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AnnaSophia Robb: Hey guys! I am AnnaSophia Robb, and I’m here with , and Channel One News starts right now. 

Tom: Pretty cool — AnnaSophia Robb talks to us about her mission to eliminate food waste, and there is a college scholarship opportunity for you in there. That is coming up. Hey guys, I am Tom Hanson. Let’s blast off!

First up, an unbelievable milestone and an absolutely amazing sight! The technology company SpaceX made history yesterday, launching the world's most powerful rocket into space. 

The Falcon Heavy launched from Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, Tuesday afternoon. The megarocket combines the power of three SpaceX rockets into one, with 27 engines that generate over 5 million pounds of thrust. That is enough to launch a 737 plane into space.

And something never seen before — two and a half minutes in, the two side boosters on the rocket detached and headed back to Earth, landing at the same time at Kennedy Space Center. 

SpaceX founder Elon Musk is very excited about the future.

Elon Musk: I think this rocket's great for a lot of reasons. It's something that I think inspires the public. And you could actually send people back to the moon with a Falcon Heavy; with orbital refueling, send people to Mars.

Tom: The Falcon Heavy broke records. It is the most powerful rocket launched in the U.S. since the retired space shuttle or the Saturn V, which sent astronauts to the moon. This huge success means the company is one step closer to an eventual mission to the moon. 

And something special was aboard the rocket. Musk, who is also the founder of Tesla cars, put a midnight cherry Tesla roadster, with a dummy named Starman as its driver, as it orbits around the sun.

That was pretty cool, right? 

Emily: Yeah, loved it.

Tom: Now, Emily is here to keep the space theme going.  

Emily: Yeah, Tom — kind of. This next story is about an ancient civilization that was known for its expert knowledge of space and astronomy: the Mayans.  

Tom: Ah yes, I remember the Mayan calendar was a big deal. 

Emily: Yeah, absolutely, and now scientists have made a new discovery of Mayan ruins using laser technology to map out about 800 square miles in the Central American country of Guatemala. And get this — no one even knew these ruins existed before now. That is today's Get Your Geek On.

It is something Indiana Jones could only dream of. Archaeologists are using high-tech mapping technology to virtually unearth a massive network of Mayan ruins hidden for centuries in the thick jungles of Guatemala.

Albert Yu-Min Lin: As far as the eye can see — just jungle.

Emily: Albert Lin is an engineer and “National Geographic” explorer who worked on a television special about the breakthrough.

Lin: So we have this augmented reality platform built based off of the lidar data. And it says there's a massive temple just around the corner.

Ah, it gives you, like, chills up your back. 

Emily: The uncovered landscape includes previously unknown cities and more than 60,000 interconnected structures, including houses, farms, highways and even pyramids.

The earliest Maya civilization dates back to 1800 BCE. The Mayans were responsible for many advancements in math, science, writing and astronomy. They built stone temples to study the movements of the sun and the moon and even developed a way to keep track of the days with the Mayan calendar.

They lived in part of the world known as Mesoamerica, which included the southernmost part of Mexico and other Central American countries like Guatemala and Honduras.

Scientists and archaeologists discovered the ancient ruins by shooting lasers down from a plane to penetrate the dense jungle canopy. The technology is called “light detection and ranging,” or lidar.

Marianne Hernandez is president of PACUNAM, the Guatemalan nonprofit that started the project to uncover more of the Mayan civilization. 

Marianne Hernandez: It will provide empirical proof of the sophistication and complexity of their settlement systems.

Emily: Francisco Estrada-Belli is co-director of the PACUNAM project. He says lidar technology is revolutionizing archaeology like the Hubble telescope revolutionized astronomy.

Francisco Estrada-Belli: When they started looking through that telescope, they found thousands of galaxies. And that's what we're seeing, where part of the jungle that we thought were empty are full of cities and small towns and amazing things that we didn't suspect were there.

Emily: Emily Reppert, Channel One News. 

Tom: Man, so interesting.  

And that brings us to Words in the News: astronomy, the study of the sun, moon, stars, planets, comets and everything else beyond Earth's atmosphere. 

All right, next up, the Winter Olympics are just days away, taking place this year in Pyeongchang, South Korea. And besides the gold medals and competition, there is another focus: That is security.

South Korean security forces are conducting military drills. They also set up this command center to monitor the games. The goal? To prevent any kind of terror attack during the Olympics. 

Overall, South Korea is mobilizing a more-than-60,000-person Olympic security force, including 50,000 soldiers. That includes South Korean Marines and American Marines, testing their tolerance for the cold and snow. 

Of course, one of the biggest concerns is North Korea. In 1987, 10 months before South Korea held the Summer Olympics in Seoul, North Korea bombed a Korean Air flight, killing all 115 people on board. 

Kim Jong-un's rogue nation is just 50 miles from Pyeongchang. That is one of the reasons the U.S. and South Korea delayed military exercises as to not provoke North Korea. But North Korea will attend the games, and experts believe that will lessen the chances of North Korea firing off any missiles. 

Now, the opening ceremonies for the Olympics are this Friday. Can’t wait.

Okay, after the break, we check out how you can make an impact on world hunger — one plate at a time.

Tom: If you know me, you know that I love food, and this is something that I always wonder: What do you do when you see someone throwing away leftovers in the cafeteria or sending back uneaten food at a restaurant? Have you ever thought about doing something? Well, Cassie Hudson caught up with one celeb who is cooking up a solution, and she wants your help.

Cassie: From “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” to “Bridge to Terabithia” to “Soul Surfer,” AnnaSophia Robb is trading the big screen for a new role — helping to educate people about food waste.

Robb: You know, I knew poverty and like, food insecurity was an issue from a very young age. I recognized that, but I think it’s becoming more of a widely, maybe not talked about, issue. 

Cassie: One in 8 people around the world struggle with hunger, including 13 million kids and teens in America. 

On the set of her public service announcement with the organization , we found out how she is making a difference.

We are here in a kitchen. 

Robb: Yeah, in my kitchen.

Cassie: Yes! Talk to me; what is happening right now? 

Robb: We're making dishes with these bananas, which you might think, “They’re brown, they’re no good,” but in fact, you can make so many things! You can do so many things with bananas. So rather than just throwing them out, or composting them, which would be a better solution than throwing them out, you can make smoothies, you can whiten your teeth.

It turns out there’s a ton of different uses for bananas, but that's not why we're here. The real reason we're here is to learn about feeding better futures.

Cassie: So what does that mean?

Robb: Just getting smarter about how to recover food and use it properly.

Cassie: Wasted food takes up about 20 percent of the space in America's landfills, and the average American can toss out over 400 pounds of food each year. It is also a waste of resources. In 2012 nearly a third of our country's fertilizer, freshwater and cropland went toward growing food that was thrown away.

Robb: I think it's important for youth to get involved because you don't have to wait until you grow up to do something.

Cassie: So the idea is simple: Let your voice be heard. Come up with solutions to begin making an impact now. From wasted food in cafeterias to food being tossed out because of bogus expiration dates, take pictures of problems in your community related to our food system, and upload the photo with your proposed solution online. Your idea could win you a scholarship. 

Robb: The grand prize winner will be awarded $50,000!

Cassie: But more importantly, it could be the way to start solving the problem.

Robb: And it's really not that hard. I think just becoming more socially aware of how you use and abuse food is kind of an easy way to sort of change your life and then really effect change throughout the country and affect your neighbor’s life. 

Cassie: Cassie Hudson, Channel One News.

Tom: And if you guys want to join in on the campaign, head on over to for all the info. Plus, we have got some ideas up there on how you can cut down on food waste.

All right, guys, that is a wrap. We will see you right back here tomorrow.

 

 

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