The Truth Is in the Stars Page #2

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on television.

- Fantastic.

- Yeah.

Then over here

is, uh, the jumpsuit

from What Are Little

Girls Made Of?

- When you get spun into...

- Oh, yeah.

The android.

Now that looks really real,

that's the material.

It looks like that

could fit you, right?

- Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah, that's it.

No, but seriously though,

it's cool to see you

- looking good.

- If I suck it in I guess but...

- That's-that's incredible.

- That's it!

Isn't that cool?

Ben, yeah the

whole thing is cool!

And-and were

you, uh,

were you born with

this in your mouth?

This is the silver spoon

that I was born with,

that's right.

The original one was a

little bit bigger, actually.

- That's great, Ben.

- Okay.

These auctions started

to happen, right,

where props from movies

and television shows

would become available,

and so the idea of

having a piece of the real

thing that, you know,

and of course, you know,

the artifice of it all

is so interesting,

that it's all kind of, you know,

cardboard and paint,

and all these things

that, you know,

but they mean so much

to you as a kid,

when you're watching them

because it's so real to you.

So, what do you

think you're doing

- when you're buying that?

- Yeah, yeah.

I mean, you're

spending real money

uh, for a piece of cardboard.

What-what-what do you

think you're doing?

Just solidifying my

status as a nerd,

is like probably the

biggest part of it.

I don't think you need to...

Well, that's what,

once-once you've done that,

and you've committed

that kind of money to getting,

you're saying basically,

- that's what I am.

- You're basically a nerd.

- Yes.

- Okay.

You know, the idea, to me,

it's just that idea of having

touching the real

thing or something,

that is actually,

that was actually there,

a piece of history, in a way.

Did this um,

intrigue your imagination?

Did this make you

think in those terms?

Yeah, I mean, it was

more than intriguing.

I mean, it was kind of one of

those shows where it was like,

wow, this is the coolest thing.

I love this.

I started going to conventions

and um, you know,

but I don't know if you know,

like you don't analyze it

when you're at that age.

I think, you know, there are

movies and television shows

that you see at a young

age that have an impact,

and then they either stay

with you later, or they don't,

but they're never

gonna affect you

like they affect you at that age

and I think that's

part of it, too.

This is Star Trek's

50th anniversary.

So, it's 50 years

since I was, uh,

playing the part.

From my vantage point,

50 years later,

I don't know where

it went, I mean,

uh, and-and-and

it's both

appalling and, uh,

and intriguing

when somebody looks

at me and says,

you know, uh,

"Are you...

Are you

Captain Kirk?"

Thinking of me 50 years ago.

I've talked to, uh,

quite a few people about time.

About the passage of

time and how time goes,

- of course...

- Fascinating, isn't it?

It is.

Have you talked

about the phenomenon

of time going

faster as you get older?

Feeling that time...

Tell me about that.

Just the feeling that time

goes by quicker

as you get older.

They find that

time does slow down

as you approach the

speed of light,

did you know that?

I've heard that.

Well, they've proven

that if you could go

at the speed of light somewhere,

time would cease to exist.

And, would-would aging,

then, slow?

- You'd stop aging!

- Right.

Now, I don't know

how that works,

'cause then when you come back,

uh, the Earth would've

gone on around the Sun

that many times and

you would not have.

So you'd be your age,

and-and your kids would

be your age as well.

I stopped understanding

what you were saying about

30 seconds ago.

I have to be honest.

Most people find that, no

matter what the subject is,

that's the problem.

If we could travel at

the speed of light,

we could reach the planet

Jupiter in just 43 minutes.

NASA's Juno Spacecraft

is already there,

probing the moons of the planet

for signs of life in the

vast oceans of liquid water

beneath their icy crusts.

Clues, perhaps,

to life on earth,

and the origins of

our Solar System,

these baby steps to the stars

have been inspired

by Science Fiction.

But what role

did Star Trek play?

Talk to me about

scientific curiosity.

Oh, I will!

When you take any child,

three year old, five year old,

six years old,

and watch them wander around

and explore the world,

it's all about

being a scientist.

They see something.

They touch it,

they taste it, they poke it.

So now that's my attitude.

That's wonderful,

and does science fiction

have anything to do with that?

Oh, 100%.

My mom was a huge

science fiction fan.

We watched Star Trek

all the time!

No, kidding!

Oh, yeah, she freaked

out when I told her

I got to meet you.

Oh, my gosh!

Completely passed out.

And did you-were you

intrigued by science fiction

and Star Trek?

Absolutely, 100%.

A lot of engineers

and scientists

who work here are big

science fiction fans,

that's kinda how we got our

start when we were young

and the-the idea

that Europa might have

a huge ocean of water

beneath that ice cap,

we can,

we can think about it

in a practical way.

Okay, maybe all the

elements of life are there,

maybe there's

microorganisms there,

but we just can't help

that little piece in the

back of our head that says.

"Maybe there's underwater

cities there!"

It's just an extra little

spark of coolness

- to go and explore.

- Oh, how wonderful.

So sort of a science fiction

version of science fact.

That's right!

Oh, that's wild!

I love it!

But one of the reasons I am

an engineer in this business

is because we get to

support the scientists

who dream up these questions

that they wanna know

about the world

and we can help them go

get the data they need...

Okay, so tell me how that works.

It's that-that

spirit of

discovery, of exploration,

of always knowing you

can go out looking

and there's going to be

something fascinating

just over the next horizon.

Uh, the idea, I think too,

that I get from Star Trek

is that,

so many of the surprises

were good ones,

and even when there

were surprises that were

dangerous for the crew,

or dangerous for people,

there was always a way

to-to work out a solution

so that things were

okay in the end.

System this is NASA.

All stations on Juno coord,

we have the tone for

burn cutoff on Delta B.

Juno, welcome to Jupiter.

Science fiction and science fact

are constantly playing

off of each other.

We need people imagining

the future of

scientific exploration,

the future of human exploration,

and that's the role

of-of science fiction,

uh, writers and actors

and futurists.

We need that kind of imagination

in order to come up with

ideas for what we can do

to actually explore

our solar system.

Star Trek was an optimistic

view of what we could do

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