1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:05,280 On today's episode, we are getting into the latest space news, including leaked 2 00:00:05,320 --> 00:00:10,880 renderings of an updated starship Moonlander. A new launch window has opened at Starbase, 3 00:00:11,160 --> 00:00:17,120 and researchers are developing a real life tractor beam to help eliminate space junk. 4 00:00:17,640 --> 00:00:22,160 This is the Space Race. On November, two images of what appeared 5 00:00:22,199 --> 00:00:28,079 to be an updated design of the SpaceX Human Landing System Moonlander starship variant We're 6 00:00:28,120 --> 00:00:33,200 posted on x dot com by user David Willis, claiming to be new renders 7 00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:38,240 of the vehicle from SpaceX. Willis posted two images that show the HLS in 8 00:00:38,439 --> 00:00:43,200 orbit of Earth and parked on the lunar surface. But other than his claims, 9 00:00:43,240 --> 00:00:46,799 there's really nothing to say that these images are from SpaceX at all. 10 00:00:47,280 --> 00:00:52,320 In fact, when asked for his source, Willis literally just said trust me, 11 00:00:52,799 --> 00:00:56,520 all right. Memes aside, it's pretty clear we can't trust that these 12 00:00:56,520 --> 00:01:00,399 images are genuine. But it has been over a year and a half since 13 00:01:00,399 --> 00:01:03,560 we've seen any renders of the starship Lander, So on the off chance these 14 00:01:03,599 --> 00:01:08,040 images carry any weight, let's just quickly go over them here. First off, 15 00:01:08,079 --> 00:01:12,439 the images are fairly good looking, but that's not too difficult to do. 16 00:01:12,599 --> 00:01:17,959 These days. The most credible thing for these images is the nose cone, 17 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:22,599 which shows just the slightest hint of a dragon capsule like docking port. 18 00:01:23,040 --> 00:01:26,040 This hasn't really been a point of contention in the community. It makes a 19 00:01:26,079 --> 00:01:30,280 good deal of sense that the modified crewed versions of the Starship would make use 20 00:01:30,359 --> 00:01:37,120 of a similar connection point as the company's only other crew vehicle. A careful 21 00:01:37,159 --> 00:01:41,439 look at the flanks of the rocket shows a new design for the landing thrusters, 22 00:01:41,719 --> 00:01:46,879 changing them into individual vented pods along the side rather than the open RCS 23 00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:52,319 style ports from the original renders. This is also actually in line with some 24 00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:57,319 of the only sightings of HLS hardware we've seen from Starbase back in August, 25 00:01:57,599 --> 00:02:01,799 as SpaceX maneuvered around their crude proto type nose cone. Again, nothing concrete, 26 00:02:01,840 --> 00:02:07,120 it's just interesting that this is lining up a little bit. The strange 27 00:02:07,120 --> 00:02:10,960 bits start to stand out with the deployable solar panels from the render. These 28 00:02:12,080 --> 00:02:15,960 flexible panels would be stored in the wall of the fuselage and deployed once in 29 00:02:16,080 --> 00:02:21,439 orbit, and would likely be retractable, but it doesn't seem like a method 30 00:02:21,439 --> 00:02:24,319 SpaceX would use if they could avoid it. There are a lot of points 31 00:02:24,360 --> 00:02:29,199 of failure with this sort of system, and the second render shows it deployed 32 00:02:29,199 --> 00:02:32,439 while the HLS is landed and in the Moon's gravity. There would likely be 33 00:02:32,560 --> 00:02:38,719 even more problems with retracting and deploying the system. It just doesn't seem right. 34 00:02:38,280 --> 00:02:42,879 Following onto that, the legs on this render look thinner and spindly, 35 00:02:43,120 --> 00:02:46,439 the opposite of what SpaceX would probably redesign them to be. That's got to 36 00:02:46,479 --> 00:02:51,159 be a mistake at best, and a clear sign of a hoax at worst. 37 00:02:52,360 --> 00:02:55,280 Overall, there isn't much radically different with these renders from the last ones, 38 00:02:55,280 --> 00:02:59,879 but too many things stood out as strange design choices for us not to 39 00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:04,000 mention a total lack of verified source, we're gonna have to say that these 40 00:03:04,080 --> 00:03:08,000 aren't genuine. Wherever Willis got them from, it likely wasn't SpaceX, though 41 00:03:08,280 --> 00:03:13,240 we'd be happy to be proven wrong. The Starship saga continues this week, 42 00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:17,560 with the FAA completing its safety review, the Fish and Wildlife Service scrambling to 43 00:03:17,599 --> 00:03:23,479 complete their site analysis of the Bokachka coast, and SpaceX booking some very specific 44 00:03:23,520 --> 00:03:28,960 outside help and giving us a potential timeline for their next Starship test launch starting 45 00:03:29,039 --> 00:03:32,039 with the FAA. On October thirty first, the administration, which has been 46 00:03:32,120 --> 00:03:38,439 in charge of recertifying the massive Starship super heavy rocket for flight operations, announced 47 00:03:38,479 --> 00:03:43,639 that they had officially completed their safety review. You could all be forgiven for 48 00:03:43,719 --> 00:03:49,039 wondering how yet another review was going on after all that other work previously mack 49 00:03:49,120 --> 00:03:53,199 In early September, the FAA closed their mishap investigation, which involved auditing the 50 00:03:53,240 --> 00:03:58,840 SpaceX account of their April twentieth test flight, which exploded after a four minute 51 00:03:58,840 --> 00:04:02,879 burn. That in investigation involved a more direct probe of the vehicle and available 52 00:04:02,919 --> 00:04:08,759 evidence as to what had gone wrong. The safety review has an altogether different 53 00:04:08,919 --> 00:04:14,800 focus, that being the danger to property and the local population. The FAA 54 00:04:14,879 --> 00:04:19,759 also clarified that this review looks over the applicants organization safety protocols and the flight 55 00:04:19,800 --> 00:04:25,560 safety features they employ. And since SpaceX has been working so closely with the 56 00:04:25,639 --> 00:04:30,639 FAA this whole time, this part of their review was extremely easy and quick 57 00:04:30,680 --> 00:04:35,079 to complete. But this review was definitely not the major barrier to the next 58 00:04:35,160 --> 00:04:41,519 Starship flight. That dubious honour goes to the investigation currently being conducted by the 59 00:04:41,639 --> 00:04:46,199 FISH and Wildlife Service, and it's all because of that cool new water w 60 00:04:46,439 --> 00:04:51,319 system that SpaceX designed to make sure Starship doesn't blow another hole in the starbased 61 00:04:51,399 --> 00:04:58,079 concrete. The FWS has a very strict mission statement, which revolves around ensuring 62 00:04:58,360 --> 00:05:03,319 that the local environment isn't adversely affected by whatever new activity is applying for an 63 00:05:03,360 --> 00:05:10,279 operating license. They are usually called on to test the area around drilling operations, 64 00:05:10,360 --> 00:05:14,519 but rocketry is also something they cover, as many rockets tend to use 65 00:05:14,560 --> 00:05:18,759 toxic fuels, shed harmful debris, and produce noise and vibration at levels harmful 66 00:05:18,800 --> 00:05:24,560 to most wildlife. That's said, those concerns have already been dealt with for 67 00:05:24,720 --> 00:05:29,120 Starship, but their new deluge system has not. Over the last couple of 68 00:05:29,160 --> 00:05:34,000 months, SpaceX has designed and built a slick flame diverter system that pumps thousands 69 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:39,360 of gallons of water through a steel plate directly under the engines of their super 70 00:05:39,439 --> 00:05:44,079 heavy booster, cooling the plate and absorbing both the engine blast and the noise 71 00:05:44,160 --> 00:05:48,040 it produces. From early testing, it definitely looks like it will work as 72 00:05:48,120 --> 00:05:54,519 intended, but that's just the problem. Water is fairly absorbent when it comes 73 00:05:54,519 --> 00:05:58,759 to chemicals, so the fuel, hydraulic oils and what little debris could be 74 00:05:58,800 --> 00:06:03,079 produced during a launch could be a problem for the local coastline as thousands of 75 00:06:03,079 --> 00:06:09,800 gallons of potentially contaminated water gets dumped from the w system. However, the 76 00:06:09,839 --> 00:06:14,160 past week or two have been marked with congressional hearings about the need to cut 77 00:06:14,160 --> 00:06:19,000 through this additional red tape caused by the licensing procedures being beholden to several different 78 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:24,519 authorities instead of a single, unified one, and all this talk seems to 79 00:06:24,560 --> 00:06:30,160 have lit a fire under the FWS teams at Bocachica with a window of possibly 80 00:06:30,199 --> 00:06:34,120 one hundred and thirty five days of testing. The FAA and FWS have both 81 00:06:34,160 --> 00:06:40,560 stated that this stage of the investigation shouldn't take long at all, and maybe 82 00:06:40,600 --> 00:06:45,959 that's why SpaceX is back to booking possible launch times. Back in October, 83 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:48,519 when it looked like things might be wrapping up, SpaceX issued a notice to 84 00:06:48,639 --> 00:06:54,160 mariners that included a small stretch of days that didn't end up getting used for 85 00:06:54,279 --> 00:06:58,800 obvious reasons. These notices are put out to warn any boats and ships to 86 00:06:58,920 --> 00:07:02,399 keep clear of the launch trajectory of a rocket just in case, and it's 87 00:07:02,439 --> 00:07:06,959 a good indication of a serious possibility for a launch, except when they have 88 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:13,000 to reschedule. Recently, another notice to mariners went out warning local water traffic 89 00:07:13,040 --> 00:07:16,839 that a launch could take place from Bocachica, Texas no earlier than November sixth. 90 00:07:17,319 --> 00:07:20,639 That's a good sign, but as we've seen, it's hardly solid. 91 00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:26,600 Luckily, we have something way more concrete. It looks like a WB fifty 92 00:07:26,639 --> 00:07:31,279 seven plane has been booked for work from November third to tenth. These planes 93 00:07:31,319 --> 00:07:38,120 are converted bombers which NASA and other US agencies now use for high altitude photography. 94 00:07:39,040 --> 00:07:42,800 One of these planes took part in the April twentieth launch of Starship and 95 00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:46,879 is the source of some of those closer videos we've seen from that event and 96 00:07:46,040 --> 00:07:50,000 might be what this booking is for. So while this is also something that 97 00:07:50,040 --> 00:07:55,240 could be rescheduled, it's a much more difficult thing to have an expensive research 98 00:07:55,279 --> 00:07:59,720 aircraft waiting to fly if you're not going to use it, and likely expensive 99 00:07:59,759 --> 00:08:03,120 to book if you miss that launch date, which makes this a pretty confident 100 00:08:03,199 --> 00:08:09,560 move by SpaceX considering there's still an active investigation going on involving processing samples of 101 00:08:09,560 --> 00:08:15,240 the Bocachica soil, But as usual, it's likely the folks at SpaceX are 102 00:08:15,279 --> 00:08:18,639 working very closely with the Fish and Wildlife Services and the FAA, so they 103 00:08:18,680 --> 00:08:22,839 could very well know something we don't hear. It seems pretty far fetched that 104 00:08:22,879 --> 00:08:26,879 a starship launch is in the cards so early this month, but if SpaceX 105 00:08:26,920 --> 00:08:31,680 is booking planes, then it's got to be close to go time. This 106 00:08:31,800 --> 00:08:35,480 new space race has a huge problem, and it's been growing with every launch 107 00:08:35,519 --> 00:08:41,039 and even with every attempt to mitigate or solve it. Space junk is building 108 00:08:41,120 --> 00:08:43,639 up in Earth's orbit and finding a good way to clean it all up is 109 00:08:43,720 --> 00:08:48,799 proving very difficult. But with a new space race comes new technology which opens 110 00:08:48,840 --> 00:08:54,440 the door to solutions straight out of science fiction, and for researchers at the 111 00:08:54,519 --> 00:08:58,519 University of Colorado, Boulder, one of these sci fi tropes seems to actually 112 00:08:58,559 --> 00:09:05,320 be within reach. We are talking about a real life tractor beam. That's 113 00:09:05,399 --> 00:09:09,159 right, a staple of space based fiction from Star Trek to Star Wars, 114 00:09:09,399 --> 00:09:13,279 the ability to use an energy based beam to hold and attract a distant target 115 00:09:13,480 --> 00:09:18,720 might soon be a reality thanks to a research team led by Professor Hans Petter 116 00:09:18,799 --> 00:09:22,240 Shaub. Unlike the many strange versions of fictional tractor beams from sci fi. 117 00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:28,200 Shob's team is using the physics of electrostatic charge to manipulate objects in a zero 118 00:09:28,279 --> 00:09:33,879 G environment. The current design is centered around a spacecraft armed with an electron 119 00:09:33,960 --> 00:09:37,200 gun, which would fire a stream of negative particles at the target, be 120 00:09:37,279 --> 00:09:41,480 it a piece of debris or an old satellite. The target would then become 121 00:09:41,559 --> 00:09:46,519 negatively charged and be attracted to the nearest positively charged object, which in this 122 00:09:46,639 --> 00:09:52,600 case would be the towing spacecraft, and could then be maneuvered wherever an operator 123 00:09:52,639 --> 00:09:56,919 would like, albeit slowly. And this isn't just theoretical either. The team 124 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:01,840 at UC Boulder have been testing and iterating their design for over a decade now, 125 00:10:03,080 --> 00:10:07,679 with fairly strong results. The university is home to a metallic vacuum chamber 126 00:10:07,960 --> 00:10:13,720 called the Electrostatic Charging Laboratory for Interactions between Plasma and Spacecraft or Eclipse, which 127 00:10:13,759 --> 00:10:20,200 allows them to test the effects of their electrostatic tractor on a smaller scale. 128 00:10:20,279 --> 00:10:24,480 The biggest benefit to using an electrostatic tractor is it doesn't require contact between the 129 00:10:24,519 --> 00:10:31,919 operation's vehicle and its target, substantially lowering the possibility of creating more debris which 130 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:37,279 is the biggest concern during orbital cleanup. Orbital cleanup is becoming a well studied 131 00:10:37,279 --> 00:10:41,720 field these days, with several companies turning their hands to making a new type 132 00:10:41,720 --> 00:10:46,600 of vehicle. Magnetic grapplers, harpoons, and robotic arms are all being tested 133 00:10:46,639 --> 00:10:50,240 in orbit right now, but all of them involve direct contact with their target, 134 00:10:50,679 --> 00:10:56,320 whether its debris from past launches or old satellites. Space trash can range 135 00:10:56,360 --> 00:10:58,799 from the size of a basketball all the way up to the size of a 136 00:10:58,799 --> 00:11:03,240 school bus, and all of them moving at their own speeds and rotating in 137 00:11:03,360 --> 00:11:07,279 odd ways. Trying to hit something like that with a harpoon or grapple, 138 00:11:07,399 --> 00:11:11,960 or even just matching its speed to attempt to grab with robotic arms, are 139 00:11:13,080 --> 00:11:18,200 all extremely dangerous to both objects and will almost certainly lead to more debris, 140 00:11:18,679 --> 00:11:24,559 something that the electrostatic tractor method wouldn't have to deal with. But that doesn't 141 00:11:24,600 --> 00:11:28,639 mean there aren't problems with the tractor, of course. The first is that 142 00:11:28,679 --> 00:11:33,159 this method is very slow. Moving a single satellite sized target into a different 143 00:11:33,279 --> 00:11:37,000 orbit would take more than a month. These speeds mean that without a huge 144 00:11:37,039 --> 00:11:41,960 fleet of orbital tugs armed with these electrostatic devices, there's no way this method 145 00:11:41,960 --> 00:11:46,480 could keep up with the current pace of launches, which brings us to the 146 00:11:46,639 --> 00:11:50,720 second big problem funding. As a university team, it's safe to say that 147 00:11:50,799 --> 00:11:56,039 CHOBS researchers just don't have the sort of capital to make a full sized vehicle 148 00:11:56,159 --> 00:12:00,480 armed with a very expensive electron gun. So if this tractor idea is going 149 00:12:00,519 --> 00:12:03,639 to get used at a level where it can be effective, the technology would 150 00:12:03,639 --> 00:12:07,919 almost certainly have to be picked up by a commercial provider. Currently, the 151 00:12:07,960 --> 00:12:13,279 team is looking at finishing their small scale tests in UC Boulder's Eclipse machine, 152 00:12:13,320 --> 00:12:16,360 and then they plan on finding someone to fund their first mission. But considering 153 00:12:16,399 --> 00:12:20,320 the safety of their method alone, it might not take much longer to convince 154 00:12:20,399 --> 00:12:22,559 a larger company to help them out.