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CNN 10
Unmanned Mission to the Moon; Pros and Cons of Vertical Farming; A Dive into the World`s Deepest Pool. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired December 04, 2020 - 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: Hi I`m Carl Azuz. We are blasting off with a couple space stories this December 7th and we`re glad to have you aboard.
Welcome to CNN 10. It`s been a little while and by that, I mean decades since a spacecraft tried to pick up some rocks from the moon but that`s
what an unmanned Chinese probe did this week. And if the mission successfully brings those rocks back to Earth, it will make China the third
country to do this behind the United States and the former Soviet Union. Could the lunar samples that China gathers be different than what`s already
been collected? Possibly. The Chinese probe landed in a dark spot of the moon called the "Ocean of Storms" and what it picked up could give rise to
new theories about Earth`s natural satellite.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is quite a scientific and technological feat for the Chinese. This latest mission involved the spacecraft`s robotic arm
scooping up rocks from the surface of the moon and also having a two-meter- long drill retrieving soil samples from underground. And all of these samples have now been packed and sealed in a canister in a part of the
spacecraft that will be making its way back to Earth. It`s expected to land in northern China later this month. So, this is quite an important step
forward in this country`s ambitious space program which is now a (inaudible) for its national development under President Xi Jinping.
But one thing that`s worth noting is all of these accomplishments so far are things that the United States has done in the past, sometimes decades
in the past. So, what the Chinese have done is they`re making their own firsts by doing things slightly differently. For example, this time they
landed this probe in the part of the moon the U.S. had not visited in the past and also, they are catching up fast with the U.S. because China`s a
late comer in space explorations. But just in the past decade, they have successfully launched three manned space missions and now of course three
successful lunar probe missions. Currently they`re also having a Mars mission going on.
They`re also about to start building their own full-scale space station. Now all of this, of course, has been a source of great pride for the
government and the people here. But this also has quite a geopolitical dimension as well because NASA is prohibited from cooperating with the
Chinese space program due to national security considerations. So according to many experts, this latest mission is a message from Beijing to the rest
of the world that China`s increasingly becoming a legitimate alternative to a U.S. led space order.
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AZUZ: Now, a space discovery recently published in the monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. A research group says it`s identified an
exo-planet. A planet that orbits around a different star than our sun that`s 210 light years away from Earth. You can`t see it with a telescope.
Researchers say they identify exo-planets by how much they appear to dim the starlight when they pass in front of a star we can observe. Here`s CNN
Contributor Tyler Mauldin.
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TYLER MAULDIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Carl, researchers say they have discovered a planet on the very edge of our solar system, and it features some rocky
weather. This lava planet named K2141B, say that three times fast, was discovered in 2018. According to a statement from McGill University, a lava
planet is a fiery, hot world that circles so close to its host star that some regions are likely oceans of molten lava. K2141B is also unique
because it orbits close enough to its star that the two are gravitationally synchronized. This leads to two-thirds of the planet having endless amounts
of daylight and the other third having perpetual darkness.
Pretty cool. I mean hot. Anyway, this has major implications for the planet now and in the future. The dark side experiences temperatures as cold as -
200 degrees Celsius while the sunlit side has a temperature of approximately 3,000 degrees Celsius. Not only is that enough to melt rocks
and give way to the lava oceans but according to a recent study by McGill University, York University and the Indian Institute of Technology. It`s
hot enough to vaporize rocks. This creates a vaporized rock atmosphere on the planet like the Earth`s water cycle these minerals then rain back down
as chunks of rock and the cycle repeats. The study predicts Carl, the cycle will slowly change K2141B`s surface and atmosphere over time.
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AZUZ: 10 Second Trivia. What U.S. state is known as the "Beehive State"? Washington, North Dakota, Mississippi, or Utah. North Dakota produces the
most honey but it`s the 45th state, aka, Utah that`s the "Beehive State".
A farm in Utah is going vertical and robotic to feed its animals and here`s what that looks like. Automated towers use light emitting dyads or LED
lights to help grow fresh animal feed. The farmers say it takes six days to grow that feed from seeds to harvest and that the process produces a
predictable, optimum crop every time. Is this the future of farming or at least farming animal feed? There are pros and cons to going vertical. It
takes up less land area than traditional farming, but it can be expensive to get started. You`ve got to have the building and machines.
Vertical farming uses less water than traditional farming, but it relies on artificial light and a lot or electricity. The new technology may not work
well for all crops and critics say farming without natural soil can`t be considered organic. But for the vertical farmers in Utah who are concerned
about long term weather and the challenges brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. They say this is an efficient solution and that it has a lot of
potential moving forward.
Next, we`re sinking to new depths on CNN 10. No, that`s not a criticism of my puns. It`s because we`re diving into what`s believed to be the world`s
deepest swimming pool. It`s located in Poland, took more than two years and $10.5 million to build. And if you were wondering why someone might
construct something like this, there are several reasons.
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AZUZ: Not a lot of snow in the forecast for Albuquerque, New Mexico. It`s in the Chihuahua Desert so, but that doesn`t mean people there don`t want
to build a snowman. And they did in a manner of speaking using tumbleweeds. Can you call him "Frosty"? We`ll call him "Weedy". This is an annual
transition dating back 25 years. He is wearing a mask this time because 2020. The tumbleweeds are spray painted white and extenuated with recycled
materials for the hat and eyes. And if that doesn`t make you smile, maybe you`re a "dyas" poor sport. Sorry if that causes a "dust up".
But if tumbleweed snowman`s "rooted" in the Christmas spirit, it`d give even Scrooge his just "deserts" and "weed" out any haters. So if you think
all tumbleweeds are good for is "dust in the wind", well that`s the last "straw". I`m Carl Azuz and Fridays are awesome. We want to give a shout out
to a school that`s got heart. That`s Heart View High School. It`s located in Heart View, Montana. Thank you for your comment on our You Tube channel.
We have two weeks left on the air in 2020. So have a great weekend and please join us again on Monday.
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