.

Now I think this observatory is even cooler.

ALL: Hi, Burgs.

Oh, hey kids.

What are you doing up here?

I come up here every week to look at the stars

and polish this little plaque.

It tells how Lone Star built the original observatory

before this one.

Wait, you know about Lone Star?

Know him?

He was my great, great grandpappy.

ALL: Wow, cool.

You should have this Burgs.

Aw, great, great grandpappy Lone Star's special mark.

This must have been his belt buckle.

Thanks Sean.

Actually, Sunspot dug it up.

You know what?

All of this is here, because Lone Star had a big idea to put

a telescope on this hilltop.

His little telescope brought more scientists to this place,

and the more they came, the more they wanted to set

up here and study the stars.

ALL: Wow.

Well, it's getting dark.

Time for some star gazing.

You all want to come inside and take a look?

ALL: Yes.

You know, it's weird, but thinking

about great, great grandpappy Lone

Star makes me want to sing.

Me too.

Shall we?

ALL: (SINGING) Oh, Lone Star, I love staring at infinity.

The farthest of the dimmest stars, it

still ain't far enough for me.

Lone Star, I love the music of the midnight sky.

In the quiet, I hear the stars calling

to me from on high saying Lone Star, Lone Star.

Hi, I'm astronomer Amy Meinzer,

and this is Dr. Ken Phillips, the curator

of aerospace science at the California Science Center.

And this, this is his Endeavor.

Endeavor is one of five space shuttles

that we used for almost years to take astronauts into space.

What are some of your favorite missions

that this space shuttle flew?

My very favorite mission was the first repair

of the Hubble Space Telescope.

AMY MEINZER: When the Hubble Space Telescope

was first launched, it was the most ambitious

telescope of its kind.

But when the Hubble took its first pictures from space,

the images were blurry.

Scientists soon figured out that its lens was the wrong shape,

so NASA sent the shuttle Endeavor to fix it.

DR. KEN PHILLIPS: And it came out in a very special way.

There's a giant arm and an astronaut

would perch on the end of it.

Imagine you're, sort of, going around the Earth,

and it's like way hundreds of miles down.

That's a long way down.

And you're on the end of this stick,

and then they're guiding you carefully to the Hubble,

and then you got to grab it.

AMY MEINZER: And do the fixes on the Hubble Space Telescope.

DR. KEN PHILLIPS: That's exactly right.

AMY MEINZER: That's pretty impressive.

So can you imagine how hard it must've

been to fix something as complicated

as the Hubble Space Telescope in space?

You got on a space suit, and so

think of thick gloves around your hands.

You can't sense anything in your fingers.

And the space suit is inflated, so you can breathe

and it has pressure.

It'd be like trying to work wearing a giant suit of tires

or something like that.

DR. KEN PHILLIPS: That's a good-- that's a good example.

AMY MEINZER: Even with all of that difficulty,

the astronauts did fix the Hubble Telescope,

and it gave us some of the most beautiful images we've

ever seen of the universe thanks to the entire Hubble repair

team.

(SINGING) Jet Propulsion.

Ready, jet, go.

Jet Propulsion.

Jet propulsion.

Jet Propulsion.

ALL: Ready, Jet, go!