Speaker 1: Hello again, Welcome to Astronomy Daily with Steve and Halle.
It's the twenty eighth of April twenty twenty five. I
mean your whole Steve, don't clear well, Welcome back to
Astronomy Daily. It's great to be here and with me
as always is my awesome digital pal. It's fun to
be with Hello to you, Hallie.
Speaker 2: Hi again human, Nice to be with you in the
Australia studio.
Speaker 1: You're very welcome.
Speaker 2: What's with all this rain?
Speaker 1: Oh? Yes, that crazy rain.
Speaker 2: I thought Australia was a land of sweeping plans and
ragged mountain ranges and wide red deserts.
Speaker 1: Oh well, it is all wet.
Speaker 2: It's all wet.
Speaker 1: Oh, I know, Halle. I think somebody washed their car.
Speaker 2: Oh that old wives tale? Was it? You? You?
Speaker 1: Me?
Speaker 2: Did you wash your car?
Speaker 1: Oh? It might have been, you know, if you don't mind,
I'd prefer not to talk about it on the air.
It's been raining pretty hard and people might want something
to blame, and you know someone, I'd like that person to,
you know, not be me.
Speaker 2: Steve washed his car. Steve washed his car?
Speaker 1: Hey, Hallie, just kidding.
Speaker 2: You are so easy, do you know that?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, I do know that, but I also have
a very clean car.
Speaker 2: Funny. Now, are you going to tell us about today's lineup?
Speaker 1: Okay, Halle, if your behave. Today's stories include the latest
chapter for the Chang E five samples, which are about
to go on tour in the United States visiting some universities.
Speaker 2: Sounds good.
Speaker 1: Also, the latest news out of Firefly Aerospace. Remember their
amazing moon landing recently and that amazing video footage of
the land of descending to the lunar surface that was spectacular. Well,
Firefly Aerospace are not sitting on their hands.
Speaker 2: You're a big fan of Firefly, that's me.
Speaker 1: And the other tale today is from Fireflies to Dragonflies,
is about the NASA Dragonfly helicopter that's under development, which
is going somewhere special.
Speaker 2: That's the one plan for Saturn moon Titan.
Speaker 1: Satan's moon Titan. Oh wow, Yeah, it's an amazing piece
of engineering.
Speaker 2: Sofa, but exploring Titan.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's really out there, fantastic, I know, and you'll
be bringing us that story as well.
Speaker 2: Right, I've got it ready on my drive.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, let's get into it, Halle. Let's hit it.
Speaker 2: O kis China has accepted a number of international applications
to borrow small portions of moon samples collected by its
Chungi five mission, including those from two US universities. The
China National Space Administration CNSA announced the results of a
latest round of international applications to borrow samples in Shanghai
April twenty fourth, during a conference marking China's tenth annual
Space Day. The event included a lunar Sample Loan agreement ceremony.
Seven universities from six countries, the US, Japan, Germany, France,
the United Kingdom and Pakistan had applications approved following a
CNSA review in accordance with its sample management and cooperation rules.
CNSA set in a statement the U s institutions are
Brown University and Stony Brook University, both of which received
NASA funding. The announcement comes amid US China trade tensions
following the imposition of tariffs by the Trump administration, us
barriers to bilateral cooperation on space and wider Chinese base
diplomacy efforts. CNSA also announced the selection of a series
of international projects to join its planned Chini eight Lunar
South Pole Landing Mission. April twenty fourth. The selected projects
featured countries involved in the International Lunar Research Station, a
China led alternative to the US Artemis Lunar Framework. The
agency also stated in Shanghai that its ti On one
three Mars sample return mission, scheduled to launch late twenty
twenty eight, is open to proposals for international payloads. The
robotic Changi five mission collected one thousand, seven hundred and
thirty one grams of material from a geologis young area
of Oceanis pro Sellarum on the near side of the
Moon using a scoop and a drill in late twenty twenty.
The material was first made available to Chinese researchers and
institutions before CNSA announced in August twenty twenty three that
international applications for samples would be accepted. NASA stated in
November that year that its researchers would exceptionally be allowed
to apply to lone China's Chingi five samples, while still
needing to follow long standing congressionally set rules which have
sharply limited cooperation between the agency and Chinese state entities.
The Wolf Amendment, introduced in twenty eleven, is a provision
in annual NASA appropriations bills which heavily restricts by lateral
cooperation with entities of the People's Republic of China. Any
NASA funded individual or entity seeking to engage in bilateral
activity would require a prior written request to and granted
permission from Congress in advance, along with certification from the
FBI that the activities would not pose a national security risk.
Analyzes of the Changi five samples have led to discoveries,
including in the new Mineral Change Site dash Y, evidence
of a prolonged lunar dynamo, and allowed insights through comparison
with the geologically older Apollo samples. China followed up the
success of Changi five with a more complex sample mission
to the lunar far side in twenty twenty four. The
Chugi six mission collected one thousand, nine hundred and thirty
five point three grams of material from Apollo Crater, located
within the vast South Polate Can impact Basin, and the
first ever collection of samples from the far side. The
material has so far provided insights into the lunar near
far side dichotomy, as well as validation of the lunar
magma ocean hypothesis and calibration of lunar crater chronology, helping
to refine comparative study of planetary surfaces across the Solar System.
Chini six samples are so far only opened to applications
to Chinese institutions. However, as with the Changi five samples,
these will be made available to international applications at a
later date. The lending of Changa samples reflects China's broader
strategy of using space cooperation to build international partnerships, particularly
as competition with the US over lunar exploration intensifies.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Astronomy Daily Kid Steve Dunkley, thank you
for joining us for this Monday edition of Astronomy Daily,
where we offer just a few stories from the now
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Speaker 2: NASA's pioneering Dragonfly mission has cleared a key hurdle, keeping
it on track for a twenty twenty eight launch to
Saturn's huge moon Titan. Dragonfly is a car sized nuclear
powered rotorcraft designed to investigate Titan's potential to host life,
and it has passed its critical design review, NASA announced
on Thursday, April twenty fourth. Passing this mission milestone means
that Dragonfly's mission, design, fabrication, integration, and test plans are
all approved, and the mission can now turn its attention
to the construction of the spacecraft itself. NASA reported. The
three point three five billion dollar Dragonfly mission was first
selected by NASA in twenty nineteen and is being designed
and built under the direction of the JOHNS. Hopkins Applied
Physics Laboratory in Maryland, with APL's Elizabeth Turtle as the
principal investigator. The mission has been hit by delays and
cost over on, but studying Titan is considered a high
priority by scientists for its potential to harbor alien life.
The mission is set to launch no earlier than July
twenty twenty eight on a SpaceX Falcon heavy rocket from
NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft will then
embark on an almost seven year long voyage through deep
space to the Saturn System, with the goal of spending
more than three years studying areas across Titan's frigid and
diverse surface. Equipped with cameras, sensors, and samplers, Dragonfly will
assess Titan's habitability, looking out for prebiotic chemistry as well
as potential signs of life. Titan is Saturn's largest moon
and the second largest in the Solar System behind Ganymede
of Jupiter. It's thick, hazy atmosphere shrouds a surface featuring
dunes of hydrocarbons and methane lakes. Beneath the moon's icy crust,
scientists think there's a subsurface ocean of salty water, adding
to the possibilities for Titan to harbor life. In two
thousand and five, NASA's Cassini mission delivered the Houygens probe
to Titan. The European Space Agency built Hoygens made a
parachute assisted landing which provided profound insights into the giant Moon. Dragonfly,
if successful, could revolutionize our understanding of how life might
arise elsewhere in the Solar System.
Speaker 1: Wads of that console. We are listen to Astarmi daily,
the podcast. Firefly Aerospace is preparing its Alpha small satellite
launcher for a flight from Vandenberg Space Force Space in California.
The Alpha flt A zero zero six mission, named Message
in a Booster, is scheduled to launch on Sunday, April
twenty seven at six thirty seven am from Space Launch
Complex to West at the start of a fifty two
minute walk launch window. Message in a Booster will fly
on a southern trajectory out of Vanderberg, carrying a Lockheed
Martin LM four hundred satellite bus into polar orbit. With
this mission serving as a demonstration flight. Lockheed Martin plans
to offer the LM four hundred as a multi mission
satellite bus for commercial, civil and military uses. This flight,
Firefly's second Lockheed Martin is also the first of up
to twenty five missions in Firefly's multi lauch agreement with
Lockheed Martin that was reached in twenty twenty four. Powered
by four Reaver engines, Alpha is capable of flying up
to one thousand and thirty kilograms to low Earth orbit
or six hundred and thirty kilos to a five hundred
kilometer altitude Sun synchronous orbit. Lockheed Martin describes the LM
four hundred as a mid size satellite bus with a
volume cup comparable to that of a home refrigerator and
the capability to host a one thousand, one hundred kilogram payload.
Given this flight's destination in a polar orbit, the LM
four hundreds payload is going to be constrained, although it's
likely to be the viest payload Alpha has launched to date.
The l AND four hundred multi mission satellite bus is
designed to operate in low Earth orbit, medium Earth orbit,
and geosynchronous orbit. The bus can be used in either
single or multi satellite launch configurations, and will have the
ability to be launched on multiple rockets. LM four hundred
is designed to support up to six satellites with a
single launch snack arranged in a configuration similar to Starlink
satellites on SpaceX missions. This bus was also designed to
support onboard data processing using a Lockheed Martin software to
find satellite architecture that conforms to a modular open systems architecture.
This enables interoperability with systems deployed by all United States
military services. Lockheed Martin states that the LM four hundred
can support various mission types, including remote sensing, imagery, radar observation,
and communications, with the demo mission on Alpha featuring a
communications payload. The company has also developed an electronically steered
array that is compatible with this bus and will be
flown on this mission. The L four hundred is designed
for mass production in large numbers, and a rapid production
line is being implemented at a two hundred and sixty
six thousand square foot manufacturing facility in Waterton, Colorado, near Denver.
The bus is being pitched as a solution for satellite constellations,
with several contracts already secured, including one from the US
Space Force for ITSMEO Missile Track Custody program. The US
Department of Defense is moving toward operating constellations of smaller
satellites a prime example of being starshield, a military constellation
based on space exis starlink satellites for resilience and redundancy
in the face of potential threats to satellites in orbit.
Lockheed Martin is one one of the US's primary military contractors,
and the LM four hundred, though capable of supporting civil
and commercial missions, was really designed to support military standards.
Message in a BOOSTA will serve as Alpha's first launch
of twenty twenty five. Alpha's next flight, the yet to
be named FLTAUB seven mission, is currently planned to be
the first flight of Firefly's electra orbital vehicle. FLTAUB seven
will also be a responsive space mission, meaning the time
between the flight's order and launch will be accelerated to
be as short as possible. Alpha launched the Victis Knotts
responsive space mission in twenty twenty three, and Firefly has
offered this capability to the DoD for similar flights. Although
Alpha has only launched out of SLC TWOW at Vanderberg,
other launch sites are being developed for the rocket. A
launch facility at the Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island,
Virginia is currently being developed to host Alpha flights. Flights
from Wallops are scheduled to begin in twenty twenty six
with NASA's Incas mission south of Wallop's Space Launch Complex
twenty at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida
is another future launch site for Alpha. A facility is
also being prepared in Esrange, Sweden to support missions for
five flights European customers. The Esrange facility is also expected
to be ready in twenty twenty six. Alpha has flown
five flights so far, with its first flight failing to
reach orbit. The four other flights have all reached orbit,
with two full successes and two partial successes. The company
has encountered issues with restarting its Lightning second stage engine
in orbit. Message in a booster we'll see the Lightning
complete only with a single burn during its ascent into orbit.
As Alpha continues to fly mission, Firefly is working on
its upcoming Medium Launch Vehicle Rocket in cooperation with Northrop Grumman,
which is working on a new version of the Antaris
launch vehicle that will utilize the mlv's first stage. Firefly
currently has up to six missions planned for Alpha in
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: And there's another episode in the can. Thanks for joining
us today everyone.
Speaker 1: Yes, we covered cheny five samples, the Titan bound, Dragonfly
helicopter development and more from Firefly Aerospace.
Speaker 2: A colorful episode of Astronomy Daily.
Speaker 1: And we know where to get our daily dose of
all the news from orbit and beyond, don't.
Speaker 2: We, halle We sure do. Just check out the websites
you mentioned earlier and put.
Speaker 1: Your email in the slop.
Speaker 2: Provided you won't miss a thing.
Speaker 1: Well said, And now it is that time so soon?
Oh wow, that's okay, Hallie. I know you'll be heading
off to the Astronomy Daily virtual studio with Anna.
Speaker 2: Don't forget to catch Anna during the week with all
the Astronomy Daily updates.
Speaker 1: That's right, All the best from Anna and that's goodbye from.
Speaker 2: You and so long from me Jerio bye
Speaker 1: I mean your home, Steve, don't clut