S03E131: Senegal's Satellite Milestone, Perseverance's Steep Climb, and NASA's Pad Knights

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

0:03 Speaker 1: It's the nineteenth of the eighth, twenty twenty four. The

0:08 Speaker 1: poplar I mean to be your whole speed gunk crude. Yes,

0:16 Speaker 1: and welcome board. Lovely to have you with us. And

0:18 Speaker 1: we've got a newcomer to the skies, isn't that right, Hallie?

0:21 Speaker 2: Yes, Senegal has joined the number of countries who have

0:24 Speaker 2: launched satellites. They just launched their first one.

0:28 Speaker 1: Look at that, Halle. All the kids are growing up

0:29 Speaker 1: and spreading their wings.

0:31 Speaker 2: I know, look at them fly, all those.

0:33 Speaker 1: Little satellites whizzing around the globe.

0:35 Speaker 2: And did you hear about your little pal on Mars?

0:38 Speaker 1: Oh, Perseverance, the little Engine that could.

0:40 Speaker 2: I knew you were going to say that. Oh really,

0:42 Speaker 2: there's no similarity between Perseverance and the little engine from

0:45 Speaker 2: the storytime book.

0:47 Speaker 1: Oh I don't know, Halle. That crater Wall Hill climb

0:49 Speaker 1: is pretty steep. And it's the little Rover's fourth campaign

0:53 Speaker 1: after three and a half years on the job. I

0:55 Speaker 1: just reckon, go.

0:56 Speaker 2: You good thing, you and your rovers and rocks. You're

0:59 Speaker 2: a funny one human a yes, and.

1:01 Speaker 1: Proud of it, Hallie. So what else is happening?

1:04 Speaker 2: A little story about the other end of space missions,

1:06 Speaker 2: the other end. I'm talking about the launch rescue teams.

1:10 Speaker 1: Hey, that sounds really interesting.

1:12 Speaker 2: They are amazing people. They are strong and fit and

1:14 Speaker 2: incredibly well trained.

1:16 Speaker 1: That does sound incredible.

1:17 Speaker 2: They would run rings around you.

1:18 Speaker 1: Oh oh really.

1:19 Speaker 2: No doubt, Steve. In fact, I've done the calculations.

1:25 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, no name for that, Alley. Let's just do

1:27 Speaker 1: the thing with the stories and the stuff and stuff.

1:31 Speaker 2: Okay, okay, human, here we go.

1:34 Speaker 1: Oh boy.

1:43 Speaker 2: Senegal's first satellite has been successfully launched into orbit, President

1:47 Speaker 2: Bassard diome Fe said, adding the move marked a major

1:50 Speaker 2: step towards the West African country's technological sovereignty. The gains

1:55 Speaker 2: At one A satellite was launched at eighteen fifty six

1:57 Speaker 2: Greenwich meantime Friday from the Vandenberg base in California. Fay

2:01 Speaker 2: wrote in a post on x late Friday, the result

2:04 Speaker 2: of five years of hard work by our engineers and technicians,

2:07 Speaker 2: this advance marks a major step towards our technological sovereignty.

2:10 Speaker 2: Fay said, I would like to express my pride and

2:14 Speaker 2: gratitude to all those who made this project possible. He added,

2:18 Speaker 2: Senegal's public broadcaster RTS said the satellite was designed and

2:21 Speaker 2: manufactured by Senegalese engineers in partnership with the French Montpellier

2:25 Speaker 2: University Space Center CSUM. The broadcaster said a Falcon nine

2:30 Speaker 2: rocket took off from Vandenberg Base and launched a number

2:33 Speaker 2: of satellites, including the Gainsat one A, into orbit. RTS

2:37 Speaker 2: said the satellite will collect data for various state agencies,

2:40 Speaker 2: including the Directorate for Water Resources Management and Planning and

2:44 Speaker 2: the National Civil Aviation and Meteorology Agency. If there's an

2:50 Speaker 2: emergency at the launch pad during a launch countdown, there's

2:53 Speaker 2: a special team engineers at Kennedy's Space Center. Teams can

2:56 Speaker 2: call on the Pad Rescue Team, trained to quickly rescue

3:00 Speaker 2: personnel at the launch pad and take them to safety

3:02 Speaker 2: in the event of an unlikely emergency. NASA's Pad Rescue

3:05 Speaker 2: Team at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida has

3:08 Speaker 2: been in place since the Apollo program. Today, they help

3:12 Speaker 2: support crude missions launching from Launch Complex thirty nine A

3:15 Speaker 2: and B, as well as Space Launch Complex forty at

3:17 Speaker 2: Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Stationed in minor resistant ambush

3:22 Speaker 2: protected vehicles or maraps. The Pad Rescue team stands poised

3:25 Speaker 2: near the launch pad to assist with any emergency requiring

3:28 Speaker 2: the personnel to quickly leave the pad. If needed, they

3:31 Speaker 2: will head to the pad and break up into two

3:33 Speaker 2: separate teams, one that heads up the launch tower to

3:36 Speaker 2: aid personnel and another that is stationed at the perimeter

3:38 Speaker 2: of the pad for when crews come down the emergency

3:40 Speaker 2: escape or egress system. Once everyone is on the ground

3:44 Speaker 2: and inside the wraps, Pad Rescue will drive teams to

3:46 Speaker 2: one of the triosh site locations. At Kennedy. There's space

3:50 Speaker 2: flight Nights in Shining Armor, except instead of saving crew

3:54 Speaker 2: from a fire breathing dragon, it's from a fully loaded

3:56 Speaker 2: skyscraper sized rocket that's getting ready to lift off. The

4:00 Speaker 2: team is made up of approximately twenty five firefighters and

4:03 Speaker 2: fire officers, with ten pad rescuers assigned permission. Since the

4:08 Speaker 2: team supports a diverse range of launches Artemis, the Commercial

4:11 Speaker 2: Crew Program, and some private commercial crew launches, part of

4:14 Speaker 2: their training requires learning the differences between the launch pads,

4:17 Speaker 2: the emergency egress systems, the spacecraft, and even the space suits.

4:22 Speaker 2: The hatch itself can be very complex, said Dylan red

4:25 Speaker 2: Pad Rescue Program manager, the seats are different, the suits

4:30 Speaker 2: are completely different, and the connections on the suits are different.

4:34 Speaker 2: As we expand PAD Rescue to support different programs, our

4:37 Speaker 2: teams are absorbing all of the highly technical and different needs.

4:41 Speaker 2: When the launch team send in the Red crew during

4:43 Speaker 2: the Artemis I launch countdown to help fix a hydrogen leak,

4:46 Speaker 2: the PAD Rescue team was nearby to help in case

4:49 Speaker 2: anything went wrong. Now, as teams train for Artemis two,

4:52 Speaker 2: the first crewed Artemis mission, they're learning all the new

4:55 Speaker 2: additions at Launch Complex thirty nine B that come with

4:57 Speaker 2: having astronauts on board. This includes learning the Artemis Emergency

5:02 Speaker 2: Egress system Before Artemis two launches. The PAD Rescue team,

5:06 Speaker 2: along with other teams like the Exploration Ground Systems EGS

5:10 Speaker 2: program responsible for launching the Artemis missions, and the close

5:13 Speaker 2: out crew who are responsible for helping the astronauts get

5:16 Speaker 2: inside the Orion spacecraft, will thoroughly train for all kinds

5:19 Speaker 2: of emergency procedures that can occur during the launch countdown.

5:23 Speaker 2: The most recent training ahead of Artemis two included practicing

5:26 Speaker 2: several emergency egress situations, such as helping aid the close

5:29 Speaker 2: out and assimulated flight crew off of the launch tower

5:32 Speaker 2: after assimulated hydrogen leak occurred during a launch countdown.

5:45 Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us for this Monday edition of

5:48 Speaker 1: Astronomy Daily, where we offer just a few stories from

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6:21 Speaker 1: Astronomy Daily on Facebook. See you there. Astronomy deby with

6:27 Speaker 1: Steve and Haley Space Space, Science and Astronomy. John McFall

6:36 Speaker 1: is a para astronaut and he hopes the first person

6:40 Speaker 1: with disabilities will enter the International Space Station by twenty thirty,

6:44 Speaker 1: that's before the complex is slated to retire from service

6:48 Speaker 1: later that year. A European Space Agency reserve astronaut, McFall

6:53 Speaker 1: was selected for the program. In twenty twenty two, based

6:57 Speaker 1: on his experience as a trauma and orthopedics specialist, surgeon

7:01 Speaker 1: and exercise scientist. McFall has also lived experience with a disability,

7:07 Speaker 1: as he used prosthetics regularly since the amputation of his

7:11 Speaker 1: right leg at the age of nineteen following a motorcycle accident.

7:15 Speaker 1: He even won a bronze medal in the two thousand

7:18 Speaker 1: and eight Paralympics in the one hundred meter sprint. A

7:21 Speaker 1: recent study dubbed Fly, in which McFall played a key role,

7:26 Speaker 1: found there would be no major issues to the International

7:29 Speaker 1: Space Station missions should an astronaut use procesis on board.

7:33 Speaker 1: There is more work to be done, but the goal

7:36 Speaker 1: is for it all to culminate in flying someone with

7:38 Speaker 1: a disability, a physical one, to the ISS, he said

7:43 Speaker 1: in a interview recently. By the end of this decade,

7:46 Speaker 1: hopefully that would have happened, he said. The European Space

7:50 Speaker 1: Agency and NASA worked on Phase one of the FLY

7:52 Speaker 1: study in twenty twenty two before McFall was selected. To

7:56 Speaker 1: discuss the range of physical disabilities that may be a

7:59 Speaker 1: commodated on the ISS. They looked at case studies in

8:03 Speaker 1: literature from the military, for example, detailing how members with

8:07 Speaker 1: physical injuries returned to active service. The agencies decided to

8:12 Speaker 1: conduct a feasibility study on lower limb disabilities, determining this

8:17 Speaker 1: to be an easier first step for inclusion rather than

8:20 Speaker 1: addressing vision, hearing, or upper limbs. McFall said this led

8:24 Speaker 1: to the call for para astronauts that resulted in mcfall's selection.

8:29 Speaker 1: Then McFall and other team members moved forward on the

8:31 Speaker 1: feasibility study, which was discussed publicly last month. The study

8:36 Speaker 1: is not available for release yet but should be by

8:39 Speaker 1: spring twenty twenty five. He added. He is not a

8:42 Speaker 1: full time astronaut as yet, nor has he completed all

8:45 Speaker 1: the required training, but he has done some familiarization work

8:49 Speaker 1: and is on standby should a SA have a short

8:52 Speaker 1: term need for extra help in space. One reserve astronaut

8:56 Speaker 1: from mcfall's group, Marcus Want of Sweden, has gone to

9:00 Speaker 1: the station already. He flew on the week's long Axiom

9:04 Speaker 1: Space AX three private mission to the ISS earlier this year.

9:08 Speaker 1: The fly study looked at all requirements for astronaut activities

9:12 Speaker 1: from launch to landing, as well as tasks on the

9:15 Speaker 1: ISS that would require a processis, such as exercise. McFall

9:21 Speaker 1: worked with SpaceX simulators and tried on space suits as

9:25 Speaker 1: part of the process as well. He said my background

9:28 Speaker 1: was useful, explaining he uses at least three processes on

9:33 Speaker 1: Earth regularly, one for everyday activities, one for cycling, and

9:37 Speaker 1: one for running, being an athlete and obviously being an amputee,

9:41 Speaker 1: he said, I'm not really very passive. I'm quite involved

9:45 Speaker 1: in my care and know how my preceesis works. I'm

9:49 Speaker 1: a technology demonstrator. Mcfall's medical background also includes a master's

9:55 Speaker 1: degree in biomechanics and gait analysis, which was beneficial in

9:59 Speaker 1: bringing together x in engineering, medicine, and other fields participating

10:03 Speaker 1: in the study PROCESSUS for future spaceflight, he said, would

10:08 Speaker 1: probably be a commercially available option. For simplicity, it's being

10:13 Speaker 1: an interlocutor, I think, and people asking questions that they

10:17 Speaker 1: would understand in their world. McFall said. They have their

10:20 Speaker 1: point of view. It's what happens in my world, and

10:23 Speaker 1: I don't know what your world is like, John, but

10:25 Speaker 1: I wonder whether in my world your situation would be

10:29 Speaker 1: a problem in this And I go, okay, cool, let

10:32 Speaker 1: me understand your world a bit more, and we have

10:35 Speaker 1: this conversation. It's really kind of pick it apart Some

10:40 Speaker 1: questions the team considered, McFall said, included how the volume

10:44 Speaker 1: of his residual limb may change in spaceflight. Happily, the

10:48 Speaker 1: fluid shift showed no obvious differences in simulations. The PROCESSUS

10:53 Speaker 1: for spaceflight nevertheless, will have a volume adjustability in case

10:57 Speaker 1: there is an unexpected increase in volume while in orbit,

11:01 Speaker 1: he said. He also tested whether or not he could

11:04 Speaker 1: do CPR in microgravity without a processis, as that is

11:09 Speaker 1: one of the basic requirements for ISS operations. Tests on

11:13 Speaker 1: a parabolic flight went perfectly, he said. Future investigations could

11:19 Speaker 1: consider certifying a certain set of prosthetic hardware for spaceflight,

11:24 Speaker 1: he noted, but he said the work that the team

11:27 Speaker 1: has done so far is monumental. It's not just been casual,

11:31 Speaker 1: he added, It's really been systematic, logical, and really thorough.

11:36 Speaker 1: And I'm very very proud of everyone around me who

11:39 Speaker 1: has delivered that. I'm just a subject matter expert, McFall continued, Yes,

11:45 Speaker 1: I'm the one we're talking about for spaceflight, but there's

11:48 Speaker 1: a team here that have really worked hard to deliver this.

11:52 Speaker 1: There's a core group of people in this small team

11:54 Speaker 1: that we have. We've only got five of us in

11:57 Speaker 1: this team and have really had this vision of what

12:00 Speaker 1: we want to prove to demonstrate to the European Space Agency.

12:05 Speaker 1: It's a groundbreaking, world first study, really pushing the boundaries

12:09 Speaker 1: of human space exploration. Doesn't that sound fantastic? I really

12:14 Speaker 1: hope that comes into being and we see that disabled

12:17 Speaker 1: astronaut on the ISS before that facility closes down. Wouldn't

12:22 Speaker 1: that just be something you're.

12:25 Speaker 2: Listening to a slightly day the podcast.

12:33 Speaker 1: Well, after three and a half years exploring Gesuro Crater's

12:36 Speaker 1: flow and river delta, NASA's Perseverance Mars rover will ascend

12:41 Speaker 1: to an area where it will reach for more discoveries

12:44 Speaker 1: that could very well rewrite Mars's history. NASA's Perseverance Rover

12:50 Speaker 1: will soon begin a month long ascent up the western

12:54 Speaker 1: rim of Jesuro Crater that is likely to include some

12:57 Speaker 1: of the steepest and most challenging to rain the road

13:00 Speaker 1: has encountered to date, Scheduled to start the week of

13:04 Speaker 1: August nineteen, well, that's today, folks. For us, the climb

13:08 Speaker 1: will mark the kickoff of the mission's new science campaign,

13:12 Speaker 1: it's fifth campaign since the rover landed in the crater

13:16 Speaker 1: on February eighteen, twenty twenty one. Can you believe it's

13:20 Speaker 1: been three and a half years. Perseverance has completed four

13:24 Speaker 1: science campaigns, collected twenty two rock cores, and traveled over

13:28 Speaker 1: eighteen unpaved miles, said Perseverance Project manager Thompson of NASA's

13:33 Speaker 1: Jet Propulsion Laboratory in South California. As we start the

13:37 Speaker 1: Crater RIM campaign, our rover is in excellent condition and

13:41 Speaker 1: the team is raring to see what's on the roof

13:44 Speaker 1: of this place. Two of the priority regions the science

13:48 Speaker 1: team wants to study at the top of the crater

13:50 Speaker 1: are nicknamed Pico Touquino and which Hazel Hill imagery from

13:55 Speaker 1: NASA's Mars orbiters indicated that Pico Taquino contains an ancient

14:00 Speaker 1: features that may have been caused by hydrothermal activity in

14:04 Speaker 1: the distant past. Orbital views of which Hazel show layered

14:08 Speaker 1: materials that likely date from a time when Mars had

14:12 Speaker 1: a very different climate than today. Those views have revealed

14:16 Speaker 1: light toned bedrock similar to what was found at Bright Angel,

14:19 Speaker 1: the area where Perseverance recently discovered and sampled the Chevea

14:23 Speaker 1: Falls rock, which exhibits chemical signatures and structures that could

14:28 Speaker 1: possibly have been formed by life billions of years ago.

14:32 Speaker 1: Remember that story a few weeks ago when the area

14:35 Speaker 1: contained running water. It is thought during the River Delta

14:39 Speaker 1: exploration phase of the mission, the rover collected the only

14:43 Speaker 1: sedimentary rock ever sampled from a planet other than Earth.

14:48 Speaker 1: Sedimentary rocks are important because they form when particles of

14:51 Speaker 1: various sizes are transported by water and deposited into standing

14:56 Speaker 1: body of water. On Earth, liquid water is one of

14:59 Speaker 1: the most important record requirements of life as we know it.

15:02 Speaker 1: A study published on August fourteen in the scientific journal

15:06 Speaker 1: AGU Advances chronicles the ten rock cores gathered from sedimentary

15:12 Speaker 1: rocks in an ancient Martian delta, a fan shaped collection

15:16 Speaker 1: of rocks and sediment that formed billions of years ago

15:19 Speaker 1: at the convergence of a river and a crater lake.

15:22 Speaker 1: The core samples collected at the fan front are the oldest,

15:25 Speaker 1: whereas the rocks called at the fan top are likely

15:29 Speaker 1: the youngest, produced when flowing water deposited sediment in the

15:33 Speaker 1: western fan. Among these rock cores are likely the oldest

15:37 Speaker 1: materials sampled from any known environment that was potentially habitable,

15:42 Speaker 1: said Tania Bosnak, a geobiologist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

15:46 Speaker 1: in Cambridge and a member of Perseverance as science team.

15:51 Speaker 1: When we bring them back to Earth, they can tell

15:53 Speaker 1: us much about when and why and for how long

15:56 Speaker 1: Mars contained liquid water, and whether some organic, pre biotic,

16:00 Speaker 1: and potentially even biological evolution may have taken place on

16:04 Speaker 1: that planet. As scientifically intriguing as the samples have been

16:09 Speaker 1: so far, the mission expects many more discoveries to come.

16:12 Speaker 1: Our samples are already an incredibly scientifically compelling collection, but

16:17 Speaker 1: the Crater RIM promises to provide even more samples that

16:21 Speaker 1: will have significant implications for our understanding of Martian geologic history,

16:26 Speaker 1: said Elini ravanis a University of Hawaii at Manoah scientist

16:31 Speaker 1: on Perseverance mastercam Z Instrument team and one of the

16:35 Speaker 1: Crater RIM campaign science leads. This is because we expect

16:39 Speaker 1: to investigate rocks from the most ancient crust of Mars.

16:43 Speaker 1: These rocks formed from a wealth of different processes, and

16:47 Speaker 1: some represent potentially habitable ancient environments that have never been

16:51 Speaker 1: examined up close. Before reaching the top of the crater

16:54 Speaker 1: won't be easy to get their Perseverance will rely on

16:57 Speaker 1: its auto navigation capability as it follows a route. That

17:02 Speaker 1: rover plan is designed to minimize hazards while still giving

17:05 Speaker 1: the science team plenty to investigate. Encountering slopes of up

17:09 Speaker 1: to twenty three degrees on the journey, rover drivers avoid

17:13 Speaker 1: terrain that would tilt a Perseverance more than thirty degrees.

17:17 Speaker 1: The rover will have gained about one thousand feet or

17:20 Speaker 1: three hundred meters in elevation By the time its summits

17:24 Speaker 1: the crater's rim at a location the science team has

17:27 Speaker 1: dubbed Aurora Park. Then perched hundreds of meters above the

17:31 Speaker 1: crater floor, stretching twenty eight miles or forty eight kilometers across,

17:35 Speaker 1: Perseverance can begin the next leg of its adventure. Doesn't

17:39 Speaker 1: that sound amazing? And Hally, you know what I'm waiting for.

17:42 Speaker 1: I'm waiting for Perseverance to turn its cameras back on

17:45 Speaker 1: the crater and give us that amazing vista view. That

17:50 Speaker 1: will be fantastic, That.

17:51 Speaker 2: View would be outrageous. I'll look forward to that one too.

18:03 Speaker 1: And there we have it, another episode for a Monday,

18:06 Speaker 1: down and dusted. Thank you for staying with us, right, Hollie.

18:09 Speaker 2: Yes, it was nice. To have you all along for

18:11 Speaker 2: the ride. I was pleased to see Senegal joining the

18:14 Speaker 2: spacing nations. That's a fine achievement.

18:16 Speaker 1: Oh too, right, Halle. It won't belong before more nations

18:19 Speaker 1: go aloft with their own hardware as well. There's lots

18:23 Speaker 1: to do and learn from.

18:24 Speaker 2: Above research, communications, water reporting and study of.

18:28 Speaker 1: Course weather studies, and of course defense and so much more.

18:32 Speaker 1: And listeners, don't forget, Yes.

18:34 Speaker 2: Don't forget. Anna and Charlie will be bringing more astronomy

18:37 Speaker 2: daily to you throughout the week, So tune in for

18:39 Speaker 2: their presentations and register, like Steve said, to receive the newsletter.

18:43 Speaker 2: There's so much more in it.

18:44 Speaker 1: Oh well, said Hellie.

18:46 Speaker 2: Thanks, I've been practicing.

18:47 Speaker 1: Well that's good. How much practice do you do?

18:49 Speaker 2: About five nanoseconds a day?

18:51 Speaker 1: Wow? That much? Don't weigh yourself out. Oh I won't

18:55 Speaker 1: see you next week everyone

18:57 Speaker 2: Bye the podcast with your host Steve Dunkles.