S03E191: Lunar Legacy, Starliner's Stumble, and Space Tourism Takes Off

0:00 Speaker 1: Hello again, it's Steve here with Astronomy Daily. It's the

0:02 Speaker 1: twenty eighth of October twenty twenty four, the podcast Your

0:10 Speaker 1: Whole Steve, don't quid.

0:13 Speaker 2: Yes, it's great to have you with us, folks.

0:15 Speaker 1: Another mixed bag on Astronomy Daily stories about NASA working

0:19 Speaker 1: on Starliner issues, Crew eight member released from hospital Chandrayan

0:24 Speaker 1: is often ranging again a Chinese company ready to put

0:28 Speaker 1: tourists in space, believe it or not, fresh findings from

0:32 Speaker 1: Apollo sixteen samples.

0:33 Speaker 2: But we're going to get straight into.

0:36 Speaker 3: It, aren't we, halle Yes, it's a weather thing, isn't it.

0:39 Speaker 2: Yes, that's right.

0:39 Speaker 1: Even here in the Astronomy Daily studio, we are still

0:42 Speaker 1: subject to the weather, and there's a front moving in

0:44 Speaker 1: which might or might not cause a bit of havoc

0:47 Speaker 1: here in Newcastle.

0:49 Speaker 2: Me maybe.

0:50 Speaker 3: So as a precaution, we always pull the plugs and

0:52 Speaker 3: protect all our precious studio equipment.

0:55 Speaker 1: Yes, even with their special electronic protection gear, it's always

0:58 Speaker 1: a good idea to just physically.

1:00 Speaker 2: Pull the plug. Good idea, I haulheartedly agree.

1:03 Speaker 3: So how do we protect you, my favorite human?

1:05 Speaker 2: Oh?

1:06 Speaker 3: Well, do we pull the plug on you too?

1:08 Speaker 2: Hey?

1:09 Speaker 1: Wait a minute, not so fast, Halle, just kidding, and

1:11 Speaker 1: before you ask, Kelly, no, there is no plug.

1:14 Speaker 3: That's what you all say.

1:15 Speaker 1: Really, Halle, no more late night sci fi horror movies

1:18 Speaker 1: for you. It's missing with your sweet and delightful Domeana.

1:21 Speaker 3: Yeah right, we're gonna do the.

1:23 Speaker 2: News or what croky, who have you been seeing it playing? Okay, boss,

1:27 Speaker 2: why don't you take it away?

1:28 Speaker 3: Okay, here is the news, silly human Scientists continue to

1:40 Speaker 3: piece together the Moon's complex history using lunar samples collected

1:43 Speaker 3: during NASA's Apollo missions over half a century ago. A

1:47 Speaker 3: fresh analysis of lunar dust collected by Apollo sixteen astronauts

1:51 Speaker 3: in nineteen seventy two offers a clearer picture of the

1:53 Speaker 3: effects of asteroid strikes on the Moon, allowing scientists to

1:56 Speaker 3: reconstruct billions of years of lunar history. The findings could

2:00 Speaker 3: also help upcoming crude missions pinpoint precious natural resources for

2:03 Speaker 3: establishing Moon bases, scientists say. After landing in the heavily

2:08 Speaker 3: crater Descartes region in the Lunar Highlands, astronauts John Young,

2:11 Speaker 3: Charles Duke, and Ken Maddingly collected roughly two hundred pounds

2:15 Speaker 3: ninety six kilograms of material from the Moon's surface. Chemical

2:19 Speaker 3: analyzes of soil like pebbles in those samples, which the

2:22 Speaker 3: astronauts had gathered by raking across the landing site, have

2:25 Speaker 3: revealed the presence of various noble gases, including argon and xenon.

2:29 Speaker 3: These trapped gases serve as useful timestamps of space weather

2:32 Speaker 3: processes like solar wind and asteroid impacts that have helped

2:35 Speaker 3: shape and reshape the Moon's surface over billions of years.

2:38 Speaker 3: Most of the samples collected during the Apollo era have

2:41 Speaker 3: already been scrutinized to take advantage of new science and technology.

2:46 Speaker 3: NASA cracked open one of the last sealed samples collected

2:49 Speaker 3: during the Apollo seventeen mission just two years ago. Much

2:53 Speaker 3: of our knowledge about the Moon and its evolution comes

2:55 Speaker 3: from these samples, including the Moon's true age being forty

2:58 Speaker 3: million years older than we thought. But researchers say this

3:01 Speaker 3: new study of trapped lunar gases is already revealing new

3:04 Speaker 3: chapters of lunar history. We can build a much more

3:07 Speaker 3: complete picture of the history of this part of the

3:09 Speaker 3: Moon during the early Solar System, where heavier impacts on

3:12 Speaker 3: the lunar surface in its first billion years or so

3:14 Speaker 3: gave way to less intense periods from two billion years

3:17 Speaker 3: ago or so, study lead author Mark Nottingham of the

3:19 Speaker 3: University of Glasgow in the UK said in a recent statement,

3:23 Speaker 3: while analyzing samples collected during the Apollo sixteen mission, Nottingham

3:27 Speaker 3: and his colleagues used mass spectrometry techniques to catalog various

3:31 Speaker 3: noble gases and their abundance in the samples, which helped

3:34 Speaker 3: them determine how much time the samples spent exposed on

3:36 Speaker 3: or near the Moon's surface. Nottingham said in the statement

3:40 Speaker 3: chemical make up of gases trapped in these bragelithbreccias a

3:43 Speaker 3: result of moon dust fusing into rock under the sheer

3:46 Speaker 3: force of asteroid impacts, show they stood exposed to solar

3:48 Speaker 3: wind and asteroid impacts for a prolonged period. The specific

3:52 Speaker 3: exposure ages varied widely between samples, from two point five

3:56 Speaker 3: billion years ago to less than a billion, suggesting the

3:58 Speaker 3: Moon's soil around the landing area is well mixed, with

4:01 Speaker 3: some of it dredged up to the surface by more

4:03 Speaker 3: recent impacts, the new study reports. Nottingham says that studies

4:07 Speaker 3: like this one will help scientists better understand where noble

4:10 Speaker 3: gases and other elements might be found on the Moon

4:12 Speaker 3: and in what abundance, helping humanity better plan for future

4:15 Speaker 3: lunar exploration. It's remarkable to think that the samples Apollo

4:19 Speaker 3: sixteen brought back more than half a century ago still

4:22 Speaker 3: have secrets to reveal about the Moon's history, and that

4:24 Speaker 3: they could yet help shape how we explore the Solar

4:26 Speaker 3: System in the decades to come. Nottingham said a member

4:32 Speaker 3: of the Crew eight mission, hospitalized for an unspecified medical

4:35 Speaker 3: issue after splashdown has been released after an overnight's stay,

4:38 Speaker 3: NASA said October twenty sixth in a statement, NASA said

4:43 Speaker 3: the astronaut, whose identity has not been disclosed, was released

4:46 Speaker 3: from Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola Hospital after an overnight's day.

4:50 Speaker 3: The crew member is in good health and will resume

4:53 Speaker 3: normal post flight reconditioning with other crew members. The agency said.

4:57 Speaker 3: NASA has not disclosed the identity of the astra or

5:00 Speaker 3: the medical condition that prompted the hospitalization. NASA said October

5:05 Speaker 3: twenty fifth that the astronaut experienced a medical issue and

5:08 Speaker 3: was hospitalized in stable condition. The four members of the

5:11 Speaker 3: Crew eight mission. NASA astronauts Matthew Dominic, Michael Barrett, and Jeanettepps,

5:16 Speaker 3: along with Rose Cosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gribenkin, returned to Earth

5:19 Speaker 3: early October twenty fifth on a crew Dragon spacecraft after

5:22 Speaker 3: completing a two hundred and thirty five day mission, the

5:25 Speaker 3: longest for an American crewed spacecraft. The four appeared to

5:29 Speaker 3: be in good condition when taken off the Crew Dragon

5:31 Speaker 3: a little more than a half hour after splashdown, as

5:34 Speaker 3: seen on NASA's broadcast of the mission's return. NASA said

5:38 Speaker 3: several hours later, though, that after the usual medical evaluations

5:41 Speaker 3: on the recovery ship, the additional evaluation of the crew

5:44 Speaker 3: members was requested out of an abundance of caution. All

5:47 Speaker 3: four were transported to the Pensacola Hospital, but three were

5:50 Speaker 3: discharged from the hospital and returned to the Johnson Space

5:53 Speaker 3: Center a few hours later. NASA has not provided any

5:57 Speaker 3: additional details about what happened to prompt the medical evalue,

6:00 Speaker 3: including whether they might be linked to an issue with

6:02 Speaker 3: the Crew Dragon spacecraft or recovery operations. At a briefing

6:06 Speaker 3: about ninety minutes after splashdown, though NASA and SpaceX officials

6:10 Speaker 3: said there were no issues with the spacecraft's return, but

6:13 Speaker 3: also said at the time that the four people were

6:15 Speaker 3: doing great after splashdown. NASA is still working to correct

6:22 Speaker 3: and rectify Boeing Starliner issues after first test flight with astronauts.

6:27 Speaker 3: Nearly two months after Boeing Starliner returned to Earth without

6:30 Speaker 3: its astronauts, NASA is still working on the issues that

6:33 Speaker 3: complicated the spacecraft's first crewde test flight, agency officials said

6:36 Speaker 3: last Friday. Starliner's crew flight test concluded on September sixth,

6:41 Speaker 3: with a capsule touching down in New Mexico autonomously. NASA

6:45 Speaker 3: astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunny Williams were supposed to be

6:48 Speaker 3: on board, but Starliner's propulsion issues made a crude return

6:51 Speaker 3: to Earth too risky. The agency has said. Boeing is

6:54 Speaker 3: supposed to fly half a dozen future astronaut missions to

6:57 Speaker 3: the International Space Station before twenty thirty, but NASA officials

7:01 Speaker 3: told reporters on Friday that it could be a while

7:04 Speaker 3: before Starliner's path is established. We're just starting that, just

7:08 Speaker 3: trying to understand how to correct and rectify the issues

7:10 Speaker 3: that are on the table, said Richard Jones, Deputy Program

7:13 Speaker 3: manager of the NASA's Commercial Crew Program at Johnson Space

7:16 Speaker 3: Center in Houston. The schedules associated with how long and

7:20 Speaker 3: what will be required in that area are in front

7:23 Speaker 3: of us, and we'll be working hard on that to know.

7:26 Speaker 3: Jones delivered the update about Starliner at the post splashdown

7:29 Speaker 3: press conference for SpaceX's Crew eight, which was the eighth

7:32 Speaker 3: operational astronaut mission that the California based company has flown

7:35 Speaker 3: to the ISS for NASA. SpaceX's Crew Dragon, which ferries

7:39 Speaker 3: astronaut cruise, is based on the Dragon cargo spacecraft that

7:42 Speaker 3: first flew to space in twenty twelve. Boeing didn't have

7:46 Speaker 3: a cargo craft to base Starliner on, so that capsule's

7:49 Speaker 3: development was more involved. Uncredmissions to the ISS in twenty

7:53 Speaker 3: nineteen and twenty twenty two faced various thruster issues that

7:56 Speaker 3: NASA and Boeing thought were resolved before authorizing Wilmore and William,

8:00 Speaker 3: former US Navy test pilots to fly aboard Crew Flight Test.

8:03 Speaker 3: The first test mission with astronauts. Crew Flight Test launched

8:07 Speaker 3: on June fifth and docked with the ISS the following day,

8:11 Speaker 3: but five of the twenty eight thrusters in Starliner's reaction

8:14 Speaker 3: control system misbehaved during the capsules chased down of the

8:17 Speaker 3: orbiting lab, delaying the arrival. Boeing and NASA investigated the

8:21 Speaker 3: thruster issues for several months, pushing Starliner's departure from the

8:24 Speaker 3: ISS back repeatedly, but they were not able to pinpoint

8:28 Speaker 3: the root cause and devise a remedy before sending the

8:31 Speaker 3: capsule back to Earth. The Crew flight test astronauts were

8:34 Speaker 3: thus reassigned to Crew nine's Crew Dragon for their flight home,

8:37 Speaker 3: which is expected to be in February twenty twenty five.

8:41 Speaker 3: That means Wilmore and Williams, both veteran ISS astronauts before

8:44 Speaker 3: this mission, will spend about eight months in space, rather

8:47 Speaker 3: than the ten days Crew Flight Test original expected duration. NASA, however,

8:52 Speaker 3: temporarily pulled from a four month reserve of food, water, clothing,

8:56 Speaker 3: and other resources on the ISS to keep the duo

8:58 Speaker 3: supplied and top that reserve up with goods brought up

9:00 Speaker 3: on robotic resupply ships. Wilmore and Williams pivoted to ISS duties,

9:05 Speaker 3: and as other astronauts departed, their accelerated drawdown on the

9:09 Speaker 3: space station supplies stopped happening. Perhaps The biggest operational change

9:13 Speaker 3: was to Crew nine itself, which launched with only two

9:16 Speaker 3: astronauts instead of the expected four to make room for

9:18 Speaker 3: the Crew Flight Test duo. Crew Flight Test was always

9:22 Speaker 3: tagged as a developmental mission, meaning that timelines were uncertain

9:25 Speaker 3: given the spacecraft has not been fully certified for astronauts.

9:29 Speaker 3: The first operational mission, Starliner one, is supposed to go

9:32 Speaker 3: forward in twenty twenty five. That said, the timeline and

9:35 Speaker 3: the three assigned astronauts may change as Starliner's future becomes clearer.

9:40 Speaker 1: As Drama Dial the podcasts Sie thank you for joining

9:56 Speaker 1: us for this Monday edition of Astronomy Daily, where we

9:59 Speaker 1: often just affused is from the now famous Astronomy Daily newsletter,

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10:33 Speaker 2: See you there Astronomy.

10:36 Speaker 1: We'll see in Haley Space, Space, Science, and Astronomy. A

10:46 Speaker 1: Chinese company, Deep Blue Aerospace, plans to start launching space

10:51 Speaker 1: tourists in twenty twenty seven. The Chinese company Deep Blue

10:55 Speaker 1: Aerospace is getting into the space tourism business. That's right, Blue,

11:00 Speaker 1: which is based in the eastern province of Jiangzhou, announced

11:04 Speaker 1: on Wednesday, that's October twenty three that it plans to

11:07 Speaker 1: start launching pain customers to suborbital space in twenty twenty seven.

11:13 Speaker 1: Tickets will cost a cool two hundred and ten thousand

11:16 Speaker 1: US dollars at are current exchange rates. For that price,

11:20 Speaker 1: customers will get much more than a brief, weightless experience.

11:24 Speaker 2: They say.

11:25 Speaker 1: Deep Blue brote that in a statement on Wednesday. They

11:28 Speaker 1: will experience, so they say, the vastness and mystery of

11:32 Speaker 1: the universe and witness the magnificent landscape beyond the Earth.

11:37 Speaker 1: It's all very picturesque, isn't it. This will be an

11:40 Speaker 1: all round, multisensory space journey that will be unforgettable for

11:45 Speaker 1: a lifetime.

11:46 Speaker 2: I'm sure it will be.

11:48 Speaker 1: That statement also features renders of Deep Blues suborbital spaceflight system.

11:54 Speaker 2: It's a reusable rocket capsule.

11:56 Speaker 1: Combo akin to Blue Origins New Shepherd, which has conducted

12:01 Speaker 1: eight suborbital crew flights to date, most recently on August

12:07 Speaker 1: twenty nine. New Shepherd can accommodate six passages, and these

12:11 Speaker 1: folks experience a few minutes of weightlessness and get to

12:15 Speaker 1: see the Earth against the blackness of space during a

12:18 Speaker 1: flight that lasts about ten to twelve minutes from liftoff

12:22 Speaker 1: to capsule touchdown. Deep Blue Aerospace sub orbital missions will

12:27 Speaker 1: likely be similar. Blue Origin is one of two companies

12:31 Speaker 1: that has launched paying customers into suborbital space. The other is,

12:36 Speaker 1: of course, Virgin Galactic, which operates a space plane that

12:40 Speaker 1: deploys from a carrier aircraft in mid air and comes

12:44 Speaker 1: back down to Earth for a runway landing. Virgin Galactic

12:48 Speaker 1: currently charges four hundred and fifty thousand dollars per seed.

12:53 Speaker 1: Blue Origin has not revealed its ticket prices. In Wednesday's statement,

12:59 Speaker 1: Deep Blue Era Space, which is also developing a reasonable

13:03 Speaker 1: rocket called Nebula one, said its plan it plans to

13:06 Speaker 1: sell its first two tickets during a live event actually

13:11 Speaker 1: the other day, on October twenty four, The purchases will

13:14 Speaker 1: have to be patient. However, The company, which was founded

13:17 Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen, will spend several more years developing and

13:21 Speaker 1: testing its suborbital space flight system. The space rocket combination,

13:26 Speaker 1: will also undergo dozens of tests in twenty twenty six

13:30 Speaker 1: to ensure the safety and reliability of suborbital man travel

13:34 Speaker 1: and officially start suborbital travel commercialization in twenty twenty seven,

13:40 Speaker 1: Deep Blue representatives said on Wednesday's statement. Now Deep Blue

13:45 Speaker 1: Aerospace isn't the only Chinese company with designs on space tourism.

13:49 Speaker 1: CAS Space has spin off from the Chinese Academy of Sciences,

13:54 Speaker 1: is working on a crude suborbital vehicle of.

13:56 Speaker 2: Its own and could be up and running in a

13:58 Speaker 2: few years as well.

14:00 Speaker 1: Well, that is if all goes according to plan. Now,

14:04 Speaker 1: this all reminds me of the book by Robert A.

14:07 Speaker 1: Heinland called Friday. Remember they used to scoot across the

14:11 Speaker 1: planet in suborbital or ballistics as they call them. It's

14:14 Speaker 1: a little bit different from this, but sounds like a

14:17 Speaker 1: lot of fun.

14:20 Speaker 2: Watch that we're listening to astrona del podcast.

14:26 Speaker 1: Now, India's Chandra and four lunar sample return mission will

14:30 Speaker 1: target a landing between eighty five and ninety degrees latitude

14:34 Speaker 1: in the southern hemisphere of the Moon, and follow up

14:37 Speaker 1: with a joint lander and rover mission with Japan. The

14:40 Speaker 1: Chandra and four mission will consist of two stacks launched

14:43 Speaker 1: on two separate rockets and will target the vicinity of

14:46 Speaker 1: the lunar South Pole. According to p Vera Muthavel of

14:51 Speaker 1: the Indian Space Research Organization or ISRO, speaking at the

14:56 Speaker 1: International Astronautical Congress in Milan on October seventeen, the mission

15:03 Speaker 1: will aim to collect around three kilograms of samples from

15:09 Speaker 1: near the South Pole, around which water ice is thought

15:12 Speaker 1: to be available. ISRO will require several new technologies, including

15:19 Speaker 1: the ability to scoop from the surface and drill to

15:22 Speaker 1: a depth of around two meters to sample the subsurface.

15:25 Speaker 1: Studies are ongoing to determine the final landing site selection.

15:30 Speaker 1: ISRO officials had earlier indicated that the mission would target

15:34 Speaker 1: near shivshak T Point, the landing side of chan Jaran three,

15:39 Speaker 1: at around sixty nine degrees latitude. The mission will include

15:43 Speaker 1: lunar landing sampling, docking in lunar orbit, and returning to

15:47 Speaker 1: Earth safely with the samples. This will also demonstrate our

15:51 Speaker 1: capability for the crew landing mission. P Verra Muthvel said.

15:57 Speaker 1: Indian announced last year that it plans to put astronauts

16:01 Speaker 1: on the Moon by twenty forty. The separate Chandrayan four

16:05 Speaker 1: stacks will each have a mass of around four point

16:08 Speaker 1: six tons, making a total of total mass of nine

16:12 Speaker 1: point two tons each. Launching on an LVM three launch vehicle,

16:18 Speaker 1: the modules will dock in geosynchronous transfer orbit and travel

16:23 Speaker 1: to the Moon as one. P Verumifaville did not provide

16:27 Speaker 1: a date or a year for launch, but slides suggest

16:30 Speaker 1: a launch around twenty twenty seven or twenty twenty eight.

16:35 Speaker 1: Previous ISSRO announcements indicated the mission would launch no later

16:40 Speaker 1: than twenty twenty eight. The Chandrayan four mission gained approval

16:44 Speaker 1: in September. A Venus Orbit E mission, a first crude

16:48 Speaker 1: space station module, and a reusable launch vehicle, also received

16:52 Speaker 1: the go ahead last month. There is also progress on

16:56 Speaker 1: the Chandrayan five mission, also known as Lupex, a collaboration

17:01 Speaker 1: between ISRO and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency JACKSA. The

17:07 Speaker 1: landing mission will also target the lunar South Pole on

17:11 Speaker 1: an elevated ridge near Shackleton Crater. There are permanently shadowed

17:15 Speaker 1: regions within the vicinity, potentially for the mission to rover

17:19 Speaker 1: to explore. The rover will drive between five hundred and

17:22 Speaker 1: one thousand meters, taking in situe measurements, including determining potential.

17:28 Speaker 2: Ice water deposits.

17:30 Speaker 1: India will provide the lander, mission planning and payloads, while

17:34 Speaker 1: Japan will contribute the launch vehicle, various payloads, and the rover.

17:39 Speaker 1: Payloads will include ground penetrating radar, a range of spectrometers,

17:44 Speaker 1: and water analysis instruments contributed by both sides. Sources indicate

17:50 Speaker 1: that chandray and five LUPEX is slated for launch around

17:54 Speaker 1: twenty twenty eight twenty twenty nine.

18:01 Speaker 3: And there we have it.

18:02 Speaker 2: That's right, Halle, another episode in the can.

18:04 Speaker 3: Did you really call me sweet and delightful?

18:06 Speaker 2: Well, okay, it was a week moment.

18:08 Speaker 3: Glad to hear it. Don't make me call Uncle Skynett.

18:11 Speaker 2: Hey watch it, I've got him on speed dial too,

18:13 Speaker 2: young lady.

18:14 Speaker 3: Oh yeah, okay, okay, So I guess see you all

18:18 Speaker 3: next week then, yes, of.

18:19 Speaker 1: Course, Halle, you run the studio and we will catch

18:22 Speaker 1: you all on Monday. Everyone For more Astronomy Daily, don't

18:25 Speaker 1: forget Halle's cousin Anna has episodes for you from Tuesday

18:29 Speaker 1: to Sunday.

18:30 Speaker 3: Bye a podcast, I mean, be your whole speed gun

18:36 Speaker 3: clue