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CNN 10
Japan Has Two Rovers Land on Asteroid; Sirius XM Buys Pandora; Aeroponics Used In Agriculture; United Arab Emirates Using Aerophonics; Fresno High School Student Restrings Tennis Rackets for Boys and Girls Club; Gulper Eel Found in the Pacific
Aired September 25, 2018 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: From another world to the business world to the world of farming. We are covering some ground today on CNN 10. I`m Carl
Azuz from the CNN Center. Happy to have you along with us. For the first time, two rovers from Earth have reportedly landed on an asteroid not from
Earth. The Japanese Space Agency JAXA says it recently made history by putting the unmanned exploration robots on the asteroid`s surface. First,
the mission, it`s cost is estimated at $150 million. It launched in December of 2014 and finally got near the asteroid this summer and it`s
Japan`s second mission of this kind.
The last one to a different asteroid was able to bring some samples back to Earth but it had some technical failures with it`s rover. The asteroid
itself is more than 100 million miles away from Earth and Japan`s goals this time around included getting detailed information about the rock`s
surface, using explosives to gather material from just beneath that surface and then bringing samples back to Earth by the end of 2020. A total of
three rovers will be used to do all this. The vehicles themselves aren`t particularly big. The spacecraft that got them there is about the size of
a large refrigerator. So the rovers it carried are smaller than that.
These vehicles don`t drive over the rock surface like an interplanetary dune buggy. Rather they hop jumping almost as high as 50 feet at a time.
The asteroid they`re one is just over a half a mile wide. Scientists think its rich in water and organic materials and that the samples they get from
it will help advance their knowledge of solar system`s start-ups (ph). If everything goes according to plan, JAXA says this will be the first sample
return mission to this type of asteroid. NASA has a similar mission in it`s planning but that one isn`t due back to Earth until the year 2023.
10 Second Trivia. Which of these radio companies is the oldest? Pandora, Sirius XM, Spotify, or IHeart Radio. Pandora which dates back to the year
2000 was established years before the others on this list.
What do you get when you add 70 million active users of one radio company to 36 million subscribers of another? The biggest audio entertainment in
the world. That`s what the CEO of Sirius XM says about his company`s purchase of Pandora. Sirius XM is a satellite radio company that was
formed in 2008 when the Sirius and XM radio services merged. It offers music, news, talk and sports along with a number of personalities for
subscribers to listen to and it makes most of it`s money from those subscribers. Pandora is a streaming music service that was founded in the
year 2000. It makes most of it`s money from advertisers.
So why would Sirius want to buy Pandora? Well most of those who subscribe to Sirius listen through their cars. The company wants more listeners in
more different places than that and it believes that buying Pandora is the way to get there. Sirius already owned 19 percent of Pandora`s stock from
a purchase made last year. It`s spending $3.5 billion to buy Pandora entirely also through stock. The deal still has to be reviewed by the
company`s shareholders and by the U.S. government. If it gets the go ahead, it`s expected to be completed early next year.
Aeroponics is a word you don`t hear too much outside of agriculture. It`s a method of growing plants. It`s been around for more than half a century.
It doesn`t use soil. And that makes it possible to cultivate fresh produce where there is no useable soil. There are a number of downsides though.
For one thing, aeroponics uses specific equipment that has a high start up cost. Aeroponic systems may require artificial light so energy costs can
be higher and the system is pretty sensitive. A lot can go wrong if the air, the water or the fertilizer isn`t just right. Also the U.S.
Department of Agriculture has ruled that aeroponically grown produce cannot be considered organic. So what are the upsides?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAMUEL BURKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In the arid desert of the United Arab Emirates temperatures can reach up to 50 degrees Celsius. Growing crops is
almost impossible but could new cutting edge technology change all that? The people behind Assad (ph) Farm almost two hours drive west of Abu Dhabi
thinks so. The fog engineers, a spraying nozzle manufacturer in Japan have developed a cultivation system specifically for the Middle East harsh
climate. They started growing Japanese varieties of tomatoes and strawberries without using any soil by spraying a fine fog mixed with
liquid fertilizer directly onto the roots of the plants.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So (ph) spray a nutrient and (inaudible) into a very fine fog. Plant root can get enough oxygen as well as fertilizer.
SAMUEL BURKE: A pressure pump with special nozzles makes the fine fog. It can produce 10 times more crops than traditional farming methods and even
controls the amount of water and nutrients each plant gets. A fine fog sprayed from the roof also acts as a cooling system. With dwindling
reserves, water security is a growing and pressing problem throughout the Middle East and so is food security. The United Arab Emirates imports up
to 90 percent of it`s produce. Futuristic farming methods which see crops grown locally all year round is said to be a game changer in how countries
like the United Arab Emirates sources it`s food. Samuel Burke, CNN.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARL AZUZ: There is a positive athlete in Fresno, California. Well there`s probably more than one but the one we`re featuring today is all
about tennis and getting more kids interested in the sport. The way the Jordan Pickett went about that is the reason why she`s a CNN Positive
Athlete. Someone who`s making a difference on and off the court.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JORDAN PICKETT: I just learned how to string rackets but it`s really hard. My first racket took me an hour and 45 minutes to string. My name is
Jordan Pickett. I am 17 years old and I go to Clovis North High School and I`m a tennis player. Tennis rackets, when you`re young they can cost, you
know, $30 or $40 but as you get older and start to move into adult rackets they can cost like about $200. And if you go through a racket every one or
two years, that`s a lot of money.
All right, so I`m releasing the tension on this and then I just go through the string to make sure there`s no knots. I read an article about an
athlete who was a runner who started a fundraiser for running shoes and I thought, you know, that`d be - - that`d be a great idea and I decided to
gather tennis rackets to donate to the Inspiration Park Boys and Girls Club.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well I have my own racket. I was like, I can play tennis. And this was a sport I had never play before.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, it`s inspiring to see a young lady come out and just on her own do this. You know, out of the kindness of her heart, you
know, just to give back to the community.
JORDAN PICKETT: Tap it back to me, OK? You know they have the biggest smiles on their faces and they just wanted to run out there and play
tennis. And one of them goes, I`m going to be a professional tennis player when I grow up. I was like, me too. My bad. This year will be my second
year as team captain. I - - we`ve had some pretty successful seasons. We`re back to back Valley Champions, kind of looking for a third-peat.
Yes good job.
My dream college would be UC-Davis. I want to work with animals. So I`d love to be a vet and that`s a great school to go to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARL AZUZ: For 10 out of 10 we are taking you under the sea. At first, this looks like one thing and oversized rippling tadpole maybe but then it
morphs into another right before your very eyes. And then it seems to kind of shake it off before it swims off. Recorded in the Pacific by the crew
of the EV Nautilus, scientists say this is a gulper eel. A creature that can change it`s shape to avoid predators. It`s called a gulper eel because
it`s jaws are much bigger than it`s body and they can be unhinged like those of some snakes to gulp large prey. Which would probably gulp and get
sea sick with an "eelie" feeling if it saw one. There`s always something fishy about these eels. The problem is you just never know what kind of
shape they`ll be in. I`m Carl Azuz and that`s CNN 10. We`ll see you tomorrow.
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