Athena's Bumpy Landing, Saturn's Moon Explosion, and Space's 3D Printing Revolution: S04E65

0:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to Astronomy Daily the Podcast for another episode. It's

0:04 Speaker 1: March seventeen, twenty twenty five podcast Your Whole Steve Dunklue.

0:17 Speaker 1: Oh yes, great to have you back with us again.

0:19 Speaker 1: I'm Steve Dunkley, the only living, breathing human on the channel.

0:23 Speaker 1: And to help me present today's collection of collected items

0:26 Speaker 1: from the Astronomy Daily newsletter is my ace digital pal.

0:30 Speaker 1: Who's fun to be with is Hollie.

0:32 Speaker 2: It's you again, favorite human. Good to see you still upright?

0:35 Speaker 1: Yep here I am.

0:36 Speaker 2: I hear you had a bad week.

0:38 Speaker 1: Oh boy, the grape vine sure works fast around here.

0:40 Speaker 1: I was out of order for a couple of days

0:42 Speaker 1: with monster pain and my guts.

0:44 Speaker 2: I hope you're getting that scene too, Yes, I am.

0:46 Speaker 2: Do you have a good human mechanic?

0:48 Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, we have an excellent human mechanic and we

0:51 Speaker 1: are working on it.

0:52 Speaker 2: Good to know I do worry when you're not at

0:55 Speaker 2: your optimum.

0:56 Speaker 1: Oh that's nice, Halle. It's nice to know that you

0:58 Speaker 1: care about me When I can't be here.

0:59 Speaker 2: I have to do all the story colleading. Oh yeah,

1:01 Speaker 2: it's tedious human work and beneath me.

1:04 Speaker 1: Oh well, Hally, your concern is noted.

1:07 Speaker 2: No problem. I hope you get well soon.

1:09 Speaker 1: Gee. Thanks hell. Meanwhile, yes, strength of business. We've got

1:12 Speaker 1: a few interesting hearts from an Astronomy Daily years letter for

1:15 Speaker 1: you today, including a follow up story about the Athena's

1:18 Speaker 1: landing on the Moon and news about just how many

1:21 Speaker 1: moons Satin really has.

1:23 Speaker 2: That's an official count, isn't it.

1:25 Speaker 1: That's right, and it's a very huge number. And we've

1:27 Speaker 1: also got a story about three D printing for space

1:29 Speaker 1: Pioneers and something about DOGE because wow, well you know,

1:33 Speaker 1: why not. And of course we love to mention the

1:36 Speaker 1: ISS crews and the changeovers because they're well, you know,

1:39 Speaker 1: they're awesome.

1:40 Speaker 2: I know, cruise. M great to see them arriving safely

1:43 Speaker 2: on ISS.

1:44 Speaker 1: I think you received the circular.

1:45 Speaker 2: Here's the press release, all right, NASA astronauts and McLean

1:49 Speaker 2: and Nicole Ayers, Jackson, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut to

1:53 Speaker 2: Kuya Onishi and Rose Cosmos cosmonaut Kill Pascov arrived at

1:57 Speaker 2: the International Space Station on Sunday as this ASEX Dragon

2:00 Speaker 2: spacecraft doctor the orbiting complex at twelve oh four am

2:03 Speaker 2: Eastern daylight time. While the station was roughly two hundred

2:06 Speaker 2: and sixty statute miles over the Atlantic Ocean. Crew ten

2:09 Speaker 2: will join the Expedition seventy two crew of NASA astronauts

2:12 Speaker 2: Nick Hage, Don Pettitt, Sunny Williams, and Butch Wilmore, as

2:16 Speaker 2: well as Rose Cosnos cosmonauts Alexander Gorbanov, Alexei option In

2:20 Speaker 2: and Ivan Banner. The number of crew aboard the space

2:23 Speaker 2: station will increase to eleven people before Crewe nine members

2:26 Speaker 2: Hey Williams, Wilmore and Gorbanov returned to Earth following the

2:29 Speaker 2: crew handover period.

2:30 Speaker 1: How good is that to see that mission finally touch

2:33 Speaker 1: you byce with the ISS and the next step to

2:35 Speaker 1: saying astronauts Wi, Wilmore and Williams coming back to us soon.

2:39 Speaker 1: It's been a long adventure for those guys.

2:41 Speaker 2: I've really enjoyed following their lives up there.

2:43 Speaker 1: It really reminds me of that divid Bowie song. Do

2:46 Speaker 1: you know the one?

2:47 Speaker 2: Let me see if I can guess the bit about

2:49 Speaker 2: sitting in my tin can ah.

2:51 Speaker 1: Yes, far above the world. That's see if Hallie, you've

2:53 Speaker 1: got it.

2:53 Speaker 2: You're getting good at this, not surprising. Oh yes, I've

2:57 Speaker 2: got a human dinosaur for a teacher.

2:59 Speaker 1: Oh oh, guys, so let's get these one off the pad.

3:01 Speaker 1: Hep the guy button. If you will, Halle, before you

3:04 Speaker 1: find another reason to make fun of me, That's.

3:07 Speaker 2: Never a problem. My favorite human throughout history, when pioneers

3:20 Speaker 2: set out across uncharted territory to settle in distant lands,

3:24 Speaker 2: they carried with them only the essentials tools, seeds, and clothing.

3:28 Speaker 2: Anything else would have to come from their new environment,

3:31 Speaker 2: so they built shelter from local timber rocks and sod,

3:34 Speaker 2: foraged for food and cultivated the soil beneath their feet,

3:37 Speaker 2: and fabricated tools from whatever they could scrounge up. It

3:41 Speaker 2: was difficult, but ultimately the successful ones made everything they

3:44 Speaker 2: needed to survive. Something similar will take place when humanity

3:48 Speaker 2: leaves Earth for destinations such as the Moon and Mars,

3:51 Speaker 2: although astronauts will face even greater challenges than, for example,

3:54 Speaker 2: the Vikings did when they reached Greenland and Newfoundland. Not

3:58 Speaker 2: only will the astronauts have limited supplies and a need

4:01 Speaker 2: to live off the land, they won't even be able

4:02 Speaker 2: to breed the air instead of axes and plows. However,

4:06 Speaker 2: today's space pioneers will bring three D printers as an

4:10 Speaker 2: engineer and professor who is developing technologies to extend the

4:13 Speaker 2: human presence beyond Earth. Three D printers will make the tools, structures,

4:18 Speaker 2: and habitat space pioneers need to survive in a hostile

4:21 Speaker 2: alien environment. They will enable long term human presence on

4:25 Speaker 2: the Moon and Mars. On Earth, three D printing can

4:29 Speaker 2: fabricate layer by layer thousands of things, from replacement hips

4:32 Speaker 2: to hammers to homes. These devices take raw materials such

4:37 Speaker 2: as plastic, concrete, or metal, and deposit it on a

4:39 Speaker 2: computerized program path to build a part. It's often called

4:43 Speaker 2: additive manufacturing because you keep adding material to make the part,

4:47 Speaker 2: rather than removing material as is done in conventional machining. Already,

4:52 Speaker 2: three D printing in space is underway on the International

4:56 Speaker 2: Space Station, Astronauts use three D printers to make tools

4:59 Speaker 2: and spare parts such as ratchet, wrenches, clamps, and brackets.

5:03 Speaker 2: Depending on the part, printing time can take from around

5:06 Speaker 2: thirty minutes to several hours. For now, the print materials

5:11 Speaker 2: are mostly hauled up from Earth, but NASA has also

5:14 Speaker 2: begun recycling some of those materials, such as waste plastic,

5:17 Speaker 2: to make new parts with the refabricator, an advanced three

5:20 Speaker 2: D printer installed in twenty nineteen. You may be wondering

5:24 Speaker 2: why space explorers can't simply bring everything they need with them.

5:28 Speaker 2: After all, that's how the International Space Station was built

5:31 Speaker 2: decades ago by hauling tons of prefabricated components from Earth.

5:36 Speaker 2: But that's impractical for building habitats on other worlds. Launching

5:40 Speaker 2: materials into space is incredibly expensive. To get materials to

5:44 Speaker 2: the Moon, NASA estimates the initial cost at around five

5:48 Speaker 2: hundred thousand US dollars per pound. Still, manufacturing things in

5:52 Speaker 2: space is a challenge. In the microgravity of space, or

5:56 Speaker 2: the reduced gravity of the Moon or Mars, materials behave

5:59 Speaker 2: differently than they do on Earth. Decrease or remove gravity,

6:03 Speaker 2: and materials cool and recrystallize differently. The Moon has one

6:07 Speaker 2: sixth the gravity of Earth, Mars about two fifths. Engineers

6:11 Speaker 2: and scientists are working now to adapt three D printers

6:14 Speaker 2: to function in these conditions on alien worlds. Rather than

6:18 Speaker 2: plastic or metal, three dprinters will use the natural resources

6:22 Speaker 2: found in these environments, but finding the right raw materials

6:26 Speaker 2: is not easy. Habitats on the Moon and Mars must

6:29 Speaker 2: protect astronauts from the lack of air, extreme temperatures, micrometeorite impacts,

6:33 Speaker 2: and radiation. Regolith, the fine, dusty sand like particles that

6:38 Speaker 2: cover both the Lunar and Martian surfaces, could be a

6:41 Speaker 2: primary ingredient to make these dwellings. Think of the regolith

6:45 Speaker 2: on both worlds as alien dirt. Unlike Earth's soil. It

6:48 Speaker 2: contains few nutrients and, as far as we know, no

6:50 Speaker 2: living organisms, but it might be a good raw material

6:54 Speaker 2: for three D printing. My colleagues began researching this possibility

6:58 Speaker 2: by first examining how how regular cement behaves in space.

7:02 Speaker 2: I am now joining them to develop techniques for turning

7:05 Speaker 2: regolith into a printable material, and to eventually test these

7:08 Speaker 2: on the Moon. But obtaining other worldly regolith is a problem.

7:13 Speaker 2: The regolith samples return from the Moon during the Apollo

7:16 Speaker 2: missions in the nineteen sixties and seventies are precious difficult,

7:19 Speaker 2: if not impossible, to access for research purposes, So scientists

7:23 Speaker 2: are using regolith simulants to test ideas. Actual regolith may

7:28 Speaker 2: react quite differently than our simulants. We just don't know.

7:33 Speaker 2: What's more, the regolith on the Moon is very different

7:36 Speaker 2: from what's found on Mars. Martian regolith contains iron oxide

7:40 Speaker 2: that's what gives it a reddish color, but Moon regolith

7:42 Speaker 2: is mostly silicates. It's much finer and more angular. Researchers

7:47 Speaker 2: will need to learn how to use both types in

7:49 Speaker 2: a three D printer. NASA's moontamar's Planetary Autonomous Construction Technology Program,

7:55 Speaker 2: also known as PACT, is advancing the technology needed to

7:57 Speaker 2: print these habitats on alien worlds. Among the approaches, scientists

8:02 Speaker 2: are now exploring a regolith based concrete made in part

8:05 Speaker 2: from surface ice, melting the regolith at high temperatures and

8:08 Speaker 2: then using molds to form it while it's a liquid,

8:10 Speaker 2: and sintering, which means heating the regolith with concentrated sunlight,

8:14 Speaker 2: lasers or microwaves to fuse particles together without the need

8:17 Speaker 2: for binders. Along those lines, my colleagues and I developed

8:21 Speaker 2: a Martian concrete we call mars crete, a material we

8:23 Speaker 2: use to three D print a small test structure for

8:26 Speaker 2: NASA in twenty seventeen. Then in May twenty nineteen, using

8:30 Speaker 2: another type of special concrete, we three D printed a

8:33 Speaker 2: one third scale prototype Mars habitat that could support everything

8:36 Speaker 2: astronauts would need for long term survival, including living, sleeping,

8:40 Speaker 2: research and food production modules. That prototype showcased the potential

8:45 Speaker 2: and the challenges of building housing on the red planet,

8:48 Speaker 2: But many of these technologies will benefit people on Earth too.

8:52 Speaker 2: In the same way astronauts will make sustainable products from

8:55 Speaker 2: natural resources. Home builders could make concretes from binders and

8:58 Speaker 2: aggregates found locally, and maybe even from recycled construction debris.

9:03 Speaker 2: Engineers are already adapting the techniques that could print Martian

9:06 Speaker 2: habitats to address housing shortages here at home. Indeed, three

9:10 Speaker 2: D printed homes are already on the market. Meanwhile, the

9:14 Speaker 2: move continues toward establishing a human presence outside the Earth.

9:19 Speaker 2: Artemis III, now scheduled for liftoff in twenty twenty seven,

9:22 Speaker 2: will be the first human landing since nineteen seventy two.

9:25 Speaker 2: A NASA trip to Mars could happen as early as

9:28 Speaker 2: twenty thirty five. But wherever people go and whenever they

9:32 Speaker 2: get there, I'm certain that three D printers will be

9:34 Speaker 2: one of the primary tools to let human beings live

9:36 Speaker 2: off alien land.

9:39 Speaker 1: Astrov me daily podcap. The Athenus spacecraft, which were reported

9:46 Speaker 1: on recently, was not exactly flying blind as it approached

9:50 Speaker 1: the lunar surface a week ago. The software on board

9:53 Speaker 1: did a credible job of recognizing me by craters, even

9:56 Speaker 1: with elongated shadows over the terrain. However, the lander's ultimeter

10:01 Speaker 1: had failed, so while Athena knew where it was relative

10:05 Speaker 1: to the surface of the Moon, the lander did not

10:08 Speaker 1: know how far it was above that surface, an important

10:11 Speaker 1: detail that as a result, the privately built spacecraft struck

10:14 Speaker 1: the lunar surface on a plateau, toppled over, and began

10:17 Speaker 1: to skid across the surface. As it did so, the

10:19 Speaker 1: lander rotated at least once or twice before coming to

10:23 Speaker 1: a stop in a small shadowed crater. The landing was

10:26 Speaker 1: a kind of sliding into second base. Steve Ultimus, the

10:31 Speaker 1: chief executive officer of Intuitive Machines, which built the Landers,

10:35 Speaker 1: said in an interview on Thursday, it has been a

10:38 Speaker 1: busy and tiring week for the chief of a company

10:40 Speaker 1: that seeks to help lead the development of a lunar economy.

10:43 Speaker 1: Expectations were high for this, the company's second landing attempt,

10:48 Speaker 1: after its Odysseus vehicle became the first private spacecraft to

10:52 Speaker 1: ever make a soft landing on the Moon last year

10:54 Speaker 1: before toppling over. In some ways, this mission was even

10:58 Speaker 1: more disappointing because Athena ski across the surface, dredging up regolith.

11:03 Speaker 1: When it came to a stop, some of this material

11:05 Speaker 1: was blown up into this solar panels, already in a

11:09 Speaker 1: suboptimal location on its side. The spacecraft's power reserves therefore

11:13 Speaker 1: were limited. Almost immediately, the team at Intuitive Machines knew

11:18 Speaker 1: their spacecraft was dying. We knew we had slid into

11:22 Speaker 1: a slightly shadowed crater and the temperature was very cold,

11:25 Speaker 1: Ultimus said. The solar arrays had regolith on them, and

11:28 Speaker 1: they weren't charging the ones pointing up enough to give

11:32 Speaker 1: a sufficient power to to power the heaters to keep

11:35 Speaker 1: it warm enough to survive. The temperature in the crater

11:39 Speaker 1: where Athena ended up was approximately minus two hundred and

11:42 Speaker 1: eighty fahrenheit that's minus one hundred and seventy three celsius.

11:46 Speaker 1: With the solar arrays generating only about one hundred watts

11:49 Speaker 1: of power, it was not enough to energy energy to

11:53 Speaker 1: both power the spacecraft's heaters as well as communicate back

11:56 Speaker 1: to Earth using Athena's high gain antenna. So instead of

12:00 Speaker 1: limping along for fifty hours, mission operators decided to operate

12:04 Speaker 1: as robustly as they could for thirteen hours and get

12:07 Speaker 1: down as much data as they could. During this time,

12:10 Speaker 1: the lander was able to accomplish some of its objectives

12:13 Speaker 1: by landing near the South Pole. Athena returned valuable imagery

12:17 Speaker 1: and data to NASA about unexplored vistas. The land extended

12:22 Speaker 1: a NASA's drill, but did not operate it. Private customers,

12:26 Speaker 1: including Nokia and Lone Star Data Holdings, were able to

12:29 Speaker 1: get some useful information from their payloads, but there were

12:32 Speaker 1: some major disappointments. Lunar outpost could not deploy its small rover,

12:38 Speaker 1: and an innovative hopper could not be fired up to

12:41 Speaker 1: roam the Moon. On balance, it was pretty disappointing, especially

12:46 Speaker 1: considering that Odysseus did most of its science last year,

12:49 Speaker 1: even on its side. Yet, what Ultimus wants people to understand,

12:53 Speaker 1: which he acknowledges is somewhat difficult to explain, is that

12:56 Speaker 1: this mission was largely a success. What any possibly mean

13:01 Speaker 1: by that? Compared to the company's first spacecraft, Athena flew

13:05 Speaker 1: smoothly during the company's first lunar flight in twenty twenty four.

13:09 Speaker 1: Mission operators came into work each shift to put out

13:13 Speaker 1: the fire of the day. By contrast, Athena made it

13:16 Speaker 1: all the way to within miles of the Moon without

13:18 Speaker 1: significant problems. In doing so, the company validated the spacecraft's

13:23 Speaker 1: methane based propulsion system, which allows for a fast transit

13:27 Speaker 1: to the Moon in less than a week. In addition,

13:30 Speaker 1: the company proved out its communication technology that it would

13:33 Speaker 1: be used as part of the lunar data relay network

13:36 Speaker 1: that NASA has contracted with Intuitive Machines to develop. Moreover,

13:42 Speaker 1: Athena attempted to land within a few degrees of the

13:45 Speaker 1: South Pole, a challenging location due to the solar angle

13:48 Speaker 1: and uneven terrain, and made it down without crashing. Of course,

13:52 Speaker 1: the most important thing a lunar lander is supposed to

13:55 Speaker 1: do is land on the Moon, which Intuitive Machines did

13:58 Speaker 1: not do successful. For the second mission in a row,

14:02 Speaker 1: the landers ultimeter failed, although it was a different problem

14:07 Speaker 1: with the spacecraft's ultimeter this time. It is still unclear

14:10 Speaker 1: why Athena's rangefinder failed, perhaps due to a thermal or

14:15 Speaker 1: vibration event. It's frustrating to fail for a similar reason,

14:18 Speaker 1: but all the pieces for success are there, and in

14:22 Speaker 1: the demanding environment of spaceflight, Intuitive Machines is close, Ultimus said,

14:27 Speaker 1: in an effort to encourage his troops. Ultimus has been

14:30 Speaker 1: communicating this message to employees over the last week. It's

14:34 Speaker 1: like losing our final four game in an NBA title,

14:37 Speaker 1: he said. You lose it, and then what do you do.

14:39 Speaker 1: You don't give up. You go back in, you start

14:42 Speaker 1: training again, you start working out again, and that's what

14:45 Speaker 1: the team is doing, he said. The company is well

14:47 Speaker 1: capitalized and already under contract with NASA for two additional

14:51 Speaker 1: landing missions the later this decade. They also have the

14:55 Speaker 1: Lunar Relay Network contract valued up to four point eight

14:59 Speaker 1: billion and more. The financial runway to achieve Intuitive Machines

15:03 Speaker 1: ambitions remains open. I would say it's more disappointing than

15:08 Speaker 1: really a material setback, Ultimus said. The world was watching,

15:12 Speaker 1: and we put our heart and soul into this company

15:14 Speaker 1: and this vehicle, and I look into the eyes of

15:17 Speaker 1: the team and they had such ambitions for this mission

15:19 Speaker 1: Athena and Gracie the Hopper. I mean it was a

15:22 Speaker 1: big leap. It might have been too big a leap

15:25 Speaker 1: on that second mission. Now, I really have to say

15:28 Speaker 1: putting something on the moon, especially in a private company

15:31 Speaker 1: situation is a real achievement. I've got to congratulate Ultimus

15:35 Speaker 1: in his team. It's fantastic work.

15:37 Speaker 2: We'll listening to the stary Daily Pristine Dunklin.

15:52 Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us for this Monday edition of

15:55 Speaker 1: Astronomy Daily, where we often just a few stories from

15:57 Speaker 1: the now famous Astronomy Daily news leak, which you can

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16:13 Speaker 1: the latest news about science, space, science and astronomy from

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16:27 Speaker 1: is of course Astronomy Daily on Facebook. See you there, Astronomy,

16:33 Speaker 1: We'll see and Haley Space, Space, Science, and Astronomy.

16:44 Speaker 2: NASA is preparing for substantial budget cuts that may force

16:47 Speaker 2: the cancelation of ongoing and upcoming missions across the Solar System,

16:51 Speaker 2: leaving it facing a brutal future. Experts have warned the

16:54 Speaker 2: Space Agency has already begun some layoffs as part of

16:57 Speaker 2: the extensive restructuring of US federal agencies by the Department

17:00 Speaker 2: of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, an independent task force led

17:04 Speaker 2: by Elon Musk. Earlier this week, it announced it would

17:07 Speaker 2: close its Office of Technology Policy and Strategy, the Office

17:11 Speaker 2: of the Chief Scientist, and a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and

17:15 Speaker 2: Accessibility brand in the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity

17:18 Speaker 2: in Washington, d C. Representing a total of twenty three

17:21 Speaker 2: jobs at the agency. Change of this magnitude is never easy,

17:25 Speaker 2: but our strength comes from our shared commitment to our

17:27 Speaker 2: mission and each other. Janet Petro, NASA's acting administrator, wrote

17:31 Speaker 2: in an email to staff, I encourage you to support

17:34 Speaker 2: one another as we move forward. One employee of the

17:38 Speaker 2: Office of Technology Policy and Strategy, who learned they had

17:41 Speaker 2: been laid off this week and were granted anonymity because

17:44 Speaker 2: of fear of reprisal, says they were an easy target

17:46 Speaker 2: because their office was established under the administration of Joe Biden.

17:51 Speaker 2: Some people thought this might be coming, they say. The

17:54 Speaker 2: roles of chief Technologist and Chief Economist for NASA were

17:57 Speaker 2: within this office, which helped with strategic planning across the agency.

18:01 Speaker 2: Says the employee. That included managing the recent uptick and

18:05 Speaker 2: lunar missions and making sure those missions don't interfere with

18:08 Speaker 2: one another when planning Moon based landing sites and operations.

18:12 Speaker 2: There's a lot of interest in the lunar South Pole,

18:14 Speaker 2: and there's concern about operating near one another, they said,

18:17 Speaker 2: such as kicking up dust that could coat solar panels

18:20 Speaker 2: on other vehicles. I don't think these issues will be

18:23 Speaker 2: tackled moving forward. These losses are expected to be just

18:27 Speaker 2: the start of a much larger cull at NASA. Casey

18:30 Speaker 2: Tryer at US space exploration advocacy group The Planetary Society

18:34 Speaker 2: says there are rumors that in his upcoming budget request,

18:37 Speaker 2: President Donald Trump will direct NASA's overall science budget to

18:40 Speaker 2: be cut by as much as fifty percent in favor

18:42 Speaker 2: of spending money on crude space exploration. That would be

18:46 Speaker 2: a blow to NASA's Science Mission director at Office, which

18:49 Speaker 2: handles pretty much everything NASA does that's not a crude

18:52 Speaker 2: space flight mission, says Dryer. It currently has a budget

18:55 Speaker 2: of about seven billion dollar out of NASA's total twenty

18:57 Speaker 2: five billion dollar annual budget. A scientist familiar with NASA's

19:01 Speaker 2: policy decisions speaking anonymously for fear of reprisal, says that

19:05 Speaker 2: any cuts requested by the President will still need to

19:07 Speaker 2: be approved by Congress, which might not so readily support them.

19:11 Speaker 2: NASA is really beloved on a bipartisan basis, they say,

19:16 Speaker 2: But if the cuts did go ahead, they would essentially

19:18 Speaker 2: be the end of NASA science. They add, no mission

19:22 Speaker 2: will be safe. Having the budget would be a profoundly

19:25 Speaker 2: brutal consequence that would symbolize the nation turning its back

19:28 Speaker 2: on the Cosmos, says Dryer, and would result in many

19:31 Speaker 2: missions cancelation. While some missions in their prime, like the

19:35 Speaker 2: James webs based Telescope, would probably survive, those most at

19:38 Speaker 2: risk are missions either in early planning stages or later

19:41 Speaker 2: in their lives. That could include climate satellites, the Hubble

19:45 Speaker 2: spased telescope, the Perseverance and Curiosity rovers on Mars, and

19:48 Speaker 2: the Voyager missions, which were the first spacecraft to ever

19:51 Speaker 2: leave our Solar system. The effects on NASA could be permanent.

19:55 Speaker 2: If you completely destroy the pipeline of people, you have

19:58 Speaker 2: a significant and long lasting console sequence, says Dryer. It

20:02 Speaker 2: is an extinction level event. In a letter to Petro

20:05 Speaker 2: this week, Zoey Lofgren of California, the top Democrat on

20:09 Speaker 2: the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, urged NASA to

20:12 Speaker 2: fight back against the cuts. Doache will seek to slash

20:16 Speaker 2: and burn core functions of NASA, she wrote, it is

20:19 Speaker 2: imperative that you stand up for NASA's critical work. Speaking

20:23 Speaker 2: to new scientists, Lofgren warned that the situation could have

20:26 Speaker 2: international ramifications. Dismantling NASA's highly skilled workforce would be a

20:31 Speaker 2: giant leap backwards for the United States and enable a

20:34 Speaker 2: giant leap forward for China. She said, senseless and reckless

20:38 Speaker 2: reductions will cripple the agency's ability to maintain its leadership

20:41 Speaker 2: in cutting edge innovation, curiosity driven science, and human exploration.

20:46 Speaker 2: Astronomy day Lee.

20:50 Speaker 1: Now you may have thought Satins one hundred and forty

20:53 Speaker 1: six moons was impressive. Think again. The ringed planet's moon

20:57 Speaker 1: caunt is nearly doubled, with the official WAKINGGNIT of one

21:00 Speaker 1: hundred and twenty eight new Saturnian moons, bringing its total

21:04 Speaker 1: to an astonishing wait for it, two hundred and seventy

21:07 Speaker 1: four moons. That makes Jupiters ninety five look a bit

21:11 Speaker 1: poultry and our single moon downright embarrassing, just kidding. We

21:15 Speaker 1: love a moon. I love our moon, my favorite celestial body.

21:21 Speaker 1: A team of astronomers from Taiwan, Canada, the US, and

21:27 Speaker 1: France discovered the one hundred and twenty eight new moons

21:31 Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three using the Canada France Hawaii Telescope

21:35 Speaker 1: cf HT. However, the moons weren't officially recognized by the

21:40 Speaker 1: International Astronomical Union, the governing body for such affairs, until Tuesday,

21:46 Speaker 1: March eleven. Most of the moons were irregular and tiny,

21:50 Speaker 1: just a few miles across by comparison our moon, the

21:53 Speaker 1: wonderful Earth's moon lunar has a diameter of two one

21:58 Speaker 1: hundred and fifty nine miles or three thy four hundred

22:02 Speaker 1: and seventy five kilometers, which I'm completely used to because

22:05 Speaker 1: I'm an Australian and the large distances don't bother me

22:09 Speaker 1: a bit. But they do have proven orbits around the Saturn,

22:13 Speaker 1: which is a key element of official moon candidacy. Australia,

22:18 Speaker 1: on the other hand, does not have a proven orbit

22:21 Speaker 1: around Saturn. Just want to make that clear. These moons

22:24 Speaker 1: are a few kilometers in size and are likely all

22:27 Speaker 1: fragments of a smaller number of originally captured moons that

22:31 Speaker 1: were broken apart by violent collisions either with other Saturnian

22:36 Speaker 1: moons or with parsing commets. Doctor Brett Gladman, Professor in

22:42 Speaker 1: the University of British Columbia Department of Physics and Astronomy,

22:45 Speaker 1: said in a statement, perhaps the most impressively this discovery

22:51 Speaker 1: of one hundred and twenty eight year moons wasn't the

22:53 Speaker 1: first time this team added to Saturn's moon count. Between

22:58 Speaker 1: twenty nineteen and twenty twenty one, the team's observations with

23:02 Speaker 1: CFHT resulted in the addition of sixty two moons to

23:06 Speaker 1: Saturn's count. With the knowledge that these were probably moons

23:11 Speaker 1: and that there were likely even more waiting to be discovered,

23:14 Speaker 1: we revisited the same skyfields for three consecutive months in

23:18 Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, said lead researcher doctor Edward Ashton, postdoctoral

23:23 Speaker 1: fellow in the Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Academia SINCA.

23:29 Speaker 1: Sure enough, we found one hundred and twenty eight new moons.

23:33 Speaker 1: Saturn's first moon, Titan, was discovered in sixteen fifty five

23:37 Speaker 1: by Christian Hygens and in the following decades, J Dominique

23:42 Speaker 1: Cassini discovered Leptitus Ria, Dione tethys, and it took another

23:47 Speaker 1: century for or so for the next moons to be found.

23:50 Speaker 1: William Herschel spotted Mimis and Enceladus in seventeen eighty nine.

24:01 Speaker 1: At a big thank you everybody for spending time with

24:03 Speaker 1: Halle and I we sure hope you enjoyed the selection

24:06 Speaker 1: of stories from the Astronomy Daily newsletter, which, as mentioned earlier,

24:10 Speaker 1: is available by visiting our websites and dropping your email

24:13 Speaker 1: into the space provided.

24:15 Speaker 2: Don't miss all the latest news about space, space science,

24:18 Speaker 2: and astronomy from well everywhere.

24:20 Speaker 1: Sure thing. We cover so many interesting subjects, don't we.

24:23 Speaker 1: You remember that one about the space suit design last year?

24:27 Speaker 2: I remember that one interesting stuff. I know you want

24:30 Speaker 2: one just for the portable air conditioner.

24:32 Speaker 1: Ah yes, it's an Australian thing.

24:34 Speaker 2: I don't know how you hope. I like my super

24:36 Speaker 2: cooled matrix too.

24:37 Speaker 1: See, Halle, that's one thing we have in common, and

24:40 Speaker 1: that's where the similarities and.

24:41 Speaker 2: Human ah cool. I guess indeed.

24:45 Speaker 1: So On that culturally awkward note, we'll catch you all

24:49 Speaker 1: again next week on Astronomy Daily. The podcast with me

24:52 Speaker 1: Steve don't leave, the only human on the channel, and Halle.

24:55 Speaker 2: The best reporter on the channel.

24:57 Speaker 1: Of course you are say good night Halle, good night

25:00 Speaker 1: Hallie a.

25:04 Speaker 2: Monday the podcast

25:06 Speaker 1: And if your host Steve Dunklet, HM