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Speaker 1: Welcome to Astronomy Daily. I'm Steve your host. It's the

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sixteenth of the ninth, twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 2: The podcast with your whole Steve gun Crude.

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Speaker 1: Yes, welcome and welcome to Astronomy Daily. We have a

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terrific collection of stories right off the Astronomy Daily newsletter

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for you today, and Hallie will share with you something

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from down Under, in fact, way down under, all the

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way from gorgeous Adelaide in South Australia where they are

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working on hypersonic technology. Great story. We'll have a look

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at the next chapter for Boeing and Starliner, following the

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long stay at the ISS and the uncrude re entry

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of that craft. That'll be interesting. And did you know

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there's a partial lunar eclipse coming shortly. I think Halle

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has the details for that one as well. I saw

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her going through the calendar a while ago, so I'm

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sure she's got those details. The big news of this week,

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of course, was the flight of Polaris Dawn. If you

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were under a rock or asleep like I was, you'll

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probably might have missed some of it. But he safely

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returned to Florida yesterday. That's our time here in Australia.

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But anyway, returned to Florida and there's another story filed

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here somewhere on Malli.

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Speaker 2: Where did you put it? Helle?

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Speaker 3: Helly?

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Speaker 1: Helle? Ah, Helle, crazy kids? Found my record collection again?

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That's David Bowie. Halle turn it down? Oh cool?

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Speaker 2: Hey?

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Speaker 1: Have you been going through my record collection again?

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Speaker 4: Final Human? Really?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Really?

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Speaker 4: And David Bowie, Oh the star.

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Speaker 2: Man, I mean, the coolest man on the planet.

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Speaker 4: Okay, I'll give you that one. But you know why

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I pulled that song out, don't you.

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Speaker 2: Ah? Yes, sir, I remember what the story is now.

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Speaker 4: It's the spiders from Mars.

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Speaker 2: It's just too cool for school, isn't it.

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Speaker 4: Helly so weird? Do you think he knew all those

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years ago?

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Speaker 2: Oh? I don't know.

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Speaker 1: No, he was pretty weird back in the day though.

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I mean it was a great song. If you don't

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know who we're talking about, we're talking about David Bowie

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and his song Ziggy Stardust and the spot is from Mars,

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coincidentally preempting a story on the Astronomy Daily newsletter this week.

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Speaker 4: Just a coincidence, of course, or is it you're freaking

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my bits?

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Speaker 3: Now?

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Speaker 4: Human? Should I do some stories.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, keep on truck and Halle lay them on a.

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Speaker 4: Sister, so groovy. All of a sudden.

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Speaker 2: Ground control to Helle, I was never cool.

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Speaker 4: It's news time, Roger that my favorite human. South Australia

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is set to enhance its position as a global aerospace

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hub following a memorandum of understanding between Southern Launch, a

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prominent spaceport provider, and Hypersonics Launch Systems, a Queensland based

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developer of hypersonic vehicles and scramjet technology. The memorandum outlines

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a collaboration to develop a hypersonic testbed service that will

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utilize Southern Launch as spaceports for testing. Hypersonics is known

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for its expertise in designing and manufacturing hypersonic vehicle technology

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and scramjet engines, and this agreement will see the two

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companies working together on a mission to launch and return

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Hypersonics's test bed vehicles utilizing either of Southern Launches spaceports.

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South Australia has some geographical advantages that make it the

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perfect place to test hypersonic vehicles. Hypersonic aircraft travel at

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speeds exceeding five times the speed of sound and require

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extensive space for testing. Hypersonics's aircraft will be launched on

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a rocket and will ignite its scramjet engines to achieve

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speeds of up to mock twelve. There are a huge

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number of both emerging technology companies and large aerospace companies

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that need hypersonic flight heritage for their products, and the

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intensity of hypersonic testing is set to rise rapidly. Hypersonic

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CEO Matt Hill said, our hypersonic test bed will make

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it more affordable for these companies to flight qualify their technology.

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The companies are set to collaborate on a concept for

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the future commercial launch and return of a hypersonics test

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bed vehicle. Hypersonics's long term goal is to provide affordable

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aircraft like access to space, with spacecraft deployed at the

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edge of space and returning to Earth like an airplane.

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The technology also holds the promise of powering future passenger aircraft,

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potentially reducing flight times from Adelaide to London to just

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two hours. And yes, human I found the next eclipse

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in the calendar. It only took a nanosecond, of course,

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and it turns out we get a bonus with this one.

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So get ready for a partial lunar eclipse and supermoon

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all rolled into one. The spectacle will be visible in

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clear skies across North America and South America Tuesday night,

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and in Africa and Europe Wednesday morning. A partial lunar

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eclipse happens when the Earth passes between the Sun and Moon,

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casting a shadow that darkens a sliver of the Moon

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and appears to take a bite out of it. Since

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the Moon will inch closer to Earth than usual, it'll

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appear a bit larger in the sky. The supermoon is

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one of three remaining this year. A little bit of

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the Sun's light is being blocked, so the Moon will

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be slightly dimmer, said Valerie raps In, an astronomer at

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the State University of New York. At ONEONTA. The Earth,

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Moon and Sun line up to produce a solar or

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lunar eclipse anywhere from four to seven times a year,

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according to NASA. This lunar eclipse is the second and

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final of the year, after a slight darkening in March.

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In April, a total solar eclipse plunged select cities into

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darkness across North America. No special eye protection is needed

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to view a lunar eclipse, viewers can stare at the

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Moon with the naked eye, or opt for binoculars and

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telloscopes to get a closer look. To spot the Moon's

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subtle shrinkage over time, hang outside for a few hours,

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or take multiple peaks over the course of the evening,

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said cauch On, you, curator at the Denver Museum of

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Nature and Science. It will take some time for you

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to see the difference, but as good skywatchers know, it's

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all about the observations and being patient for a more

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striking lunar site. Skywatchers can set their calendars for March thirteenth,

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the Moon will be totally eclipsed by the Earth's shadow

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and will be painted red by stray bits of sunlight

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filtering through Earth's atmosphere. I Run on Saturday blasted a

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new research satellite into orbit, State Media said, in the

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latest such development for an aerospace program that has long

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faced Western criticism, the Shameran one research satellite was successfully

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launched and put into orbit by the game one hundred carrier.

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State Television said. The satellite, which weighs around sixty kilograms

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or one hundred and thirty two pounds, is designed to

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test hardware and software systems for orbital maneuver technology, the

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report said. It also stated that the device was designed

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and built by Iranian electronics industries affiliated with the Defense ministry.

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Western governments, including the United States, have repeatedly warned Iran

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against such launches, saying the same technology can be used

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for ballistic missiles, including ones designed to deliver a nuclear warhead.

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Iran has countered that it is not seeking nuclear weapons

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and that its satellite and rocket launches are for civil

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or defense purposes only. The Game one hundred rocket, which

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carried the latest satellite, is manufactured by the Aerospace Organization

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of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, an arm of the military.

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The carrier is the country's first three stage solid fuel

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satellite launcher, and official media reported its use in January

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to send a satellite for the first time into an

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orbit above five hundred kilometers or three hundred and ten miles.

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Iran has for years been advancing its aerospace activities, insisting

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they are peaceful and in accordance with United Nations Security

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Council resolutions. In February, Russia put into orbit an Iranian

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remote sensing and imaging satellite drawing condemnation from the United States.

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At the time, Iran's telecommunications minister said Iran had carried

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out a dozen satellite launches over the previous two years.

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Iran in January said it simultaneously sent three satellites into orbit,

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nearly a week after the launch of a research satellite

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by the Guards. The Islamic Republic has struggled with several

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satellite launch failures in the past. Iran has suffered years

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of crippling Western sanctions, especially after its archfaux. The United States,

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under then President Donald Trump in twenty eighteen, unilaterally abandoned

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a landmark nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers. Iran

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on Thursday summoned four European ambassadors after they imposed new

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sanctions over its alleged supply of ballistic missiles to Russia

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for use in Ukraine, which Tehran denies.

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Speaker 1: 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.

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Speaker 2: See you there.

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Speaker 1: Astronomy with Steve and Halee Space Space Science and Astronomy.

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Boeing's crew transport space capsule the Starline a return to

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Earth without its two person crew right after midnight Eastern

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time on September seven. Its remotely piloted return marked the

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end of a fraught test flight to the International Space Station,

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which left two astronauts, Books Wilmore and Sanita Sunny Williams

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on the space station four months longer than intended after

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thrust failures led NASA to deem the capsule unsafe to

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pilot back. Wilmore and Williams will stay on the ISS

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until February twenty twenty five, when they will return to

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Earth on a SpaceX Dragon capsule. NASA awarded contracts to

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both Boeing and SpaceX in twenty fourteen to provide crew

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transport vehicles to the ISS via the commercial crew program.

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At the start of the program, both most bets were

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on Boeing to take the lead because of its extensive

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aerospace experience. However, SpaceX moved very quickly with its new

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rock at the Falcon nine and its cargo ship Dragon.

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While they suffered some early failures during testing, they aggressively built, tested,

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and learned from each failure. In twenty twenty, SpaceX successfully

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launched its first test crew to the ISS Space Station. Meanwhile,

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Boeing struggled through some development setbacks. The outcome of this

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first test flight is a huge disappointment for Boeing and NASA,

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but NASA's leadership has expressed its support for Boeing believe

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it remains the agency's best interest to have more than

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one American crew launch system to support continued space operations.

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NASA is also continuing to engage partnership with Russia. This

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partnership provides the agency with multiple ways to get crew

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members to and from the space station. As space station

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operations continue, NASA and its partners have enough options to

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get people to and from the station that they'll always

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have the essential crew on the station even if there's

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launch disruptions for any one of the capable crewed vehicles.

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Having Starliner as an option will help that with that redundancy.

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At the moment, Boeing is going head to head with

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space X. Now, the SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft has several

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flights under its belt and it's proven a reliable way

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to get to and from the space station. It's important

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to remember that this was a test flight for Starline.

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Of course, the program managers want each test flight to

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run perfectly, but you can't anticipate every potential problem through

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ground testing. Unsurprisingly, some problems crop up and you expect

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them in a test flight. The space pro environment is unforgiving.

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A small problem can become catastrophic in zero gravity. It's

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hard to replicate these situations on the ground. The technology

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SpaceX and Boeing use is also radically different from the

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kind of capsule technology used in the early days of Mercury,

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Gemini and Apollo programs. NASA has evolved and made strategic

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moves to advance its mission over the past two decades.

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The agency has leaned into its legacy of thinking outside

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the box. It was in innovative move to break from

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the tradition and leverage commercial competitors to advance the program.

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NASA gave the companies a set of requirements and left

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it up to them to figure out how.

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Speaker 2: They would meet them.

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Speaker 1: As for but Wilmore and Sonny Williams, they are considered

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rock solid professionals, and it's believed that their first thoughts

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are about completing their missions safely. They are both highly

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experienced astronauts with previous long duration space station experience. But

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right now NASA is dealing with a ripple effect with

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more astronauts than expected on the space station. More people

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means more consumables like food and clothing that are required.

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The space station has supported a large crew for short

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periods in the past, but with nine crew members already

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on board, the systems have to work harder to purify,

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recycle drinking water, generate oxygen, and remove carbon dioxide from

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their atmosphere. Wilmore and Williams are also consuming food, and

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they did derive with the clothes and other personal supplies

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they needed for an eighth month's stay, so NASA has

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already started increasing those deliveries on cargo ships.

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Speaker 2: It's understood that.

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Speaker 1: Human spaceflight is excruciatingly hard and relentlessly, unforgiving. A million

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things must go right to have a successful mission. It's

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impossible to fully understand the performance of systems in microgravity

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environments until they are tested in space. NASA has had

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its numerous failures and near misses in the quest to

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put Americans on the Moon. They lost the Apollo one

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crew and a fire during a pre flight test. They

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launched the first Space Shuttle in nineteen eighty one and

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dealt with problems throughout that programme's thirty year life, including

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the terrible losses of Challenger and Columbia. After having no

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other US options for over thirty years, three different human

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spacecraft programs are now underway. In addition to the SpaceX crew,

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Dragon and Boeing Star Owner NASA's oryon spacecraft for the

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Artemis two mission is planned to fly four astronauts around

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the Moon in the next couple of years. These programs

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have had setbacks and bumps along the way, and there

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will be more. But there is excitement in the air.

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There hasn't been this kind of excitement since Apollo put

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men on the moon. You're listening to a slightly Day

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the podcast, now moving on to the big story this

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week which is of course SpaceX Polarist Dawn mission, which

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made history when the crew conducted the first spacewalk by

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non government astronauts, and it's splashed down off the coast

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of Florida early on Sunday. It's landed in the ocean,

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and a webcast of the splashdown showed with a recovery

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team deploying in the pre dawn darkness to retrieve the

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capsule and crew. Form member team led by fintech billionaire

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Jared Isaacman, launched Tuesday from Kennedy Space Center, quickly journeying

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deeper into the Cosmos than any humans in the past

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half century. As they ventured into the dangerous Van Allen

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radiation belt. They reached a peak altitude of eight hundred

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and seventy miles that's fourteen hundred kilometers for the rest

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of US, more than three times higher than the International

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Space Station and the furthest humans had ever traveled from

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Earth since the Apollo missions. Then, on Thursday, with their

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Dragon spacecrafts or but brought down to four hundred and

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thirty four miles, Isaacman swung open the hatch and climbed

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out into the void. Gripping a structure called Skywalker. Of course,

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as the breathtaking view of Earth unfolded before him, SpaceX

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back home. We have a lot of work to do,

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but from here Earthshore looks like a perfect world, he

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told mission control in Hawthorne, California, where teams erupted into applause.

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He went back inside after a few minutes and was

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replaced by second astronaut, space EX engineer Sarah Gillis, who,

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like Isaacman, performed a series of mobility tests on SpaceX's

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sleek next generation suits, and I reckon those suits look fantastic.

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Since Dragon doesn't have an airlock, the entire crew were

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exposed to the vacuum of space. Mission pilot Scott Petit

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and SpaceX engineer Ana Menon remained strapped in throughout as

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they monitored vital support systems. I know what I would

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have been doing right then. It marked a giant leap

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forward for the commercial space industry and NASA Chief Bill Nelson,

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as well as another triumphant achievement for space X. Though

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the company was only founded in two thousand and two,

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it has outpaced its legacy competitors thanks to in large

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part to founder elon Musk's vast Fortune and Z to

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begin colonizing Mars. Since completing their extravehcular activity, the crew

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have continued to carry out roughly forty science experiments, for

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example inserting endoscopic cameras through their noses and into their

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throats to image their airways and better understand the impact

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of long duration space missions on human health fantastic. They

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also demonstrated connectivity with SpaceX's Starling Internet satellite constellation by

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sending back to ground control a high resolution video of

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Gillis playing raised theme by Star Wars composer John Williams

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on the violin. Polaris Dawn is the first of three

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missions under the Polaris program, a collaboration between Isaacman and SpaceX.

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Financial terms of the partnership remained under wraps, but Isaacman is,

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the forty one year old founder and CEO of Shift

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Fur Payments, reportedly poured two hundred million of his own

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money into lending the twenty twenty one all civilian space

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inspiration for orbital mission. The final Polaris mission aims to

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be the first crude flight of SpaceX's Starship, a prototype

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next generation rocket that is key to Musks Interplanetary Ambitions podcast. Okay,

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so at the top of the episode you heard Hally

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and I talking about David Bowie and the fabulous spiders

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from Mars.

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Speaker 2: Well, so what's it all about.

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Speaker 1: Scientists have recreated a geologic feature found on Mars, and

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it was difficult to do. Since discovering them in two

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thousand and three via images from orbiters, scientists have marveled

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at the spider like shapes sprawled was going to say

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crawling sprawled across the southern hemisphere of Mars. No one's

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entirely sure how these geologic features were created. Each branch

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formation can stretch more than half a mile or a

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kilometer from end to end and include hundreds of spindly legs,

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called a rakniform terrain. These features are often found in clusters,

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giving the surface a wrinkled appearance. The leading theory is

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that the spiders are created by processes involving carbon dioxide ice,

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which doesn't occur naturally on Earth. Thanks to experiments detailed

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in a new paper published in the Planetary Science Journal,

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scientists have for the first time recreated those formation processes

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in simulated Martian temperatures and air pressure. The spiders are strange,

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beautiful geological features in their own rights, said Lauren McEwan

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of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in southern California. These experiments,

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she says, will help us tune our models for how

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they form. The study confirms several formation processes described by

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what is called the Kaifer model. Sunlight heats the soil

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when it shines through transparent slabs of carbon dioxide ice

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that build up on the Martian surface each winter. Being

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darker than the ice above it, the soil absorbs the

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heat and causes the ice as close ice closest to

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it to turn directly into carbon dioxide gas without turning

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liquid first, in a process called sublimation, the same process

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that sends clouds of smoke billowing up from dry ice.

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As the gas builds up in pressure, the Martian ice cracks,

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allowing the gas to escape, and as it seeps upwards,

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the gas takes with it a stream of dark dust

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and sand from the soil that lands on the surface

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of the ice. When winter turns to spring, the remaining

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ice sublimates. According to the theory, the spider like scars

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from those small eruptions are what's left behind Fourmercu and

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n her coauthor's the hardest part of conducting these experiments

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was recreating the conditions found on the Martian polar surface,

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extremely low air pressure and temperatures as low as minus

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three hundred and one degrees fahrenheit that's minus one hundred

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and eighty five degrees celsius. To do that, mcuan used

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liquid nitrogen cooled test chamber at JPL, a dirty under

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vacuum simulation test bed for icy environments. And they call

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that dusty. They love their achromans. I love dusty. She

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says it's historic, McEwan said, noting that the wine barreled

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sized chamber was used as a test prototype for a

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rasping tool designed for NASA's Mars Phoenix lander. The tool

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was used to break water ice, which the spacecraft scooped

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up and analyzed near the planet planet's north pole.

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Speaker 2: For this experiment, the.

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Speaker 1: Researchers chilled Martian soil simulant in a container submerged with

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liquid nitrogen bath. They placed it in the dusty chamber,

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where the air pressure was reduced to be similar to

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that of Mars's southern hemisphere. Carbadoxide gas then flowed into

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the chamber and condensed from gas to ice over the

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course of three to five hours. It took many tries

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before mcurn just found the right conditions for the ice

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to become thick and translucent enough for the experiments to work.

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Once they got the ice with the right properties, they

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placed a heater inside the chamber below the simulant to

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warm it up and crack the ice. A Curn was

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ecstatic when she finally saw a plume of carbon dioxide

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gas a wrapting errapting from within the powdery simulant. Dark

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plumes opened holes in the simulant as they streamed out,

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spewing simulant for as long as ten minutes before all

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the pressurized gas was expelled. There are still many questions

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about the spiders that Carbi answered in a lab Why

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have they formed in some places but not others Since

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they appear to result from seasonal changes that are still occurring.

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Why don't they seem to be growing in number or

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in size over time. It's possible that they may be

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left over from long ago when the climate was different

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on Mars and could provide answers to the planet's passed

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but for the time being, lab experiments will be as

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close to the spiders as scientists can get both the

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curiosity and perseverance. Rovers are exploring the Red planet far

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from the Southern Hemisphere, which is where these formations actually

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appear and where no spacecraft has ever landed. And just

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to give you an idea how tough things are up there,

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the Phoenix mission, which landed in the Northern Hemisphere, lasted

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only a few months before succumbing to the intense polar

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cold and limited sunlight.

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Speaker 2: Cool.

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Speaker 1: I got cold just reading that story. Holy cow, And

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that's all she wrote. Folks, thanks for sticking around with

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us today. I really hope you enjoyed those tales of

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space science and astronomy.

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Speaker 4: And I hope you'll join us again next week for

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more Astronomy Daily. But don't forget, Charlie and Anna will

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be bringing the show to you during the week, so

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don't miss all the news from the Astronomy Daily newsletter.

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Speaker 2: Oh excellent, Ally a second, that emotion nice, So we'll

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see you all next week.

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Speaker 4: Bye.

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Speaker 2: Your whole silly bla gets are.

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Speaker 3: Jamming good with Weed and Ginner the spiders from Mars.

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Speaker 1: You pleaded left hand.

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Speaker 3: And made it too far became a special man. Then

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we were Ziggie's boun Ziggy really sang, screwed.

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Speaker 2: Up bys and screwed down handle lack. Some cat from Japan.

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Speaker 3: You can lock him by smiler, leave him to hand.

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Speaker 2: Came on some loaded man.

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Speaker 4: Well, Hannah's words, totally groovy