Stay curious, insomniacs. Good night.
Good evening, beautiful insomniacs, and welcome back to the show. I’m your host, Nova, and boy do we have a cosmic adventure for you tonight. So, July 19th, 2010—and I want you to picture this with me—Japan’s space agency, JAXA, launches a spacecraft called IKAROS. Now, IKAROS stands for “Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation On-orbit Solar Sail.” I’m not making that up. They literally named their spacecraft after a Greek mythology guy who died because he flew too close to the sun, then launched it toward the sun for power. That’s like naming your car “Icarus” and parking it in a volcano. The Japanese have a different approach to irony than we do, folks. ...