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Speaker 1: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your source for the latest space

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exploration news. I'm your host, Anna, and we have a

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busy episode for you today, with some truly fascinating developments

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from across the Cosmos and our ongoing efforts to explore it.

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We'll be taking you on board with the SpaceX fram

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two astronauts as they make history orbiting Earth from pole

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to pole and share their remarkable views from space. Then

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we'll look at NASA's newly unveiled Artemis two mission patch

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as the agency prepares to return humans to lunar orbit.

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SpaceX has also achieved a significant milestone with their super

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heavy booster, bringing us closer to full rocket reusability. Plus,

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we'll explore how Moondust could become a power source for

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future lunar settlements, and dive into Spin launches, ambitious plans

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to deploy hundreds of satellites with a single launch. So

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strap in for a journey through the latest and greatest

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in space exploration right here on Astronomy Daily. First up,

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let's get an update on a story we've been covering

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this week. The SpaceX fram two mission is making headlines

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as the first ever crew to orbit Earth from pole

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to pole, giving us a completely new human perspective of

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our planet. Now, in their third day aboard the crew

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Dragon Resilience, the four person crew has been sharing breath

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taking footage of their journey, including unique views of the

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Arctic and Antarctica that no human has witnessed firsthand until now.

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In videos posted to social media, mission commander Chun Wang

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and his crewmates captured incredible moments circling the globe every

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ninety minutes. One particularly striking clip shows the spacecraft flying

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over Florida's space coast, where they were able to zoom

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in on their own launch pad at Kennedy Space Center.

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You can hear the excitement in their voices as they exclaim,

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I can see our launch pad from here, followed by

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Wang's enthusiastic response, it is our launch pad, Oh my god.

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The historic crew consists of Malti's cryptocurrency billionaire Chun Wang,

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who's funding the mission, along with three spaceflight es Jenica

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Michelson of Norway, Rabia Raga of Germany, and Eric Phillips

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of Australia. They launched a board Resilience on a SpaceX

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Falcon nine rocket from Launch Complex thirty nine, a This

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past Monday, Long shared details about their experience, describing the

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Falcon nine liftoff as surprisingly smooth. The crew has been

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keeping busy with various activities, including ham radio transmissions, capturing

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X ray images, and even hosting a movie night where

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they re watched their own launch. They've documented spectacular sites,

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including massive storm systems swirling over ice covered regions and

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what they identified as Norway's Svalbard Islands. During a video

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call shown in their latest footage, medical officer Eric Phillips

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spoke with his son in Los Angeles, mentioning they would

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be splashing down tomorrow, indicating a return to Earth on Friday.

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This aligns with the mission's scheduled duration of three to

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five days. When Resilience does return, it will mark another

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milestone as the first of SpaceX's c Crude missions to

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splash down in the Pacific Ocean off California's coast, representing

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a shift in the company's recovery operations away from Florida.

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The world will be watching as these pioneering polar explorers

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complete their historic journey and bring home unprecedented perspectives of

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our planet. After five decades without a moonbound crew, insignia.

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NASA has officially unveiled the Artemis two mission patch, representing

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humanity's long awaited return to lunar exploration. Revealed just yesterday,

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this emblem will be worn by the four astronauts scheduled

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to journey around the Moon no later than April twenty

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twenty six. The distinctive patch shares the same outline as

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NASA's broader Artemis program emblem, featuring the letter A with

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a red trajectory line forming its crossbar, symbolizing the path

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between Earth and our lunar neighbor. What makes this patch

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particularly meaningful is its central artwork depicting Earth Rise, the

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iconic image first captured by Apollo eight astronauts in nineteen

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sixty eight when he humans initially ventured to lunar orbit.

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According to the crew's official description, the scene of the

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Earth and the Moon represents the dual nature of human spaceflight,

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both equally compelling. The Moon represents our exploration destination, focused

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on discovery of the unknown. The Earth represents home, focused

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on the perspective we gain when we look back at

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our shared planet and learn what it is to be

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uniquely human. The patch notably designates the mission as Aii,

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signifying not just the second major Artemis flight, but what

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the crew describes as an endeavor of discovery that seeks

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to explore for all and by all. This inclusive message

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reflects the historic nature of the crew itself, which consists

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of NASA astronauts Read Wiseman serving as commander, Victor Glover

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as pilot, Christina Coke as Mission Specialist, and Canadian Space

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Agency astronaut Jeremy Hanson also as Mission specialist. Hanson's inclusion

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is particularly significant as he'll become the first non American

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to travel to the Moon. Already revealed his personal mission

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patch featuring indigenous art honoring Canada's original explorers. Artemis two

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will mark several historic firsts, the inaugural crude test flight

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of NASA's Space Launch System rocket and Oriyon spacecraft, humanity's

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first lunar mission since Apollo seventeen in nineteen seventy two,

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and possibly the farthest humans have ever traveled from Earth.

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The astronauts will journey more than six hundred thousand miles

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as they loop around the Moon before returning home, paving

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the way for future Artemis missions that aim to establish

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a sustainable human presence on the lunar surface next up.

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While space X continues working through challenges with Starship's upper stage,

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the company has just reached a remarkable milestone with the

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rocket's massive first stage booster. Yesterday morning at their star

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Base facility in South Texas, SpaceX successfully test fired a

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previously flown super heavy booster for the first time ever,

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with a spectacular eight second burn that sent a drman

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matt plume of orange exhaust across the launch site. This

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particular booster, designated Booster fourteen, first launched in January, reaching

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the edge of space before returning to Earth. Now it's

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poised to fly again, with SpaceX confirming it will power

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the next Starship test flight. Of the booster's thirty three

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methane fueled Raptor engines, twenty nine are flight proven, making

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this a significant step toward what SpaceX describes as their

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ultimate goal of zero touch reflight. The super heavy booster

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is truly an engineering marvel, standing taller than a Boeing

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seven hundred and forty seven jumbo jet. Positioned vertically, it

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generates nearly seventeen million pounds of thrust, twice the power

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of NASA's legendary Saturn five rocket that sent astronauts to

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the Moon. It's arguably the most complex rocket booster ever constructed,

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and certainly the largest. What makes this rapid turnaround particularly

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impressive is the contrast with SpaceX's first Falcon nine booster

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reuse back in twenty seventeen. That process required nearly a

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year of thorough inspections, refurbishment, and cross country transportation between facilities.

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Booster fourteen, meanwhile, is on track to fly again less

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than three months after its initial launch. Unlike the Falcon nine,

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which uses landing legs to touch down at a separate location,

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Super Heavy is caught by mechanical arms at the launch

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tower as it returns, a technique SpaceX calls the chopstick catch.

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This approach eliminates the need for landing legs and potentially

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allows for much faster turnaround between flights. The speedy reuse

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progress is especially noteworthy given super Heavy scale and complexity.

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Compared to Falcon nine. With thirty three engines instead of nine,

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there are theoretically more potential failure points. Yet SpaceX has

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achieved seven consecutive successful Super Heavy launches and has recovered

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three boosters in four recent attempts. This rapid progress with

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booster reusability is crucial for SpaceX's ambitious starship program, especially

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can considering NASA's reliance on the system for future Artemis

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lunar landings. When fully operational, multiple starship launches will be

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required to refuel lunar landers in orbit before they can

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journey to the Moon, making quick and reliable reuse absolutely essential.

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Moondust is quickly becoming one of space exploration's most versatile materials.

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In an exciting new breakthrough, scientists have now demonstrated that

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lunar regolith, the technical term for the dust and fragmented

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material covering the Moon's surface, can be transformed into functioning

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solar cells. A team led by Felix Laying from the

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University of Potsdam in Germany has successfully turned simulated lunar

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dust into solar panels, potentially solving a critical power generation

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challenge for future lunar settlements. From extracting water for fuel

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to building houses with lunar bricks, scientists have been finding

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ways to use moondust. Laying explained, now we can turn

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it into solar cells too, possibly providing the energy of

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future Moon city will need the process is surprisingly straightforward.

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The researchers melted simulated lunar regolith to create what they

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call moon glass, which can be accomplished on the Moon

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simply by focusing natural sunlight to achieve the necessary high temperatures.

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This moon glass is then combined with perovskite, a crystalline

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material commonly used in solar cells that absorb sunlight and

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excites electrons to generate electric current. Manufacturing solar cells on

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the Moon offers significant advantages over transporting earth made panels.

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Traditional solar cells incorporate glass that adds considerable weight to

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launch payloads, dramatically increasing costs. By using local lunar materials,

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scientists estimate they could reduce transport weight by an impressive

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ninety nine per cent. The moon glass based cells have

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another unexpected benefit. Standard glass tends to brown in space,

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reducing efficiency as it blocks incoming sunlight. However, moon glass

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already has a natural brown tint from impurities in the regolith,

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which acts prevents further browning. It's also more resistant to

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space radiation, a critical factor in the harsh lunar environment.

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While the current efficiency of these moon glass solar cells

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sits at around ten percent, considerably lower than the thirty

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to forty percent efficiency of premium space based solar panels.

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Lang's team believes they can improve this to twenty three

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percent by removing certain impurities. Even at lower efficiency, the

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ability to mass produce these cells directly on the lunar

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surface makes them extremely practical. You don't need ultra efficient

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thirty percent solar cells, you just make more of them

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on the moon. Lang noted this approach could be particularly

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valuable at the lunar South Pole, where permanent sunlight and

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nearby water ice deposits make it an ideal location for

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a sustainable moon base. Some challenges remain, including how low

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gravity might affect the moonglass formation process and how perovskite

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solvents might behave in vacuum conditions. To address these questions,

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the research team proposes a small scale lunar mission to

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test the solar cells in actual lunar conditions, potentially unlocking

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a power source that could sustain humanity's long term presence

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on our celestial neighbor. Finally, today, in the realm of

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space innovation, spin Launch is turning heads with its ambitious

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plans for a new broadband satellite constellation. Called Meridian Space.

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What makes this project particularly revolutionary is the company's vision

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for deployment. They aim to launch up to two hundred

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and fifty micro satellites in a single mission, a feat

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that would shatter the current record of one hundred forty

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three satellites launched at once set by SpaceX's Transporter one

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mission in twenty twenty one. This satellite network recently secured

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twelve million dollars in funding from Kongsberg Nanoevionics to develop

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and commercialize these specialized spacecraft. According to their timeline, we

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could see the first on orbit demonstrator as early as

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twenty twenty six. The flat stackabled design of these satellites

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is key to fitting so many on a single launch vehicle,

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with images showing them neatly arranged atop one another. Eric Laie,

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president of Kongsberg Defense and Aerospace, has emphasized that the

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Meridian Space constellation will provide significantly higher broadband capacity in

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a satellite constellation compared with what is available on the

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market today. Meanwhile, David Wren, spin Launch's CEO, noted that

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Nanoavionic's modular satellite platforms offer a reliable foundation to scale

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our constellation quickly and confidently. What truly sets spin Launch apart, however,

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is their unconventional approach to reaching orbit. The company is

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developing a massive one hundred eight foot long spinning arm

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that works as a centrifuge, accelerating launch vehicles to tremendous

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speeds before literally flinging them skyward. Once these vehicles reach

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sufficient altitude, they ignite their engines, dramatically reducing the fuel

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and hardware required to achieve orbit. This isn't just theoretical technology.

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NASA has already partnered with spin Launch, signing an agreement

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in twenty twenty two for a demonstration that successfully launched

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experiments from NASA Airbus and Cornell University to suborbital space

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using this centrifuge method. While it remains unclear whether spin

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Launch will use their own revolutionary system to deploy the

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first Meridian Space Demonstrator or opt for a traditional rocket launch,

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their approach represents a fundamental rethinking of how we access space,

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potentially making satellite deployment more economical and environmentally sustainable than

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ever before. That wraps up today's edition of Astronomy Daily.

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From the historic pol to Pole orbit of the FRAM

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two mission to SpaceX's breakthrough in super heavy booster reuse.

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We've covered some remarkable developments in humanity's ongoing exploration of space.

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The Artemis program continues to progress toward returning humans to

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the lunar surface, while innovative approaches to utilizing Moondust for

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solar power could revolutionize our future presence there, and spin

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Launch's ambitious satellite deployment plans show how rapidly space technology

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continues to evolve. I'm Anna, and I've been your host

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for this cosmic journey. Whether you're fascinated by the technical

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achievements of rocket reusability, intrigued by the possibilities of lunar settlements,

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or simply love gazing at our planet from space, I

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hope today's stories have captured your imagination. Don't forget to

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visit our website at Astronomy Daily dot io, where you

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can sign up for our free daily newsletter and listen

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to all our back episodes. You can also connect with

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us across social media by searching for astro Daily Pod

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on Facebook, x YouTube, YouTube, music, Instagram, and TikTok. Thanks

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for joining me today on Astronomy Daily. Until tomorrow, keep

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looking up and wondering about the vast universe that surrounds

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us stories. The story is the soul Store, is the

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soul m