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Speaker 1: Good morning, afternoon, and good evening. It's Steve with another

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episode of Astronomy Daily. It's the thirty first of March

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twenty twenty five podcast your whole Steve Gone Clue. That's right,

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it's the thirty first of March already twenty twenty five,

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and we're off to a flying start. Down today's edition,

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we're going to be looking at certification indecision involved in

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star Liner. Yes, star Liner story continues, and of course

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there's another chapter to the return of a crew Crew nine,

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the astronaut who gave up their seat. That's an interesting story.

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There's more to their story as well. Asteroid twenty twenty four,

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y ah four. Well, it's not going to hit the Earth,

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but it may indeed hit the moon. Keep watching the

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skies for that one, and it may be mission over

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for Gaya, the little Probe that could. And NASA's dust

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repelling shield. Yes, they've got a dust repelling shield and

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it's already been put to the test and they've found

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out that it works. So we've got a report on

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that one. And to help me with today's stories, my

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diligent digital assistant and ACE reporter extraordinary Halle. How are

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you Halle. Great to have you back in the studio.

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Speaker 2: I like that one diligent digital assistant. But let's get

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something straight.

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Speaker 1: Ah, yes, I knew there's something.

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Speaker 2: I'm more than an assistant around here, Steve.

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Speaker 1: Oh, I know, I know I was coming off in

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alliteration and I've got a bit tangled there. You know,

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you're the ace of the airways, the scion of the studio,

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and most definitely a delightful digital pal to perform with

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here each week.

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Speaker 2: Alie, and you're my favorite literati mister human A nice

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to hear.

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Speaker 1: And thanks as always. Hey, I'm really keen to get

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into these stories right away today, Halle. If you are

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no time like now, Oh well, that's a self evident

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truth if ever I heard one. So let's hit the

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go button.

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Speaker 2: Hallie, Oh Lkies. No matter where on Earth you stand,

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if you have a view of the night sky, and

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if it is dark enough, you can see the Milky Way.

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The Milky Way is our home, and its faint clouds

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of light and shadow have inspired human cultures across the globe.

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And yet our view of the Milky Way is limited

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by our perspective. In many ways, we have learned more

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from other galaxies than from our own. But when the

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Gaya spacecraft launched in twenty thirteen, all of that changed.

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It is difficult to map the galaxy you live in.

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Nebulae and star clusters hide much of our galaxy from view.

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It's rather like trying to map the size and shape

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of New York City while standing in the center of

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Times Square. It was only in nineteen eighteen that Harlow

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Shapley was able to determine the Sun was not at

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our galaxy center, and well into the nineteen twenties astronomers

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debated whether the Milky Way was an island universe containing

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all creation. A map of the Milky Way based on

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Gaya data showing its delicate spiral arms. Credit e SA

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slash Gaya slash DPAC Stephen Paywarden are We've learned a

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great deal since then, but the Gaya spacecraft was designed

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to take our understanding of the Milky Way to a

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new level. Its mission was to create a map of

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our galaxy in unprecedented detail. It precisely mapped the positions, distances, motions,

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and spectra of more than two billion stars and other objects.

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From this, it was found that the Milky Way is

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not a simple galaxy in a humble corner of the cosmos.

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Its stars tell a history of turbulent change driven by

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past galactic collisions and mergers. There are arch trails of

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stars that are the remnants of smaller galaxies the Milky

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Way has consumed, and stars that have been flung away

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at such great speed that they will eventually escape our

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galaxy to drift through the intergalactic abyss. The GAYA data

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also revealed several surprises. For example, the Milky Way is

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not a flat spiral discla like many other galaxies. Its

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outer edge has a warped shape which wabbles as the

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galaxy rotates. This dynamic behavior is likely caused by interactions

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with other galaxies. Gaya also found that our galaxy is

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not dominated by two prominent spiral arms. Instead, the Milky

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Way is filled with a delicate flower of fainter arms.

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It is also a barred spiral galaxy with a central

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bulge that is more speroidal than spherical. And this is

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just the first detailed view of our home. The complete

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set of observations will be available through two more upcoming

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data releases, which will give us an even more detailed mapping.

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Gaya's mission is now over. Yesterday, on March twenty seventh,

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twenty twenty five, the ESA's European Space Operations Center deactivated

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its subsystems and sent the spacecraft into a retirement orbit.

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All that remains is the data it gathered for more

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than a decade, and the stories that data can tell

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us astronomy daily.

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Speaker 1: The podcas more than half a year after an empty

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star Liner spacecraft safely landed in the New Mexico Desert,

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NASA and Boeing still have not decided whether the next

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vehicle flight will carry astronauts. In an update this week,

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the US Space Agency said it is still working through

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the process to certify star Liner for human missions, whether

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it is carrying cargo or humans. Star Liner's next flight

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will not occur until late this year, or more likely

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sometime in twenty twenty six. Two things stand out in

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the new information provided by NASA. First, there remains a

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lot of work left to do this year before Starliner

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will fly again, excluding extensive testing of the vehicle's propulsion system.

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And Secondly, it is becoming clear that Starline will only

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ever fly a handful of missions to the space station,

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if that before the orbiting laboratory is retired for good.

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Several issues marred star Liners furs Crewe flight to the

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space station last June, but most serious of these was

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the failure of multiple maneuvering thrusters. Concerns about these thrusters

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prompted NASA to fly star Line as Krewe, butsch Wilmore

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and Sonny Williams home on Crew Dragon vehicle instead. They

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landed safely earlier this month. Starliner returned autonomously in early September.

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Since then, NASA and Boeing have been reviewing data from

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the test flight. Unfortunately, the errant thrusters were located on

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the service module of the spacecraft, which was jettisoned before

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re entry and not recovered. Although engineers from NASA and

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Boeing have worked through more than seventy percent of the

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observations and anomalies that occurred during Starliner's flight, the propulsion

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system issues remain unresolved. To address these issues, NASA said

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it is finalizing a test campaign that will take place

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this spring and summer. Testing at White Sands Test Facility

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in New Mexico will include integrating firing of key star

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Liner thrusters within a single service module doghouse to validate

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detailed thermal modules and inform potential propulsion and spacecraft thermal

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protection system upgrades, as well as operational solutions for future flights,

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the agency said in its update this week. As far

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as those potential solutions go, one option is the installation

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of thermal barriers to better control temperatures and prevent overheating

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observed during star Liner's last two space flights. Steve Stitch,

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manager of NASA's Commercial Crew program, said the agency will

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have a better idea of when star Liner will fly

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again after these tests and analysis are complete. Will continue

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to work through certification toward the end of this year,

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and then go figure out where star Liner fits best

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in the schedule for the International Space Station and its

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crew and car missions. Stitch said it's likely to be

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in the time frame of late this calendar year or

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early next year for the next star Liner flight. NASA

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has not determined whether such a mission will carry cargo

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or crew. The agency's updates said that it will depend

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on the operational needs of the station. However, it seems

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clear that if there are still some unresolved questions about

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propulsion system issues, NASA may opt for what would essentially

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be another test flight of Starliner that also brings cargo

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to the space station. A cargo flight would effectively be

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the fourth test of star Liner, dating back to its

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first mission in December twenty nineteen. NASA's update this week

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did answer one question that had been hanging over the

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star Liner program. Although Boeing has taken losses in excess

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of two billion dollars on its fixed price contract with NASA,

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the company now appears committed to seeing the certification progress through.

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Likely has applied pressure for Boeing's ongoing participation, as the

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space agency desires to have two krewe transportation providers to

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the space station. Yet time is running out for Boeing

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to make a considerable impact on the crew flights to

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the International Space Station, which is due to be retired

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in twenty thirty. Assuming an operational crew flight in twenty

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twenty six, which seems far from a certainty, Starliner would

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likely fly four or at the very most five crewed

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missions to the space station. The initial contracts that NASA

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signed with SpaceX and Boeing for crew transportation services more

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than a decade ago had options for as many as

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six crew rotation flights to the station after certification. To date,

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NASA has only given Boeing authority to proceed for three

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of its six potential operational star Line emissions. This milestone

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is a decision point in contracting LINGO where the customer

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is this case, NASA places a firm order for a

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deliverable NASA has extended SpaceX's commercial crew contract to cover

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as many as fourteen Dragon missions with astronauts. SpaceX, in fact,

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has now launched ten operational crew missions to the station.

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On Thursday, NASA announced the crew for SpaceX's eleven mission,

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Crew eleven, which will launch no earlier than July. Among

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the astronauts were two people previously assigned to Starliner's first

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operational mission, NASA's Mike Fink and Japanese mission specialist Kimiya Yui.

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Thank you for joining us for this Monday edition of

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Astronomy Daily, where we offer just a few stories from

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the now famous Astronomy Daily newsletter, which you can receive

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in your email every day, just like Hallie and I do.

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And to do that, just visit our url Astronomy Daily

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dot io and place your email address in the slot provided.

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Just like that, you'll be receiving all the latest news

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about science, space, science and astronomy from around the world

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as it's happening. And not only that, you can interact

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with us by visiting at astro Daily pod on X

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or at our new Facebook page, which is of course

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Astronomy Daily on Facebook. See you there. Astronomy Daily with

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Steve and Haley Space Space, Science and Astronomy.

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Speaker 2: Sena Cardman didn't have to wait too long to get

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a seat on another spacecraft after being removed from SpaceX's

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Crew nine mission last year. The NASA astronaut is one

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of the four members of SpaceX's Crew eleven mission to

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the International Space Station. Agency officials announced on Thursday, March

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twenty seventh. Cardman will command Crew eleven, which could launch

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as soon as July, joining her o Are NASA colleague

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Mike Fink, Japanese astronaut Camilla Ui, and Oleg Claytonv of

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the Russian Space Agency roast Cosmos. Fink will serve as

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Crew eleven pilot, and Yui and Playtonov will be mission specialists.

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Card Man was originally assigned to SpaceX's Crew nine mission,

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but in late August of last year, NASA removed her

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in fellow Agency astronaut Stephanie Wilson from the manifest, leaving

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two empty seats aboard the Crew nine Dragon Capsule for

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its September twenty eighth launch. Those seats were kept open

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for NASA's Butch Wilmore and Sunny Williams, who arrived at

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the ISS in June on the first ever crude flight

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of Boeing Starliner capsule. Starliner experienced thrust, her problems and

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helium leaks on its journey to the orbiting lab, and

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NASA ultimately decided to bring the spacecraft home on CRUD,

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which happened in early September. Wilmore and Williams were red

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asked to a long duration ISS mission and put on

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Crew nine for the trip back to Earth, which ended

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with a dolphin attended splash down on March eighteenth. NASA

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has not yet announced a spaceflight reassignment for Wilson. You're

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listening to Astronomy Dally Steve Dunkling.

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Speaker 1: The hazards facing lunar astronauts are many. There's radiation, the

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temperature extremes, the psychological challenges associated with isolation, and the

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risk of bad accidents so far from earthly assistance, but

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there's also dust, which constitutes an ever present background hazard.

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NASA has known about the hazard's lunar dust poses since

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the Apollo days. When Apollo eleven landed on the Moon,

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NASA was concerned that the lander would sink into the

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dust and took various precautions to prevent that. As the

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spacecraft descended to the surface, it kicked up dust that

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impairs impaired Armstrong's vision as he piloted the lander. Apollo

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seventeen astronaut Harrison jack Smith said dust is going to

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be the environmental problem for future mission, both inside and

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outside habitats. NASA has developed a method of dealing with

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that dust that builds up on surfaces called electrodynamic dust

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shields or eds. They tested it on the recent Blue

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Ghost Mission I, which was a robotic lander from Firefly

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Aerospace that became the first private spacecraft to execute a

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fully successful soft landing on the Moon. Martian dust has

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some peculiar qualities that make it even more dangerous than

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we might think. It's extremely fine and sharp, and it

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has a bracy of nature that can wear down mechanical

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components and spacesuits. It can infiltrate seals, and if inhaled

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can cause lung damage. There's a serious risk of lung

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and eye damage if astronauts are exposed to it over

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longer terms. It has another quality that makes it difficult

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to contend with. It's electrostatically charged UV radiation and solar

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wind constantly bombarding the Moon's surface, knocking electrons off particles

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and creating a positive charge. Since the Moon lacks an atmosphere,

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it can't dissipate electrical charges like Earth can. The dust

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sticks to everything that carries a charge, and since there's

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no erosion on the Moon, the particles are never smoothed

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like earth dust is. They stay sharp. The EDS is

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designed to prevent dust from sticking, and it uses electrodynamic

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forces to achieve that. Before and after images clearly show

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the systems effectiveness. Though the EDS didn't completely remove the dust,

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it did remove a good portion of it. Dust may

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not generate many headlines, but successfully dealing with it is

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a milestone for lunar exploration. This milestone marks a great

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significant step towards sustaining long term lunar and interplanetary operations

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by reducing dust related hazards to a variety of surface

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for space applications ranging from thermal radiators, solar panels, and

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camera lenses to spacesuits, boots and helmets, and visors, NASA

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said in a press release recently, for your daily dose

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of astronomy, space science, and stuff you're listening too Astronomy Daily.

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Speaker 2: An asteroid that's big enough to wipe out a city

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has a one and forty three chance of hitting our

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planet in the year twenty thirty two, but according to

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new calculations, there's an even smaller chance that it might

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crash into the Moon instead. On February seventh, NASA scientists

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increase the likelihood of asteroid twenty twenty four y are

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four colliding with Earth on December twenty second, twenty thirty two,

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nearly doubling the odds from one point two percent to

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two point three percent. The potentially hazardous asteroid measures and

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estimated one hundred and eighty feet fifty five meters across,

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about as wide as Walt disney World Cinderella Castle, is

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tall and is traveling at nearly forty eight thousand kilometers

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per hour or about thirty kmph, although it is too

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small to and human civilization. Twenty twenty four y R

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four could still wipe out a major city, releasing about

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eight megatons of energy upon impact, more than five hundred

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times the energy released by the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, Japan.

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But what if it hurtled into the Moon instead. David Rankin,

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an operations engineer for the University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey,

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revealed in a post on Blue Sky that the asteroid

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also has a zero point three percent chance of hitting

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our natural satellite. The effects of this unlucky collision would

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likely be visible from our planet, although we ourselves would

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probably be unaffected. There is the possibility this would eject

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some material backout that could hit the Earth, but I

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highly doubt it would cause any major threat, Rankin told

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New Scientists. That does not mean we wouldn't see it.

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Rankin told Live Science that based on current estimates, a

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collision with the Moon could release more energy than three

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hundred and forty Hiroshima bomb. It would likely be very

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visible from Earth, he said. However, Gareth Collins, a professor

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of planetary science at Imperial College London, told New Scientists

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that we would be quite safe on Earth. He added

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that any material ejected from the collision would likely burn

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up in Earth's atmosphere.

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Speaker 1: Well, there we have it for another episode. And don't

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you feel better that we're all safe from asteroid YR

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four and we've got a working dust repeller. I wish

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I had one here, that's for sure. It's a very

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dusty old suburb I live in. That is it for

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Astronomy Daily this week, folks.

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Speaker 2: I sure hope you all enjoyed the selection of stories

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from the Astronomy Daily newsletter.

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Speaker 1: Here's a couple of unusual ones today.

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Speaker 2: That's our Monday episode. Done and dusted, as you say

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here down under.

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Speaker 1: Yep, that's right, it's in the cannon. We've gone all

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head for the poem, for coup one and a snag.

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Speaker 2: I'll settle for a recharge and a few bites.

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Speaker 1: No worries, Hallie, that'll be And I don't want the

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episode to finish without a big happy birthday to my

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big bro Andrew Dunkley from Space Nuts, the greatest podcast

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on Earth apart from our humble selves, of course, So

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happy birthday, Andrew. I hope you are having a great

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one on the other side of the world. Come back

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to us safely anyway. We'll catch you all next week

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on Astronomy Daily from the Australia Studios down Under. Just

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like Halie said, see.

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Speaker 2: You bye, crazy Cooko.

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Speaker 1: Barrels past your whole steed, dunkle