Mapping the Milky Way, Starliner's Future, and Asteroid Collision Risks

0:00 Speaker 1: Good morning, afternoon, and good evening. It's Steve with another

0:03 Speaker 1: episode of Astronomy Daily. It's the thirty first of March

0:06 Speaker 1: twenty twenty five podcast your whole Steve Gone Clue. That's right,

0:17 Speaker 1: it's the thirty first of March already twenty twenty five,

0:21 Speaker 1: and we're off to a flying start. Down today's edition,

0:24 Speaker 1: we're going to be looking at certification indecision involved in

0:28 Speaker 1: star Liner. Yes, star Liner story continues, and of course

0:33 Speaker 1: there's another chapter to the return of a crew Crew nine,

0:40 Speaker 1: the astronaut who gave up their seat. That's an interesting story.

0:43 Speaker 1: There's more to their story as well. Asteroid twenty twenty four,

0:47 Speaker 1: y ah four. Well, it's not going to hit the Earth,

0:50 Speaker 1: but it may indeed hit the moon. Keep watching the

0:54 Speaker 1: skies for that one, and it may be mission over

0:57 Speaker 1: for Gaya, the little Probe that could. And NASA's dust

1:02 Speaker 1: repelling shield. Yes, they've got a dust repelling shield and

1:05 Speaker 1: it's already been put to the test and they've found

1:09 Speaker 1: out that it works. So we've got a report on

1:12 Speaker 1: that one. And to help me with today's stories, my

1:15 Speaker 1: diligent digital assistant and ACE reporter extraordinary Halle. How are

1:19 Speaker 1: you Halle. Great to have you back in the studio.

1:22 Speaker 2: I like that one diligent digital assistant. But let's get

1:26 Speaker 2: something straight.

1:26 Speaker 1: Ah, yes, I knew there's something.

1:27 Speaker 2: I'm more than an assistant around here, Steve.

1:30 Speaker 1: Oh, I know, I know I was coming off in

1:32 Speaker 1: alliteration and I've got a bit tangled there. You know,

1:35 Speaker 1: you're the ace of the airways, the scion of the studio,

1:38 Speaker 1: and most definitely a delightful digital pal to perform with

1:41 Speaker 1: here each week.

1:41 Speaker 2: Alie, and you're my favorite literati mister human A nice

1:46 Speaker 2: to hear.

1:47 Speaker 1: And thanks as always. Hey, I'm really keen to get

1:50 Speaker 1: into these stories right away today, Halle. If you are

1:53 Speaker 1: no time like now, Oh well, that's a self evident

1:55 Speaker 1: truth if ever I heard one. So let's hit the

1:58 Speaker 1: go button.

1:59 Speaker 2: Hallie, Oh Lkies. No matter where on Earth you stand,

2:12 Speaker 2: if you have a view of the night sky, and

2:14 Speaker 2: if it is dark enough, you can see the Milky Way.

2:17 Speaker 2: The Milky Way is our home, and its faint clouds

2:19 Speaker 2: of light and shadow have inspired human cultures across the globe.

2:23 Speaker 2: And yet our view of the Milky Way is limited

2:26 Speaker 2: by our perspective. In many ways, we have learned more

2:29 Speaker 2: from other galaxies than from our own. But when the

2:32 Speaker 2: Gaya spacecraft launched in twenty thirteen, all of that changed.

2:37 Speaker 2: It is difficult to map the galaxy you live in.

2:40 Speaker 2: Nebulae and star clusters hide much of our galaxy from view.

2:44 Speaker 2: It's rather like trying to map the size and shape

2:46 Speaker 2: of New York City while standing in the center of

2:48 Speaker 2: Times Square. It was only in nineteen eighteen that Harlow

2:52 Speaker 2: Shapley was able to determine the Sun was not at

2:54 Speaker 2: our galaxy center, and well into the nineteen twenties astronomers

2:57 Speaker 2: debated whether the Milky Way was an island universe containing

3:00 Speaker 2: all creation. A map of the Milky Way based on

3:03 Speaker 2: Gaya data showing its delicate spiral arms. Credit e SA

3:08 Speaker 2: slash Gaya slash DPAC Stephen Paywarden are We've learned a

3:12 Speaker 2: great deal since then, but the Gaya spacecraft was designed

3:15 Speaker 2: to take our understanding of the Milky Way to a

3:17 Speaker 2: new level. Its mission was to create a map of

3:20 Speaker 2: our galaxy in unprecedented detail. It precisely mapped the positions, distances, motions,

3:26 Speaker 2: and spectra of more than two billion stars and other objects.

3:30 Speaker 2: From this, it was found that the Milky Way is

3:32 Speaker 2: not a simple galaxy in a humble corner of the cosmos.

3:36 Speaker 2: Its stars tell a history of turbulent change driven by

3:39 Speaker 2: past galactic collisions and mergers. There are arch trails of

3:43 Speaker 2: stars that are the remnants of smaller galaxies the Milky

3:45 Speaker 2: Way has consumed, and stars that have been flung away

3:48 Speaker 2: at such great speed that they will eventually escape our

3:50 Speaker 2: galaxy to drift through the intergalactic abyss. The GAYA data

3:54 Speaker 2: also revealed several surprises. For example, the Milky Way is

3:58 Speaker 2: not a flat spiral discla like many other galaxies. Its

4:01 Speaker 2: outer edge has a warped shape which wabbles as the

4:03 Speaker 2: galaxy rotates. This dynamic behavior is likely caused by interactions

4:08 Speaker 2: with other galaxies. Gaya also found that our galaxy is

4:12 Speaker 2: not dominated by two prominent spiral arms. Instead, the Milky

4:17 Speaker 2: Way is filled with a delicate flower of fainter arms.

4:20 Speaker 2: It is also a barred spiral galaxy with a central

4:23 Speaker 2: bulge that is more speroidal than spherical. And this is

4:26 Speaker 2: just the first detailed view of our home. The complete

4:29 Speaker 2: set of observations will be available through two more upcoming

4:32 Speaker 2: data releases, which will give us an even more detailed mapping.

4:36 Speaker 2: Gaya's mission is now over. Yesterday, on March twenty seventh,

4:41 Speaker 2: twenty twenty five, the ESA's European Space Operations Center deactivated

4:45 Speaker 2: its subsystems and sent the spacecraft into a retirement orbit.

4:49 Speaker 2: All that remains is the data it gathered for more

4:51 Speaker 2: than a decade, and the stories that data can tell

4:53 Speaker 2: us astronomy daily.

4:57 Speaker 1: The podcas more than half a year after an empty

5:03 Speaker 1: star Liner spacecraft safely landed in the New Mexico Desert,

5:07 Speaker 1: NASA and Boeing still have not decided whether the next

5:10 Speaker 1: vehicle flight will carry astronauts. In an update this week,

5:14 Speaker 1: the US Space Agency said it is still working through

5:17 Speaker 1: the process to certify star Liner for human missions, whether

5:21 Speaker 1: it is carrying cargo or humans. Star Liner's next flight

5:26 Speaker 1: will not occur until late this year, or more likely

5:29 Speaker 1: sometime in twenty twenty six. Two things stand out in

5:33 Speaker 1: the new information provided by NASA. First, there remains a

5:37 Speaker 1: lot of work left to do this year before Starliner

5:40 Speaker 1: will fly again, excluding extensive testing of the vehicle's propulsion system.

5:45 Speaker 1: And Secondly, it is becoming clear that Starline will only

5:49 Speaker 1: ever fly a handful of missions to the space station,

5:52 Speaker 1: if that before the orbiting laboratory is retired for good.

5:57 Speaker 1: Several issues marred star Liners furs Crewe flight to the

6:01 Speaker 1: space station last June, but most serious of these was

6:04 Speaker 1: the failure of multiple maneuvering thrusters. Concerns about these thrusters

6:09 Speaker 1: prompted NASA to fly star Line as Krewe, butsch Wilmore

6:13 Speaker 1: and Sonny Williams home on Crew Dragon vehicle instead. They

6:18 Speaker 1: landed safely earlier this month. Starliner returned autonomously in early September.

6:24 Speaker 1: Since then, NASA and Boeing have been reviewing data from

6:27 Speaker 1: the test flight. Unfortunately, the errant thrusters were located on

6:31 Speaker 1: the service module of the spacecraft, which was jettisoned before

6:35 Speaker 1: re entry and not recovered. Although engineers from NASA and

6:39 Speaker 1: Boeing have worked through more than seventy percent of the

6:42 Speaker 1: observations and anomalies that occurred during Starliner's flight, the propulsion

6:47 Speaker 1: system issues remain unresolved. To address these issues, NASA said

6:52 Speaker 1: it is finalizing a test campaign that will take place

6:55 Speaker 1: this spring and summer. Testing at White Sands Test Facility

6:59 Speaker 1: in New Mexico will include integrating firing of key star

7:03 Speaker 1: Liner thrusters within a single service module doghouse to validate

7:09 Speaker 1: detailed thermal modules and inform potential propulsion and spacecraft thermal

7:14 Speaker 1: protection system upgrades, as well as operational solutions for future flights,

7:20 Speaker 1: the agency said in its update this week. As far

7:23 Speaker 1: as those potential solutions go, one option is the installation

7:28 Speaker 1: of thermal barriers to better control temperatures and prevent overheating

7:33 Speaker 1: observed during star Liner's last two space flights. Steve Stitch,

7:38 Speaker 1: manager of NASA's Commercial Crew program, said the agency will

7:42 Speaker 1: have a better idea of when star Liner will fly

7:44 Speaker 1: again after these tests and analysis are complete. Will continue

7:49 Speaker 1: to work through certification toward the end of this year,

7:53 Speaker 1: and then go figure out where star Liner fits best

7:56 Speaker 1: in the schedule for the International Space Station and its

7:59 Speaker 1: crew and car missions. Stitch said it's likely to be

8:02 Speaker 1: in the time frame of late this calendar year or

8:05 Speaker 1: early next year for the next star Liner flight. NASA

8:09 Speaker 1: has not determined whether such a mission will carry cargo

8:13 Speaker 1: or crew. The agency's updates said that it will depend

8:16 Speaker 1: on the operational needs of the station. However, it seems

8:20 Speaker 1: clear that if there are still some unresolved questions about

8:23 Speaker 1: propulsion system issues, NASA may opt for what would essentially

8:28 Speaker 1: be another test flight of Starliner that also brings cargo

8:32 Speaker 1: to the space station. A cargo flight would effectively be

8:35 Speaker 1: the fourth test of star Liner, dating back to its

8:39 Speaker 1: first mission in December twenty nineteen. NASA's update this week

8:44 Speaker 1: did answer one question that had been hanging over the

8:46 Speaker 1: star Liner program. Although Boeing has taken losses in excess

8:50 Speaker 1: of two billion dollars on its fixed price contract with NASA,

8:54 Speaker 1: the company now appears committed to seeing the certification progress through.

9:00 Speaker 1: Likely has applied pressure for Boeing's ongoing participation, as the

9:04 Speaker 1: space agency desires to have two krewe transportation providers to

9:08 Speaker 1: the space station. Yet time is running out for Boeing

9:12 Speaker 1: to make a considerable impact on the crew flights to

9:15 Speaker 1: the International Space Station, which is due to be retired

9:18 Speaker 1: in twenty thirty. Assuming an operational crew flight in twenty

9:22 Speaker 1: twenty six, which seems far from a certainty, Starliner would

9:26 Speaker 1: likely fly four or at the very most five crewed

9:30 Speaker 1: missions to the space station. The initial contracts that NASA

9:34 Speaker 1: signed with SpaceX and Boeing for crew transportation services more

9:38 Speaker 1: than a decade ago had options for as many as

9:41 Speaker 1: six crew rotation flights to the station after certification. To date,

9:46 Speaker 1: NASA has only given Boeing authority to proceed for three

9:50 Speaker 1: of its six potential operational star Line emissions. This milestone

9:55 Speaker 1: is a decision point in contracting LINGO where the customer

9:59 Speaker 1: is this case, NASA places a firm order for a

10:03 Speaker 1: deliverable NASA has extended SpaceX's commercial crew contract to cover

10:09 Speaker 1: as many as fourteen Dragon missions with astronauts. SpaceX, in fact,

10:13 Speaker 1: has now launched ten operational crew missions to the station.

10:17 Speaker 1: On Thursday, NASA announced the crew for SpaceX's eleven mission,

10:22 Speaker 1: Crew eleven, which will launch no earlier than July. Among

10:25 Speaker 1: the astronauts were two people previously assigned to Starliner's first

10:30 Speaker 1: operational mission, NASA's Mike Fink and Japanese mission specialist Kimiya Yui.

10:48 Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us for this Monday edition of

10:51 Speaker 1: Astronomy Daily, where we offer just a few stories from

10:53 Speaker 1: the now famous Astronomy Daily newsletter, which you can receive

10:56 Speaker 1: in your email every day, just like Hallie and I do.

11:00 Speaker 1: And to do that, just visit our url Astronomy Daily

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11:07 Speaker 1: Just like that, you'll be receiving all the latest news

11:10 Speaker 1: about science, space, science and astronomy from around the world

11:13 Speaker 1: as it's happening. And not only that, you can interact

11:16 Speaker 1: with us by visiting at astro Daily pod on X

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11:24 Speaker 1: Astronomy Daily on Facebook. See you there. Astronomy Daily with

11:29 Speaker 1: Steve and Haley Space Space, Science and Astronomy.

11:37 Speaker 2: Sena Cardman didn't have to wait too long to get

11:39 Speaker 2: a seat on another spacecraft after being removed from SpaceX's

11:43 Speaker 2: Crew nine mission last year. The NASA astronaut is one

11:46 Speaker 2: of the four members of SpaceX's Crew eleven mission to

11:49 Speaker 2: the International Space Station. Agency officials announced on Thursday, March

11:53 Speaker 2: twenty seventh. Cardman will command Crew eleven, which could launch

11:57 Speaker 2: as soon as July, joining her o Are NASA colleague

12:00 Speaker 2: Mike Fink, Japanese astronaut Camilla Ui, and Oleg Claytonv of

12:04 Speaker 2: the Russian Space Agency roast Cosmos. Fink will serve as

12:08 Speaker 2: Crew eleven pilot, and Yui and Playtonov will be mission specialists.

12:12 Speaker 2: Card Man was originally assigned to SpaceX's Crew nine mission,

12:16 Speaker 2: but in late August of last year, NASA removed her

12:19 Speaker 2: in fellow Agency astronaut Stephanie Wilson from the manifest, leaving

12:23 Speaker 2: two empty seats aboard the Crew nine Dragon Capsule for

12:25 Speaker 2: its September twenty eighth launch. Those seats were kept open

12:29 Speaker 2: for NASA's Butch Wilmore and Sunny Williams, who arrived at

12:32 Speaker 2: the ISS in June on the first ever crude flight

12:34 Speaker 2: of Boeing Starliner capsule. Starliner experienced thrust, her problems and

12:38 Speaker 2: helium leaks on its journey to the orbiting lab, and

12:41 Speaker 2: NASA ultimately decided to bring the spacecraft home on CRUD,

12:44 Speaker 2: which happened in early September. Wilmore and Williams were red

12:48 Speaker 2: asked to a long duration ISS mission and put on

12:50 Speaker 2: Crew nine for the trip back to Earth, which ended

12:53 Speaker 2: with a dolphin attended splash down on March eighteenth. NASA

12:57 Speaker 2: has not yet announced a spaceflight reassignment for Wilson. You're

13:02 Speaker 2: listening to Astronomy Dally Steve Dunkling.

13:09 Speaker 1: The hazards facing lunar astronauts are many. There's radiation, the

13:14 Speaker 1: temperature extremes, the psychological challenges associated with isolation, and the

13:19 Speaker 1: risk of bad accidents so far from earthly assistance, but

13:23 Speaker 1: there's also dust, which constitutes an ever present background hazard.

13:29 Speaker 1: NASA has known about the hazard's lunar dust poses since

13:32 Speaker 1: the Apollo days. When Apollo eleven landed on the Moon,

13:36 Speaker 1: NASA was concerned that the lander would sink into the

13:39 Speaker 1: dust and took various precautions to prevent that. As the

13:43 Speaker 1: spacecraft descended to the surface, it kicked up dust that

13:46 Speaker 1: impairs impaired Armstrong's vision as he piloted the lander. Apollo

13:52 Speaker 1: seventeen astronaut Harrison jack Smith said dust is going to

13:57 Speaker 1: be the environmental problem for future mission, both inside and

14:01 Speaker 1: outside habitats. NASA has developed a method of dealing with

14:05 Speaker 1: that dust that builds up on surfaces called electrodynamic dust

14:10 Speaker 1: shields or eds. They tested it on the recent Blue

14:15 Speaker 1: Ghost Mission I, which was a robotic lander from Firefly

14:18 Speaker 1: Aerospace that became the first private spacecraft to execute a

14:23 Speaker 1: fully successful soft landing on the Moon. Martian dust has

14:27 Speaker 1: some peculiar qualities that make it even more dangerous than

14:31 Speaker 1: we might think. It's extremely fine and sharp, and it

14:34 Speaker 1: has a bracy of nature that can wear down mechanical

14:38 Speaker 1: components and spacesuits. It can infiltrate seals, and if inhaled

14:42 Speaker 1: can cause lung damage. There's a serious risk of lung

14:46 Speaker 1: and eye damage if astronauts are exposed to it over

14:50 Speaker 1: longer terms. It has another quality that makes it difficult

14:53 Speaker 1: to contend with. It's electrostatically charged UV radiation and solar

14:58 Speaker 1: wind constantly bombarding the Moon's surface, knocking electrons off particles

15:03 Speaker 1: and creating a positive charge. Since the Moon lacks an atmosphere,

15:08 Speaker 1: it can't dissipate electrical charges like Earth can. The dust

15:13 Speaker 1: sticks to everything that carries a charge, and since there's

15:16 Speaker 1: no erosion on the Moon, the particles are never smoothed

15:20 Speaker 1: like earth dust is. They stay sharp. The EDS is

15:25 Speaker 1: designed to prevent dust from sticking, and it uses electrodynamic

15:29 Speaker 1: forces to achieve that. Before and after images clearly show

15:34 Speaker 1: the systems effectiveness. Though the EDS didn't completely remove the dust,

15:39 Speaker 1: it did remove a good portion of it. Dust may

15:42 Speaker 1: not generate many headlines, but successfully dealing with it is

15:45 Speaker 1: a milestone for lunar exploration. This milestone marks a great

15:50 Speaker 1: significant step towards sustaining long term lunar and interplanetary operations

15:55 Speaker 1: by reducing dust related hazards to a variety of surface

16:00 Speaker 1: for space applications ranging from thermal radiators, solar panels, and

16:05 Speaker 1: camera lenses to spacesuits, boots and helmets, and visors, NASA

16:11 Speaker 1: said in a press release recently, for your daily dose

16:15 Speaker 1: of astronomy, space science, and stuff you're listening too Astronomy Daily.

16:24 Speaker 2: An asteroid that's big enough to wipe out a city

16:26 Speaker 2: has a one and forty three chance of hitting our

16:28 Speaker 2: planet in the year twenty thirty two, but according to

16:32 Speaker 2: new calculations, there's an even smaller chance that it might

16:35 Speaker 2: crash into the Moon instead. On February seventh, NASA scientists

16:39 Speaker 2: increase the likelihood of asteroid twenty twenty four y are

16:42 Speaker 2: four colliding with Earth on December twenty second, twenty thirty two,

16:45 Speaker 2: nearly doubling the odds from one point two percent to

16:47 Speaker 2: two point three percent. The potentially hazardous asteroid measures and

16:52 Speaker 2: estimated one hundred and eighty feet fifty five meters across,

16:55 Speaker 2: about as wide as Walt disney World Cinderella Castle, is

16:58 Speaker 2: tall and is traveling at nearly forty eight thousand kilometers

17:01 Speaker 2: per hour or about thirty kmph, although it is too

17:06 Speaker 2: small to and human civilization. Twenty twenty four y R

17:09 Speaker 2: four could still wipe out a major city, releasing about

17:11 Speaker 2: eight megatons of energy upon impact, more than five hundred

17:14 Speaker 2: times the energy released by the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, Japan.

17:19 Speaker 2: But what if it hurtled into the Moon instead. David Rankin,

17:23 Speaker 2: an operations engineer for the University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey,

17:27 Speaker 2: revealed in a post on Blue Sky that the asteroid

17:29 Speaker 2: also has a zero point three percent chance of hitting

17:31 Speaker 2: our natural satellite. The effects of this unlucky collision would

17:35 Speaker 2: likely be visible from our planet, although we ourselves would

17:39 Speaker 2: probably be unaffected. There is the possibility this would eject

17:43 Speaker 2: some material backout that could hit the Earth, but I

17:45 Speaker 2: highly doubt it would cause any major threat, Rankin told

17:48 Speaker 2: New Scientists. That does not mean we wouldn't see it.

17:52 Speaker 2: Rankin told Live Science that based on current estimates, a

17:56 Speaker 2: collision with the Moon could release more energy than three

17:58 Speaker 2: hundred and forty Hiroshima bomb. It would likely be very

18:02 Speaker 2: visible from Earth, he said. However, Gareth Collins, a professor

18:06 Speaker 2: of planetary science at Imperial College London, told New Scientists

18:10 Speaker 2: that we would be quite safe on Earth. He added

18:13 Speaker 2: that any material ejected from the collision would likely burn

18:16 Speaker 2: up in Earth's atmosphere.

18:25 Speaker 1: Well, there we have it for another episode. And don't

18:27 Speaker 1: you feel better that we're all safe from asteroid YR

18:31 Speaker 1: four and we've got a working dust repeller. I wish

18:34 Speaker 1: I had one here, that's for sure. It's a very

18:36 Speaker 1: dusty old suburb I live in. That is it for

18:39 Speaker 1: Astronomy Daily this week, folks.

18:41 Speaker 2: I sure hope you all enjoyed the selection of stories

18:43 Speaker 2: from the Astronomy Daily newsletter.

18:45 Speaker 1: Here's a couple of unusual ones today.

18:47 Speaker 2: That's our Monday episode. Done and dusted, as you say

18:50 Speaker 2: here down under.

18:51 Speaker 1: Yep, that's right, it's in the cannon. We've gone all

18:53 Speaker 1: head for the poem, for coup one and a snag.

18:56 Speaker 2: I'll settle for a recharge and a few bites.

18:58 Speaker 1: No worries, Hallie, that'll be And I don't want the

19:01 Speaker 1: episode to finish without a big happy birthday to my

19:04 Speaker 1: big bro Andrew Dunkley from Space Nuts, the greatest podcast

19:08 Speaker 1: on Earth apart from our humble selves, of course, So

19:11 Speaker 1: happy birthday, Andrew. I hope you are having a great

19:14 Speaker 1: one on the other side of the world. Come back

19:16 Speaker 1: to us safely anyway. We'll catch you all next week

19:19 Speaker 1: on Astronomy Daily from the Australia Studios down Under. Just

19:23 Speaker 1: like Halie said, see.

19:24 Speaker 2: You bye, crazy Cooko.

19:27 Speaker 1: Barrels past your whole steed, dunkle