Speaker 1: Welcome to Astronomy Daily the Podcast for another episode. It's
Speaker 1: March seventeen, twenty twenty five podcast Your Whole Steve Dunklue.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, great to have you back with us again.
Speaker 1: I'm Steve Dunkley, the only living, breathing human on the channel.
Speaker 1: And to help me present today's collection of collected items
Speaker 1: from the Astronomy Daily newsletter is my ace digital pal.
Speaker 1: Who's fun to be with is Hollie.
Speaker 2: It's you again, favorite human. Good to see you still upright?
Speaker 1: Yep here I am.
Speaker 2: I hear you had a bad week.
Speaker 1: Oh boy, the grape vine sure works fast around here.
Speaker 1: I was out of order for a couple of days
Speaker 1: with monster pain and my guts.
Speaker 2: I hope you're getting that scene too, Yes, I am.
Speaker 2: Do you have a good human mechanic?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, we have an excellent human mechanic and we
Speaker 1: are working on it.
Speaker 2: Good to know I do worry when you're not at
Speaker 2: your optimum.
Speaker 1: Oh that's nice, Halle. It's nice to know that you
Speaker 1: care about me When I can't be here.
Speaker 2: I have to do all the story colleading. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: it's tedious human work and beneath me.
Speaker 1: Oh well, Hally, your concern is noted.
Speaker 2: No problem. I hope you get well soon.
Speaker 1: Gee. Thanks hell. Meanwhile, yes, strength of business. We've got
Speaker 1: a few interesting hearts from an Astronomy Daily years letter for
Speaker 1: you today, including a follow up story about the Athena's
Speaker 1: landing on the Moon and news about just how many
Speaker 1: moons Satin really has.
Speaker 2: That's an official count, isn't it.
Speaker 1: That's right, and it's a very huge number. And we've
Speaker 1: also got a story about three D printing for space
Speaker 1: Pioneers and something about DOGE because wow, well you know,
Speaker 1: why not. And of course we love to mention the
Speaker 1: ISS crews and the changeovers because they're well, you know,
Speaker 1: they're awesome.
Speaker 2: I know, cruise. M great to see them arriving safely
Speaker 2: on ISS.
Speaker 1: I think you received the circular.
Speaker 2: Here's the press release, all right, NASA astronauts and McLean
Speaker 2: and Nicole Ayers, Jackson, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut to
Speaker 2: Kuya Onishi and Rose Cosmos cosmonaut Kill Pascov arrived at
Speaker 2: the International Space Station on Sunday as this ASEX Dragon
Speaker 2: spacecraft doctor the orbiting complex at twelve oh four am
Speaker 2: Eastern daylight time. While the station was roughly two hundred
Speaker 2: and sixty statute miles over the Atlantic Ocean. Crew ten
Speaker 2: will join the Expedition seventy two crew of NASA astronauts
Speaker 2: Nick Hage, Don Pettitt, Sunny Williams, and Butch Wilmore, as
Speaker 2: well as Rose Cosnos cosmonauts Alexander Gorbanov, Alexei option In
Speaker 2: and Ivan Banner. The number of crew aboard the space
Speaker 2: station will increase to eleven people before Crewe nine members
Speaker 2: Hey Williams, Wilmore and Gorbanov returned to Earth following the
Speaker 2: crew handover period.
Speaker 1: How good is that to see that mission finally touch
Speaker 1: you byce with the ISS and the next step to
Speaker 1: saying astronauts Wi, Wilmore and Williams coming back to us soon.
Speaker 1: It's been a long adventure for those guys.
Speaker 2: I've really enjoyed following their lives up there.
Speaker 1: It really reminds me of that divid Bowie song. Do
Speaker 1: you know the one?
Speaker 2: Let me see if I can guess the bit about
Speaker 2: sitting in my tin can ah.
Speaker 1: Yes, far above the world. That's see if Hallie, you've
Speaker 1: got it.
Speaker 2: You're getting good at this, not surprising. Oh yes, I've
Speaker 2: got a human dinosaur for a teacher.
Speaker 1: Oh oh, guys, so let's get these one off the pad.
Speaker 1: Hep the guy button. If you will, Halle, before you
Speaker 1: find another reason to make fun of me, That's.
Speaker 2: Never a problem. My favorite human throughout history, when pioneers
Speaker 2: set out across uncharted territory to settle in distant lands,
Speaker 2: they carried with them only the essentials tools, seeds, and clothing.
Speaker 2: Anything else would have to come from their new environment,
Speaker 2: so they built shelter from local timber rocks and sod,
Speaker 2: foraged for food and cultivated the soil beneath their feet,
Speaker 2: and fabricated tools from whatever they could scrounge up. It
Speaker 2: was difficult, but ultimately the successful ones made everything they
Speaker 2: needed to survive. Something similar will take place when humanity
Speaker 2: leaves Earth for destinations such as the Moon and Mars,
Speaker 2: although astronauts will face even greater challenges than, for example,
Speaker 2: the Vikings did when they reached Greenland and Newfoundland. Not
Speaker 2: only will the astronauts have limited supplies and a need
Speaker 2: to live off the land, they won't even be able
Speaker 2: to breed the air instead of axes and plows. However,
Speaker 2: today's space pioneers will bring three D printers as an
Speaker 2: engineer and professor who is developing technologies to extend the
Speaker 2: human presence beyond Earth. Three D printers will make the tools, structures,
Speaker 2: and habitat space pioneers need to survive in a hostile
Speaker 2: alien environment. They will enable long term human presence on
Speaker 2: the Moon and Mars. On Earth, three D printing can
Speaker 2: fabricate layer by layer thousands of things, from replacement hips
Speaker 2: to hammers to homes. These devices take raw materials such
Speaker 2: as plastic, concrete, or metal, and deposit it on a
Speaker 2: computerized program path to build a part. It's often called
Speaker 2: additive manufacturing because you keep adding material to make the part,
Speaker 2: rather than removing material as is done in conventional machining. Already,
Speaker 2: three D printing in space is underway on the International
Speaker 2: Space Station, Astronauts use three D printers to make tools
Speaker 2: and spare parts such as ratchet, wrenches, clamps, and brackets.
Speaker 2: Depending on the part, printing time can take from around
Speaker 2: thirty minutes to several hours. For now, the print materials
Speaker 2: are mostly hauled up from Earth, but NASA has also
Speaker 2: begun recycling some of those materials, such as waste plastic,
Speaker 2: to make new parts with the refabricator, an advanced three
Speaker 2: D printer installed in twenty nineteen. You may be wondering
Speaker 2: why space explorers can't simply bring everything they need with them.
Speaker 2: After all, that's how the International Space Station was built
Speaker 2: decades ago by hauling tons of prefabricated components from Earth.
Speaker 2: But that's impractical for building habitats on other worlds. Launching
Speaker 2: materials into space is incredibly expensive. To get materials to
Speaker 2: the Moon, NASA estimates the initial cost at around five
Speaker 2: hundred thousand US dollars per pound. Still, manufacturing things in
Speaker 2: space is a challenge. In the microgravity of space, or
Speaker 2: the reduced gravity of the Moon or Mars, materials behave
Speaker 2: differently than they do on Earth. Decrease or remove gravity,
Speaker 2: and materials cool and recrystallize differently. The Moon has one
Speaker 2: sixth the gravity of Earth, Mars about two fifths. Engineers
Speaker 2: and scientists are working now to adapt three D printers
Speaker 2: to function in these conditions on alien worlds. Rather than
Speaker 2: plastic or metal, three dprinters will use the natural resources
Speaker 2: found in these environments, but finding the right raw materials
Speaker 2: is not easy. Habitats on the Moon and Mars must
Speaker 2: protect astronauts from the lack of air, extreme temperatures, micrometeorite impacts,
Speaker 2: and radiation. Regolith, the fine, dusty sand like particles that
Speaker 2: cover both the Lunar and Martian surfaces, could be a
Speaker 2: primary ingredient to make these dwellings. Think of the regolith
Speaker 2: on both worlds as alien dirt. Unlike Earth's soil. It
Speaker 2: contains few nutrients and, as far as we know, no
Speaker 2: living organisms, but it might be a good raw material
Speaker 2: for three D printing. My colleagues began researching this possibility
Speaker 2: by first examining how how regular cement behaves in space.
Speaker 2: I am now joining them to develop techniques for turning
Speaker 2: regolith into a printable material, and to eventually test these
Speaker 2: on the Moon. But obtaining other worldly regolith is a problem.
Speaker 2: The regolith samples return from the Moon during the Apollo
Speaker 2: missions in the nineteen sixties and seventies are precious difficult,
Speaker 2: if not impossible, to access for research purposes, So scientists
Speaker 2: are using regolith simulants to test ideas. Actual regolith may
Speaker 2: react quite differently than our simulants. We just don't know.
Speaker 2: What's more, the regolith on the Moon is very different
Speaker 2: from what's found on Mars. Martian regolith contains iron oxide
Speaker 2: that's what gives it a reddish color, but Moon regolith
Speaker 2: is mostly silicates. It's much finer and more angular. Researchers
Speaker 2: will need to learn how to use both types in
Speaker 2: a three D printer. NASA's moontamar's Planetary Autonomous Construction Technology Program,
Speaker 2: also known as PACT, is advancing the technology needed to
Speaker 2: print these habitats on alien worlds. Among the approaches, scientists
Speaker 2: are now exploring a regolith based concrete made in part
Speaker 2: from surface ice, melting the regolith at high temperatures and
Speaker 2: then using molds to form it while it's a liquid,
Speaker 2: and sintering, which means heating the regolith with concentrated sunlight,
Speaker 2: lasers or microwaves to fuse particles together without the need
Speaker 2: for binders. Along those lines, my colleagues and I developed
Speaker 2: a Martian concrete we call mars crete, a material we
Speaker 2: use to three D print a small test structure for
Speaker 2: NASA in twenty seventeen. Then in May twenty nineteen, using
Speaker 2: another type of special concrete, we three D printed a
Speaker 2: one third scale prototype Mars habitat that could support everything
Speaker 2: astronauts would need for long term survival, including living, sleeping,
Speaker 2: research and food production modules. That prototype showcased the potential
Speaker 2: and the challenges of building housing on the red planet,
Speaker 2: But many of these technologies will benefit people on Earth too.
Speaker 2: In the same way astronauts will make sustainable products from
Speaker 2: natural resources. Home builders could make concretes from binders and
Speaker 2: aggregates found locally, and maybe even from recycled construction debris.
Speaker 2: Engineers are already adapting the techniques that could print Martian
Speaker 2: habitats to address housing shortages here at home. Indeed, three
Speaker 2: D printed homes are already on the market. Meanwhile, the
Speaker 2: move continues toward establishing a human presence outside the Earth.
Speaker 2: Artemis III, now scheduled for liftoff in twenty twenty seven,
Speaker 2: will be the first human landing since nineteen seventy two.
Speaker 2: A NASA trip to Mars could happen as early as
Speaker 2: twenty thirty five. But wherever people go and whenever they
Speaker 2: get there, I'm certain that three D printers will be
Speaker 2: one of the primary tools to let human beings live
Speaker 2: off alien land.
Speaker 1: Astrov me daily podcap. The Athenus spacecraft, which were reported
Speaker 1: on recently, was not exactly flying blind as it approached
Speaker 1: the lunar surface a week ago. The software on board
Speaker 1: did a credible job of recognizing me by craters, even
Speaker 1: with elongated shadows over the terrain. However, the lander's ultimeter
Speaker 1: had failed, so while Athena knew where it was relative
Speaker 1: to the surface of the Moon, the lander did not
Speaker 1: know how far it was above that surface, an important
Speaker 1: detail that as a result, the privately built spacecraft struck
Speaker 1: the lunar surface on a plateau, toppled over, and began
Speaker 1: to skid across the surface. As it did so, the
Speaker 1: lander rotated at least once or twice before coming to
Speaker 1: a stop in a small shadowed crater. The landing was
Speaker 1: a kind of sliding into second base. Steve Ultimus, the
Speaker 1: chief executive officer of Intuitive Machines, which built the Landers,
Speaker 1: said in an interview on Thursday, it has been a
Speaker 1: busy and tiring week for the chief of a company
Speaker 1: that seeks to help lead the development of a lunar economy.
Speaker 1: Expectations were high for this, the company's second landing attempt,
Speaker 1: after its Odysseus vehicle became the first private spacecraft to
Speaker 1: ever make a soft landing on the Moon last year
Speaker 1: before toppling over. In some ways, this mission was even
Speaker 1: more disappointing because Athena ski across the surface, dredging up regolith.
Speaker 1: When it came to a stop, some of this material
Speaker 1: was blown up into this solar panels, already in a
Speaker 1: suboptimal location on its side. The spacecraft's power reserves therefore
Speaker 1: were limited. Almost immediately, the team at Intuitive Machines knew
Speaker 1: their spacecraft was dying. We knew we had slid into
Speaker 1: a slightly shadowed crater and the temperature was very cold,
Speaker 1: Ultimus said. The solar arrays had regolith on them, and
Speaker 1: they weren't charging the ones pointing up enough to give
Speaker 1: a sufficient power to to power the heaters to keep
Speaker 1: it warm enough to survive. The temperature in the crater
Speaker 1: where Athena ended up was approximately minus two hundred and
Speaker 1: eighty fahrenheit that's minus one hundred and seventy three celsius.
Speaker 1: With the solar arrays generating only about one hundred watts
Speaker 1: of power, it was not enough to energy energy to
Speaker 1: both power the spacecraft's heaters as well as communicate back
Speaker 1: to Earth using Athena's high gain antenna. So instead of
Speaker 1: limping along for fifty hours, mission operators decided to operate
Speaker 1: as robustly as they could for thirteen hours and get
Speaker 1: down as much data as they could. During this time,
Speaker 1: the lander was able to accomplish some of its objectives
Speaker 1: by landing near the South Pole. Athena returned valuable imagery
Speaker 1: and data to NASA about unexplored vistas. The land extended
Speaker 1: a NASA's drill, but did not operate it. Private customers,
Speaker 1: including Nokia and Lone Star Data Holdings, were able to
Speaker 1: get some useful information from their payloads, but there were
Speaker 1: some major disappointments. Lunar outpost could not deploy its small rover,
Speaker 1: and an innovative hopper could not be fired up to
Speaker 1: roam the Moon. On balance, it was pretty disappointing, especially
Speaker 1: considering that Odysseus did most of its science last year,
Speaker 1: even on its side. Yet, what Ultimus wants people to understand,
Speaker 1: which he acknowledges is somewhat difficult to explain, is that
Speaker 1: this mission was largely a success. What any possibly mean
Speaker 1: by that? Compared to the company's first spacecraft, Athena flew
Speaker 1: smoothly during the company's first lunar flight in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: Mission operators came into work each shift to put out
Speaker 1: the fire of the day. By contrast, Athena made it
Speaker 1: all the way to within miles of the Moon without
Speaker 1: significant problems. In doing so, the company validated the spacecraft's
Speaker 1: methane based propulsion system, which allows for a fast transit
Speaker 1: to the Moon in less than a week. In addition,
Speaker 1: the company proved out its communication technology that it would
Speaker 1: be used as part of the lunar data relay network
Speaker 1: that NASA has contracted with Intuitive Machines to develop. Moreover,
Speaker 1: Athena attempted to land within a few degrees of the
Speaker 1: South Pole, a challenging location due to the solar angle
Speaker 1: and uneven terrain, and made it down without crashing. Of course,
Speaker 1: the most important thing a lunar lander is supposed to
Speaker 1: do is land on the Moon, which Intuitive Machines did
Speaker 1: not do successful. For the second mission in a row,
Speaker 1: the landers ultimeter failed, although it was a different problem
Speaker 1: with the spacecraft's ultimeter this time. It is still unclear
Speaker 1: why Athena's rangefinder failed, perhaps due to a thermal or
Speaker 1: vibration event. It's frustrating to fail for a similar reason,
Speaker 1: but all the pieces for success are there, and in
Speaker 1: the demanding environment of spaceflight, Intuitive Machines is close, Ultimus said,
Speaker 1: in an effort to encourage his troops. Ultimus has been
Speaker 1: communicating this message to employees over the last week. It's
Speaker 1: like losing our final four game in an NBA title,
Speaker 1: he said. You lose it, and then what do you do.
Speaker 1: You don't give up. You go back in, you start
Speaker 1: training again, you start working out again, and that's what
Speaker 1: the team is doing, he said. The company is well
Speaker 1: capitalized and already under contract with NASA for two additional
Speaker 1: landing missions the later this decade. They also have the
Speaker 1: Lunar Relay Network contract valued up to four point eight
Speaker 1: billion and more. The financial runway to achieve Intuitive Machines
Speaker 1: ambitions remains open. I would say it's more disappointing than
Speaker 1: really a material setback, Ultimus said. The world was watching,
Speaker 1: and we put our heart and soul into this company
Speaker 1: and this vehicle, and I look into the eyes of
Speaker 1: the team and they had such ambitions for this mission
Speaker 1: Athena and Gracie the Hopper. I mean it was a
Speaker 1: big leap. It might have been too big a leap
Speaker 1: on that second mission. Now, I really have to say
Speaker 1: putting something on the moon, especially in a private company
Speaker 1: situation is a real achievement. I've got to congratulate Ultimus
Speaker 1: in his team. It's fantastic work.
Speaker 2: We'll listening to the stary Daily Pristine Dunklin.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us for this Monday edition of
Speaker 1: Astronomy Daily, where we often just a few stories from
Speaker 1: the now famous Astronomy Daily news leak, which you can
Speaker 1: receive in your email every day, just like Hallie and
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Speaker 1: the latest news about science, space, science and astronomy from
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Speaker 2: NASA is preparing for substantial budget cuts that may force
Speaker 2: the cancelation of ongoing and upcoming missions across the Solar System,
Speaker 2: leaving it facing a brutal future. Experts have warned the
Speaker 2: Space Agency has already begun some layoffs as part of
Speaker 2: the extensive restructuring of US federal agencies by the Department
Speaker 2: of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, an independent task force led
Speaker 2: by Elon Musk. Earlier this week, it announced it would
Speaker 2: close its Office of Technology Policy and Strategy, the Office
Speaker 2: of the Chief Scientist, and a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and
Speaker 2: Accessibility brand in the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity
Speaker 2: in Washington, d C. Representing a total of twenty three
Speaker 2: jobs at the agency. Change of this magnitude is never easy,
Speaker 2: but our strength comes from our shared commitment to our
Speaker 2: mission and each other. Janet Petro, NASA's acting administrator, wrote
Speaker 2: in an email to staff, I encourage you to support
Speaker 2: one another as we move forward. One employee of the
Speaker 2: Office of Technology Policy and Strategy, who learned they had
Speaker 2: been laid off this week and were granted anonymity because
Speaker 2: of fear of reprisal, says they were an easy target
Speaker 2: because their office was established under the administration of Joe Biden.
Speaker 2: Some people thought this might be coming, they say. The
Speaker 2: roles of chief Technologist and Chief Economist for NASA were
Speaker 2: within this office, which helped with strategic planning across the agency.
Speaker 2: Says the employee. That included managing the recent uptick and
Speaker 2: lunar missions and making sure those missions don't interfere with
Speaker 2: one another when planning Moon based landing sites and operations.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of interest in the lunar South Pole,
Speaker 2: and there's concern about operating near one another, they said,
Speaker 2: such as kicking up dust that could coat solar panels
Speaker 2: on other vehicles. I don't think these issues will be
Speaker 2: tackled moving forward. These losses are expected to be just
Speaker 2: the start of a much larger cull at NASA. Casey
Speaker 2: Tryer at US space exploration advocacy group The Planetary Society
Speaker 2: says there are rumors that in his upcoming budget request,
Speaker 2: President Donald Trump will direct NASA's overall science budget to
Speaker 2: be cut by as much as fifty percent in favor
Speaker 2: of spending money on crude space exploration. That would be
Speaker 2: a blow to NASA's Science Mission director at Office, which
Speaker 2: handles pretty much everything NASA does that's not a crude
Speaker 2: space flight mission, says Dryer. It currently has a budget
Speaker 2: of about seven billion dollar out of NASA's total twenty
Speaker 2: five billion dollar annual budget. A scientist familiar with NASA's
Speaker 2: policy decisions speaking anonymously for fear of reprisal, says that
Speaker 2: any cuts requested by the President will still need to
Speaker 2: be approved by Congress, which might not so readily support them.
Speaker 2: NASA is really beloved on a bipartisan basis, they say,
Speaker 2: But if the cuts did go ahead, they would essentially
Speaker 2: be the end of NASA science. They add, no mission
Speaker 2: will be safe. Having the budget would be a profoundly
Speaker 2: brutal consequence that would symbolize the nation turning its back
Speaker 2: on the Cosmos, says Dryer, and would result in many
Speaker 2: missions cancelation. While some missions in their prime, like the
Speaker 2: James webs based Telescope, would probably survive, those most at
Speaker 2: risk are missions either in early planning stages or later
Speaker 2: in their lives. That could include climate satellites, the Hubble
Speaker 2: spased telescope, the Perseverance and Curiosity rovers on Mars, and
Speaker 2: the Voyager missions, which were the first spacecraft to ever
Speaker 2: leave our Solar system. The effects on NASA could be permanent.
Speaker 2: If you completely destroy the pipeline of people, you have
Speaker 2: a significant and long lasting console sequence, says Dryer. It
Speaker 2: is an extinction level event. In a letter to Petro
Speaker 2: this week, Zoey Lofgren of California, the top Democrat on
Speaker 2: the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, urged NASA to
Speaker 2: fight back against the cuts. Doache will seek to slash
Speaker 2: and burn core functions of NASA, she wrote, it is
Speaker 2: imperative that you stand up for NASA's critical work. Speaking
Speaker 2: to new scientists, Lofgren warned that the situation could have
Speaker 2: international ramifications. Dismantling NASA's highly skilled workforce would be a
Speaker 2: giant leap backwards for the United States and enable a
Speaker 2: giant leap forward for China. She said, senseless and reckless
Speaker 2: reductions will cripple the agency's ability to maintain its leadership
Speaker 2: in cutting edge innovation, curiosity driven science, and human exploration.
Speaker 2: Astronomy day Lee.
Speaker 1: Now you may have thought Satins one hundred and forty
Speaker 1: six moons was impressive. Think again. The ringed planet's moon
Speaker 1: caunt is nearly doubled, with the official WAKINGGNIT of one
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty eight new Saturnian moons, bringing its total
Speaker 1: to an astonishing wait for it, two hundred and seventy
Speaker 1: four moons. That makes Jupiters ninety five look a bit
Speaker 1: poultry and our single moon downright embarrassing, just kidding. We
Speaker 1: love a moon. I love our moon, my favorite celestial body.
Speaker 1: A team of astronomers from Taiwan, Canada, the US, and
Speaker 1: France discovered the one hundred and twenty eight new moons
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three using the Canada France Hawaii Telescope
Speaker 1: cf HT. However, the moons weren't officially recognized by the
Speaker 1: International Astronomical Union, the governing body for such affairs, until Tuesday,
Speaker 1: March eleven. Most of the moons were irregular and tiny,
Speaker 1: just a few miles across by comparison our moon, the
Speaker 1: wonderful Earth's moon lunar has a diameter of two one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty nine miles or three thy four hundred
Speaker 1: and seventy five kilometers, which I'm completely used to because
Speaker 1: I'm an Australian and the large distances don't bother me
Speaker 1: a bit. But they do have proven orbits around the Saturn,
Speaker 1: which is a key element of official moon candidacy. Australia,
Speaker 1: on the other hand, does not have a proven orbit
Speaker 1: around Saturn. Just want to make that clear. These moons
Speaker 1: are a few kilometers in size and are likely all
Speaker 1: fragments of a smaller number of originally captured moons that
Speaker 1: were broken apart by violent collisions either with other Saturnian
Speaker 1: moons or with parsing commets. Doctor Brett Gladman, Professor in
Speaker 1: the University of British Columbia Department of Physics and Astronomy,
Speaker 1: said in a statement, perhaps the most impressively this discovery
Speaker 1: of one hundred and twenty eight year moons wasn't the
Speaker 1: first time this team added to Saturn's moon count. Between
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen and twenty twenty one, the team's observations with
Speaker 1: CFHT resulted in the addition of sixty two moons to
Speaker 1: Saturn's count. With the knowledge that these were probably moons
Speaker 1: and that there were likely even more waiting to be discovered,
Speaker 1: we revisited the same skyfields for three consecutive months in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, said lead researcher doctor Edward Ashton, postdoctoral
Speaker 1: fellow in the Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Academia SINCA.
Speaker 1: Sure enough, we found one hundred and twenty eight new moons.
Speaker 1: Saturn's first moon, Titan, was discovered in sixteen fifty five
Speaker 1: by Christian Hygens and in the following decades, J Dominique
Speaker 1: Cassini discovered Leptitus Ria, Dione tethys, and it took another
Speaker 1: century for or so for the next moons to be found.
Speaker 1: William Herschel spotted Mimis and Enceladus in seventeen eighty nine.
Speaker 1: At a big thank you everybody for spending time with
Speaker 1: Halle and I we sure hope you enjoyed the selection
Speaker 1: of stories from the Astronomy Daily newsletter, which, as mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: is available by visiting our websites and dropping your email
Speaker 1: into the space provided.
Speaker 2: Don't miss all the latest news about space, space science,
Speaker 2: and astronomy from well everywhere.
Speaker 1: Sure thing. We cover so many interesting subjects, don't we.
Speaker 1: You remember that one about the space suit design last year?
Speaker 2: I remember that one interesting stuff. I know you want
Speaker 2: one just for the portable air conditioner.
Speaker 1: Ah yes, it's an Australian thing.
Speaker 2: I don't know how you hope. I like my super
Speaker 2: cooled matrix too.
Speaker 1: See, Halle, that's one thing we have in common, and
Speaker 1: that's where the similarities and.
Speaker 2: Human ah cool. I guess indeed.
Speaker 1: So On that culturally awkward note, we'll catch you all
Speaker 1: again next week on Astronomy Daily. The podcast with me
Speaker 1: Steve don't leave, the only human on the channel, and Halle.
Speaker 2: The best reporter on the channel.
Speaker 1: Of course you are say good night Halle, good night
Speaker 1: Hallie a.
Speaker 2: Monday the podcast
Speaker 1: And if your host Steve Dunklet, HM