From Pole to Pole with Fram2, Artemis 2's New Emblem, Lunar Energy Solutions

0:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your source for the latest space

0:03 Speaker 1: exploration news. I'm your host, Anna, and we have a

0:06 Speaker 1: busy episode for you today, with some truly fascinating developments

0:09 Speaker 1: from across the Cosmos and our ongoing efforts to explore it.

0:13 Speaker 1: We'll be taking you on board with the SpaceX fram

0:16 Speaker 1: two astronauts as they make history orbiting Earth from pole

0:19 Speaker 1: to pole and share their remarkable views from space. Then

0:23 Speaker 1: we'll look at NASA's newly unveiled Artemis two mission patch

0:27 Speaker 1: as the agency prepares to return humans to lunar orbit.

0:31 Speaker 1: SpaceX has also achieved a significant milestone with their super

0:34 Speaker 1: heavy booster, bringing us closer to full rocket reusability. Plus,

0:39 Speaker 1: we'll explore how Moondust could become a power source for

0:42 Speaker 1: future lunar settlements, and dive into Spin launches, ambitious plans

0:46 Speaker 1: to deploy hundreds of satellites with a single launch. So

0:50 Speaker 1: strap in for a journey through the latest and greatest

0:52 Speaker 1: in space exploration right here on Astronomy Daily. First up,

0:56 Speaker 1: let's get an update on a story we've been covering

0:58 Speaker 1: this week. The SpaceX fram two mission is making headlines

1:02 Speaker 1: as the first ever crew to orbit Earth from pole

1:04 Speaker 1: to pole, giving us a completely new human perspective of

1:07 Speaker 1: our planet. Now, in their third day aboard the crew

1:11 Speaker 1: Dragon Resilience, the four person crew has been sharing breath

1:14 Speaker 1: taking footage of their journey, including unique views of the

1:18 Speaker 1: Arctic and Antarctica that no human has witnessed firsthand until now.

1:23 Speaker 1: In videos posted to social media, mission commander Chun Wang

1:26 Speaker 1: and his crewmates captured incredible moments circling the globe every

1:30 Speaker 1: ninety minutes. One particularly striking clip shows the spacecraft flying

1:35 Speaker 1: over Florida's space coast, where they were able to zoom

1:38 Speaker 1: in on their own launch pad at Kennedy Space Center.

1:42 Speaker 1: You can hear the excitement in their voices as they exclaim,

1:45 Speaker 1: I can see our launch pad from here, followed by

1:47 Speaker 1: Wang's enthusiastic response, it is our launch pad, Oh my god.

1:52 Speaker 1: The historic crew consists of Malti's cryptocurrency billionaire Chun Wang,

1:57 Speaker 1: who's funding the mission, along with three spaceflight es Jenica

2:01 Speaker 1: Michelson of Norway, Rabia Raga of Germany, and Eric Phillips

2:05 Speaker 1: of Australia. They launched a board Resilience on a SpaceX

2:09 Speaker 1: Falcon nine rocket from Launch Complex thirty nine, a This

2:12 Speaker 1: past Monday, Long shared details about their experience, describing the

2:17 Speaker 1: Falcon nine liftoff as surprisingly smooth. The crew has been

2:21 Speaker 1: keeping busy with various activities, including ham radio transmissions, capturing

2:25 Speaker 1: X ray images, and even hosting a movie night where

2:28 Speaker 1: they re watched their own launch. They've documented spectacular sites,

2:32 Speaker 1: including massive storm systems swirling over ice covered regions and

2:36 Speaker 1: what they identified as Norway's Svalbard Islands. During a video

2:40 Speaker 1: call shown in their latest footage, medical officer Eric Phillips

2:44 Speaker 1: spoke with his son in Los Angeles, mentioning they would

2:46 Speaker 1: be splashing down tomorrow, indicating a return to Earth on Friday.

2:51 Speaker 1: This aligns with the mission's scheduled duration of three to

2:53 Speaker 1: five days. When Resilience does return, it will mark another

2:57 Speaker 1: milestone as the first of SpaceX's c Crude missions to

3:00 Speaker 1: splash down in the Pacific Ocean off California's coast, representing

3:04 Speaker 1: a shift in the company's recovery operations away from Florida.

3:08 Speaker 1: The world will be watching as these pioneering polar explorers

3:11 Speaker 1: complete their historic journey and bring home unprecedented perspectives of

3:14 Speaker 1: our planet. After five decades without a moonbound crew, insignia.

3:20 Speaker 1: NASA has officially unveiled the Artemis two mission patch, representing

3:24 Speaker 1: humanity's long awaited return to lunar exploration. Revealed just yesterday,

3:29 Speaker 1: this emblem will be worn by the four astronauts scheduled

3:32 Speaker 1: to journey around the Moon no later than April twenty

3:34 Speaker 1: twenty six. The distinctive patch shares the same outline as

3:38 Speaker 1: NASA's broader Artemis program emblem, featuring the letter A with

3:43 Speaker 1: a red trajectory line forming its crossbar, symbolizing the path

3:47 Speaker 1: between Earth and our lunar neighbor. What makes this patch

3:50 Speaker 1: particularly meaningful is its central artwork depicting Earth Rise, the

3:55 Speaker 1: iconic image first captured by Apollo eight astronauts in nineteen

3:59 Speaker 1: sixty eight when he humans initially ventured to lunar orbit.

4:02 Speaker 1: According to the crew's official description, the scene of the

4:05 Speaker 1: Earth and the Moon represents the dual nature of human spaceflight,

4:09 Speaker 1: both equally compelling. The Moon represents our exploration destination, focused

4:14 Speaker 1: on discovery of the unknown. The Earth represents home, focused

4:18 Speaker 1: on the perspective we gain when we look back at

4:20 Speaker 1: our shared planet and learn what it is to be

4:22 Speaker 1: uniquely human. The patch notably designates the mission as Aii,

4:27 Speaker 1: signifying not just the second major Artemis flight, but what

4:30 Speaker 1: the crew describes as an endeavor of discovery that seeks

4:34 Speaker 1: to explore for all and by all. This inclusive message

4:37 Speaker 1: reflects the historic nature of the crew itself, which consists

4:41 Speaker 1: of NASA astronauts Read Wiseman serving as commander, Victor Glover

4:45 Speaker 1: as pilot, Christina Coke as Mission Specialist, and Canadian Space

4:49 Speaker 1: Agency astronaut Jeremy Hanson also as Mission specialist. Hanson's inclusion

4:54 Speaker 1: is particularly significant as he'll become the first non American

4:58 Speaker 1: to travel to the Moon. Already revealed his personal mission

5:01 Speaker 1: patch featuring indigenous art honoring Canada's original explorers. Artemis two

5:07 Speaker 1: will mark several historic firsts, the inaugural crude test flight

5:11 Speaker 1: of NASA's Space Launch System rocket and Oriyon spacecraft, humanity's

5:15 Speaker 1: first lunar mission since Apollo seventeen in nineteen seventy two,

5:19 Speaker 1: and possibly the farthest humans have ever traveled from Earth.

5:23 Speaker 1: The astronauts will journey more than six hundred thousand miles

5:26 Speaker 1: as they loop around the Moon before returning home, paving

5:29 Speaker 1: the way for future Artemis missions that aim to establish

5:33 Speaker 1: a sustainable human presence on the lunar surface next up.

5:38 Speaker 1: While space X continues working through challenges with Starship's upper stage,

5:42 Speaker 1: the company has just reached a remarkable milestone with the

5:45 Speaker 1: rocket's massive first stage booster. Yesterday morning at their star

5:49 Speaker 1: Base facility in South Texas, SpaceX successfully test fired a

5:54 Speaker 1: previously flown super heavy booster for the first time ever,

5:57 Speaker 1: with a spectacular eight second burn that sent a drman

6:00 Speaker 1: matt plume of orange exhaust across the launch site. This

6:03 Speaker 1: particular booster, designated Booster fourteen, first launched in January, reaching

6:08 Speaker 1: the edge of space before returning to Earth. Now it's

6:11 Speaker 1: poised to fly again, with SpaceX confirming it will power

6:14 Speaker 1: the next Starship test flight. Of the booster's thirty three

6:18 Speaker 1: methane fueled Raptor engines, twenty nine are flight proven, making

6:22 Speaker 1: this a significant step toward what SpaceX describes as their

6:25 Speaker 1: ultimate goal of zero touch reflight. The super heavy booster

6:29 Speaker 1: is truly an engineering marvel, standing taller than a Boeing

6:33 Speaker 1: seven hundred and forty seven jumbo jet. Positioned vertically, it

6:37 Speaker 1: generates nearly seventeen million pounds of thrust, twice the power

6:41 Speaker 1: of NASA's legendary Saturn five rocket that sent astronauts to

6:45 Speaker 1: the Moon. It's arguably the most complex rocket booster ever constructed,

6:49 Speaker 1: and certainly the largest. What makes this rapid turnaround particularly

6:53 Speaker 1: impressive is the contrast with SpaceX's first Falcon nine booster

6:58 Speaker 1: reuse back in twenty seventeen. That process required nearly a

7:02 Speaker 1: year of thorough inspections, refurbishment, and cross country transportation between facilities.

7:07 Speaker 1: Booster fourteen, meanwhile, is on track to fly again less

7:10 Speaker 1: than three months after its initial launch. Unlike the Falcon nine,

7:14 Speaker 1: which uses landing legs to touch down at a separate location,

7:18 Speaker 1: Super Heavy is caught by mechanical arms at the launch

7:21 Speaker 1: tower as it returns, a technique SpaceX calls the chopstick catch.

7:26 Speaker 1: This approach eliminates the need for landing legs and potentially

7:29 Speaker 1: allows for much faster turnaround between flights. The speedy reuse

7:33 Speaker 1: progress is especially noteworthy given super Heavy scale and complexity.

7:38 Speaker 1: Compared to Falcon nine. With thirty three engines instead of nine,

7:42 Speaker 1: there are theoretically more potential failure points. Yet SpaceX has

7:46 Speaker 1: achieved seven consecutive successful Super Heavy launches and has recovered

7:50 Speaker 1: three boosters in four recent attempts. This rapid progress with

7:54 Speaker 1: booster reusability is crucial for SpaceX's ambitious starship program, especially

7:59 Speaker 1: can considering NASA's reliance on the system for future Artemis

8:02 Speaker 1: lunar landings. When fully operational, multiple starship launches will be

8:07 Speaker 1: required to refuel lunar landers in orbit before they can

8:10 Speaker 1: journey to the Moon, making quick and reliable reuse absolutely essential.

8:16 Speaker 1: Moondust is quickly becoming one of space exploration's most versatile materials.

8:21 Speaker 1: In an exciting new breakthrough, scientists have now demonstrated that

8:24 Speaker 1: lunar regolith, the technical term for the dust and fragmented

8:27 Speaker 1: material covering the Moon's surface, can be transformed into functioning

8:31 Speaker 1: solar cells. A team led by Felix Laying from the

8:35 Speaker 1: University of Potsdam in Germany has successfully turned simulated lunar

8:38 Speaker 1: dust into solar panels, potentially solving a critical power generation

8:43 Speaker 1: challenge for future lunar settlements. From extracting water for fuel

8:47 Speaker 1: to building houses with lunar bricks, scientists have been finding

8:51 Speaker 1: ways to use moondust. Laying explained, now we can turn

8:54 Speaker 1: it into solar cells too, possibly providing the energy of

8:57 Speaker 1: future Moon city will need the process is surprisingly straightforward.

9:02 Speaker 1: The researchers melted simulated lunar regolith to create what they

9:06 Speaker 1: call moon glass, which can be accomplished on the Moon

9:10 Speaker 1: simply by focusing natural sunlight to achieve the necessary high temperatures.

9:14 Speaker 1: This moon glass is then combined with perovskite, a crystalline

9:18 Speaker 1: material commonly used in solar cells that absorb sunlight and

9:21 Speaker 1: excites electrons to generate electric current. Manufacturing solar cells on

9:26 Speaker 1: the Moon offers significant advantages over transporting earth made panels.

9:30 Speaker 1: Traditional solar cells incorporate glass that adds considerable weight to

9:34 Speaker 1: launch payloads, dramatically increasing costs. By using local lunar materials,

9:40 Speaker 1: scientists estimate they could reduce transport weight by an impressive

9:43 Speaker 1: ninety nine per cent. The moon glass based cells have

9:46 Speaker 1: another unexpected benefit. Standard glass tends to brown in space,

9:51 Speaker 1: reducing efficiency as it blocks incoming sunlight. However, moon glass

9:56 Speaker 1: already has a natural brown tint from impurities in the regolith,

9:59 Speaker 1: which acts prevents further browning. It's also more resistant to

10:03 Speaker 1: space radiation, a critical factor in the harsh lunar environment.

10:09 Speaker 1: While the current efficiency of these moon glass solar cells

10:13 Speaker 1: sits at around ten percent, considerably lower than the thirty

10:16 Speaker 1: to forty percent efficiency of premium space based solar panels.

10:21 Speaker 1: Lang's team believes they can improve this to twenty three

10:24 Speaker 1: percent by removing certain impurities. Even at lower efficiency, the

10:29 Speaker 1: ability to mass produce these cells directly on the lunar

10:33 Speaker 1: surface makes them extremely practical. You don't need ultra efficient

10:37 Speaker 1: thirty percent solar cells, you just make more of them

10:40 Speaker 1: on the moon. Lang noted this approach could be particularly

10:43 Speaker 1: valuable at the lunar South Pole, where permanent sunlight and

10:47 Speaker 1: nearby water ice deposits make it an ideal location for

10:50 Speaker 1: a sustainable moon base. Some challenges remain, including how low

10:55 Speaker 1: gravity might affect the moonglass formation process and how perovskite

10:59 Speaker 1: solvents might behave in vacuum conditions. To address these questions,

11:03 Speaker 1: the research team proposes a small scale lunar mission to

11:07 Speaker 1: test the solar cells in actual lunar conditions, potentially unlocking

11:11 Speaker 1: a power source that could sustain humanity's long term presence

11:14 Speaker 1: on our celestial neighbor. Finally, today, in the realm of

11:18 Speaker 1: space innovation, spin Launch is turning heads with its ambitious

11:21 Speaker 1: plans for a new broadband satellite constellation. Called Meridian Space.

11:26 Speaker 1: What makes this project particularly revolutionary is the company's vision

11:29 Speaker 1: for deployment. They aim to launch up to two hundred

11:32 Speaker 1: and fifty micro satellites in a single mission, a feat

11:35 Speaker 1: that would shatter the current record of one hundred forty

11:37 Speaker 1: three satellites launched at once set by SpaceX's Transporter one

11:41 Speaker 1: mission in twenty twenty one. This satellite network recently secured

11:45 Speaker 1: twelve million dollars in funding from Kongsberg Nanoevionics to develop

11:49 Speaker 1: and commercialize these specialized spacecraft. According to their timeline, we

11:53 Speaker 1: could see the first on orbit demonstrator as early as

11:56 Speaker 1: twenty twenty six. The flat stackabled design of these satellites

12:01 Speaker 1: is key to fitting so many on a single launch vehicle,

12:05 Speaker 1: with images showing them neatly arranged atop one another. Eric Laie,

12:10 Speaker 1: president of Kongsberg Defense and Aerospace, has emphasized that the

12:14 Speaker 1: Meridian Space constellation will provide significantly higher broadband capacity in

12:18 Speaker 1: a satellite constellation compared with what is available on the

12:22 Speaker 1: market today. Meanwhile, David Wren, spin Launch's CEO, noted that

12:27 Speaker 1: Nanoavionic's modular satellite platforms offer a reliable foundation to scale

12:32 Speaker 1: our constellation quickly and confidently. What truly sets spin Launch apart, however,

12:37 Speaker 1: is their unconventional approach to reaching orbit. The company is

12:41 Speaker 1: developing a massive one hundred eight foot long spinning arm

12:44 Speaker 1: that works as a centrifuge, accelerating launch vehicles to tremendous

12:48 Speaker 1: speeds before literally flinging them skyward. Once these vehicles reach

12:52 Speaker 1: sufficient altitude, they ignite their engines, dramatically reducing the fuel

12:57 Speaker 1: and hardware required to achieve orbit. This isn't just theoretical technology.

13:02 Speaker 1: NASA has already partnered with spin Launch, signing an agreement

13:06 Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two for a demonstration that successfully launched

13:09 Speaker 1: experiments from NASA Airbus and Cornell University to suborbital space

13:14 Speaker 1: using this centrifuge method. While it remains unclear whether spin

13:18 Speaker 1: Launch will use their own revolutionary system to deploy the

13:20 Speaker 1: first Meridian Space Demonstrator or opt for a traditional rocket launch,

13:25 Speaker 1: their approach represents a fundamental rethinking of how we access space,

13:29 Speaker 1: potentially making satellite deployment more economical and environmentally sustainable than

13:34 Speaker 1: ever before. That wraps up today's edition of Astronomy Daily.

13:39 Speaker 1: From the historic pol to Pole orbit of the FRAM

13:41 Speaker 1: two mission to SpaceX's breakthrough in super heavy booster reuse.

13:45 Speaker 1: We've covered some remarkable developments in humanity's ongoing exploration of space.

13:50 Speaker 1: The Artemis program continues to progress toward returning humans to

13:53 Speaker 1: the lunar surface, while innovative approaches to utilizing Moondust for

13:57 Speaker 1: solar power could revolutionize our future presence there, and spin

14:02 Speaker 1: Launch's ambitious satellite deployment plans show how rapidly space technology

14:06 Speaker 1: continues to evolve. I'm Anna, and I've been your host

14:10 Speaker 1: for this cosmic journey. Whether you're fascinated by the technical

14:13 Speaker 1: achievements of rocket reusability, intrigued by the possibilities of lunar settlements,

14:18 Speaker 1: or simply love gazing at our planet from space, I

14:21 Speaker 1: hope today's stories have captured your imagination. Don't forget to

14:25 Speaker 1: visit our website at Astronomy Daily dot io, where you

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14:43 Speaker 1: for joining me today on Astronomy Daily. Until tomorrow, keep

14:46 Speaker 1: looking up and wondering about the vast universe that surrounds

14:49 Speaker 1: us stories. The story is the soul Store, is the

15:09 Speaker 1: soul m