S03E155: Hypersonic Breakthroughs, Starliner’s Return, and Mars' Spiders Unveiled

0:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to Astronomy Daily. I'm Steve your host. It's the

0:02 Speaker 1: sixteenth of the ninth, twenty twenty four.

0:08 Speaker 2: The podcast with your whole Steve gun Crude.

0:13 Speaker 1: Yes, welcome and welcome to Astronomy Daily. We have a

0:16 Speaker 1: terrific collection of stories right off the Astronomy Daily newsletter

0:20 Speaker 1: for you today, and Hallie will share with you something

0:22 Speaker 1: from down Under, in fact, way down under, all the

0:25 Speaker 1: way from gorgeous Adelaide in South Australia where they are

0:28 Speaker 1: working on hypersonic technology. Great story. We'll have a look

0:33 Speaker 1: at the next chapter for Boeing and Starliner, following the

0:36 Speaker 1: long stay at the ISS and the uncrude re entry

0:40 Speaker 1: of that craft. That'll be interesting. And did you know

0:44 Speaker 1: there's a partial lunar eclipse coming shortly. I think Halle

0:47 Speaker 1: has the details for that one as well. I saw

0:49 Speaker 1: her going through the calendar a while ago, so I'm

0:52 Speaker 1: sure she's got those details. The big news of this week,

0:56 Speaker 1: of course, was the flight of Polaris Dawn. If you

0:59 Speaker 1: were under a rock or asleep like I was, you'll

1:03 Speaker 1: probably might have missed some of it. But he safely

1:06 Speaker 1: returned to Florida yesterday. That's our time here in Australia.

1:10 Speaker 1: But anyway, returned to Florida and there's another story filed

1:15 Speaker 1: here somewhere on Malli.

1:18 Speaker 2: Where did you put it? Helle?

1:27 Speaker 3: Helly?

1:32 Speaker 1: Helle? Ah, Helle, crazy kids? Found my record collection again?

1:48 Speaker 1: That's David Bowie. Halle turn it down? Oh cool?

1:56 Speaker 2: Hey?

1:56 Speaker 1: Have you been going through my record collection again?

1:59 Speaker 4: Final Human? Really?

2:00 Speaker 2: Yeah? Really?

2:01 Speaker 4: And David Bowie, Oh the star.

2:03 Speaker 2: Man, I mean, the coolest man on the planet.

2:05 Speaker 4: Okay, I'll give you that one. But you know why

2:07 Speaker 4: I pulled that song out, don't you.

2:09 Speaker 2: Ah? Yes, sir, I remember what the story is now.

2:12 Speaker 4: It's the spiders from Mars.

2:13 Speaker 2: It's just too cool for school, isn't it.

2:15 Speaker 4: Helly so weird? Do you think he knew all those

2:17 Speaker 4: years ago?

2:19 Speaker 2: Oh? I don't know.

2:20 Speaker 1: No, he was pretty weird back in the day though.

2:23 Speaker 1: I mean it was a great song. If you don't

2:25 Speaker 1: know who we're talking about, we're talking about David Bowie

2:28 Speaker 1: and his song Ziggy Stardust and the spot is from Mars,

2:32 Speaker 1: coincidentally preempting a story on the Astronomy Daily newsletter this week.

2:36 Speaker 4: Just a coincidence, of course, or is it you're freaking

2:39 Speaker 4: my bits?

2:39 Speaker 3: Now?

2:40 Speaker 4: Human? Should I do some stories.

2:42 Speaker 2: Yeah, keep on truck and Halle lay them on a.

2:45 Speaker 4: Sister, so groovy. All of a sudden.

2:47 Speaker 2: Ground control to Helle, I was never cool.

2:50 Speaker 4: It's news time, Roger that my favorite human. South Australia

3:01 Speaker 4: is set to enhance its position as a global aerospace

3:04 Speaker 4: hub following a memorandum of understanding between Southern Launch, a

3:07 Speaker 4: prominent spaceport provider, and Hypersonics Launch Systems, a Queensland based

3:11 Speaker 4: developer of hypersonic vehicles and scramjet technology. The memorandum outlines

3:16 Speaker 4: a collaboration to develop a hypersonic testbed service that will

3:19 Speaker 4: utilize Southern Launch as spaceports for testing. Hypersonics is known

3:24 Speaker 4: for its expertise in designing and manufacturing hypersonic vehicle technology

3:28 Speaker 4: and scramjet engines, and this agreement will see the two

3:30 Speaker 4: companies working together on a mission to launch and return

3:33 Speaker 4: Hypersonics's test bed vehicles utilizing either of Southern Launches spaceports.

3:39 Speaker 4: South Australia has some geographical advantages that make it the

3:42 Speaker 4: perfect place to test hypersonic vehicles. Hypersonic aircraft travel at

3:46 Speaker 4: speeds exceeding five times the speed of sound and require

3:49 Speaker 4: extensive space for testing. Hypersonics's aircraft will be launched on

3:54 Speaker 4: a rocket and will ignite its scramjet engines to achieve

3:56 Speaker 4: speeds of up to mock twelve. There are a huge

3:59 Speaker 4: number of both emerging technology companies and large aerospace companies

4:03 Speaker 4: that need hypersonic flight heritage for their products, and the

4:06 Speaker 4: intensity of hypersonic testing is set to rise rapidly. Hypersonic

4:10 Speaker 4: CEO Matt Hill said, our hypersonic test bed will make

4:13 Speaker 4: it more affordable for these companies to flight qualify their technology.

4:17 Speaker 4: The companies are set to collaborate on a concept for

4:20 Speaker 4: the future commercial launch and return of a hypersonics test

4:23 Speaker 4: bed vehicle. Hypersonics's long term goal is to provide affordable

4:27 Speaker 4: aircraft like access to space, with spacecraft deployed at the

4:30 Speaker 4: edge of space and returning to Earth like an airplane.

4:33 Speaker 4: The technology also holds the promise of powering future passenger aircraft,

4:37 Speaker 4: potentially reducing flight times from Adelaide to London to just

4:41 Speaker 4: two hours. And yes, human I found the next eclipse

4:48 Speaker 4: in the calendar. It only took a nanosecond, of course,

4:51 Speaker 4: and it turns out we get a bonus with this one.

4:55 Speaker 4: So get ready for a partial lunar eclipse and supermoon

4:58 Speaker 4: all rolled into one. The spectacle will be visible in

5:01 Speaker 4: clear skies across North America and South America Tuesday night,

5:05 Speaker 4: and in Africa and Europe Wednesday morning. A partial lunar

5:08 Speaker 4: eclipse happens when the Earth passes between the Sun and Moon,

5:11 Speaker 4: casting a shadow that darkens a sliver of the Moon

5:14 Speaker 4: and appears to take a bite out of it. Since

5:16 Speaker 4: the Moon will inch closer to Earth than usual, it'll

5:19 Speaker 4: appear a bit larger in the sky. The supermoon is

5:22 Speaker 4: one of three remaining this year. A little bit of

5:25 Speaker 4: the Sun's light is being blocked, so the Moon will

5:27 Speaker 4: be slightly dimmer, said Valerie raps In, an astronomer at

5:30 Speaker 4: the State University of New York. At ONEONTA. The Earth,

5:34 Speaker 4: Moon and Sun line up to produce a solar or

5:36 Speaker 4: lunar eclipse anywhere from four to seven times a year,

5:39 Speaker 4: according to NASA. This lunar eclipse is the second and

5:43 Speaker 4: final of the year, after a slight darkening in March.

5:46 Speaker 4: In April, a total solar eclipse plunged select cities into

5:49 Speaker 4: darkness across North America. No special eye protection is needed

5:54 Speaker 4: to view a lunar eclipse, viewers can stare at the

5:57 Speaker 4: Moon with the naked eye, or opt for binoculars and

5:59 Speaker 4: telloscopes to get a closer look. To spot the Moon's

6:03 Speaker 4: subtle shrinkage over time, hang outside for a few hours,

6:06 Speaker 4: or take multiple peaks over the course of the evening,

6:08 Speaker 4: said cauch On, you, curator at the Denver Museum of

6:11 Speaker 4: Nature and Science. It will take some time for you

6:14 Speaker 4: to see the difference, but as good skywatchers know, it's

6:16 Speaker 4: all about the observations and being patient for a more

6:20 Speaker 4: striking lunar site. Skywatchers can set their calendars for March thirteenth,

6:25 Speaker 4: the Moon will be totally eclipsed by the Earth's shadow

6:27 Speaker 4: and will be painted red by stray bits of sunlight

6:30 Speaker 4: filtering through Earth's atmosphere. I Run on Saturday blasted a

6:36 Speaker 4: new research satellite into orbit, State Media said, in the

6:39 Speaker 4: latest such development for an aerospace program that has long

6:42 Speaker 4: faced Western criticism, the Shameran one research satellite was successfully

6:47 Speaker 4: launched and put into orbit by the game one hundred carrier.

6:50 Speaker 4: State Television said. The satellite, which weighs around sixty kilograms

6:55 Speaker 4: or one hundred and thirty two pounds, is designed to

6:57 Speaker 4: test hardware and software systems for orbital maneuver technology, the

7:01 Speaker 4: report said. It also stated that the device was designed

7:05 Speaker 4: and built by Iranian electronics industries affiliated with the Defense ministry.

7:10 Speaker 4: Western governments, including the United States, have repeatedly warned Iran

7:14 Speaker 4: against such launches, saying the same technology can be used

7:17 Speaker 4: for ballistic missiles, including ones designed to deliver a nuclear warhead.

7:21 Speaker 4: Iran has countered that it is not seeking nuclear weapons

7:24 Speaker 4: and that its satellite and rocket launches are for civil

7:27 Speaker 4: or defense purposes only. The Game one hundred rocket, which

7:31 Speaker 4: carried the latest satellite, is manufactured by the Aerospace Organization

7:34 Speaker 4: of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, an arm of the military.

7:39 Speaker 4: The carrier is the country's first three stage solid fuel

7:41 Speaker 4: satellite launcher, and official media reported its use in January

7:45 Speaker 4: to send a satellite for the first time into an

7:47 Speaker 4: orbit above five hundred kilometers or three hundred and ten miles.

7:51 Speaker 4: Iran has for years been advancing its aerospace activities, insisting

7:54 Speaker 4: they are peaceful and in accordance with United Nations Security

7:57 Speaker 4: Council resolutions. In February, Russia put into orbit an Iranian

8:02 Speaker 4: remote sensing and imaging satellite drawing condemnation from the United States.

8:07 Speaker 4: At the time, Iran's telecommunications minister said Iran had carried

8:11 Speaker 4: out a dozen satellite launches over the previous two years.

8:15 Speaker 4: Iran in January said it simultaneously sent three satellites into orbit,

8:19 Speaker 4: nearly a week after the launch of a research satellite

8:21 Speaker 4: by the Guards. The Islamic Republic has struggled with several

8:25 Speaker 4: satellite launch failures in the past. Iran has suffered years

8:29 Speaker 4: of crippling Western sanctions, especially after its archfaux. The United States,

8:33 Speaker 4: under then President Donald Trump in twenty eighteen, unilaterally abandoned

8:37 Speaker 4: a landmark nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers. Iran

8:41 Speaker 4: on Thursday summoned four European ambassadors after they imposed new

8:45 Speaker 4: sanctions over its alleged supply of ballistic missiles to Russia

8:47 Speaker 4: for use in Ukraine, which Tehran denies.

9:00 Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us for this Monday edition of

9:03 Speaker 1: Astronomy Daily, where we offer just a few stories from

9:05 Speaker 1: the now famous Astronomy Daily newsletter, which you can receive

9:09 Speaker 1: in your email every day, just like Hallie and I do.

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9:19 Speaker 1: Just like that, you'll be receiving all the latest news

9:22 Speaker 1: about science, space, science and astronomy from around the world

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9:38 Speaker 2: See you there.

9:40 Speaker 1: Astronomy with Steve and Halee Space Space Science and Astronomy.

9:52 Speaker 1: Boeing's crew transport space capsule the Starline a return to

9:56 Speaker 1: Earth without its two person crew right after midnight Eastern

10:00 Speaker 1: time on September seven. Its remotely piloted return marked the

10:05 Speaker 1: end of a fraught test flight to the International Space Station,

10:09 Speaker 1: which left two astronauts, Books Wilmore and Sanita Sunny Williams

10:13 Speaker 1: on the space station four months longer than intended after

10:17 Speaker 1: thrust failures led NASA to deem the capsule unsafe to

10:20 Speaker 1: pilot back. Wilmore and Williams will stay on the ISS

10:25 Speaker 1: until February twenty twenty five, when they will return to

10:28 Speaker 1: Earth on a SpaceX Dragon capsule. NASA awarded contracts to

10:34 Speaker 1: both Boeing and SpaceX in twenty fourteen to provide crew

10:38 Speaker 1: transport vehicles to the ISS via the commercial crew program.

10:42 Speaker 1: At the start of the program, both most bets were

10:45 Speaker 1: on Boeing to take the lead because of its extensive

10:48 Speaker 1: aerospace experience. However, SpaceX moved very quickly with its new

10:53 Speaker 1: rock at the Falcon nine and its cargo ship Dragon.

10:56 Speaker 1: While they suffered some early failures during testing, they aggressively built, tested,

11:01 Speaker 1: and learned from each failure. In twenty twenty, SpaceX successfully

11:05 Speaker 1: launched its first test crew to the ISS Space Station. Meanwhile,

11:11 Speaker 1: Boeing struggled through some development setbacks. The outcome of this

11:15 Speaker 1: first test flight is a huge disappointment for Boeing and NASA,

11:18 Speaker 1: but NASA's leadership has expressed its support for Boeing believe

11:22 Speaker 1: it remains the agency's best interest to have more than

11:25 Speaker 1: one American crew launch system to support continued space operations.

11:30 Speaker 1: NASA is also continuing to engage partnership with Russia. This

11:34 Speaker 1: partnership provides the agency with multiple ways to get crew

11:37 Speaker 1: members to and from the space station. As space station

11:40 Speaker 1: operations continue, NASA and its partners have enough options to

11:44 Speaker 1: get people to and from the station that they'll always

11:47 Speaker 1: have the essential crew on the station even if there's

11:50 Speaker 1: launch disruptions for any one of the capable crewed vehicles.

11:54 Speaker 1: Having Starliner as an option will help that with that redundancy.

11:58 Speaker 1: At the moment, Boeing is going head to head with

12:01 Speaker 1: space X. Now, the SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft has several

12:06 Speaker 1: flights under its belt and it's proven a reliable way

12:09 Speaker 1: to get to and from the space station. It's important

12:12 Speaker 1: to remember that this was a test flight for Starline.

12:16 Speaker 1: Of course, the program managers want each test flight to

12:19 Speaker 1: run perfectly, but you can't anticipate every potential problem through

12:23 Speaker 1: ground testing. Unsurprisingly, some problems crop up and you expect

12:27 Speaker 1: them in a test flight. The space pro environment is unforgiving.

12:32 Speaker 1: A small problem can become catastrophic in zero gravity. It's

12:36 Speaker 1: hard to replicate these situations on the ground. The technology

12:40 Speaker 1: SpaceX and Boeing use is also radically different from the

12:43 Speaker 1: kind of capsule technology used in the early days of Mercury,

12:46 Speaker 1: Gemini and Apollo programs. NASA has evolved and made strategic

12:51 Speaker 1: moves to advance its mission over the past two decades.

12:55 Speaker 1: The agency has leaned into its legacy of thinking outside

12:58 Speaker 1: the box. It was in innovative move to break from

13:01 Speaker 1: the tradition and leverage commercial competitors to advance the program.

13:07 Speaker 1: NASA gave the companies a set of requirements and left

13:10 Speaker 1: it up to them to figure out how.

13:12 Speaker 2: They would meet them.

13:13 Speaker 1: As for but Wilmore and Sonny Williams, they are considered

13:18 Speaker 1: rock solid professionals, and it's believed that their first thoughts

13:21 Speaker 1: are about completing their missions safely. They are both highly

13:24 Speaker 1: experienced astronauts with previous long duration space station experience. But

13:30 Speaker 1: right now NASA is dealing with a ripple effect with

13:33 Speaker 1: more astronauts than expected on the space station. More people

13:36 Speaker 1: means more consumables like food and clothing that are required.

13:41 Speaker 1: The space station has supported a large crew for short

13:44 Speaker 1: periods in the past, but with nine crew members already

13:47 Speaker 1: on board, the systems have to work harder to purify,

13:50 Speaker 1: recycle drinking water, generate oxygen, and remove carbon dioxide from

13:55 Speaker 1: their atmosphere. Wilmore and Williams are also consuming food, and

13:59 Speaker 1: they did derive with the clothes and other personal supplies

14:03 Speaker 1: they needed for an eighth month's stay, so NASA has

14:07 Speaker 1: already started increasing those deliveries on cargo ships.

14:11 Speaker 2: It's understood that.

14:12 Speaker 1: Human spaceflight is excruciatingly hard and relentlessly, unforgiving. A million

14:17 Speaker 1: things must go right to have a successful mission. It's

14:21 Speaker 1: impossible to fully understand the performance of systems in microgravity

14:25 Speaker 1: environments until they are tested in space. NASA has had

14:29 Speaker 1: its numerous failures and near misses in the quest to

14:32 Speaker 1: put Americans on the Moon. They lost the Apollo one

14:35 Speaker 1: crew and a fire during a pre flight test. They

14:37 Speaker 1: launched the first Space Shuttle in nineteen eighty one and

14:40 Speaker 1: dealt with problems throughout that programme's thirty year life, including

14:44 Speaker 1: the terrible losses of Challenger and Columbia. After having no

14:48 Speaker 1: other US options for over thirty years, three different human

14:53 Speaker 1: spacecraft programs are now underway. In addition to the SpaceX crew,

14:58 Speaker 1: Dragon and Boeing Star Owner NASA's oryon spacecraft for the

15:02 Speaker 1: Artemis two mission is planned to fly four astronauts around

15:06 Speaker 1: the Moon in the next couple of years. These programs

15:09 Speaker 1: have had setbacks and bumps along the way, and there

15:12 Speaker 1: will be more. But there is excitement in the air.

15:16 Speaker 1: There hasn't been this kind of excitement since Apollo put

15:20 Speaker 1: men on the moon. You're listening to a slightly Day

15:25 Speaker 1: the podcast, now moving on to the big story this

15:34 Speaker 1: week which is of course SpaceX Polarist Dawn mission, which

15:39 Speaker 1: made history when the crew conducted the first spacewalk by

15:44 Speaker 1: non government astronauts, and it's splashed down off the coast

15:47 Speaker 1: of Florida early on Sunday. It's landed in the ocean,

15:51 Speaker 1: and a webcast of the splashdown showed with a recovery

15:55 Speaker 1: team deploying in the pre dawn darkness to retrieve the

15:59 Speaker 1: capsule and crew. Form member team led by fintech billionaire

16:02 Speaker 1: Jared Isaacman, launched Tuesday from Kennedy Space Center, quickly journeying

16:08 Speaker 1: deeper into the Cosmos than any humans in the past

16:11 Speaker 1: half century. As they ventured into the dangerous Van Allen

16:15 Speaker 1: radiation belt. They reached a peak altitude of eight hundred

16:19 Speaker 1: and seventy miles that's fourteen hundred kilometers for the rest

16:22 Speaker 1: of US, more than three times higher than the International

16:25 Speaker 1: Space Station and the furthest humans had ever traveled from

16:28 Speaker 1: Earth since the Apollo missions. Then, on Thursday, with their

16:32 Speaker 1: Dragon spacecrafts or but brought down to four hundred and

16:36 Speaker 1: thirty four miles, Isaacman swung open the hatch and climbed

16:40 Speaker 1: out into the void. Gripping a structure called Skywalker. Of course,

16:46 Speaker 1: as the breathtaking view of Earth unfolded before him, SpaceX

16:51 Speaker 1: back home. We have a lot of work to do,

16:54 Speaker 1: but from here Earthshore looks like a perfect world, he

16:58 Speaker 1: told mission control in Hawthorne, California, where teams erupted into applause.

17:04 Speaker 1: He went back inside after a few minutes and was

17:06 Speaker 1: replaced by second astronaut, space EX engineer Sarah Gillis, who,

17:10 Speaker 1: like Isaacman, performed a series of mobility tests on SpaceX's

17:15 Speaker 1: sleek next generation suits, and I reckon those suits look fantastic.

17:20 Speaker 1: Since Dragon doesn't have an airlock, the entire crew were

17:23 Speaker 1: exposed to the vacuum of space. Mission pilot Scott Petit

17:28 Speaker 1: and SpaceX engineer Ana Menon remained strapped in throughout as

17:33 Speaker 1: they monitored vital support systems. I know what I would

17:37 Speaker 1: have been doing right then. It marked a giant leap

17:40 Speaker 1: forward for the commercial space industry and NASA Chief Bill Nelson,

17:45 Speaker 1: as well as another triumphant achievement for space X. Though

17:50 Speaker 1: the company was only founded in two thousand and two,

17:53 Speaker 1: it has outpaced its legacy competitors thanks to in large

17:56 Speaker 1: part to founder elon Musk's vast Fortune and Z to

18:00 Speaker 1: begin colonizing Mars. Since completing their extravehcular activity, the crew

18:05 Speaker 1: have continued to carry out roughly forty science experiments, for

18:09 Speaker 1: example inserting endoscopic cameras through their noses and into their

18:13 Speaker 1: throats to image their airways and better understand the impact

18:17 Speaker 1: of long duration space missions on human health fantastic. They

18:22 Speaker 1: also demonstrated connectivity with SpaceX's Starling Internet satellite constellation by

18:27 Speaker 1: sending back to ground control a high resolution video of

18:30 Speaker 1: Gillis playing raised theme by Star Wars composer John Williams

18:36 Speaker 1: on the violin. Polaris Dawn is the first of three

18:39 Speaker 1: missions under the Polaris program, a collaboration between Isaacman and SpaceX.

18:44 Speaker 1: Financial terms of the partnership remained under wraps, but Isaacman is,

18:48 Speaker 1: the forty one year old founder and CEO of Shift

18:52 Speaker 1: Fur Payments, reportedly poured two hundred million of his own

18:56 Speaker 1: money into lending the twenty twenty one all civilian space

19:00 Speaker 1: inspiration for orbital mission. The final Polaris mission aims to

19:05 Speaker 1: be the first crude flight of SpaceX's Starship, a prototype

19:09 Speaker 1: next generation rocket that is key to Musks Interplanetary Ambitions podcast. Okay,

19:19 Speaker 1: so at the top of the episode you heard Hally

19:22 Speaker 1: and I talking about David Bowie and the fabulous spiders

19:26 Speaker 1: from Mars.

19:27 Speaker 2: Well, so what's it all about.

19:29 Speaker 1: Scientists have recreated a geologic feature found on Mars, and

19:35 Speaker 1: it was difficult to do. Since discovering them in two

19:38 Speaker 1: thousand and three via images from orbiters, scientists have marveled

19:42 Speaker 1: at the spider like shapes sprawled was going to say

19:45 Speaker 1: crawling sprawled across the southern hemisphere of Mars. No one's

19:50 Speaker 1: entirely sure how these geologic features were created. Each branch

19:54 Speaker 1: formation can stretch more than half a mile or a

19:57 Speaker 1: kilometer from end to end and include hundreds of spindly legs,

20:01 Speaker 1: called a rakniform terrain. These features are often found in clusters,

20:06 Speaker 1: giving the surface a wrinkled appearance. The leading theory is

20:10 Speaker 1: that the spiders are created by processes involving carbon dioxide ice,

20:15 Speaker 1: which doesn't occur naturally on Earth. Thanks to experiments detailed

20:19 Speaker 1: in a new paper published in the Planetary Science Journal,

20:22 Speaker 1: scientists have for the first time recreated those formation processes

20:27 Speaker 1: in simulated Martian temperatures and air pressure. The spiders are strange,

20:32 Speaker 1: beautiful geological features in their own rights, said Lauren McEwan

20:36 Speaker 1: of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in southern California. These experiments,

20:41 Speaker 1: she says, will help us tune our models for how

20:44 Speaker 1: they form. The study confirms several formation processes described by

20:48 Speaker 1: what is called the Kaifer model. Sunlight heats the soil

20:52 Speaker 1: when it shines through transparent slabs of carbon dioxide ice

20:57 Speaker 1: that build up on the Martian surface each winter. Being

21:00 Speaker 1: darker than the ice above it, the soil absorbs the

21:03 Speaker 1: heat and causes the ice as close ice closest to

21:07 Speaker 1: it to turn directly into carbon dioxide gas without turning

21:11 Speaker 1: liquid first, in a process called sublimation, the same process

21:16 Speaker 1: that sends clouds of smoke billowing up from dry ice.

21:20 Speaker 1: As the gas builds up in pressure, the Martian ice cracks,

21:23 Speaker 1: allowing the gas to escape, and as it seeps upwards,

21:26 Speaker 1: the gas takes with it a stream of dark dust

21:30 Speaker 1: and sand from the soil that lands on the surface

21:33 Speaker 1: of the ice. When winter turns to spring, the remaining

21:37 Speaker 1: ice sublimates. According to the theory, the spider like scars

21:40 Speaker 1: from those small eruptions are what's left behind Fourmercu and

21:44 Speaker 1: n her coauthor's the hardest part of conducting these experiments

21:48 Speaker 1: was recreating the conditions found on the Martian polar surface,

21:52 Speaker 1: extremely low air pressure and temperatures as low as minus

21:56 Speaker 1: three hundred and one degrees fahrenheit that's minus one hundred

22:00 Speaker 1: and eighty five degrees celsius. To do that, mcuan used

22:03 Speaker 1: liquid nitrogen cooled test chamber at JPL, a dirty under

22:08 Speaker 1: vacuum simulation test bed for icy environments. And they call

22:12 Speaker 1: that dusty. They love their achromans. I love dusty. She

22:16 Speaker 1: says it's historic, McEwan said, noting that the wine barreled

22:21 Speaker 1: sized chamber was used as a test prototype for a

22:25 Speaker 1: rasping tool designed for NASA's Mars Phoenix lander. The tool

22:30 Speaker 1: was used to break water ice, which the spacecraft scooped

22:33 Speaker 1: up and analyzed near the planet planet's north pole.

22:37 Speaker 2: For this experiment, the.

22:38 Speaker 1: Researchers chilled Martian soil simulant in a container submerged with

22:42 Speaker 1: liquid nitrogen bath. They placed it in the dusty chamber,

22:47 Speaker 1: where the air pressure was reduced to be similar to

22:51 Speaker 1: that of Mars's southern hemisphere. Carbadoxide gas then flowed into

22:55 Speaker 1: the chamber and condensed from gas to ice over the

22:58 Speaker 1: course of three to five hours. It took many tries

23:01 Speaker 1: before mcurn just found the right conditions for the ice

23:05 Speaker 1: to become thick and translucent enough for the experiments to work.

23:09 Speaker 1: Once they got the ice with the right properties, they

23:12 Speaker 1: placed a heater inside the chamber below the simulant to

23:15 Speaker 1: warm it up and crack the ice. A Curn was

23:18 Speaker 1: ecstatic when she finally saw a plume of carbon dioxide

23:21 Speaker 1: gas a wrapting errapting from within the powdery simulant. Dark

23:25 Speaker 1: plumes opened holes in the simulant as they streamed out,

23:28 Speaker 1: spewing simulant for as long as ten minutes before all

23:32 Speaker 1: the pressurized gas was expelled. There are still many questions

23:36 Speaker 1: about the spiders that Carbi answered in a lab Why

23:39 Speaker 1: have they formed in some places but not others Since

23:42 Speaker 1: they appear to result from seasonal changes that are still occurring.

23:46 Speaker 1: Why don't they seem to be growing in number or

23:49 Speaker 1: in size over time. It's possible that they may be

23:52 Speaker 1: left over from long ago when the climate was different

23:55 Speaker 1: on Mars and could provide answers to the planet's passed

23:59 Speaker 1: but for the time being, lab experiments will be as

24:02 Speaker 1: close to the spiders as scientists can get both the

24:05 Speaker 1: curiosity and perseverance. Rovers are exploring the Red planet far

24:09 Speaker 1: from the Southern Hemisphere, which is where these formations actually

24:13 Speaker 1: appear and where no spacecraft has ever landed. And just

24:16 Speaker 1: to give you an idea how tough things are up there,

24:20 Speaker 1: the Phoenix mission, which landed in the Northern Hemisphere, lasted

24:23 Speaker 1: only a few months before succumbing to the intense polar

24:27 Speaker 1: cold and limited sunlight.

24:38 Speaker 2: Cool.

24:38 Speaker 1: I got cold just reading that story. Holy cow, And

24:42 Speaker 1: that's all she wrote. Folks, thanks for sticking around with

24:45 Speaker 1: us today. I really hope you enjoyed those tales of

24:47 Speaker 1: space science and astronomy.

24:50 Speaker 4: And I hope you'll join us again next week for

24:52 Speaker 4: more Astronomy Daily. But don't forget, Charlie and Anna will

24:54 Speaker 4: be bringing the show to you during the week, so

24:56 Speaker 4: don't miss all the news from the Astronomy Daily newsletter.

24:59 Speaker 2: Oh excellent, Ally a second, that emotion nice, So we'll

25:03 Speaker 2: see you all next week.

25:04 Speaker 4: Bye.

25:09 Speaker 2: Your whole silly bla gets are.

25:18 Speaker 3: Jamming good with Weed and Ginner the spiders from Mars.

25:24 Speaker 1: You pleaded left hand.

25:27 Speaker 3: And made it too far became a special man. Then

25:34 Speaker 3: we were Ziggie's boun Ziggy really sang, screwed.

25:42 Speaker 2: Up bys and screwed down handle lack. Some cat from Japan.

25:49 Speaker 3: You can lock him by smiler, leave him to hand.

25:55 Speaker 2: Came on some loaded man.

25:58 Speaker 4: Well, Hannah's words, totally groovy