- Hi there.

I'm Frank Graff.

An incredible look at moths in flight, a North Carolina Aerospace program in the spotlight, and the science that lifts hot air balloons.

It's flight science next on "Sci NC."

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Moths are one of those insects most people don't pay a lot of attention to.

They don't bite, they don't sting, but they can damage clothes and food.

Well, it turns out there are more than 40 different species of moths.

Adrian Smith at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences gives us a unique look at the moth.

[thoughtful music] - This is North America's biggest species of moth, the cecropia moth.

It's an insect that's been on my list of things to film in flight for a long time, and that's not just because it's one of the biggest moths, but also because, to my eye, it's one of the coolest looking moth species we have.

For instance, from this view, looking across its back, I'm impressed by the orange-and-white candy stripes across its abdomen and how a single stripe of that pattern extends across the hind wing, echoing the curve of the wing's edge behind it.

Once a cecropia moth becomes it's well-decorated adult version of itself, its life is nearly over.

Adult females can't eat.

They only live a few weeks so they can mate and do this: lay eggs.

This one I filmed was being bred by our animal care staff here at the museum for one of our live exhibits.

These eggs hatch into larvae and grow through five larva caterpillar stages.

They'll over-winter as a pupa, and in the early summer, appear again in this, their final adult winged form.

So whenever I come across an interesting moth, I try to see if I can film it.

There are so many different species and I'm always surprised by the details you can see as they lift off into the air.

Some of them, like this plume moth, are trickier to get good sequences of.

[ethereal music] Plume moths, especially compared to things like cecropia moths are small and delicate.

As you can see, I had to coax this one into place with a tiny paintbrush.

With their long spindly legs, they kind of look like they're galloping up into the air.

And check out the hind wings.

They're divided into three feather-like plumes.

These two sequences are the best I've been able to do so far with this group, but this individual only has one hind leg and I wasn't able to get the paintbrush out of the frame before it flew.

So for now, these are the best shots I have of this odd-looking family of moths.

This is a red-bordered emerald moth.

These are common moths in my own backyard.

At rest, they're strikingly-green wings are held flat and spread to their sides, and if they're resting on the leaf, that color and posture blend them in pretty well.

But against a contrasting backdrop, like the side of a tree or in front of this purple film set, the green of these moths make them hard to miss.

They belong to the Geometridae family of moths, of which there are over 20,000 species worldwide.

This family is named after their famous inch-worming caterpillars that seem to measure the earth with each one of their looping steps.

[gentle music] Geometrids, across most of their group, rest in that outstretched posture.

Take for instance this one, a one-spotted variant.

As the two on the right lift off, you can see the one on the left standing still in that posture, with its wing spread out.

As it lifts them to get into a flight it looks as if it's using all six of its legs to jumpstart getting into the air.

The reason why it's important to know that Geometrid moths rest with their wings held out is because of this moth, perhaps the most famous of all the Geometrids, the peppered moth.

This species is found across the northern hemisphere from Asia to North America, and studies of it in England have made it a classic example of natural selection in action.

And that's because all peppered moths don't look like this one.

They can be variable in color from a white-and-black spotted form that blends in with patterns and colors of lichen on tree bark to a melanic form that's uniformly dark all over.

During the day these moths are resting on the trunks and branches of trees and their survival partially depends on how well they're camouflaged from birds that would eat them.

During the Industrial Revolution in England, acid rain killed the lichen and soot darkened the trunks of the trees.

Correspondingly, the dark version of the moth was more camouflaged and dramatically increased in abundance.

But in more recent times, the lighter-colored moths similar to this one, returned to being the more abundant type after pollution was better regulated and their resting places lightened up.

The dramatic changes in the abundances of this moth's different color morphs made it an early and observable example of natural selection in action.

[light subdued music] This next moth is also one whose environment has changed dramatically.

This is an ailanthus webworm and it's become one of the most common and colorful I can find in my own backyard.

It used to be found only in the American tropics, but its larvae figured out how to live on the invasive and widespread tree of heaven.

So because that host plant occurs nearly everywhere, you can find this moth all over the eastern U.S. and north into Canada too.

At rest, only the four wings are visible, which is probably why the coloration pattern doesn't extend to the hind wings as well.

This orange, black, and white color scheme of the four wings is one that several groups of moths share.

For instance, this is a black-dotted Spragueia moth.

This brightly-colored moth belongs to a subfamily of owlets known as bird-dropping moths.

But this species doesn't quite fit that mimicry pattern.

Instead, this moth is often seen and photographed in the coastal southeast feeding on and pollinating flowers in the daytime.

This is another owlet or Noctuid moth called the Hebrew.

The name is in reference to the marks on its wings, which, in 1818, the original describer of the moth thought resembled characters of the Hebrew alphabet.

Its upwards backward-arching flight, along with its body shape and dull, slightly-transparent hind wings remind me of a different kind of insect in flight: a caddisfly.

This is a white miller caddisfly and it's one of the coolest looking insects I've filmed within the last year.

Caddisflies are an order of insects that sister to moths and butterflies, which means caddisflies are a moth's closest living relative.

And I think in this flight footage you can see glimpses of that relationship.

Last is an arched hooktip moth.

Moths and this family are known and named for their distinctive wing shape.

And I like how this species is uniformly covered in tan and almost gold-colored scales across its entire body.

It can be found from Western Canada all the way down to where I am in North Carolina.

So that was nine moths species across six taxonomic families and there are over a hundred different families of moths so I have a lot left to film.

Thanks for watching.

- North Carolina astronaut Christina Koch's mission to the International Space Station in 2019 brought a lot of attention to NC State's aerospace engineering program.

Her assignment to the Artemis II mission that will orbit the Moon in 2025 is drawing even more attention.

So Dr. Nehemiah Mabry decided to take a look at what makes the program soar.

- Hey, I'm Dr. Nehemiah Mabry and this is Engineering Building III on Centennial Campus of North Carolina State University.

I spent a lot of time here as a student and I know this is a great place where things are discovered.

Christina Koch also spent a lot of time here.

Christina Koch is an astronaut who grew up here in North Carolina, who was recently named to the Artemis NASA crew.

- The longest continuous space flight ever by a woman, your mission specialist, Christina Hammock Koch.

- [Dr. Mabry] People at NC State are excited about Christina Koch.

Christina was born in Michigan, but she grew up in North Carolina and attended several schools here: White Oak High in Jacksonville, the North Carolina School of Science and Math in Durham.

- My whole world opened up to me, you know, I was from Jacksonville, North Carolina, kind of a small town, small city- - [Dr. Mabry] And she earned a Bachelor of Science and master's degrees in electrical engineering at NC State.

Oh, and she got a degree in physics too.

- When I was at NC State, I was what I would call fiercely individualistic.

I really took on everything independently and I wanted to figure everything out on my own.

And something that I learned a little bit later in my career is the value of teamwork.

- You're a trailblazer and a role model.

- We're all very excited that Christina is going to be one of the astronauts who was selected for the Artemis mission.

I think she well represents NC State.

For our students alone, that that is a great motivator and a great source of pride.

It really highlights to our students what one can achieve.

- [Presenter] As the only professional engineer in the crew.

- [Dr. Mabry] Christina set a record for the longest single space flight by a woman that's 328 days in space.

- Engineering is is no longer sort of these niche fields working on their own.

So the technologies that we develop, for example, yes they apply for aircraft and space structures, but they apply for a lot of other things as well.

Robotics for medical applications, of course for clean energy.

Even within the aerospace field you know, we're really trying to increase performance so that we can reduce fuel consumption.

- [Dr. Mabry] Kara Peters has been at NC State for more than 20 years and has seen many changes.

- When I came, there wasn't really a large aerospace industry here and I think that's really changed in the state and a lot of that has been driven by the exciting activities here at NC State.

We see now, for example, in the Piedmont area is becoming really an aerospace manufacturing hub.

We have Spirit AeroSystems in Kinston, which, you know, second largest autoclave in the world.

So there's been a lot of new and exciting aerospace industry here that's coming into the state.

I think here in the Aerospace Engineering department, we have a lot of work in the hypersonics area in drones and all kinds of design of drones.

We've had work on drones that, for example, can swim underwater and transition to flight and then back into swimming.

So we have really a breadth of faculty working on a lot of different areas of aerospace engineering here.

- [Dr. Mabry] Dr. Peters walked us through several labs where students are getting hands-on experience in engineering.

This is a plane fitted with cameras that will help the forestry service, all designed and built by students.

- They do the full structural design, they do the full aerodynamics design, they implement all the control systems, the cameras, everything.

They do it completely from scratch every year.

- It's more of a first-response system where you have like, you know, you have your firefighting planes that actually contain wildfires.

This would be more response and initial measurements, checking how it's spreading, checking which way it's going.

- So this is our anechoic chamber where we can do acoustics testing, noise testing, with a very, very low noise threshold in the background.

So for example, we have students who are doing tests on airflow from engines.

We do things like looking at noise control.

Noise pollution from aircraft is a very critical problem, particularly as we get more and more flights in very particularly dense urban areas.

So we can do a lot of noise testing for different engine systems, for aircraft systems.

We can also do acoustics- - [Dr. Mabry] You don't want to get locked in this lab.

No one, I mean no one could hear you scream.

- But this is sort of a unique facility here at NC State in the state of North Carolina.

- [Dr. Mabry] There are mechanical engineering machine shops with all kinds of tools and where lots of cool things happen.

And then there's the Rocketry Club.

- The team of eight senior design members, plus about 40 additional club members has built this rocket this year.

It's a four-fin design.

We have a removable fin section.

It's a single-stage solid rocket motor.

This rocket motor will launch the vehicle, it's about 41 pounds, it'll launch it to right at 4,500 feet into the air.

- [Dr. Mabry] Christina Koch got her start right here in Aerospace Engineering.

- There's Christina's signature down there.

Our club is celebrating right now because she'll be the first woman to orbit the Moon.

'Cause the opportunities this club has given me is like nothing else that I could have dreamed of coming to State.

- [Club Member] Five, four, three, two, one.

[shutters clicking] Launch.

[rocket whooshes] - Oh, yeah!

Oh, it's great.

[onlookers cheer] - That's one of the best things about being at NC State right now is that we certainly are moving up and it's definitely an exponential growth.

Physically we're expecting to see a large growth in the college in the next few years, but on top of that, research has truly grown.

I think our reputation has really grown.

We're seeing a lot more exciting opportunities.

We're seeing a lot of connections with industry, so I think it's a really good time to be at NC State.

- Before rockets and planes, taking to the air meant riding a hot air balloon.

Hot air balloon festivals are popular these days, so producer Michelle Lotker shows us just how a hot air balloon works.

[gentle music] - [Michelle] Hot air balloons might seem like magic, but there's actually some pretty straightforward science behind how they fly.

- Hot air balloon's about as simple as you can get.

You fill a large envelope, what we call the envelope, which is the balloon sitting above us.

You fill it with air laying on the ground and then you take a burner and you heat that air up and hot air rises so as you get that air heated up enough to overtake the weight of the basket and whoever's in it, you'll leave the ground.

- Imagine a bunch of little kids when it's cold, how you all squeeze into the bleachers and you pack in really tight and then when it starts to get hot, somebody turns the thermostat up and the building starts to get warmer and warmer, how you start spreading out and bouncing around.

And the hotter it gets, the more the molecules bounce around.

When they do that, they squish the other molecules out the bottom of the balloon so there's less molecules creating less weight or lift.

And so the balloon rises because there's less molecules on the inside.

- [Michelle] Air temperature and humidity have a lot to do with how much lift you can get on any given day.

- On a very hot, humid day like it's gonna be today I can't lift as much weight as I can on a nice cool day because I'm working on the differential between the heat and the balloon and the outside temperature.

- [Michelle] And the balloons themselves aren't made out of just any old fabric.

They have to be able to withstand a lot of heat and pressure.

- Most all balloons nowadays are nylon and they coat it so it's non-porous so it holds all the heat in so it doesn't flow through the fabric.

- [Michelle] Once a hot air balloon is off the ground, you can't exactly steer it like you would a car or a plane.

- [Mark] We float with the wind.

- [Pete] The balloon goes with whatever air flow it's in, whatever the wind is.

So if the wind is out of the west, you're gonna go east.

However, there are usually differences at different altitudes, slight changes in direction that you can find.

- [Michelle] Air is a fluid and just like a body of water, it has layered currents that are shaped by whatever it's flowing over.

Dark, reflective surfaces, like parking lots, create rising currents of heat while forested areas create cool spots with sinking currents.

Although they can't steer their balloons, balloon pilots can change the direction they're going by rising up or sinking down into an air current that's going the direction they want to travel.

There's even a place in Albuquerque, New Mexico where when the conditions are right, pilots can fly in a box pattern, rising up to ride a current going one direction, then sinking down to go back the way they just came on a different current.

North Carolina is actually a hotspot for hot air ballooning with a rich history of innovation and balloon production.

North Carolinian Tracy Barnes added some important innovations to modern hot air balloon and basket construction.

- He invented the parachute valve for the hot air balloon.

Instead of patenting it, he knew that the safety factor that put into all balloons was greater than any money that he could receive.

So he opened it up to all the other balloonists out there says, "Please use it.

This is my idea, but take it and run with it."

He developed this basket right here and he did different things like he did a weave that was vertical.

So if you rub on something, you catch it, say a wire, a power line, it'll just slide along here and up it goes and it slides right off.

[uplifting music] - [Michelle] Fortunately, knowing the science doesn't take away from the magic of watching hot air balloons fill up as the sun sets.

[uplifting music continues] - Back on the ground now and the story of how one man's caring for the soil using organic and sustainable farming practices turned from a hobby into a mission to serve his local community.

Savannah Gunter from the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media explains.

- [Savannah] Three miles west of Hillsborough in Efland lives a small-time farmer with a big-time mission.

Around 20 hours a week, you can see a light-blue baseball cap peaking over rows of lettuce, peppers, or chard.

- I'm Jim Sander, I'm the owner and operator of Wildflower Lane Farm and we're a small organic farm in Western Orange County, North Carolina.

- [Savannah] 35 years ago, Sander bought 12 acres of land enveloped with wild flowers.

In 2010, he turned 60 and started a part-time farming operation selling organic produce to Whole Foods, Weaver Street Market, and restaurants in Orange County.

After seven years, he stopped farming for profit.

- Prices were not going up, although my expenses were going up and I kind of just got tired of the business end.

So I started wondering after the seventh year if there was a different way of doing this.

- [Savannah] Five years ago, Sander found his answer the same way he found his land: by accident.

- One day I was walking around Carrboro and I saw this sign, it said "TABLE" and below it, "feeding local hungry kids."

So I just walked in and pitched them an idea.

- [Savannah] The idea that if the volunteer organization TABLE supplied Sander with seed money, he would donate nearly all his produce to feed hungry kids in Orange County.

- Jim Sander walked into TABLE one day [laughs] with an idea is how I met Jim Sander.

My name is Ashton Tiffins and I'm the executive director at TABLE in Carrboro.

- [Savannah] In 2023, about 150 TABLE volunteers provided 850 children with 10 meals per week.

That included farm-fresh local produce, much of which comes from the rich soil at Jim Sander's farm.

- It's a huge support to be able to receive the bulk of that food donated.

I mean, it's organic, locally-grown food, it's the best quality food that can can be found, and so to be able to give that to our kids is so meaningful to me personally and to TABLE.

- [Savannah] In the last growing season, TABLE gave Sander $22,000 for materials and help.

His crop yield is now worth five times that.

But how did Sander's small farm grow so much food?

- Because he cares about his soil.

It's about the soil.

- [Savannah] Crop science Professor Bob Patterson from North Carolina State University says Sander's secret is enriching his soil with compost and not disturbing worms and microbes underneath.

Rather than plowing the land between harvests, Sander gently turns it before smoothing surface with a battery-operated tiller.

No heavy machinery touches the ground saving earthworms in the process.

- When I see these earthworms, this tells me that you're doing a lot right.

And the only reason this soil is as healthy as it is, is because you started emphasizing regenerative soil management and crop production from day one.

- [Savannah] Sander's soil is organic certified.

Over time, he's increased the organic content of his soil from about 2% to 8%.

- The regenerative approach is an effort to preserve and protect as fully as possible, all the soil, physical, biological, and other properties that are necessary in order for the crop to be able to function the way it was genetically predisposed to function.

- [Savannah] That means building up the organic content of soil by limiting tilling, using cover crops, and reducing or eliminating use of fertilizers and chemical pesticides.

Sander says growing vegetables locally reduces what he calls food miles.

That means you don't waste gas trucking produce from California to North Carolina.

- In our case, we're picking from 8 to 11 in the morning.

It's on the road to TABLE and arrives by 12 and people start getting it about 1 or 2.

So most of our produce is delivered within four or five hours, and that's a big difference versus four or five days.

- [Savannah] Sander says farming sustainably has deepened his connection with his land and with other farmers.

- It's one of the few professions where people share their secrets, you know, with great glee.

So there's plenty of information to figure out how to do it better each year.

- [Savannah] Four miles down the road another small-scale farm with an organic mission sprouted two years ago.

It's called WildSide.

The land used to be a dairy farm and may one day turn into 70 acres of fruits and vegetables.

- My name is Walt Tysinger.

I'm 58 years old and I am a farmer.

- [Savannah] Tysinger, and his wife Debbie, started by planting a muscadine grape vineyard, thornless blackberry patch, and a market garden with annual vegetables.

The Tysingers share Sander's passion for supporting the environment and soil health.

- When you disturb the soil through tillage, you are also disrupting the soil ecologies.

- [Savannah] Like Sander, Tysinger tries to protect the environment.

- Regenerative farming has the potential to help with that, to lessen the impact of what's coming down the road with climate change, because it has the ability to actually draw carbon from the atmosphere and store it in a very stable form in the soil.

- [Savannah] You can farm sustainably on any scale.

Tysinger's goal is to cultivate local food on a large commercial farm.

For Jim Sander, it's about growing a lot of food for hungry kids on a little farm.

- This is the most fun I've had farming.

I'm much happier doing it this way.

I have no worries, no deadlines, no pressure, and I feel like I'm actually contributing something.

[gentle music] - That's "Sci NC."

I'm Frank Graff.

Thanks for watching.

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