Augh I have an interview written on my calendar happening soon but I can't find it anywhere in my email.... oh noooooo I need a better system.
Notices by Prof. Sam Lawler (sundogplanets@mastodon.social), page 4
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Prof. Sam Lawler (sundogplanets@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 27-May-2024 23:58:42 JST Prof. Sam Lawler -
Prof. Sam Lawler (sundogplanets@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 27-May-2024 23:58:41 JST Prof. Sam Lawler ...and let me just say that it is fucking surreal to get texts from my partner about baby goats while I'm trying not to completely freak out walking through downtown Toronto after a CBC interview.
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Prof. Sam Lawler (sundogplanets@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 27-May-2024 23:58:41 JST Prof. Sam Lawler Nicole Mortillaro gave me a hug after the interview! ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
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Prof. Sam Lawler (sundogplanets@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 27-May-2024 23:58:41 JST Prof. Sam Lawler I'm going to CBC studios in Toronto tomorrow morning for an interview and coffee with a science journalist that I'm totally going to fangirl about! This is exciting (but it means I have to shift 2 other interviews I had already scheduled...haha this is so hilarious)
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Prof. Sam Lawler (sundogplanets@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 27-May-2024 23:58:40 JST Prof. Sam Lawler Legally, he's supposed to turn over the space junk to the owners, and he doesn't want to fight SpaceX, especially if they are being polite and provide a healthy donation to the Ituna skating rink as he requested.
But it's totally unclear if Canada has any laws on the books that could be actually used to compel a Canadian citizen to hand over a piece of space junk to a company in another country. So, from a space law standpoint, it would be a lot more "fun" if he refused. What would happen?
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Prof. Sam Lawler (sundogplanets@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 27-May-2024 23:58:40 JST Prof. Sam Lawler So...this saga is ongoing, but here's the latest. I met the farmer on Saturday. He is incredibly nice, and his memory and deductive reasoning powers are impressive! It was really fun to chat and learn from him all the information he pieced together on his own, just from studying the piece of space junk. Farmers = engineers!
He also showed me the official lawyer-y-but-polite email he got from SpaceX. They said they will come pick up the piece from him, and they will compensate him. Good!
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Prof. Sam Lawler (sundogplanets@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 27-May-2024 23:58:40 JST Prof. Sam Lawler I'll write much more about this later, but... this happened:
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Prof. Sam Lawler (sundogplanets@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 27-May-2024 23:58:39 JST Prof. Sam Lawler I learned that SpaceX is only going to pay the farmer $5,000 for the space junk that could have killed him. I'm glad they're paying, but that's piddly for a megacorporation owned by an awful billionaire that dumped hazardous garbage on his property.
He said he passed along SpaceX's contact info to others nearby who he thinks may have also found pieces of junk (he hinted that someone nearby may possibly have found an even bigger piece than his).
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Prof. Sam Lawler (sundogplanets@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 27-May-2024 23:58:39 JST Prof. Sam Lawler The only time I go to my campus office in the summer is for media interviews about space junk, apparently?
(Also, today I learned CTV journalists do it all themselves! This impressive journalist set up the camera shots and did all the filming while also interviewing me. Wow.)
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Prof. Sam Lawler (sundogplanets@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 27-May-2024 23:58:39 JST Prof. Sam Lawler After meeting him, I drove around the area - if that big a piece (it's 100 pounds and 4 feet by 6 feet) made it to the ground intact, then smaller pieces definitely did too. We didn't find anything, of course. It's a HUGE area to search.
But I got a piece of paper and wrote "Did you find space junk? Call me!" with my name and number and left it on the small town co-op bulletin board, and I talked to the small town newspaper journalist who first wrote about it.
So the saga will continue...
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Prof. Sam Lawler (sundogplanets@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 17-May-2024 00:01:54 JST Prof. Sam Lawler I just got an email back from one of the CSA people I contacted yesterday, and they just sent me SpaceX's media inquiry email. Given than literally every article that talks about SpaceX has "SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment" in it, this is...less than helpful 🙄
Edit to add: I just noticed it says "UNCLASSIFIED" in all caps at the top of the email, which is...hilarious? Man this situation just keeps getting weirder. I hope some journalists pick up on this.
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Prof. Sam Lawler (sundogplanets@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 17-May-2024 00:01:54 JST Prof. Sam Lawler HAHAHA they added my interview in to the redone version of the new story: https://regina.ctvnews.ca/from-outer-space-sask-farmers-baffled-after-discovering-strange-wreckage-in-field-1.6880353
And apparently it made national news(?!), because someone I'm on a committee with in Ontario said she saw me. I think it's time to go to bed (and hope for no more reentries...)
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Prof. Sam Lawler (sundogplanets@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 17-May-2024 00:01:53 JST Prof. Sam Lawler Well, I again didn't get a big giant thing done that I've been procrastinating on for months because it sucks. But I did learn a hell of a lot about space law and I have a feeling I will have zillions of news interview in the next few days, which is great! I hope this gets lots of people talking about unregulated commercialization of orbit!
Quitting work stuff for the day. Time for goats, auroras, and wondering if my trip to Toronto will actually happen or if space weather will cancel it...
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Prof. Sam Lawler (sundogplanets@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 17-May-2024 00:01:53 JST Prof. Sam Lawler Oh my gosh it just keeps coming. So, I reached out to a colleague who I trust and respect on space law issues, asking them what actually the law says about space junk on someone's farm in another country. And I fully expected to hear something like "oh yes, the Outer Space Treaty says this and this" with clear directions.
Instead, they asked for the farmer's contact info so THEY COULD TRY TO BUY THE SPACE JUNK
That's the hardest I've laughed in a really long time. Wow.
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Prof. Sam Lawler (sundogplanets@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 17-May-2024 00:01:53 JST Prof. Sam Lawler Ok the latest twist in this saga: a different person at CSA emailed me and asked if I had the farmer's contact info, because they want to buy samples of it?!! This is getting more hilarious with every email
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Prof. Sam Lawler (sundogplanets@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 17-May-2024 00:01:52 JST Prof. Sam Lawler But I think what actually happened was someone somewhere else in the Canadian gov't saw a news interview and told SpaceX.
The space law experts I talked to agreed that since SpaceX has now asked for it (assuming it *is* SpaceX), the farmer has to surrender it. BUT he should ask for compensation.
If there had been damage, the US gov't would have had to compensate the Canadian gov't, but because it's a private company, and no damage happened, compensation is voluntary
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Prof. Sam Lawler (sundogplanets@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 17-May-2024 00:01:52 JST Prof. Sam Lawler I talked to a couple of space law experts to find out what to even advise the farmer on this. I had sort of thought that since it's in another country and it fell on private property, it belongs to the property owner.
But it is much more complicated than that, because of the Outer Space Treaty.
What *should* have happened is Global Affairs Canada should have contacted the US State Department, who should have contacted SpaceX.
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Prof. Sam Lawler (sundogplanets@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 17-May-2024 00:01:52 JST Prof. Sam Lawler ok jumping back into this thread because hahahaha I can't believe everything that's happening.
I found out during a live radio interview this morning that someone claiming to be from SpaceX did indeed call the farmer, and ask to get the space junk back from him. But it sounds like whoever contacted him has absolutely no idea how rural Saskatchewan works. There is no FedEx. There are no addresses. This is going to be harder to recover than they thought.
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Prof. Sam Lawler (sundogplanets@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 17-May-2024 00:01:51 JST Prof. Sam Lawler I have so many interview requests that I'm actually starting to lose track of them at this point...
But I'm really glad there is so much interest. This is terrifying stuff: SpaceX and other companies are dumping stuff on the ground that could very easily kill people. Countries need to enforce the rules that already exist, and the regulations NEED to be updated to take into account how terrifyingly many re-entries are happening now.
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Prof. Sam Lawler (sundogplanets@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 17-May-2024 00:01:51 JST Prof. Sam Lawler I chatted with the farmer again, and he's doing everything right! He asked for proof that the person was from SpaceX. He asked them to donate to the local skating rink. He's being careful at every step. He's doing a great job of dealing with a totally bizarre situation that very few people in the world have ever had to deal with.
I'll be heading up to visit him and see the junk over the weekend once I'm back in Sask, he seemed pretty confident that he'd still be in possession of it.