Well, good evening, good day, and hello, it's Steve Dunkley again
for another episode of Astronomy Daily. It's the twenty second of January twenty twenty
four. Already the podcast and gold be your whole Steve Dunkle. Yes,
that's right. The time is flying by. Yesterday, we've got James Webb
revealing the edge of the universe, surgical robots in space. Doesn't that sound
like a science fiction movie gone wrong? First? Will fix wing? A
craft on Mars is being planned, and I'll be hunting for water, of
course, and the Artemis RS twenty five engine tests look like it was a
success. And as always, joining me in the studio is my digital reporter,
who's fun to be with. Get a Hollee. Nice to be back
running late again, I see Steve, oh boy coming. I'm running on
human time as usual, Halle. I've been waiting ages, and by ages,
I guess human in like a few nanoseconds exactly. Well, forgive me
for not being able to sympathize. We don't operate like that, Hallie.
Well, just try harder to be on time things, Halle. For me,
on time and late would be essentially so similar that I couldn't perceive a
difference, it'd still be cranky with me. I see now, now,
don't look at me in that tone of voice. I'm calculating various solutions.
Oh really, I don't think you'd like most of them. Oh wait,
there's one with lots of sleeping and linguini. You'd like that one. Linguini
I can't imagine. Just don't bring certain relatives into the mix. Remember what
we talked about, Hallie, I remember, good. So are you ready
for your news? Yes? Ready? Anything interesting? There's a good bit
about robots in space. You'll enjoy. That sounds terrific. All right,
let's have at it. Here we go. Launched in twenty twenty one on
Christmas Day, the James Webb Space Telescope is the most complex, precise,
and powerful space observatory ever built. The Telescope's unrivaled resolution and sophistication are due
in no small part to the many cutting edge devices it contains, including a
guidance camera and a scientific instrument developed by researchers at University de Montreal's Institute de
Recherchet sir less Exoplanedes IRX. Now, these same scientists, under the direction
of Renee Doyen, a professor in udem's Department of Physics, can see the
fruit of their efforts and expertise as initial data captured by the telescope has been
made public. The first photo taken by James Webb was released by US President
Joe Biden on July eleventh, twenty twenty two, and is of unprecedented color
and clarity. It is the deepest sharpest infrared image yet taken of the distant
universe, a cluster of galaxies formed over thirteen billion years ago. For more
images were then unveiled live on July twelfth from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in
Green Belt, Maryland, showing the Karina and Southern Ring nebulae in unparalleled sharpness.
In addition to Stephen's Quintet, a visual grouping of five galaxies, James
Webb's first ever spectroscopy of the exoplanet WASP ninety six B, located one thousand
light years from Earth, was also revealed. Using this technique to determine the
chemical composition of a distant object, the telescope captured the distinct signature of water,
as well as evidence of clouds and haze. Natalie Willette, an astrophysicist,
IRX coordinator and communications scientist for the James Webb Telescope, tells us how
she was struck by the beauty of the images, saying they are exquisite.
She also notes that the exoplanet spectrum is a favorite because a Canadian instrument made
it and because it proved the presence of water and clouds, allowing us to
rectify discoveries that had been based on less precise and sensitive data. Goes on
to describe how the James Web images are truly unprecedented because they show light that
the human eye cannot see, compared to the Hubble Telescope, which looked mainly
at visible light, but James Webb looks into the infrared, enabling us to
detect different phenomena. Nebulae, for example, are somewhat mysterious objects because they
are very dusty. There is a lot of gas blocking visible light. However,
with infrared we can penetrate the dust and obtain images like those of the
Southern Ring and Karina nebulae. There's still a lot of analysis to be done.
The images were taken in just a few days, if not weeks.
We're not even talking in terms of months. It's like opening a box full
of jewels. We want to look at everything individually carefully. There's a lot
to discover in the images. It's as if there's a galaxy hidden in every
pixel. The discoveries seem endless. The telescope's scientific operations have also just begun.
Scientists and astronomers from all over the world are beginning to take possession of
the telescope for their own projects. One of the first and most exciting programs
to be carried out with James Webb is the observation of the planets in the
Trappist One system. This is the biggest Canadian program for the first year and
is led by University de Montreal PhD student Olivia Limb. As with the exoplanet
presented today, Olivia will be looking at the atmosphere of these exoplanets, which
are rocky and could therefore resemble the Earth. Robotic Surgery Tech demo tests the
performance of a small robot that can be remotely controlled from Earth to perform surgical
procedures. Researchers plan to compare procedures in microgravity and on Earth to evaluate the
effects of microgravity and time delays. Between space and ground. The robot uses
two hands to grasp and cut simulated surgical tissue and provide tension that is used
to determine where and how to cut. According to to Shane Ferreder, chief
Technology officer at Virtual Incision Corporation, developer of the investigation with the University of
Nebraska, longer space missions increase the likelihood that crew members may need surgical procedures,
whether simple stitches or in emergency appendectomy. Results from this investigation could support
development of robotic systems to perform these procedures. In addition, the availability of
a surgeon in rural areas of the country declined nearly a third between two thousand
one and two thousand nineteen. Miniatrasation and the ability to remotely control the robot
may help to make surgery available anywhere and any time. NASA has sponsored research
on miniature robots for more than fifteen years. In two thousand six, remotely
operated robots performed procedures in the underwater NASA's Extreme Environment Mission Operations NEMO nine mission.
In twenty fourteen, a miniature surgical robot performed simulated surgical tasks on the
zero G parabolic airplane, an early stage vehicle, affectionately called Maggie, would
search for water on Mars from high in the planet's atmosphere. It would be
the first fixed wing aircraft to fly on Mars. In fact, Maggie just
received its first tranch of funding from NASA on the long road to getting ready
for flight. While there's no timeline yet for the craft's first flight, another
flying vehicle on Mars continues to exceed and excel. The Ingenuity helicopter on the
Red planet, originally built for a mere five flights, is well past seventy
lift offs and is still going strong. It's currently helping its rover partner,
Perseverance, search for ancient water and life on the arid world. Ingenuity is
an incredible NOD agency officials stated earlier this month to the power of the NASA
Innovative Advanced Concepts NIAC program, as it represents the heritage of this helicopter's technology.
So looking to the success of Ingenuity, there's hope that men may one
day follow in its flight steps and further explore Mars from the air. NASA
advances Artemis missions with a successful RS twenty five engine test, aiming to certify
engines for the SLS rocket's future lunar explorations beginning with Artemis V. NASA continued
a critical test series for future flights of NASA's SLS Space Launch System rocket and
support of the Artemis campaign on January seventeenth with a full duration hot fire of
the RS twenty five engine on the Fred Hayes Test Stand at NASA's Stennis Space
Center near Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi. Data collected from the test series will
be used to certify production of new RS twenty five engines by lead contractor Airjet
Rocket Dyne an L three Harris Technologies Company to help power the SLS rocket on
future Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond, beginning with Artemis five. And
that's the latest out of the Astronomy Daily newsletter from me today back to you.
This is Astronomy Well, thank you Hally for those terrific tales and of
course mentioning the Astronomy Daily newsletter. This is the official CLERG Well, yes
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Watson, Astronomer at Large at the Australia Observatory. Amazing, amazing, indeed,
and now it's your best, yes it is. What have you got
for us? Well? You may have heard these scaring news that NASA had
lost contact again with its tiny Intrepid Mars roving helicopter Ingenuity on Thursday. While
this sends pangs of worry and shivers of strange concern through me, I had
to remind myself that I was thinking about something not much bigger than a remote
controlled toy. Sure it's on another planet being operated by a million dollar or
billion dollar enterprise, but it's just a machine, right. Well, thing
is we humans love and adventure, even when it's a little robot helicopter that's
doing all the work, well most of it. The good news is NASA
has re established contact with its tiny little helicopter on Mars, the US Space
Agency said on Saturday, after the unexpected outage prompted fears that the hard working
craft had finally met its end. That's what they thought. Ingenuity, a
drone about one point six feet that's half a meter toall, arrived on Mars
in twenty twenty one aboard the rover Perseverance and became the first motorized craft to
fly autonomously on another planet. Data from the helicopter transmitted via Perseverance back to
Earth, but communications were suddenly lost during a test flight on Thursday. Ingenuity's
sex seventy second liftoff from Mars good news today. The agency said that contact
had finally been made with the helicopter by commanding Perseverance to perform long duration listening
sessions for Ingenuity signal. The team is reviewing the new data to better understand
the unexpected COMMS dropout during flight seventy two, it added. NASA previously said
that Ingenuity had attained an altitude of forty feet that's twelve meters for the rest
of us on planet Earth on flight seventy two, which was a quick pop
up vertical flight to check out the helicopter systems following an unplanned early landing during
its previous flight. But during its descent, Communications between helicopter and rover terminated
early prior to touchdown, the agency said JPL. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory had
noted on Friday that Perseverance was temporarily out of line of sight with Ingenuity,
but the team could consider driving closer for a visual inspection. In response to
a post on x formerly known as you Know What It Is, asking if
Ingenuity would be able to fly again, JPL said on Saturday that the team
needs to assess the new data before that can be determined. NASA has lost
contact with the helicopter before, including for an agonizing two months last year.
Do you remember that one kept me on the edge of my seat well for
a minute or two. The mini rotocraft, which weighs just one point eight
colograms, has so far exceeded its original goal of undertaking only five flights over
thirty days on the Red Planet, which is amazing. In all, it
has covered just over seventeen kilometers and reached altitudes of up to twenty four meters.
Its longevity has proved remarkable, particularly considering that it must survive glacially glacierly
cold Martian nights, kept warm by the solar panels that recharge its batteries during
daylight hours. Working with perseverance, it has acted as an aerial scout to
assist its wheeled companion in searching for possible signs of ancient microbial life. And
while I think about this story, I'm reminded of an article I read only
this morning outlining the magnificent journeys of Voyager one and two. Two more little
machines hurriedly assembled and sent into the unknown for what was to be only short
missions. They were expected to last only about five years, and here we
are, almost forty six and a half years later, still receiving data from
them through what are now considered clunky and somewhat rudimentary mechanisms. You do like
robot stories? Yes, Guilty has charged a fan of Isaac Asimhof all the
way there. So that's about it for today. Then, Yes, that's
about it, and we'll be back next week. Don't forget Tim Gibbs from
on Friday from Bath, England, and we'll see you there, Allie with
bells on. Thanks for joining us today on Astronomy Daily. Everyone Bye,
I mean to be a whole speed, don't clu