Hello listeners and welcome back to the English with Neil Learn English podcast.
How is everyone doing today?
I hope you guys are doing well.
In this episode, I am going to talk about space travel.
But before I get started, I just wanted to let you know that my website EnglishWithNealcom, is currently being updated.
We are making a lot of changes to that website.
And the reason is because I want to start offering free transcripts. to all of my podcast episodes.
So in about a week or two, you can find all of the previous episodes, including the episodes moving forward with a transcript, on my website, englishwithnealcom.
So when that is ready I will let you guys know so you can have the transcript available if you need it.
Okay, so let's start talking about space travel.
Now, I'm going to be very honest with you.
I wasn't interested in space travel probably only up until a couple of years ago.
About a couple of years ago, I went to the bookstore.
And I read a biography about the businessman Elon Musk.
You have probably heard of Elon Musk.
But a biography.
Let me go back a little bit.
A biography is a non-fictional story about a person's life, and so a couple of years ago i bought a book on elon musk and i read his biography.
I didn't know anything about him, the book just looked interesting, so i bought it.
But the story really drew me in and Elon Musk's mission really kind of captured my eye.
I thought it was Very interesting hearing about how he was the co-founder of PayPal, the online payment system.
Then he went on to create Tesla, the electric car company, and then he went on to create SpaceX, the spacecraft company, and he probably has other businesses.
I think now he is the current CEO of Twitter, so he's a big name in news right now.
But his backstory was very interesting, and so I read the entire biography And I just became interested in this idea that wow, humans can actually leave Earth and go explore the solar system.
That's amazing.
If you have the guts to do that.
That's amazing to be able to leave your home, leave your civilization, to go out to explore everything in our solar system.
I think that is pretty cool.
And so I became interested in space travel.
But before I share my thoughts, I just wanted to give you guys some vocabulary about the solar system.
Solar system is basically everything outside of our Earth.
And I wanted to share some vocabulary with you, because some of this stuff um is on the news, some of this stuff you might hear on tv or read in books, and so i just wanted to give you some vocabulary about our solar system.
So first we have something called a galaxy.
A galaxy is basically a bunch of stars and planets and all of these things that are in surrounding areas.
This is called a galaxy.
So inside of our galaxy, There are many planets and I want to read the planets to you.
And if you'd like, you can repeat after me for some pronunciation practice.
So in the middle of our galaxy, well, we can say the first planet.
The most popular planet is the sun, that hot ball of fire that never goes out.
Well, we hope it doesn't go out because it gives us life.
So our first planet is called the sun.
OK, our next planet is called.
Mercury.
Mercury.
That is the hottest planet because it is right next to the sun.
The second planet is called Venus.
Venus.
The third planet where we live is called Earth.
Earth.
OK, the next planet is called Mars.
Mars, we call this the red planet.
And according to my research and I've done a little bit of research, Mars is similar to Earth.
And so one interesting thing that kind of drew me into the book was that Elon Musk wants to put people on Mars.
He has a vision of people living on Mars someday.
So him and his team at SpaceX, they're working hard to send people to Mars, so maybe one day we'll have human life on mars.
Okay, the next planet, the biggest planet in our solar system, is called jupiter jupiter.
Okay, the next planet is called saturn saturn, that is, the planet with the ring around it.
Okay, The next planet is called Uranus Uranus.
And the last planet in our solar system is called Neptune Neptune.
Now, when I was in elementary school, I remember there was another planet called Pluto.
That was the smallest, coldest planet in the solar system.
I think when I got to middle school or high school they said that Pluto was no longer a planet.
So that's why you don't see Pluto listed in our solar system anymore.
But that was a planet that used to be in our solar system.
So I wanted to talk a little bit about space travel.
Right now Elon Musk, his company SpaceX, and there's another company.
There's actually a couple other companies, but the company that comes to mind right now, Elon Musk's company and Jeff Bezos' company.
Jeff Bezos is the founder of Amazon and at one point he was the richest man in the world.
Now it's Elon Musk.
But these two guys and their companies are trying their best to provide space travel to humans.
So one day we might be able to get on a rocket ship, a space shuttle, and go to the moon, circle the moon and come back in about a week or two.
That sounds pretty cool but at the same time kind of scary because we do not know what's out there in space.
I have some questions for you.
What do you think?
Do you think there is life on other planets?
Do you think there are insects or people living on other planets?
I think about that sometimes.
I wonder if...
Earth?
Is this the only planet with people?
I don't know.
I really do not know.
Or how about galaxies?
Are there other galaxies that we don't know about?
Maybe there's like People just like us in other galaxies, other neighborhoods in space.
And what about aliens?
Do you do you guys believe in aliens or UFOs?
So I don't know.
These are kind of like mysterious topics.
Sometimes on the news people say that they have seen UFOs or seen aliens.
Some people say they have been abducted by aliens.
Abducted means that the aliens picked them up and put them on the spaceship and took them somewhere.
And then they came back.
So I don't know.
I really don't know.
But I'm just interested.
I'm kind of interested in what is in space.
What's out there?
Is there other life?
Maybe one day we'll find out.
Who knows?
But let me know.
What do you guys think about space travel?
If someone gave you the money, would you travel to space?
Are you interested in space travel?
Let me know, guys.
Alright, everyone.
That is it for today's episode.
Thank you for tuning in. to the English with Neil podcast.
I look forward to speaking with you in the next one.
Take care everyone and talk to you soon.
Peace.
