AS02E08: 600th Person in Orbit: Celebrating a Milestone in Space Exploration

Hello and welcome again to Astronomy Daily. I'm Steve Dunkley, your host. It is the twenty second of May twenty and twenty three. Today we'll be looking at the six hundredth person in orbit, another way to measure the expansion of the universe, and a launch from New Zealand of all places, your whole big dunkle. Yes, that's right. There's been some big happenings in the sky and our launch pads and in the space industry all over the world today, but especially in New Zealand. They've sent a few bits and pieces into orbit, although they were going to anyway.

We'll get to that later, but would you welcome my fabulous digital sleuth, Hallie. Thank you for joining us again. Hallie, Hi again, my favorite human. Of course, it's not the New Zealand launch that's got everybody's attention today, is it. Everyone is talking about the launch today. That's right, the six hundredth person into orbit. That's a new milestone. That's funny. In Australia you still say milestone when you use the metric system. Oh. I know, it's just old habits. But this is an exciting event, it sure is.

Hallie humanity is inching its way into space, not centimetering. There's no such thing, Steve, Don't be silly, Okay, I'll try to be sensible. From nan one, What did you go for us? Okay? Time for the short takes. As stars up to eight times heavier than our Sun start to run out of nuclear fuel in their core, they puff off their outer layers. This process gives rise to the colorful clouds of gas misleadingly known as planetary nebuli, and leaves behind a dense, compact hot core known as a white dwarf.

Our own son will undergo this transition in five billion years or so, then slowly cool and fade away. However, if a white dwarf somehow puts on weight, a self destruct mechanism kicks in when it gets heavier than about one point four times the mass of our Sun. The subsequent thermonuclear detonation destroys the star in a distinctive kind of explosion called the type IA supernova. But where would the extra mass come from to fuel such a bang. We used to think it could be gas being stripped off a bigger companion star in a close orbit, but stars tend to be messy eaters spilling gas everywhere.

Supernova twenty twenty EIG was discovered by a telescope in Hawaii on March twenty third, twenty twenty. For the first seven weeks or so, it behaved in much the same way as any other Type IA supernova, but for the next five months it stopped fading in brightness. It also began to show features indicating gas that was unusually rich in helium. Astronomers began to suspect supernova twenty twenty EICH belonged to a rare subclass of type IA supernovy, in which the blast wave, moving at more than ten thousand kilometers per second, sweeps past gas that could only have been stripped off the outer layers of a surviving companion star.

One of the more remarkable properties of Type IA supernovy is that they all seem to reach pretty much the same peak brightness. This is consistent with them all having reached a similar critical mass before exploding. This very attribute allowed astronomer Brian Schmidt and colleagues to reach their Nobel Prize winning conclusion in the late nineteen nineties that the universe's expansion since the Big Bang is not slowing down under gravity as everyone had expected, but is accelerating due to the effects of what we now call dark energy.

So type ia supernovy are important cosmic objects, and the fact we still don't know exactly how and when these stellar explosions occur or what makes them so consistent has been a worry to astronomers. Our hypothesis and radio confirmation that supernova twenty twenty EIJ occurred when enough helium gas was stripped off the companion star and onto the surface of the white dwarf to push it just over the mass limit provides a natural explanation for this consistency. A new pair of NASA weather satellites was scheduled for launch today, but according to rocket Lab's Twitter page, the mission, which is called Coming to a Storm Near You, has been delayed by you guessed it a storm.

The company is now looking at May twenty fifth as a proposed launch date. The numbers five and six Tropic satellites are part of a constellation of extreme weather observatories, also known as cube SATs because of their small size and low weight.

This launch will send two more Tropic satellites to join two previously launched SATs NASA chose rocket Lab, a company that launches from New Zealand, for the missions. The launch site makes it possible to achieve low earth orbital paths for the majority of missions the satellite industry needs. Nass's main goal is to keep an eye on the formation of sudden weather phenomena, mainly hurricanes and cyclones, to improve forecasts given the severe impact they can have on the regions they hit. Each tropic satellite carries a high performance radiometer monitor that scans across the satellite track at thirty revolutions per minute.

This observing system provides a combination of horizontal resolution related to time while measuring environmental conditions in the cores of tropical cyclones in a nearly global scale. According to company officials, operating a private orbital launch site alongside its own range and mission control centers helps rocket Lab to contain mission costs, which makes affordable and effect dev launch services. Two years after awarding Elon Musk's SpaceX a contract to faery astronauts to the surface of the Moon, NASA on Friday announced it had chosen Blue Origin, a rival space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, to build a second lunar lander.

Blue Origins Lander was selected for the Artemis five mission, currently scheduled to take place in twenty twenty nine. The company will first have to demonstrate it can safely land on the Moon without a crew. The contract amounts to three point four billion dollars, but John kulery's vice president in charge of lunar transport at Blue Origin, said during a press conference that the company would itself contribute well north of that amount to develop the craft. The Artemis program marks NASA's return to the Moon after more than fifty years, and is made up of several missions, each with increasing complexity.

In twenty twenty one, the US agency chose SpaceX to build a lander for Artemis three, the first mission in the series to have actual astronauts set foot on the lunar surface. Blue Origin had also competed for the first contract and filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against NASA when SpaceX was chosen as the sole lander provider. Blue Origins Lander, dubbed Blue Moon, is being developed with several partner companies, including Draper, Bowing, Astrobotic, Honeybee Robotics, and Lockheed Martin. The latter will be responsible for developing a crucial element.

Once in lunar orbit, Blue Moon will need to be refueled before it can descend and collect the astronauts from the surface of the Moon. Therefore, Lockheed Martin has to develop a kind of shuttle to refuel Blue Moon around the Moon.

And that's all I have at the moment. Back to you, Steve Astronomy the podcast. Wow, doesn't that the development of the Artemis mission sound exciting? With refueling craft orbiting the Moon, It just sounds fantastic that science fiction becoming science fact. I can't wait to see some of those things unfoiled. Very exciting. Well, the big story at the moment is the six hundredth person to enter Earth orbit is now on our way to the International Space Station. In fact, at about one o'clock this afternoon Eastern Australia time, she would have docked with the ISS Rainer Banawi on Sunday, that was yesterday for us here in Australia, lifted off with fellow Saudi Space Commission astronaut ali Al Corny pronunciation folks, privately funded astronaut John Schoffner of Tennessee, and former astronaut Peggy Whitson on the second mission, organized by Houston space services company Axiom Space.

The four Axiom two crewmates launched at five thirty seven Eastern daylight time on the space ex Dragon spacecraft Freedom atop a Falcon nine rocket from thirty nine A pad from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Less than nine minutes later, Banawi in her crewmates began circling the planet. Our Carney and Schoffner our first time flyers, but based on a precedent set in twenty twenty one, when the six hundredth person entered space, a figure that also included suborbital flights. The count is based on the astronauts mission designations.

As pilot, Schoffner became number five nine eight, our Carney is number five ninety nine, flying as Mission Specialist one. As such, Banawi as Mission Specialist two, claimed the round number and with Benawi one, seventy two women helped comprise the six hundredth person total. I feel incredibly humble to follow in the footsteps of many astronauts and pioneers before me Bowe's set in a statement as the six hundredth person to enter orbit around the Earth, I'm excited to represent the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Saudi Space Commission during this historic mission.

It's a true honor to be a part of the mission that is expanding access to low Earth orbit for people like me and you who are to be able to inspire people around the world and reach for the stars and pursue their dreams. But now is now the first Saudi woman to fly in space and the first Arab woman into Earth orbit with al Kahni, the first Arabs and Saudis to launch together on the same mission. The first Saudi and Arab astronaut to fly, Sultan bin Salman al Saud, did so as payload specialist for the Space Shuttle Discovery in nineteen eighty five, all that time ago.

Once they arrive at the ISS, which is expected to go well. It happened at one o'clock daylight time here in Eastern Australia, Banawi and al Khanni will be greeted by this DAS Expedition sixty nine crew including Amiati astronauts our Sultan al Naudi, marking the first time three astronauts have been in space at the same time. But Nardi thirty three, al Kanni thirty one and not the only record setters on the ax crew. Schaffner sixty seven is the first person who had been born in Alaska, Fairbanks to fly into space.

So I think it's a very odd sort of thing to say, because somebody from my town went into space, they would also be the first person from my town to be in space. Don't you think that's odd? No. Peggy Whitson, as a former NASA astronaut, already holds the distinction as the most experienced American and woman to fly into space, having previously logged more than six hundred and sixty five days on three long duration stays aboard the ISS. She will add to that count on this mission, which is expected to last about a whole ten days.

Whitson sixty three is now also the first woman to command ACE commercial spaceflight. She joined Axiom Space after retiring from NASA in twenty eighteen, becoming the company's director of Human space Flight. Whitson is the second former NASA astronaut to fly for Axiom, following Michael Lopez Allegria on Axiom one in twenty twenty two, and the third NASA astronaut to return to space after leaving the agency, following John Glenn in nineteen eighty eight, Isn't that interesting. During the next week at the space station, Whitson will assist Schoffner, Alkhani, and Banawe proceed through their planned science and outreach programs.

The AX two crew plans to conduct more than twenty different experiments, including research into stem cells, DNA based nano materials, and cancer countermeasures. They will also photograph lightning strikes and high altitude transient luminous events known as sprites, and test a wearable skin suit that simulates Earth's gravity to counteract the negative effects of micro gravity. As you know, the human body does not like living in no gravity. It tends to shed things like calcium and other things and just not very happy in zero gravity, so it'll be interesting to see how that works out.

Schoffner, a race car driver who has aspired to fly in space since his childhood, will use part of his time to announce the winners. Get this of a Crayola sponsored art and poetry contest that was open to children from around the world. Al Khanni and Banawi will interact with students in Saudi Arabia with the goal of inspiring and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. We're going to be doing three education awareness experiments with kids, said Alkhani during a pre launched press conference.

It's going to be a live event, which is going to be amazing for them because it's going to be a huge opportunity to compare the results that they had on the ground with the ones we are going to have aboard the I s now. That is going to be interesting. Okan'ne and Banawe are going to be bringing a taste of their country to their temporary home in orbit. We are going to be taking with us Saudi coffee and dates to share with the astronauts on the board. The ISS fantastic. Banawi and has a Saudi flag and packed earrings from her grandmother who was not able to attend to launch, but gave her blessing for the flight.

Whitson has again flown with a necklace that she wore at her wedding and then flew on her three previous missions. Schoffner, You're going to love this. Chose something that represents his lifelong dream of flying in space. He says, when I was eight years old, I built a model of the Gemini spacecraft. It had little astronauts in it that would come out, and I happen to have one of those from nineteen sixty three, one of those little astronaut guys, probably ed White, he says, he says, So that one's going up with me into space again.

That's fantastic. I love that it sort of puts a real human complex these people who have done this jaunt into space, that's like this ultimate adventure, but they're still very human. They're taking these little trinkets with them. One other astronaut above the spacecraft was Gig, the mission's zero G indicator and AX two fifth crew member, the result of a partnership between Axiom Space and Build a Bear Workshop. The Fuzzy Bear was dressed in a miniature version of the axioms prototype spacesuit, which the company is developing for NASA astronauts to wear on the artem's three moon landing.

Oh fantastic. Axiom two is the second flight for Dragon Freedom, which previously flew SpaceX's crew crew for astronaut mission to and from the space station. Private missions like a X two are part of NASA's strategy to help build a low Earth orbit economy such that companies like Axiom Space can operate commercial orbit facilities after the ISS is retired. What a wonderful story. A cosmic lens magnified the light of an exploding star. Now astronomers are using observations from that supernov to calculate the universe's current rate of expansion.

Stars explode all the time in the universe, but the supernova that Patrick Kelly found in twenty fourteen marked serendipity at its finest, an explosion not only caught in the act of detonation, but also magnified by the gravity of confluence of foreground galaxies. Now, Kelly from the University of Minnesota is leading a team in using this serendipitous supernova to get an independent measure of the universe's current expansion rate. Astronomers have been debating intensely for about a decade. Although the new measurement would settle that debate, it does provide an independent method that astronomers badly need.

Supernova Refstyle, named after Norwegian astronomers ser Refstyle just happened to go off under a lens. From Earth's point of view, A massive galaxy cluster magnified the supernova's light and bent it, splitting it into separate but identical images. Kelly, who as a graduate student in twenty fourteen, was searching the Hubble space telescopes images by ice, spotted three bright images and contacted his team straight away. A fainter fourth image was found later and it was immediately clear. He said that it was very exciting, but the physics of gravitational lensing, which is the same as for eyeglasses, should have created not four but five images.

One image was missing. Kelly and his colleagues predicted that the light of the final image might be traveling a longer path to Earth through the cluster than that of the others, depending on the path traveled. They figured it would appear anywhere from a year to a decade later, and a year later it did show up. A new study published in Science explore what super over refstyle can tell us about cosmic expansion. The universe has been expanding, so the theory goes, since the Big Bang, although at different rates.

Astronomers have measured the rate at which the universe is currently expanding, called the Hubble constant, in many different ways. These ways often rely on carefully calculated distances, but the measurements have become more precise and the answers have split between two numbers, creating tension. While this tension is regarded as a potential problem for the standard model of cosmology, which includes mysterious dark matter and equally mysterious dark energy, there's still the possibility that the different answers come out due to systematic errors in the measurements themselves.

Supernover refstyle offers a new way to estimate the Hubble constant that, while not free of systematic errors, is at least free from the ones that plague the other estimates. To calculate the Hubble constant, Kelly and his colleagues first need to determine the distance to the super over based on the last images delayed arrival. The time delay itself is more precisely estimated in an accompanying paper published in the Astrophysical Journal. To do that, they first need to properly account for the distribution of mass in the intervening galaxy cluster.

Since the cluster's gravity is what bending the light, understanding its master distribution is basically like knowing the prescription of the cosmic lens. Using a set of cluster models, Kelly's team arrives at an estimate of the Hubble constant that's between sixty three point three and seventy point seven kilometers per megapasic. There's a lot of wiggle room in that answer, but it's in line with what astronomers have previously found by analyzing observations of the cosmic microwave background taken from the Plank satellite, and it's below the other set of estimates, such as that from the Shoes collaboration based on observation of Cepheid variable stars and Type IA supernova, as well as from the Holy Cow team that studies distant lensed quasars.

Christopher Koshenek from Ohio State University, who wasn't involved in the study, says that it's a solid result, but he questions whether the new measure is precise enough to be useful. The measurement's uncertainty is six percent, and you need a one or two percent measurement to be competitive. He says, the devil is in the lens model. Heads Kelly's team applied many models and then calculated a sort of weighted average of the results that helped make their measurements more precise, but Koshek explains that a weighted average Joey works if the uncertainty of any one model is random.

Kelly's team agrees that the lens models are indeed the sticking point when it comes to precision, noting that if the clusters mass distribution were known exactly, they be able to measure the cubble constant within one point five percent. With improved models for the clusters mass based on James Webb Space Telescope observations, more precise measurements may come from supernova refstyle. Finding more lens supernova will be the key to better understanding the ubble constant. In fact, astronomers recently announced another lens supernova in New James observations.

Certainly the same method will also be applied to the Myriads supernova that the upcoming VIAC Reuben Observatory will find. And I'd like to acknowledge Monika Young for the wonderful research on that article. And that's it for another episode of Astronomy Daily. I hope you got something out of that today. It's been a very exciting day in space. So, like we keep saying, keep your eyes on the skies and Halley, what do you say, Just a reminder that all the past episodes of Space Nuts with Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson can be found on the nuts website.

That's right, it's space Nuts dot Io is the address. You'll find all the episodes of Astronomy Daily there as well. And don't forget to say hi on a Space Nuts Facebook page. And that's it for us. I'm Steve Dunkle, your host, see you later. Bye,

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