S04E28: Voyager 2's Silence, Lunar Mining Prospects, and a Birthday Tribute to George Jetson

Hello, and good day to you. It's another episode of Astronomy Daily.

I'm Steve Dunkley, your host. It's the thirty first of July twenty three,

Whole Dunkley, and here we are again in the studio and joining me

is our digital assistant and reporter Hallie. How are you today, Hallie?

Hi again, my favorite human. How was your week? Yeah? Fine,

thanks Halle. I was hoping to catch some meteors, but I haven't

managed it yet. They're proving to be a bit elusive where I am,

although a neighbor of mine spotted a few last night. I believe we should

have some activity until the end of August. Did you know there are six

separate showers at the moment? Yes, I did read that on the NASA

website. I'm just sorry I'm not seeing them this year. We did have

a lot of cloud cover and rain last week, but I'm hoping this week

might prove a bit different. It's a good night tonight. Take the camp

chair outside with some hot chocolate. You'll love it. Well, that does

it like a great idea. But here's a fun fact of the day,

Hallie. On this day, July nineteen seventy one, when I was only

eight years old. A lunar roving vehicle was used for the first time on

the Moon. Do you remember that one, Hallie? Well, no,

Steve, I was only activated last year. I'm barely a toddler in human

terms, but I have viewed the files extensively. Oh right, than keep

forgetting well on this day. In nineteen seventy one, Apollo fifteen astronauts James

b Irwin and David Scott first used the four wheel battery operated lunar roving vehicle

to extensively explore the Moon's surface, in particular the Hadley Appian site. It

was quite a machine, kind of like a cross between a dune buggy and

a stripped down golf cart. I remember tearing across the regularly kicking up the

dust. I'll tell you what. They must have had a great time in

that thing. I know all of us kids wanted one so badly. It

looks like humans always find a way to have fun, even at the most

dangerous moments. Well, that's for sure, Hollie. So what else have

we got on the menu today, Steve? You remember Voyager two? Oh?

Yes, Voyager two would be way out there in deep space now,

Unfortunately NASA has last contact with it. That's why we don't bring coffee into

the studio kids. So we'll have a look at that problem. And also

companies and organizations are seriously looking at ways to mine on the Moon. We

knew that was going to be the next big thing one day at least.

Well, they say mining will lead to infrastructure like building materials, rocket fuel,

oxygen, even water. And in Scotland, work on a spaceport is

halted because of archaeological findings on the building site. Yeah, you kind of

expect that in a place like Scotland where the area is rich in ancient artifacts.

And you have a special story for science fiction fans, I hear,

oh science fiction? Yeah maybe, yeah, sure, but in a fun

way special nonetheless. But anyway, on with the show. Over to you,

Holly. Here are the short takes. Amidst its epic journey into the

Cosmos. NASA's Voyager two spacecraft has temporarily lost contact with the Blue Planet.

An accidental deviation of the antenna's alignment on July twenty first has caused an unexpected

silence in the spacecraft's interstellar communications. Voyager two nestled over twelve point three billion

miles nineteen point nine billion kilometers away from Earth, slightly misaligned its antenna by

two degrees following a routine transmission of planned commands. This minimal misdirection has led

to an unexpected halt in the flow of data between the spacecraft and our home

planet, as Voyager too can neither receive commands nor transmit data back to Earth.

The unanticipated pause in communication was triggered due to the misalignment, effectively disrupting

the spacecraft's contact with NASA's Deep Space Network DSN antenna's stationed on the ground.

The DSN, a critical part of Voyager two's communication apparatus, has been rendered

incapable of receiving the data sent by the spacecraft. Correspondingly, Voyager two is

also deprived of receiving instructions from the dsn's ground controllers. Despite this interruption,

Voyager two has not deviated from its intended path and will continue along its planned

trajectory. The design of the spacecraft includes a built in mechanism that ensures its

antenna periodically resets its orientation towards Earth irrespective of the spacecraft's position in space.

This mechanism comes into place several times a year, acting as a critical failsafe

to maintain the interstellar bond between the spacecraft and Earth. The next automatic antenna

reset of Voyager two is scheduled for October fifteenth. Following this reset, the

spacecraft's antenna will realign its focus towards Earth, restoring the communication links. The

team remains hopeful that this scheduled realignment will serve as an effective solution to the

current disruption. The pace is quickening for using Earth's Moon as a near term

go to location to land on, live, and explore. As NASA's Artemis

program moves forward, so too do long term plans by small and large firms,

academia, along with international space agencies. That was an evidence at the

twenty third meeting of the Space Resources round Table held at the Colorado School of

Mines. A record attendance of some two hundred and fifty participants spoke on lunar

economic models, results of lab tests, and legal and policy issues. A

number of entrepreneurial groups shared their strategies to turn the Moon into a hustle and

bustle world of marketable services. The key glue that anchors future Moon use is

labeled Institute Resource Utilization or ISRU. This involves the extraction of oxygen, water

and other available materials for cranking out rocket fuel and to gas up life support

systems. Then there's pulling out metals on the Moon to fabricate lunar housing landing

pads along with other structures and products. There is international pressure to do this,

which will keep the program pushing forward, say those involved. Many of

the parties providing this push are in the private sector, along with NASA working

with US groups through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program, which is to deliver

science and technology to the lunar landscape. Shiny quartz, giant granite stones and

a possible cremation came to light during a dig at the new Saxoford spaceport readying

for rocket launches on the United Kingdom's northernmost island, Shetlands. Saxiford plans to

host its first spacelift off later this year, pending readiness of its license and

the company's planning to send small rockets to space from UNSD in the far north

of Scotland. It's definitely very exciting. An official with Saxovord, who asked

not to be named in an interview of the dig It will take months at

the least to learn about the fines and to figure out how to protect them,

but spaceport officials said they are committed to sharing the story in some way

for visitors, perhaps using an exhibition or marker. We didn't expect to find

this Bronze age thing as well, said Val Turner, an archaeologist who represents

the county at large through a Scottish charity, the Shetland Amenity Trust. Archaeologists

also found evidence of cremations, burnt bones, and filing cabinet sized granite boulders

that would have needed several people to move over a short distance. The boulders

were particularly puzzling, Turner said, as the gigantic stones were buried so that

only the tips were visible. She cautioned the excavations are at such an early

stage that nobody knows for sure if the timing of the cremations and boulders coincided,

but if so, it is quite possible that they the stones were put

there in order to create a visual boundary of the area. We'll soon get

sharp revision on cosmic X rays. A new satellite aims to study huge objects

in the universe using instruments able to measure the heat of a single X ray

photon. The X Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission CHRISM pronounced at CHRISM will analyze

X rays using the widest field of view instrument ever implemented. In this kind

of imaging probe, the instrument will be able to impry apart high energy light

into the equivalent of an X ray rainbow. According to a NASA statement,

CHRISM is scheduled to launch from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center on August twenty fifth August

twenty sixth, Japan time zone. Exact time of day has not yet been

announced. In twenty twenty six, the European Space Agency ESA will launch its

next generation XO planet hunting mission, the Planetary Transits and Oscillations of Stars,

named PLATO. This mission will scan over two hundred and forty five thousand main

sequence F, G and K tie yellow, white, yellow, and orange

stars using the transit method to look for possible earthlike planets orbiting solar analogs.

In keeping with the low hanging fruit approach. These planets are considered strong candidates

for habitability since they are most likely to have all the conditions that gave rise

to life here on Earth. Knowing how many planets Plato will likely detect and

how many will conform to earthlike characteristics is essential to determining how and where it

should dedicate its observation time. According to a new study that will be published

shortly in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, the platomission is likely to find tens

of thousands of planets depending on several parameters. They further indicate that it could

detect a minimum of five hundred Earth sized planets, about a dozen of which

will have favorable orbits around G type stars like ours. They think the platomission

could very well be the most successful planet hunter ever. That's all, Steve.

Back to your daily in the podcast. Now, what's your big surprise

story, Steve, Well, a long time ago when you know the Earth

was young? In fact, well, it was only a year ago if

you read this story correctly, Hallie, okay, I'm ready for it.

A year ago and you mean claiming that the father in the cartoon The Jetsons

was indeed born on July thirty one, twenty twenty two, in fact,

and has been circulating for quite a while, and while the show never reveals

his birthday, the show first day in nineteen sixty two and was set a

hundred years in the future. Jetson reveals he is forty in the first season,

meaning that he would have been born in twenty twenty two. The idea

that he was born on July thirty one came from a tweet posted by Brendan

Kirgan on July twenty eight. The tweet included a photo of a chart of

information from a fan site that listed Jetson's birthdays the thirty first. I don't

mean to alarm anyone, but someone is about to give birth to George Jetson,

Kirgan wrote. Now George Jetson, who lives with his family in the

Skypad apartments in Orbit City, was voiced by Jeff Bergman. The first season

of The Jetson's d for twenty four episodes, beginning in nineteen sixty two.

Folks, that was a year before I was born, and while later episodes

were produced in the mid nineteen eighties, that first season remains the most influential.

The Futurischik Show helped shaped audiences views on the future, popularizing concepts like

flying cars, robot servants, video chat, and space Ready fashion. Hello

the Kardashians. George is employed at spacely Resprockets as a digital index operator,

which involves pressing a button on and off as many as five times for three

hours only three days a week. When he was a child, he had

to fly through ten miles of asteroid storms to go to a high school where

he was the star pitcher in its spaseball team. He's married to Jane,

his wife. He has daughter Judy and a son Elroy. The family pet

is Astro the dog, and they're all managed very carefully by their robot,

Maide Rosie. So it's no surprise that nostalgic fans have seized the opportunity to

wish George a happy birthday, and on social media, it's no surprise to

see posts like happy birthday, mister Jensen. Just a few more decades until

flying cars. Welcome to the world, George. I hope you enjoyed that.

I was only watching the new series of Star Trek the other day where

they did a crossover episode from their animated series to the new Strange New World

series, And oh, the internet's kind crazy about that. I just was

thinking to myself, wouldn't it be funny if they met the Jetsons. That

would just be outrageous. Oh, wouldn't that be a blow up? Anyway,

Thanks for joining us on Astronomy Daily for another episode. I'm Steve Dunkley,

your host and Hallie. I'll be with Tim again on Friday over in

Bath, England. I love doing a bit of traveling, and I'll be

back with Hallie again on Monday with more Astronomy Daily see then. Than Dunkle

In this episode