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Can I be Space President?

2012-04-06 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:49 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Science & nature (also: Personal life) · mode: Personal essay · tags: on location, guest or collab, self promotion, community lore

Hank recounts visiting Northrop Grumman to meet the people building the James Webb Space Telescope; he reflects that a defense contractor builds this science mission because technology is neither good nor bad, and calls Webb and Hubble 'our pyramids'.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting; one of the coolest days of Hank's life: meeting the builders of the James Webb Space Telescope with Katherine, Michael Aranda and Ze Frank; clips

  • ★★★ Hank spent one of the coolest days of his life talking with the people building the James Webb Space Telescope, together with his wife, Michael Aranda and Ze Frank. — 00:00:00 · Katherine Green
  • ★ Hank says Ze Frank is as hilarious in person as he is in his videos. — 00:00:00

00:00:33 — How the invitation came: Hank's earlier Webb video reached NASA and Northrop Grumman; Hank proposes the title 'President of Space'

  • ★★★ Hank believes the James Webb Space Telescope is one of his generation's greatest contributions, not just to science but to the world. (hedged) — 00:00:33
  • ★★ Hank's video about the Webb telescope about a year ago apparently delighted NASA, which tweeted at him; it circulated in the offices of NASA and its contractors. (hedged) — 00:00:33
  • ★★ Someone at Lockheed Martin showed the video to Jeff Grant, vice president of space systems at Northrop Grumman, who emailed Hank inviting him to meet people working on the project. — 00:00:33

  • ★★ Hank proposes that his title at 'Vlogbrothers Enterprises' become 'Hank Green, President of Space, Nerdfighteria' and asks John whether he can be president of space. (playful) — 00:01:01 · Vlogbrothers, Nerdfighteria, John Green

    “Hank Green, President of Space, Nerdfighteria”

00:01:23 — Constant monitoring at Northrop Grumman, a defense contractor; space science and weapons share technical challenges; technology is neither good nor bad

  • ★ At Northrop Grumman the visitors were constantly monitored and followed everywhere, even to the bathroom, which Hank jokes kept him from humping anything. (playful) — 00:01:23
  • ★★ Hank says the escorts were there not to protect a space telescope but because Northrop Grumman makes most of its money making tools and weapons for the US military. — 00:01:23
  • ★★★ Many NASA contractors are also defense contractors: the missions differ, maybe antithetically, but building advanced one-of-a-kind machinery poses surprisingly similar technical challenges. — 00:01:23
  • ★★★ Hank says science, engineering and technology are neither good nor bad; what matters is how society decides to use them, and people are both good and bad. — 00:01:57

00:02:27 — The people building Webb are good; the telescope as culmination of human progress; Webb and Hubble as 'our pyramids'

  • ★★ Having met them, Hank calls the Northrop Grumman space sciences people good, some of the smartest in the world, and fun despite their big bureaucratic organization; they praised Nerdfighteria. — 00:02:27 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★★ For Hank the Webb telescope is the culmination of all of humanity's progress so far, the most technologically sophisticated thing we can do. — 00:02:27
  • ★★ Hank says the people working on Webb, defending it from Congress and fighting technical problems daily, can lose sight of how amazing their work is, and he is glad to bring that home to them and the world. — 00:02:27 · United States Congress
  • ★★★ Every civilization passes down marvels; Hank feels the Webb telescope and Hubble are our pyramids, which future generations will admire as things people achieved together. (hedged) — 00:02:56

00:03:25 — Gratitude; sign-off; the trip was for SciShow, subscribe to see Hank and Ze Frank with Northrop Grumman scientists

  • ★★ The main reason for the trip was filming SciShow content; Hank asks viewers to subscribe to SciShow to see him and Ze Frank talk to Northrop Grumman scientists about the Webb telescope. — 00:03:25 · SciShow

In the description and comments

  • ★ The description corrects the video: at 2:26 Amber Straughn is wrongly presented as a Northrop Grumman employee; she actually works for NASA as Deputy Project Scientist for Education and Public Outreach. — video description
  • ★★ Hank says he got to hang out with Ze Frank and asks viewers to subscribe to him. — video description
  • ★★ The moral of the story, Hank writes, is that we are very lucky someone is working on a project of this scale, and that its people are smart, funny, cool, stressed out and thoughtful. — video description

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: James Webb Space Telescope · neutrality of technology · Northrop Grumman

Also: People: Jeff Grant · Katherine Green · Michael Aranda · Ze Frank

Projects: SciShow

Organizations: Lockheed Martin · NASA · United States Armed Forces · United States Congress

Terms: world suck

Concepts: dual-use technology

Places: Egyptian pyramids · Indianapolis

Products: Hubble Space Telescope

Only in the description or credits: Amber Straughn

Also centred on James Webb Space Telescope: Top 5 Awesome Things About the Webb Telescope · It's HANKO DE MAYO!!!!! · 29 Days of Astronomical Terror · Thoughts From the Universe - Woah

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